title: Tryptamine

text: Tryptamine is an indolamine metabolite of the essential amino acid, tryptophan. The chemical structure is defined by an indole ─ a fused benzene and pyrrole ring, and a 2-aminoethyl group at the second carbon (third aromatic atom, with the first one being the heterocyclic nitrogen). The structure of tryptamine is a shared feature of certain aminergic neuromodulators including melatonin, serotonin, bufotenin and psychedelic derivatives such as dimethyltryptamine (DMT), psilocybin, psilocin and others. Tryptamine has been shown to activate trace amine-associated receptors expressed in the mammalian brain, and regulates the activity of dopaminergic, serotonergic and glutamatergic systems. In the human gut, symbiotic bacteria convert dietary tryptophan to tryptamine, which activates 5-HT receptors and regulates gastrointestinal motility. Multiple tryptamine-derived drugs have been developed to treat migraines, while trace amine-associated receptors are being explored as a potential treatment target for neuropsychiatric disorders.


title: Tryptamine

text: "For a list of plants, fungi and animals containing tryptamines, see List of psychoactive plants and List of naturally occurring tryptamines."


title: Tryptamine

text: Endogenous levels of tryptamine in the mammalian brain are less than 100ng per gram of tissue. However, elevated levels of trace amines have been observed in patients with certain neuropsychiatric disorders, such as bipolar depression and schizophrenia.


title: Tryptamine

text: Tryptamine is relatively abundant in the gut and feces of humans and rodents. Commensal bacteria, including "Ruminococcus gnavus" and "Clostridium sporogenes" in the gastrointestinal tract, possess the enzyme tryptophan decarboxylase, which aids in the conversion of dietary tryptophan to tryptamine. Tryptamine is a ligand for gut epithelial serotonin type 4 (5-HT) receptors and regulates gastrointestinal electrolyte balance through colonic secretions.


title: Tryptamine

text: To yield tryptamine "in vivo", tryptophan decarboxylase removes the carboxylic acid group on the α-carbon of tryptophan. Synthetic modifications to tryptamine can produce serotonin and melatonin; however, these pathways do not occur naturally as the main pathway for endogenous neurotransmitter synthesis.


title: Tryptamine

text: Monoamine oxidases A and B are the primary enzymes involved in tryptamine metabolism to produce indole-3-acetaldehyde, however it is unclear which isoform is specific to tryptamine degradation.


title: Tryptamine

text: Tryptamine can weakly activate the trace amine-associated receptor, TAAR1 (hTAAR1 in humans). Limited studies have considered tryptamine to be a trace neuromodulator capable of regulating the activity of neuronal cell responses without binding to the associated postsynaptic receptors.


title: Tryptamine

text: hTAAR1 is a stimulatory G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) that is weakly expressed in the intracellular compartment of both pre- and postsynaptic neurons. Tryptamine and other hTAAR1 agonists can increase neuronal firing by inhibiting neurotransmitter recycling through cAMP-dependent phosphorylation of the monoamine reuptake transporter. This mechanism increases the amount of neurotransmitter in the synaptic cleft, subsequently increasing postsynaptic receptor binding and neuronal activation. Conversely, when hTAAR1 are colocalized with G protein-coupled inwardly-rectifying potassium channels (GIRKs), receptor activation reduces neuronal firing by facilitating membrane hyperpolarization through the efflux of potassium ions. The balance between the inhibitory and excitatory activity of hTAAR1 activation highlights the role of tryptamine in the regulation of neural activity.


title: Tryptamine

text: Activation of hTAAR1 is under investigation as a novel treatment for depression, addiction, and schizophrenia. hTAAR1 is primarily expressed in brain structures associated with dopamine systems, such as the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and serotonin systems in the dorsal raphe nuclei (DRN). Additionally, the hTAAR1 gene is localized at 6q23.2 on the human chromosome, which is a susceptibility locus for mood disorders and schizophrenia. Activation of TAAR1 suggests a potential novel treatment for neuropsychiatric disorders, as TAAR1 agonists produce anti-depressive activity, increased cognition, reduced stress and anti-addiction effects.


title: Tryptamine

text: Tryptamine produced by mutualistic bacteria in the human gut activates serotonin GPCRs ubiquitously expressed along the colonic epithelium. Upon tryptamine binding, the activated 5-HT receptor undergoes a conformational change which allows its G alpha subunit to exchange GDP for GTP, and its liberation from the 5-HT receptor and βγ subunit. GTP-bound G activates adenylyl cyclase, which catalyzes the conversion of ATP into cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP). cAMP opens chloride and potassium ion channels to drive colonic electrolyte secretion and promote intestinal motility.


title: Notary

text: A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems.


title: Notary

text: A notary, while a legal professional, is distinct from an advocate in that they do not represent the person who engages their services, or act in contentious matters.


title: Notary

text: The Worshipful Company of Scriveners use an old English term for a notary, and are an association of notaries practising in central London since 1373.


title: Notary

text: Documents are notarized to deter fraud and to ensure they are properly executed. An impartial witness (the notary) identifies signers to screen out impostors and to make sure they have entered into agreements knowingly and willingly. Loan documents including deeds, affidavits, contracts, and powers of attorney are very common documents needing notarization.


title: Notary

text: Code of Hammurabi Law 122 (c. 1755–1750 BCE) stipulated that a depositor of gold, silver, or other chattel/movable property for safekeeping must present all articles and a signed contract of bailment to a notary before depositing the articles with a banker, and Law 123 stipulated that a banker was discharged of any liability from a contract of bailment if the notary denied the existence of the contract. Law 124 stipulated that a depositor with a notarized contract of bailment was entitled to redeem the entire value of their deposit.


title: Notary

text: To "notarize" a document or event is not a term of art, and its definition varies from place to place; but it generally means the performance by a notary of a series of possible steps, which may include the following (not an exhaustive list):


title: Notary

text: Most common law systems have what is called in the United States a notary public, a public official who notarizes legal documents and who can also administer and take oaths and affirmations, among other tasks. Although notaries public are public officials, they are not paid by the government; they may obtain income by charging fees, provide free services in connection with other employment (for example, bank employees), or provide free services for the public good. In the US (except Puerto Rico), any person – lawyer or otherwise – may be commissioned as a notary.


title: Notary

text: Most civil law-based systems (including Puerto Rico and Quebec) have the civil law notary, a legal professional performing many more functions than a common-law notary public. They are qualified lawyers who provide many of the same services as common-law attorneys/solicitors (negotiation and drafting of contracts, legal advice, settlement of estates, creation of a company and its status, writing of wills and power of attorney, interpretation of the law, mediation, etc.) except any involvement in disputes to be presented before a court.


title: Notary

text: In the United States, a signing agent, also known as a loan signing agent, is a notary public who specializes in notarizing mortgage and real estate documents.


title: Notary

text: Notaries in civil law jurisdictions are specialized in all matters relating to real estate, completing title exams in order to confirm the ownership of the property, the existence of any encumbrances such as easements or mortgages and hypothecs.


title: Notary

text: Often, in the case of lawyer notaries, the certificate to be provided will not require the person appearing to sign. Examples are: certificates authenticating copies (which are mostly not within the permissible functions of U.S. notaries) and certificates as to law, such as certificates as to the capacity of a company to perform certain acts, or explaining probate law in the place.


title: Notary

text: In the United States, many states including Virginia, Texas, Ohio, and Nevada have passed laws allowing for online witness by notaries, using screen sharing or webcams as well as identity verification processes. To comply with state law, notaries must be located in any of the states that have authorized remote notarization services. Virginia was the first state to pass legislation allowing online notarization in 2012. Texas and Nevada passed similar laws in 2017 that went into effect in July 2018. In the United States as of 2017 there are estimated to be over 4 million notaries.


title: The Villain (2018 film)

text: The Villain is a 2018 Indian action thriller film written and directed by Prem and produced by C. R. Manohar. It stars Shiva Rajkumar, Sudeepa and Amy Jackson, while Saranya Ponvannan, Srikanth and Mithun Chakraborty play supporting roles. The score and soundtrack of the film were composed by Arjun Janya. The film was released on 18 October 2018.


title: The Villain (2018 film)

text: "The Villain" revolves around Ramu, who is searching for someone where his mother's chain gets stolen by a chain-snatcher, who drops it somewhere during the chase. He meets a social activist Seetha, who is saved by Ramu when unknown goons arrive to kill her and finds his chain, but Seetha reveals it is her chain. When Ramu ask Seetha about the chain, she reveals about Kaizer-Ram, who is a crime boss in Dubai and she meets him in a drama, when he was travelling to Sri Lanka. Kaizer-Ram falls in love with Seetha and meet at a temple where he reveals that Kaizer and Ram are different persons and Kaizer is actually his best friend.


title: The Villain (2018 film)

text: Later, Unknown assassins arrive to kill Ram, where one of them reveals that Kaizer intends to kill Ram to make the Police department believe that Kaizer-Ram is dead. Seetha reveals that though she has fallen for Ram, she reveals herself as ACP Brahmavar's daughter, who wants to capture Ram to restore Brahmavar's honour. Dejected and betrayed, Ram surrenders to the police and later escapes and ask Seetha to arrive at a highway where he is caught by Kaizer and leave in a car. Ram throws the chain and pendrive before getting into the car. The car explodes killing Ram and Kaizer. In the present, Ramu is taken to meet Kaizer where he reveals to Ramu that Ram escaped from the explosion and has now known as Raavana in UK's crime syndicate.


title: The Villain (2018 film)

text: At UK, Ram kills UK's underworld boss Thomas, with his friend Alex's help. Ramu leaves for UK and kidnaps Alex from the police convoy where he calls Ram and they challenge one another and a cat-mouse game ensues where Alex is killed, before Ramu tortures him to reveal about Ram. Ram comes across Seetha, who is now a call girl, but is later revealed that she was sent by Ram. Later, Ramu reveals to Seetha that he is an orphan and meets Vishalavva, who is Ram's mother. Vishalavva reveals that Ram went missing when she and her husband Vishwanna had a fallout, who later dies due to heart stroke. Vishalavva request Ramu to find Ram.


title: The Villain (2018 film)

text: Ramu, who considers Vishalavva as her mother promises her that he will find Rama. Ram learns Ramu's identity and decide to confront him in Bangalore, but the minister, who supported Ram double-crosses him. Ramu returns to Bangalore and leaves for his village but Kaizer, having learnt of Ramu's agenda sends his henchman to attack him. Ram saves Ramu, who double-crossed the minister by briving his bodyguards and had arrived in Bangalore. Kaizer later dies due to a stroke, by seeing Ram. Ram and Ramu defeat the goons where Ramu reveals that his mother Vishalavva is alive and has been waiting to see him.


title: The Villain (2018 film)

text: Ram refuses as Vishalavva expected him to be upright like Lord Rama, but has become Raavana and request Ram to tell Vishalavva that he died but before leaving, Ramu ask Rama to show Vishalavva at least once. Ramu meets Vishalavva, who doesn't believe that Ram is dead. Ram, overcome by emotion meets Vishalavva and reunites with her, much to Ramu and Seetha's happiness.


title: The Villain (2018 film)

text: Director Prem announced new film starring "Shivaraj Rajkumar" and "Kichcha Sudeepa". The film is about a villager who dreams to become an actor. The film is produced by C. R. Manohar and they signed Bollywood actor Mithun Chakraborty in an important role that has been kept as a secret in the beginning, but the news was later leaked to the press. The film was launched by then Karnataka's Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on 13 December 2015 and the first look was released in March 2017. Before the release of the first look, the movie was titled as Kali taglined Ruler Warrior. But later was changed as The Villain taglined Ram Ravan due to some reasons. The film completed a schedule and was reported to have portions in England and two other foreign countries to be shot. By then, the film fetched 5.4 crore as Hindi rights. Actress Amy Jackson was signed as the female lead. The song "Jeeva Hoovagide" from "Nee Nanna Gellalare" composed by Ilaiyaraaja was shot with Shiva Rajkumar and Amy Jackson in replicated costumes of Rajkumar and Manjula from the original film in a schedule where entire talkie portions were shot, except few songs. Later, filming the climax was completed on 1 February as per actor Sudeepa's tweet.


title: The Villain (2018 film)

text: The film opened on a very high note and collected exactly 20 crore on day 1 .But couldn't maintain the same momentum and collections fell for 85% on day 2 and 91% on day 3 and the first weekend collection was reported to be around 60 crores .


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Ghulam Murtaza Bhutto (; 18 September 1954 – 20 September 1996) was a Pakistani politician and leader of al-Zulfiqar, a Pakistani left-wing militant organization. The son of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, he earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a master's degree from the University of Oxford. Murtaza founded al-Zulfiqar after his father was overthrown and executed in 1979 by the military regime of General Zia-ul-Haq. In 1981, he claimed responsibility for the murder of conservative politician Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi, and the hijacking of a Pakistan International Airlines airplane from Karachi, during which a hostage was killed. In exile in Afghanistan, Murtaza was sentenced to death in absentia by a military tribunal.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: He returned to Pakistan in 1993 and was arrested for terrorism on the orders of his sister, then-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Released on bail, Murtaza successfully contested elections to the Sindh Provincial Assembly, becoming a vocal critic of Benazir and her husband Asif Ali Zardari. After increasing tensions between the two, he was shot dead along with six associates in a police encounter near his home in Karachi on 20 September 1996. Benazir's government was dismissed a month later by President Farooq Leghari primarily citing Murtaza's death and corruption. Zardari was arrested and indicted for Murtaza's murder, but acquitted in 2008. Murtaza's own faction of his father's Pakistan People's Party–Shaheed Bhutto, remains active in politics.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Born into the Bhutto family in Karachi on 18 September 1954, to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Nusrat Bhutto, he received his early education at St. Mary's Academy. He was born in a Satti Rajput Bhutto family, and has three siblings: Benazir, Shahnawaz and Sanam. He later passed his 'O' levels from the Karachi Grammar School in 1971. In 1972, Murtaza went off to Harvard University where he took his bachelor's degree. For a period of time, he was the roommate of Texas gubernatorial candidate and former mayor of Houston, Bill White. In 1976, Bhutto graduated with his thesis entitled ""Modicum of Harmony"". His thesis dealt with the spread of nuclear weapons in general, and the implications of India's nuclear weapons on Pakistan in particular. Murtaza went on to attend Christ Church Oxford, his father's alma mater, for a three-year Master of Letters (MLitt) degree course. Bhutto submitted his master thesis, containing a vast argumentative work on Nuclear strategic studies, where he advocated for Pakistan's right to develop its nuclear deterrence programme to counter Indian nuclear programme. While in Europe studying for his PhD studies, his sister, Benazir Bhutto, had notified Murtaza Bhutto about the "coup d'état" led by General Zia-ul-Haq. Murtaza, along with his siblings, returned to Pakistan immediately. However, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto advised his children to leave the country in the shortest time possible. Murtaza was on the verge of rushing home when he received a message from his father asking him to remain abroad where he could mobilise an international campaign for his release.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Murtaza had been in Pakistan until Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government was overthrown on 5  July 1977. Along with other family members, Murtaza had returned to Al-Murtaza, Larkana, and at the time was busy helping in the preparations for the elections scheduled for October 1977. But on 16 September 1977 when Ali Bhutto was arrested at Al-Murtaza, he asked his son to leave the country. After Ali Bhutto was sentenced, Murtaza joined hands with his brother, Shahnawaz Bhutto, to initiate a campaign to muster international support to revoke the death penalty looming over his father's head. Leaders from Syria, Libya, and the PLO were particularly supportive. Mercy appeals were sent by several heads of state to General Zia-ul-Haq; however, all these appeals were disregarded and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was executed. Murtaza and Shahnawaz both cut short their respective courses of study and decided to devote themselves to avenge their father's death. Eventually they resorted to taking up arms, their main target being Zia-ul-Haq. This marked the beginning of a new and more controversial era in Murtaza's life.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Like his elder sister, Benazir, Murtaza Bhutto was a novice to active politics until 1978 when his father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was sentenced to death by the Lahore High Court. In the span of 15 years, however, Murtaza managed to gain considerable notoriety for a brand of politics that has moved in a direction that was diametrically opposed to Benazir's. Al-Zulfiqar was a leftist insurgency and militant organisation of Pakistan. It was formed in the late seventies by the sons of former Pakistani Prime Minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was also the Chairman of Pakistan's biggest political party, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Al-Zulfiqar was formed to avenge the execution of Ali Bhutto by the right-wing military regime of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1979. Zia had deposed the populist Bhutto regime in a military coup in July 1977. Bhutto was hanged by the Zia regime after a closed military trial. Ali Bhutto's two sons, Murtaza and Shahnawaz went into exile in Afghanistan which was at that time controlled by communist revolutionary government of Babrak Karmal. There the two sons formed Al-Zulfiqar along with hundreds of Pakistan Peoples Party militants who had escaped Zia's persecution. The Al-Zulfiqar Organization (AZO) was born at this point, and disgruntled elements among the younger members of the PPP, disappointed in the party's leadership, flocked to Murtaza's side. The AZO, however, went on to earn the title of terrorist organisation due to its various terrorist activities throughout the country, a label which dogged Murtaza till he died. For his part, Murtaza always denied the charge that he espoused the politics of terrorism.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Al-Zulfiqar hijacked a Pakistan International Airlines flight after and diverted it to Kabul in March 1981. From Kabul the journey went on to Damascus, Syria. The hijacking went on for thirteen days, during which Murtaza shot Major Tariq Rahim for being an Army officer. Rahim was executed following Murtaza's conferring with Afghan Intelligence (KHAD) chief Mohammad Najibullah. The Zia government had to accept the demands of the hijackers, releasing dozens of prisoners languishing in Pakistani jails and flying them to Tripoli.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: In 2003 the case against Murtaza Bhutto and his brother was concluded quietly absolving them from blame relating to the PIA Hijacking, according to Fatima Bhutto's Book – "Songs of Blood and Sword". In the book, she indicates that the actual leader of the hijacking was Salamullah Tipu. Tipu had attempted to join the AZO in Kabul, but was rejected as the AZO supposedly never accepted those that came to them (in what was to be a futile effort to prevent infiltration). Murtaza Bhutto was supposedly only to hear about the hijacking when Tipu called him in Afghanistan from the hijacked aircraft.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Contrary to this, Raja Anwar in his book "The Terrorist Prince" paints a negative picture of Murtaza Bhutto. He writes that the idea to hijack a plane came from Murtaza Bhutto himself, who was 'obsessed' about the tactic after the Palestinians resorted to it in the seventies and eighties. Anwar tells of an excited Murtaza who, while he had early advised Tipu on taking the aircraft to Damascus or Tripoli went into pragmatic overdrive once the plane landed in Kabul due to a shortage of fuel. Anwar, after detailed conversations with Salamullah Tipu, which he recounts in his book tells of the role Najibullah played along with Murtaza in directing the hijack from the Kabul airport control tower. Raja says that while the hijackers had arrived into Kabul with only revolvers, they were soon furnished with semi-automatic weapons after Murtaza's successive meetings with Tipu under the 'belly of the PIA aircraft'. The most compelling account from 'The Terrorist Prince' tell of the treatment meted out to Major Tariq Rahim, who was ADC to Murtaza's father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Raja Anwar recounts the successive pleas (in the form of notes written on torn pieces of newspaper) Tariq Rahim made to Murtaza and Shahnawaz (Murtaza's younger brother) on account of his association with Zulfiqar Bhutto. These pleas according to one of the hijackers were delivered to Murtaza Bhutto, who not only discarded them, but instead instructed Salamullah Tipu to execute Tariq Rahim.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: The books tells of countless stories of many activists who became fodder for Murtaza Bhutto in his quest to seek revenge for his father's judicial murder at the hands of General Zia-ul-Haq.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: After returning to Pakistan from exile , Bhutto offered his sister, Benazir Bhutto, the chance to revive the manifesto of PPP which his father championed. However, he was not happy with the ways of Benazir's husband Asif Ali Zardari and wanted him removed from influence in the PPP. When Benazir decided to side with her husband, Murtaza became a strong critic of the PPP government and the ongoing corruption. It is widely believed in Pakistan that this incident drove Zardari to rage and he used police machinery to assassinate Murtaza Bhutto. Benazir became highly unpopular after this incident and her limo was stoned by PPP workers when she tried to visit Murtaza's funeral ceremonies. After Benazir's government was dismissed in 1996, Zardari was detained for having a part in Murtaza's assassination. However, no charges were ever proven due to lack of evidence.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Bhutto fell in love with a Afghan girl named, Fauzia Fasihuddin Bhutto, in Afghanistan. He married Fauzaia in 1980, and his brother Shahnawaz married her sister Rehana Fasihuddin. They had a daughter Fatima Bhutto. However, the marriage ended in divorce, and Bhutto along with his daughter moved to Syria, where he married the Lebanese dancer Ghinwa Bhutto in 1989. Bhutto, with his wife Ghinwa and daughter Fatima, later moved to Karachi in 1990, where the couple's son Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr was born.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Just before his death, Bhutto, 42, had verbally attacked the government. "There would be trouble if the Police tries to arrest me without a warrant," he had declared.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Bhutto was sought by the police on the charge of inciting attacks on two CIA centres the previous Tuesday where it was thought that his party activist Ali Sunara was detained.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: On Thursday, 20 September 1996 at 6:35 p.m., Bhutto, along with six other party activists, was killed in an encounter with police near his residence in Clifton, Karachi. Among the dead was Aashiq Jatoi, the acting provincial chief of the Pakistan People's Party (Shaheed Bhutto Group). Jatoi was a brother in-law of Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan. The injured list included six activists of Murtaza Bhutto's party and three policemen, including Superintendent of Police of Saddar area of Karachi and two other station house officers (SHOs).


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: A Sindh government handout issued late the night of Bhutto's death said that Bhutto's vehicle was allowed to proceed to his residence by SHO Clifton after it was stopped. Bhutto's gunmen, sitting on the land cruiser vehicle, resorted to indiscriminate firing injuring Area Superintendent of Police (ASP) Saddar, SHO Clifton and a person in a nearby taxi. Other gunmen sitting in Bhutto's vehicle also started firing straight at the police. The police, under the command of ASP Drakshan and ASP Saddar, returned fire in self-defence, and after an encounter of 20 to 25 minutes, took control of the situation.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: The police claimed that they reached the Bhutto's residence at number 70 Clifton, at 8:30 p.m., to arrest him. The policemen alleged that security guards, belonging to Bhutto and stationed at his house, opened fire, injuring several policemen. Return fire by the police party caused fatal injuries to Bhutto and his supporters.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Police said Bhutto's followers, who were in three cars returning from a party, fired first when asked to stop. Police returned fire, killing six people, all members of Murtaza Bhutto's faction. This was confirmed by the Deputy Inspector General of police Shoaib Suddle. Suddle further said that the police had insisted on checking the vehicles because of tightened security after two bomb blasts in Karachi on Wednesday, 18 September 1996, in which one person was killed and at least four others were wounded. The party activists who were wounded were identified as Dr. Mazhar Memon, Siraj Hyder, Ismail, Ayaz, Asghar and Bachhal. The policemen who were shot were ASP Saddar Shahid Hayat, SHO Clifton Haq Nawaz Sayyal, and SHO Napier Junaid. Two injured policemen remained unidentified. The injured were moved to the Aga Khan Hospital and Civil Hospital. Those who were killed with Bhutto were identified as Ashiq Jatoi, Rehman Brohi, Sajjad Hyder, Abdul Sattar Rajpur, Yar Mohammed Baloch and Wajahat Jokhio. The bodies reached JPMC Hospital at about 3:30 a.m. The police arrested 12 supporters of Bhutto and seized about a dozen AK-47 rifles from their possession.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Some policemen who had stopped Bhutto's vehicle later claimed that they did not know whose car they had stopped. They said that they would not have opened fire on the motorcade had they known that it was Bhutto's. Others said that they had fired in panic and self-defence. Senior police officials were tight-lipped about the tragedy.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Dr. Mazhar Memon, Senior Vice-President of the party's Hyderabad Division, blamed the police for opening fire on Bhutto without any provocation. "We were returning from a public meeting at Surjani Town, District West of Karachi, when the police and Rangers stopped near the 70 Clifton," Dr. Memon stated at the JPMC Casualty Department. He said that Bhutto had exited the car to talk with the official. The policemen suddenly opened fire on Bhutto, seriously injuring him. Dr Memon said, "I also came out of the vehicle to help my injured leader who was on the ground and I received a bullet in my leg." Dr Memon added that when Bhutto's guards saw him on the ground in a pool of blood, they rushed out and opened fire on the police. The policemen ignored Bhutto and continued firing. Memon added that when the firing died down, the Rangers who were on the spot jumped from their vehicles.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Some eyewitnesses said that Bhutto, after getting out of his car, challenged the policemen to shoot him. A man was seen struggling for his life after being hit by police fire in front of the DIG police residence. The firing continued for half an hour, causing great panic in the area. Soon after the incident, when newsmen rushed to the hospital, they were beaten by highly emotionally charged policemen. The personnel of the law enforcement agencies cocked their guns and confiscated the cameras of photographers. One of the police officers ordered his force to open fire at journalists should they ignore his orders and advance.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: Sources said that when Murtaza Bhutto arrived at the Mideast hospital in an official car, blood was oozing from his mouth. He tried to take off the oxygen mask but the doctors kept replacing it. Bhutto then collapsed and lost consciousness. At this time Bhutto's wife Ghinva and daughter Fatimah, both of them crying, reached the hospital. They were ordered out of the ICU, where the only official present was the Deputy Commissioner South, Arif Elahi. Soon the specialist doctors from Jinnah Hospital reached the Mideast Hospital. No anesthetist was available at the hospital, which normally does not treat medico-legal cases. Murtaza was shot in his collarbone, chest, leg and abdomen. His body refused to accept a blood transfusion while he was being operated upon. Doctors revived his heart once when it stopped but failed to do so the second time. Murtaza Bhutto died at 11:45 p.m. but his death was not announced by the hospital authorities until 12:25 a.m.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: On Saturday, the body was taken for burial by helicopter to Larkana, Sindh. The pilot of one of the helicopters which carried the body had difficulty in lifting the chopper as a number of supporters of Bhutto from Lyari, Karachi clung to the skids in a bid to board the aircraft. While the helicopter managed to lift off, many of the visibly moved supporters fell down. One, however, clung to the helicopter. The helicopter flew up to sea side and then returned and landed at Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim where the youth clinging to the helicopter's skid fell down and the chopper flew away. Bhutto was laid to rest at the Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh near Larkana, Sindh, Pakistan.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: On 3 December 2009, a sessions court in Karachi acquitted of murder twenty policemen in the Murtaza Bhutto case pertaining to an armed attack on a police team in which two officials were wounded and a taxi driver was also killed. The same court also pardoned six workers of the Pakistan People's Party Shaheed Bhutto in the same case.


title: Murtaza Bhutto

text: During the 13 years that the trial dragged on, a number of judges were appointed to hear the murder case. The change of judges is one of the many reasons behind the delay in disposal of the present case. Other reasons include a lack of interest of the prosecution witnesses and long adjournments sought by the counsel for President Asif Ali. The acquitted included Mazhar Memon, Asghar Ali, Asif Ali Jatoi, Mehmood Bhallai, Ghulam Mustafa Chandio and Akhter Ali Mirani. The police personnel acquitted include Shoaib Suddle, Wajid Durrani, Masood Sharif, Rai Tahir and others who were prosecution witnesses in this case.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Samuel Dale Brownback (born September 12, 1956) is an American attorney, politician, diplomat, and member of the Republican Party who served as the United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom from 2018 to 2021. Brownback previously served as the Secretary of Agriculture of Kansas (1986–93), as the U.S. representative for Kansas's 2nd congressional district (1995–96), as a United States senator from Kansas (1996–2011) and the 46th governor of Kansas (2011–18). He also ran for the Republican nomination for President in 2008.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Born in Garnett, Kansas, Brownback grew up on the family farm in Parker, Kansas. He graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in agricultural economics in 1978 and received a J.D. from the University of Kansas in 1982. He worked as an attorney in Manhattan, Kansas, before being appointed Secretary of Agriculture of Kansas in 1986 by Democratic Governor John W. Carlin. Brownback ran for Congress in 1994 and defeated Carlin in the general election in a landslide. He represented Kansas's 2nd congressional district for a single term before running in a 1996 special election for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Bob Dole. He won the special election and was reelected by large margins in 1998 and 2004. Brownback ran for president in 2008, but withdrew before the primaries began and endorsed eventual Republican nominee John McCain.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback declined to run for reelection in 2010, instead running for governor. He was elected governor of Kansas in 2010 and took office in January 2011. As governor, Brownback initiated what he called a "red-state experiment"—dramatic cuts in income tax rates intended to bring economic growth. He signed into law one of the largest income tax cuts in Kansas history, known as the Kansas experiment. The tax cuts caused state revenues to fall by hundreds of millions of dollars and created large budget shortfalls. A major budget deficit led to cuts in areas including education and transportation. In a repudiation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in 2013 Brownback turned down a $31.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to set up a public health insurance exchange for Kansas. Also in 2013, he signed a bill that blocked tax breaks for abortion providers, banned sex-selection abortions, and declared that life begins at fertilization. In the run-up to the 2014 gubernatorial election, over 100 former and current Kansas Republican officials criticized Brownback's leadership and endorsed his Democratic opponent, Paul Davis. Despite this, Brownback was narrowly reelected. In June 2017, the Kansas Legislature repealed Brownback's tax cuts, overrode Brownback's veto of the repeal, and enacted tax increases. Brownback, who had a 66% disapproval rating after the repeal of his signature law, left office as one of the least popular governors in the country.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On July 26, 2017, the Trump administration issued a statement that Brownback would be nominated as the new U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. The nomination was forwarded by committee, on a party line vote, but expired at the end of 2017 in lieu of a Senate confirmation vote by the time of adjournment. The committee re-sent his nomination to the Senate on January 8, 2018, and he was confirmed two weeks later in a strict party-line vote with Vice President Mike Pence casting the necessary tie-breaking vote to end a filibuster and for his confirmation. On January 25, Brownback submitted his resignation as governor, effective January 31, and Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer was sworn in as governor. Brownback was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom on February 1.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Sam Brownback was born on September 12, 1956, in Garnett, Kansas to Nancy (Cowden) and Glen Robert Brownback. He was raised in a farming family in Parker, Kansas. Some of Brownback's German-American ancestors settled in Kansas after leaving Pennsylvania following the Civil War. Throughout his youth, Brownback was involved with the FFA (formerly the Future Farmers of America), serving as president of his local and state FFA chapters, and as national FFA vice president from 1976 to 1977.


title: Sam Brownback

text: After graduating from Prairie View High School, Brownback attended Kansas State University, where was elected student body president and became a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho agricultural fraternity. After graduating from college in 1978 with a degree in Agricultural Economics in 1978, he spent about a year working as a radio broadcaster for the now-defunct KSAC farm department, hosting a weekly half-hour show. Brownback received his J.D. from the University of Kansas in 1982.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback was an attorney in Manhattan, Kansas, before being appointed as Kansas Secretary of Agriculture by Governor John W. Carlin on September 18, 1986. In 1990, he was accepted into the White House Fellow program and detailed to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from 1990 to 1991. Brownback then returned to Kansas to resume his position as Secretary of Agriculture. He left his post on July 30, 1993. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994 and ran in the 1996 special election for the U.S. Senate seat recently vacated by Bob Dole, beating appointed Republican Sheila Frahm.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Sheila Frahm was appointed to fill the seat of U.S. Senator Bob Dole when Dole resigned in 1996 to campaign for president. Brownback defeated Frahm in the 1996 Republican primary and went on to win the general election against Democrat Jill Docking. Later in 2001, the Federal Election Commission assessed fines and penalties against Brownback's campaign committee and against his in-laws for improper 1996 campaign contributions. As a result of these improper contributions, the campaign was ordered to give the government $19,000 in contributions and Brownback's in-laws, John and Ruth Stauffer, were ordered to pay a $9,000 civil penalty for improperly funneling contributions through Triad Management Services.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 1998 Brownback was elected to a full six-year term, defeating Democrat Paul Feleciano. He won reelection in the 2004 Senate election with 69% of the vote, defeating his Democratic challenger, Lee Jones, a former Washington, D.C. lobbyist.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Throughout his Senate career, his principal campaign donors were the Koch Brothers and their enterprises, including Koch Industries.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback was a member of the Judiciary Committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee (where he chaired the Subcommittee on District of Columbia when the Republicans were in the majority), the Joint Economic Committee, and the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, which he at one time chaired. The Helsinki Commission monitors compliance with international agreements reached in cooperation with Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2000, Brownback and Congressman Chris Smith led the effort to enact the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. President Clinton signed the legislation in October 2000. According to "Christianity Today", the stronger enforcement increased the number of U.S. federal trafficking cases eightfold in the five years after enactment.


title: Sam Brownback

text: As of August 12, 2007, in the 110th Session of Congress, Brownback had missed 123 votes due to campaigning (39.7 percent) – surpassed only by Tim Johnson (D) of South Dakota who due to a critical illness had missed 100% of the votes of the 110th Session, and John McCain (R) of Arizona with 149 votes missed due to campaigning (48.1 percent).


title: Sam Brownback

text: As of April 2012, Brownback had an approval rating of 34 percent according to a Survey USA Poll. A Republican polling company found his approval rating to be 51 percent in May 2012. In November 2015, Brownback had an approval rating of 26 percent according to a Morning Consult poll, the lowest among all governors in the United States.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2006, Brownback blocked a confirmation vote on a George W. Bush federal appeals court nominee from Michigan, judge Janet T. Neff. He objected to her joining the bench solely for her having attended a same-sex commitment ceremony in Massachusetts in 2002 which involved a next door neighbor who was a close childhood friend of Neff's daughters. His action had blocked confirmation votes on an entire slate of appointments that already had been approved by a bipartisan group of Senators. In July 2007, he finally lifted his block that had prevented the vote, and the Senate confirmed her by 83–4. Brownback was joined in opposition by just three other conservatives, then-Senators Jim Bunning, Jon Kyl, and Mel Martinez.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2009, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed an ethics complaint in 2009 over a fundraising letter signed by Brownback for a conservative Catholic group which they alleged violated Senate rules by mimicking official Senate letterhead. The letter had targeted five senators for being both Catholic and pro-choice: Maria Cantwell, John Kerry, Robert Menendez, Barbara Mikulski and Patty Murray. A spokesman said Brownback had asked the group to stop sending the letter even before the complaint was filed.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2010, based on a complaint that was lodged by a Protestant group, CREW urged an ethics investigation into a possible violation of the Senate's gifts rule by four Republican Senators and a Republican and three Democratic House members lodging in a $1.8 million townhouse owned by C Street Center, Inc., which was in turn owned by Christian-advocacy group The Fellowship. The rent was $950 per month per person. CREW alleged that the property was being leased exclusively to congressional members, including Brownback, at under fair market value, based on the cost of hotel rooms nearby. Senator Tom Coburn's spokesman told "The Hill" there were Craigslist ads that demonstrated that $950 was fair market value for a room on Capitol Hill and that "Residents at the [C Street] boarding house have one bedroom. Most share a bathroom. All pay for their own meals and share communal space with the other residents and guests."


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback, while U.S. Senator in the mid-1990s, hired Paul Ryan as his chief legislative director. Ryan later became a member of Congress, vice-presidential candidate, and then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Throughout his U.S. Senate career, his principal campaign donors were the Koch Brothers of Wichita-based Koch Industries, who donated more to Brownback than to any other political candidate during this period.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On December 4, 2006, Brownback formed an exploratory committee, the first step toward candidacy, and announced his presidential bid the next day. His views placed him in the social conservative wing of the Republican Party, and he stressed his fiscal conservatism. "I am an economic, a fiscal, a social and a compassionate conservative", he said in December 2006.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On January 20, 2007, in Topeka, he announced that he was running for President in 2008. On February 22, 2007, a poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports held that three percent of likely primary voters would support Brownback.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On August 11, 2007, Brownback finished third in the Ames Straw Poll with 15.3 percent of all votes cast. Fundraising and visits to his website declined dramatically after this event, as many supporters had predicted Brownback would do much better, and speculation began that the candidate was considering withdrawing from the campaign. This sentiment increased after his lackluster performance in the GOP presidential debate of September 5, broadcast from New Hampshire by Fox News Channel. He dropped out of the race on October 18, 2007, citing a lack of funds. He formally announced his decision on October 19. He later endorsed John McCain for president.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2008, Brownback acknowledged he was considering running for governor in 2010. In January 2009, Brownback officially filed the paperwork to run for governor.


title: Sam Brownback

text: His principal Senate-career campaign donors, the Koch Brothers (and their Koch Industries), again backed Brownback's campaign.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Polling agency Rasmussen Reports found that Brownback led his then-likely Democratic opponent, Tom Holland, by 31 points in May 2010.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On November 2, 2010, Brownback won over Holland with 63.3% of the vote, replacing Governor Mark Parkinson, who was sworn in after former Governor Kathleen Sebelius resigned from her position and accepted the appointment to US Secretary of Health and Human Services in 2009.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback took office in January 2011, in the early years of national recovery from the Great Recession. Along with his victory, the Legislative Republicans resumed control of the Kansas House of Representatives with their largest majority in half a century (now largely members of the Tea Party movement sharing Brownback's views).


title: Sam Brownback

text: Three separate polls between November 2015 and September 2016 ranked Brownback as the nation's least-popular governor—a September 2016 poll showing an approval rating of 23%. In the state elections of 2016—seen largely as a referendum on Brownback's policies and administration—Brownback's supporters in the legislature suffered major defeats. In 2017, after a protracted battle, the new Kansas Legislature overrode Brownback's vetoes, voting to repeal his tax cuts and enact tax increases.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2018 The Kansas City Star was named the only finalist in the Public Service category of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for a series "Why, so secret, Kansas?" which said that Kansas which had always been excessively secret in government reporting had only grown worse under Brownback. Brownback's successor Jeff Colyer through executive order reversed some of the secrecy.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback has proposed fundamental tax reform to encourage investment and generate wealth while creating new jobs. Consistent with those objectives, he also proposed structural reforms to the state's largest budget items, school finance, Medicaid, and Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (KPERS), which have unfunded liabilities of $8.3 billion. Brownback sought to follow a "red state model", passing conservative social and economic policies.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In May 2012, Brownback signed into law one of the largest income tax cuts in Kansas' history—the nation's largest state income tax cut (in percentage) since the 1990s. Brownback described the tax cuts as a live experiment:


title: Sam Brownback

text: The legislation was crafted with help from his Budget Director (former Koch brothers political consultant Steven Anderson); the Koch-sponsored American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC); and Arthur Laffer, a popular supply-side economist and former economic adviser for President Ronald Reagan.


title: Sam Brownback

text: The law eliminated non-wage income taxes for the owners of 191,000 businesses, and cut individuals' income tax rates. The first phase of his cuts reduced the top Kansas income-tax rate from 6.45 percent down to 4.9 percent, and immediately eliminated income tax on business profits from partnerships and limited liability corporations passed through to individuals. The income tax cuts would provide 231 million in tax reductions in its first year, growing to 934 million after six years. A forecast from the Legislature's research staff indicated that a budget shortfall will emerge by 2014 and will grow to nearly 2.5 billion by July 2018. The cuts were based on model legislation published by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).


title: Sam Brownback

text: In an op-ed dated May 2014 in "The Wall Street Journal", titled "A Midwest Renaissance Rooted in the Reagan Formula", Brownback compared his tax cut policies with those of Ronald Reagan, and announced a "prosperous future" for Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, by having elected the economic principles that Reagan laid out in 1964.


title: Sam Brownback

text: The act has received criticism for shifting the tax burden from wealthy Kansans to low- and moderate-income workers, with the top income tax rate dropping by 25%. Under Brownback, Kansas also lowered the sales tax and eliminated a tax on small businesses. The tax cuts helped contribute to Moody's downgrading of the state's bond rating in 2014. They also contributed to the S&P Ratings' credit downgrade from AA+ to AA in August 2014 due to a budget that analysts described as structurally unbalanced. As of June 2014, the state has fallen far short of projected tax collections, receiving $369 million instead of the planned-for $651 million.


title: Sam Brownback

text: The tax cuts and the effect on the economy of Kansas received considerable criticism in the media, including Michael Hiltzik in the "Los Angeles Times", the editorial board of "The Washington Post", "The New Republic", Bloomberg "Businessweek," and "The New York Times" who described Brownback's "conservative experiment" as a laboratory for policies that are "too far to the right" and that as a result more than 100 current and former Republican elected officials endorsed his opponent in the 2014 gubernatorial race, Democrat Paul Davis. Grover Norquist defended the tax cuts as a model for the nation.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In February 2017, a bi-partisan coalition presented a bill that would repeal most of Brownback's tax overhaul to make up for the budget shortfall. The Senate passed SB 30 (38–0, with 2 not voting) on February 2, 2017. The House passed SB 30 as amended (123–2) on February 22, 2017. The Conference Committee Report was adopted by both the House (69–52) and Senate (26–14) on June 5, 2017. On June 6, 2017, the bill was sent to Governor Brownback for signature, but he vetoed the bill. Later in the day both the House and Senate voted to override the veto. Senate Bill 30 repealed most of the tax cuts which had taken effect in January 2013.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback's tax overhaul was described in a June 2017 article in "The Atlantic" as the United States' "most aggressive experiment in conservative economic policy". The drastic tax cuts had "threatened the viability of schools and infrastructure" in Kansas.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In April 2014, Brownback signed a controversial school finance bill that eliminated mandatory due process hearings, which were previously required to fire experienced teachers. According to the "Kansas City Star": The resulting cuts in funding caused districts to shut down the school year early.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2015, the job growth rate in Kansas was 0.8 percent, among the lowest rate in America with only "10,900 total nonfarm jobs" added that year. Kansas had a $350 million budget shortfall in February 2017. In February 2017, S&P downgraded Kansas' credit rating to AA−.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In August 2011, over the objections of Republican Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, Brownback announced he was declining a $31.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to set up an insurance exchange as part of the federal health care reform law. In May 2011, Brownback had directed the state's insurance commissioner to slow the implementation timeline for the exchange development. Upon announcing the refusal of the budgeted grant money for the state, his office stated: The move was unanimously supported by the delegates of the state party central committee at its August 2011 meeting, but a "The New York Times" editorial criticized Brownback for turning down the grant which could have helped ease the state's own budget:


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback also signed into law the Health Care Freedom Act, based on model legislation published by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback signed three anti-abortion bills in 2011. In April 2011, he signed a bill banning abortion after 21 weeks, and a bill requiring that a doctor get a parent's notarized signature before providing an abortion to a minor. In May 2011, Brownback approved a bill prohibiting insurance companies from offering abortion coverage as part of general health plans unless the procedure is necessary to save a woman's life. The law also prohibits any health-insurance exchange in Kansas established under the federal Affordable Care Act from offering coverage for abortions other than to save a woman's life.


title: Sam Brownback

text: A Kansas budget passed with Brownback's approval in 2011 blocked Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri from receiving family planning funds from the state. The funding amounted to about $330,000 a year. A judge has blocked the budget provision, ordered Kansas to begin funding the organization again, and agreed with Planned Parenthood that it was being unfairly targeted. In response, the state filed an appeal seeking to overturn the judge's decision. Brownback has defended anti-abortion laws in Kansas, including the Planned Parenthood defunding. "You can't know for sure what all comes out of that afterwards, but it was the will of the Legislature and the people of the state of Kansas", Brownback said.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In May 2012, Brownback signed the Health Care Rights of Conscience Act, which "will allow pharmacists to refuse to provide drugs they believe might cause an abortion".


title: Sam Brownback

text: In April 2013, Brownback signed a bill that blocked tax breaks for abortion providers, banned sex-selection abortions and declared that life begins at fertilization. The law notes that any rights suggested by the language are limited by U.S. Supreme Court decisions.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On April 7, 2015, Brownback signed The Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act, which bans the most common technique used for second-trimester abortions. This made Kansas the first state to do so.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback was the only other governor to attend Governor Rick Perry's prayer event in August 2011. About 22,000 people attended the rally, and Brownback and Perry were the only elected officials to speak. The decision resulted in some controversy and newspaper editorials demonstrating disappointment in his attendance of the rally.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In October 2013, Kansas state representative Paul Davis, the Democratic minority leader of the Kansas House of Representatives, announced he would challenge Brownback in the 2014 Kansas gubernatorial election.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In July 2014, more than 100 current and former Kansas Republican officials (including former state party chairmen, Kansas Senate presidents, Kansas House speakers, and majority leaders) endorsed Democrat Davis over Republican Brownback—citing concern over Brownback's deep cuts in education and other government services, as well as the tax cuts that had left the state with a major deficit.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Tim Keck, chief of staff of Brownback's running mate, Lt. Governor Jeff Colyer, unearthed and publicized a 1998 police report that noted that Davis, 26 and unmarried at the time, had been briefly detained during the raid of a strip club, where he had been taken by his new boss at a law firm that represented the club. Davis was found to have no involvement in the cause for the raid and quickly allowed to leave. The incident and its publication were seen as particularly advantageous for Brownback (who, until then, had trailed badly in polling), as it could be expected to become the focus of a typical 30-second campaign ad used to characterize his opponent.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Responding to criticism of Keck's involvement in the campaign, Brownback spokesman Paul Milburn commented that it was legal to use taxpayer-paid staff to campaign, responding directly to the controversy, saying that "Paul Davis must have spent too much time in VIP rooms at strip clubs back in law school" because he "should know full well that the law allows personal staff of the governor's office to work on campaign issues." In Kansas, however, getting records about crimes that law enforcement has investigated is typically difficult. The Legislature closed those records to the public over three decades earlier: If members of the public desire incident reports and investigative files, they normally have to sue to obtain them, cases sometimes costing $25,000 or more. Media law experts were amazed after learning Montgomery County's sheriff released non-public investigative files from 1998 with just a records request. "That is unusual," said Mike Merriam, media lawyer for the Kansas Press Association. "They have denied releasing records routinely over and over and over again." Brownback's campaign capitalized on the 16-year-old incident.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback was reelected with a plurality, defeating Davis by a 3.69 percent margin. His appointment of Tim Keck as Secretary of the Department of Aging and Disability was confirmed on January 18, 2017.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In March 2017, it was reported that Brownback was being considered by President Donald Trump to be appointed either as his U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. for Food and Agriculture in Rome, or as the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom in Washington, DC. On July 26, 2017, the White House issued a statement that Brownback would be nominated as the new U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. As a senator in 1998, Brownback sponsored the legislation that first created the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).


title: Sam Brownback

text: Due to his positions and actions on Islam and LGBT issues, Brownback's nomination was criticized by figures such as Rabbi Moti Rieber, the executive director of Kansas Interfaith Action, Robert McCaw, director of government affairs for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as well as the American Civil Liberties Union.


title: Sam Brownback

text: As of the end of the 2017 session, Brownback's Ambassadorial nomination had not come up for a confirmation vote. As it failed to receive unanimous support for it to carry over to 2018 for approval, it required renomination to come to a vote. He was renominated on January 8, 2018.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On January 24, 2018, the Senate voted along party lines, 49–49, with two Republicans absent, to advance his nomination to the floor, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote to end the Democrats' filibuster. With the Senate again locked at 49–49 later that day, Pence again cast the tie-breaking vote, confirming the nomination. On January 25, Brownback submitted his resignation as governor, effective January 31, 2018, on which date Lieutenant Governor Jeff Colyer was sworn in as governor.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In July 2018, Brownback reportedly lobbied the UK government over the treatment of far-right British activist Tommy Robinson. Arizona Republican Representative Paul Gosar and five other congressmen invited Robinson to speak to United States Congress on November 14, 2018, on a trip sponsored by the U.S.-based, Middle East Forum. He was expected to get visa approval by the State Department despite his criminal convictions and use of fraudulent passports to enter and depart the U.S.


title: Sam Brownback

text: As Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, Brownback has been vocal about global issues of religious persecution and actively promoting religious freedom as a means of promoting individual and economic flourishing and reducing terrorism and other types of religion-related violence.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback has repeatedly condemned China's assault on religious freedom, saying, "China is at war with faith. It is a war they will not win." He has highlighted persecution of China's Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, Falun Gong practitioners, and Chinese Christians. In remarks made at the United Nations, Brownback strongly condemned the Xinjiang re-education camps where more than 1 million Uighur Muslims are reported to have been detained in what the Chinese government has called "vocational training camps."


title: Sam Brownback

text: In his first trip as Ambassador, Brownback traveled to Bangladesh to meet with Rohingya refugees from Myanmar at the Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Brownback said the accounts of violence he heard as bad or worse than anything he has ever seen, including visits to Darfur in 2004. Following the trip the State Department highlighted Myanmar's intensification of violence against its ethnic minorities. In the 2017 International Religious Freedom Report, the State Department described the violence against the Rohingya that forced an estimated 688,000 people to flee Myanmar as "ethnic cleansing."


title: Sam Brownback

text: At the 2020 Ministerial to Advance Freedom of Religion or Belief in Poland, Brownback spoke about COVID-19's effect on freedom of religion.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback opposes abortion in all cases except when the life of the pregnant woman is in danger. He has a 100% pro-life rating from the National Right to Life Committee and a 0% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America. Brownback also supports parental notification for minors who seek an abortion and opposes partial birth abortion. He was personally anti-abortion though politically pro-choice during his early career. Brownback has more recently said, "I see it as the lead moral issue of our day, just like slavery was the lead moral issue 150 years ago." On May 3, 2007, when asked his opinion of repealing "Roe v. Wade", Brownback said, "It would be a glorious day of human liberty and freedom."


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2007, Brownback said he "could support a pro-choice nominee" to the presidency because "this is a big coalition party."


title: Sam Brownback

text: In May 2011, Brownback eliminated by executive order and then subsequently vetoed government funding for the Kansas Arts Commission in response to state defiance of his executive order, making Kansas the first state to de-fund its arts commission. The National Endowment for the Arts informed Kansas that without a viable state arts agency, it would not receive a planned $700,000 federal grant. Brownback has said he believes private donations should fund arts and culture in the state. He created the Kansas Arts Foundation, an organization dedicated to private fundraising to make up the gap created by state budget cuts.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback said in an interview: "I am not a supporter of a death penalty, other than in cases where we cannot protect the society and have other lives at stake." In a speech on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he questioned the current use of the death penalty as potentially incongruent with the notion of a "culture of life", and suggested it be employed in a more limited fashion.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback visited refugee camps in Sudan in 2004 and returned to write a resolution labeling the Darfur conflict as genocide, and has been active on attempting to increase U.S. efforts to resolve the situation short of military intervention. He is an endorser of the Genocide Intervention Network, which called him a "champion of Darfur" in its Darfur scorecard, primarily for his early advocacy of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act.


title: Sam Brownback

text: He has consistently supported a low tax-and-spend policy for government. As governor he urged a flattening of the income tax to spur economic growth in Kansas. In December 2005, Brownback advocated using Washington, DC, as a laboratory for a flat tax. He voted Yes on a Balanced-budget constitutional amendment. He opposed the Estate Tax.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2005, the organization Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP) gave Brownback a grade of 7 percent for the 107th United States Congress, but in 2006, increased the rating to 26%. Senator Brownback supported an amendment to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, offered by Senator Jeff Bingaman, (D-NM), requiring at least 10 percent of electricity sold by utilities to originate from renewable resources. He has also supported conservation of rare felids & canids. He has voted for increased funding for international conservation of cranes. Brownback has supported oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in the Gulf of Mexico, as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil. He has promoted the use of renewable energy such as nuclear, wind, solar, and hydroelectric sources to achieve energy independence.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback has stated that he is a devout believer in a higher power and rejects macroevolution as an exclusive explanation for the development over time of new species from older ones. Brownback favors giving teachers the freedom to use intelligent design to critique evolutionary theory as part of the Teach the Controversy approach:


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback spoke out against the denial of tenure at Iowa State University to astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, a proponent of intelligent design, saying "such an assault on academic freedom does not bode well for the advancement of true science."


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback opposes a single-payer, government-run health-care system. He supports increased health insurance portability, eliminating insurance rejection due to pre-existing medical conditions, a cap on frivolous malpractice lawsuits, the implementation of an electronic medical records system, an emphasis on preventive care, and tax benefits aimed at making health-care insurance more affordable for the uninsured and targeted to promote universal access. He opposes government-funded elective abortions in accordance with the Hyde Amendment. He has been a strong supporter of legislation to establish a national childhood cancer database and an increase in funding for autism research. Brownback supports negotiating bulk discounts on Medicare drug benefits to reduce prices. In 2007, Senators Brownback and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sponsored an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007. The amendment created a prize as an incentive for companies to invest in new drugs and vaccines for neglected tropical diseases. It awards a transferable "Priority Review Voucher" to any company that obtains approval for a treatment for a neglected tropical disease. This provision adds to the market-based incentives available for the development of new medicines for developing world diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and African sleeping sickness. The prize was initially proposed by Duke University faculty Henry Grabowski, Jeffrey Moe, and David Ridley in their 2006 "Health Affairs" paper: "Developing Drugs for Developing Countries."


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback supports a bill that would introduce price transparency to the U.S. health care industry, as well as a bill which would require the disclosure of Medicare payment rate information.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On December 16, 2006, Brownback gave an interview to the "Christian Post", stating: "We can get to this goal of eliminating deaths by cancer in ten years."


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback had a Senate voting record that has tended to support higher legal immigration levels and strong refugee protection. Brownback was cosponsor of a 2005 bill of Ted Kennedy and John McCain's which would have created a legal path to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants already present. On June 26, 2007, Brownback voted in favor of S. 1639, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act. Brownback supports increasing numbers of legal immigrants, building a fence on Mexican border, and the reform bill "if enforced."


title: Sam Brownback

text: While he initially supported giving guest workers a path to citizenship, Brownback eventually voted "Nay" on June 28, 2007. Brownback has said that he supports immigration reform because the Bible says to welcome the stranger.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On April 25, 2016, Brownback issued executive orders barring state agencies from facilitating refugee resettlement from Syria and other majority-Muslim countries, in concert with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). He maintained they presented security risks, and his decision entirely removed Kansas from the program. The ORR served notice that it would instead work directly with local refugee resettlement organizations. Brownback's withdrawal from the federal refugee resettlement made Kansas the first state to do so.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Mark Greenberg of the federal Administration for Children and Families said, "If the state were to cease participating in the refugee resettlement program, it would have no effect on the placement of refugees by the State Department in Kansas, or the ORR-funded benefits they can receive." Although states are legally entitled to withdraw from the program, the initial withdrawal for claimed security reasons is the first in the nation.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Kansas ACLU executive director Micah Kubic said Brownback's policy removed Kansas from the process of protecting those seeking safety jeopardized by their religious beliefs even though such refugees receive thorough screenings: "It's very sad and very unfortunate that the governor is allowing fear to get in the way of hospitality and traditional Kansas values." Earlier in 2016, Brownback directed state agencies to use the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism to exclude refugees whose presence might constitute security risks. Refugees who were fleeing danger in Iran, Sudan and Syria were singled out for exclusion.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Due to Brownback's initiative, Kansas lost about $2.2 million annually that had been provided to support resettlement agencies. The state had been working with three such agencies, among them Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, in making appropriate placements. In the seven months preceding his order, 354 refugees were resettled in Kansas, with 13 Syrians placed in the Wichita or Kansas City areas in the previous 16 months. Representative Jim Ward from Wichita called Brownback's announcement "a distraction", intended solely for political purposes, as Kansas faced a $290 million budget deficit.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback supported a political surge coupled with the military surge of 2007 in Iraq and opposed the Democratic Party's strategy of timed withdrawal:


title: Sam Brownback

text: In May 2007, Brownback stated: "We have not lost war; we can win by pulling together". He voted Yes on authorizing use of military force against Iraq, voted No on requiring on-budget funding for Iraq, not emergency funding and voted No on redeploying troops out of Iraq by July 2007. He has also condemned anti-Muslim bigotry in name of anti-terrorism.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On June 7, 2007, Brownback voted against the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007 when that bill came up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which Brownback sits. (The bill was passed out of the committee by a vote of 11 to 8.) The bill aims to restore habeas corpus rights revoked by the Military Commissions Act of 2006.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In October 2007, Brownback announced his support for a plan designed by Benny Elon, then-chairman of Israel's far-right-wing National Union/National Religious Party (NU/NRP) alliance. Elon's positions included dismantling the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas and rejecting a two-state solution. The plan calls for the complete annexation of the West Bank by Israel, and the deportation of its massive majority Arab population to a new Palestinian state to be created within present-day Jordan, against that latter country's historic opposition.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 1996, as a member of the House of Representatives, Brownback voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage for purposes of federal law as the union between a man and a woman. Brownback has stated that he believes homosexuality to be immoral as a violation of both Catholic doctrine and natural law. He has voted against gay rights, receiving zeros in four of the last five scorecards as a U.S. senator from the Human Rights Campaign. He opposes both same-sex marriage and same-sex civil unions. He opposes adding sexual orientation and gender identity to federal hate crime laws. He has declined to state a position on homosexual adoption, although a candidate for chair of the Kansas Republican Party claims he was blackballed by political operatives affiliated with Brownback for not opposing homosexual adoption. Brownback supported "don't ask, don't tell," the U.S. government's ban on openly homosexual people in the military. Brownback has associated with organizations such as the Family Research Council and American Family Association. Both organizations are listed as anti-gay hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2003, Brownback worked with Alliance for Marriage and Traditional Values Coalition to introduce a Senate bill containing the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would federally prohibit same-sex marriage in the United States. The bill was a response to "Goodridge v. Department of Public Health", the Massachusetts state court decision finding that same-sex couples had the right to marry in Massachusetts. In reaction to the "Goodridge" decision, Brownback stated that same-sex marriage threatened the health of American families and culture.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2006, Brownback blocked the confirmation of federal judicial nominee Janet T. Neff because she had attended a same-sex commitment ceremony. At first, he agreed to lift the block only if Neff would recuse herself from all cases involving same-sex unions. Brownback later dropped his opposition. Neff was nominated to the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan by President George W. Bush on March 19, 2007 to a seat vacated David McKeague and was confirmed by a vote of 83-4 by the Senate on July 9, 2007. She received her commission on August 6, 2007.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In April 2011, Brownback began work on a Kansas government program to promote marriage, in part through grants to faith-based and secular social service organizations. In June 2011, the administration revised contract expectations for social work organizations to promote married mother-father families. It explained the change as benefiting children.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In January 2012, Brownback did not include Kansas's sodomy law in a list of unenforced and outdated laws that the legislature should repeal. Gay rights advocates had asked his administration to recommend its repeal because the law has been unenforceable since the Supreme Court's "Lawrence v. Texas" decision in 2003.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In February 2012, the Brownback administration supported a religious freedom bill that would have stopped cities, school districts, universities, and executive agencies from having nondiscrimination laws or policies that covered sexual orientation or gender identity.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2013, after oral arguments in "United States v. Windsor", the U.S. Supreme Court case striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, Brownback publicly reaffirmed his opposition to same-sex marriage.


title: Sam Brownback

text: In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court denied petitions to review several federal appellate decisions overturning state bans on same-sex marriage. The court's actions favored repeal of Kansas's ban on same-sex marriage because two of the appeals ("Kitchen v. Herbert" and "Bishop v. Oklahoma") originated in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which includes Kansas. In response, Brownback defended Kansas's same-sex marriage ban as being supported by a majority of Kansas voters and criticized "activist judges" for "overruling" the people of Kansas.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On February 10, 2015, Brownback issued an executive order rescinding protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender state workers that was put into place by then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius eight years previously. In the February 11, 2015, edition of "The Daily Show", comedian Jon Stewart suggested that an internet campaign similar to the campaign for the neologism "santorum", which had lampooned former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, could introduce a similarly sex-related neologism "brownbacking" in order to embarrass Brownback. The ACLU generally characterized his actions as being "religious freedom to discriminate."


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback supports adult stem cell research and cord blood stem cells. Brownback appeared with three children adopted from in vitro fertilization clinics to coincide with a Senate debate over the Cord Blood Stem Cell Act of 2005 to show his support for the bill and adult stem cell research. The Religious Freedom Coalition refers to children conceived through the adopted "in vitro" process as "snowflake children." The term, as proponents explain, is an extension of the idea that the embryos are "frozen and unique," and in that way are similar to snowflakes. Brownback supports the use of cord blood stem cell research for research and treatment. He opposes the use of embryonic stem cells in research or treatments for human health conditions.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On September 27, 2006, Brownback introduced a bill called the Truth in Video Game Rating Act (S.3935), which would regulate the rating system of computer and video games.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On June 15, 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005 sponsored by Brownback, a former broadcaster himself. The new law stiffens the penalties for each violation of the Act. The Federal Communications Commission will be able to impose fines in the amount of $325,000 for each violation by each station that violates decency standards. The legislation raises the fine by tenfold.


title: Sam Brownback

text: On September 3, 1997, Meredith O'Rourke, an employee of Kansas firm Triad Management Services, was deposed by the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs regarding her activities and observations while providing services for the company relative to fund raising and advertising for Brownback. The deposition claims that Triad circumvented existing campaign finance laws by channeling donations through Triad, and also bypassed the campaign law with Triad running 'issue ads' during Brownback's first campaign for the Senate.


title: Sam Brownback

text: He has said he does not believe there is an inherent right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution. He has, however, expressed disapproval of George W. Bush's assertions on the legality of the NSA wiretapping program.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback voted to maintain current gun laws: guns sold without trigger locks. He opposes gun control.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback is a lead sponsor of the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 and frequently speaks out against the mail-order bride industry.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback introduced into the Senate a resolution (Senate Joint Resolution 4) calling for the United States to apologize for past mistreatment of Native Americans.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback's voting record on civil rights was rated 20 percent by the ACLU. He voted "yes" on ending special funding for minority and women-owned business and "yes" on recommending a Constitutional ban on flag desecration. He opposes quotas in admission to institutions of higher education. He voted "yes" on increasing penalties for drug offenses and voted "yes" on more penalties for gun and drug violations.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback voted against banning chemical weapons. He voted "yes" on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act and voted "yes" on extending the PATRIOT Act's wiretap provision. In May 2007, Brownback stated that "Iran is the lead sponsor of terrorism around the world." He supports talks and peaceful measures with Iran, but no formal diplomatic relations.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Throughout his Senate career, Brownback's principal campaign donors were the politically influential libertarian Koch brothers of Kansas, and their enterprises, including Kansas-based Koch Industries—and Brownback was one of the candidates most-heavily funded by the Kochs' campaign donations. Over the course of his political career, they donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaigns.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback's signature tax and regulatory policies coincides tightly with the Kochs' position on those issues. It was crafted with the assistance of the Koch-backed American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and Brownback's first Budget Director, Steve Anderson. Anderson was a former Koch employee who previously worked at the Koch's principal political organization, the libertarian think-tank Americans for Prosperity (AFP), developing a "model budget" for Kansas, until his appointment as Brownback's first budget director. Anderson remained Brownback's budget director for three years, before returning to a Koch-linked think tank, the Kansas Policy Institute.


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback, however, has denied that the Kochs have an undue influence in Kansas government, and analysts have noted key differences between Brownback and the Kochs in two of Brownback's main gubernatorial policy areas:


title: Sam Brownback

text: Brownback is married to the former Mary Stauffer, whose family owned and operated Stauffer Communications until its sale in 1995. They have five children: Abby, Andy, Elizabeth, Mark, and Jenna. Two of their children are adopted. A former evangelical Christian, Brownback converted to Catholicism in 2002 and is associated with the conservative denominational organization, Opus Dei, but still sometimes attends an evangelical church with his family.


title: Kurgan

text: A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into much of Central Asia and Eastern, Southeast, Western and Northern Europe during the 3rd millennium BC.


title: Kurgan

text: The earliest kurgans date to the 4th millennium BC in the Caucasus, and a part of researchers associate these with the Indo-Europeans. Kurgans were built in the Eneolithic, Bronze, Iron, Antiquity and Middle Ages, with ancient traditions still active in Southern Siberia and Central Asia.


title: Kurgan

text: According to the Etymological dictionary of the Ukrainian language the word "kurhan" is borrowed directly from the "Polovtsian" language (Kipchak, part of the Turkic languages) and means: fortress, embankment, high grave. The word has two possible etymologies, either from the Old Turkic root "qori-" "to close, to block, to guard, to protect", or "qur-" "to build, to erect, furnish or stur". According to Vasily Radlov it may be a cognate to "qorγan", meaning "fortification, fortress or a castle".


title: Kurgan

text: The Russian noun, already attested in Old East Slavic, comes from an unidentified Turkic language. Kurgans are mounds of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Popularised by its use in Soviet archaeology, the word is now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology.


title: Kurgan

text: Some spectre graves could have been covered with a tumulus, placing the first kurgans as early as the 5th millennium BC in eastern Europe. However, this hypothesis is not unanimous.


title: Kurgan

text: Kurgans were used in Ukrainian and Russian steppes, their use spreading with migration into southern, central, and northern Europe in the 3rd millennium BC.


title: Kurgan

text: Later, Kurgan barrows became characteristic of Bronze Age peoples, and have been found from Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Altay Mountains, Caucasus, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, and Bulgaria (Thracians).


title: Kurgan

text: The Kurgan hypothesis is that Proto-Indo-Europeans were the bearers of the Kurgan culture of the Black Sea and the Caucasus and west of the Urals. Introduced by Marija Gimbutas in 1956, it combines kurgan archaeology with linguistics to locate the origins of the peoples who spoke the Proto-Indo-European language. She tentatively named the culture "Kurgan" after its distinctive burial mounds and traced its diffusion into Europe. The hypothesis has had a significant impact on Indo-European studies.


title: Kurgan

text: Scholars who follow Gimbutas identify a "Kurgan culture" as reflecting an early Proto-Indo-European ethnicity that existed in the steppes and in southeastern Europe from the 5th millennium to the 3rd millennium BC. In Kurgan cultures, most burials were in kurgans, either clan or individual. Most prominent leaders were buried in individual kurgans, now called "royal kurgans". More elaborate than clan kurgans and containing grave goods, royal kurgans have attracted the most attention and publicity.


title: Kurgan

text: The monuments of these cultures coincide with Scythian-Saka-Siberian monuments. Scythian-Saka-Siberian monuments have common features, and sometimes common genetic roots. Also associated with these spectacular burial mounds are the Pazyryk, an ancient people who lived in the Altai Mountains lying in Siberian Russia on the Ukok Plateau, near the borders with China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The archaeological site on the Ukok Plateau associated with the Pazyryk culture is included in the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site.


title: Kurgan

text: Scythian-Saka-Siberian classification includes monuments from the 8th to the 3rd century BC. This period is called the Early or Ancient Nomads epoch. "Hunnic" monuments date from the 3rd century BC to the 6th century AD, and Turkic ones from the 6th century AD to the 13th century AD, leading up to the Mongolian epoch.


title: Kurgan

text: The tradition of kurgan burials was adopted by some neighboring peoples who did not have such a tradition. Various Thracian kings and chieftains were buried in elaborate mound tombs found in modern Bulgaria; Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, was buried in a kurgan in present Greece; and Midas, a king of ancient Phrygia, was buried in a kurgan near his ancient capital of Gordion.


title: Kurgan

text: Burial mounds are complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, elite individuals were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots. The structures of the earlier Neolithic period from the 4th to the 3rd millenniums BC, and Bronze Age until the 1st millennium BC, display continuity of the archaic forming methods. They were inspired by common ritual-mythological ideas.


title: Kurgan

text: In all periods, the development of the kurgan structure tradition in the various ethnocultural zones is revealed by common components or typical features in the construction of the monuments. They include:


title: Kurgan

text: Depending on the combination of these elements, each historical and cultural nomadic zone has certain architectural distinctions.


title: Kurgan

text: In the Bronze Age, kurgans were built with stone reinforcements. Some of them are believed to be Scythian burials with built-up soil, and embankments reinforced with stone (Olhovsky, 1991).


title: Kurgan

text: Pre-Scythian-Saka-Sibirian kurgans were surface kurgans. Wooden or stone tombs were constructed on the surface or underground and then covered with a kurgan. The kurgans of Bronze culture across Europe and Asia were similar to housing; the methods of house construction were applied to the construction of the tombs. Kurgan "Ak-su - Aüly" (12th–11th centuries BC) with a tomb covered by a pyramidal timber roof under a kurgan has space surrounded by double walls serving as a bypass corridor. This design has analogies with Begazy, Sanguyr, Begasar, and Dandybay kurgans. These building traditions survived into the early Middle Ages, to the 8th–10th centuries AD.


title: Kurgan

text: The Bronze Pre-Scythian-Saka-Sibirian culture developed in close similarity with the cultures of Yenisei, Altai, Kazakhstan, southern, and southeast Amur regions.


title: Kurgan

text: Some kurgans had facing or tiling. One tomb in Ukraine has 29 large limestone slabs set on end in a circle underground. They were decorated with carved geometrical ornamentation of rhombuses, triangles, crosses, and on one slab, figures of people. Another example has an earthen kurgan under a wooden cone of thick logs topped by an ornamented cornice up to 2 m in height.


title: Kurgan

text: The Scythian-Saka-Sibirian kurgans in the Early Iron Age have grandiose mounds throughout the Eurasia] continent.


title: Kurgan

text: Females were buried in about 20% of graves of the lower and middle Volga river region during the Yamna and Poltavka cultures. Two thousand years later, females dressed as warriors were buried in the same region. David Anthony notes, "About 20% of Scythian – Sarmatian "warrior graves" on the lower Don and lower Volga contained females dressed for battle as if they were men, a phenomenon that probably inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons."


title: Kurgan

text: A near-equal ratio of male-to-female graves was found in the eastern Manych steppes and Kuban–Azov steppes during the Yamna culture. In Ukraine, the ratio was intermediate between the other two regions.


title: Kurgan

text: The most obvious archeological remains associated with the Scythians are the great burial mounds, some over 20 m high, which dot the Ukrainian and Russian steppe belts and extend in great chains for many kilometers along ridges and watersheds. From them much has been learnt about Scythian life and art.


title: Kurgan

text: Kurgan building has a long history in Poland. The Polish word for kurgan is "kopiec" or "kurhan". Some excavated kurgans in Poland:


title: Domestic duck

text: The domestic duck or domestic mallard (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) is a subspecies of mallard that has been domesticated by humans and raised for meat, eggs, and down feathers. A few are also kept for show, as pets, or for their ornamental value. Almost all varieties of domesticated ducks, apart from the domestic Muscovy duck ("Cairina moschata"), are descended from the mallard.


title: Domestic duck

text: Whole-genome sequencing indicate that domestic ducks originate from a single domestication event of mallards during the Neolithic, followed by rapid selection for lineages favoring meat or egg production. They were likely domesticated in Southeast Asia (most likely Southern China) by the rice paddy-farming ancestors of modern Southeast Asians. The date of domestication is unknown due to the scarcity of archaeological records. They spread outwards from the region, first being mentioned in Han Chinese written records in central China by around 500 BC. Duck farming for both meat and eggs is a widespread and ancient industry in Southeast Asia.


title: Domestic duck

text: Wild ducks were hunted extensively in Ancient Egypt and other parts of the world in ancient times. But they were not domesticated. Ducks are also mentioned to be present in Ancient Rome since at least the 2nd century BC. But based on descriptions (most notably by Columella), ducks in Roman agriculture were only tamed, not domesticated. Duck breeding did not exist in the Roman period, requiring the harvesting of eggs from wild ducks to start duck farms.


title: Domestic duck

text: Almost all varieties of domestic duck except the muscovy have been derived from the mallard. Domestication has greatly altered their characteristics. Domestic ducks are mostly promiscuous, where wild mallards are monogamous. Domestic ducks have lost the mallard's territorial behaviour, and are less aggressive than mallards. Despite these differences, domestic ducks frequently mate with wild mallards, producing fully fertile hybrid offspring.


title: Domestic duck

text: Ducks have been farmed for thousands of years. Approximately 3 billion ducks are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. In the Western world, they are not as popular as the chicken, because chickens have much more white lean meat and are easier to keep confined, making the total price much lower for chicken meat, whereas duck is comparatively expensive. While popular in "haute cuisine", duck appears less frequently in the mass-market food industry and restaurants in the lower price range. However, ducks are more popular in China, and there they are raised extensively.


title: Domestic duck

text: Ducks are farmed for their meat, eggs, and down. A minority of ducks are also kept for "foie gras" production. The blood of ducks slaughtered for meat is also collected in some regions and is used as an ingredient in many cultures' dishes. Their eggs are blue-green to white, depending on the breed.


title: Domestic duck

text: Ducks can be kept free range, in cages, in barns, or in batteries. Ducks enjoy access to swimming water, but do not require it to survive. They should be fed a grain and insect diet. It is a popular misconception that ducks should be fed bread; bread has limited nutritional value and can be deadly when fed to developing ducklings. Ducks should be monitored for avian influenza, as they are especially prone to infection with the dangerous H5N1 strain.


title: Domestic duck

text: The females of many breeds of domestic ducks are unreliable at sitting their eggs and raising their young. Exceptions include the Rouen duck and especially the Muscovy duck. It has been a custom on farms for centuries to put duck eggs under broody hens for hatching; nowadays this role is often played by an incubator. However, young ducklings rely on their mothers for a supply of preen oil to make them waterproof; a chicken hen does not make as much preen oil as a female duck, and an incubator makes none. Once the duckling grows its own feathers, it produces preen oil from the sebaceous gland near the base of its tail.


title: Domestic duck

text: Ducks are also kept for their ornamental value. Breeds have been developed with crests and tufts or striking plumage, for exhibition in competitions.


title: Domestic duck

text: The domestic duck has appeared numerous times in children's stories. Beatrix Potter's "The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck" was published by Frederick Warne & Co in 1908. One of Potter's best-known books, the tale was included in the Royal Ballet's "The Tales of Beatrix Potter." It is the story of how Jemima, a domestic duck, is saved from a cunning fox who plans to kill her, when she tries to find a safe place for her eggs to hatch.


title: Domestic duck

text: "Make Way for Ducklings" is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey. First published in 1941, the book tells the story of a pair of mallards who decide to raise their family on an island in the lagoon in Boston Public Garden, a park in the center of Boston. "Make Way for Ducklings" won the 1942 Caldecott Medal for McCloskey's illustrations.


title: Domestic duck

text: The Disney cartoon character Donald Duck, one of the world's most recognizable pop culture icons, is a domestic duck of the American Pekin breed.


title: Domestic duck

text: The domestic duck features in the musical composition "Peter and the Wolf", written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The orchestra illustrates the children's story while the narrator tells it. In this, a domestic duck and a little bird argue on each other's flight capabilities. The duck is represented by the oboe. The story ends with the wolf eating the duck alive, its quack heard from inside the wolf's belly.


title: Domestic duck

text: Domestic ducks are frequently depicted in wall paintings and grave objects from ancient Egypt. They are featured in a range of ancient artefacts, which revealed that they were a fertility symbol.


title: Domestic duck

text: Since ancient times, the duck has been eaten as food. Usually only the breast and thigh meat is eaten. It does not need to be hung before preparation, and is often braised or roasted, sometimes flavoured with bitter orange or with port. Peking duck is a dish of roast duck from Beijing, China, that has been prepared since medieval times. It is today traditionally served with spring pancakes, spring onions and sweet bean sauce.


title: Alex Hales

text: Alexander Daniel Hales (born 3 January 1989) is an English cricketer. He is a right-handed opening batter who currently plays for Nottinghamshire and the England cricket team in white ball, limited overs formats. He made his One Day International debut against India in August 2014 and his Test cricket debut against South Africa in December 2015. Hales is the first English batter to score a T20I century. He is also the first batter to be dismissed for 99 in an ODI and a T20I.


title: Alex Hales

text: Hales was born in Hillingdon and attended both Westbrook Hay School and Chesham High School (now Chesham Grammar School) in Buckinghamshire.


title: Alex Hales

text: His father Gary broke several local batting records (including 321 not out for Gerrards Cross versus Chalfont St Peter in a limited overs league match) while his grandfather Dennis was a talented tennis player who once forced Rod Laver to five sets at Wimbledon.