title: Sruthi Hariharan

text: A few months after the MeToo fallout, Hariharan told "The News Minute" that while she used to get plenty of offers before, she hardly gets any now.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: Pinnaduwage Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva (born 29 July 1997), better known as Wanindu Hasaranga, is a Sri Lankan international cricketer who plays for the Sri Lanka cricket team in white ball cricket as a bowling All rounder. He is a Right-arm leg spinner. Hasaranga made his international debut for Sri Lanka in July 2017. His elder brother, Chaturanga de Silva, has also represented the national team.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva was educated at Richmond College, Galle, where he started his cricket career. He represented Sri Lankan under 19 cricket team at the Under-19 Cricket World Cup held in Bangladesh in 2016.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: At the age of 16, he played as a frontline seam bowler and even opened the bowling for Richmonds College cricket team. However, he switched to bowling leg-spin after witnessing a demonstration by his coach Lanka de Silva who taught him on how to bowl leg spin. He soon followed the footsteps of his coach and transformed into a leg-spinner. It was the coach who identified the potential on him to convert him into a leg-spinner after realizing Hasaranga’s great arm speed. He also underwent a pace-to-spin bowling transformation workshop and also took part in an age group 50 over local tournament at the age of 17 where he bagged a tally of 28 wickets in just 6 matches.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: Hasaranga made his List A debut on 30 November 2015 in the AIA Premier Limited Over Tournament. In December 2015, he was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the 2016 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He took seven wickets in the 2016 U19 World Cup which also included a match winning bowling performance of 3/34 against England in the quarter-final of the tournament to help Sri Lanka reach semi-final stage.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: He made his first-class debut for Sri Lanka Ports Authority Cricket Club in the 2015–16 Premier League Tournament, on 26 February 2016.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: In November 2017, Hasaranga was named the most promising player in domestic cricket for the 2016–17 season at Sri Lanka Cricket's annual awards. He gained limelight for his all-round efforts scoring 586 runs including a century averaging just under 40 with a strike rate of 93 and taking 15 wickets including a five-wicket haul in the 2016-17 domestic FC season.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: He made his Twenty20 debut for Sylhet Sixers on 11 November 2017 in the 2017–18 Bangladesh Premier League.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: In March 2018, Hasaranga was named in Colombo's squad for the 2017–18 Super Four Provincial Tournament. The following month, he was also named in Colombo's squad for the 2018 Super Provincial One Day Tournament. In August 2018, he was named in Dambulla's squad the 2018 SLC T20 League.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: Hasaranga was the leading run-scorer for Colombo Cricket Club in the 2018–19 Premier League Tournament, with 765 runs in nine matches. In March 2019, he was named in Galle's squad for the 2019 Super Provincial One Day Tournament. In October 2020, he was drafted by the Jaffna Stallions for the inaugural edition of the Lanka Premier League. He was named the player of the tournament, after taking seventeen wickets.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: In August 2021, Hasaranga was included in the Royal Challengers Bangalore squad for the second phase of the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) in the UAE. He made his IPL debut on 20 September 2021 against Kolkata Knight Riders. In November 2021, he was selected to play for the Jaffna Kings following the players' draft for the 2021 Lanka Premier League.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: In the 2022 IPL Auction, Hasaranga was bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore. In April 2022, he was bought by the Manchester Originals for the 2022 season of The Hundred in England. In July 2022, he was signed by the Kandy Falcons for the third edition of the Lanka Premier League.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: Hasaranga was named to Sri Lanka's One Day International (ODI) squad for their series against Zimbabwe. He made his ODI debut for Sri Lanka against Zimbabwe on 2 July 2017. In his debut match, he took the final three Zimbabwe wickets in the innings in three consecutive deliveries, becoming the youngest bowler to take a hat-trick on debut in an ODI. He was also the third debutant in ODI history to claim a hat-trick after Bangladeshi Taijul Islam and South African Kagiso Rabada. He also became the first leg-spinner to take a hat-trick in ODI history.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: In May 2018, Hasaranga was one of 33 cricketers to be awarded a national contract by Sri Lanka Cricket ahead of the 2018–19 season. In August 2019, he was named in Sri Lanka's Twenty20 International (T20I) squad for their series against New Zealand. He made his T20I debut for Sri Lanka, against New Zealand, on 1 September 2019.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: In September 2019, Hasaranga was included as the only specialist spinner for the Pakistan series in Pakistan, where many major players withdrew from the team due to security concerns. During the T20I series, he took eight wickets, where Sri Lanka dominated against Pakistan. Sri Lanka won all three matches and whitewashed Pakistan for the first time. It was Sri Lanka's first ever series win against Pakistan in a T20I bilateral series. Sri Lanka went on to win the final T20I match by 13 runs, winning the series 3–0. It was the first time in a three-match T20I series that Sri Lanka had won 3–0, and the first time that Pakistan had been whitewashed. Due to his match winning all round performances, Hasaranga was adjudged as man of the match in the third T20I as well as was adjudged player of the series.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: During the ODI series against West Indies in March 2020, Hasaranga showed his all round talent where he took crucial wickets at the right time and scored match winning knocks. In the first ODI, he scored match winning unbeaten 42 runs to seal the game for Sri Lanka by 1 wicket. He also won the man off the match award. In second and third ODI, he delivered the most economical spells for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka won the series 3-0 with Hasaranga winning player of the series award.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: In December 2020, Hasaranga was named in Sri Lanka's Test squad for their series against South Africa. He made his Test debut for Sri Lanka, against South Africa, on 26 December 2020. He took four wickets in the match for 171 runs. In the second innings, Hasaranga scored his maiden Test fifty.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: On 14 March 2021, in the third ODI against the West Indies, Hasaranga scored his maiden ODI half century. He along with Ashen Bandara put on an unbeaten 123 run seventh wicket stand in the match. He also registered the highest individual score for Sri Lanka batting at number 8 or lower with scoring unbeaten 80 off just 60 deliveries breaking the previous record held by Nuwan Kulasekara.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: After many economical bowling spells in the T20I series against England and India, Hasaranga achieved second rank in the ICC T20I rankings in July 2021. In July 2021, during the series against India, Hasaranga took four wickets in the third T20I match. He also broke the record of Imran Tahir for registering the best ever bowling spell in a T20I match on birthday with an economic spell of 4/9 in four overs. He won the player of the match award and was also named the player of the series.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: In September 2021, Hasaranga was named in Sri Lanka's squad for the 2021 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. On 30 October 2021, in Sri Lanka's match against South Africa, Hasaranga became the first bowler for Sri Lanka to take a hat-trick in a T20 World Cup match. On 1 November 2021, in the match against England, Hasaranga took his 50th wicket in T20I cricket. He ended the 2021 ICC World Twenty20 as the leading wicket taker of the tournament and broke the record of Ajantha Mendis for having taken the most wickets in a single edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup after finishing the 2021 edition with 16 wickets. Out of the 16 scalps, 10 of them came in the Super 12 stage of the tournament.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: In November 2021, he achieved his career best ranking in ICC T20I bowling rankings when he topped the rankings for the first time in his career. He became only the second Sri Lankan after Ajantha Mendis to become no 1 bowler in ICC T20I rankings. In the same month, he also reached career best third rank in ICC T20I rankings for all-rounders. He also equalled with South Africa's Tabraiz Shamsi for taking most number of wickets in T20Is in a single calendar year. Both of them took the same tally of 36 dismissals in 2021 to end up as joint-leading wicket-takers across all T20I matches in 2021.


title: Wanindu Hasaranga

text: In the annual ICC Awards in January 2022, Wanindu Hasaranga was included in the ICC Men's ODI Team of the Year, and the ICC Men's T20I Team of the Year. During the 2022 Asia Cup, Hasaranga made match-winning all-round performances against Bangladesh and Pakistan. Against Pakistan in the Super 4 match, Hasaranga took 3 wickets for 21 runs and Pakistan finally bowled out for 121 runs. Sri Lanka won the match by 5 wickets and Hasaranga won the man of the match award as well. In the final against Pakistan, Sri Lanka batted first and restricted to 58/5 in 8.5 overs. However, along with Bhanuka Rajapaksa, he made a match-winning partnership of 58-runs, where Sri Lanka posted 170 runs. Sri Lanka eventually won the match and became sixth time Asia Cup champions. Hasaranga was adjudged player of the tournament for his all-round performances. Due to his performances with 36 runs and 3/27, Hasaranga became only the second player after West Indian Carlos Brathwaite, to score 30-plus runs and three-plus wickets in a men's T20I knockout between two Full-Member nations.


title: Sticky Vicky

text: Victoria María Aragüés Gadea (born 15 April 1943), also known as Vicky Leyton and professionally as Sticky Vicky, is a retired dancer and illusionist known for her vaginal magic show. Vicky's last performance was in autumn 2015.


title: Sticky Vicky

text: Born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 15 April 1943, Leyton moved to Barcelona with her mother when her father left the family. She studied classical ballet for 15 years, later working as a dancer. With her sister, a contortionist, she performed in a musical dance show. A businessman gave her the stage name of Vicky Leyton, by which she was known for the rest of her life. Leyton later managed El Molino, a theatre on the Avinguda del Paral·lel in Barcelona.


title: Sticky Vicky

text: After the death of Francisco Franco and the easing of sexual censorship, Leyton experienced difficulties; the public wanted more sexually-explicit shows, and employers began to hire foreigners willing to perform nude. A magician suggested that she perform a magic act by removing unusual objects from her vagina. After practising with simple objects (such as handkerchiefs), Vicky premiered her show in Barcelona cabarets. The show was successful, and she performed in northern Spanish cities in Spain and many variety theatres abroad.


title: Sticky Vicky

text: At the beginning of the 1980s, following her sister's advice, Leyton moved to Benidorm on the Mediterranean coast. Although she intended to take a break after her career declined, her sister convinced her to perform at a hotel. Leyton's show was successful and she decided to stay in Benidorm, partially due to its influx of tourists.


title: Sticky Vicky

text: Sticky Vicky's show began with her undressing slowly to background music. She later pulled several objects from her vagina, including ping-pong balls, eggs, handkerchiefs, sausages, razor blades, and Machetes. The lights dimmed, and Vicky pulled out a lit lightbulb. She concluded her act by opening a bottle of beer with her vagina, pouring it on the stage. Leyton did not characterise herself or the show as pornographic: "To do what I do you must have a lot of delicacy. It is necessary to give it a touch of elegance".


title: Sticky Vicky

text: In 2001, Vicky sued a fellow performer, María Rosa Pereira (known as "Sexy Bárbara") for using the stage name Sticky Vicky. María Rosa, who performed a similar show, had registered the name that Vicky had used for many years. Although Vicky won in the Benidorm court, the ruling was overturned on appeal by the Audiencia Provincial of Alicante, which, however, ruled that the name could eventually be protected as a choreographic work.


title: Sticky Vicky

text: According to a 2007 review in Spanish national newspaper, El Pais, her act has been seen by more than six million tourists and many other people.


title: Sticky Vicky

text: In 2009, the Audiencia Provincial of Valencia determined that María Rosa had acted in bad faith and generated confusion by registering the name, and awarded Vicky the legal trademark for her stage name.


title: Sticky Vicky

text: Vicky performed her last show in autumn 2015, several days before a hip operation. In February 2016 she was diagnosed with uterine cancer, and announced her retirement at age 72. Never married, she had one son (Eduardo Romero Aragüés) and one daughter (María Gadea Aragüés). María, who saw the show for the first time at age 13, later decided to follow in her mother's footsteps.


title: Sticky Vicky

text: Due to her age and the tenure of her show, Vicky has been regarded as a living Benidorm legend, particularly by British tourists and Icelandic students. Leyton, surprised by her success, wrote on her webpage: "I never thought I could be on a stage at my age, and it is all thanks to the English public".


title: Sticky Vicky

text: She was a supporting character in the first and sixth episodes of the third season of the British TV sitcom "Benidorm". Vicky was brought in as a guest of honour to open up Mel's Mobility Shop in the first episode of season three and during the show's sixth season, one of the characters, Jacqueline (played by Janine Duvitski), has to pass as Sticky Vicky (who is on holiday). In "Jack The Lad", Irish poet Robert Fallon described Vicky's show.


title: Sticky Vicky

text: In July 2022, Vicky was hospitalized following a fall that injured both of her knees. Her hospitalization lasted 5 days, during which she underwent surgery. She had to return to the hospital a few days after being discharged due to an infection in one of her surgery sites.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: Mazār-i-Sharīf (Persian/ ; ), also called Mazār-e Sharīf, or just Mazār, is the fourth-largest city of Afghanistan, with a population estimate of 1,000,000 people. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highways with Kunduz in the east, Kabul in the southeast, Herat in the southwest and Termez, Uzbekistan in the north. It is about from the Uzbek border. The city is also a tourist attraction because of its famous shrines as well as the Islamic and Hellenistic archeological sites. The ancient city of Balkh is also nearby.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: The region around Mazar-i-Sharif has been historically part of Greater Khorasan and was controlled by the Tahirids followed by the Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Ilkhanates, Timurids, and Khanate of Bukhara until 1751 when it became part of the Durrani Empire (although under autonomous emirs). Eventually the city passed to a few local rulers before becoming part of Afghanistan in 1849.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: Mazar-i-Sharif is the regional hub of northern Afghanistan, located in close proximity to both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It is also home to an international airport. It has the highest percentage of built-up land (91%) of all the Afghan provincial capitals, and it has additional built-up area extending beyond the municipal boundary but forming a part of the larger urban area. It is also the lowest-lying major city in the country, about above sea level. The city was spared the devastation that occurred in the country's other large cities during the Soviet–Afghan War and subsequent civil war, and was long regarded as one of the safest cities in the country.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: On 14 August 2021, Mazar-i-Sharif was seized by Taliban fighters, becoming the twenty-fifth provincial capital to be captured by the Taliban as part of the wider 2021 Taliban offensive.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: The name "Mazar-i-Sharif" means "tomb of the saint", a reference to the tomb of Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib, cousin, son-in-law and companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The tomb is housed in the large, blue-tiled sanctuary and mosque in the center of the city known as the Shrine of Ali or the Blue Mosque.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: The Achaemenids controlled the region from the sixth century BCE. Alexander the Great conquered the area but it was then incorporated into the Seleucid Empire after his death. The decline of the Seleucids consequently led to the emergence of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Around 130 BCE, the Sakas occupied the region and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom fell. The Yuezhi took Mazar-i-Sharif and the surrounding area which led to the creation of the Kushan Empire. The Sasanians subsequently controlled the area after the fall of the Kushans. The Islamic conquests reached Mazar-i-Sharif in 651 CE.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: The region around Mazar-i-Sharif has been historically part of Greater Khorasan and was controlled by the Tahirids followed by the Saffarids, Samanids, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, Ilkhanates, Timurids, and Khanate of Bukhara. According to tradition, the city of Mazar-i-Sharif owes its existence to a dream. At the beginning of the 12th century, a local mullah had a dream in which Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib appeared to reveal that he had been secretly buried near the city of Balkh.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: The famous Jalal al-Din Rumi was born in this area but like many historical figures his exact location of birth cannot be confirmed. His father Baha' Walad was descended from the first caliph Abu Bakr and was influenced by the ideas of Ahmad Ghazali, brother of the famous philosopher. Baha' Walad's sermons were published and still exist as Divine Sciences (Ma'arif). Rumi completed six books of mystical poetry and tales called Masnavi before he died in 1273.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: After conducting researches in the 12th century, the Seljuk sultan Ahmed Sanjar ordered a city and shrine to be built on the location, where it stood until its destruction by Genghis Khan and his Mongol army in the 13th century. Although later rebuilt, Mazar stood in the shadow of its neighbor Balkh. During the nineteenth century, due to the absence of drainage systems and the weak economy of the region, the excess water of this area flooded many acres of the land in the vicinity of residential areas causing a malaria epidemic in the region. Thus the ruler of North Central Afghanistan decided to shift the capital of the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: The city along with the region south of the Amu Darya became part of the Durrani Empire in around 1751 (although for the most part the region was controlled by autonomous Uzbek rulers). In the aftermath of the Bukharan-Durrani war of 1788–1790, one Qilich Ali Beg of Khulm formed a mini-empire stretching from Balkh to Aybak, Saighan, Kahmard, Darra-i Suf, and Qunduz. When he died in 1817, the Balkh and Mazar-i Sharif region became an independent city state with Aqcha as its dependency. In November 1837 the Bukharans conquered the city but Balkh was still able to retain autonomy. In 1849 the city was conquered and annexed into Afghanistan.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: During the 1980s Soviet–Afghan War, Mazar-i-Sharif was a strategic base for the Soviet Army as they used its airport to launch air strikes on mujahideen rebels. Mazar-i-Sharif was also the main city that linked to Soviet territory in the north, especially the roads leading to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. As a garrison for the Soviet-backed Afghan Army, the city was under the command of General Abdul Rashid Dostum. Mujahideen militias Hezbe Wahdat and Jamiat-e Islami both attempted to contest the city but were repelled by the Army.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: Dostum mutinied against Mohammad Najibullah's government on March 19, 1992, shortly before its collapse, and formed his new party and militia, Junbish-e Milli. The party took over the city the next day. Afterwards Mazar-i-Sharif became the "de facto" capital of a relatively stable and secular proto-state in northern Afghanistan under the rule of Dostum. The city remained peaceful and prosperous, whilst rest of the nation disintegrated and was slowly taken over by fundamentalist Taliban forces. The city was called at the time a "glittering jewel in Afghanistan's battered crown". Money rolled in from foreign donors Russia, Turkey, newly independent Uzbekistan and others, with whom Dostum had established close relations. He printed his own currency for the region and established his own airline. The city remained relatively liberal as Kabul previously was, where activities such as coeducational schools and betting was legal as opposed to the Taliban dominated regions in the south of the country.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: This peace was shattered in May 1997 when he was betrayed by one of his generals, warlord Abdul Malik Pahlawan who allied himself with the Taliban, forcing him to flee from Mazar-i-Sharif as the Taliban were getting ready to take the city through Pahlawan. Afterwards Pahlawan himself mutinied the Taliban on the deal and it was reported that between May and July 1997 that Pahlawan executed thousands of Taliban members, that he personally did many of the killings by slaughtering the prisoners as a revenge for the 1995 death of Abdul Ali Mazari. "He is widely believed to have been responsible for the brutal massacre of up to 3,000 Taliban prisoners after inviting them into Mazar-i-Sharif." Several of the Taliban escaped the slaughtering and reported what had happened. Meanwhile, Dostum came back and took the city again from Pahlawan.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: However the Taliban retaliated in 1998 attacking the city and killing an estimated 8,000 non-combatants. At 10 am on 8 August 1998, the Taliban entered the city and for the next two days drove their pickup trucks "up and down the narrow streets of Mazar-i-Sharif shooting to the left and right and killing everything that moved—shop owners, cart pullers, women and children shoppers and even goats and donkeys." More than 8000 noncombatants were reported killed in Mazar-i-Sharif and later in Bamiyan. In addition, the Taliban were criticized for forbidding anyone from burying the corpses for the first six days (contrary to the injunctions of Islam, which demands immediate burial) while the remains rotted in the summer heat and were eaten by dogs. The Taliban also reportedly sought out and massacred members of the Hazara, while in control of Mazar.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, Mazar-i-Sharif was the first Afghan city to fall to the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance (United Front). The Taliban's defeat in Mazar quickly turned into a rout from the rest of the north and west of Afghanistan. After the Battle of Mazar-i-Sharif in November 2001, the city was officially captured by forces of the Northern Alliance. They were joined by the United States Special Operations Forces and supported by U.S. Air Force aircraft. As many as 3,000 Taliban fighters who surrendered were reportedly massacred by the Northern Alliance after the battle, and reports also place U.S. ground troops at the scene of the massacre. The Irish documentary "" investigated these allegations. Filmmaker Doran claims that mass graves of thousands of victims were found by United Nations investigators. The Bush administration reportedly blocked investigations into the incident.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: The city slowly came under the control of the Karzai administration after 2002, which is led by President Hamid Karzai. The 209th Corps (Shaheen) of the Afghan National Army is based at Mazar-i-Sharif, which provides military assistance to northern Afghanistan. The Afghan Border Police headquarters for the Northern Zone is also located in the city. Despite the security put in place, there are reports of Taliban activities and assassinations of tribal elders. Officials in Mazar-i-Sharif reported that between 20 and 30 Afghan tribal elders have been assassinated in Balkh Province in the last several years. There is no conclusive evidence as to who is behind it but majority of the victims are said to have been associated with the Hezb-i Islami political party.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: Small-scale clashes between militias belonging to different commanders persisted throughout 2002, and were the focus of intensive UN peace-brokering and small arms disarmament programme. After some pressure, an office of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission opened an office in Mazar in April 2003. There were reports about northern Pashtun civilians being ethnically cleansed by the other groups, mainly by ethnic Tajiks, Hazaras and Uzbeks.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: NATO-led peacekeeping forces in and around the city provided assistance to the Afghan government. ISAF Regional Command North, led by Germany, is stationed at Camp Marmal which lies next to Mazar-i-Sharif Airport. Since 2006, Provincial Reconstruction Team Mazar-i-Sharif had unit commanders from Sweden on loan to ISAF. The unit is stationed at Camp Northern Lights which is located west of Camp Marmal. Camp Nidaros, located within Camp Marmal, has soldiers from Latvia and Norway and is led by an ISAF-officer from Norway.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: On April 1, 2011, ten foreign employees working for United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) were killed by angry demonstrators in the city. The demonstration was organized in retaliation to pastors Terry Jones and Wayne Sapp's March 21 Qur'an-burning in Florida, United States. Among the dead were five Nepalis, a Norwegian, Romanian and Swedish nationals, two of them were said to be decapitated. Terry Jones, the American pastor who was going to burn Islam's Holy Book, denied his responsibility for incitement. President Barack Obama strongly condemned both the Quran burning, calling it an act of "extreme intolerance and bigotry", and the "outrageous" attacks by protesters, referring to them as "an affront to human decency and dignity." "No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act." U.S. legislators, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, also condemned both the burning and the violence in reaction to it.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: By July 2011 violence grew to a record high in the insurgency. In late July 2011, NATO troops also handed control of Mazar-i-Sharif to local forces amid rising security fears just days after it was hit by a deadly bombing. Mazar-i-Sharif is the sixth of seven areas to transition to Afghan control, but critics say the timing is political and there is skepticism over Afghan abilities to combat the Taliban insurgency.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: On 10 November 2016, a suicide attacker rammed a truck bomb into the wall of the German consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif. Eight people were killed and more than a hundred others were injured.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: On 21 April 2017, a coordinated Taliban attack killed more than 100 people at Camp Shaheen, the Afghan Army base in Mazar-i-Sharif.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: In November 2018, VOA reported that 40 houses in Qazil Abad, an immediate suburb of Mazar-i-Sharif, used unexploded Soviet Grad surface-to-surface rockets as construction materials. As a result, several people were killed and wounded from explosions over the years. These rockets, left behind by the Soviet Army in 1989 at the end of the Soviet–Afghan War, were used as cheap building materials by the poor residents of the village. It was estimated that over 400 rockets were incorporated into the village as wall and ceiling beams, door-stoppers, and even footbridges used by children. When the rest of the world discovered this fact, the Danish demining group of the Danish Refugee Council visited the village and, after asking the residents, began demining and rebuilding the village, safely removing and disposing of the rockets through controlled detonation at the border with Uzbekistan.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: President Ghani visited the city on 11 August 2021 to rally local warlords to fight the Taliban. On 14 August, the Taliban captured Mazar-i-Sharif along with Sharana and Asadabad, the provincial capitals of Paktika and Kunar provinces respectively. Local government forces and regional leaders Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammad Noor fled to neighboring Uzbekistan.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: On 21 April 2022, Islamic State – Khorasan Province killed 31 people by bombing a Shia mosque. A week later, 11 people were killed in a double bombing.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: Mazar-i-Sharif is also known for the Afghan song "Bia ke berem ba Mazar" ("Come let's go to Mazar") by Sarban.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: Mazar-i-Sharif has a cold steppe climate (Köppen climate classification "BSk") with hot summers and cold winters. Precipitation is low and mostly falls between December and April. The climate in Mazar-i-Sharif is very hot during the summer with daily temperatures of over from June to August. The winters are cold with temperatures falling below freezing; it may snow from November through March.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: The city of Mazar-i-Sharif has a total population of 500,207, and is the third-largest city of Afghanistan in terms of population. It has a total land area of 8,304 Hectares with 77,615 total number of dwellings.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: The November 2003 issue of National Geographic magazine indicated the ethnic composition as Tajiks 60%, Hazaras 10%, Pashtun 10%, Turkmen 10%, and Uzbeks 10%. Occasional ethnic violence has been reported in the region in the last decades, mainly between Pashtuns and the other groups. In 2011 news reports mentioned assassinations taking place in the area but with no evidence as to who is behind them.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: Mazar-i-Sharif serves as the major trading center in northern Afghanistan. The local economy is dominated by trade, agriculture and Karakul sheep farming. Small-scale oil and gas exploitation have also boosted the city's prospects. It is also the location of consulates of India and Pakistan for trading and political links.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: The modern city of Mazar-i Sharif is centred around the Shrine of Ali. Much restored, it is one of Afghanistan's most glorious monuments. Outside Mazar-i Sharif lies the ancient city of Balkh. The city is a centre for the traditional buzkashi sport, and the Blue Mosque is the focus of northern Afghanistan's Nowruz celebration. Although most Muslims believe that the real grave of Ali is found within Imam Ali Mosque in Najaf, Iraq, others still come to Mazar-i-Sharif to pay respect.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: It became the first city in Afghanistan to connect itself by rail with a neighboring country. Rail service from Mazar-i-Sharif to Uzbekistan began in December 2011 and cargo on freight trains arrive at a station near Mazar-i-Sharif Airport, where the goods are reloaded onto trucks or airplanes and sent to their last destinations across Afghanistan.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: As of June 2016 Mazar-i-Sharif Airport had direct air connections to Kabul, Mashad, Tehran, and Istanbul.


title: Mazar-i-Sharif

text: Highway AH76 links Mazar-i-Sharif to Sheberghan in the west, and Pul-e Khomri and Kabul to the south-east. Roads to the east link it to Kunduz. Roads to the north link it to the Uzbek border town Termez, where it becomes highway M39 going north to Samarkand and Tashkent. Roads to the south link it to Bamiyan Province and the mountainous range of central Afghanistan.


title: See-through clothing

text: See-through clothing is any garment of clothing made with lace, mesh or sheer fabric that allows the wearer's body or undergarments to be seen through its fabric. See-through fabrics were fashionable in Europe in the eighteenth century. There was a "sheer fashion trend" starting with designer clothing from 2008. See-through or sheer fabric, particularly in skintone (called "nude") colours, is sometimes called illusion, as in 'illusion bodice' (or sleeve) due to giving the impression of exposed flesh, or a revealing ensemble.


title: See-through clothing

text: Mesh, web, or net fabric may have many connected or woven pieces with many closely spaced holes, frequently used for modern sports jerseys.


title: See-through clothing

text: A sheer fabric is a thin cloth which is semi-transparent. These include chiffon, georgette, and gauze. Some are fine-denier knits used in tights, stockings, bodystockings, dancewear and lingerie. It can also be used in tops, pants, skirts, dresses, and gowns.


title: See-through clothing

text: Latex rubber, which is naturally translucent, or plastics, can be made into clothing material of any level of transparency. Clear plastic is typically only found in over-garments, such as raincoats. The use of translucent latex rubber for clothing can also be found in fetish clothing. Some materials become transparent when wet or when extreme light is shone on it, such as by a flashbulb.


title: See-through clothing

text: During the 1770s and 1780s, there was a fashion for wrap-over dresses which were sometimes worn by actresses in Oriental roles. These were criticised by Horace Walpole among others for resembling dressing gowns too closely, while others objected to their revealingly thin materials, such as silk gauze and muslin. In the 1780s the chemise a la Reine, as worn by Marie Antoinette in a notorious portrait of 1783 by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, became very popular. It was a filmy white muslin dress similar to the undergarment also called a chemise. In 1784 Abigail Adams visited Paris, where she was shocked to observe that fashionable Frenchwomen, including Madame Helvétius, favoured the more revealing and sheer versions of this gown.


title: See-through clothing

text: By the end of the 1790s, Louis-Sébastien Mercier, observing the dress of Frenchwomen, noted that were dressing in a manner he described as "a la sauvage", comprising a semi-sheer muslin gown worn only over a flesh-coloured bodystocking, with the breasts, arms and feet bare. Mercier blamed the public display of nude or lightly-draped statues for encouraging this immodesty.


title: See-through clothing

text: In the very late 18th century and for the first decade of the 19th, neoclassical gowns made of lightweight translucent muslin were fashionable. As the fabric clung to the body, revealing what was beneath, it made nudity "à la grecque," a centrepiece of public spectacle. The concept of transparency in women's dress was often satirised by caricaturists of the day such as Isaac Cruikshank.


title: See-through clothing

text: Throughout the 19th century, women's dresses, particularly for summer or evening wear, often featured transparent fabrics. However, these were almost always lined or worn over opaque undergarments or an underdress so that the wearer's modesty was preserved.


title: See-through clothing

text: A fashionable garment in the early 20th century was the "peekaboo waist", a blouse made from or sheer fabric, which led to complaints that flesh could be seen through the eyelets in the embroidery or through the thin fabric. In 1913 the so-called "x-ray dress", defined as a woman's dress that was considered to be too sheer or revealing, caused similar consternation. In August that year, the chief of police of Los Angeles stated his intention to recommend a law banning women from wearing the "diaphanous" x‑ray dress on the streets. H. Russell Albee, the mayor of Portland, Oregon, ordered the arrest of any woman caught wearing an x‑ray dress on the street, which was defined as a gown cut too low at the neck or split to the knee. The following year in 1914, Jean-Philippe Worth, designer for the renowned Paris couture House of Worth, had a client object to the thickness of the taffeta lining of her dress, which was described as "thinner than a cigarette paper". Worth stated that using an even thinner, sheerer lining fabric would have had the effect of an "x-ray dress".


title: See-through clothing

text: In Australia, an article was published in "The Daily Telegraph" on the 24 November 1913 strongly opposed to "freak dresses" and "peek-a-boo blouses" that had lately become the fashion in "other Capitals". The editorial complains of dresses of "exiguous transparancy and undue scantiness" and "the low-cut blouse that invites pneumonia".


title: See-through clothing

text: See-through and transparent clothing became very fashionable in the latter part of the 1960s. In 1967, Missoni presented a show at the in Florence, where Rosita Missoni noticed the models' bras showed through their knit dresses and requested they remove them. However, under the catwalk lights, the garments became unexpectedly transparent, revealing nude breasts beneath. The see-through look was subsequently presented by Yves Saint Laurent the following year, and in London, Ossie Clark presented sheer chiffon dresses intended to be worn without underwear. The trend led to jewellery designers such as Daniel Stoenescu at Cadoro creating "body jewellery" to be worn with sheer blouses and low-cut dresses. Stoenescu designed metal filigree "breastplates" inspired by a statue of Venus found at Pompeii, which functioned like a brassiere and were designed to be visible through the transparent shirts while preserving the wearer's modesty.


title: See-through clothing

text: Punk rock artist Patti Smith wears a see-through slip inside-out on the cover of her 1978 album "Easter".


title: See-through clothing

text: A see-through dress worn by Kate Middleton, princess of Wales, to a charity fashion show in 2002 was sold at auction on 17 March 2011 for $127,500.


title: See-through clothing

text: See-through materials of various kinds continue to be available for a wide range of clothing styles. See-through fabrics have been featured heavily on high-fashion runways since 2006. This use of see-through fabrics as a common element in designer clothing resulted in the "sheer fashion trend" that has been predominant in fashion circles since 2008.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: Richard Walter John Montagu Douglas Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch and 12th Duke of Queensberry, (born 14 February 1954), styled as Lord Eskdaill until 1973 and as Earl of Dalkeith from 1973 until 2007, is a Scottish landholder and peer. He is the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, as well as Chief of Clan Scott. He is the heir male of James, Duke of Monmouth (9 April 1649 – 15 July 1685), the eldest illegitimate son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter, and more remotely in a direct male line from Alan of Dol, who came to Britain in 1066 with William the Conqueror.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: Scott was once Scotland's largest private landowner, owning of Scottish land, but was surpassed by Anders Holch Povlsen who currently holds in the country.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: Scott was born in 1954, the son of John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch, and his wife, Jane Scott, Duchess of Buccleuch, a daughter of John McNeill, QC. He was baptised with Princess Margaret as one of his godparents.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: He was educated at St. Mary's School, Melrose, and Eton College, and was Page of Honour to Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother from 1967 to 1969. In 1973, his father inherited the Dukedoms of Buccleuch and Queensberry, and Scott took the courtesy title Earl of Dalkeith, having previously been styled Lord Eskdaill. He graduated from the University of Oxford in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: As Earl of Dalkeith, he had a brief term on the board of Border Television from 1989 to 1990, and in 1994 he joined the Millennium Commission as the representative for Northern England. He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 2000 New Year Honours for his services to the Millennium Celebrations, leaving the commission in 2003. He was president of the National Trust for Scotland from 2003 to 2012, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE).


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: He also served as Deputy Chairman of the (since abolished) Independent Television Commission, as a member of Scottish Heritage, on the board of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, and was President of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society from 1999 to 2005.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: He inherited the titles of Duke of Buccleuch and Duke of Queensberry upon his father's death on 4 September 2007.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: The art collection of the Dukes of Buccleuch is of great significance, and the recovery of the stolen Leonardo da Vinci painting "Madonna of the Yarnwinder" from the collection, valued at 30 million GBP, in a raid on the offices of a prestigious law firm captured public attention in 2007. In 2008 a painting in the family collection at Boughton House, a rare portrait of the young Queen Elizabeth I of England, was discovered.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: On 1 January 2011, he was appointed Honorary Colonel of the 6th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland. His honorary colonelcy ended in 2016. In late 2011, he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Roxburgh, Ettrick & Lauderdale. In November 2016, he was appointed as Lord Lieutenant of Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale with effect from 28 December. He was appointed Captain-General of the Royal Company of Archers, The King's Bodyguard for Scotland in 2014.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: The Duke is a trustee of the Royal Collection Trust, President of the Georgian Group and an honorary member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (HonRICS). The Duke is President of St Andrew's First Aid. The Buccleuch family has held the presidency of St Andrew's First Aid since the early 1900s. In 2019 the Duke retired as chairman of the Buccleuch Group with interests in estate management, wind farms, tourism and hospitality, forestry and property


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: In October 2016, the Duke was appointed High Steward of Westminster Abbey, a position previously held by the 5th Duke in the late 19th century. In December 2017, he was appointed as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for the year 2018. In October 2018, he was re-appointed for the year 2019.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: The Duke was appointed Knight Companion of the Order of the Thistle (KT) in the 2018 New Year Honours with the appointment dated 30 November 2017. He was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to the Royal Collections Trust.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: Houses owned by the Duke include Boughton House, Drumlanrig Castle, Dalkeith Palace, Eildon Hall (Scottish Borders) and Bowhill House.


title: Richard Scott, 10th Duke of Buccleuch

text: In 1981, he married Lady Elizabeth Marian Frances Kerr, a daughter of the 12th Marquess of Lothian (and a sister of the 13th Marquess of Lothian, a Conservative politician). They had four children:


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Language policy in Ukraine is based on its Constitution, international treaties and on domestic legislation. According to article 10 of the Constitution, Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine, and the state shall ensure the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life throughout the entire territory of the country. Other languages spoken in Ukraine are granted constitutional protection, and Russian is recognized as the language of a national minority.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The 2012 law granted regional language status to Russian and other minority languages. It allowed the use of minority languages in courts, schools and other government institutions in areas of Ukraine where the national minorities exceed 10% of the population. The 2012 law was supported by the governing Party of regions and opposed by the opposition parties, who argued that the law undermined the role of the Ukrainian language, violated Article 10 of the Constitution, and was adopted with an irregular procedure. Immediately after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, on 23 February 2014, the Ukrainian Parliament voted to repeal the law. This decision was vetoed by the acting President Turchynov." In October 2014, the Constitutional Court started reviewing the constitutionality of the 2012 law and declared it unconstitutional on 28 February 2018.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: In April 2019, the Ukrainian parliament voted a new law, the law "On supporting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language". The law made the use of Ukrainian compulsory (totally or within quotas) in more than 30 spheres of public life, including public administration, electoral process, education, science, culture, media, economic and social life, health and care institutions, and activities of political parties. The law did not regulate private communication. Some exemptions were provided for the official languages of the European Union and for minority languages, with the exclusion of Russian, Belarusian and Yiddish. The Venice Commission and Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the 2019 law's failure to protect the language rights of Ukrainian minorities.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 19 June the Ukrainian parliament passed two laws which placed restrictions on Russian books and music. The new laws ban Russian citizens from printing books unless they take Ukrainian citizenship, prohibit the import of books printed in Russia, Belarus and the occupied Ukrainian territories, and prohibit the reproduction in the media and public transport of music performed or created by post-1991 Russian citizens, unless the musicians are included in a "white list" of artists who have publicly condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine, the Russian language has dwindled. In 2001 it remained one of the two most used languages for business, legal proceedings, science, artistry, and many other spheres of everyday life. According to the 2001 census, 67.5% of the citizens of Ukraine regarded Ukrainian as their native language, with Russian being considered the native language for another 29.6%. Various other languages constituted the remaining 2.9%.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: During the Soviet era, the status of Ukrainian was legally codified in 1922, when Ukrainian and Russian were declared to be of "national significance" and schools were allowed to use them both in teaching; they were never adopted as official languages of Soviet Ukraine but had formally equal status as "generally used languages". In practice, however, Ukrainian was mainly a rural language and had lower prestige than Russian, which was the language of the educated urban society. After an initial phase of official commitment to Ukrainization in the 1920s and early 1930s, the Soviet era was marked by an increasing trend toward Russification. In 1938 the study of Russian was made obligatory and in 1958 the study of the mother-tongue was made optional. From 1959 to 1989, on average 60-70% of the population spoke Ukrainian and 20% spoke Russian; Yiddish was also widely spoken by the decreasing Jewish population (from 14% in 1959 to 3.9% in 1989).


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 28 October 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the "Law of Languages". The Ukrainian language was declared the only official language, while the other languages spoken in Ukraine were guaranteed constitutional protection. The government was obliged to create the conditions required for the development and use of Ukrainian language as well as languages of other ethnic groups, including Russian. Usage of other languages, along with Ukrainian, was allowed in local institutions located in places of residence of the majority of citizens of the corresponding ethnicities. Citizens were guaranteed the right to use their native or any other languages and were entitled to address various institutions and organisations in Ukrainian, in Russian, or in another language of their work, or in a language acceptable to the parties. Following the Ukrainian independence and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the law, with some minor amendments, remained in force in the independent Ukrainian state.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The Constitution of Ukraine, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on 28 June 1996, states at article 10: "The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The State ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. In Ukraine, the free development, use and protection of Russian, and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine, is guaranteed".


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 7 February 2012 members of the Verkhovna Rada Serhii Kivalov and Vadym Kolesnychenko (both from the Party of Regions) entered a bill (commonly called "Kolesnychenko-Kivalov language bill"), that would have given the status of regional language to Russian and other minority languages. It allowed the use of minority languages in courts, schools and other government institutions in areas of Ukraine where the national minorities exceed 10% of the population.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Supporters of the 2012 bill argued it would have made life easier for Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Opponents feared that the adoption of Russian as a minority language could have spread rapidly, challenging Ukrainian and causing splits between eastern and western Ukraine. In practice Russian at the time was already used widely in official establishments in Ukraine.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: In May 2012 Vadym Kolesnychenko, one of the authors of the 2012 language law, claimed that the law was supported by several higher education bodies, scientists and NGOs. On 9 February 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded him and another author of the language law, Serhiy Kivalov, with the Medal of Pushkin for their "great contribution to the preservation and promotion of the Russian language and culture abroad".


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Some say that the bill contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine, violates the Budget Code, and aims to annihilate the Ukrainian language. It suffered a criticism in the conclusions of state authorities and their departments: the Main Scientific-Expert Bureau of the Ukrainian Parliament (23 May 2012), the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Spirituality (September 23, 2011), the Parliamentary Committee on Budget (3 November 2011), Ministry of Finance (9 September 2011), the Ministry of Justice (27 September 2011). The bill also failed to obtain the support of the specialized institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: the Linguistics Institute, the Institute of the Ukrainian Language, the Institute of political and ethno-national researches, the Shevchenko Institute of Literature, the Institute of State and Law, the Ukrainian linguistic-informational Fund, the Philology Institute of Kyiv University, and the Academy of Sciences of the High School of Ukraine.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: In December 2011, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe issued an opinion on the draft law questioning whether the parallel use of Ukrainian and Russian was in compliance with article 10 of the Constitution: "the question remains whether [...] there are sufficient guarantees, in the current Draft Law, for the consolidation of the Ukrainian language as the sole State language, and of the role it has to play in the Ukrainian multilinguistic society".


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: "Ukrayinska Pravda" reported that the Venice Commission did not find in the draft law enough guarantees for the protection of the Ukrainian language, and that the Commission had come to the conclusion that the proposed law was just "another tool of the election campaign" for the Party of Regions. Kolesnichenko, one of the authors of the law, claimed that the Opinion was "generally supportive", but the opponents noted that it contained strong criticism about the failure to protect the role of Ukrainian as the State language.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Prior to 24 May 2012, there were rumors that a revision of the legislation on languages would take place in parliament (the Verkhovna Rada) and that the Secretary of National Security and Defense would attend the session. Some 1,000 protesters gathered just outside the Verkhovna Rada building setting up another tent city. State law enforcement warned the protesters not to establish a tent city.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: At the evening session, the parliamentary opposition in the Verkhovna Rada (Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc) blocked the main tribune in parliament as some representatives from the Party of Regions surrounded the presidium. The speaker was forced to announce a break in the session. After the break, Member of Parliament Vyacheslav Kyrylenko read a statement of the united opposition not to conduct any hearings regarding language issues. After the law draft #10154 "On the state language of Ukraine" was not adopted onto the daily agenda, Kyrylenko withdrew his draft #9059 "Prohibition of narrowing the sphere of use of Ukrainian language" from a revision, while Kolesnichenko gave a presentation on his draft #9073. The head of the Committee On Issues of Culture and Spirituality Volodymyr Yavorivsky disclosed the decision of the committee to reject the bill #9073 as it was the decision of the committee's majority. He pointed to the fact that the law draft in fact will introduce a bilingual situation in number of regions. However, after a review, the bill was supported by the parliamentary majority which showed its support in adopting two state languages: Ukrainian and Russian. The parliamentary minority and the deputy group "Reforms for the Future" stayed in opposition to the bill. Parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn was forced to hastily close the session as further discussion descended into another fight leaving some members of parliament injured.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The Party of Regions released a statement to the press where it accused the opposition of impeding the enactment of a bill that protects some constitutional rights of millions of citizens of Ukraine. PoR leader in parliament Yefremov promised to revisit the issue once everything is stable.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The bill was eventually adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on second reading on 3 July 2012; it was supported by the Party of Regions, the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Lytvyn Bloc, while it was strongly opposed by the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defence Bloc. The bill was to come into force only after it was signed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the Chairman of Parliament. But the Chairman of Parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn tendered his resignation on 4 July 2012. However, the Verkhovna Rada twice held votes of confidence in the speaker, and did not accept his resignation. On 31 July, Lytvyn signed the law. The bill was signed by President Yanukovych on 8 August 2012. The law came into force on 10 August 2012.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Since then, various Ukrainian cities and regions have declared Russian a regional language in their jurisdictions, these being the municipalities of Odessa, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, Sevastopol, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk and Krasny Luch; and the Oblasts of Odessa, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk. Hungarian has been made a regional language in the town of Berehove in the Zakarpattia Oblast, Moldovan in the village of Tarasivtsi (Chernivtsi Oblast), and Romanian in the village of Bila Tserkva; also in the Zakarpattia Oblast. From then on, those languages could be used in city/Oblast administrative office work and documents. As of September 2012 there were no plans for such bilingualism in Kyiv. Chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea Volodomyr Konstantinov stated in March 2013 that the August 2012 law had changed nothing in Crimea.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On February 23, 2014, the second day after the flight of Viktor Yanukovich, while in a parliamentary session, a deputy from the Batkivshchyna party, Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, moved to include in the agenda a bill to repeal the 2012 law "On the principles of the state language policy". The motion was carried with 86% of the votes in favour—232 deputies in favour vs 37 opposed against the required minimum of 226 of 334 votes. The bill was included in the agenda, immediately put to a vote with no debate and approved with the same 232 voting in favour. The bill would have made Ukrainian the sole state language at all levels. Still, all the minority languages (including Russian) remain explicitly protected under article 10 of the Ukrainian Constitution. The repeal would also bring back into force the previous law on languages, which was in place in Ukraine for 23 years before July 2012 and was regulating the use of the minority languages.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: However, the move to repeal the 2012 law "On the principles of the state language policy" provoked negative reactions in Crimea and in some regions of Southern and Eastern Ukraine. It became one of the topics of the protests against the new government approved by the parliament after the flight of Viktor Yanukovich.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Passage of the repeal bill was met with regret by the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe. The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities expressed concern over possible further unrest. He also proposed to give advice and facilitate discussions on new legislation, declaring that "we must avoid the mistakes made last time [in 2012] when unbalanced legislation was adopted without a proper dialogue in the Verkhovna Rada." The bill was also criticized by the Ambassador for Human Rights of the Russian foreign ministry. Bulgarian and Romanian foreign ministers evaluated it as a step in the wrong direction, and the Greek foreign minister expressed disappointment. The Hungarian foreign ministry expressed serious concerns, noting that the decision "could question the commitment of the new Ukrainian administration towards democracy". The Polish foreign minister called it a mistake. According to Uilleam Blacker writing for openDemocracy, the repeal bill contained no specific threat to the Russian language.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: After urgently ordering a working group to draft a replacement law on February 27, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov declared on 3 March that he will not sign the repeal bill until a replacement law is adopted to "accommodate the interests of both eastern and western Ukraine and of all ethnic groups and minorities". Since then the repeal bill has not been signed nor vetoed by the President, and its status has long remained "ready for sign".


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 7 April 2014, Batkivshchyna leader Yulia Tymoshenko stated she supported the 2012 language law. On 3 November 2014, newly elected president Petro Poroshenko declared that the language policy in Ukraine will be amended.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 10 July 2014, 57 parliamentary deputies appealed the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to review the 2012 law "On the principles of the state language policy". On 10 October 2014, the court opened the proceedings on the constitutionality of the law. On 14 December 2016, the Constitutional Court ended the oral proceedings, and on 13 January 2017, moved to the closed part of the process. On 28 February 2018, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled the law unconstitutional.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: In April 2015, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law banning communist as well as Nazi propaganda and symbols. The names of cities, villages, streets and squares that referred to communist slogans and leaders fell under the ban and had to be changed. According to Volodymyr Viatrovych, who had inspired the law, in October 2016 Ukraine's toponymy had undergone a complete process of decommunization, including in the Donbas region. Former Dnipropetrovsk became Dnipro, and Kirovohrad became Kropyvnytskyi.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The de-Russification of Ukrainian toponymy implied also the removal from railways and airports of any information board written in Russian; as of December 2016, all information had to be given only in Ukrainian and English. Free Ukrainian language courses for civil servants working in the Donetsk regional administration were organised, and from January 2017 Ukrainian became the only language of official and interpersonal communication in public institutions.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: In June 2016, a new law was enacted requiring Ukraine's radio stations to play a quota of Ukrainian-language songs each day. At least a quarter of a radio station's daily playlist had to be in Ukrainian from then on, rising to 30% in 12 months' time and 35% a year after that. The law also required TV and radio broadcasters to ensure at least 60% of programs such as news and analysis are in Ukrainian. The law entered into force on 9 November, the national day for Ukrainian Language and Literacy. President Petro Poroshenko hailed the law calling on people to share their favourite Ukrainian song on social medias, while the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc criticised the law and said people had the right to decide for themselves what to listen to, and in which language. According to "The Economist", the passage of a law downgrading Russian in Ukraine could have helped "spark war in that country; Vladimir Putin has used it as evidence that Ukrainian nationalists are bent on wiping out Russian culture there."


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: In May 2017, Verkhovna Rada enacted an analogous law prescribing a 75% Ukrainian-language quotas in all television channels operating in Ukraine.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Ukraine's 2017 education law made Ukrainian the required language of study in state schools from the fifth grade on, i.e. at the basic secondary and upper secondary levels, although it allowed instruction in other languages as a separate subject, to be phased in 2023. Education in minority languages in kindergarten and primary school remained unchanged, but at secondary level, students could only learn their native languages as a separate subject. Additionally, from grade five onwards, two or more subjects could be taught in any of the languages of the EU, which include minority languages such as Hungarian, Polish and Romanian but not Belorussian, Jewish and Russian.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The 2017 education law provoked harsh reactions in Hungary, Romania, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria and other countries. The Romanian parliament passed a motion condemning the law and warned that Ukraine could not proceed towards EU integration without respecting the language rights of national minorities. The Russian Duma and Federation Council also adopted a resolution lamenting the violation of the language rights of the Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine. The Hungary–Ukraine relations rapidly deteriorated over the issue of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, as the education law was accused of being nationalistic and needlessly provocative. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko defended the law, claiming that "The law ensures equal opportunities for all ... It guarantees every graduate strong language skills essential for a successful career in Ukraine".


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 7 December 2017, the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) stated that criticism of the law seemed justified, as the shift to all-Ukrainian secondary education could infringe on the rights of ethnic minorities. Moreover, according to the Venice Commission, allowing certain subjects to be taught in the official languages of the EU could discriminate against speakers of Russian, the most widely used non-state language. The Venice Commission formulated seven recommendations to the Ukrainian Government to amend the law; according to the new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine has implemented six of these seven recommendations as of 2019.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: In September 2018 Lviv Oblast Council introduced a ban on the public use of the Russian-language cultural products (movies, books, songs, etc.) throughout the Lviv Oblast until the full cessation of the occupation of Ukraine's territory. Human rights activists and lawyers called the law ill-defined, illegal, and unconstitutional. The Lviv Regional Council decision was successfully challenged in an Administrative Court, among others by the Chuhuiv Human Rights Group, but on 14 May 2019 the judgment of the Administrative Court was revoked on technical grounds by the Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Ukraine. The Chuhuiv Human Rights Group announced that they would file a lawsuit to the European Court of Human Rights against the ban. The ban was overturned in January 2019 by a court.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The law "On Supporting the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language" made the use of Ukrainian compulsory (totally or within certain quotas) in the work of some public authorities, in the electoral procedures and political campaigning, in pre-school, school and university education, in scientific, cultural and sporting activities, in book publishing and book distribution, in printed mass media, television and radio broadcasting, in economic and social life (commercial advertising, public events), in hospitals and nursing homes, and in the activities of political parties and other legal entities (e.g. non-governmental organizations) registered in Ukraine. Some special exemptions are provided for the Crimean Tatar language, other languages of indigenous peoples of Ukraine, the English language and the other official languages of the European Union; as languages of minorities that are not EU official languages, Russian, Belarusian and Yiddish are excluded from the exemptions.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 4 October 2018, the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) voted with a majority of 261 MPs in the first reading of a new language law (bill n. 5670-d, "On Supporting the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language"). Thereafter, the bill "was prepared for second reading for about four months. During this time, the Verkhovna Rada's committee on culture and spirituality worked out over 2,000 amendments to the document that were proposed by people's deputies. In particular, the document proposes creating the national commission on the standards of the state language and introducing the post of commissioner for the protection of the state language. Lawmakers started considering the document at second reading on February 28. The Verkhovna Rada continue[d] to review amendments to the bill during March 12–15 [2019]." The Council of Europe asked the Verkhovna Rada to postpone the adoption of the bill until the post-election period.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 25 April 2019, the Ukrainian parliament adopted the law. Patriarch Filaret and former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko were present in the parliament during the vote. On the same day pro-Russian members of the Ukrainian Parliament blocked the chairman, Andriy Parubiy, from signing it by introducing two draft resolutions to repeal the law. "If parliament d[id] not support these resolutions, [Parliament chairman] Andriy Parubiy ha[d] the right to sign the law and forward it to the President of Ukraine to get his signature on it." In total, four appeals to cancel the law were submitted, and it was planned that the parliament would vote on those on 14 May 2019. Parubiy declared that after the parliament will have rejected those appeals, he will sign the law and that the Ukrainian President will sign it "without delay."


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Then President Petro Poroshenko called the adoption of the law by the Ukrainian parliament "a historic decision" and said he would sign the law as soon as he received it from parliament. Poroshenko also said that the law "would not have been approved without Andriy Parubiy".


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Parliament chairman Parubiy signed the law on 14 May 2019, after the four draft bills to cancel the bill n. 5670-d were rejected by parliament. Parubiy said that the law "will be signed by the president of Ukraine in the coming hours or days." On 15 May 2019, President Poroshenko, in his last week in office, signed the law.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 21 June 2019, the Constitutional Court received a petition from 51 members of the Ukrainian Parliament demanding that the law be checked for constitutionality. On 14 July 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled the law as constitutional.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The law regulates the Ukrainian language in the media, education, and business aiming to strengthen its role in a country where much of the public still speaks Russian. The Law does not apply to the sphere of private communication and the conduct of religious rites.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The law requires every citizen to be proficient in Ukrainian and prevents access to "state positions" (members of parliament, civil servants, etc.) if their knowledge of Ukrainian is insufficient. Ukrainian is the working language of both central and local authorities. In principle, all public authorities only accept to examine documents and applications written in Ukrainian, and their regulations and individual implementing acts are written in Ukrainian.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The law requires elections and referendums to be conducted in Ukrainian and stipulates that all campaign material "broadcast on television, radio, placed on outdoor advertising media, distributed in the form of leaflets and newspapers, or posted on the Internet" be in Ukrainian. Political parties and non-governmental organizations registered in Ukraine are required to adopt their "constituent documents and decisions" in Ukrainian and use Ukrainian in their dealings with the public authorities.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Members of national minorities have the right to receive only preschool and primary education in their own language. As for secondary education, they have the right to study their own language as a subject, while one or more other subjects may be taught in English or one of the official languages of the European Union. Members of national minorities who do not speak an official EU language (Byelorussians, Gagauzes, Jews, and Russians) may study at the secondary school level their language only as a subject.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Scientific publications and public scientific events can only be in Ukrainian, English or other official EU language, as well as all cultural, artistic, recreational and entertainment events, unless the use of other languages is justified for artistic reasons or for the purpose of protecting ethnic minority languages. Publishing houses are required to print, and bookstores are required to sell, at least 50% of their books in Ukrainian. TV and film distribution firms must ensure 90% of their content is in Ukrainian. The publication of print media in languages other than Ukrainian is permitted only on condition that they are accompanied by a Ukrainian translation, which must be identical in size, format, and substance. Exceptions are media published in Crimean Tatar or other indigenous languages (minorities which do not have a kin-State, such as Karaite and Krimchak minorities) and those published in English or other official EU languages. Films produced in Ukraine must be in Ukrainian, and foreign films must be dubbed into Ukrainian unless they meet certain standards set out by the Ukrainian authorities.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: All publicly available information, such as advertisements, directional signs, pointers, signboards, messages, captions, must be in Ukrainian. Ukrainian is the language of "public events" in the broad sense that are organized or financed, in whole or in part, by any public governmental authority. Another language may be used, but the organizer must provide simultaneous or consecutive translation into Ukrainian "if requested by at least one participant in such public event".


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: The use of Ukrainian is also mandatory in the field of health care, medical care and medical services, but at the request of the service user, the service can be provided in another language acceptable to the parties.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Contrary to the minority languages which are EU official languages, Russian, Belarusian and Yiddish are granted no exemption for the purposes of the law.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 26 April Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the law was "unacceptable" and "part of Poroshenko's anti-Hungarian policy".


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 30 April 2019, the European Commission said it would study and give its assessment to the law. On 22 May 2019, the Chair of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe asked the Venice Commission to analyze the law. On 1 June 2019, OHCHR expressed concern about the absence of special legislation regulating the use of minority languages in Ukraine and criticised the distinction between minorities speaking an official EU language and other national minorities.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: In December 2019 the Venice Commission said that several provisions of the law failed to strike a fair balance between promoting the Ukrainian language and safeguarding minorities' linguistic rights.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: In May 2019 the Kyiv's District Administrative Court dismissed an NGO's application to prohibit Verkhovna Rada President Andriy Parubiy from signing and publishing the law.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: Russia asked the President of the UN Security Council to convene a meeting over the adoption by Ukraine's parliament of the law.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 19 June 2022 the Ukrainian parliament passed two laws which place severe restrictions on Russian books and music. One law prohibits Russian citizens from printing books unless they renounce their Russian passport and take Ukrainian citizenship. The law also prohibits the import of books printed in Russia, Belarus and the occupied Ukrainian territories, and requires a special authorisation for the import of Russian books from other countries. The other law bans the playing of music by post-Soviet era artists in the media and public transport and increases the quotas of Ukrainian speech and music contents in TV and radio broadcasts.


title: Language policy in Ukraine

text: On 7 July President Zelenskyy signed the law restricting the public performance of Russian music on television and radio, and on 7 October the law entered into force. The law allows the playing of post-Soviet Russian music if the musician is included in a "white list" of artists who have publicly condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine. The Security Service of Ukraine is competent to decide on inclusion and exclusion from the list.


title: Tripura Legislative Assembly

text: The Tripura Legislative Assembly or Tripura Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tripura, with 60 Members of the Legislative Assembly. The present Assembly is located in Gurkhabasti. Ujjayanta Palace in Agartala served as the previous meeting place. The tenure of the Assembly is five years unless sooner dissolved. The present Assembly is the 12th Legislative Assembly, where Ratan Chakraborty is the current speaker of the House.


title: Tripura Legislative Assembly

text: On 1 November 1956, Tripura became a Union territory, and an Advisory Committee was formed to advise the Chief commissioner. On 15 August 1957, a Territorial Council was formed with 30 elected members and two members nominated by the Government of India.


title: Tripura Legislative Assembly

text: The 12th Tripura Legislative Assembly was constituted after the Tripura Legislative Assembly elections in 2018. Polling was held on 18 February for the 60-member assembly with 89.8% voter turnout being reported. Counting of votes and results were declared on 3 March.


title: Before and After (film)

text: Before and After is a 1996 American crime drama-mystery film based on Rosellen Brown's 1992 novel of the same name about two parents who must deal with the after effects when their son is accused of murder. The movie was directed by Barbet Schroeder and starred Meryl Streep as Dr. Carolyn Ryan, Liam Neeson as Ben Ryan, Edward Furlong as Jacob Ryan, and Julia Weldon as Judith Ryan (who also narrated the movie). Alfred Molina, John Heard, and Alison Folland appear in supporting roles.


title: Before and After (film)

text: In a small Western Massachusetts town, Dr. Carolyn Ryan and her sculptor husband Ben live with their two children Jacob and Judith. Their world is shattered when Sheriff Fran Conklin tells them that Martha Taverner has been killed and witnesses saw Jacob with her just before she died. When he asks to speak with Jacob, the family realizes that he's not in his room as they thought. Conklin asks to look at Jacob's car, but Ben refuses. When Conklin asks Judith where Jacob is, Ben demands the sheriff get a warrant.


title: Before and After (film)

text: When Conklin leaves, Ben inspects Jacob's car, finding clothes and a car jack with blood on them. He burns the clothes and cleans the jack before the police return. When he tells Carolyn what he has done, she is afraid that Ben may have destroyed evidence that could help them find Jacob, as she is fearful that a maniac may have killed both Martha and her son. The Ryans plaster the town with signs trying to find Jacob, but the town ostracizes them, assuming Jacob is a murderer.


title: Before and After (film)

text: Postcards start to arrive from Jacob. Over the course of five weeks, he sends postcards from all over the country. Carolyn is convinced that he's been kidnapped and wants to alert the police. Ben remains wary of disclosing anything, insisting they must keep the postcards a secret. Eventually Jacob is caught and brought back home to stand trial. For the first several days, he is catatonic, only speaking aloud to enter his plea at the arraignment.


title: Before and After (film)

text: He speaks to Judith in their treehouse when she asks him if he really traveled all over the country. He explained that he would take the train to the Boston airport once a week and press the postcards on people who were headed to the cities on the cards. He would explain that he had just returned from a vacation there but had forgotten to mail the postcards to his parents, and he did not want them to think he'd forgotten them. The travelers would mail the cards for him when they arrived at their destination.


title: Before and After (film)

text: The family receives a harassing phone call from one of the townspeople. Ben bitterly mocks the caller and offers an impassioned defense of his son. Touched by his father's sincerity, Jacob opens up and explains what happened.


title: Before and After (film)

text: He had been fighting with Martha when she revealed that she was pregnant, in addition to the fact that she had been sleeping with several other boys. They made up, but while they made love in Jacob's car, they got snowed in. Unable to free the car through a variety of methods, they decided to try to jack one end of the car up while they packed snow under the other end. Their fight reignited and got violent. Martha swung a crowbar at Jacob and missed him by an inch. He charged at her, knocking her to the ground. She landed face first on the jack and was killed. Ben decides that it is best to not reveal the truth. He coaches Jacob on a different version of the story, which they tell to their lawyer, but the plan goes awry when Ben is deposed by the grand jury and realizes that there is no father-son privilege which exempts him from testifying. When Carolyn is called to testify, she reveals the truth. Jacob's lawyer is incensed, but he explains that he will simply treat Carolyn as a hostile witness and her testimony will amount to hearsay, since it conflicts with Jacob's account of the events.


title: Before and After (film)

text: When Ben discovers what Carolyn has done, he is furious. A family argument ensues and in the morning, Jacob is missing again. He turns up at the police station, where he has given a full confession. As a minor, he needs his parents to sign his confession. Ben refuses, explaining that he could never sign anything that took Jacob away from him.


title: Before and After (film)

text: Jacob is sentenced to five years for involuntary manslaughter, but is released after only 2 years with probation, and Ben is sentenced to almost one year for his cover up. The family relocates to Miami.


title: Before and After (film)

text: The film was shot on location in Egremont, Massachusetts on Baldwin Hill East at the Rathbun Farm. Scenes were also filmed in and around Pittsfield, Lee, Great Barrington and Lenox.


title: Before and After (film)

text: "Before and After" was not successful financially, grossing only $8.8 million in the United States and Canada and $15 million worldwide against a production budget of $35 million.


title: Before and After (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 32% based on reviews from 19 critics. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "C+" on scale of A to F.


title: Before and After (film)

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" said, ""Before and After" is a long, slow slog through a story about a family crisis that is largely the fault of the family itself — especially the hot-tempered but loving father, who makes a series of crucial mistakes. It's one of those movies where you want to call out helpful advice to the screen, which would save the characters a lot of trouble."


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. The languages extend through 17 nations in the northern half of Africa: from Algeria to Benin in the west; from Libya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the centre; and from Egypt to Tanzania in the east.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: As indicated by its hyphenated name, Nilo-Saharan is a family of the African interior, including the greater Nile Basin and the Central Sahara Desert. Eight of its proposed constituent divisions (excluding Kunama, Kuliak, and Songhay) are found in the modern countries of Sudan and South Sudan, through which the Nile River flows.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: In his book "The Languages of Africa" (1963), Joseph Greenberg named the group and argued it was a genetic family. It contains the languages which are not included in the Niger–Congo, Afroasiatic or Khoisan groups. Although some linguists have referred to the phylum as "Greenberg's wastebasket", into which he placed all the otherwise unaffiliated non-click languages of Africa, specialists in the field have accepted its reality since Greenberg's classification. Its supporters accept that it is a challenging proposal to demonstrate but contend that it looks more promising the more work is done.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Some of the constituent groups of Nilo-Saharan are estimated to predate the African neolithic. Thus, the unity of Eastern Sudanic is estimated to date to at least the 5th millennium BC. Nilo-Saharan genetic unity would necessarily be much older still and date to the late Upper Paleolithic. The earliest written language associated with the Nilo-Saharan family is Old Nubian, one of the oldest written African languages attested in writing from the 8th to the 15th century AD.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: This larger classification system is not accepted by all linguists, however. "Glottolog" (2013), for example, a publication of the Max Planck Institute in Germany, does not recognise the unity of the Nilo-Saharan family or even of the Eastern Sudanic branch; Georgiy Starostin (2016) likewise does not accept a relationship between the branches of Nilo-Saharan, though he leaves open the possibility that some of them may prove to be related to each other once the necessary reconstructive work is done. According to Güldemann (2018), "the current state of research is not sufficient to prove the Nilo-Saharan hypothesis."


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: The constituent families of Nilo-Saharan are quite diverse. One characteristic feature is a tripartite singulative–collective–plurative number system, which Blench (2010) believes is a result of a noun-classifier system in the protolanguage. The distribution of the families may reflect ancient watercourses in a green Sahara during the Neolithic Subpluvial, when the desert was more habitable than it is today.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Within the Nilo-Saharan languages are a number of languages with at least a million speakers (most data from SIL's "Ethnologue" 16 (2009)). In descending order:


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: The total for all speakers of Nilo-Saharan languages according to "Ethnologue" 16 is 38–39 million people. However, the data spans a range from ca. 1980 to 2005, with a weighted median at ca. 1990. Given population growth rates, the figure in 2010 might be half again higher, or about 60 million.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: The Saharan family (which includes Kanuri, Kanembu, the Tebu languages, and Zaghawa) was recognized by Heinrich Barth in 1853, the Nilotic languages by Karl Richard Lepsius in 1880, the various constituent branches of Central Sudanic (but not the connection between them) by Friedrich Müller in 1889, and the Maban family by Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes in 1907. The first inklings of a wider family came in 1912, when Diedrich Westermann included three of the (still independent) Central Sudanic families within Nilotic in a proposal he called "Niloto-Sudanic"; this expanded Nilotic was in turn linked to Nubian, Kunama, and possibly Berta, essentially Greenberg's Macro-Sudanic (Chari–Nile) proposal of 1954.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: In 1920 G. W. Murray fleshed out the Eastern Sudanic languages when he grouped Nilotic, Nubian, Nera, Gaam, and Kunama. Carlo Conti Rossini made similar proposals in 1926, and in 1935 Westermann added Murle. In 1940 A. N. Tucker published evidence linking five of the six branches of Central Sudanic alongside his more explicit proposal for East Sudanic. In 1950 Greenberg retained Eastern Sudanic and Central Sudanic as separate families, but accepted Westermann's conclusions of four decades earlier in 1954 when he linked them together as "Macro-Sudanic" (later "Chari–Nile", from the Chari and Nile Watersheds).


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Greenberg's later contribution came in 1963, when he tied Chari–Nile to Songhai, Saharan, Maban, Fur, and Koman-Gumuz and coined the current name "Nilo-Saharan" for the resulting family. Lionel Bender noted that Chari–Nile was an artifact of the order of European contact with members of the family and did not reflect an exclusive relationship between these languages, and the group has been abandoned, with its constituents becoming primary branches of Nilo-Saharan—or, equivalently, Chari–Nile and Nilo-Saharan have merged, with the name "Nilo-Saharan" retained. When it was realized that the Kadu languages were not Niger–Congo, they were commonly assumed to therefore be Nilo-Saharan, but this remains somewhat controversial.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Progress has been made since Greenberg established the plausibility of the family. Koman and Gumuz remain poorly attested and are difficult to work with, while arguments continue over the inclusion of Songhai. Blench (2010) believes that the distribution of Nilo-Saharan reflects the waterways of the wet Sahara 12,000 years ago, and that the protolanguage had noun classifiers, which today are reflected in a diverse range of prefixes, suffixes, and number marking.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Dimmendaal (2008) notes that Greenberg (1963) based his conclusion on strong evidence and that the proposal as a whole has become more convincing in the decades since. Mikkola (1999) reviewed Greenberg's evidence and found it convincing. Roger Blench notes morphological similarities in all putative branches, which leads him to believe that the family is likely to be valid.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Koman and Gumuz are poorly known and have been difficult to evaluate until recently. Songhay is markedly divergent, in part due to massive influence from the Mande languages. Also problematic are the Kuliak languages, which are spoken by hunter-gatherers and appear to retain a non-Nilo-Saharan core; Blench believes they might have been similar to Hadza or Dahalo and shifted incompletely to Nilo-Saharan.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Anbessa Tefera and Peter Unseth consider the poorly attested Shabo language to be Nilo-Saharan, though unclassified within the family due to lack of data; Dimmendaal and Blench, based on a more complete description, consider it to be a language isolate on current evidence. Proposals have sometimes been made to add Mande (usually included in Niger–Congo), largely due to its many noteworthy similarities with Songhay rather than with Nilo-Saharan as a whole, however this relationship is more likely due to a close relationship between Songhay and Mande many thousands of years ago in the early days of Nilo-Saharan, so the relationship is probably more one of ancient contact than a genetic link.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: The extinct Meroitic language of ancient Kush has been accepted by linguists such as Rille, Dimmendaal, and Blench as Nilo-Saharan, though others argue for an Afroasiatic affiliation. It is poorly attested.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: There is little doubt that the constituent families of Nilo-Saharan—of which only Eastern Sudanic and Central Sudanic show much internal diversity—are valid groups. However, there have been several conflicting classifications in grouping them together. Each of the proposed higher-order groups has been rejected by other researchers: Greenberg's Chari–Nile by Bender and Blench, and Bender's Core Nilo-Saharan by Dimmendaal and Blench. What remains are eight (Dimmendaal) to twelve (Bender) constituent families of no consensus arrangement.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Joseph Greenberg, in "The Languages of Africa", set up the family with the following branches. The Chari–Nile core are the connections that had been suggested by previous researchers.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Gumuz was not recognized as distinct from neighbouring Koman; it was separated out (forming "Komuz") by Bender (1989).


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Lionel Bender came up with a classification which expanded upon and revised that of Greenberg. He considered Fur and Maban to constitute a Fur–Maban branch, added Kadu to Nilo-Saharan, removed Kuliak from Eastern Sudanic, removed Gumuz from Koman (but left it as a sister node), and chose to posit Kunama as an independent branch of the family. By 1991 he had added more detail to the tree, dividing Chari–Nile into nested clades, including a Core group in which Berta was considered divergent, and coordinating Fur–Maban as a sister clade to Chari–Nile.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Bender revised his model of Nilo-Saharan again in 1996, at which point he split Koman and Gumuz into completely separate branches of Core Nilo-Saharan.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Christopher Ehret came up with a novel classification of Nilo-Saharan as a preliminary part of his then-ongoing research into the macrofamily. His evidence for the classification was not fully published until much later (see Ehret 2001 below), and so it did not attain the same level of acclaim as competing proposals, namely those of Bender and Blench.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: By 2000 Bender had entirely abandoned the Chari–Nile and Komuz branches. He also added Kunama back to the "Satellite–Core" group and simplified the subdivisions therein. He retracted the inclusion of Shabo, stating that it could not yet be adequately classified but might prove to be Nilo-Saharan once sufficient research has been done. This tentative and somewhat conservative classification held as a sort of standard for the next decade.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Ehret's updated classification was published in his book "A Historical–Comparative Reconstruction of Nilo-Saharan" (2001). This model is notable in that it consists of two primary branches: Gumuz–Koman, and a "Sudanic" group containing the rest of the families (see "Sudanic languages § Nilo-Saharan" for more detail). Also, unusually, Songhay is well-nested within a core group and coordinate with Maban in a "Western Sahelian" clade, and Kadu is not included in Nilo-Saharan. Note that "Koman" in this classification is equivalent to Komuz, i.e. a family with Gumuz and Koman as primary branches, and Ehret renames the traditional Koman group as "Western Koman".


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Niger-Saharan, a language macrofamily linking the Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan phyla, was proposed by Blench (2006). It is highly controversial and not accepted by mainstream linguistics. Blench's (2006) internal classification of the Niger-Saharan macrophylum is as follows.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: According to Blench (2006), typological features common to both Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan include:


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: With a better understanding of Nilo-Saharan classifiers, and the affixes or number marking they have developed into in various branches, Blench believes that all of the families postulated as Nilo-Saharan belong together. He proposes the following tentative internal classification, with Songhai closest to Saharan, a relationship that had not previously been suggested:


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: By 2015, and again in 2017, Blench had refined the subclassification of this model, linking Maban with Fur, Kadu with Eastern Sudanic, and Kuliak with the node that contained them, for the following structure:


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Georgiy Starostin (2016), using lexicostatistics based on Swadesh lists, is more inclusive than "Glottolog", and in addition finds probable and possible links between the families that will require reconstruction of the proto-languages for confirmation. Starostin also does not consider Greenberg's Nilo-Saharan to be a valid, coherent clade.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: In addition to the families listed in "Glottolog" (previous section), Starostin considers the following to be established:


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: A relationship of Nyima with Nubian, Nara, and Tama (NNT) is considered "highly likely" and close enough that proper comparative work should be able to demonstrate the connection if it's valid, though it would fall outside NNT proper (see Eastern Sudanic languages).


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: In summary, at this level of certainty, "Nilo-Saharan" constitutes ten distinct and separate language families: Eastern Sudanic, Central Sudanic – Kadu, Maba–Kunama, Komuz, Saharan, Songhai, Kuliak, Fur, Berta, and Shabo.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Possible further "deep" connections, which cannot be evaluated until the proper comparative work on the constituent branches has been completed, are:


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: There are faint suggestions that Eastern and Central Sudanic may be related (essentially the old Chari–Nile clade), though that possibility is "unexplorable under current conditions" and could be complicated if Niger–Congo were added to the comparison. Starostin finds no evidence that the Komuz, Kuliak, Saharan, Songhai, or Shabo languages are related to any of the other Nilo-Saharan languages. Mimi-D and Meroitic were not considered, though Starostin had previously proposed that Mimi-D was also an isolate despite its slight similarity to Central Sudanic.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: In a follow up study published in 2017, Starostin reiterated his previous points as well as explicitly accepting a genetic relationship between Macro-East Sudanic and Macro-Central Sudanic. Starostin names this proposal "Macro-Sudanic". The classification is as follows.


title: Nilo-Saharan languages

text: Starostin (2017) finds significant lexical similarities between Kadu and Central Sudanic, while some lexical similarities also shared by Central Sudanic with Fur-Amdang, Berta, and Eastern Sudanic to a lesser extent.