title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: After their defeat in the First Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch became much better prepared. From 1653, De Witt began to make plans for a "New Navy" to be constructed, with a core of sixty-four new, heavier ships of the line with 40 to 60 guns and 90 smaller convoy escorts, and more professional captains were sought for these. However, even the heavier Dutch ships were much lighter than the ten "big ships" of the English navy and, in 1664, when war threatened, the decision was taken to replace the Dutch fleet core by still heavier ships, although on the outbreak of war in 1665, these new vessels were mostly still under construction, and the Dutch only possessed four heavier ships of the line. At the time of the Battle of Lowestoft, the Dutch fleet included eighteen older warships reactivated after being laid up after the First Anglo-Dutch war, and several very large Dutch East India Company built hybrid ships which could be used for carrying cargo or in battle, although not as strongly built as pure warships. During the second war, the Dutch Republic was in a better financial position than England and quickly completed the new ships, with another twenty ordered and built, whereas England could only build a dozen ships, due to financial difficulties. However, de Witt saw that men, not materiel, were critical, and attempted to deal with the insubordination, lack of discipline and apparent cowardice among captains at the start of the war.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: In 1665, England boasted a population about four times as large as that of the Dutch Republic. This population was dominated by poor peasants, however, and so the only source of ready cash were the cities. The Dutch urban population exceeded that of England in both proportional and absolute terms and the Republic would be able to spend more than twice the amount of money on the war as England, the equivalent of £11,000,000. The outbreak of war was followed ominously by the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London, hitting the only major urban centre of the country. These events, occurring in such close succession, virtually brought England to its knees, as the English fleet had suffered from cash shortages even before these calamities, despite having been voted a record budget of £2,500,000 by the English parliament. However, as Charles lacked effective means of enforcing taxation; those taxes voted were collected neither in full nor quickly. For much of the war, Charles was dependent on loans raised in the City of London at interest rates which increased as the war progressed, to cover both collection delays and for expenditure in excess of the budget. Although the Duke of York had attempted to reform the finances of the Navy Board, cash flow remained a problem, and sailors were not paid wholly in cash, but mainly with "tickets", or debt certificates, which were only redeemed after long delays when cash was available. Receipts from the sale of goods carried by Dutch ships captured by Royal Navy warships and the ships themselves or, to a lesser extent, by privateers, were a valuable source of funds to finance for the Navy Board, and the attack on the Dutch East Indies fleet at Bergen had this as at least one of its objectives. However, a large part of the proceeds of these captures was retained by the captors, either illegally or returned to them as prize money and, although it has been claimed that English financial penury made the war's outcome dependent on the fortunes of its privateers, this was never more than an irregular windfall, and opportunities for capturing Dutch merchant vessels were greatest before and just after war was declared, diminishing as the war forced them to stay in port. Far fewer prizes were taken by the Royal Navy than in the First Anglo-Dutch War and, overall and particularly after 1665, Dutch privateers would be the more successful.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: A Franco-Dutch treaty had been signed in 1662, which involved a defensive alliance between the two countries, giving the Netherlands protection against an English attack and assuring France that the Netherlands would not assist Spain in the Spanish Netherlands. Although Louis XIV of France had signed this treaty, he considered that an Anglo-Dutch war was likely to obstruct his plans to acquire Habsburg territory there. Charles' ambassador in France reported the French opposition to the outbreak of such a war gave him the hope that, if the Dutch were provoked into declaring war, the French would evade their treaty obligations, and refuse to be drawn into a naval war with England. In the summer of 1664, Louis attempted to avert the threatened Anglo-Dutch war or, failing that, to confine it to Africa and America. These efforts to mediate an agreement failed, and the war commenced with a declaration of war by the Dutch on 4 March 1665, following English attacks on two Dutch convoys off Cadiz and in the English Channel.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: Even after the war began, Louis attempted to evade his obligation by strengthening the French embassy in London with two envoys  under the name of the "célèbre ambassade", which included an Ambassador Extraordinary in addition to the resident ambassador, to begin negotiations for a settlement of the Anglo-Dutch conflict. Its instructions were to offer terms including the restitution of each country's ships captured off America and Africa, and of their West African bases, and also financial compensation for English ships captured earlier in West Africa. However, the instructions did not propose that the New Netherlands should be included in any treaty, but settled by local fighting that would not involve a European War. The Dutch complained that these terms denied their rights to the New Netherlands.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: At the start of the war, both sides considered an early decisive battle was desirable, as English government finances could not sustain a long war, and an English blockade of Dutch ports and attacks on their merchant and fishing fleets would soon bring about their economic ruin. De Witt and the States General put pressure on their commander Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam to seek out the English fleet and bring it into battle, although his fleet was inferior in organisation, training, discipline and firepower to the English fleet. In their first at the Battle of Lowestoft on 13 June 1665, the Dutch suffered the worst defeat in the history the Dutch Republic's navy, with at least sixteen ships lost, and one-third of its personnel killed or captured.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: However, the English were unable to capitalise on their victory at Lowestoft, as the majority of the Dutch fleet escaped. The leading Dutch politician, the Grand Pensionary of Holland Johan de Witt, attempted to restore confidence by joining the fleet personally and dealt with failed or ineffective captains by executing three and exiling and dismissing others. Michiel de Ruyter was appointed to lead the Dutch fleet in July 1665, despite the previous appointment of Cornelis Tromp as acting commander in chief. Ruyter formalised new tactics. The Spice Fleet from the Dutch East Indies managed to return home safely after the battle of Vågen, although it was at first blockaded at Bergen, causing the financial position to swing in favour of the Dutch.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: In the summer of 1665 the bishop of Münster, Bernhard von Galen, an old enemy of the Dutch, was induced by promises of English subsidies to invade the Republic. At the same time, the English made overtures to Spain. Louis XIV was now concerned by the attack by Münster and the prospect of an English–Spanish coalition, and the effect this might have on his conquering the Spanish Netherlands. He first arranged for other German states to obstruct the passage of Munster troops and promised to send a French army corps to Germany. Louis was still unwilling to act against England under the 1662 defensive treaty, so he revived his attempts to mediate a settlement. The French ambassadors, with de Witt's assent, offered to accept the loss of the New Netherlands and of two West African posts seized by Holmes and to return a third post seized by de Ruyter. However, the English fleet's success at Lowestoft prompted Charles and his ministers to reject this offer and demand further surrenders of territory and a Dutch agreement to bear the costs of the war. When, in December 1665, Charles refused a French counter-offer, Louis withdrew both his ambassadors, signalling his intention to declare war.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: These events caused consternation at the English court. It now seemed that the Republic could end up as either a Habsburg possession or a French protectorate: either outcome would be disastrous for England's strategic position. Clarendon was ordered to make peace with the Dutch, quickly and without French mediation. Downing used his Orangist contacts to induce the province of Overijssel, whose countryside had been ravaged by Galen's troops, to ask the States General for a peace with England The Orangists naively wished to gain peace by conceding the English demand that the young William III should be made captain-general and admiral-general of the republic, which would ensure his eventual appointment to the stadtholderate. De Witt's position was, however, too strong for this Orangist attempt to seize power to succeed. In November, he promised Louis never to conclude a separate peace with England. On 11 December he openly declared that the only acceptable peace terms would be either a return to the "status quo ante bellum", or a quick end to hostilities under a "uti possidetis" clause.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: At the end of 1665, Henri Buat, a Frenchman with connections to the House of Orange, became involved in unofficial correspondence with Sir Gabriel Sylvius, who was acting on behalf of Lord Arlington, a minister of Charles II. Their correspondence was a means for the Dutch and English governments to explore possibilities of peace without commitment. At an early stage, Buat made the Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt fully aware of this correspondence, and Buat added material provided by de Witt to his letter, including possible peace terms, although de Witt was unsure whether Charles was genuinely seeking peace. Moreover, 1665 had seen Scotland enter the war, principally in a privateering capacity in which they proved to be particularly successful. However, Scottish privateering activities in 1665 were limited, because of delays in the Scottish Admiral issuing regular Letters of marque at the start of the war.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: After Battle of Lowestoft, Louis XIV was concerned that the destruction of the Dutch fleet would allow the English fleet to interfere with his plans in the Spanish Netherlands, so he again offered mediation, but as his credibility as mediator been undermined, this offer was rejected by England. Louis declared war on England on 16 January 1666, and the anti-English alliance was strengthened in the winter of 1666, when, in February, Frederick III of Denmark also declared war after receiving a large subsidy. Next, Brandenburg which had earlier been prompted by France to offer mediation, threatened to attack Münster from the east: as the promised English subsidies had remained largely hypothetical, Von Galen made peace with the Republic in April at Cleves.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: By February 1666, the negotiations using Buat as an intermediary had progressed to the stage where de Witt invited Charles II to start formal peace negotiations. An outline of the English peace proposals was forwarded through Buat but rejected by de Witt pending clarification of its terms. No clarification was provided, only repeated English insistence that someone duly authorised should be sent to London to negotiate peace. Both the States of Holland and the French ambassador rejected this proposal. During these negotiations, Buat was in contact with leading Orangists, including the Lord of Zuylestein and the Rotterdam regent Johan Kievit, although the Prince himself was not involved.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: By the spring of 1666, the Dutch had rebuilt their fleet with much heavier ships, thirty of them possessing more cannon than any Dutch ship available in early 1665, and threatened to join forces with the French. The greater part of the French fleet was in the Mediterranean under the duc de Beaufort, and Louis intended that much of this would be brought into the Atlantic to join up with the Atlantic squadron commanded by Abraham Duquesne. The combined fleet would then, it was intended, link up with the Dutch in the English Channel and outnumber the English fleet.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: Despite administrative and logistic difficulties, an English fleet of some eighty ships, under the joint command of the Duke of Albemarle and Prince Rupert of the Rhine, set sail at the end of May 1666. The French intention to bring the bulk of their Mediterranean fleet to join the Dutch fleet at Dunkirk was known to Prince Rupert by 10 May and discussed by Charles and his Privy Council on 13 May. When the Duke of Albemarle was informed, he agreed to detach a squadron of 20 generally fast or well-armed ships under Prince Rupert to block the Strait of Dover, provided he were left with at least 70 ships to fight the Dutch. Rupert was detached on 29 May (Julian calendar) to prevent Beaufort passing through the English Channel to join the Dutch fleet. In the event the French fleet did not appear, because Beaufort, who had left Toulon in April 1666 with 32 fighting ships, delayed at Lisbon for six weeks, during which time the English and Dutch fleets fought the Four Days' Battle, one of the longest major naval engagements during the age of sail.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: Leaving the Downs, Albemarle came upon De Ruyter's fleet of 85 ships at anchor, and he immediately engaged the nearest Dutch ship before the rest of the fleet could come to its assistance. The Dutch rearguard under Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Tromp withdrew upon a starboard tack, taking the battle toward the Flemish shoals, compelling Albemarle to turn about to prevent being outflanked by the Dutch rear and centre. This culminated in a ferocious unremitting battle that raged until nightfall. At daylight on 2 June, Albemarle's strength of operable vessels was reduced to 44 ships, but with these, he renewed the battle tacking past the enemy four times in close action. With his fleet in too poor a condition to continue to challenge, he then retired towards the Thames Estuary with the Dutch in pursuit.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: The following day Albemarle ordered the damaged ships to lead, protecting them from the Dutch fleet by stationing his most powerful ships as a rearguard on the 3rd, until Prince Rupert, returning with his twenty ships, joined him. During this stage of the battle, Vice-Admiral George Ayscue, accidentally grounded in the "Prince Royal", one of the nine remaining "big ships", and surrendered. This was the last time in history that an English admiral surrendered in battle. After this loss and the return of several badly damaged ships to port, Albemarle, reinforced by Rupert's fresh squadron had 52 ships to face the Dutch with 57 ships. After Rupert broke the Dutch line and, with Albemarle attacked Tromp with superior numbers, de Ruyter decided the battle on the fourth day, by a surprise all-out attack when Tromp seemed about to be defeated. When the English retreated, De Ruyter was reluctant to follow, perhaps because of lack of gunpowder.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: The battle ended with both sides claiming victory: the English because they contended Dutch Lieutenant Admiral Michiel de Ruyter had retreated first, the Dutch because they had inflicted much greater losses on the English, who lost ten ships against the Dutch four. Although the Dutch claim seems more valid, their rejoicing was out of proportion to what had been achieved. It had taken four days to force a weaker, and before Rupert's return much weaker, English opponent that had close to defeating them on the second and fourth days. and their belief that the English fleet was destroyed as a fighting force was shown to be false a few weeks later.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: One more major sea battle would be fought in the conflict. St. James's Day Battle of 4 and 5 August ended in English victory, but failed to decide the war as the Dutch fleet escaped annihilation, although suffering heavy casualties. At this stage, simply surviving was sufficient for the Dutch, as the English could hardly afford to replace their losses even after a victory. Tactically indecisive, with the Dutch losing two ships and the English one, the battle would have enormous political implications. Cornelis Tromp, commanding the Dutch rear, had defeated his English counterpart, but was accused by De Ruyter of being responsible for the plight of the main body of the Dutch fleet by chasing the English rear squadron as far as the English coast. As Tromp was the champion of the Orange party, the conflict led to much party strife. Because of this, Tromp was fired by the States of Holland on August 13.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: In addition to proposing peace to de Witt, Arlington and Sylvius had plotted to provoke Orangist coup d'état against the Republic, to restore the stadtholderate, overthrow de Witt and end the war. Five days after St. James's Day Battle, Charles sent another peace offer, again using Buat as an intermediary. Sylvius also sent Buat details of the plot: these were for his contacts in the Orange party but were mistakenly included by Buat with the peace offer handed to the Grand Pensionary. Buat was arrested and those most involved in the conspiracy, including Kievit, fled to England. De Witt used the evidence of the plot to isolate the Orange movement and reaffirm his commitment to the French alliance. Buat was condemned for treason and beheaded in October 1666.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: The mood in the Republic now turned very belligerent, because on 19 August, the English Vice-Admiral Robert Holmes raided the Vlie estuary and destroyed up to 150 merchantmen sheltering there valued at around £1 million, with only ten escaping, in an action later known as Holmes's Bonfire. The next day Holmes' men also landed on the island of Terschelling and, finding little of value, they burnt the small town of West-Terschelling to the ground, an act regarded by the Dutch as senseless destruction of a harmless fishing village. In this, he was assisted by a Dutch captain, Laurens Heemskerck, who had fled from the Netherlands for cowardice shown during the battle of Lowestoft, and was afterwards condemned in absentia to perpetual banishment from the Netherlands.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: After the Fire of London in September, the Navy Board was unable to pay the wages of the fleet and began to discharge many sailors without paying their wages, ensuring that it would be impossible to send out a major fleet in 1667. Swedish mediation was offered in the autumn and informal discussions began, which led to the opening of formal negotiations in the following March. Charles was prepared to make some concessions, although he still required the return of the nutmeg island of Pulau Run and certain indemnities. The Dutch were unwilling to concede even his reduced demands, although discussions continued.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: The extent of Scottish privateering greatly increased in this year with the issue of twenty-five commissions in the three months from April 1666, the start of an intense 17-month period in which 108 Dutch, French and Danish vessels were recorded as captured by twenty or so Scottish privateers. Their success arose from the strategic position of Scotland, once most of the Atlantic seaborne trade of northern Europe was diverted around Scotland to avoid the English Channel, and the Dutch whaling and herring fleets operated in waters north and east of Scotland, so they were vulnerable to Scottish privateers. Apart from ships of the Dutch East India Company, many Dutch merchant ships and of its Danish ally were poorly armed and undermanned.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: By early-1667, the financial position of the English crown had become desperate. The kingdom lacked sufficient funds to maintain their fleet's seaworthiness, so it was decided in February that the heavy ships were to remain laid up at Chatham, with only a small "Flying Fleet" manned to attack Dutch merchant shipping, which lowered morale in the fleet and prevented merchant ship from sailing and colliers from reaching London without fear of Dutch interception. Clarendon informed Charles as to his only two options: to make very substantial concessions to Parliament, or to initiate peace talks with the Dutch under their conditions, which began in March. Charles had wished for peace talks to be held in England or, failing that, at The Hague, but the Dutch offered three other cities where support for the House of Orange was less and Charles selected Breda, in the southern Generality Lands. In the meantime, a Dutch fleet was assembled in the Texel under the command of Willem van Ghent. One of the motives was to destroy the Scottish privateering fleet in the Firth of Forth. In a series of running encounters with Scottish privateers at sea, and various shore batteries (particularly at Burntisland) the Dutch were seen off with the loss of three ships damaged. Thereafter, Scottish privateers followed the Dutch into the North Sea where they without any difficulty picked off stragglers. In the southern part of Britain, things did not go so well.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: As England was also at war with France, Charles sent envoys to Paris in March for unofficial preliminary talks on peace terms. In view of deteriorating Franco-Dutch relations, these talks turned to a third option not considered by Clarendon: a secret alliance with France. In April, Charles concluded his first secret treaty with Louis, stipulating that England would not enter into alliances that might oppose a French conquest of the Spanish Netherlands. In May, the French invaded, starting the War of Devolution. Charles hoped, by means of stalling the talks at Breda, to gain enough time to ready his fleet to obtain concessions from the Dutch, using the French advance as leverage.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: De Witt was aware of Charles's general intentions – though not of the secret treaty. He decided to attempt to end the war with a single stroke. Ever since its actions in Denmark in 1659, involving many landings to liberate the Danish Isles, the Dutch navy had made a special study of amphibious operations; the Dutch Marine Corps was established in 1665. After the Four Days' Battle, a Dutch marine contingent had been ready to land in Kent or Essex following a possible Dutch victory at sea. The Dutch fleet was, however, unable to force a safe passage into the Thames as navigational buoys had been removed and a strong English squadron was ready to dispute their passage. But now there was no English fleet able to contest a similar attack. De Witt conceived the plan for a landing of marines, to be overseen by his brother Cornelius, at Chatham where the fleet lay effectively defenceless, to destroy it.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: In June, De Ruyter, with Cornelis de Witt supervising, launched the Dutch raid on the Medway at the mouth of the River Thames. After capturing the fort at Sheerness, the Dutch fleet went on to break through the massive chain protecting the entrance to the Medway and, on the 13th, attacked the laid up English fleet.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: The daring raid remains one of the largest disasters in the history of the Royal Navy and its predecessors. Fifteen of the Royal Navy's remaining ships were destroyed, either by the Dutch or by being scuttled by the English to block the river. Three of the eight remaining "big ships" were burnt: "Royal Oak", the new "Loyal London" and "Royal James". The largest English flagship, , was abandoned by its skeleton crew, captured without a shot being fired, and towed back to the United Provinces as a trophy. Its counter decoration depicting the royal arms is on display in the Rijksmuseum. Fortunately for the English, the Dutch marines spared the Chatham Dockyard, at the time England's largest industrial complex; a land attack on the docks themselves would have set back English naval power for a generation. A Dutch attack on the English anchorage at Harwich had to be abandoned however after the battle of Landguard Fort ended in Dutch failure.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: The Dutch success made a major psychological impact throughout England, with London feeling especially vulnerable just a year after the Great Fire of London. However, for a second time, the Dutch had been unable to land substantial land forces in Britain, or even do substantial damage to the Chatham dockyard. The raid did, together with the English financial crisis, speed up negotiations. All this, together with the cost of the war, of the Great Plague and the extravagant spending of Charles's court, produced a rebellious atmosphere in London. Clarendon ordered the English envoys at Breda to sign a peace quickly, as Charles feared an open revolt.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: The Second Anglo-Dutch war had spread to the Caribbean islands, and in late 1665 an English force, mainly consisting of buccaneers under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Edward Morgan, the Deputy Governor of Jamaica, assisted by his nephew Thomas Morgan, quickly captured the Dutch islands of Sint Eustatius and Saba. After his uncle's death in December 1665, Thomas Morgan was appointed as governor of these two islands. Also in late 1665, an English force from Jamaica and Barbados captured the Dutch possession of Tobago. The French declaration of war on the side of the Dutch altered the balance of power in the Caribbean and facilitated a Dutch counterattack. The first successes of the new allies were the French recapture of Tobago in August 1666, a joint Franco-Dutch recapture of Sint Eustatius in November 1666 and a French capture of the English island of Antigua in the same month. The arrival of a French squadron under Joseph-Antoine de La Barre in January 1667 allowed the French to occupy the English half of St Kitts and Montserrat, leaving only Nevis of the Leeward Islands in English hands, together with Jamaica and Barbados to the west.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: A Dutch force under Admiral Abraham Crijnssen, organised by the province of Zeeland, not the States General, arrived at Cayenne in February 1667 and captured Suriname from the English in the same month. Crijnssen delayed in Suriname until April, then sailed to Tobago, which had been vacated by the French after expelling the English garrison, where he rebuilt the fort and left a small garrison. Although Crijnssen was instructed not to delay, it was not until early May that he and de La Barre combined forces, agreeing to a Franco-Dutch invasion of Nevis, which sailed on 17 May 1667. However, their attack was repelled in the Battle of Nevis on 17 May by a smaller English force. This confused naval action was the only one in this war where all three navies fought: it failed largely through de la Barre's incompetence. After this failed attack, Crijnssen left in disgust and sailed to the north to attack the Virginia colony, while the French, under de la Barre, moved to Martinique. The Battle of Nevis restored English naval control in the Caribbean and allowed the early recapture of Antigua and Montserrat and an unsuccessful attack on St Kitts soon after.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: In April, a new English squadron of nine warships and two fireships under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir John Harman sailed for the West Indies, reaching them in early June. Harman encountered the French with seven larger and 14 smaller warships and three fireships under la Barre anchored under the batteries of Fort St Pierre, Martinique. He attacked on 6 July and sunk, burnt or captured all but two the French ships. With the French fleet neutralised, Harman then attacked the French at Cayenne on 15 September forcing its garrison to surrender. The English fleet then went on to recapture Fort Zeelandia in Suriname in October. News of these English victories only reached England in September, after the Treaty of Breda had been signed, and possessions captured after 31 July had to be returned. Crijnssen sailed back to the Caribbean only to find the French fleet destroyed and the English back in possession of Suriname.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: On 31 July 1667, what is generally known as the Treaty of Breda concluded peace between England and the Netherlands. The treaty allowed the English to keep possession of New Netherland, while the Dutch kept control over Pulau Run and the valuable sugar plantations of Suriname and regained Tobago, St Eustatius, and its West African trading posts. This "uti possidetis" solution was later confirmed in the Treaty of Westminster. The Act of Navigation was modified in favour of the Dutch by England agreeing to treat Germany as part of the Netherlands' commercial hinterland, so that Dutch ships would now be allowed to carry German goods to English ports.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: In the same date and also at Breda, a public treaty was concluded between England and France that stipulated the return to England of the former English part of St Christopher and the islands of Antigua and Montserrat, all of which the French had occupied in the war, and that England should surrender its claim to Acadia to France, although the extent of Acadia was not defined. This public treaty had been preceded by a secret treaty signed on 17 April in which, in addition to these exchanges of territory, Louis and Charles agreed not to enter into alliances opposed to the interests of the other, by which Louis secured the neutrality of England in the war he planned against Spain.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: The order of priorities whereby the Dutch preferred to give up what would become a major part of the United States, and instead retain a tropical colony, would seem strange by present-day standards. However, in the 17th century tropical colonies producing agricultural products which could not be grown in Europe were deemed more valuable than ones with a climate similar to that of Europe where Europeans could settle in comfort.


title: Second Anglo-Dutch War

text: The peace was generally seen as a personal triumph for Johan de Witt and an embarrassment to the Orangists, who seemed reluctant to support the war and eager to accept a disadvantageous early peace. The Republic was jubilant about the Dutch victory. De Witt used the occasion to induce four provinces to adopt the Perpetual Edict of 1667 abolishing the stadtholderate forever. He used the weak position of Charles II to force him into the Triple Alliance of 1668 which again forced Louis to temporarily abandon his plans for the conquest of the southern Netherlands. But de Witt's success would eventually produce his downfall and nearly that of the Republic with it. Both humiliated monarchs intensified their secret cooperation through the Secret Treaty of Dover and would, joined by the bishop of Münster, attack the Dutch in 1672 in the Third Anglo-Dutch War. De Witt was unable to counter this attack, as he could not create a strong Dutch army for lack of money and for fear that it would strengthen the position of the young William III. That same year de Witt was assassinated, and William became stadtholder.


title: Michael Badalucco

text: Michael Badalucco (born December 20, 1954) is an American actor. He made his screen debut in the film "Raging Bull" (1980) and subsequently appeared in many films such as "Desperately Seeking Susan" (1985), "Miller's Crossing" (1990), "Jungle Fever" (1991), "Mac" (1992), "" (1994), "Summer of Sam" (1999), "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" (2000) and "The Man Who Wasn't There" (2001). His breakthrough role came as attorney Jimmy Berlutti in the television series "The Practice" (1997–2004), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999.


title: Michael Badalucco

text: Badalucco, an Italian American, was born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, the son of Jean, a homemaker, and Joe Badalucco, a set dresser, movie set carpenter and property person. His brother is actor Joseph Badalucco Jr., whose most notable role was Jimmy Altieri in the television series "The Sopranos".


title: Michael Badalucco

text: He attended Xaverian High School in Brooklyn, graduating in 1972. He was the guest speaker at the 2005 commencement. He later attended SUNY New Paltz in New Paltz, New York. Badalucco has been married to Brenda Heyob since 1996.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Femi Otedola (born 4 November 1962) is a Nigerian businessman, philanthropist, and former chairman of Forte Oil PLC, an importer of fuel products. Otedola is the founder of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, and the owner of a number of other businesses across shipping, real estate and finance. He has recently invested in power generation as part of the liberalisation of the sector in Nigeria.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Otedola was born in Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State, south west Nigeria, into the family of the late Sir Michael Otedola, Governor of Lagos State from 1992 to 1993.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Femi Otedola's first daughter, Tolani, is a singer. She was born to Otedola and his former lover, Olayinka Odukoya. Later, Femi married Nana Otedola and had two more daughters—Florence Ifeoluwa and Elizabeth Temi—and a son, Fewa. Florence Otedola, aka DJ Cuppy, is a DJ and music producer, as well as a tourism ambassador for Nigeria. Her younger sister, Temi, is an actress, a style blogger and aspiring designer. Otedola has homes in Lagos, Abuja, Dubai, London and New York City.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 2003, having identified an opportunity in the fuel retail market, Otedola secured the finance to set up Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, a petroleum products marketing and distribution company.


title: Femi Otedola

text: As owner and chairman of Zenon, in 2004 he invested N15 billion in downstream infrastructure development and acquired storage depots at Ibafon, Apapa as well as four cargo vessels, amounting to a combined total storage capacity of 147,000 metric tonnes. The same year he acquired a fleet of 100 DAF fuel-tanker trucks for N1.4 billion.


title: Femi Otedola

text: By 2005, Zenon controlled a major share of the Nigerian diesel market, supplying fuel to most of the major manufacturers in the country including Dangote Group, Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Nigerian Breweries, MTN, Unilever, Nestle and Guinness.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In March 2007, it was announced that ten banks had approved a syndicated loan of US$1.5 billion (N193.5 billion) to Zenon as working capital to build the largest premium motor spirit storage facility in Africa. Later that year Zenon acquired a 28.7 per cent stake in African Petroleum, one of Nigeria's largest fuel marketers. Zenon also invested across the financial sector, becoming the largest shareholder in a number of Nigerian banks including Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA). As well as diesel, Zenon also became an important player in the kerosene market.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 2012, Zenon was among a number of companies named in a report into an alleged fuel subsidy scam. According to the report Zenon owed the government $1.4 million. It was further reported that Farouk Lawan, the Nigerian legislator who compiled the report, had apparently been filmed collecting $500,000 of a supposed total sum of $3 million from Femi Otedola to remove Zenon from the list. It subsequently emerged that Otedola had previously reported Lawan's harassment and demands for bribes to the State Security Services, who had orchestrated a sting operation. Lawan was charged with corruption in February 2013.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 2007, Otedola was appointed chairman and chief executive of Africa Petroleum through the acquisition of a controlling stake in the business. In December that year he personally acquired a further 29.3 per cent of the company for N40 billion. A merger of this personal holding with Zenon's brought Otedola's total stake to 55.3 per cent.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Following Otedola's entry into the company African Petroleum's share price rose sharply, increasing the market capitalisation from N36 billion to N217 billion in six months. In 2008, in response to public concerns over the availability and pricing of kerosene, African Petroleum launched an initiative to saturate the market and sell fuel at N50 per litre from more than 500 service stations across Nigeria.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In March 2009, Otedola became the second Nigerian after Aliko Dangote to appear on the Forbes list of dollar-denominated billionaires, with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In October 2009, Otedola announced a move to upgrade African Petroleum's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) storage terminals in Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Difficult economic conditions caused by the slump in world oil prices and credit squeeze of 2008–09 led African Petroleum to record a loss in 2009.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In December 2010, African Petroleum rebranded, changing its name to Forte Oil PLC. Otedola carried out a restructuring of the business, focusing on technology and improved corporate governance. Forte Oil returned to profit in 2012.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 2013, as part of the Federal Government's push to liberalise Nigeria's ailing power sector, Otedola financed 57% of Forte Oil subsidiary Amperion Ltd, which acquired the 414 MW Geregu Power Plant for $132 million.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Forte's improved financial position and diversification into power generation resulted in a 1,321 per cent rise in its share price during 2013. The first half of 2014 saw the company's pre-tax profit more than double year-on-year to 4.19 billion naira ($25.7 million). Revenue growth for the whole year was 33 per cent.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In November 2014, Otedola returned to the Forbes rich list having dropped off it following the fall in share price during 2009.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In September 2015 Forte Oil sold 17 per cent of its equity to Swiss commodity trader Mercuria Energy Group, giving Forte access to global commodity markets. The deal was thought to have given Otedola an estimated $200 million.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 2019, Femi Otedola sold Forte Oil Plc and announced plans to change focus from oil to power with his company, Geregu Power Plc.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 1994, Otedola established CentreForce Ltd, specialising in finance, investments and trading. Otedola is also the owner of Swift Insurance.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Otedola is chief executive and president of SeaForce Shipping Company Ltd and was at one point Nigeria's largest ship owner after extending control over the distribution of diesel products. One of his ships, a flat bottomed bunker vessel with a storage capacity of 16,000 metric tonnes, was the first of its kind in Africa.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In January 2006, Otedola was appointed a non-executive director of Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc, a multi-sectoral conglomerate established in 2004 by then-President Olusegun Obasanjo to respond to market opportunities requiring heavy capital investment in Nigeria and across sub-Saharan Africa. He held this post until February 2011.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Otedola has made a number of real estate investments, including a N2.3 billion acquisition in February 2007 by Zenon of Stallion House in Victoria Island in Lagos, from the Federal Government. The following month he was appointed chairman of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja and tasked with driving its expansion and upgrade to a seven star facility. He is the owner of FO Properties Ltd.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Otedola has been reported to be a financier of the People's Democratic Party and is said to have contributed N100 million to President Obasanjo's re-election expenses in 2003. He was a close ally of President Goodluck Jonathan. He has served as a member of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) since 2004, and the same year was appointed to a committee tasked with developing commercial relations with South Africa.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 2011, Femi Otedola was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan to Nigeria's National Economic Management Team.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Currently, as at October 2021, he was announced as the single largest shareholder (5.07%) of First bank PLC.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 2012, Femi Otedola was reported by reliable media houses to have given bribe to Boniface Emenalo and Farouk Lawan who was at then, the Chairman of the House Committee on Fuel Subsidy Regime, "integrity group" a sum of $620,000. The reason reported by witnesses as pertains the actions of Femi Otedola was that he wanted the name of his company removed from the list of firms indicted by Farouq Lawan's committee for abusing the fuel subsidy regime in 2012 . Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo were at risk of going to prison if found guilty of receiving money from Femi Otedola as receiving of bribe by a government official is an offense punishable by Imprisonment.


title: Femi Otedola

text: On 2 February 2013, Both individuals Farouk Lawan and Boniface Emenalo were charged to court by Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Commission (ICPC) their trial was at the Capital Territory High Court in Abuja to face a seven-count charge of bribery, an offense that violates Section 10 (a) (ii) of ICPC Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 10 of that same Act.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Farouk Lawan plead not guilty, and initially so did Boniface Emenalo; however, events at the court of law took an unforeseen turn as Boniface Emenalo eventually admitted he was guilty and, in fact, had received several bribes on behalf of Farouk Lawan. Be that as it may, new evidence provided by the persecution was very concrete as Femi Otedola was caught red-handed in a video of him giving a bribe and Farouk Lawan accepting it.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In December 2016, Otedola was embroiled in a controversy where two Toronto-based sisters—Jyoti and Kiran Matharoo—reportedly tried to extort him by cyberbullying and blackmail, claiming they had evidence of Otedola cheating on his wife that they would post on a notorious sex-scandal website. The sisters dispute Otedola's account. According to their account Jyoti met Otedola, straight out of University, in 2008. He whisked her and Kiran to Nigeria, and began an affair with him. They acknowledge that his gifts enriched them, as did gifts from other wealthy boyfriends, but dispute they ever engaged in blackmail, or even demanding gifts.


title: Femi Otedola

text: Otedola has made several donations to the Michael Otedola University Scholarship Scheme, which was established in 1985 to give underprivileged students in Lagos State access to higher education. In 2005 Zenon donated N200 million to the scheme's fund. Since its inception the scheme has benefited more than 1,000 students.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 2005, Otedola made a N300 million personal donation to the completion of the National Ecumenical Centre—Nigeria's primary place of Christian worship—in Abuja.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 2007 he was among a group of donors who gave N200 million to the State Security Trust Fund in a drive to reduce crime in Lagos State. Later that year he donated N100 million to the Otedola College of Primary Education in Noforija, Epe.


title: Femi Otedola

text: In 2008 he donated N80 million to the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Port Harcourt. Femi Otedola fulfilled his pledge of 25,000 dollars to the Super Eagles in the match against Algeria in the 2019 AFCON


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: The Razakars were the paramilitary volunteer force of the Muslim nationalist Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) party in the Hyderabad State under the British Raj. Formed in 1938 by the MIM leader Bahadur Yar Jung,


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: they expanded considerably during the leadership of Qasim Razvi around the time of Indian independence. They were deployed in the cause of maintaining Muslim rule in Hyderabad and resisting integration into India. Described as "enthusiastic" and "undisciplined", they targeted Hindus as well as Muslims whose loyalty was in question. They also fought communists who were launching a revolution in the state.


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: During the period November 1947–August 1948, when Hyderabad was under a Standstill Agreement with India, the Indian government made repeated demands to the Nizam of Hyderabad to disband the Razakars, which were all turned down. In the eventual armed invasion launched by India, dubbed 'police action', the Razakars formed the main resistance to the Indian Army.


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: The Nizam surrendered and agreed to disband the Razakars. Qasim Razvi was initially jailed and then allowed to move to Pakistan where he was granted asylum.


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: The Hyderabad State was a kingdom that was ruled by the Nizam. When India became independent in 1947, like all the other Princely states, the Hyderabad State was also given the choice of either joining India or Pakistan. The Nizam wanted neither; he wanted to remain independent. The Nizam finally entered into a standstill agreement with India on 29 November 1947 to maintain the "status quo".


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: Hyderabad state had been steadily becoming more theocratic since the beginning of the 20th century. In 1926, Mahmud Nawaz Khan, a retired Hyderabad official, founded the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (also known as MIM).


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: The MIM became a powerful organization, with the principal focus to marginalize the political aspirations of moderate Muslims.


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: MIM "had its storm troopers in the Razakars who were headed by Kasim Razvi, a Muslim educated at Aligarh University who claimed Hyderabad was a Muslim state and that Muslim supremacy was based upon the right of conquest". The Razakars demanded special powers from the Nizam, which they started to misuse and the Nizam had to abide by their dictates. The Nizam sent a delegation to the United Nations to refer the Hyderabad State case to the UN Security Council.


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: The Razakar militia brutally put down the armed revolts by Communist sympathizers and the peasantry and even eliminated Muslim activists such as journalist Shoebullah Khan who advocated merger with India. The Razakars terrorised the Hindu population and its sympathizers, causing many to flee to safety into the jungles, uninhabited mud forts, or neighboring Indian provinces. The Hyderabad State Congress was banned and its leaders forced to flee to Bezawada or Bombay.


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: Finally, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the Indian Minister for Home Affairs, decided to undertake "police action" in Hyderabad State to force the King Nizam's hand. Operation Polo was launched and the Indian Army, led by Major General J. N. Chaudhuri, entered the state from five directions. The Razakars fought briefly against the overwhelming attack by Indian forces before surrendering on 18 September 1948. Mir Laik Ali, the prime minister of the Nizam, and Qasim Rizvi were arrested.


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: On 22 September 1948, the Nizam withdrew his complaint from the UN Security Council. The merger of Hyderabad into the Indian Union was announced.


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: Major General Chaudhuri took over as military governor of Hyderabad and stayed in that position till the end of 1949. In January 1950, M. K. Vellodi, a senior civil servant was made the Chief Minister of the state and the Nizam was given the position of "Raj Pramukh" or "Governor".


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: The Pandit Sunderlal Committee Report estimated that between 27,000 and 40,000 lost their lives in the violence that ensued the operation.


title: Razakars (Hyderabad)

text: The Razakars were disbanded after the merger of Hyderabad with India and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen was initially banned—though it was allowed to be rechartered as All India MIM (AIMIM) under new leadership in 1957. Qasim Rizvi was jailed and served in Indian prisons for almost a decade. After his release, he migrated to Pakistan.


title: Sinecure

text: A sinecure ( or ; from the Latin , 'without', and , 'care') is an office, carrying a salary or otherwise generating income, that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service. The term originated in the medieval church, where it signified a post without any responsibility for the "cure [care] of souls", the regular liturgical and pastoral functions of a cleric, but came to be applied to any post, secular or ecclesiastical, that involved little or no actual work. Sinecures have historically provided a potent tool for governments or monarchs to distribute patronage, while recipients are able to store up titles and easy salaries.


title: Sinecure

text: A sinecure can also be given to an individual whose primary job is in another office, but requires a sinecure title to perform that job. For example, the Government House Leader in Canada is often given a sinecure ministry position so that they may become a member of the Cabinet. Similar examples are the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the British cabinet. The minister without portfolio is a frequent example of this sinecure, often employed to give cabinet-level positions to enough members of all partners in a coalition government. Other sinecures operate as legal fictions, such as the British office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, used as a legal excuse for resigning from Parliament.


title: Sinecure

text: "Sinecure", properly a term of ecclesiastical law for a benefice without the cure of souls, arose in the English Church when the rector had no cure of souls nor resided in the parish, the work of the incumbent being performed by a vicar. Such sinecure rectories were expressly granted by the patron. They were abolished by Parliament under the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act of 1840.


title: Sinecure

text: Other ecclesiastical sinecures were certain cathedral dignities to which no spiritual functions attached or incumbencies where by reason of depopulation and the like, the parishioners disappeared or the parish church was allowed to decay. Such cases eventually ceased to exist.


title: Sinecure

text: The term is also used of any office or place to which salary emoluments or dignity, but no duties, are attached. The British civil service and the royal household, for example, were loaded with innumerable offices which, by lapse of time, had become sinecures and were only kept as the reward of political services or to secure voting power in parliament. They were prevalent in the 18th century, but were gradually abolished by statutes during that and the following centuries.


title: Ashi Singh

text: Ashi Singh is an Indian television actress. She portrayed the role of Naina Agarwal in "Sony Entertainment Television's Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai". In 2020, she appeared as Princess Yasmine in "Sony SAB's Aladdin - Naam Toh Suna Hoga". Since 2021, she is appearing as Meet Hooda in "Zee TV's Meet".


title: Ashi Singh

text: Ashi Singh made her television debut through the show "Secret Diaries: The Hidden Chapters" in 2015. She was also seen in "Gumrah", "Crime Patrol" and "Savdhaan India". She made a cameo appearance in "Qaidi Band" as the jailer's daughter.


title: Ashi Singh

text: In 2017, she was selected to play the lead role of Naina Agarwal in SET India's "Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai" opposite Randeep Rai. The show ran successfully until August 2019.


title: Ashi Singh

text: In July 2020, after Avneet Kaur quit the show on health basis, Ashi then played Yasmine on Sony SAB's "Aladdin - Naam Toh Suna Hoga" opposite Siddharth Nigam.


title: Ashi Singh

text: In 2019, she featured on the cover of "Eastern Eye" in its 1500th issue, under the title of "The Future Belongs to Ashi Singh".


title: Japanese whisky

text: Japanese whisky is a style of whisky developed and produced in Japan. Whisky production in Japan began around 1870, but the first commercial production was in 1923 upon the opening of the country's first distillery, Yamazaki. Broadly speaking, the style of Japanese whisky is more similar to that of Scotch whisky than other major styles of whisky.


title: Japanese whisky

text: There are several companies producing whisky in Japan, but the two best-known and most widely available are Suntory and Nikka. Both of these produce blended as well as single malt whiskies and blended malt whiskies, with their main blended whiskies being Suntory , and Black Nikka Clear. There are also many special bottlings and limited editions.


title: Japanese whisky

text: The production of Japanese whisky began as a conscious effort to recreate the style of Scotch whisky. Pioneers like Taketsuru carefully studied the process of making Scotch whisky, and went to great lengths in an attempt to recreate that process in Japan. The location of Yoichi in Hokkaidō was chosen particularly for its terrain and climate, which were in many ways reminiscent of Scotland (although financial constraints resulted in the first distillery actually being built in the more convenient location of Yamazaki on the main island).


title: Japanese whisky

text: By 2024, products labeled as "Japanese whisky" will conform to new regulations. Japanese whisky must be fermented, distilled, and aged, and bottled in Japan, use some portion of malted grain in its mash, and use water sourced from Japan.


title: Japanese whisky

text: One facet of the style of Japanese whisky comes from the way in which blended whisky is produced, and the differing nature of the industry in Japan. Despite the recent rise of interest in single malt whiskies, the vast majority of whisky sold in the world is still blended. In Scotland, while a particular brand of blended whisky may be owned by a company that also owns one or more distilleries, it is common for blended whisky bottlers to trade single malt whiskies. The components of a blend may involve malt whisky from a number of distilleries, which may be owned by different companies. In Japan, however, the industry is vertically integrated, meaning whisky companies own both the distilleries and the brands of blended whiskies, and do not trade with their competitors. So a blended whisky in Japan will generally only contain malt whisky from the distilleries owned by that same company.


title: Japanese whisky

text: Two of the most influential figures in the history of Japanese whisky are Shinjiro Torii and Masataka Taketsuru. Torii was a pharmaceutical wholesaler and the founder of Kotobukiya (later to become Suntory). He started importing western liquor and he later created a brand called "Akadama Port Wine", based on a Portuguese wine which made him a successful merchant. However, he was not satisfied with this success and so he embarked on a new venture which was to become his life's work: making Japanese whisky for Japanese people. Despite the strong opposition from the company's executives, Torii decided to build the first Japanese whisky distillery in Yamazaki, a suburb of Kyoto, an area so famous for its excellent water that the legendary tea master Sen no Rikyū built his tearoom there.


title: Japanese whisky

text: Torii hired Masataka Taketsuru as a distillery executive. Taketsuru had studied the art of distilling in Scotland, and brought this knowledge back to Japan in the early 1920s. While working for Kotobukiya he played a key part in helping Torii establish the Yamazaki Distillery. In 1934 he left Kotobukiya to form his own company—Dainipponkaju—which would later change its name to Nikka. In this new venture he established the Yoichi distillery in Hokkaidō.


title: Japanese whisky

text: The first westerners to taste Japanese whisky were soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force Siberia who took shore leave in Hakodate in September 1918. A brand called Queen George, described by one American as a "Scotch whisky made in Japan", was widely available. Exactly what it was is unknown, but it was quite potent and probably quite unlike Scotch whisky.


title: Japanese whisky

text: By the 2020s, Japanese distilleries were importing spirits for use in blends. The Japanese government passed legislation in 2021 legally defining "Japanese whisky", with implementation by 2024.


title: Japanese whisky

text: Before 2000, the market for Japanese whiskies was almost entirely domestic, though this changed in 2001 when Nikka's 10-year Yoichi single malt won "Best of the Best" at "Whisky Magazine"s awards.


title: Japanese whisky

text: In the blind tasting organized by "Whisky Magazine" in 2003, the results of which are published in WM #30, the winners of the category "Japanese Whiskies" were:


title: Japanese whisky

text: In the main ranking (covering all categories of whisky) Hibiki 21 YO made it to rank 9 and Nikka Yoichi 10 to rank 14.


title: Japanese whisky

text: Japanese whiskies have been winning top honors in international competitions, notably Suntory. At the 2003 International Spirits Challenge, Suntory Yamazaki won a gold medal, and Suntory whiskies continued to win gold medals every year through 2013, with all three malt whiskies winning a trophy (the top prize) in either 2012 (Yamazaki 18 years old and Hakushu 25 years old) or 2013 (Hibiki 21 years old), and Suntory itself winning distiller of the year in 2010, 2012, and 2013. The resultant acclaim nudged Japan's distilleries to market overseas.


title: Japanese whisky

text: "Whisky Magazine" has organized a series of blind tastings which have included Japanese single malts in the lineup, along with malts from distilleries considered to be among the best in Scotland. On more than one occasion, the results have had Japanese single malts (particularly those of Nikka's Yoichi and Suntory's Yamazaki) scoring higher than their Scottish counterparts.


title: Japanese whisky

text: In August 2018, a 50-year-old Yamazaki first edition went for record $343,000 at a Bonhams auction in Hong Kong.


title: Japanese whisky

text: The whisky produced by Venture Whisky Co., Ltd., which owns Chichibu distillery, was also highly evaluated and won the World's Best Blended Limited Release category for five consecutive years from 2017 to 2021 in a competition organized by "Whisky Magazine".


title: Japanese whisky

text: As of 2011, when the Shinshu Mars distillery reopened, there were around nine active whisky distilleries in Japan. Active distilleries as of 2020 include:


title: Japanese whisky

text: Japanese whisky is consumed either like Scotch whisky or like Japanese shōchū. The bulk of Japanese blended whisky is consumed in cocktails, notably as whisky (similar to shōchū highballs, known as chūhai), while fine whisky is primarily drunk neat or on the rocks, as with Scotch whisky. Advertising for blended whisky generally features it consumed in a highball, and highballs made with Suntory's Kakubin are branded .


title: Japanese whisky

text: In addition to soda (in a highball), Japanese whisky is often drunk mixed with hot water , particularly in winter, or cold water , particularly in summer, as is done with shōchū. Whisky is also commonly drunk with food, particularly in mixed drinks, especially highballs. The prevalence of mixing whisky with soda or water is particularly attributed to the hot, muggy Japanese summer, hence the popularity of long drinks.


title: Des Lynam

text: Desmond Michael Lynam, (born 17 September 1942) is an Irish-born television and radio presenter. In a broadcasting career spanning more than forty years, he has hosted television coverage of many of the world's major sporting events, presenting "Grandstand", "Match of the Day", Wimbledon, the Grand National, "Sportsnight", the World Cup and Olympic Games, as well as presenting non-sporting programmes such as "Holiday", "How Do They Do That?" and "Countdown".


title: Des Lynam

text: Lynam was born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, and moved with his family to Brighton, England, at the age of six.


title: Des Lynam

text: He recalled having a strong Irish accent at that time, but eventually lost it. He passed the eleven-plus in 1954, to attend Varndean Grammar School. After sitting his A-levels, he went into the insurance business.


title: Des Lynam

text: Lynam started his career in broadcasting as a freelance radio journalist on BBC Radio Brighton (1968–1969). He quickly joined national BBC radio in London, and went on to anchor "Sport on Two" and "Sports Report" (1969–1978) on BBC Radio 2. From 1974 to 1976, he co-presented "the Today programme" on BBC Radio 4 on three mornings each week. He was also the radio boxing commentator for 20 years.


title: Des Lynam

text: Lynam moved to television in 1977 starting off with "Sportswide" as part of "Nationwide" continuing until the series ended in 1983, and then presented "Grandstand" (1979–1991, occasionally until 1999), "Sportsnight" (1991–1997) and "Match of the Day" (1988–1999) on the BBC for many years, and also fronted BBC coverage of Wimbledon (highlights 1983 to 1989 with Gerald Williams, main presenter 1991–1997 and 1999), the Grand National (1985–1999), the Football World Cup (1982–1998) and the Olympic Games (1980–1996).


title: Des Lynam

text: In April 1989, Lynam was present at the Hillsborough disaster whilst covering the FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest for "Match of the Day".


title: Des Lynam

text: Between 1988 and the end of the 1991–1992 season, the BBC had lost the rights for top flight league matches to ITV, although the BBC retained rights for the FA Cup. Lynam presented "Match of the Day" on FA Cup weekends for four years until the end of the 1991–1992 season. In August 1992, at the start of the new formation of the Premier League, the BBC regained highlights of top flight league matches. Lynam presented "Match of the Day" highlights of Premier League matches on the BBC until 1999.


title: Des Lynam

text: Throughout his time on the BBC, Lynam was praised for his witty and down-to-earth style. In 1998, Lynam made a brief return to BBC Radio 2, presenting the 5–7pm Drivetime show on Fridays only. During this period, Johnnie Walker presented the show from Monday to Thursday.


title: Des Lynam

text: Lynam moved from the BBC to ITV in August 1999, to present ITV's live football coverage, including coverage of the midweek UEFA Champions League. Lynam said at the time: "Leaving the BBC after 30 years was not an easy decision to make, but it was time for a new challenge – and it's no secret that live football is what I love best." A month earlier, Lynam had complained in a newspaper interview about BBC1's late scheduling on a Saturday evening of "Match of the Day", which had sometimes been shown with a late start time of 10.50pm. Lynam said: "The moment you put it past 10.30 I start fuming."


title: Des Lynam

text: ITV later gained a deal to air Premier League highlights. In 2001, Lynam presented "The Premiership", which was first aired on ITV at 7pm on 18 August 2001. After disappointing viewing figures in the first couple of months for "The Premiership" on ITV, a decision was made to shift the programme from its original 7pm slot to a permanent later time of 10:30pm, from 17 November 2001. The programme ran until May 2004.


title: Des Lynam

text: Lynam continued to present football coverage for ITV until 2004. He decided to retire from presenting live sport after the Euro 2004 football championships. Soon afterwards the BBC announced that Lynam would present a new weekly radio programme, "Des Meets...", on BBC Radio Five Live from August 2004.


title: Des Lynam

text: In May 2005, Lynam presented the BBC1 programme "We'll Meet Again", marking the 60th anniversary of VE Day. During the show Tara McDonald performed the song "We'll Meet Again" live. The following month, he presented an episode of "Have I Got News For You" on BBC1, the third time he had presented the show, having twice hosted the show the previous year.


title: Des Lynam

text: In June and July 2005, Lynam co-presented (with Sir David Frost) the series "The World's Greatest Sporting Legend" on Sky One. In the summer of 2005, Lynam also covered the Wimbledon Championships for BBC Radio Five Live.


title: Des Lynam

text: In October 2005, Lynam published his autobiography "I Should Have Been at Work". The title of the book is a reference to when Lynam said "Good afternoon. Shouldn't you be at work?" when introducing coverage of an England match at 2pm on a Monday afternoon during the 1998 Football World Cup finals.


title: Des Lynam

text: In 2005, Lynam said that he regretted his decision to move to ITV from the BBC in 1999. Lynam said: "If it was a decision I had to make now I probably wouldn't do it. Some people said I went from being a great broadcaster, or at least a very acceptably good one, to being a somewhat inadequate one overnight".


title: Des Lynam

text: Also that year, Lynam replaced Richard Whiteley as the host of Channel 4's "Countdown", with his first episode airing on 31 October 2005, following Whiteley's death. Although his contract was to last until December 2007, Lynam left "Countdown" after less than 18 months at the end of 2006, because he regularly needed to travel to Leeds where "Countdown" was recorded, while his home was in Worthing, West Sussex about 250 miles away. He was replaced by Des O'Connor. Lynam did, however, return for Countdown's 5000th episode, broadcast on 26 March 2010, as the Dictionary Corner guest.


title: Des Lynam

text: After leaving "Countdown", Lynam hosted "Sport Mastermind" and appeared in Setanta Sports' commercials for its coverage of the Premier League.


title: Des Lynam

text: In April 2009, Lynam spoke about his recollection of the Hillsborough disaster for a "Football Focus" special programme marking the 20th anniversary of the disaster.


title: Des Lynam

text: From 2011 to 2013, Lynam co-hosted, with Christopher Matthew, three series of "Touchline Tales" on BBC Radio 4, a humorous look at sport.


title: Des Lynam

text: In an interview, Lynam stated that "I liked the radio boxing commentaries very much, especially following Muhammad Ali around the world. That was a great period of my life."


title: Des Lynam

text: Lynam married Susan Skinner on 2 October 1965 and they had one son, Patrick (born 1970); however, by 1973 the marriage began to break down owing to Lynam's career commitments, and they divorced in 1974. Lynam married his long-term partner, Rosemary Diamond, in 2011.


title: Des Lynam

text: Lynam is a supporter of Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. In the 1990s he declined an invitation to join the board of directors at Brighton.


title: Des Lynam

text: In 2013, Lynam endorsed the United Kingdom Independence Party, revealing that he voted for the party in local elections that year.


title: Flag of Kurdistan

text: The flag of Kurdistan () is the flag of Kurds and created by the Society for the Rise of Kurdistan in 1920. It would later, in different variants, be adopted as the national flag of different Kurdish states including Republic of Ararat, Republic of Mahabad and most recently by Kurdistan Region in 1992. Moreover, the Kingdom of Kurdistan used the crescent flag (shown below) which was also considered a Kurdish flag.


title: Flag of Kurdistan

text: The flag was created in 1920 by the Society for the Rise of Kurdistan (CTK). Shortly after, it was used by the nationalist party Xoybûn who hoisted the flag over the city of Ağrı during the Ararat rebellion. In his memoir "Doza Kurdistan", Kurdish politician Kadri Cemilpaşa of the CTK declared that this flag was the national Kurdish flag whose colors and shape had now been defined. In 1925, during the trial of CTK politicians in Turkey, they stated that the Ottoman flag was dead and that the Kurdish flag would shine like a sun.


title: Flag of Kurdistan

text: During the same period, the crescent flag was hoisted in Sulaymaniyah by Mahmud Barzanji of the Kingdom of Kurdistan. According to historian Rafiq Hilmi, the Kingdom of Kurdistan considered the crescent flag as the national flag of Kurds. He wrote: ""A big meeting was held at the house of Şêx Qadir, the Speaker of the National Assembly, and with official permission, the official Kurdish flag was raised. On the day of the meeting, about 10,000 people gathered in front of the Grand Mosque.""


title: Flag of Kurdistan

text: Prior to the declaration of the Republic of Mahabad from Iran in 1946, Kurdish leaders in Iran from Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI) with support from Kurds in Iraq, had prepared the flag to be used as the national flag of the Mahabad Republic. The prepared flag was altered and approved by the KDPI who went on to hoist it in the official office of the Iranian government in Mahabad on 17 December 1945. When the republic was declared on 22 January 1946, the flag was hoisted at the main square while Ey Reqîb was being sung. In his speech, President Qazi Muhammad declared the flag as "flag of Kurdistan" and it was hoisted in all towns which was under his control. Days before the collapse of the republic, President Muhammad handed over the flag on his desk to Mustafa Barzani, leader of Kurdistan Democratic Party, who had fled to Mahabad after the 1943 Barzani revolt.


title: Flag of Kurdistan

text: The Kurdish flag is the most important symbol of cohesive Kurdish identity. Since it was first hoisted in 1946 to represent the concept of an independent Kurdistan (called the Republic of Mahabad and founded in Iranian territory) it has become a symbol of the national identity of Kurds.


title: Flag of Kurdistan

text: The main characteristic of the flag is the blazing golden sun emblem ("Roj" in Kurdish) at its center. The emblem's sun disk has 21 rays, equal in size and shape, with the single odd ray at top and the two even rays on the bottom.


title: Flag of Kurdistan

text: In the fall of 2006, the Iraqi Kurdish leadership gave orders for Kurdish officials to stop flying the Iraqi flag under decree number 60 "to hoist the flag of Iraqi Kurdistan". Masoud Barzani issued orders that the Ba'athist flag should be lowered and all regions in Iraqi Kurdistan should "hoist only the Kurdistan flag" because the symbols of Ba'athism were associated with the Anfal genocide where 180,000 people lost their lives. When the Ba'athist symbols were removed from the Iraqi flag in 2008, the KRG hoisted the Iraqi flag to fly alongside the Kurdish flag, reported to still be the practice as of March 2013. Flying the Iraqi flag side by side with the Kurdish flag is symbolic of their acceptance of Iraqi federalism.


title: Flag of Kurdistan

text: The flag appeared in Kurdish media throughout the 1990s with MED TV, Kurdsat, Kurdistan TV and their affiliates broadcasting with the flag appearing frequently in their programming allowing it to become a symbol of Kurdish statehood.


title: Flag of Kurdistan

text: Due to Iranian roots of the Kurds, the colours used in flags used by Kurds are the same that are used in other Iranian-origin areas like Iran and Tajikistan.


title: Greystone Mansion

text: The Greystone Mansion, also known as the Doheny Mansion, is a Tudor Revival mansion on a landscaped estate with distinctive formal English gardens, located in Trousdale Estates of Beverly Hills, California, United States. Architect Gordon Kaufmann designed the residence and ancillary structures, and construction was completed in 1928. It was a gift from oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny to his son, Edward "Ned" Doheny, Jr. and his family. Following the purchase of the estate by the City of Beverly Hills in 1965, it became a city park in 1971, and was subsequently added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 as Doheny Estate/Greystone. The house and grounds are often used as locations for film and television shows. The house's descending staircase is one of the most famous sets in Hollywood.


title: Greystone Mansion

text: The 55-room, Tudor-style former residence is on 16 acres (6.5 ha) of land. When it was built, it cost over $4 million (equivalent to about $ million in ) and was the most expensive home in California.


title: Greystone Mansion

text: On February 16, 1929, four months after Ned Doheny, his wife Lucy and their five children moved into Greystone, Doheny died in a guest bedroom in a murder-suicide with his secretary, Hugh Plunkett. The official story indicated that Plunkett murdered Doheny either because of a "nervous disorder" or because he was angry over not receiving a raise. Others point out that Doheny's gun was the murder weapon and that Doheny was not buried in Los Angeles' Calvary Cemetery, a Catholic cemetery, with the rest of his family, indicating he had committed suicide. Both men are buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, within a few hundred yards of each other. Both were involved in the trial of Doheny's father in the Teapot Dome scandal.


title: Greystone Mansion

text: Doheny's widow, Lucy, remarried and lived in the house until 1955, when she sold the grounds to Paul Trousdale, who developed it into Trousdale Estates and sold the mansion to Chicago industrialist Henry Crown, who rented it to film studios. In 1963 Crown planned to subdivide the property and demolish the mansion. Beverly Hills stopped the demolition by purchasing the mansion in 1965. The estate became a city park on September 16, 1971, and on April 23, 1976, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The city leased the mansion to the American Film Institute from 1965 to 1982 for $1 per year, hoping the institute would pay for repairs and upkeep.


title: Greystone Mansion

text: Greystone is now a public park and a location for special events, including the Beverly Hills Flower & Garden Festival. It is popular as a filming location due to its beauty, manicured grounds and Beverly Hills location. Some productions contribute to its upkeep and renovation. The 2007 film "There Will Be Blood", loosely based on the life of Edward Doheny via the Upton Sinclair book "Oil!", renovated its two-lane bowling alley to include it in the film.


title: Greystone Mansion

text: In addition to numerous events that take place there, the mansion plays host each year to Catskills West, a theater arts and drama camp run by Beverly Hills Parks and Recreation, from mid-June to early August. The camp presents a play in the pool area twice during the summer.


title: Greystone Mansion

text: The mansion is also a venue for the play "The Manor," by Kathrine Bates, directed by Beverly Olevin, and produced by Theatre 40 of Beverly Hills, which takes place in various rooms. The audience is separated during the play to watch scenes in different orders. "The Manor"'s plot is a fictionalized account of the Doheny family, including Doheny's involvement in the Teapot Dome scandal and his son's murder. It has been performed every year at Greystone Mansion since 2002, making it Los Angeles' longest-running play.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: Fahrenheit 451 is a 1966 British dystopian drama film directed by François Truffaut and starring Julie Christie, Oskar Werner, and Cyril Cusack. Based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury, the film takes place in a controlled society in an oppressive future, in which the government sends out firemen to destroy all literature to prevent revolution and thinking. This was Truffaut's first colour film and his only non French-language film. At the 1966 Venice Film Festival, "Fahrenheit 451" was nominated for the Golden Lion.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: Based on one of Ray Bradbury's most famous novels, "Fahrenheit 451" came out in 1966, one year after a dystopian film named "Alphaville" was released, directed by his friend and fellow filmmaker Jean Luc Godard. Truffaut wrote in a letter, "You mustn't think that 'Alphaville' will do any harm whatsoever to 'Fahrenheit'", but he was mistaken.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: Truffaut's adaptation differed from the novel by portraying Montag and Clarisse falling in love. Another notable aspect of the film is that Julie Christie plays two characters, Clarisse and Montag's wife Mildred, whose name was changed to Linda in the adaptation.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: In the future, a totalitarian government employs a force known as Firemen to seek out and destroy all literature. They have the power to search anyone, anywhere, at any time, and burn any books they find. One of the firemen, Guy Montag, meets one of his neighbours, Clarisse, a young schoolteacher who may be fired due to her unorthodox views. The two have a discussion about his job, where she asks whether he ever reads the books he burns. Curious, he begins to hide books in his house and read them, starting with Charles Dickens's "David Copperfield". This leads to conflict with his wife, Linda, who is more concerned with being popular enough to be a member of "The Family", an interactive television programme that refers to its viewers as "cousins".


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: At the house of an illegal book collector, the fire captain, Beatty, talks with Montag at length about how books make people unhappy and make them want to think that they are better than others, which is considered anti-social. The book collector, an old woman who was seen with Clarisse a few times during Montag's rides to and from work, refuses to leave her house, opting instead to burn herself and the house, so that she can die with her books.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: Returning home that day, Montag tries to tell Linda and her friends about the woman who martyred herself in the name of books and confronts them about knowing anything about what's going on in the world, calling them "zombies" and telling them that they're just "killing time" instead of living life. Disturbed over Montag's behaviour, Linda's friends try to leave, but Montag stops them by forcing them to sit and listen to him read a novel passage. During the reading, one of Linda's friends breaks down crying, aware of the feelings she repressed over the years, while Linda's other friends leave in disgust over Montag's alleged cruelty and the "sick" content of the novel.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: That night, Montag dreams of Clarisse as the book collector who killed herself. The same night, Clarisse's house is raided, but she escapes through a trapdoor in the roof, thanks to her uncle. Montag breaks into Beatty's office, looking for information about the missing Clarisse, and is caught but not punished.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: Montag meets with Clarisse and helps her break back into her house to destroy papers that would bring the Firemen to others like her. She tells him of the "book people", a hidden sect of people who flout the law, each of whom has memorised a book to keep it alive. Later, Montag tells Beatty that he is resigning but is convinced to go on one more call, which turns out to be Montag's own house.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: Linda leaves the house, telling Montag that she couldn't live with his book obsession and leaves him to be punished by the Firemen. Angrily, he destroys the bedroom and television before setting fire to the books. Beatty lectures him about the books and pulls a last book from Montag's coat, for which Montag kills him with the flamethrower. He escapes and finds the book people, where he views his "capture" on television, staged to keep the masses entertained and because the government doesn't want it to be known that he is alive. Montag selects a book to memorise, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" by Edgar Allan Poe, and becomes one of the book people.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: Truffaut kept a detailed diary during the production and later published in both French and English (in "Cahiers du Cinéma in English"). In this diary, he called "Fahrenheit 451" his "saddest and most difficult" film-making experience, mainly because of intense conflicts between Werner and himself.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: The film was Universal Pictures' first European production. Julie Christie was originally cast as just Linda Montag, not both Linda and Clarisse. The part of Clarisse was offered to Jean Seberg and Jane Fonda. After much thought, Truffaut decided that the characters should not have a villain/hero relationship but rather be two sides of the same coin and cast Christie in both roles, although the idea came from the producer, Lewis M. Allen.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: In an interview from 1998, Charles Aznavour said that he was Truffaut's first choice to play the role given to Werner; Aznavour said that Jean-Paul Belmondo was the director's second choice, but the producers refused on the grounds that both of them were not familiar enough for the English-speaking audience. Paul Newman, Peter O'Toole and Montgomery Clift were also considered for the role of Montag; Terence Stamp was cast but dropped out when he feared being overshadowed by Christie's dual roles in the film. Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave and Sterling Hayden were considered for the role of the Captain, before Cyril Cusack was cast.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: The film was shot at Pinewood Studios in England, with the monorail exterior scene taken at the French SAFEGE test track in Châteauneuf-sur-Loire near Orléans, France (since dismantled). The film featured the Alton housing estate in Roehampton, south London, and also Edgcumbe Park in Crowthorne, Berkshire. The final scene with the "Book People" reciting their chosen books was filmed at Black Park near Pinewood, in a rare and unexpected snowstorm that occurred on Julie Christie's birthday, 14 April 1966.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: The production work was done in French, as Truffaut spoke virtually no English but co-wrote the screenplay with Jean-Louis Richard. Truffaut expressed disappointment with the often stilted and unnatural English-language dialogue. He was much happier with the version that was dubbed into French.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: The movie's opening credits are spoken rather than displayed in type, which might be the director's hint of what life would be like in an illiterate culture. Tony Walton did costumes and production design, while Syd Cain did art direction.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: In 1971, some scenes from "Fahrenheit 451" were used in "The Different Ones", an episode of Rod Serling's "Night Gallery" television show, including the monorail and the flying policeman.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: The film had a mixed critical reception upon release. "Time" magazine called the film a "weirdly gay little picture that assails with both horror and humor all forms of tyranny over the mind of man"; it "strongly supports the widely held suspicion that Julie Christie cannot actually act. Though she plays two women of diametrically divergent dispositions, they seem in her portrayal to differ only in their hairdos." They also noted that the film's "somewhat remote theme challenged [Truffaut's] technical competence more than his heart; the finished film displays the artisan more than the artist".


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: Bosley Crowther called the film a "pretentious and pedantic production" based on "an idea that called for slashing satire of a sort beyond [Truffaut's] grasp, and with language he couldn't fashion into lively and witty dialogue. The consequence is a dull picture—dully fashioned and dully played—which is rendered all the more sullen by the dazzling color in which it is photographed." Leslie Halliwell described it as "1984 stuff, a little lacking on plot and rather tentatively directed, but with charming moments".


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: It has gained significant critical acclaim over the years. On the review aggregator web site "Rotten Tomatoes", the film holds an 82% positive rating among top film critics based on 33 reviews. The critical consensus reads: ""Fahrenheit 451" is an intriguing film that suffuses Truffaut's trademark wit and black humor with the intelligence and morality of Ray Bradbury's novel." Martin Scorsese has called the film an "underrated picture", which had influenced his own films.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: Author Ray Bradbury said in later interviews that, despite its flaws, he was pleased with the film. He was particularly fond of the film's climax, where the Book People walk through a snowy countryside, reciting the poetry and prose they've memorised, set to Bernard Herrmann's melodious score. He found it especially poignant and moving. However, alluding to a possible remake, Bradbury said in a 2009 interview, "The mistake they made with the first one was to cast Julie Christie as both the revolutionary and the bored wife."


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: According to an introduction by Ray Bradbury to a CD of a rerecording of the film score by William Stromberg conducting the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Bradbury had suggested Bernard Herrmann to Truffaut. Bradbury had visited the set of "Torn Curtain," meeting Alfred Hitchcock and Herrmann. When Truffaut contacted Bradbury for a conference about his book, Bradbury recommended Herrmann, as Bradbury knew that Truffaut had written a detailed book about Hitchcock. When Herrmann asked Truffaut why he was chosen over modern composers, such as the director's friends Pierre Boulez or Karlheinz Stockhausen, the director replied that "They'll give me music of the twentieth century but you'll give me music of the twenty first!" Herrmann used a score of only string instruments, harp, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba and glockenspiel. As with "Torn Curtain", Herrmann refused the studio's request to do a title song.


title: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film)

text: Despite the totalitarian overtones in the plot, the film was broadcast uncensored on Spanish state television (RTVE) in the early 1970s at a time when Spanish dictator Francisco Franco was still in power.


title: Ras malai

text: Ras malai, rasamalai, or rossomalai is a dessert originating from the eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent. The dessert is called "rossomalai" in Bengali, "ras malai" in Hindi, and "rasa malei" in Odia. It is popular in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.


title: Ras malai

text: The origin of the sweet is impossible to verify but there are several underlying stories. K.C. Das Grandsons claims that it was invented by K.C. Das in Kolkata. The Sen brothers of Comilla operating under the Matri Bhandar brand also claim to be the original maker of the dessert. Bangladesh has begun the process of registering geographical indication status for Comillar rasmalai.


title: Ras malai

text: It is believed to have originated somewhere in Eastern Indian subcontinent, presumably in the Bengal region.


title: Ras malai

text: According to "The Diner's Dictionary: Word Origins of Food and Drink" published by Oxford University Press "The term comes from Hindi "raś" 'juice', and "malai" 'cream'.


title: Ras malai

text: Ras malai consists of flattened balls of chhena soaked in malai (clotted cream) flavoured with cardamom. Milk is boiled and a bit of vinegar or lime juice is added to split it. The whey is discarded and the milk solids are drained, cooled and kneaded into a dough. The dough is divided into small balls and the balls are cooked in hot water with a bit of rose water added. The balls are then cooked in milk with saffron, pistachios and kheer as stuffing.


title: Ras malai

text: Different types of ras malai can be found in different areas. In Dhaka and Rangpur, the rasmalais are similar in shape to the rasgullas,and round discs.


title: Harry Hole

text: Harry Hole (the surname pronounced as "HOO-leh"), whose name translates to "Harry Hill" in English and is also called "Harry Holy" by allies in the Australian police force, is the main character in a series of crime novels written by Norwegian author Jo Nesbø. The name is derived from Old Norse "Hólar", the plural form of "hóll", meaning "round and isolated hill." Harry's surname is also the name of a historic Norwegian town (Hole, Norway) with a heritage that goes back to the Viking Age.


title: Harry Hole

text: In his stories, Hole is a brilliant, introverted, and obsessively driven detective. He has few friends and often clashes with colleagues, but his work and skill are so widely known and respected that he is considered a specialist, leading him to sometimes consult on cases in other cities and countries. Throughout the novels, he sometimes uses unorthodox and illegal methods in his investigations. A common focus of the novel series is Hole's struggles with alcoholism and depression, as well as how his mental health suffers as a result of his morally questionable actions and the brutal nature of the crimes he investigates. The novel series eventually shows Hole recognizing the harmful nature of his work and increasingly problematic behavior, prompting him to leave the police force. Despite this, later novels show Hole continually finding reason to return to Oslo and assist new criminal investigations, despite his own initial reluctance and the protests of his loved ones.


title: Harry Hole

text: Critics liken the personality of Harry Hole to those of the famous literary detectives such as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Jules Maigret, and Nero Wolfe. According to Jo Nesbø himself, the character is inspired by and a tribute to Michael Connelly's character Harry Bosch. The novels are frequent bestsellers.


title: Harry Hole

text: Harry Hole is introduced in "The Bat" as a police officer with the Oslo Crime Squad. Born in 1965, Harry's mother, a descendant of the Sami people, dies due to cancer while he is in his twenties. Harry never has a close relationship with his father Olav, a former teacher, but is deeply attached to his younger sister Søs, who has Down syndrome. Taxi driver Øystein Eikeland is an old school friend of Harry's and one of the few people he is close to. Introverted and prone to depression, Hole is a chain-smoker alcoholic when first introduced, though he later recognizes his addiction and is considered a recovering alcoholic in later books. His encounters with assassins, corruption, and serial killers throughout the novels often strengthen his cynical views and his desire to escape reminds of his experiences and traumas.


title: Harry Hole

text: Harry Hole's home address is in Sofies Gate in Bislett located in the author's own home city of Oslo. Many of the stories involve detailed background and descriptions of real locations such as the actual Oslo Police Department headquarters. Hole regularly interacts with city residents and immigrants from a variety of ethnic and social backgrounds. Many of the novels feature his favorite "watering hole," Restaurant Schrøder (Schrøder's, for short) in St. Hanshaugen.


title: Harry Hole

text: Along with standard police training, Hole undertakes specialized training in interrogation techniques and firearms at the FBI. His problematic and often unsocial behavior, as well as his obsessive tendencies during investigations, brings him into repeated conflict with his superiors and some colleagues. Bjarne Møller, head of the Oslo Police Department, often shields Hole from being fired, believing he is a brilliant detective and vital to certain investigations. This repeated protection results in Harry feeling loyal and close to Møller. Other in the police department whom he comes to trust include as friends Beate Lønn and Bjørn Holm (both in the forensics division), Katrine Bratt (a Bergen detective who helps secure specialist information), and Gunnar Hagen (Harry's former senior officer prior to "Phantom"). Hole's skills become renowned enough that he is considered a specialist, leading him to be sought for occasional consultation by authorities in other cities and countries. In the first novel, "The Bat", he travels to Sydney, Australia to aid the Australian police (who refer to him as "Harry Holy"). In the second novel, "Cockroaches", he is called to Thailand to investigate the murder of the Norwegian ambassador.


title: Harry Hole

text: Outside of the department, Hole develops a serious relationship with Rakel Fauke. Her son from a previous relationship, Oleg, comes to view Harry as a father figure, sometimes calling him "dad." After the seventh novel "The Snowman", Harry's relationship with Rakel suffers. This, along with recent trauma, compels Hole to leave Oslo and the police force. The next novel "The Leopard" shows Harry living in self-imposed exile in Hong Kong. Kaja Solness, a new Norwegian Crime Squad officer, asks him to return to Oslo to help investigate a possible serial killing. Learning his father Olav is also ill and likely to soon die, Hole agrees to help and returns to Oslo. During the story, Olav asks his son to assist in his suicide in order to end his pain, but Harry cannot bring himself to do so. At the end of the book, Harry has a brief reunion with Rakel before then visiting the imprisoned killer of "The Snowman". It is implied that Harry then aids in the criminal's own suicide. Disturbed by his recent experiences, Harry determines to return to Hong Kong for good.


title: Harry Hole

text: The next book "Phantom" depicts Harry returning to Oslo yet again some time later, this time because Rakel's son Oleg has been arrested for murder. Harry finds out the truth behind the murder, but is then shot and the book ends without clarifying if he will survive or not. Harry is revealed to be alive and living again in Oslo in the tenth novel "Police." Deciding his obsessive pursuit of criminals has cost him too much, he now lectures at the Police College and resumes a relationship with Rakel. A series of killings leads his former colleagues to seek him out for help. Following these events, Harry marries Rakel and legally adopts Oleg as his son. He promises he is done with police work, but finds himself drawn into another investigation in the following novel "The Thirst."


title: Harry Hole

text: The seventh novel in the series, "The Snowman", was adapted as a film in 2017 and starred Michael Fassbender as Harry Hole, with Rebecca Ferguson, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Ronan Vibert, Val Kilmer and J.K. Simmons.


title: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

text: The Alfa Romeo Stelvio (Type 949) is a compact luxury crossover SUV manufactured and marketed by the Alfa Romeo subdivision of Stellantis (formerly with FCA), first revealed at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show, and entering production at the Cassino Plant at the end of 2016. It is currently Alfa Romeo's best-selling model, with roughly 43,000 sold in 2018.


title: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

text: The Stelvio uses FCA's Giorgio platform, shared with the D-segment Giulia saloon. The name "Stelvio" derives from the Stelvio Pass, Italy's highest mountain pass, noted for its 48 circuitous switchbacks.


title: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

text: Preceded by Alfa Romeo's first off roader, the Matta, in the 1950s and the Kamal concept car in March 2003, the Stelvio is Alfa Romeo's first production SUV, using a modified version of the Giorgio platform, shared with the Giulia, and available in both rear and all-wheel drive configurations.


title: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

text: The high-performance trim of the Stelvio, the Quadrifoglio, was unveiled on 16 November 2016 at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The European versions of the Stelvio were presented at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2017. The car's engine lineup is similar to that of the Giulia's, with a turbocharged 2.0 litre inline-four and a 2.2 litre diesel inline four.


title: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

text: The Quadrifoglio trim level offers a 2.9 litre "690T" twin-turbo V6 rated at , developed for Alfa Romeo by Ferrari. On January 18, 2017, Alfa Romeo began accepting orders for the Stelvio First Edition in the EMEA region. On November 2, 2017, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio went on sale in Italy.


title: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

text: For the 2019 model year, diesel engines of the Stelvio were updated to meet the Euro 6d emissions standards, with AdBlue technology introduced to tackle particulates in the exhaust. Both the and versions got more from this change. In addition, Alfa Romeo introduced a new trim level for Europe: the Ti (Turismo Internazionale). Slightly different than the similarly named Stelvio Ti on sale in the United States, the Euro-spec Ti is fitted with the TBI-M 2.0-litre inline-four, mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, with power sent to all four wheels through Alfa Romeo's Q4 all wheel drive system.


title: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

text: All models feature an 8.8 inch infotainment system with Apple Car Play and Android Auto as standard, while small tweaks have been made throughout the ranges. In Europe, consumption standards use the WLTP measuring system, which increases accuracy for consumption and emission figures.


title: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

text: The Stelvio uses the same Giorgio platform already used by the Giulia, but slightly modified and raised by . The Stelvio has also the same engines and most of the mechanics, including a carbon fiber driveshaft. In addition, its track width has increased by in the rear and in the front. It has a boot capacity of .


title: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

text: It has a 50/50 weight distribution and a drag coefficient of 0.32 (Cd). To help keep the Stelvio's weight in check, Alfa Romeo uses aluminium for body parts, such as the fenders, hood, and tailgate, as well as for mechanical parts such as the suspension, brakes, and engine.


title: Alfa Romeo Stelvio

text: The suspension, called AlfaLink, implements double wishbones in the front, and an aluminium multi-link configuration in the rear. The springs are longer than those in the Giulia, but stiffer to account for the extra weight and ride height. The driver sits higher from the road than in the Giulia.