title: 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification – UEFA Group I

text: The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification UEFA Group I was one of the ten UEFA groups in the World Cup qualification tournament to decide which teams would qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament in Qatar. Group I consisted of six teams: Albania, Andorra, England, Hungary, Poland and San Marino. The teams played against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format.


text: The group winners, England, qualified directly for the World Cup finals, while the runners-up, Poland, advanced to the second round (play-offs).


text: The fixture list was confirmed by UEFA on 8 December 2020, the day following the draw. Times are CET/CEST, as listed by UEFA (local times, if different, are in parentheses).


title: Hoegaarden Brewery

text: The village of Hoegaarden had been known for its witbieren (white beers) since the Middle Ages. In the nineteenth century, the village had thirteen breweries and nine distilleries; however, in 1957, the last local wheat beer brewery, Tomsin, closed its doors. Pierre Celis, a milkman who had grown up next to the brewery and sometimes helped with brewing, decided ten years later to try to revive the style. He started a new brewery, called de Kluis, in his hay loft. Celis used the traditional ingredients of water, yeast, wheat, hops, coriander, and dried Curaçao orange peel known as Laraha. In the 1980s, with demand for the product continuing to grow, Celis bought Hougardia, a former lemonade factory, to expand his brewing operations.


title: Hoegaarden Brewery

text: After a fire in 1985, several brewers offered their help. One of these was the largest brewer in the country, Interbrew. Interbrew lent money for the purchase of other buildings to rebuild the brewery. Over time, Celis felt that the company used the loan to pressure him to change the recipe to give the beer broader appeal.


title: Hoegaarden Brewery

text: Celis decided instead to sell them the brewery, and with the proceeds, he moved to the United States, where he set up the Celis Brewery in Austin, Texas, to continue making wheat beer to what he described as the original Hoegaarden recipe. It was later acquired by Miller Brewing. Celis never fully relocated to Texas, but his daughter and son-in-law, who operated the brewery, did. Miller ultimately closed the brewery and sold the equipment and brand names to Michigan Brewing Company.


title: Hoegaarden Brewery

text: The wheat beer Celis brewed in Texas, which he described as the original Hoegaarden recipe, was at the same time brewed in Belgium, first by Brouwerij De Smedt and then later by Brouwerij van Steenberge. This beer, Celis White, is still being brewed in Belgium by Brouwerij van Steenberge, and was brewed in the U.S. by Michigan Brewing Company, which went bankrupt and sold the name.


title: Hoegaarden Brewery

text: Interbrew merged with AmBev in 2004 to form a new company, InBev. In November 2005, InBev announced the closure of the brewery in Hoegaarden, among other changes in Belgium. The brewery was to close in late 2006 with production moving to InBev's larger brewery in Jupille. The beer Julius was said to have been an immediate casualty, and sparked worries that all beers that were bottle conditioned would be changed. The closure sparked protests from Hoegaarden locals, upset at the loss of the town's largest employer.


title: Hoegaarden Brewery

text: The move was never completed. The brewers in Jupille remained unsatisfied with local production of the beer, so on September 10, 2007, Inbev decided to keep the production in Hoegaarden. Inbev also decided to invest part of a 60 million Euro budget in the Hoegaarden site to upgrade the facilities.


title: Janka hardness test

text: The Janka hardness test (; ), created by Austrian-born American researcher Gabriel Janka (1864–1932), measures the resistance of a sample of wood to denting and wear. It measures the force required to embed an steel ball halfway into a sample of wood. (The diameter was chosen to produce a circle with an area of 100 square millimeters [one square centimeter].) A common use of Janka hardness ratings is to determine whether a species is suitable for use as flooring. For hardwood flooring, the test usually requires a sample with a thickness of at least 6–8 mm, and the most commonly used test is the ASTM D1037. When testing wood in lumber form, the Janka test is always carried out on wood from the tree trunk (known as the heartwood), and the standard sample (according to ASTM D143) is at 12% moisture content and clear of knots.


title: Janka hardness test

text: The hardness of wood varies with the direction of the wood grain. Testing on the surface of a plank, perpendicular to the grain, is said to be of "side hardness". Testing the cut surface of a stump is called a test of "end hardness". Side hardness may be further divided into "radial hardness" and "tangential hardness", although the differences are minor and often neglected.


title: Janka hardness test

text: The results are stated in various ways, leading to confusion, especially when the actual units employed are often not attached. The resulting measure is always one of force. In the United States, the measurement is in pounds-force (lbf). In Sweden it is in kilograms-force (kgf), and in Australia, either in newtons (N) or kilonewtons (kN). This confusion is greatest when the results are treated as units, for example "660 Janka".


title: Janka hardness test

text: The Janka hardness test results tabulated below followed ASTM D 1037-12 testing methods. Lumber stocks tested range from 1" to 2" thick. The tabulated Janka hardness numbers are an average. There is a standard deviation associated with each species, but these values are not given. No testing was done on actual flooring. Other factors affect how flooring performs: the type of core for engineered floorings, such as pine, HDF, poplar, oak, or birch; grain direction and thickness; floor or top wear surface, etc. The chart is not to be considered an absolute; it is meant to help people understand which woods are harder than others.


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: Jailbreak is the sixth studio album by Irish hard rock band Thin Lizzy. It was released on 26 March 1976, by Vertigo Records. The album proved to be the band's commercial breakthrough in the US, and the only Thin Lizzy album with a certification (in this case, Gold) in that country. The singles taken from the album include "Jailbreak" and "The Boys Are Back in Town"; the latter is Thin Lizzy's biggest US hit, and won the 1976 NME Award for Best Single.


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: After their previous two albums, "Nightlife" and "Fighting", failed to generate sales, Thin Lizzy were given one last chance by their label, Vertigo Records. The band wrote songs and collected ideas in a studio in Buckinghamshire in late 1975, then convened at Ramport Studios in London in the new year. They selected John Alcock as their producer, for he had worked in the studio extensively. The band worked diligently through February on the album. However, guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson felt that the speed at which it was completed adversely affected its quality. Both stated that the tightness of the songs made the album feel rigid. In particular, Robertson said he would have liked more freedom to improvise his lead guitar parts. Gorham also criticized Alcock's production, saying that he didn't particularly care for his guitar tone on the album.


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: "When I wrote 'Warriors'…" frontman and songwriter Phil Lynott remarked in 1976, "the only way I could give any sense of heavy drug takers was by describing them as warriors; that they actually go out and do it. People like Hendrix and Duane Allman were perfectly aware of the position they were getting into. They weren't slowly being hooked. It was a conscious decision to go out and take the thing as far as it can go."


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: Initially, the song "Running Back" was chosen to be a single ahead of "The Boys Are Back in Town", the latter being seen as possibly too aggressive for some radio stations to play. Lynott and producer John Alcock decided to employ session musicians to add more commercial elements to some of the tracks and try to produce a hit single, so Tim Hinkley was brought in to add keyboard parts to "Running Back". Robertson was against the idea, as he liked the song as it had originally been arranged, in a blues format with his own additions of piano and bottleneck guitar. He later said, "I took enormous offence to [the changes]. I couldn't understand why they'd pay this guy a fortune just for playing what he did. Listen to it and tell me it's not bollocks." Robertson did not play on the finished version of the song and Hinkley is not credited on the album sleeve. Lynott said at the time that "Running Back" was "very much influenced by Van Morrison. I really like that song." Hinkley later recalled, "Robbo and Scott were not keen on it at all but they were overruled." Thirty-five years later, Robertson recorded his own versions of the song on his 2011 album "Diamonds and Dirt".


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: Scott Gorham also revealed that "Romeo and the Lonely Girl" was also brought up as an option for a single, but was ultimately discarded, as "nobody was overexcited about it."


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: While touring to promote the album, in the US, Lynott was stricken with hepatitis. Finally, the tour management decided to cancel the remaining tour dates allowing him time to recuperate.


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: "Village Voice" critic Robert Christgau likened the album's songs to Bruce Springsteen cast-offs, finding Lynott's lyrical ideas "boring" and Gorham's guitar lines "second-hand". Stuart Bailie of "Classic Rock" magazine referred back to Christgau's appraisal, writing that both Springsteen and Lynott "were indebted to Van Morrison and his Celtic soul", and remarked how on "Jailbreak" "Lynott's best attributes were coming on strong."


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: In a retrospective assessment for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes "Jailbreak" as a "truly exceptional album", with "a dimension of richness that sustains, but there's such kinetic energy to the band that it still sounds immediate no matter how many times it's played". Highlighting Lynott's songs as "lovingly florid... crammed with specifics and overflowing with life", he says that Gorham and Robertson's guitar work is "intertwined, dual-lead guitar interplay that was one of the most distinctive sounds of '70s rock". In his review Martin Popoff described "Jailbreak" as "the band's last album where eclecticism outweighs the cohesive signals" which made later releases "much more singular in intent". He praised "Gorham and Robertson's sharpest metal to date" and remarked how the album is made of "a coterie of songs that very often struck the same emotional heartstrings of Springsteen."


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: On the 1996 Mercury CD reissue, "Angel from the Coast" and "Running Back" are listed as the second track with only one running time, making it appear to be a single song called "Angel from the Coast Running Back", and there is no third track listed. However, all the songs are sequenced as on the original LP release.


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: On 24 January 2011, a new remastered and expanded version of "Jailbreak" was released. This new edition is a 2-CD set, with the original album on disc one, and bonus material on disc two. On the original vinyl release of the album, the back cover included a short story, which is also reprinted inside some editions of the new deluxe edition.


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: However, the track listing on the back cover of the first release was incorrect, listing only ten songs, while the actual CD contains eleven tracks. Also, the songs are not in the correct order. The track listing was corrected on later versions of the release.


title: Jailbreak (album)

text: Only the bonus material on disc two has been remastered in 2010 (despite what it says on the back of the CD booklet). Disc one uses the same remaster as the 1996 edition. New remasters were made, but scrapped at the last minute before the release, for reasons unknown.


title: FC Barcelona C

text: Futbol Club Barcelona "C" was a Spanish football team that folded on 2 July 2007. The youth team of FC Barcelona, it played its home games at the Mini Estadi.


title: FC Barcelona C

text: Founded in 1967 as "Barcelona Amateur", it adopted the name "FC Barcelona C" in 1993. Unlike the English League, youth teams in Spain play in the same football pyramid as their senior team rather than a separate league. However youth and reserve teams cannot play in the same division as their senior teams.


title: FC Barcelona C

text: FC Barcelona C last played in the fourth division. They were ineligible for promotion to the third level, as FC Barcelona B were playing in that category. Club president Joan Laporta chose not to inscribe the team in "Primera Catalana" for 2007–08, after the B team dropped to the fourth level.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: Irakli Garibashvili (, also transliterated as Gharibashvili; born 28 June 1982) is a Georgian politician and a former business executive who serves as the prime minister of Georgia since 22 February 2021. He previously served as prime minister from 20 November 2013 until his resignation on 30 December 2015. Garibashvili is a member of the Georgian Dream party. He entered politics with his long-time associate Bidzina Ivanishvili, in October 2012.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: He served as Defence Minister of Georgia in the cabinet of prime minister Giorgi Gakharia from 2019 to 2021 and, prior to that, as Minister of Internal Affairs in the cabinet of Bidzina Ivanishvili from 2012 to 2013. Ivanishvili named Garibashvili as his successor as prime minister when he voluntarily stepped down in November 2013. Aged 31 at his ascension, he was the youngest person to assume the Prime Ministerial office. During his first term, he was the second youngest state leader in the world, after Kim Jong-un.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: From 1988 to 1999 Garibashvili attended the secondary school No. 1 in Dedoplistsqaro. From 1999 to 2005 Garibashvili studied International Relations at Tbilisi State University (TSU), where he graduated with a master's degree. He also studied at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University from 2002 to 2004. Since 2004, he has worked with the multi-billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili. He started by working for logistics division of the construction company Burji, owned by Ivanshvili's Cartu Group. He became Director General of Ivanishvili's charity foundation Cartu in 2005, a member of the supervisory board of Ivanishvili's Cartu Bank in 2007 and director of the label Georgian Dream founded by Ivanishvili's pop-star son Bera in 2009.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: Garibashvili became involved in the politics of Georgia when Ivanishvili founded his political party Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia in February 2012. Garibashvili was one of the founding members and initially headed the party's revision committee. He was included in the party list of MP candidates for the October 2012 parliamentary election. After the coalition won the 2012 parliamentary election on 1 October, Irakli Garibashvili became a party-list representative of the Georgian Dream – Democratic Georgia party in the 2012 convocation of the Parliament of Georgia.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: After Georgian Dream's victory in the 2012 parliamentary election, Garibashvili was appointed as Minister of Internal Affairs in the cabinet of prime minister Ivanishvili on 25 October 2012. Garibashvili, then 30 years old, became the youngest member of Georgia's new government. Reforming the Interior Ministry, an agency overseeing Georgian police, security and intelligence services, as well as the border guard and navy, was a part of the Georgian Dream's pre-election agenda.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: Georgian Dream also promised to "restore justice" during the election campaign and to prosecute officials of the previous government for human rights abuses committed while in office, especially after the Gldani prison scandal prior to the elections confirmed long-standing allegations of ill-treatment in the Georgian penitentiary system. Subsequently, from 2012 through 2013, the Interior Ministry arrested several high-ranking officials from the previous government, including the former ministers Bachana Akhalaia and Ivane Merabishvili.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: During his tenure, Garibashvili announced that he would take steps to de-politicise the Ministry of Internal Affairs. As part of the reform, the Constitutional Security and Special Operative Departments were abolished. An ad hoc commission was set up to handle 24 000 illegal surveillance files found in the MIA. Those files, which contained compromising footage, were destroyed in presence of media and members of a commission in August 2013.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: Garibashvili's agency faced the post-election spike in crime in Georgia after the newly elected government granted large-scale prison amnesty to reduce Georgia's high incarceration rate. Garibashvili opposed the amnesty project, but it was implemented by the parliament anyway.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: Garibashvili defended the arrests of the former ministers as being in strict accordance with the law and justice and claimed that the rate of minor crime, albeit increased, was not alarming.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: On 2 November 2013, prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who had declared his intention to quit the government following the October 2013 presidential election, named Garibashvili as his successor. He and his cabinet won in a vote of 93-19 in the Parliament of Georgia on 20 November 2013. Garibashvili thus occupied the most powerful political office in the country as the constitution amendments had transferred power from the president to the prime minister and the government. At heated parliamentary debates with the United National Movement minority during the vote, Garibashvili promised economic improvement and stressed that Georgia's EU and NATO aspiration would remain his foreign priorities.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: On 24 November 2013, he was elected chairman of the Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia party, succeeding Ivanishvili. Garibashvili announced his resignation on 23 December 2015. While no reason was given for the sudden move, it was reported that he may have done so due to low levels of support for the Georgian Dream among the populace, with it polling at 18% in November, and parliamentary elections scheduled for 2016. Opposition politicians, analysts and media speculated that falling support for the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, pressure from the previous prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, or tensions with the president Giorgi Margvelashvili were possible explanations for Garibashvili's resignation. Garibashvili was succeeded as prime minister by Giorgi Kvirikashvili, who had been his Minister of Foreign Affairs, with the transfer of power taking effect on 29 December.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: During his tenure the Security and Crisis Management Council was established, as stipulated by the new Constitution of Georgia. In addition, the Unified Coordination Center for Crisis Management was created, with technical assistance from the US, the United Kingdom and Israel. To coordinate the country's economic policy, Irakli Garibashvili established the Economic Council.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: The Georgian Government initiated, and the European Union directly supported, the development of the Human Rights Strategy and Action Plan. A relevant statement was made by prime minister Garibashvili at the Human Rights Conference, on 4 December 2013. The Human Rights Strategy covers seven years and will not depend on the political cycle.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: During his tenure, Garibashvili visited the neighboring countries Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, several European nations, the United States, Israel, the People's Republic of China, and participated in several international summits and forums. While relations to Russia improved, there was no state visits to and from Russia.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: Relations to the European Union were a priority, culminating in the EU-Georgia Association Agreement, initiated at the Vilnius summit and signed on 27 June 2014. This association agreement included a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement between Georgia and the European Union and paved the way for the abolition of visa for travel from Georgia to the Schengen area, planned for 2017.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: In February 2018, Garibashvili became the regional adviser to the board of the CEFC China Energy company.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: Nika Melia, chairman of the United National Movement party, was accused of organizing mass violence during the anti-government protests in 2019. When Melia declined to pay a $12,000 bail, a Georgian court ruled that Melia should be detained before his trial. In response, prime minister Giorgi Gakharia said the court's ruling was "unlawful", and on 18 February, Gakharia resigned over the decision to detain Melia. Melia was arrested while at United National Movement party headquarters on 23 February. The ruling Georgian Dream party supported Garibashvili to replace Gakharia, and the Parliament voted 89–2 to appoint Garibashvili on 22 February.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: As a result of the outbreak of the 2022 Russian invasion in Ukraine on 24 February 2022 and fears that Russia might once again invade Georgia as it did in 2008, on 3 March 2022, Prime Minister Garibashvili signed the letter with which the country officially applied for membership in the European Union (EU). The same day, Moldova (which experiences troubles regarding the Russian backed separatist state Transnistria) also signed its letter to officially apply for EU membership.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: Garibashvili has been described as a conservative-leaning politician. On several occasions, most notably with the Gay Pride march, he backed the conservative side of the debate, adopting a majoritarian approach while noting that "95% of our population are against holding propagandistic parade in a demonstrative manner" so as an elected official he should follow that. Garibashvili added that Georgia "is a conservative society" and has unique values based on Orthodox Christianity, emphasizing that the minority should not decide fate of the majority. In 2014 he proposed to solidify the definition of marriage as union between a man and a woman in the Constitution of Georgia to balance the opposition from conservatives and Orthodox Church to the adoption of the Anti-Discrimination law, which was Georgia's precondition to get a visa free regime with the EU.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: In his address to parliament in 2021, Gharibashvili criticized the idea of a minimal state and the "invisible hand of the market". He said that "small state idea is a myth impeding the country's development" and called on the government to play an active role in economy. Gharibashvili stated that "history does not know the precedent of development by allowing processes to flow on their own" and "neither Europe nor America developed in this way". Gharibashvili also emphasized that Georgia should become economically more self-sufficient.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: Gharibashvili opposed mandatory vaccination against COVID-19, saying that Georgian citizens should enjoy "the right and an opportunity of free choice".


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: Garibashvili is married to Nunuka Tamazashvili (born 1983), with three sons, Nikoloz (born 2005), Andria (born 2010), Gabriel (born 2015) and one daughter Nino (born 2016). His father-in-law, Tamaz Tamazashvili, is a former police general who was arrested on charges of illegally carrying and keeping weapon and explosives in October 2011. Garibashvili, a member of then-opposition Georgian Dream party, claimed the arrest was politically motivated. After the Georgian Dream acceded to power in October 2012, Tamazashvili was released from prison. In addition to Georgian, Garibashvili also speaks English, French and Russian.


title: Irakli Garibashvili

text: On 23 August, 2021, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Garibashvili with the first degree order of merit during the Crimea Platform summit.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: Chandra Nandini is an Indian Hindi-language Historical fictional drama television series which aired on Star Plus from 10 October 2016 until 10 November 2017. It was produced by Ekta Kapoor under her banner Balaji Telefilms and is directed by Ranjan Kumar Singh. Starring Rajat Tokas as Chandragupta Maurya and Shweta Basu Prasad as a princess Nandni, the story-line is loosely based on the life of Chandragupta Maurya.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: The story is about Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya Empire, a great warrior and ruler known for uniting the Indian sub-continent. However, the show focuses on his love story with a princess named Nandini. The show starts with a voice-over of mother India saying about Chandragupta Maurya and Nandini. Suryagupta Maurya, who is a local king, rules the country with his pregnant wife, Moora. An invitation comes from Magadha for a festival. When they go there, Maghadha queen Avantika is cheating her husband but she loves a barber named Nanda. When Suryagupta finds it, Nanda kills the king of Magadha. Then, Nanda kills Suryagupta, but Suryagupta saves Moora. She gives birth to a boy. Moora hides her son in a cattle pound and escapes, but she is arrested. However, A woman named Kanika finds Moora's son in the cattle pound and names him as Chandra and adopts him without knowing his real identity.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: Chandra lives with his adopted parents. Moora is still in Nanda's prison and vows that her son will kill Nanda. Nanda and Avantika had a daughter, Nandini after nine sons. Meanwhile, Chandra leaves home because Kanika suffers from her husband because of him. He reaches Magadha and meets a teacher, Chanakya who tries to save Magadh from Nanda. Chanakya sees Chandra's talents and understands that Chandra is the future king. Then, he keeps Chandra in his presence and teaches him.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: Now, Chandra is grown up and becomes talented. Nandini is also grown up and ready for marriage. But that marriage is cancelled, and Nandini marries Chandra to save her mother and kingdom. Eventually, love grows between Chandra and Nandini. But many problems are created by Malayakutu and Helena. At this time, Nandini's twin sister Roopa tries to kill Chaaya and pushes her. Durdhara sees her doing it, and as they didn't know about Nandini's twin sister, they blame Nandini for it. While exposing Roopa, Nandini and Chandra are married again, but this time full-pledged. Chandra and Chanakya use Roopa for catching Nanda. But, Nanda stabs Nandini mistaking her to be Roopa. Chandra saves Nandini, but Roopa gets killed. Chanakya gets disturbed seeing the close relationship between Chandra and Nandini. Durdhara is now seven months pregnant and apologies to Nandini for her mistake. Chandra and Nandini try to get intimate, but Chanakya disturbs them, saying that he should get ready for war against both Nanda and Seleucus I Nicator as they plan to attack him together. Chandra convinces Seleucus not to fight against him as his army is not as big as Seleucus'.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: He decided to make Helena the chief queen and banish Nandini from the kingdom as per Helena's wishes. Helena threatens Durdhara to kill her if she spokes against her. Durdhara became sick. Helena informs Chandra and Nandini about Durdhara's condition, and they both go back to Magadh to see her. Helena mixes poison in Durdhara's food, and she becomes sicker eventually. Chandra and Nandini see Durdhara and become worried.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: Finally, Durdhara dies, and her baby was taken by surgery. When she was asked about her death at her last time, she mistakenly pointed at Nandini while pointing at Helena. Everyone becomes shocked at Durdhara's response. Helena provokes Chandra against Nandini and tells him to banish Nandini out of Magadh. At last, Chandra banishes Nandini from Magadha.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: Chandra now lives with Helena and Durdhara's son, Bindusara. Nandini is teaching other royal kids at a Gurukul. Chandra brings Nandini back to Magadh and as Bindusara's nanny. Mahapadma Nanda and his minister Amatya Rakshas send a beautiful Vishkanya (poisonous seductress) to Magadha to kill Chandra. She arrives in the Magadha court under the false name Vishaka, a princess. Vishaka tries to seduce Chandra, and he pretends to fall in love with her to irritate Nandini.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: Chandra decides to marry Vishaka, and he prepares for the grand wedding. Vishaka's plans to kill Chandra all go in vain every time because Nandini intervenes and saves him. Nandini exposes Vishaka, and the Vishkanya is imprisoned. Later, Helena's mother Apama slow poisons Nandini. Nandini is pushed into a very critical state, and the only antidote is Vishaka's poison which could cure her. Chandra begs Vishaka for help, but she refuses. At last, Nandini is saved.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: Chandra and Nandini are leading a happy life with Bindusara. Nandini is pregnant with Chandra's child. Helena feels jealous and manipulates Bindusara into believing that Nandini had killed Durdhara in past. Blindly believing Helena, Bindusara starts to hate Nandini and decides to take revenge. In a hunting trip, Bindusara pushes Nandini from a cliff. He lies everyone that Nandini had slipped from the cliff accidentally. Chandra grieves for Nandini's death and forgets his royal duties.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: Chandra is living like an ascetic after Nandini's unexpected death. Magadha is now under Helena's rule. Bindusara, Malayketu and Chaaya's son, Bhadraketu, Helena's children, Alice and Adonis, are all grown up. Helena is still keeping Bindusara as her puppet and poisons his mind. On the other hand, it is also revealed that Nandini is alive and is saved by an older man. She is lost her memory and lives as Prabha now. She shares a motherly bond with the older man's granddaughter, Dharma. Prabha and Dharma visit Magadh as servants in the royal palace. Dharma started to hold a grudge against Bindusara. Chandra also finds Prabha, and he makes her his queen again. However, Helena provokes Bindusara against Chandra, which results in a great misunderstanding. Bindusara marries a princess Charumati, who ill-treats Dharma. Alice falls in love with Prince Karthikey of Champanagar and wishes to marry him. She also informs her mother, Helena. Helena decides to make Chitralekha, Karthikey's sister to marry Bindusara so that Alice can marry Karthikeyan. She prepares for the wedding ceremony. On the wedding day, Chithraleka, who is already in love with Bhadraketu, runs away and asks Dharma to replace her in the marriage. Dharma unwillingly marries Bindusara. Later he thanks her for saving his dignity and promises that he will soon break the marriage. A new problem arises when Bhimdev claims Nandini to be his wife, Savitri, who enters the palace. Chandra and Nandini's relationship is put to the test.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: It is then revealed that this man is a sorcerer, and he, along with his wife Mohini, put black magic on Chandra to separate him and Nandini. They are ordered by a mysterious person named Swanand to kill Chandra. But, Chanakya finds out about the secret of Bhimdev and Mohini. Both Chanakya and Nandini save Chandra from the effects of black magic. Nandini regains her memory and realizes her true identity.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: Finally, the mysterious man, Swanand, attacks Magadh and tries to kill Chandra and takeover Magadh. But, Chandra and Bindusara overpower his army, and they kill him. Chandra and Nandini are reunited. Chandra forgives Helena on Nandini's request and sends her back to Greece with her children . Bindusara apologises to Nandini for his past mistakes. He starts to like Dharma, and they all live happily.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: This is regarded as one of the costliest series produced by Ekta Kapoor under Balaji Telefilms. On 21 September 2016, a press conference was held in Mumbai with the presence of Producer Ekta Kapoor and some actors including the leads Rajat Tokas and Shweta Basu Prasad. Director Santram Verma who directed the pilot episode of the series opted out after it and was replaced by Ranjan Kumar Singh.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: Speaking about his role male lead Rajat Tokas said, "I am really looking forward to portraying the mighty king, Chandragupta Maurya. His and Nandni’s story is very different from what we’ve seen on TV so far. Theirs is a love story written with hatred." Female lead Shwetha Basu Prasad ssaid, "This show marks my comeback on TV after quite some time. The character of Nandni is that of a strong princess, whose emotions and struggles, every woman would resonate with."


title: Chandra Nandini

text: In 2017, the storyline of the series took a leap. During which Siddharth Nigam joined the cast as Bindusara, Avneet Kaur as Charumati. The series ended on 10 November 2017, due to fluctuations in its viewership, with Chandragupta becoming a Buddhist monk. The shooting of the series was completed on 2 November 2017.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: The initial scenes of the series was shot in the ancient locations of Magadh and Pataliputra in Patna. But, the series was mainly filmed in Mumbai.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: "India Today" quoted the series as more masala, less history and reviewed, "The creators of the show have taken generous amount of creative liberty with the original story or history. The actors are not that bad; in fact, they are pretty okay.The palace looks super-animated, like it has just been put on the screen as an afterthought."


title: Chandra Nandini

text: "The Times of India" stated, "Going by the trailer, Shweta Basu fits the role of Chandragupta's wife perfectly. When it comes to showcasing opulence, there is no one who does it better than Ekta Kapoor. Right from the costume to the setting, one can expect grand locations and beautifully decked men and women."


title: Chandra Nandini

text: The series was dubbed in Tamil aired on Star Vijay. In Sri Lanka, the show is broadcast in Sinhala on the Swarnavahini network. In Hindi the series airs in Malaysia on TV3.


title: Chandra Nandini

text: While the character of Chandragupta and some of the wars and conflicts shown are almost historically accurate, the character of Princess Nandni of Magadha itself along with her twin Roopa is considered completely fictional by many sources. Most historians said, Chandragupta married only twice, first to Durdhara who died while giving birth to Bindusara and years after he was married to daughter of Seleucus I Nicator (Helena as per the show) in a war-peace treaty. Chandragupta defeated selecus and then arranged a peace treaty,Chandragupta didn't convince Selecus before the war. Queen Nandni as per the show is described as daughter of the real Mahapadma Nanda which is contradicted as there is no historical evidence. It has been said Nandni's characterization is based upon most of Durdhara character derived from historical texts, novelization and poetries. However, there are several historical sources have been mentioned the existence of Queen Nandni, among them one evidence has found in 350 BC Greek Historian Megasthenes' book called "Indika" as he served as an Ambassador in Royal Court of Chandragupta Maurya. According to this Book Queen Nidarus (presumably Greek accent of Nandni) was Mahapadma Nanda / Dhana Nanda's daughter who was given to Samrat Chandragupta as a war-peace treaty. In that book, she is mentioned as a great warrior and a leader.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: Monoamine oxidases (MAO) () are a family of enzymes that catalyze the oxidation of monoamines, employing oxygen to clip off their amine group. They are found bound to the outer membrane of mitochondria in most cell types of the body. The first such enzyme was discovered in 1928 by Mary Bernheim in the liver and was named tyramine oxidase. The MAOs belong to the protein family of flavin-containing amine oxidoreductases.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: MAOs are important in the breakdown of monoamines ingested in food, and also serve to inactivate monoamine neurotransmitters. Because of the latter, they are involved in a number of psychiatric and neurological diseases, some of which can be treated with monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) which block the action of MAOs.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: MAO-A appears at roughly 80% of adulthood levels at birth, increasing very slightly after the first 4 years of life, while MAO-B is almost non-detectable in the infant brain. Regional distribution of the monoamine oxidases is characterized by extremely high levels of both MAOs in the hypothalamus and hippocampal uncus, as well as a large amount of MAO-B with very little MAO-A in the striatum and globus pallidus. The cortex has relatively high levels of only MAO-A, with the exception of areas of the cingulate cortex, which contains a balance of both. Autopsied brains demonstrated the predicted increased concentration of MAO-A in regions dense in serotonergic neurotransmission, however MAO-B only correlated with norepinephrine.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: Other studies, in which the activities of MAO (not protein amounts) were examined in rat brain, revealed the highest MAO-B activity in the median eminence of hypothalamus. Dorsal raphe nucleus and medial preoptic area have relatively high MAO-B activity, but much lower than MAO-B activity in the median eminence. Among cerebral endocrine glands, pineal gland has high MAO-B activity (its median value is lower than that for median eminence and higher than that for medial preoptic area). Pituitary has the lowest level of MAO-B activity when compared with brain areas studied.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: Monoamine oxidases catalyze the oxidative deamination of monoamines. Oxygen is used to remove an amine group (plus the adjacent hydrogen atom) from a molecule, resulting in the corresponding ketone (or aldehyde) and ammonia. Monoamine oxidases contain the covalently bound cofactor FAD and are, thus, classified as flavoproteins. Monoamine oxidase A and B share roughly 70% of their structure and both have substrate binding sites that are predominantly hydrophobic. Two tyrosine residues (398, 435, 407 and 444) in the binding pocket that are commonly involved in inhibitor activity have been hypothesized to be relevant to orienting substrates, and mutations of these residues are relevant to mental health. Four main models have been proposed for the mechanism of electron transfer (single electron transfer, hydrogen atom transfer, nucleophilic model, and hydride transfer) although there is insufficient evidence to support any of them.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: They are well known enzymes in pharmacology, since they are the target for the action of a number of monoamine oxidase inhibitor drugs. MAO-A is particularly important in the catabolism of monoamines ingested in food. Both MAOs are also vital to the inactivation of monoamine neurotransmitters, for which they display different specificities.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: Because of the vital role that MAOs play in the inactivation of neurotransmitters, MAO dysfunction (too much or too little MAO activity) is thought to be responsible for a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders. For example, unusually high or low levels of MAOs in the body have been associated with schizophrenia, depression, attention deficit disorder, substance abuse, migraines, and irregular sexual maturation. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors are one of the major classes of drug prescribed for the treatment of depression, although they are often last-line treatment due to risk of the drug's interaction with diet or other drugs. Excessive levels of catecholamines (epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine) may lead to a hypertensive crisis, and excessive levels of serotonin may lead to serotonin syndrome.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: In fact, MAO-A inhibitors act as antidepressant and anti-anxiety agents, whereas MAO-B inhibitors are used alone or in combination to treat Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Some research suggests that certain phenotypes of depression, such as those with anxiety, and "atypical" symptoms involving psychomotor retardation, weight gain and interpersonal sensitivity respond better to MAO inhibitors than other classes of anti-depressant. However the findings related to this have not been consistent. MAOIs may be effective in treatment resistant depression, especially when it does not respond to tricyclic antidepressants.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: PET research shows that use of tobacco cigarettes heavily depletes MAO-B, mimicking the action of an MAO-B inhibitor. Smokers who smoke for emotional relief may therefore be unintentionally treating depression and/or anxiety that is better addressed by an MAO-B inhibitor.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: Sleeping sickness - caused by trypanosomes - gets its name from the sleep disruption it causes in mammals. That sleep disruption is caused, at least in part, by trypanosomes' tendency to disrupt MAO activity in the orexin system.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: There are significant differences in MAO activity in different species. Dopamine is primarily deaminated by MAO-A in rats, but by MAO-B in vervet monkeys and humans.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: Mice unable to produce either MAO-A or MAO-B display autistic-like traits. These knockout mice display an increased response to stress.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: Insect brains express MAOs, and some insecticides work by inhibiting them. An MAOI effect is especially important for chlordimeform (although one result shows little or no effect in "Periplaneta americana"); and dieldrin may or may not be an MAOI in "Locusta migratoria".


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: The genes encoding MAO-A and MAO-B are located side-by-side on the short arm of the X chromosome, and have about 70% sequence similarity. Rare mutations in the gene are associated with Brunner syndrome.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: A study based on the Dunedin cohort concluded that maltreated children with a low-activity polymorphism in the promoter region of the MAO-A gene were more likely to develop antisocial conduct disorders than maltreated children with the high-activity variant. Out of the 442 total males in the study (maltreated or not), 37% had the low activity variant. Of the 13 maltreated males with low MAO-A activity, 11 had been assessed as exhibiting adolescent conduct disorder and 4 were convicted for violent offenses. The suggested mechanism for this effect is the decreased ability of those with low MAO-A activity to quickly degrade norepinephrine, the synaptic neurotransmitter involved in sympathetic arousal and rage. This is argued to provide direct support for the idea that genetic susceptibility to disease is not determined at birth, but varies with exposure to environmental influences. However, most individuals with conduct disorder or convictions did not have low activity of MAO-A; maltreatment was found to have caused stronger predisposition for antisocial behavior than differences in MAO-A activity.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: The claim that an interaction between low MAO-A activity and maltreatment would cause anti-social behavior has been criticized since the predisposition towards anti-social behavior could equally well have been caused by "other" genes inherited from abusive parents.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: A possible link between predisposition to novelty seeking and a genotype of the MAO-A gene has been found.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: A particular variant (or genotype), dubbed "warrior gene" in the popular press, was over-represented in Māori. This supported earlier studies finding different proportions of variants in different ethnic groups. This is the case for many genetic variants, with 33% White/Non-Hispanic, 61% Asian/Pacific Islanders having the low-activity MAO-A promoter variant.


title: Monoamine oxidase

text: Unlike many other enzymes, MAO-B activity is increased during aging in the brain of humans and other mammals. Increased MAO-B activity was also found in the pineal gland of aging rats. This may contribute to lowered levels of monoamines in aged brain and pineal gland.


title: AFC North

text: The American Football Conference – Northern Division or AFC North is one of the four divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The division was adopted after the restructuring of the 2002 NFL season, when the league realigned divisions after expanding to 32 teams. This is the only division in the NFL in which no member team has hosted a Super Bowl in their stadiums.


title: AFC North

text: The AFC North currently has four members: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers. The original four members of the AFC Central were the Browns, Bengals, Steelers and Houston Oilers (now the Tennessee Titans).


title: AFC North

text: The AFC North is the only AFC division that does not contain a charter team from the original American Football League. However, the Cincinnati Bengals were an AFL expansion team in the 1968 AFL season (the Steelers and Browns joined the AFC in 1970), although the Bengals joining the AFL was contingent on the team joining the NFL after the AFL–NFL merger was finalized in 1970, as Paul Brown was not a supporter of the AFL.


title: AFC North

text: Three of the teams have interlocked histories. Both the Bengals and the Browns were founded by Paul Brown, while the Ravens and the city of Cleveland have their own unique relationship. Only the Steelers, who are older than the original Browns, have no direct history involving Paul Brown.


title: AFC North

text: The AFC Central division was formed when the Browns and Steelers brought their rivalry from the NFL Century Division to the AFC in 1970, joining the newly formed "AFC Central" with the Houston Oilers (from the AFL's East Division) and Cincinnati Bengals (from the AFL's West Division).


title: AFC North

text: Although the Bengals won the first AFC Central Division Championship in 1970, the Steelers dominated the division for most of the 1970s. The Steelers also would win four Super Bowls in the decade, which were also the team's first league titles.


title: AFC North

text: The 1980 Cleveland Browns broke the Steelers' six-year run as division champions, but failed to advance past the divisional round of the playoffs, losing to the Oakland Raiders as a result of Red Right 88. The Bengals were the only team to represent the AFC Central in the Super Bowl during the decade, appearing in Super Bowls XVI and XXIII. Both appearances resulted in close losses to the San Francisco 49ers.


title: AFC North

text: The Steelers returned as the dominant team in the division in 1992. They won five divisional titles in six years, and played in Super Bowl XXX, in which they lost to the Dallas Cowboys.


title: AFC North

text: In 1992, the Oilers were involved in one of the most famous playoff games in NFL history. In a game now known as The Comeback, the Oilers surrendered a 32-point lead to the Buffalo Bills and lost in overtime, 41–38. It was the largest deficit ever overcome in the history of the NFL for nearly 30 years.


title: AFC North

text: In 1995, the Jacksonville Jaguars joined the league through expansion and were placed in the AFC Central. It was the first change to the structure of the division since its inception and added a second team to the division from the U.S. South. In 1996, in one of the most controversial decisions in American sports history, the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore and were rechristened as the Baltimore Ravens. Then in 1997, the Oilers moved to Tennessee but remained in the division (the team later was renamed the Titans in 1999). The makeup of the AFC Central changed once again in 1999 when the NFL reactivated the Cleveland Browns. The division had six teams for the 1999 to 2001 seasons, and was the only division to have that many teams in the post-merger era.


title: AFC North

text: Aside from Pittsburgh's appearance in Super Bowl XXX, the only other appearance in the Super Bowl for the division in the decade was the Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV, who came up one yard short of the first Super Bowl to go into overtime. Along the way, the team got revenge on the Bills seven years after the Comeback in the Wild Card round by defeating the Bills 22–16 as a result of the Music City Miracle.


title: AFC North

text: The decade began with the Ravens winning Super Bowl XXXV. The team's defense, led by linebacker Ray Lewis, was arguably one of the best defenses of all time.


title: AFC North

text: In 2002, the NFL realigned into eight divisions of four teams. The Jaguars and Titans—the latter winning the AFC Central title in 2000—were both moved to the new AFC South, while the rest of the AFC Central remained intact and was renamed the AFC North. The Bengals, Browns, and Steelers were guaranteed to remain in a division together in any circumstance; this was part of the NFL's settlement with the city of Cleveland in the wake of the 1995 Cleveland Browns relocation controversy. The division, geographically-speaking, thus became the shortest driving distance between each team among the NFL's eight divisions, as three of the teams are located within close proximity of Interstate 70 (with the one city that is not, Cleveland, being two hours north of I-70), and the distance between Baltimore and Cincinnati (the two teams furthest away from each other) being only apart. The Browns and Steelers, the two "closest" rivals, even ride a bus to their games instead of flying.


title: AFC North

text: Since realignment, the Steelers have won the division title seven times, and the Ravens and Bengals have each won four times. The Steelers have swept all divisional opponents twice, in 2002 and 2008 (going 7 for 7 both times, winning against the Browns in a and the Ravens in the ), and the Ravens and Bengals have swept all three divisional opponents once each, the Bengals in 2009 and Ravens in 2011.


title: AFC North

text: Since divisional realignment, the Steelers have made the playoffs ten times, the Ravens eight times, the Bengals seven times, and the Browns two times.


title: AFC North

text: In 2005, although finishing second in the division to the Bengals, the Steelers became the first team in NFL history to enter the playoffs as a #6 seeded wild card team and win the Super Bowl.


title: AFC North

text: In 2008, the Steelers became the first team to repeat as division champion since the division's realignment in 2002. The team went on to win Super Bowl XLIII that season, their second Super Bowl in four years and an NFL-record sixth overall.


title: AFC North

text: In 2009, the Cincinnati Bengals swept their annual six-game slate of divisional opponents. Their first three games against the AFC North came in weeks three-through-five when they beat the Steelers, Browns and Ravens, respectively, each by three points. The close finishes deemed the Bengals, "Cardiac Cats." Cincinnati clinched their first division title since '05 in a week 16 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, 17–10. In the playoffs, however, the Bengals fell to the New York Jets at home, 24–14.


title: AFC North

text: Baltimore finished off their season by winning three of their final four games to finish 9-7 and earn the number-six seed in the AFC Playoffs. In the first round of the postseason, Baltimore defeated the New England Patriots in Foxboro, 33–14. In the divisional round of the postseason, Baltimore's season came to an end with a 20–3 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, who would defeat the Jets one week later to win the conference.


title: AFC North

text: The Ravens repeated as division champions in 2011 and 2012. The team went on to win Super Bowl XLVII over the San Francisco 49ers, on February 3, 2013, in New Orleans. It was the second franchise Super Bowl win.


title: AFC North

text: As of 2012, the Steelers are the AFC North's most successful team with a 599–547–21 record all-time with the Browns 2nd in line with an overall record of 510–441–while the Ravens sit in 3rd (even though they were not an official franchise until 1996) at 164–128–and then the Bengals today remain the only team in the division with their all-time record below .500 as they sit in last at 310–396–.


title: AFC North

text: In 2015, the Bengals became the first team in the AFC North (Central) to ever start the year 8–0, finishing the season 12–4 and winning the division for the second time in three years. Cincinnati clinched the division title in week 16 when the Steelers were upset by the 4–10 Ravens in Baltimore, quarterbacked by Ryan Mallett. Bengals' quarterback Andy Dalton was having his best season of his five-year career until breaking his thumb on December 13 against Pittsburgh caused him to miss the rest of the season. In the playoffs, Cincinnati (quarterbacked by A. J. McCarron) lost in a rematch with the Steelers, 18–16, in the final minutes of a heated battle. Pittsburgh advanced to the Divisional Round of the playoffs, only to lose to Peyton Manning and the eventual Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos.


title: AFC North

text: The Steelers won the division title in 2016 after a 31–27 win over the Ravens on Christmas Day. Despite victories in the playoffs against Miami and Kansas City, they fell to New England in the AFC Championship Game.


title: AFC North

text: The Ravens clinched the division in Week 15 of 2019 in a 42–21 win over the NY Jets. However, they were upset by the Tennessee Titans at home in the second round as the Number 1 seed.


title: AFC North

text: The Steelers won the division in 2020. The Ravens and Browns also made it into the playoffs as the 5th and 6th seeded wildcards respectively. For the Browns, it was their first playoff appearance since 2002. The Browns defeated the Steelers 48–37 in Pittsburgh for the Wild Card Round. The Ravens beat the Titans 20–13 in their Wild Card matchup. However, both the Ravens and Browns failed to win their Divisional Round matchups, losing 17–3 to the Bills and 22–17 to the Chiefs respectively.


title: AFC North

text: The Bengals won the division in 2021. The Steelers were given a shocking last minute invite to the NFL Playoffs, but their journey fell short with a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild card round. The Bengals beat the Raiders at home 26-19 in the Wild Card matchup, the Titans 19-16 in Tennessee, and the Chiefs 27-24 in Kansas City to make it to the Super Bowl. Their season ended with a 23-20 loss in Super Bowl LVI to the Rams.


title: AFC North

text: <nowiki>+</nowiki> A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Because of the strike, the league used for its playoffs a special 16-team "Super Bowl Tournament" just for this year. Division standings were not formally acknowledged (although every division wound up sending at least one team to the playoffs); Cincinnati had the best record of the division teams.


title: AFC North

text: <nowiki>+</nowiki> A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games, so the league used a special 16-team playoff tournament just for this year.


title: AFC North

text: <nowiki>^</nowiki> A players' strike in 1982 reduced the regular season to nine games. Because of the strike, the league used for its playoffs a special 16-team "Super Bowl Tournament" just for this year. Division standings were not formally acknowledged (although every division wound up sending at least one team to the playoffs); Cincinnati had the best record of the division teams.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: The Hôtel de Ville (, "City Hall") is the city hall of Paris, France, standing on the Place de l'Hôtel-de-Ville – Esplanade de la Libération in the 4th arrondissement. The south wing was originally constructed by François I beginning in 1535 until 1551. The north wing was built by Henry IV and Louis XIII between 1605 and 1628. It was burned by the Paris Commune, along with all the city archives that it contained, during the Commune's final days in May 1871. The outside was rebuilt following the original design, but larger, between 1874 and 1882, while the inside was considerably modified. It has been the headquarters of the municipality of Paris since 1357. It serves multiple functions, housing the local government council, since 1977 the Mayor of Paris and her cabinet, and also serves as a venue for large receptions.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: In July 1357, Étienne Marcel, provost of the merchants (i.e. mayor) of Paris, bought the so-called "maison aux piliers" ("House of Pillars") in the name of the municipality on the gently sloping shingle beach which served as a river port for unloading wheat and wood and later merged into a square, the Place de Grève ("Strand Square"), a place where Parisians often gathered, particularly for public executions. Ever since 1357, the City of Paris's administration has been located on the same location where the Hôtel de Ville stands today. Before 1357, the city administration was located in the so-called "parloir aux bourgeois" ("Parlour of Burgesses") near the Châtelet.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: In 1533, King Francis I decided to endow the city with a city hall which would be worthy of Paris, then the largest city of Europe and Christendom. He appointed two architects: Italian Dominique de Cortone, nicknamed Boccador because of his red beard, and Frenchman Pierre Chambiges. The House of Pillars was torn down and Boccador, steeped in the spirit of the Renaissance, drew up the plans of a building which was at the same time tall, spacious, full of light and refined. Building work was not finished until 1628 during the reign of Louis XIII.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: During the next two centuries, no changes were made to the edifice which was the stage for several famous events during the French Revolution. On 14 July 1789, the last provost of the merchants Jacques de Flesselles was murdered by an angry crowd. On 27 July 1794, Maximilien Robespierre attempted to commit suicide following a coup and was arrested along with his followers.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: In 1835, on the initiative of Rambuteau, "préfet" of the Seine département, two wings were added to the main building and were linked to the facade by a gallery, to provide more space for the expanded city government. The architects were Étienne-Hippolyte Godde and Jean-Baptiste Lesueur.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: During the Franco-Prussian War, the building played a key role in several political events. On 30 October 1870, revolutionaries broke into the building and captured some of the members of the Government of National Defence, while making repeated demands for the establishment of a communard government. The existing government escaped via a tunnel built in 1807, which still connects the Hôtel de Ville with a nearby barracks. On 23 January 1871, crowds gathered outside the building to protest against speculated surrender to the Prussians, and were dispersed by soldiers firing from the building, who inflicted several casualties.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: The Hôtel de Ville had been the headquarters of the French Revolution, and likewise, it was the headquarters of the Paris Commune. When defeat became increasingly imminent and the French army approached the building, the Communards set fire to the Hôtel de Ville, along with other government buildings, destroying the building and almost all of the city archives.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: Reconstruction of City Hall lasted from 1873 through 1892 (19 years) and was directed by architects Théodore Ballu and Édouard Deperthes, who had won the public competition for the building's reconstruction. Ballu also designed the Church of La Trinité in the 9th arrondissement and the belfry of the town hall of the 1st arrondissement, opposite the Louvre's east facade. He also restored the Saint-Jacques Tower, a Gothic church tower in a square 150 metres to the west of the Hôtel de Ville.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: The architects rebuilt the interior of the Hôtel de Ville within the stone shell that had survived the fire. While the rebuilt Hôtel de Ville from the outside appeared to be a copy of the 16th-century French Renaissance building that stood before 1871, the new interior was based on an entirely new design, with ceremonial rooms lavishly decorated in the 1880s style.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: The central ceremonial doors under the clock are flanked by allegorical figures of "Art", by Laurent Marqueste, and "Science", by Jules Blanchard. Some 230 other sculptors were commissioned to produce 338 individual figures of famous Parisians on each facade, along with lions and other sculptural features. The sculptors included prominent academicians like Ernest-Eugène Hiolle and Henri Chapu, but easily the most famous was Auguste Rodin. Rodin produced the figure of the 18th-century mathematician Jean le Rond d'Alembert, finished in 1882.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: The statue on the garden wall on the south side is of Étienne Marcel, the most famous holder of the post of "prévôt des marchands" (provost of the merchants) which predated the office of mayor. Marcel was lynched in 1358 by an angry mob after trying to assert the city's powers too energetically.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: The decor featured murals by the leading painters of the day, including Raphaël Collin, Henri-Camille Danger, Jean-Paul Laurens, Puvis de Chavannes, Léon Bonnat, Albert Besnard, Henri Gervex, Aimé Morot or Alfred Roll. Most can still be seen as part of a guided tour of the building.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: Since the French Revolution, the building has been the scene of a number of historical events, notably the proclamation of the French Third Republic in 1870 and a speech by Charles de Gaulle on 25 August 1944 during the Liberation of Paris when he greeted a crowd from a front window.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: The previous mayor, Bertrand Delanoë, a socialist and the city's first openly gay leader, was stabbed in the building in 2002 during the first all-night, citywide Sleepless Night ("Nuit Blanche"; literally, White Night) festival when the doors of the long-inaccessible building were thrown open to the public. But Delanoë recovered and has not lost his zeal for access, later converting the mayor's sumptuous private apartments into a "crèche" (day nursery) for the children of municipal workers.


title: Hôtel de Ville, Paris

text: The northern (left) side of the building is located on the Rue de Rivoli. The nearby Bazar de l'Hôtel de Ville (BHV) is a department store named after the Hôtel de Ville. The closest church to the Hôtel de Ville is the St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church.


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: Undisputed III: Redemption is a 2010 American action film directed by Isaac Florentine and starring Scott Adkins, Mykel Shannon Jenkins, Mark Ivanir and Hristo Shopov. The third installment in the franchise started by the 2002 action film "Undisputed", it takes place several years after the events of "".


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: Years have passed since Yuri Boyka suffered a defeat and a broken knee at the hands of George "Iceman" Chambers. Humbled by his injury, he has relegated to becoming the prison janitor. Meanwhile, mob boss Gaga has expanded his prison tournament enterprise into an inter-prison tournament called the Prison Spetz Competition (PSC), which gathers the best prison fighters from around the globe to compete for a chance at a cleared record and early release. As Boyka hears the preliminaries taking place within the prison, as well as failing in his parole, he begins training privately to bring his knee back into fighting shape. Just after current champion Vladimir Sykov defeats his opponent in the final round of the prison's tournament, Boyka challenges him on the spot and swiftly defeats him, thus becoming the Russian representative for the PSC.


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: Boyka is transferred to Gorgon prison in the Republic of Georgia where he is joined by a diverse group of eight international prison fighters. Though the fighters are allowed one hour each day for training, they are still grouped into the general population for hard labor while Colombian fighter and local inmate Raul "Dolor" Quiñones is given private sparring sessions and a regimen of performance-enhancing drugs. During his stay, Boyka gets into odds with an American fighter Jericho "Turbo" Jones who is shown to be disrespectful, insubordinate, and a loudmouth. Boyka, Turbo, Dolor, and Brazilian fighter Rodrigo Silva advance to the second round of the tournament while the losing fighters are sent home, only to be shot dead by waiting guards.


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: The next day, Turbo starts a fight with Boyka before both men are thrown into solitary confinement. They are eventually released due to some manipulations by their managers Gaga and mafia don Gio Farnatti, who are old friends and rivals. Upon hearing of the prison's treatment of their fighters, the two mob bosses confront Warden Kuss, but PSC mastermind Rezo explains to them that the tournament has always been fixed to ensure the "highest profit at the lowest risk". He advises them to liquefy their assets and place their bets on Dolor to ensure their profit. Realizing that the loyalty to their fighters only extend to their payout, Gaga and Farnatti agree to this arrangement. Meanwhile, Boyka and Turbo slowly develop a trust in each other and focus their attention at beating Dolor in the tournament. They both start using the hard labor as part of their training. With Turbo's attitude eroding, he starts showing signs that his ego evolved from a highly disciplined past as a U.S. Marine. In addition to reciting, "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome" as part of his training, he recommends some holistic medicine for Boyka to soothe his knee.


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: In the semi-finals, Boyka defeats Silva by making him tap out to a triangle choke; he helps his opponent up and commends him for a good fight. Realizing that Boyka and Turbo are stronger than predicted, Rezo and Warden Kuss arrange to have the guards beat up Turbo to a bloody pulp. When the prisoners are taken for the next round of hard labor, Boyka tries to convince Turbo into escaping rather than face Dolor wounded. Knowing that Turbo used to be in the military, the plan is to escape to the forest where the security is lightest and survive long enough to eventually get in touch with the black market. Turbo initially disagrees, until another prisoner reveals that the losers are executed. Caught trying to break their chain, the two fight off the guards long enough to get a key. Freed, Turbo makes a run for the forest.


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: Boyka is returned to the prison where he is confronted by Rezo, Warden Kuss, and Gaga. Knowing he has lost all support, he commits himself to ruining their wagers by defeating Dolor in the newly improvised final round. Dolor takes an early lead with his exceptionally quick hand blocks and strikes, as well as exacerbating the problems with Boyka's weak knee by using a submission hold on it. Deprived of his kicking ability and agility, Boyka recovers first by relying on his endurance and pain tolerance, persevering past some devastating hits. It looks like the fight is over when he is kicked out of the ring, but when he catches a glimpse of the mop and bucket used for sopping up blood after the bouts, which bears a striking resemblance to the ones he used during his training, he returns into the ring before the ten-count. Remembering Turbo's mantra, "Improvise, Adapt, Overcome," he takes the blood-soaked pad off the mop and ties it around his knee. Forced to adapt, he begins using a new style mixing in elements of grappling, dirty boxing head-butts and elbows, wrestling, and wu-shu. Dolor, in a final moment of rage, breaks his shin against Boyka's knee block, ending the match.


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: Desperate and despondent, Farnatti confronts Warden Kuss and shoots Rezo over the money that he's lost before being shot by the warden himself. Despite winning the tournament, Boyka is not allowed to go free because the guards have not found Turbo. Because Boyka was responsible for his escape, the arrangement is that Turbo will remain free while Boyka will be transferred back to his original prison, to which Boyka responds that he does not care — he has proven his point. Like the other prisoners, Boyka is instead taken out to be shot, but he is rescued at the last minute by Turbo. The duo retreat to a waiting car where Gaga sits with a suitcase of money. He reveals that he always knew Boyka was the best fighter in the world, especially when he was angry, so he bet all of his money on him all along and deceived the other managers — even going so far as to rescue and hide Turbo when he escaped. Boyka decides to part ways, finally revealing his first name, Yuri, to Turbo. In turn, Turbo confesses that his real name is "Jericho," not realizing that Boyka has a special appreciation for religious references. In gratitude, he thanks Turbo for "bringing down the walls" and setting him free. Turbo then requests a match with Boyka in future and Boyka accepts. As the car leaves, Boyka happily walks with the money filled briefcase toward freedom laughing joyfully.


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: James Marsh of "Screen Anarchy" praised Florentine's direction for capturing the "flow and [the] combinations" of the "innovative, exciting and technically groundbreaking battles" and his cast of charismatic action stars, singling out Zaror for having "a natural eye-catching screen quality that's hard to ignore", concluding that: "[A]s someone who normally demands genuine drama from real characters along with his martial arts, I was overpowered, overwhelmed and left battered and bleeding at the total mercy of this movie. Resistance is futile. "Undisputed 3: Redemption" rules." Bill Gibron of "DVD Talk" gave note of the film being "simplified cinema set up to achieve certain stock goals", concluding that: ""Undisputed III" promises nothing more than a series of well filmed beatdowns, and delivers on every account. It might not be rocket science, but it's not "Rocky" either. Instead of finesse, all we get here is fighting - and that's perfectly fine."


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: "Undisputed III" won Best Director Award and Best Fight Choreographer in the 2010 edition of ActionFest.


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: According to "Movie Cricket", Adkins confirmed that there will be a fourth installment to the "Undisputed" series. On May 29, 2014, When asked whether there would be an "Undisputed 4", Adkins replied, "Yes, it is definitely something we are pursuing. We are working on the script at the moment trying to get all the departments happy with what we are trying to do. It’s taking longer than I want to be honest but you know it is difficult financing these films. In this day and age those type of straight to DVD films don’t make the sort of money they used to make in the 90s/early 2000s. So it is a bit of a precarious business at the moment and that is why it is taking so long but we are definitely all trying to get it going because we appreciate what following that character of Boyka has and you know, I love playing that character and I can’t wait to return to him and we’ve got some good ideas on where to take the character."


title: Undisputed III: Redemption

text: Production had begun on "Boyka: Undisputed" in June 2015 with Scott Adkins returning as Boyka. The plot involves the fighter, who is now free, attempting to go as a professional fighter when he accidentally kills someone in the ring. However, to make amends for what he has done, he must engage in a series of fights to save the wife of the man he killed. Shooting was completed in early August 2015 for a 2017 release date.


title: Pariah state

text: A pariah state (also called an international pariah or a global pariah) is a nation considered to be an outcast in the international community. A pariah state may face international isolation, sanctions or even an invasion by nations who find its policies, actions, or even its very existence unacceptable.


title: Pariah state

text: Until the past few centuries, the authority to designate a nation as an outcast, or pariah state, was relatively clear, often resting with religious authorities. (e.g., "the Ottoman Empire for example was regarded as an outcast by European States" from the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 until the nineteenth century on a "religious basis.") In more recent times, however, the criteria for and attached implications of pariah statehood, as well as the designating authorities, are the subject of much disagreement. For example, the Nigerian scholar Olawale Lawal has stated:


title: Pariah state

text: By some criteria, nations can be considered pariahs within their own neighborhood of surrounding states. By other criteria, an international body (such as the United Nations) or perhaps a consensus among certain nations may govern the meaning or use of the term.


title: Pariah state

text: The word "pariah" derives from Paraiyar, a large indigenous tribal group of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Under the caste system, the Paraiyar were members of the lowest caste, which were called the "outcastes" by the English Imperial rulers of India. Since its first recorded use in English in 1613, cultures worldwide have accepted the term "pariah" to mean "outcast".


title: Pariah state

text: A pariah state, defined in its simplest terms, is an outcast state. This is not a new term in the lexicon of International Relations, nor is it a new historical concept. What is new, however, is what Lawal refers to as "the basis for Pariahood appellation." Other definitions have been advanced that expand this basis (see next section below), or perhaps add more academic nuance, which may vary by author or the author's field of study. These definitions are here grouped into two categories: definitions focusing on the "lack" (or "disadvantage") the pariah state objectively "suffers" from, and definitions focusing on the political "justification" - given by other nations - for why that pariah state "deserves" their extraordinary attitude towards it.


title: Pariah state

text: The first type of definitions is well exemplified by Bellany's definition, according to which a pariah state is "A state lacking any significant soft power."


title: Pariah state

text: Similarly, "The Penguin Dictionary of International Relations" defines the pariah states as "international States/actors which, by virtue of their political systems, ideological postures, leadership or general behavior, suffer from diplomatic isolation and widespread global moral opprobrium." This definition, as the previous one, does not indicate what kind of political system, ideological posture, leadership or general behavior, is ascribed to the pariah state by the other nations.


title: Pariah state

text: The second type of definitions is most simply exemplified by Weiss's definition, according to which pariah states are "states that "violate international norms."" Similarly, Harkavy offers, "A Pariah State is one whose "conduct is considered to be out of line with international norms of behavior."" Geldenhuys gives a more detailed definition of that type: "A pariah (or outcast) country is one whose "domestic or international behaviour seriously offends the world community or at least a significant group of states."" Marks's definition elaborates more: a pariah state is "a state with "provocative policies or expansionary territorial ambitions, measures of the absence of diplomatic relations with neighboring states or the situational harm posed to other states if the state in question acquired nuclear weapons"."


title: Pariah state

text: As of August 2014, no internationally accepted criteria exist for designating a nation as a pariah state, nor is there any single accepted authority for doing so. Some criteria are proposed in the definitions offered in the previous section. For example, Harkavy and Marks make reference in their definitions to the international behavior of a nation in order to qualify it for pariahood. Marks goes one step further and includes the question of nuclear weapons in his criteria, while Weiss adds "a state’s defiant existence in the face of international non-recognition.". However, Bellany's sole criterion is a lack of soft power, while the "Penguin Dictionary of International Relations" requires that the pariah states also "suffer from diplomatic isolation and widespread global moral opprobrium".


title: Pariah state

text: Political commentator and activist Noam Chomsky declared in 2003 and again in 2014 that the United States had become a pariah state. Both declarations were based on both USA's leading violation of international laws and results from Gallup polls showing that only 10 percent of people around the world supported the US war in Iraq and that 24 percent of people in the world believed the United States represented the greatest threat to world peace. Such poll results are not listed among objective criteria advanced by academic sources, international authorities or NGOs, or any governing bodies as criteria for designation as a pariah state, and Geldenhuys argues that major world powers by definition cannot be pariah states because they cannot be isolated or harmed politically or economically, or brought into compliance with international norms by pariah designations, whether by individuals or international governing bodies. Mary Ellen O’Connell, a professor of international law at the University of Notre Dame, explains that there has been a decline in the respect towards international law in USA from our highest government officials to the person on the street because of the misunderstood belief that the laws are practice not enforceable.


title: Pariah state

text: Lawal distinguishes between subjective and objective designations. Subjective designation can also exist on a national level, according to the interests and values of the designating nation. If the designating nation is powerful enough, the designation of pariah statehood can become objective based on the amount of pressure the designating state can apply to gain international consensus. Such was the case, according to Lawal, when the United States used its strength within the Western Bloc to impose pariah status on Fidel Castro's Cuba instead of acting unilaterally through foreign policy, with no objective need to impose international pariah status. Lawal explains that the United States' problem with Cuba was geographical more than ideological, as Cuba was no further from the United States on the political spectrum than the Soviet Union was at the time, but the Soviets had attempted to establish nuclear missile launch facilities in Cuba, within 99 miles (159 km) of the United States coastline.


title: Pariah state

text: Lawal has summarized four primary categories often used for qualification as pariah states: 1) nations that possess or use weapons of mass destruction in contravention of existing treaties, 2) nations that support terrorism, 3) nations lacking democracy, and 4) nations with a record of human rights violations. To these four criteria, Geldenhuys adds another two: 5) nations that promote radical ideologies at home or even abroad (clarified as "exporting revolution"), and 6) nations that commit acts of military aggression abroad. In addition to these six categories of state conduct that can result in objective designation as a pariah state, Geldenhuys suggests a seventh category that might gain international consensus: nations that are involved in international drug trafficking.


title: Pariah state

text: According to Lawal, International law can serve as objective criteria. For example, nations who violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are often sanctioned for their actions. Such sanctions can include designation as a pariah state, as has been the approach used by the United States. However, international law can fail in this regard, as under the current international system, most nation states recognize their own legal supremacy over the laws of any international governing body. Thus, according to Lawal, consensus under international law can be problematic. In the case of nuclear arms development, international isolation can have a paradoxical "push effect" on a pariah state, motivating accelerated development of nuclear weapons. As of 2012, there was no provision in international law for pariah status.


title: Pariah state

text: Geldenhuys has identified four common characteristics shared by many pariah states that are unrelated to any actions of international deviance that might have qualified them as pariahs under the various criteria.


title: Pariah state

text: The first is that pariah states tend to lack strong identity as a nation. Geldenhuys cites Iraq as an example. Iraq is a relatively young nation state with "artificial borders." Saddam Hussein's ruling Ba'ath party denied that Iraqis formed a nation. Rather, they maintained that Iraqis were part of a larger Arab nation. (Iraqi Kurds are not Arabs.)


title: Pariah state

text: The second characteristic is that, although they are not necessarily small, pariah states cannot be "regarded as a major power in world terms." Certainly there are individuals who disagree with this second characteristic, such as Noam Chomsky (cited above) and author-journalist Robert Parry, each of whom has applied his own personal criteria to describe the United States as a pariah state.


title: Pariah state

text: The third characteristic noted by Geldenhuys is that pariah states tend to develop a siege mentality. Similar to the "push effect" (described above regarding sanctions against nations developing nuclear arms), this siege mentality can motivate pariah states to develop costly and ambitious arms programs.


title: Pariah state

text: Finally, pariah states tend to develop resentments against the established world order. They may seek to subvert the international "status quo." These characteristics are presented as generalizations, and not intended by the author to apply to every pariah state.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The Alchon Huns, (Bactrian: αλχον(ν)ο "Alchon(n)o") also known as the Alchono, Alxon, Alkhon, Alkhan, Alakhana and Walxon, were a nomadic people who established states in Central Asia and South Asia during the 4th and 6th centuries CE. They were first mentioned as being located in Paropamisus, and later expanded south-east, into the Punjab and central India, as far as Eran and Kausambi. The Alchon invasion of the Indian subcontinent eradicated the Kidarite Huns who had preceded them by about a century, and contributed to the fall of the Gupta Empire, in a sense bringing an end to Classical India.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The invasion of India by the Huna peoples follows invasions of the subcontinent in the preceding centuries by the Yavana (Indo-Greeks), the Saka (Indo-Scythians), the Palava (Indo-Parthians), and the Kushana (Yuezhi). The Alchon Empire was the third of four major Huna states established in Central and South Asia. The Alchon were preceded by the Kidarites and succeeded by the Hephthalites in Bactria and the Nezak Huns in the Hindu Kush. The names of the Alchon kings are known from their extensive coinage, Buddhist accounts, and a number of commemorative inscriptions throughout the Indian subcontinent.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The Alchons have long been considered as a part or a sub-division of the Hephthalites, or as their eastern branch, but now tend to be considered as a separate entity.


title: Alchon Huns

text: To contemporaneous observers in India, the Alchon were one of the "Hūṇa" peoples (or Hunas), whose origins are controversial. A seal from Kausambi associated with Toramana, bears the title "Hūnarāja" ("Huna King"). Toramana is also described as a "Huna" ( "Hūṇā") in the Rīsthal inscription.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The Hunas appear to have been the peoples known in contemporaneous Iranian sources as "Xwn", "Xiyon" and similar names, which were later Romanised as Xionites or Chionites. The Hunas are often linked to the Huns that invaded Europe from Central Asia during the same period. Consequently, the word Hun has three slightly different meanings, depending on the context in which it is used: 1) the Huns of Europe; 2) groups associated with the Huna people who invaded northern India; 3) a vague term for Hun-like people. The Alchon have also been labelled "Huns", with essentially the second meaning, as well as elements of the third.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The name "Alchon" generally given to them comes from the Bactrian legend of their early coinage, where they simply imitated Sassanian coins to which they added the name "alchono" (, αλχονο, also αλχοννο) in Bactrian script (a slight adaptation of the Greek script) and the tamgha symbol of their clan. Several original coins such as those of Khingila also bear the mention "alchono" together with the Tamgha symbol.


title: Alchon Huns

text: Philologically, "alchono" (αλχονο) may be a combination of "al-" for Aryan and "-xono" for Huns, although this remains hypothetical. Another etymology could be "al-", Turkish for scarlet, and "-xono" for Huns, meaning "Red Huns", red being a symbol of the south among steppe nomads.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The Alchons are generally recognized by their elongated skull, a result of artificial skull deformation, which may have represented their "corporate identity". The elongated skulls appears clearly in most of the portraits of rulers in the coinage of the Alkhon Huns, and most visibly on the coinage of Khingila. These elongated skulls, which they obviously displayed with pride, distinguished them from other peoples, such as their predecessors the Kidarites. On their coins, the spectacular skulls came to replace the Sasanian-type crowns which had been current in the coinage of the region. This practice is also known among other peoples of the steppes, particularly the Huns, and as far as Europe, where it was introduced by the Huns themselves.


title: Alchon Huns

text: In another ethnic custom, the Alchons were represented beardless, often wearing a moustache, in clear contrast with the Sasanian Empire prototype which was generally bearded.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The emblematic look of the Alchons seems to have become rather fashionable in the area, as shown by the depiction of the Iranian hero Rostam, mythical king of Zabulistan, with an elongated skull in at Panjikent.


title: Alchon Huns

text: Another way for the Alchon Huns to affirm their identity and to differentiate themselves from their predecessors the Kidarites, was the use of a specific symbol, or "tamgha", which regularly appears on their coinage and seals: .


title: Alchon Huns

text: During the reign of Shapur II, the Sasanian Empire and the Kushano-Sasanians gradually lost the control of Bactria to these invaders from Central Asia, first the Kidarites from around 335 CE, then the Alchon Huns from around 370 CE, who would follow up with the invasion of India a century later, and lastly the Hephthalites from around 450 CE.


title: Alchon Huns

text: Early confrontations between the Sasanian Empire of Shapur II with the nomadic hordes from Central Asia called the "Chionites" were described by Ammianus Marcellinus: he reports that in 356 CE, Shapur II was taking his winter quarters on his eastern borders, "repelling the hostilities of the bordering tribes" of the Chionites and the Euseni ("Euseni" is usually amended to "Cuseni", meaning the Kushans), finally making a treaty of alliance with the Chionites and the Gelani, "the most warlike and indefatigable of all tribes", in 358 CE. After concluding this alliance, the Chionites (probably of the Kidarites tribe) under their King Grumbates accompanied Shapur II in the war against the Romans, especially at the siege of Amida in 359 CE. Victories of the Xionites during their campaigns in the Eastern Caspian lands were also witnessed and described by Ammianus Marcellinus.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The Alchon Huns occupied Bactria circa 370 CE, chasing the Kidarites in the direction of India, and started minting coins in the style of Shapur II but bearing their name "Alchono".


title: Alchon Huns

text: Around 380-385 CE, the Alchons emerged in Kapisa, taking over Kabulistan from the Sassanian Persians, while at the same time the Kidarites (Red Huns) ruled in Gandhara. The Alchons are known to have reused the mint and the coin dies of Shapur II south of the Hindu Kush, again simply adding their name "Alchono" to Sasanian coinage. The Alchon Huns are sometimes said to have taken control of Kabul in 388.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The Alchon Huns initially issued anonymous coins based on Sasanian designs. Several types of these coins are known, usually minted in Bactria, using Sasanian coinage designs with busts imitating Sasanian kings Shapur II (r.309 to 379 CE) and Shapur III (r.383 to 388 CE), adding the Alchon Tamgha and the name "Alchono" (αλχοννο) in Bactrian script (a slight adaptation of the Greek script which had been introduced in the region by the Greco-Bactrians in the 3rd century BCE) on the obverse, and with attendants to a fire altar, a standard Sasanian design, on the reverse. It is thought the Alchons took over the Sasanian mints in Kabulistan after 385 CE, reusing dies of Shapur II and Shapur III, to which they added the name "Alchono".


title: Alchon Huns

text: Around 430 King Khingila, the most notable Alchon ruler, and the first one to be named and represented on his coins with the legend "χιγγιλο" ("Chiggilo") in Bactrian, emerged and took control of the routes across the Hindu Kush from the Kidarites. Coins of the Alchons rulers Khingila and Mehama were found at the Buddhist monastery of Mes Aynak, southeast of Kabul, confirming the Alchon presence in this area around 450-500 CE. Khingila seems to have been a contemporary of the Sassanian ruler Bahram V. As the Alchons took control, diplomatic missions were established in 457 with China. Khingila, under the name "Shengil", was called "King of India" in the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi.


title: Alchon Huns

text: Alchon ruler Mehama (r.461-493) was elevated to the position of Governor for Sasanian Emperor Peroz I (r. 459–484), and described himself as "King of the people of Kadag and governor of the famous and prosperous King of Kings Peroz" in . He allied with Peroz I in his victory over the Kidarites in 466 CE, and may also have helped him take the throne against his brother Hormizd III. But he was later able to wrestle autonomy or even independence.


title: Alchon Huns

text: Between 460 and 470 CE, the Alchons took over Gandhara and the Punjab which also had remained under the control of the Kidarites, while the Gupta Empire remained further east. The Alkhon Huns may simply have filled the power vacuum created by the decline of the Kidarites, following their defeat in India against the Gupta Empire of Skandagupta in 455 CE, and their subsequent defeat in 467 CE against the Sasanian Empire of Peroz I, with Hephthalite and Alchon aid under Mehama, which put an end to Kidarite rule in Transoxiana once and for all.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The numismatic evidence as well as the so-called "Hephthalite bowl" from Gandhara, now in the British Museum, suggests a period of peaceful coexistence between the Kidarites and the Alchons, as it features two Kidarite noble hunters wearing their characteristic crowns, together with two Alchon hunters and one of the Alchons inside a medallion. At one point, the Kidarites withdrew from Gandhara, and the Alchons took over their mints from the time of Khingila.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The Alchons apparently undertook the mass destruction of Buddhist monasteries and stupas at Taxila, a high center of learning, which never recovered from the destruction. Virtually all of the Alchon coins found in the area of Taxila were found in the ruins of burned down monasteries, where apparently some of the invaders died alongside local defenders during the wave of destructions. It is thought that the Kanishka stupa, one of the most famous and tallest buildings in antiquity, was destroyed by them during their invasion of the area in the 460s CE. The Mankiala stupa was also vandalized during their invasions.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The rest of the 5th century marks a period of territorial expansion and eponymous kings, several of which appear to have overlapped and ruled jointly. The Alchon Huns invaded parts of northwestern India from the second half of the 5th century. According to the Bhitari pillar inscription, the Gupta ruler Skandagupta already confronted and defeated an unnamed Huna ruler circa 456-457 CE.


title: Alchon Huns

text: From circa 480 CE, there are also suggestion of Hunnic occupation of Sindh, between Multan and the mouth of the Indus river, as the local Sasanian coinage of Sindh starts to incorporate sun symbols or a Hunnic tamgha to the design. These little-known coins are usually described as the result of the invasions of the "Hephthalites". The quality of the coins also becomes very much degraded by that time, and the actual gold content becomes quite low compared to the previous Sasanian-style coinage.


title: Alchon Huns

text: The Hūṇas were precisely ruling the area of Malwa, at the doorstep of the Western Deccan, at the time the famous Ajanta caves were made by ruler Harisena of the Vakataka Empire. Through their control of vast areas of northwestern India, the Huns may actually have acted as a cultural bridge between the area of Gandhara and the Western Deccan, at the time when the Ajanta or Pitalkhora caves were being decorated with designs of Gandharan inspiration, such as Buddhas dressed in robes with abundant folds.


title: Alchon Huns

text: In the First Hunnic War (496–515), the Alchon reached their maximum territorial extent, with King Toramana pushing deep into Indian territory, reaching Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in Central India, and ultimately contributing to the downfall of the Gupta Empire. To the south, the Sanjeli inscriptions indicate that Toramana penetrated at least as far as northern Gujarat, and possibly to the port of Bharukaccha. To the east, far into Central India, the city of Kausambi, where seals with Toramana's name were found, was probably sacked by the Alkhons in 497–500, before they moved to occupy Malwa. In particular, it is thought that the monastery of Ghoshitarama in Kausambi was destroyed by Toramana, as several of his seals were found there, one of them bearing the name "Toramana" impressed over the official seal of the monastery, and the other bearing the title "Hūnarāja" ("King of the Huns"), together with debris and arrowheads. Another seal, this time by Mihirakula, is reported from Kausambi. These territories may have been taken from Gupta Emperor Budhagupta. Alternatively, they may have been captured during the rule of his successor Narasimhagupta.


title: Alchon Huns

text: A decisive battle occurred in Malwa, where a local Gupta ruler, probably a governor, named Bhanugupta was in charge. In the "Bhanugupta Eran" inscription, this local ruler reports that his army participated in a great battle in 510 CE at Eran, where it suffered severe casualties. Bhanugupta was probably vanquished by Toramana at this battle, so that the western Gupta province of Malwa fell into the hands of the Hunas.


title: Alchon Huns

text: According to a 6th-century CE Buddhist work, the "Manjusri-mula-kalpa", Bhanugupta lost Malwa to the "Shudra" Toramana, who continued his conquest to Magadha, forcing Narasimhagupta Baladitya to make a retreat to Bengal. Toramana "possessed of great prowess and armies" then conquered the city of Tirtha in the Gauda country (modern Bengal). Toramana is said to have crowned a new king in Benares, named Prakataditya, who is also presented as a son of Narasimha Gupta.


title: Alchon Huns

text: Having conquered the territory of Malwa from the Guptas, Toramana was mentioned in a famous inscription in Eran, confirming his rule on the region. The "Eran boar inscription of Toramana" (in Eran, Malwa, 540 km south of New Delhi, state of Madhya Pradesh) of his first regnal year indicates that eastern Malwa was included in his dominion. The inscription is written under the neck of the boar, in 8 lines of Sanskrit in the Brahmi script. The first line of the inscription, in which Toramana is introduced as "Mahararajadhidaja" (The Great King of Kings), reads:


title: Alchon Huns

text: On his gold coins minted in India in the style of the Gupta Emperors, Toramana presented himself confidently as:


title: Alchon Huns

text: The fact that the Alchon Huns issued gold coins, such as the Toramana issue, in addition to their silver and copper coins, suggest that their empire in India was quite rich and powerful.


title: Alchon Huns

text: Toramana was finally defeated by local Indian rulers. The local ruler Bhanugupta is sometimes credited with vanquishing Toramana, as his 510 CE inscription in Eran, recording his participation in "a great battle", is vague enough to allow for such an interpretation. The "great battle" in which Bhanagupta participated is not detailed, and it is impossible to know what it was, or which way it ended, and interpretations vary. Mookerji and others consider, in view of the inscription as well as the "Manjusri-mula-kalpa", that Bhanugupta was, on the contrary, vanquished by Toramana at the 510 CE Eran battle, so that the western Gupta province of Malwa fell into the hands of the Hunas at that point, so that Toramana could be mentioned in the Eran boar inscription, as the ruler of the region.