title: Another 48 Hrs.

text: Veteran San Francisco police inspector Jack Cates has been after drug dealer the "Iceman" for the past four years. At the Hunter's Point Raceway, Jack confronts Tyrone Burroughs and Arthur Brock. Jack kills Brock, while Burroughs escapes. Despite killing Brock in self-defense, Jack is now under investigation, as Brock's gun cannot be found at the scene. Blake Wilson, the head of the Internal Affairs division, becomes determined to prosecute Jack on a third-degree manslaughter charge. Jack finds a picture that proves that the Iceman has put a price on the head of Reggie Hammond, who is scheduled to be released from prison the next day.


title: Another 48 Hrs.

text: Reggie has completed his prison tern for robbing a payroll (a crime for which he claims complete innocence), which he had been serving six months before. He is scheduled to be released. Jack tries to convince Reggie to help him clear his name and find the Iceman. Reggie requests that Jack gives him the $500,000 that Jack has been holding on to for him. Jack refuses to give Reggie the money unless Reggie helps him. After the bus transporting Reggie is attacked by two bikers and Jack gets shot, Jack forces Reggie to help him by having the hospital release Reggie into his custody. Reggie recognizes one of the two bikers as Richard "Cherry" Ganz, the brother of Albert Ganz, the escaped convict Jack killed years earlier. Cherry and his partner Willie Hickok are the hitmen hired to kill Reggie. Burroughs, who works for the Iceman, was trying to hire Brock as insurance, just in case Cherry and Hickok failed. When the Iceman murders Hickok's primary contact man, Malcolm Price, Hickok kills Burroughs, after the latter reveals himself to be an associate of the Iceman.


title: Another 48 Hrs.

text: Reggie is captured by Cherry and Hickok, and Jack confronts the two criminals at a local nightclub where Ben Kehoe—Jack's friend and fellow officer—is revealed to be the Iceman, with another detective, Frank Cruise, serving as an accomplice. A gunfight ensues, with Jack wounding Hickok and killing Cruise. After killing both Hickok and Cherry, Reggie is held captive by Kehoe and used as a human shield. Reggie sarcastically begs Jack to shoot him. Jack does so, firing a shot into Reggie's shoulder, wounding him and throwing him off Kehoe. Jack then shoots Kehoe, killing him. Before Reggie is transported to the hospital, he and Jack share a few parting words. As the ambulance leaves with Reggie, Jack realizes that Reggie has once again stolen his lighter although he decides to let Reggie keep it out of respect.


title: Another 48 Hrs.

text: Eddie Murphy had been paid $200,000 for his role in the original film. By the time of the sequel, his fee was $12,000,000 up front, plus a percentage of the gross.


title: Another 48 Hrs.

text: Hill added that "the plot – which Eddie suggested – is actually kind of intriguing. So why not do it?... A lot of folks will say I'm just doing it for the money. What I want to know is, why do they think I made the first one?"


title: Another 48 Hrs.

text: The original workprint of the film was 145 minutes long. It was cut by either director Walter Hill or the Paramount studio down to 120 minutes, and a week before its summer theatrical release an additional 25 minutes were cut out by Paramount, making a final theatrical version 95 minutes long, but also creating lot of plot holes and continuity mistakes in the film. Frank McRae's reprisal of his role from the original "48 Hrs." was entirely cut except for a brief, uncredited shot of him in the background of one scene in the police station. Also removed was a scene which was partially shown in the theatrical trailer in which Jack explains to Reggie that he has a deadline to track down the Iceman; as such, there is no mention of '48 hours' anywhere in the final film. Brion James, also returning from the original, saw his role severely cut down as well, to create a faster-paced action-comedy. In an interview, James said this about the cuts made on the film:


title: Another 48 Hrs.

text: The film grossed more at the US box office than its predecessor and made $72.7 million from foreign markets for a total of $153.5 million. However this was considered a box office disappointment and because the film was so costly, profits were minimized. Murphy accused Paramount of not spending enough on advertising and changing the release date. Paramount counter-alleged that Murphy did not spend enough time promoting the film. This led to tension in the long-running relationship between Murphy and Paramount.


title: Another 48 Hrs.

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 20% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 4.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Even the return of Eddie Murphy, Nick Nolte, and director Walter Hill can't hide the lazy, patchwork quality of "Another 48 Hrs"." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 23 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Another 48 Hrs.

text: Vincent Canby of "The New York Times" stated that it was "as much a star vehicle for Mr. Murphy as "The Gorgeous Hussy" once was for Joan Crawford. The Crawford name isn't idly invoked. You have to go back to the old MGM days to find movies that, with every gesture, let the audience know it was watching a star." Canby continued, "Though the body count is high, all of the people killed are faceless or only minor characters, until the end. It's as if the movie were saying that lethal violence is acceptable (and fun) as long as the victims–like the victims of guided missiles and high-altitude bombing–remain anonymous. Any comedy that allows the mind to ponder high-altitude bombing is in deep trouble."


title: Another 48 Hrs.

text: "Los Angeles Times" critic Peter Rainer called it "a crude rehashing of the high points of the first film." Ranier singled out director Hill, who he said "surely recognizes the hollowness of what he's doing here. He tries to ram through the muddled exposition as quickly as possible; essentially, the film is wall-to-wall mayhem, with more shots of hurled bodies shattering windows than I've ever seen in a movie."


title: Oslo (film)

text: Oslo is an American television drama film about the secret negotiation of the Oslo Accords. The film was directed by Bartlett Sher and written by J. T. Rogers, based on Rogers' play of the same name. It stars Andrew Scott, Ruth Wilson, and Jeff Wilbusch. It was released on May 29, 2021, on HBO.


title: Oslo (film)

text: In December 1992, Mona Juul at the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls her husband Terje Rød-Larsen. Rød-Larsen, who is in Jerusalem, goes to talk to Yossi Beilin. Beilin explains to Terje that the peace talks are in a dead end, because everybody demands everything at once, and Terje offers a new approach. An Israeli meeting a Palestinian on neutral ground.


title: Oslo (film)

text: Mona Juul has a meeting with Ahmed Qurei, the minister of finance of the PLO, in London, where Mona and Terje introduce him to Yair Hirschfeld, an Israeli professor for economics. The secret meeting, since Israeli officials were not allowed to talk to Palestinians, starts cold but warms up and they agree to meet again.


title: Oslo (film)

text: The followup meeting is held in a manor near Oslo, with Qurei and Hassan Asfour as representatives of the Palestinian government and Hirschfeld and Ron Pundak as Israelis representatives. The meeting starts formal and cold, but warms up over time and through socializing and smaller hiccups results in a first series of drafts for a Declaration of Principles (DOP).


title: Oslo (film)

text: As neither Hirschfeld nor Pundak are Israeli officials, talks are about to come to an end there. After some back and forth and Terje making unfounded claims that he would get an Israeli official to join the talks, Mona decides to break the secret to Johan Jørgen Holst, the Norwegian minister of foreign affairs, who facilitates a meeting with Uri Savir from the Israeli foreign ministry to review the DOP.


title: Oslo (film)

text: This meeting starts very aggressive with Savir and Qurei accusing each other of terrorism and murder, but again warms up over time with Savir expressing willingness to give up the Gaza Strip and Jericho―a city 20 miles outside of Jerusalem―to the Palestinians as an autonomous region.


title: Oslo (film)

text: Uri Savir then presents the result to Joel Singer, the legal adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who meets with the group to finalize the document with official backing. Instead of finalizing the document, it almost leads to a breakup of the talks over Singer's attempts to rewrite the document. At the request of Hirschfeld, Mona finally breaks her "facilitate only" doctrine and gets involved. She can defuse the situation by sharing her own story about the conflict, which was hinted by flashbacks throughout the movie.


title: Oslo (film)

text: After that the Oslo Accord is meant to be finalized through a telephone conference between Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat. After some trouble getting Arafat, who is residing in exile in Tunis, on the line, they manage to talk to Qurei, who speaks on behalf of Arafat and the rest of the government because he claims to be more proficient in English. After a long conference, they agree to accept each other's legitimacy and postpone the controversial question on Jerusalem, thereby finalizing the negotiation.


title: Oslo (film)

text: The movie ends with a montage of archival footage of the events after the Oslo agreement, such as Yitzhak Rabin saying "We who have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today, in a loud and clear voice: 'enough of blood and tears, enough'" at the White House in September 1993. It also references Rabin's assassination in 1995 and that the status of Jerusalem remained a sticking point, as well as the Second Intifada starting in September 2000. Nonetheless, it still affirms the importance of the Oslo meeting and the dialogue to facilitate a chance for peace.


title: Oslo (film)

text: In April 2017, it was reported that the play "Oslo" would be brought to the screen by producer Marc Platt. It would be adapted for the screen by the playwright J. T. Rogers and directed by Bartlett Sher, the director of the Broadway production. In November 2020, it was reported "Oslo" had begun production in Prague. The film aired on HBO and stars Andrew Scott and Ruth Wilson.


title: Oslo (film)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 75% approval rating based on 24 reviews, with an average rating of 6.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, ""Oslo" sometimes struggles to smoothly transition from the stage to screen, but Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott bring an engaging verve to this historical snapshot of high-stakes diplomacy." On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 54 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Belting (music)

text: Belting (or vocal belting) is a specific technique of singing by which a singer carries their chest voice above their break or passaggio with a proportion of head voice. Belting is sometimes described as "high chest voice" or "mixed voice" (not to be confused with the mixing technique), although if this is done incorrectly it can potentially be damaging for the voice. It is often described as a vocal register, although this is also technically incorrect; it is rather a descriptive term for the use of a register. Singers can use belting to convey heightened existential states.


title: Belting (music)

text: Belting became commonplace in Broadway musicals following Ethel Merman's performance in "Girl Crazy" (1930), notably in the song "I Got Rhythm". The opening credit sequence of the James Bond film "Goldfinger" (1964) features a title song performed by Shirley Bassey, which established belting as a signature quality of the James Bond films that continued through to the following century.


title: Belting (music)

text: Belting is sometimes confused with mixing, in which chest voice and head voice are blended. A belted voice can be mixed or not, and a mixed voice can be belted or not.


title: Belting (music)

text: "Chest register" is the lowest register of the singing voice, produced by dominant use of the thyroarytenoid muscle. The term "belt" is the use of a chest voice in the higher part of the voice. The chest voice is a general term for the sound and muscular functions of the speaking voice, singing in the lower range, and the voice used to shout. Each of those functions requires a thicker closure of the vocal folds and the support of the muscles surrounding them. Therefore, the term "chest voice" is a misnomer when it describes muscular work in the chest area of the body or a resonance therein. Proper production of the belt voice, according to some vocal methods, involves minimizing tension in the throat and a change of typical placement of the voice sound in the mouth, bringing it forward into the hard palate, although techniques vary by pedagogical style.


title: Belting (music)

text: It is possible to learn classical vocal methods like "bel canto" and also to be able to belt; in fact, many roles now require it. Vocalists trained in a wide range of styles describe vastly varying experiences in the learning belt technique. Some claim that it comes naturally, while others struggle to access chest register other than while speaking. The style of music does not seem to be a related factor, other than in a singer's exposure to the material.


title: Belting (music)

text: Belt technique requires muscle coordination not readily used in classically trained singers as the thyroarytenoid muscle is dominant (as opposed to head register singing where the "cricothyroid muscle" is dominant), which may be why some opera singers find learning to belt challenging.


title: Belting (music)

text: There are many explanations as to how the belting voice quality is produced. Under a scope, the vocal folds visibly shorten and thicken, and they undulate along with more of their vertical surface area than in head register when a smaller segment of their edge must undulate to produce sound.


title: Belting (music)

text: One researcher, Jo Estill, has conducted research on the belting voice, and describes the belting voice as an extremely muscular and physical way of singing. When observing the vocal tract and torso of singers, while belting, Estill observed:


title: Belting (music)

text: Belting without proper coordination can lead to constriction of the muscles surrounding the vocal mechanism. Constriction can consequently lead to vocal deterioration. Correct use of the technique and, most importantly, retraction of the ventricular folds while singing is vital to safe belting, as it is, in essence a form of "yell" and thus involves a tremendous (roughly +70%) increase in the force exerted on the soft structures of the pharynx vs. more common modes of singing. Attempting to belt too loudly, in too high a register and without properly supporting the ventricular folds are (in combination) the "Three Devils" of the belter; an untrained belter may well consider the short term irritations (hoarseness, throat pain) caused by bad form to be just a "part of the job", when in reality it indicates a flaw in their belting skill that will cause long term serious damage (vocal cord nodules, irreversible loss of former range and timbre) if not changed.


title: Belting (music)

text: While acknowledging the extra risks inherent to belting, many proponents take pains to point out that it is an advanced skill which (so long as it is a "soft yell", and produced properly without straining and pain) is no more damaging to the voice than any other type of singing. Indeed, some genres of singing (such as blues rock) rely on belting to allow the vocalist to "cut through" the electric guitar while playing live. Many in the musical theater industry like to quip, "belting is not bad; bad belting is bad."


title: Belting (music)

text: As for the physiological and acoustical features of the metallic voice, a master's thesis has drawn the following conclusions:


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Martin Trevor Heinrich (; born October 17, 1971) is an American businessman and politician serving as the senior United States senator from New Mexico, a seat he has held since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, Heinrich served as the U.S. representative from from 2009 to 2013. He is the dean of New Mexico's congressional delegation.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: A native of Fallon, Nevada, Heinrich lived much of his adulthood in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and maintains a residence there along with his work residence in Silver Spring, Maryland. He won the Senate seat vacated by retiring Senator Jeff Bingaman in 2012.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Martin Trevor Heinrich was born in Fallon, near Carson City, Nevada. He is the son of seamstress Shirley A. (née Bybee) and Pete C. Heinrich, a utility company lineman. His father was born in Waldenburg, Germany, as Heinrich Peter Karl Cordes and later took his stepfather Olaf Heinrich's surname. When he was naturalized as an American citizen in 1955, he changed his name again to Pete Carl Heinrich. Raised as a Lutheran, Martin Heinrich grew up in Cole Camp, Missouri. He attended public schools in Cole Camp, then moved to Columbia, Missouri, in 1989 to attend the University of Missouri. He graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering. He left Missouri for Albuquerque to take graduate courses at the University of New Mexico.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: After a brief stint doing mechanical drawings, Heinrich worked as an AmeriCorps fellow in New Mexico.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: From 1996 to 2001 Heinrich served as executive director of the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation, a New Mexico nonprofit organization dedicated to educating young people on natural science and the environment. In 2002 he founded his own public affairs consulting firm.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Heinrich served on the Albuquerque City Council from 2004 to 2008, including one term as city council president in 2006. As a city councilman, he said his goals were to reduce crime, raise the minimum wage and create new jobs. He also advocated the use of wind and solar power.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: In February 2006 Governor Bill Richardson appointed Heinrich to be the state's Natural Resources Trustee.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: In 2008 Heinrich filed papers to run in , based in Albuquerque. He originally planned to challenge five-term Republican incumbent Heather Wilson, but Wilson retired to run for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Pete Domenici. Heinrich won the Democratic primary on June 4, 2008, defeating New Mexico Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron, State Health Secretary Michelle Lujan Grisham, and U.S. Army veteran Robert Pidcock, 44–25–24–8%.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: In the general election Heinrich faced Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, whom Heinrich's campaign focused on linking to President George W. Bush. Heinrich also called for energy independence and an end to the war in Iraq. He defeated White, 56–44%, carrying three of the district's five counties: Bernalillo (56%), Sandoval (56%), and Valencia (53%). White won Santa Fe (64%) and Torrance (57%) counties. Upon his swearing in on January 3, 2009, Heinrich became the first Democrat to represent the district. It had been in Republican hands since New Mexico was split into districts in 1969 but has become increasingly friendly to Democrats in recent years; it has gone Democratic in every presidential election since 1992.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Heinrich was challenged by Republican Jon Barela, who told Politico he did not believe Heinrich reflected the district, saying he was too far left on budget and spending issues. During the 2010 campaign Roll Call reported that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee assigned a lobbyist to aid in the reelection campaigns of possibly vulnerable House members in fundraising, messaging and campaign strategy. Heinrich was elected to a second term, defeating Barela 52–48%, and carrying two of the district's counties: Bernalillo (53%) and Sandoval (51%). Barela won Santa Fe (67%), Torrance (61%), and Valencia (53%) counties.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: On January 14, 2009, the House Democratic freshmen elected Heinrich to a six-month term as their class president. He co-sponsored the Stop the Congressional Pay Raise Act, which would cancel an automatic $4,700 salary raise for members of Congress.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: On March 21, 2010, Heinrich voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly called Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act). In 2017 he co-sponsored Medicare-For-All.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Heinrich has identified as an environmentalist throughout his career. He served as executive director of the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation, a New Mexico nonprofit organization dedicated to educating young people on natural science and the environment, and founded his own public affairs consulting firm.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Later, as a member of the Albuquerque City Council, he advocated for the use of wind and solar power. In February 2006 Governor Bill Richardson appointed him to be the state's Natural Resources Trustee. He also served on the executive committee of the Sierra Club's Rio Grande Chapter. In August 2011 he received the Sierra Club's first endorsement of the 2012 election cycle. He opposes construction of the Keystone Pipeline. He supports cap-and-trade legislation. In April 2019 Heinrich was one of three Democratic senators who joined Republicans to vote to confirm David Bernhardt, a former oil executive, as Secretary of the Interior Department.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: In late 2019, Heinrich was one of 14 senators to co-sponsor the Green New Deal, a policy introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate that would establish net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: After his 2012 Senate primary opponent, Hector Balderas, announced his support for same-sex marriage, Heinrich's staff released a statement to "The New Mexico Independent" newspaper stating, "Martin has supported gay marriage for some time. I just don't think he was asked about it. Thanks for asking!" He was an original cosponsor of Congressman Jerry Nadler's 2009 legislation to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Heinrich is an outdoorsman, hunter, gun owner, and former member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). The NRA endorsed him during the 2010 congressional election. At that time the NRA gave him a grade of A for his stance on Second Amendment rights. The NRA did not support Heinrich during his 2012 Senate campaign and he has since donated their 2010 contribution to charity.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Heinrich opposed legislation that would have reinstated the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. He also supported bills to create a national standard for the concealed carrying of firearms across state lines, co-sponsored legislation that would ease the restrictions on the sales of firearms across state lines, and called for the repeal of the Dickey Amendment, which prevents government research into curbing gun violence. He supports banning bump stocks and banning sales to anyone on the federal no-fly list.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: In 2008 the New Mexico Republican Party criticized Heinrich for his work on the creation of the Ojito National Wilderness, which they said amounted to unregistered lobbying. Heinrich responded that the work was advocacy that did not require lobbying disclosure.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Heinrich was a member of the House Armed Services Committee. During his time in Congress he has maintained strong opposition to the war in Iraq, and supports a swift end of combat operations in Afghanistan. In 2011 he voted against the National Defense Authorization Act conference report because he objected to language requiring that suspected foreign terrorists be taken into custody by the military instead of civilian law enforcement authorities.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Heinrich announced that he would leave the House to run for the United States Senate seat held by Jeff Bingaman, who retired at the end of his term. In March, "Politico" reported that Al Gore had signed a fundraising letter for Heinrich. Heinrich defeated State Auditor Hector Balderas in the Democratic primary. He defeated Republican Heather Wilson, his predecessor in Congress, in the November 6 general election, 51% to 45%.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Heinrich was reelected to a second term in 2018 over Republican Mick Rich and Libertarian Gary Johnson. He gained 54% of the vote to Rich's 30% and Johnson's 15%.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: In November 2020, Heinrich was named a candidate for secretary of the interior in the Biden administration.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: Heinrich was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. He left the chamber to make a phone call and saw that the rioters were overwhelming the Capitol Police. He returned to the chamber to tell people what he saw: "an out of control mob climbing over things, waving Confederate flags, just clearly bent on breaking into the west side of the Capitol." Along with other senators, Heinrich was evacuated from the Senate chamber to an undisclosed location. He called the attack an "assault on democracy" and blamed Trump. In the wake of the attack, Heinrich said invoking the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and/or impeachment would be appropriate to remove Trump.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: On April 17, 2013, Heinrich voted to expand background checks for gun purchases, and against regulating assault weapons.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: In response to the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Heinrich said that Congress should pass legislation to combat gun violence.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: On September 27, 2013, Heinrich voted to restore funding for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as part of an amendment to legislation funding government operations for 45 days, and which also omitted House-passed language prioritizing debt payments if Congress fails to increase the nation's borrowing limits.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: On December 21, 2017, Heinrich was one of six senators to introduce the Secure Elections Act, legislation authorizing block grants to states to update outdated voting technology as well as form a program for an independent panel of experts that would work to develop cybersecurity guidelines for election systems that states could implement, along with offering states resources to install the recommendations.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: In February 2021, Heinrich was one of seven Democratic U.S. Senators to join Republicans in blocking a ban of hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: In March 2019, Heinrich co-founded the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus with Senator Rob Portman. On April 15, 2020, the Trump administration invited Heinrich to join a bipartisan task force on the reopening of the economy amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Martin Heinrich

text: In 2014, Heinrich and Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona traveled to Eru, a small island in the Marshall Islands. The Discovery Channel sent a film crew to document their trip and planned to air the film for a show called "Rival Survival". Heinrich and Flake had to survive for six days with few resources, including no natural sources of drinkable water. After the trip Heinrich told reporters that he and Flake decided to do it to demonstrate that politicians from different political parties can work together, in their case to survive.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: The early life of Cleopatra VII () of Ptolemaic Egypt began with her birth in early 69 BC to reigning pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes and her unknown mother (possibly Cleopatra V), and lasted until her accession to the throne by March 51 BC. During her early childhood, Cleopatra was brought up in the palace of Alexandria in Egypt and received a primarily-Hellenistic Greek education from her tutor, Philostratus, who was a scholar in the well known library of Alexandria. By adulthood she was well-versed in many languages, including Egyptian, Ethiopian, Hebrew, Arabic, Median, Parthian, Latin, and her native Koine Greek.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Cleopatra's father was a client ruler of the Roman Republic. When the Romans annexed Cyprus and drove Ptolemy XII's brother Ptolemy of Cyprus to commit suicide rather than go into exile, Ptolemy XII became unpopular with the masses in Egypt for remaining silent and offering no reaction to the events. He and a daughter, ostensibly Cleopatra and not Arsinoe IV, were exiled from Egypt during a revolt. This allowed Cleopatra's older sister Berenice IV to claim the throne in 58 BC, ruling jointly with Cleopatra VI Tryphaena. Ptolemy XII and Cleopatra traveled first to Roman Italy. In the Alban Hills (outside Rome), they stayed at the villa of their Roman patron, the triumvir Pompey the Great. After Ptolemy XII orchestrated the assassinations of Berenice IV's diplomats in Rome, seeking to gain Roman favor, he and Cleopatra left the city's hostile environment and settled at Ephesus in Anatolia.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Pompey eventually convinced Aulus Gabinius, the Roman governor of Syria, to invade Egypt and restore Ptolemy XII to power. In the spring of 55 BC, Gabinius' invasion force arrived. His officer Mark Antony prevented Ptolemy XII from massacring the inhabitants of Pelousion for their defiance, and rescued the body of Archelaos (Berenice's husband) after he was killed in battle. Although Antony said years later that it was then that he fell in love with Cleopatra, their affair did not begin until 41 BC. Ptolemy XII made Cleopatra his regent and joint ruler in 52 BC, naming her and his son (Ptolemy XIII) joint successors in his will and testament. Ptolemy XII died by 22 March 51 BC, the date of Cleopatra's first known act as queen: restoring the sacred Buchis bull in Hermonthis, Egypt. She may have married her brother, Ptolemy XIII, but it is uncertain if they married before engaging in open hostilities against one another.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Cleopatra VII was born in early 69 BC to Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes and an unknown mother, presumably Ptolemy XII's sister-wife Cleopatra V Tryphaena —mother of Cleopatra's older sister, Berenice IV. Ptolemy XII was given the epithet "Auletes" ("the flute-player") due to his adoption of the title "New Dionysos" and his reported flute-playing during the Dionysian festivals. He had a reputation as an aloof monarch who enjoyed a life of luxury while causing dynastic troubles with the expulsion of Cleopatra V from the court in late 69 BC (a few months after the birth of Cleopatra VII). His three younger children (Cleopatra's sister Arsinoe IV and brothers Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV) were born during the more than decade-long absence of his wife.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Her childhood tutor was Philostratos, from whom she learned the Greek arts of oration and philosophy. During her youth Cleopatra presumably studied at the Musaeum (including the Library of Alexandria), and wrote Greek medical works which may have been inspired by the physicians at her father's royal court. Available to her in historical records preserved by the 3rd-century BC Ptolemaic-era native Egyptian historian Manetho were examples of strong, inspirational royal female predecessors (some of whom lived long before the Ptolemaic dynasty), such as Sobekneferu, Hatshepsut, and Nefertiti.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Ptolemaic pharaohs were crowned by Egyptian priests of Ptah at Memphis but resided in the multicultural and largely-Greek city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great of Macedon. They spoke Greek and governed Egypt as Hellenistic Greek monarchs, refusing to learn the native Egyptian language. Cleopatra could understand and speak many languages by adulthood, including Egyptian, Ethiopian, Trogodyte, Hebrew (or Aramaic), Arabic, Syrian (perhaps Syriac), Median, Parthian, and Latin, although her Roman colleagues would have preferred to speak with her in her native Koine Greek. Aside from Greek, Egyptian, and Latin, the three languages she had a known ability to read and write in, these languages reflected Cleopatra's expansionist territorial ambitions and her desire to regain African and Asian territories which had belonged to the Ptolemaic Empire.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Although Egyptians were the dominant ethnic group in Cleopatra's kingdom, large minorities of Greeks, Jews, Celtic and Germanic peoples, Syrians, Nubians, and others inhabited Egypt during her reign and well before it. Greeks and Jews were primarily concentrated in the multicultural cities of Alexandria, the old colony of Naukratis, and Ptolemais Hermiou (near Thebes in Upper Egypt). Greeks, Jews, and Egyptians in these cities were legally segregated, living in different areas and forbidden to intermarry. The native Egyptian priesthood received a number of privileges and became extremely wealthy under their Ptolemaic patrons, often becoming targets of native Egyptian revolts. Although there were laws against intermarriage in the Greek city-states ("poleis") of Egypt, intermarriage was permitted in other parts of Egypt; Cleopatra is speculated to have had an Egyptian half-cousin, Pasherienptah III, the High Priest of Ptah at Memphis. At the beginning of her reign Cleopatra sought the support and loyalty of the Egyptian priesthood, despite attempts by her rival brother and erstwhile co-ruler Ptolemy XIII to undermine this relationship.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Roman interventionism in Egypt predated the reign of Cleopatra VII. In 168 BC, after Antiochus IV invaded Ptolemaic Egypt, he obeyed the demands of the Roman Senate to withdraw and return to Seleucid territory instead of warring with the Roman Republic. When Ptolemy IX Lathyros died in late 81 BC, he was succeeded by his daughter Berenice III. With opposition building at the royal court against the idea of a sole female monarch, Berenice III accepted joint rule and marriage to Ptolemy XI Alexander II, the son of Ptolemy IX's brother Ptolemy X Alexander I. The match was arranged by the dictator Sulla, the first powerful Roman figure to intervene directly in the dynastic affairs of kingdoms east of the Roman Republic.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Ptolemy XI had his cousin-wife killed shortly after their marriage in 80 BC, but he was killed soon thereafter in the resulting riot over the assassination. Ptolemy XI (and perhaps his uncle Ptolemy IX or his father) willed the Ptolemaic Kingdom to Rome as collateral for loans, so the Romans had legal grounds to take over Egypt (their client state). They chose instead to carve up the Ptolemaic realm to be ruled by Ptolemy IX's two illegitimate sons, bestowing Cyprus to Ptolemy of Cyprus and Egypt to Ptolemy XII.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: In 65 BC the Roman censor Marcus Licinius Crassus argued before the Roman Senate that Ptolemaic Egypt should be annexed (perhaps based on the previous will in exchange for loans), but his proposed bill was scuttled by Cicero's rhetoric. This was followed by another failed proposal for annexation by tribune Servilius Rullus in 63 BC. Ptolemy XII responded to the threatened Roman annexation of Egypt by offering lavish gifts to powerful Roman statesmen and military commanders, such as Pompey the Great (during his campaign against Mithridates VI of Pontus in the Third Mithridatic War) and Julius Caesar after the latter became consul in 59 BC.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: After Crassus, Pompey, and Caesar formed the alliance of the First Triumvirate in 60 BC, they gave Ptolemy XII the title of "friend and ally of the Roman people" for his efforts in financing Pompey's eastern campaigns and Rome's conquests of West Asian territories which had belonged to the Seleucid Empire. The title cost 6,000 talents, nearly the entire annual tax revenue of Ptolemaic Egypt. Ptolemy XII's profligate behavior bankrupted him, and he was forced to acquire loans from Roman banker Gaius Rabirius Postumus. His increase of the tax rate to pay for these expenditures angered the poor and led to strikes by farmers.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: In 58 BC, after Roman senator Publius Clodius Pulcher accused Ptolemy XII's brother (Ptolemy of Cyprus) of aiding pirates who disrupted Roman shipping, the Roman Republic annexed Cyprus and drove Ptolemy of Cyprus, where he committed suicide rather than face exile to Paphos as a priest of Apollo. Ptolemy XII remained publicly silent on the death of his brother, a decision which (along with ceding traditional Ptolemaic territory to the Romans) damaged his credibility among subjects already enraged by his economic policies. Whether by force or voluntary action, Ptolemy XII left Egypt in exile to Rhodes and his Roman host, Cato the Younger, who castigated him for losing his kingdom while seated on a latrine and undergoing laxative treatment. Ptolemy XII then traveled to Athens, where he erected a monument in honor of his father and half-sister (Berenice III), and finally to the triumvir Pompey's villa in the Alban Hills near Praeneste. Ptolemy XII spent nearly a year on the outskirts of Rome, ostensibly accompanied by his 11-year-old daughter Cleopatra. Joann Fletcher expresses little doubt about this, noting an ancient Greek primary source stating that Ptolemy XII traveled with one of his daughters; since Berenice IV was his ruling rival and Arsinoe IV was a toddler, it must have been Cleopatra (who was later made his regent and named his successor in his will).


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Events in Egypt are unclear around this time. It is thought that Ptolemy XII's daughter Berenice IV initially ruled jointly with Cleopatra VI Tryphaena (who was either Ptolemy XII's estranged wife, Cleopatra V Tryphaena or another of his daughters). Cleopatra VI is then believed to have died, possibly subsequent to being ousted by Berenice. Berenice IV sent an emissary to Rome to advocate for her rule and oppose the reinstatement of her father Ptolemy XII, but Ptolemy used his assassins to kill the emissary (an incident covered up by his powerful Roman supporters). When Caesar failed to secure a popular election as Governor-General of Egypt, he settled for a five-year command of Gaul and allowed his rival Pompey to settle the matter of the Egyptian throne. The Roman Senate denied Ptolemy XII the offer of an armed escort and provisions for a return to Egypt, so he decided to leave Rome in late 57 BC for the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: To shore up her legitimacy with her subjects, Berenice IV married Archelaos (reportedly a descendant of Mithridates VI of Pontus); however, the Romans— especially desperate financiers of Ptolemy XII such as Rabirius Postumus—were determined to restore Ptolemy XII. Pompey persuaded the Roman governor of Syria Aulus Gabinius to invade Egypt and restore Ptolemy XII, offering him 10,000 talents for the mission. Although it put him at odds with Roman law, Gabinius invaded Egypt in the spring of 55 BC by way of Hasmonean Judea; Hyrcanus II had Antipater the Idumaean, the father of Herod the Great, furnish the Roman-led army with supplies. Under Gabinius' command was the young cavalry officer Mark Antony, who distinguished himself by preventing Ptolemy XII from massacring the inhabitants of Pelousion and rescuing the body of Archelaos after the latter was killed in another battle (ensuring him a royal burial). The 14-year-old Cleopatra would have accompanied the Roman expedition into Egypt; years later, Mark Antony said that he had fallen in love with her at this time. Their affair only began 41 BC, when the triumvir Antony summoned Cleopatra to his headquarters at Tarsos to answer for her alleged support of Gaius Cassius Longinus in the Liberators' civil war of 43–42 BC.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Gabinius was tried (and acquitted) in Rome for abusing his authority, but his second trial (for accepting bribes) led to a seven-year exile from which he was recalled in 48 BC by Julius Caesar. Crassus replaced him as governor of Syria, extending his provincial command to Egypt until he was killed by the Parthians in the 53 BC Battle of Carrhae. Ptolemy XII had his rival daughter Berenice and her wealthy supporters executed, seizing their properties and allowing the Gabiniani (Gabinius' largely-Germanic and Gallic Roman garrison) to harass people in the streets of Alexandria. He installed his longtime Roman financier, Rabirius Postumus, as his chief financial officer. Postumus was unable to collect all of Ptolemy XII's debt by the latter's death and it was passed on to his successors, Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII. Within a year, Postumus was placed under protective custody and sent back to Rome when his life was threatened for draining Egypt of its resources.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: During the last four years of his reign, Ptolemy XII (who died of natural causes) designated Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XIII as his heirs, oversaw major construction projects such as the completion of the Temple of Edfu and establishment of the Dendera Temple, and stabilized an economy largely reliant on trade with East Africa and India. A copy of his will was sent to Pompey to be kept in Rome, and the original was held in Alexandria for safekeeping. According to an inscription in the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, Cleopatra was made a regent of Ptolemy XII on 31 May 52 BC.


title: Early life of Cleopatra

text: Ptolemy XII died sometime before 22 March 51 BC, the date of Cleopatra's first known act as queen: her voyage to Hermonthis, near Thebes, to install a new sacred Buchis bull (worshiped as an intermediary for the god Montu in ancient Egyptian religion). The Roman Senate was not informed about Ptolemy's death until 30 June or 1 August 51 BC; the news may have been suppressed by Cleopatra until she could secure the throne. Cleopatra probably married her brother, Ptolemy XIII, but the marriage is uncertain. The incestuous Ptolemaic practice of sibling marriage was introduced by Ptolemy II and his sister, Arsinoe II, but the long-held royal Egyptian practice was considered scandalous by contemporary Greeks. Although vocal critics of this incestuous practice were sometimes violently punished and suppressed during the joint reign of Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II, sibling marriages were nevertheless considered a normal arrangement for Ptolemaic rulers by the time of Cleopatra's reign. Official documents began listing Cleopatra as sole ruler by 29 August 51 BC, evidence that she had rejected her brother as a co-ruler.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: Edward Snowden's residency in Russia is part of the aftermath from the global surveillance disclosures made by Edward Snowden. On June 23, 2013, Snowden flew from Hong Kong to Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport. Observing that his U.S. passport had been canceled, Russian authorities restricted him to the airport terminal. On August 1, after 39 days in the transit section, Snowden left the airport. He was granted temporary asylum in Russia for one year. On August 7, 2014, six days after Snowden's one-year temporary asylum expired, his Russian lawyer announced that Snowden had received a three-year residency permit. It allowed him to travel freely within Russia and to go abroad for up to three months.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: In October 2020, after Snowden applied to renew his temporary permit, Russia granted him unlimited permanent residency. In November 2020, Snowden announced that he and his wife were applying for Russian citizenship, but that they "remain Americans, raising our son with all the values of the America we love".


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: Russia first received information about Snowden when he was in Hong Kong. At that time, they were told that a person who wanted to fight against human rights violations wanted to seek asylum in Russia. In 2017, during "The Putin Interviews" with the director Oliver Stone, the Russian president Vladimir Putin described how Russia became involved in the Snowden saga. Russia did not want to get involved because of its strained relationship with the United States which it did not wish to worsen. Thereafter they learned that Snowden was on a plane bound for Moscow, to transfer to another plane bound for Latin America. Most of this information was received through informal channels including information leaked to the press. While he was aboard the plane, his destination countries grew reluctant to allow him in, and Snowden was thus stuck in the transit area of Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport. While in the airport, U.S. authorities asked Russia to extradite Snowden. However, this was not possible as Russia had proposed a treaty on cooperation in legal matters, requiring mutual extradition of criminals, which the U.S. had not agreed upon. Further, the United States had never extradited any Russian criminal who had taken asylum in the US, hence Snowden's extradition would have been unprecedented. Snowden had not committed a crime as per Russian law.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: Snowden left the Moscow airport on August 1 after 39 days in the transit section. He was granted temporary asylum in Russia for one year, with extensions possible. According to his Russian lawyer, Snowden went to an undisclosed location for security reasons. The White House stated that it was "extremely disappointed," and cancelled a previously scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Additionally, Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham urged President Obama to boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, but House Speaker John Boehner, also a Republican, rejected that idea as "dead wrong."


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: In late July 2013, Lonnie Snowden said he believed his son would be better off staying in Russia, and didn't believe he would receive a fair trial in the U.S. In mid-October, he visited his son in Moscow, later telling the press that he was pleased with Edward's situation, and still believed Russia was the best choice for his asylum, saying he wouldn't have to worry about people "rushing across the border to render him." Lonnie Snowden commented that his son was living comfortably in Russia and found Moscow "modern and sophisticated." Edward Snowden's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, announced on October 31 that his client had found a website maintenance job at one of Russia's largest websites, but declined to identify the site. Jesselyn Radack, one of Snowden's American lawyers, said she was unaware of any new job. Asked about this by "The Moscow Times" in June 2014, "The Guardian" correspondent Luke Harding claimed that "Kucherena is completely unreliable as a source. We ["The Guardian"] did the rounds of Russian IT companies when he made that claim last year and none of them—none of the big ones, at least—confirmed this."


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, who had traveled to Russia to give Snowden a whistleblower award, said that Snowden gave no storage devices such as hard drives or USB flash drives to Russia or China, and had carried four blank laptops with him to Hong Kong and Moscow as a diversion. U.S. officials said they assumed that any classified materials downloaded by Snowden had fallen into the hands of China and Russia, though they acknowledged they had no proof of this. In an October 2013 interview, Snowden maintained that he did not bring any classified material into Russia "because it wouldn't serve the public interest." He added, "There's a zero percent chance the Russians or Chinese have received any documents." In June 2015, however, "The Sunday Times" reported that British government officials anonymously claimed to the paper that Russia and China had cracked an encrypted cache of files taken by Snowden, forcing the withdrawal of British spies from live operations.<ref name="ST 14/06/15"></ref> The BBC also stated that their sources told them British intelligence assets had been moved as a precaution after the Snowden leaks. Glenn Greenwald charged that the report contained fabrications and did nothing more than quote anonymous British officials; he said parts were removed from the original post without "The Times" saying it did so.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: WikiLeaks released video of Snowden on October 11 taken during the Sam Adams Award reception in Moscow, his first public appearance in three months. Former U.S. government officials attending the ceremony said they saw no evidence Snowden was under the control of Russian security services. The whistleblower group said he was in good spirits, looked well, and still believes he was right to release the NSA documents. In the video, Snowden said "people all over the world are coming to realize" that the NSA's surveillance programs put people in danger, hurt the U.S. and its economy, and "limit our ability to speak and think and live and be creative, to have relationships and associate freely" as well as putting people "at risk of coming into conflict with our own government."


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: On October 31, German lawmaker Hans-Christian Ströbele traveled to Moscow to meet with Snowden, whom he invited to testify before the German parliament to assist investigations into NSA surveillance of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone since 2002. After the visit, Snowden indicated a willingness to testify, though not from Moscow as Germany requested. Snowden said he would rather give testimony before the U.S. Congress, his second choice being Berlin.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: Also in October, Glenn Greenwald stated that the U.S. revoked Snowden's passport while he was in transit to Latin America and threatened other countries that might offer safe passage. WikiLeaks representative Sarah Harrison, who accompanied Snowden from Hong Kong to Moscow, left Russia in early November after waiting until she felt confident he had situated himself and was free from government interference.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: On December 17, 2013, Snowden wrote an open letter to the people of Brazil offering to assist the Brazilian government in investigating allegations of U.S. spying, and added that he continued to seek, and would require, asylum. Snowden wrote, "Until a country grants permanent political asylum, the U.S. government will continue to interfere with my ability to speak ... going so far as to force down the Presidential Plane of Evo Morales to prevent me from traveling to Latin America!" Brazil had been in an uproar since Snowden revealed that the U.S. was spying on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, her senior advisors, and Brazil's national oil company, Petrobras. Rousseff and officials of the Brazilian foreign ministry said in response that they could not consider asylum for Snowden because they had not received any formal request. A representative of the foreign ministry said that a fax requesting asylum had been sent to the Brazilian embassy in Moscow in July but it had not been signed and could not be authenticated. David Miranda, the Brazilian partner of Glenn Greenwald, launched an Internet petition urging the Brazilian president to consider offering Snowden asylum.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: Snowden met with Barton Gellman of "The Washington Post" six months after the disclosure for an exclusive interview spanning 14 hours, his first since being granted temporary asylum. Snowden talked about his life in Russia as "an indoor cat," reflected on his time as an NSA contractor, and discussed at length the revelations of global surveillance and their reverberations. Snowden said, "In terms of personal satisfaction, the mission's already accomplished ... I already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated." He commented "I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA ... I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don't realize it." On the accusation from former CIA and NSA director Michael Hayden that he had defected, Snowden stated, "If I defected at all, I defected from the government to the public." In 2014, Snowden said that he lives "a surprisingly open life" in Russia and that he is recognized when he goes to computer stores.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: According to BuzzFeed, in January 2014 an anonymous Pentagon official said he wanted to kill Snowden. "I would love to put a bullet in his head," said the official, calling Snowden "single-handedly the greatest traitor in American history." Members of the intelligence community also expressed their violent hostility. "In a world where I would not be restricted from killing an American," said an NSA analyst, "I personally would go and kill him myself." A State Department spokesperson condemned the threats.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: On "Meet the Press" in late January 2014, speculation arose from top U.S. officials in the House and Senate Intelligence Committees that Snowden might have been assisted by Russian intelligence, prompting a rare interview during which Snowden spoke in his defense. He told "The New Yorker" "this 'Russian spy' push is absurd," adding that he "clearly and unambiguously acted alone, with no assistance from anyone, much less a government."<ref name="Mayer/New Yorker"></ref> Investigations by the NSA and the FBI found no evidence that Snowden received any aid. Days later, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein stated that she had seen no evidence that Snowden is a Russian spy. Germany's "Der Spiegel" suggested the accusations were part of a smear campaign by U.S. officials. The accusations did not faze Snowden, who said "outlets report statements that the speakers themselves admit are sheer speculation."


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: In late January 2014, U.S. attorney general Eric Holder, in an interview with MSNBC, indicated that the U.S. could allow Snowden to return from Russia under negotiated terms, saying he was prepared to engage in conversation with him, but that full clemency would be going too far.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: Snowden's first television interview aired January 26, 2014, on Germany's NDR. In April 2014, he appeared on video from an undisclosed location during President Putin's live annual Q&A exchange with the public. Snowden asked whether Russia intercepted, stored or analyzed individuals' communications. Putin replied, "Russia uses surveillance techniques for spying on individuals only with the sanction of a court order. This is our law, and therefore there is no mass surveillance in our country." Benjamin Wittes in "The New Republic" described the exchange as "a highly-scripted propaganda stunt for Vladimir Putin". Snowden insisted his question was designed to hold the Russian president accountable. In an op-ed for "The Guardian", Snowden said his question was intended "to mirror the now infamous exchange in US Senate intelligence committee hearings between senator Ron Wyden and the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, about whether the NSA collected records on millions of Americans, and to invite either an important concession or a clear evasion." Snowden called Putin's response "evasive". A few days later, "The Daily Beast" reported that Snowden himself "instantly regretted" asking Putin the "softball question", which was crafted with several of his key advisers, and that he was mortified by the reaction. ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, one of Snowden's closest advisers, told the "Beast" that Snowden hadn't realized how much his appearance with Putin would be seen as a Kremlin propaganda victory. "I know this is hard to believe," Wizner acknowledged. "I know if I was just watching from afar, I'd think, 'Wow, they forced him to do this.' But it's not true. He just fucking did it." Asked six months later about the incident, Snowden conceded, "Yeah, that was terrible! Oh, Jesus, that blew up in my face. ... And in the United States, what I did appearing at that Putin press conference was not worth the price."


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: In March 2014, the international advocacy group European Digital Rights (EDRi) said that the European Parliament, in adopting a Data Protection Reform Package, rejected amendments that would have dropped charges against Snowden and granted him asylum or refugee status.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: In May 2014, NBC's Brian Williams presented the first interview for American television. In June, "The Washington Post" reported that during his first year of Russian asylum, Snowden had received "tens of thousands of dollars in cash awards and appearance fees from privacy organizations and other groups," fielded inquiries about book and movie projects, and was considering taking a position with a South African foundation that would support work on security and privacy issues. "Any moment that he decides that he wants to be a wealthy person," said Snowden's attorney Ben Wizner, "that route is available to him," although the U.S. government could attempt to seize such proceeds.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: Also in May, the German Parliamentary Committee investigating the NSA spying scandal unanimously decided to invite Snowden to testify as a witness. In September, opposition parties in the German parliament filed constitutional complaints to force the government to let Snowden testify in Berlin. Snowden had refused a proposed video conference from Moscow, saying he wants to testify only in Berlin and asking for safe conduct.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: On July 13, 2014, "The Guardian" published its first story based on an exclusive, seven-hour interview newly conducted with Snowden in a Moscow city centre hotel. Snowden condemned the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Bill announced to the UK's House of Commons on July 10 bolstering the state's right to keep personal data held by Internet and phone companies. Snowden said it was very unusual for a public body to pass such emergency legislation except during total war. "I mean we don't have bombs falling. We don't have U-boats in the harbor. It defies belief." On July 13 and 17, "The Guardian" posted video clips, of about 2 minutes and 14 minutes in length, excerpted from the full interview. On July 18, "The Guardian" published a nearly 10,000-word edited transcript of their Snowden interview. A year after arriving in Moscow, Snowden said he is still learning Russian. He keeps late and solitary hours, effectively living on U.S. time. He does not drink, cooks for himself but doesn't eat much. "I don't live in absolute secrecy," he says. "I live a pretty open life—but at the same time I don't want to be a celebrity." He does not work for a Russian organization, yet is financially secure thanks to substantial savings from his years as a well-paid contractor and more recently numerous awards and speaking fees from around the world.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: On August 7, 2014, six days after Snowden's one-year temporary asylum expired, his Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, announced that Snowden had received a three-year residency permit. It allowed him to travel freely within Russia and to go abroad for up to three months. Kucherena explained that Snowden had not been granted permanent political asylum, which required a separate process.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: In May 2015, Snowden's lawyer Ben Wizner said that Snowden's main source of income was speaking fees, which sometimes exceeded $10,000 per appearance. In November 2015, Snowden said that he does not intend to play any role in Russian politics and wants to devote his focus to U.S. issues. During a panel event, he said, "people say I live in Russia, but that's actually a little bit of a misunderstanding. I live on the Internet."


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: In the waning days of the Obama administration, former CIA Director Michael Morell suggested that Russia should extradite Snowden to the United States as a "gift" to President-elect Donald Trump. The comment drew harsh criticism by the Russian Foreign Ministry, which said that Snowden had been granted an extension of his stay until 2022, and said what Morell proposed would be a betrayal.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: A senior U.S. official said in February 2017 that Russia was considering extraditing Snowden in order to "curry favor" with President Trump. Snowden cited the comment in his own defense, using it as evidence that he was not a Russian spy, stating in a Twitter post, "Finally: irrefutable evidence that I never cooperated with Russian intel. No country trades away spies, as the rest would fear they're next." Edward Snowden's attorney, Ben Wizner, stated that he "hadn't heard of any such plans and 'Team Snowden has no new reason for concern.'" President Vladimir Putin also denied the U.S. report, stating that it was "nonsense".


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: In October 2020, Snowden was granted permanent residency in Russia. His lawyer said that granting an unlimited residence permit became possible after changes in the migration legislation of the Russian Federation in 2019.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: In November 2020, Snowden announced that he and his wife, Lindsay, who was expecting their son in late November, were applying for dual U.S.-Russian citizenship in order not to be separated from him ″in this era of pandemics and closed borders″. Their son will be entitled to Russian citizenship by birthright.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: On September 26, Snowden's Russian citizenship was granted. Snowden's wife, Lindsay Mills, had applied for a Russian passport, as well.


title: Edward Snowden asylum in Russia

text: On December 1, Snowden swore an oath of allegiance to Russia and received a Russian passport, according to his lawyer.


title: Icebox

text: An icebox (also called a cold closet) is a compact non-mechanical refrigerator which was a common early-twentieth-century kitchen appliance before the development of safely powered refrigeration devices. Before the development of electric refrigerators, iceboxes were referred to by the public as "refrigerators". Only after the invention of the modern day electric refrigerator did early non-electric refrigerators become known as iceboxes. The terms "ice box" and "refrigerator" were used interchangeably in advertising as long ago as 1848.


title: Icebox

text: The first recorded use of refrigeration technology dates back to 1775 BC in the Sumerian city of Terqa. It was there that the region's King, Zimri-lim, began the construction of an elaborate ice house fitted with a sophisticated drainage system and shallow pools to freeze water in the night. Using ice for cooling and preservation was nothing new at this point, but these ice houses paved the way for their smaller counterpart, the icebox, to come into existence. The more traditional icebox dates back to the days of ice harvesting, which had hit an industrial high that ran from the mid-19th century until the 1930s, when the refrigerator was introduced into the home. Most municipally consumed ice was harvested in winter from snow-packed areas or frozen lakes, stored in ice houses, and delivered domestically. In 1827 the commercial ice cutter was invented, which increased the ease and efficiency of harvesting natural ice. This invention made ice cheaper and in turn helped the icebox become more common. Up until this point, iceboxes were used for personal means but not for mass manufacturing. By the 1840s, various companies appeared including Sears, The Baldwin Refrigerator Company, and the Ranney Refrigerator Company started getting involved in the icebox manufacturing industry. D. Eddy & Son of Boston is considered to be the first company to produce iceboxes in mass quantities. During this time, many Americans desired big iceboxes. Companies such as the Boston Scientific Refrigerator Company introduced iceboxes which could hold up to 50 lbs of ice. In a 1907 survey of expenditures of New York City inhabitants, 81% of the families surveyed were found to possess "refrigerators" either in the form of ice stored in a tub or iceboxes. The effort of the icebox manufacturing industry and its improved technology allowed the United States' value to rise from $4.5 million in 1889 to $26 million in 1919.


title: Icebox

text: The icebox was invented by an American farmer and cabinetmaker named Thomas Moore in 1802. Moore used the icebox to transport butter from his home to the Georgetown markets, which allowed him to sell firm, brick butter instead of soft, melted tubs like his fellow vendors at the time. His first design consisted of an oval cedar tub with a tin container fitted inside with ice between them, all wrapped in rabbit fur to insulate the device. Later versions would include hollow walls that were lined with tin or zinc and packed with various insulating materials such as cork, sawdust, straw or seaweed. A large block of ice is held in a tray or compartment near the top of the box. Cold air circulates down and around storage compartments in the lower section. Some finer models have spigots for draining ice water from a catch pan or holding tank. In cheaper models, a drip pan is placed under the box and has to be emptied at least daily. The user has to replenish the melted ice, normally by obtaining new ice from an iceman. The design of the icebox allowed perishable foods to be stored longer than before and without the need for lengthier preservation processes such as smoking, drying, or canning. Refrigerating perishables also had the added benefit of not altering the taste of what it is preserving.


title: Icebox

text: Underground pits with the constant underground temperature of had been used since Roman times to help preserve ice collected during winter. The temperature of the soil is held relatively constant year-round when taken below the frost line, located below the surface, and varies from about depending on the region. Prior to the convenience of having refrigeration inside the home, cold storage systems would often be located underground in the form of a pit. These pits would be deep enough to provide thorough insulation and also to deter animals from intruding on the perishable items within. Early examples used straw and sawdust compacted along the sides of ice to provide further insulation and to slow the ice melting process.


title: Icebox

text: By 1781, personal ice pits were becoming more advanced. The Robert Morris Ice House, located in Philadelphia, brought new refrigeration technologies to the forefront. This pit contained a drainage system for water runoff as well as the use of brick and mortar for its insulation. The octagon-shaped pit, approximately 4 meters in diameter located 5.5 meters underground was capable of storing ice that was obtained during the winter months to the next October or November. Ice blocks collected during winter months could later be distributed to customers. As the icebox began to make its way into homes during the early to mid 19th century, ice collection and distribution expanded and soon became a global industry. During the latter half of the 19th century, natural ice became the second most important US export by value, after cotton.


title: Icebox

text: As the techniques for food preservation steadily improved, prices decreased and food became more readily available. As more households adopted the icebox, the overall quality and freshness of this food was also improved. Iceboxes meant that people were able to go to the market less and could more safely store leftovers. All of this contributed to the improvement of the population's health by increasing the fresh food readily able to be consumed and the overall safety of that food. However, with metropolitan growth, many sources of natural ice became contaminated from industrial pollution or sewer runoff. Thanks to the icebox manufacturing industry's efforts, a new innovative idea in cooling came about: air circulation. The idea for air circulation in refrigeration systems stems back to John Schooley, who wrote about his process in the 1856 Scientific American, a popular science magazine. Schooley described the process as “Combining an ice receptacle with the interior of a refrigerator… a continuous circulation of air shall be kept up through the ice in said receptacle and through the interior of the refrigerator… so that the circulation air shall deposit its moisture on the ice every time it passes through it, and be dried and cooled.” This idea of air circulation and cold led to the eventual invention of the mechanical, gas-driven refrigerators. As these early mechanical refrigerators became available, they were installed at large industrial plants producing ice for home delivery.


title: Icebox

text: By the early 1930s, mechanical ice machines gradually began to rise over the ice harvesting industry thanks to its ability to produce clean, sanitary ice independently and year-round. Over time, as the mechanical ice machines became smaller, cheaper, and more efficient, they easily replaced the hassle of getting ice from a source. For example, the De La Vergne Refrigerating Machine Company of New York, New York could produce up to 220 tons of ice in a single day from a single machine. With widespread electrification and safer refrigerants, mechanical refrigeration in the home became possible. With the development of the chlorofluorocarbons (along with the succeeding hydrochlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons), that came to replace the use of toxic ammonia gas, the refrigerator replaced the icebox, though "icebox" is still sometimes used to refer to mechanical refrigerators.


title: Liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp

text: On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz concentration camp—a Nazi concentration camp and extermination camp in occupied Poland where more than a million people were murdered as part of the Nazi's "final solution" to the Jewish question—was liberated by the Red Army during the Vistula–Oder Offensive. Although most of the prisoners had been forced onto a death march, about 7,000 had been left behind. The Soviet soldiers attempted to help the survivors and were shocked at the scale of Nazi crimes. The date is recognized as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.


text: Between 1940 and 1945, about 1.3 million people (mostly Jews) were deported to Auschwitz by Nazi Germany; 1.1 million were murdered.


text: In August 1944, there were more than 135,000 prisoners across the complex. In January 1945, after the Red Army launched the Vistula–Oder Offensive and approached the camp, almost 60,000 prisoners were forced to leave on a death march westward.


text: Inmates were marched mostly to Loslau but also to Gleiwitz, where they were forced into Holocaust trains and transported to concentration camps in Germany. However, the liberation of the camp was not a specific goal of the Red Army and happened as a consequence of their advance westward across Poland. The Red Army had already liberated concentration camps in the Baltic area in early- to mid-1944, and other concentration camps continued to be liberated until the German surrender and the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945.


text: Red Army soldiers from the 322nd Rifle Division arrived at Auschwitz on 27 January 1945 at 15:00. 231 Red Army soldiers died in the fighting around Monowitz concentration camp, Birkenau, and Auschwitz I, as well as the towns of Oświęcim and Brzezinka. For most of the survivors, there was no definite moment of liberation. After the death march away from the camp, the "SS-TV" guards had left.


text: About 7,000 prisoners had been left behind, most of whom were seriously ill due to the effects of their imprisonment. The majority of those left behind were middle-aged adults or children younger than 15. Red Army soldiers also found 600 corpses, 370,000 men's suits, 837,000 articles of women's clothing, and of human hair. At Monowitz camp, there were about 800 survivors, and the camp was also liberated on 27 January by the Soviet 60th Army, part of the 1st Ukrainian Front.


text: Battle-hardened soldiers who were used to death were shocked by the Nazis' treatment of prisoners. Red Army general , commander of the 107th Infantry Division, remarked, "I who saw people dying every day was shocked by the Nazis' indescribable hatred toward the inmates who had turned into living skeletons. I read about the Nazis' treatment of Jews in various leaflets, but there was nothing about the Nazis' treatment of women, children, and old men. It was in Auschwitz that I found out about the fate of the Jews." In a few articles in Soviet newspapers, such as "Pravda", following Soviet propaganda, the writers failed to mention Jews in their articles on the liberation.


text: As soon as they arrived, the liberating forces (assisted by the Polish Red Cross) tried to help survivors by organizing medical care and food; Red Army hospitals cared for 4,500 survivors. There were also efforts to document the camp. As late as June 1945, there were still 300 survivors at the camp who were too weak to be moved.


text: The anniversary of the date of the liberation is recognized by the United Nations and the European Union as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.


text: On the 75th anniversary, in 2020, a forum of world leaders—the World Holocaust Forum—was hosted in Israel by President Reuven Rivlin. Attendees included United States Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Charles, Prince of Wales, President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Al-Hallaj () or Mansour Hallaj () ( 26 March 922) (Hijri 309 AH) was a Persian mystic, poet, and teacher of Sufism. He is best known for his saying: "I am the Truth" (Ana'l-Ḥaqq), which many saw as a claim to divinity, while others interpreted it as an instance of annihilation of the ego, allowing God to speak through him. Al-Hallaj gained a wide following as a preacher before he became implicated in power struggles of the Abbasid court and was executed after a long period of confinement on religious and political charges. Although most of his Sufi contemporaries disapproved of his actions, Hallaj later became a major figure in the Sufi tradition.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Al-Hallaj was born around 858 in Fars province of Persia to a cotton-carder ("Hallaj" means "cotton-carder" in Arabic) in an Arabized town called al-Bayḍā'. His grandfather was a Zoroastrian magi. His father moved to a town in Wasit famous for its school of Quran reciters. Al-Hallaj memorized the Qur'an before he was 12 years old and would often retreat from worldly pursuits to join other mystics in study at the school of Sahl al-Tustari. During this period Al-Hallaj lost his ability to speak Persian and later wrote exclusively in Arabic. Al Hallaj was a Sunni Muslim.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: When he was twenty, al-Hallaj moved to Basra, where he married and received his Sufi habit from 'Amr Makkī, although his lifelong and monogamous marriage later provoked jealousy and opposition from the latter. Through his brother-in-law, al-Hallaj found himself in contact with a clan which supported the Zaydi Zanj rebellion, which had elements of Shi'i school of thought.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: He later went to Baghdad to consult the famous Sufi teacher Junayd Baghdadi, but he was tired of the conflict that existed between his father-in-law and 'Amr Makkī and he set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca, against the advice of Junayd Baghdadi, as soon as the Zanj rebellion was crushed.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: In Mecca he made a vow to remain for one year in the courtyard of the sanctuary in fasting and total silence. When he returned from Mecca, he laid down the Sufi tunic and adopted a "lay habit" in order to be able to preach more freely. At that time a number of Sunnis, including former Christians who would later become viziers at the Abbasid court, became his disciples, but other Sufis were scandalized, while some Muʿtazilis and Shias who held high posts in the government accused him of deception and incited the mob against him. Al-Hallaj left for eastern Iran and remained there for five years, preaching in the Arab colonies and fortified monasteries that housed volunteer fighters in the jihad, after which he was able to return and install his family in Baghdad.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Al-Hallaj made his second pilgrimage to Mecca with four hundred disciples, where some Sufis, his former friends, accused him of sorcery and making a pact with the jinn. Afterwards he set out on a long voyage that took him to India and Turkestan beyond the frontiers of Islamic lands. About 290/902 he returned to Mecca for his final pilgrimage clad in an Indian loin-cloth and a patched garment over his shoulders. There he prayed to God to be made despised and rejected, so that God alone might grant grace to Himself through His servant's lips.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: After returning to his family in Baghdad, al-Hallaj began making proclamations that aroused popular emotion and caused anxiety among the educated classes. These included avowing his burning love of God and his desire to "die accursed for the Community", and statements such as "O Muslims, save me from God" ... "God has made my blood lawful to you: kill me". It was at that time that al-Hallaj is said to have pronounced his famous shath "I am the Truth". He was denounced at the court, but a Shafi'i jurist refused to condemn him, stating that spiritual inspiration was beyond his jurisdiction.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Al-Hallaj's preaching had by now inspired a movement for moral and political reform in Baghdad. In 296/908 Sunni reformers made an unsuccessful attempt to depose the underage caliph Al-Muqtadir. When he was restored, his Shi'i vizier unleashed anti-Hanbali repressions which prompted al-Hallaj to flee Baghdad, but three years later he was arrested, brought back, and put in prison, where he remained for nine years.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: The conditions of Al-Hallaj's confinement varied depending on the relative sway his opponents and supporters held at the court, but he was finally condemned to death in 922 on the charge of being a Qarmatian rebel who wished to destroy the Kaaba, because he had said "the important thing is to proceed seven times around the Kaaba of one's heart." According to another report, the pretext was his recommendation to build local replicas of the Kaaba for those who are unable to make the pilgrimage to Mecca. The queen-mother interceded with the caliph who initially revoked the execution order, but the intrigues of the vizier finally moved him to approve it. On 23 Dhu 'l-Qa'da (25 March) trumpets announced his execution the next day. The words he spoke during the last night in his cell are collected in "Akhbar al-Hallaj". Thousands of people witnessed his execution on the banks of the Tigris River. He was first punched in the face by his executioner, then lashed until unconscious, and then decapitated or hanged. Witnesses reported that Al-Hallaj's last words under torture were "all that matters for the ecstatic is that the Unique should reduce him to Unity", after which he recited the Quranic verse 42:18. His body was doused in oil and set alight, and his ashes were then scattered into the river. A cenotaph was "quickly" built on the site of his execution, and "drew pilgrims for a millennium" until being swept away by a Tigris flood during the 1920s.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Some question whether al-Hallaj was executed for religious reasons as has been commonly assumed. According to Carl W. Ernst, the legal notion of blasphemy was not clearly defined in Islamic law and statements of this kind were treated inconsistently by legal authorities. In practice, since apostasy was subsumed under the category of "zandaqa", which reflected the Zoroastrian legacy of viewing heresy as a political crime, they were prosecuted only when it was politically convenient. Sadakat Kadri points out that "it was far from conventional to punish heresy in the tenth century," and it is thought he would have been spared execution except that the vizier of Caliph Al-Muqtadir wished to discredit "certain figures who had associated themselves" with al-Hallaj. (Previously al-Hallaj had been punished for talking about being at one with God by being shaved, pilloried and beaten with the flat of a sword, not executed because the Shafi'ite judge had ruled that his words were not "proof of disbelief.")


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Al-Hallaj addressed himself to popular audiences encouraging them to find God inside their own souls, which earned him the title of "the carder of innermost souls" (ḥallāj al-asrār). He preached without the traditional Sufi habit and used language familiar to the local Shi'i population. This may have given the impression that he was a Qarmatian missionary rather than a Sufi. His prayer to God to make him lost and despised can be regarded as typical for a Sufi seeking annihilation in God, although Louis Massignon has interpreted it as an expression of a desire to sacrifice himself as atonement on behalf of all Muslims. When al-Hallaj returned to Baghdad from his last pilgrimage to Mecca, he built a model of the Kaaba in his home for private worship.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Al-Hallaj was popularly credited with numerous supernatural acts. He was said to have "lit four hundred oil lamps in Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre with his finger and extinguished an eternal Zoroastrian flame with the tug of a sleeve."


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Among other Sufis, Al-Hallaj was an anomaly. Many Sufi masters felt that it was inappropriate to share mysticism with the masses, yet Al-Hallaj openly did so in his writings and through his teachings. This was exacerbated by occasions when he would fall into trances which he attributed to being in the presence of God.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Hallaj was also accused of incarnationism (hulul), the basis of which charge seems to be a disputed verse in which the author proclaims mystical union in terms of two spirits in one body. This position was criticized for not affirming union and unity strongly enough; there are two spirits left whereas the Sufi fana' texts speak of utter annihilation and annihilation in annihilation (the annihilation of the consciousness of annihilation), with only one actor, the deity, left. Saer El-Jaichi has argued "that in speaking of the unity with the divine in terms of ḥulūl, Hallaj does not mean the fusion (or, mingling) of the divine and human substances." Rather, he has in mind "a heightened sense of awareness that culminates in the fulfillment of a spiritual – super-sensory – vision of God’s presence."


title: Al-Hallaj

text: There are conflicting reports about his most famous "shath", "Anā l-Ḥaqq" "I am The Truth, " which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God, since "al-Ḥaqq" "the Truth" is one of the Ninety Nine Names of Allah. While meditating, he uttered ("Aanal Haqq", pronounced Aynal Haqq in traditional Bengali) "I am the Absolute Truth", which he took during a trip to India from "Aham Brahmasmi", which is a sentence of Mahavakya philosophy. The earliest report, coming from a hostile account of Basra grammarians, states that he said it in the mosque of Al-Mansur, while testimonies that emerged decades later claimed that it was said in private during consultations with Junayd Baghdadi. Even though this utterance has become inseparably associated with his execution in the popular imagination, owing in part to its inclusion in his biography by Attar of Nishapur, the historical issues surrounding his execution are far more complex. In another controversial statement, al-Hallaj claimed "There is nothing wrapped in my turban but God, " and similarly he would point to his cloak and say, "Mā fī jubbatī illā l-Lāh" "There is nothing in my cloak but God." He also wrote:


title: Al-Hallaj

text: In the 11th volume of Ibn Kathir's Al Bidayah Wa Al-Nihaya, it is said that Hallaj used to deceive people by putting on plays with his hired men under the guise of spiritual healing, and extorting money from them by cunning and secret, and it is also stated that, he came to India to learn and practice Indian magic. Ibn Kathir also said in the book, "Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami Amr ibn Uthman (son of Uthman ibn Affan) said on the authority of al-Makki: He said: "I was walking with al-Hallaj in some streets of Makkah and I read the Qur'an. I was reciting, and he heard my recitation. And said: I can recite the same (recitation), so I left him". Narrated by Ibn Kathir, Abu Zari al-Tabari said, I heard Abu Ya'qub al-Aqta say: I gave my daughter in marriage to al-Husayn al-Hallaj when I saw his good conduct and diligence, and after a short time it became clear to me that He is a deceitful sorcerer, a hateful infidel. Ibn Kathir also said, "Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Razi said: I heard Amr ibn Uthman cursing him and saying: If I could have killed him, I would have killed him with my own hands. I said to him: What did the Shaykh get on him? He Said: "I read a verse of the Book of Allah and He said: I can compose like it and speak like it." Ibn Kathir also said, and Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri mentioned in his letter in the chapter on preserving the hearts of the sheikhs: Amr bin Uthman entered the house of al-Hallaj when he was in Makkah, he (Hallaj) was writing something on paper and he (Amr) said to him : What is it? He (Hallaj) said: It is "against the Qur'an". He said: Then he prayed for him and then he was not successful. Hallaj denied that Abu Ya'qub al-Aqta married him to his daughter.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: "Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi narrated that: Al-Hallaj sent a man from among his companions and ordered him to go before him (as blind) to a mountainous country and show them worship, piety and penance. And if they wish to treat him well, let him say to them: O righteous people, nothing you do will heal me. Then he will tell them after a few days that he saw the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) in a dream and he said to him: Your health will be in the hands of Qutb alone. And he will come to you in such a month and on such a day. You describe him as such and such. Al-Hallaj said to him: I will come to you at that time. So that man went to that land and stayed there performing worship, piety and penance and reciting the Qur'an. So he stayed a while, so they believed him and loved him, then he showed them that he was blind, so he stayed a while, then he showed them that the disease was long, so they tried to treat him as well as possible. And there was no result, so he said to them: O people, nothing comes of the good deeds you do to me. And I saw in a dream that the Messenger of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said to me: Your health and well-being are in the hands of Qutb, and he is yours on this day of the month. will approach, and they first take him to the mosque, then they carry him and continue to honor him. Al-Hallaj then sneaked into the country and dressed in white wool, he entered the mosque and approached a mast to pray in it, paying no attention to anyone. Then came the time of their return, and the people told the blind man his story, and he said: Narrate it to me. They narrated it to him and he said: This is what the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) told me in a dream, and in His hand is my well-being, take me to Him. Then they carried him until they made him stand in front of him, then he spoke to him and recognized him and said: O Abu Abdullah, I saw the Messenger of Allah, may God bless him and grant him peace, in a dream. Then he related his vision to him, whereupon al-Hallaj raised his hand and prayed for him, then spat from his saliva into his hand, then wiped it over his eyes, and when he opened his eyes it was as if he had no disease. No and he pretended to see. Then he took some of his saliva and wiped it on his feet, so he rose from his place and walked as if he had no emotion and people were present. The prince of that land and their chiefs with him, the people made a great noise and proclaimed the glory of God and wrongly glorified Him more than what Hallaj had shown. Then he stayed with them for a while, being honored and glorified and wondering what he could ask of them for their money. When he wanted to leave them, they wanted to collect a lot of money for him, so he said: I have no need of this world, I have left this world and reached it. And that coherent, healed man said: Shaykh truthful, Allah has restored my sight and Allah has given me health, the rest of my life is for Jihad in the way of Allah and Hajj to the house of Allah. With his honest and pious brothers whom he knew, he then requested them to pay according to their own satisfaction. Then al-Hallaj left them and the man remained among them for a while until they collected for him a large amount of money, thousands of gold and silver."


title: Al-Hallaj

text: And it was narrated from some of them that he said: I heard that Al-Hallaj was known and renowned, so I wanted to test it, so I came to him and greeted him, then he said to me: Do you want something in an hour? I said I want soft fish. So he entered his room, and he was absent for an hour, then he came out with a stale fish and his feet were in the mud. He said: I prayed to Allah and He ordered me to go to Al-Fatah to bring this fish. So I said: If you want, you let me go to your house so that I can see that my certainty is strengthened. He said: Enter, I entered and he closed the door and sat down to see me. I looked around the house and couldn't find any of them anywhere, so I was shocked, then I looked and saw that I was at the foot of an underground door - and it was a market tunnel - so I removed it and it split, and then It was a market gate, so I entered it and it led me to a huge garden, with all the fruits, new and old, which were well preserved. And I saw that there was much to eat, and I saw that there was a large pool in which there were many small and large fish, and I went into it and took one out, and clay stuck to my feet, as it were, so I came to the door and said: Open the door, I trusted you. Seeing me in the same condition, he wanted to kill me. Then I hit him in the face with a fish and said, O enemy of Allah, have you fooled me with this? And when I was freed from him, a few days later he met me, and he laughed at me and said: Do not reveal to anyone what you have seen, or I will send someone to kill you in your bed. He said: I knew that if I rebuked him, he would do it, so he did not tell anyone about it until he was crucified.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: And one day he said to a man: Believe in me until I send you a sparrow that takes the weight of a grain from its dung and puts it on such and such a pound of copper, and it turns into gold. The man said to him: You believe in me until I send you an elephant that if it lies on its back, its feet reach the sky, and if you want to hide it, you put it. in one of your eyes. He said: So I was stunned and kept silent.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: And when he resided in Al-Ahwaz, he began to spend from the dirhams he took out, calling them the dirhams of power. Sheikh Abu Ali al-Jabai was asked about that, and he said: All of this is obtained by trick, but enter him into a house that has no outlet, and then ask him to bring out two thorn nuts for you. When al-Hallaj heard the words of Abu Ali al-Jabai, he turned away from al-Ahwaz.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Shaykh Abu al-Faraj bin al-Jawzi said: Al-Hallaj was a stumbling man, sometimes he wore a shield, and sometimes he wore a shroud, and he imitated him quite well with people of all creeds: although they were Sunnis, Rafidah, Mu ' would have been a tajila, a sufi, an immoral person or someone else. The dirhams he took out were called dirhams of ability. Shaykh Abu Ali al-Zaba'i was asked about him and he said: He was a man who collected money by trickery, but the people (of Ahwaz) wanted to keep him in a house where there was no sadi and then ask him to bring two carrots for themselves. Made up his mind. When Hallaj heard this, he ran away from Ahwaz.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: His best known written work is the "Book of al-Tawasin" (), in which he used line diagrams and symbols to help him convey mystical experiences that he could not express in words. "Ṭawāsīn" is the broken plural of the word "ṭā-sīn" which spells out the letters ṭā (ط) and sīn (س) placed for unknown reasons at the start of some surahs in the Quran. The chapters vary in length and subject. Chapter 1 is an homage to the Prophet Muhammad, for example, while Chapters 4 and 5 are treatments of the Prophet's heavenly ascent to Mi'raj. Chapter 6 is the longest of the chapters and is devoted to a dialogue of Satan (Iblis) and God, where Satan refuses to bow to Adam, although God asks him to do so. Satan's monotheistic claim—that he refused to bow before any other than God even at the risk of eternal rejection and torment—is combined with the lyrical language of the love-mad lover from the Majnun tradition, the lover whose loyalty is so total that there is no path for him to any "other than" the beloved. This passage explores the issues of mystical knowledge (ma'rifa) when it contradicts God's commands for although Iblis was disobeying God's commands, he was following God's will. His refusal is due, others argue, to a misconceived idea of God's uniqueness and because of his refusal to abandon himself to God in love. Hallaj criticizes the staleness of his adoration (Mason, 51-3). Al-Hallaj stated in this book:


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Few figures in Islam provoked as much debate among classical commentators as al-Hallaj. The controversy cut across doctrinal categories. In virtually every major current of juridical and theological thought (Jafari, Maliki, Hanbali, Hanafi, Shafi'i, Ash'ari, and Maturidi) one finds his detractors and others who accepted his legacy completely or justified his statements with some excuse. His admirers among philosophers included Ibn Tufayl, Suhrawardi, and Mulla Sadra.


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Although the majority of early Sufi teachers condemned him, he was almost unanimously canonized by later generations of Sufis. The principal Sufi interpretation of the "shathiyat" which took the form of "I am" sayings contrasted the permanence ("baqā") of God with the mystical annihilation ("fanā") of the individual ego, which made it possible for God to speak through the individual. Some Sufi authors claimed that such utterances were misquotations or attributed them to immaturity, madness or intoxication, while others regarded them as authentic expressions of spiritual states, even profoundest experience of divine realities, which should not be manifested to the unworthy. Some of them, including al-Ghazali, showed ambivalence about their apparently blasphemous nature while admiring the spiritual status of their authors. Rumi wrote: "When the pen (of authority) is in the hand of a traitor, unquestionably Mansur is on a gibbet"


title: Al-Hallaj

text: The supporters of Mansur have interpreted his statement as meaning, "God has emptied me of everything but Himself. " According to them, Mansur never denied God's oneness and was a strict monotheist. However, he believed that the actions of man, when performed in total accordance with God's pleasure, lead to a blissful unification with Him. Malayalam author Vaikom Muhammad Basheer draws parallel between "Anā al-Ḥaqq" and Aham Brahmasmi, the Upanishad Mahāvākya which means 'I am Brahman' (the Ultimate Reality in Hinduism). Basheer uses this term to intend God is found within one's 'self'. There was a belief among European historians that al-Hallaj was secretly a Christian, until the French scholar Louis Massignon presented his legacy in the context of Islamic mysticism in his four-volume work "La Passion de Husayn ibn Mansûr Hallâj".


title: Al-Hallaj

text: Hallaj is highly revered by Yezidis, who composed a few religious hymns devoted to him. Elements of his views expressed in "Kitab al-Tawasin" can be found in their religion.


title: Swedish Vallhund

text: The Swedish Vallhund, also known as the "Västgötaspets" and Swedish cow dog, is a breed of dog native to Sweden. The breed's name, "Vallhund", when translated into English, means herding dog, as the Swedish Vallhund was originally bred as a drover and herder of cows over 1,000 years ago. In 1942, the dog came close to extinction, but careful breeding and publicity by Swedish national Bjorn von Rosen and K. G. Zettersten managed to revive the breed in popularity and save it from its likely end. In 1943, the Swedish Kennel Club recognized the Swedish Vallhund as a breed, and officially categorized the Swedish Vallhund as "the Västgötaspets" for Västergötland, the province in which their revival took place. Since then, the breed has been recognized by, and bred in, over ten countries and has gained some popularity.


title: Swedish Vallhund

text: The average height of the Swedish Vallhund, measured at the withers, is approximately 33 cm (12.9 in) for males and 31 cm (12.2 in) for females. They are strong, with a long body. The ratio of height to body length is about 2:3. The head of the Vallhund is wedge-shaped, with dark brown oval eyes and pricked ears. They are born with every variance of tail length, from no tail at all to full length, therefore they are often mistaken for having been docked. (Tail docking is illegal in Sweden.)