title: London Fletcher

text: Fletcher is a Christian. Fletcher spoke about his conversion to Christianity saying, "I spent years chasing things I thought would bring me everlasting joy and happiness: chasing Super Bowl rings or a multi-million dollar contract; or a new house, cars and jewelry. None of those things did for me what Christ did in an instant."


title: London Fletcher

text: Fletcher was named a Pro Bowl alternate 11 times during his career and did not play in his first one until the 2010 Pro Bowl via replacing Jonathan Vilma. As a result, Fletcher called himself the NFL version of Susan Lucci, who won a Daytime Emmy after 19 nominations.


title: Benzophenone

text: Benzophenone is the organic compound with the formula (CH)CO, generally abbreviated PhCO. It is a white solid that is soluble in organic solvents. Benzophenone is a widely used building block in organic chemistry, being the parent diarylketone.


title: Benzophenone

text: Benzophenone can be used as a photo initiator in UV(Ultra-violet)-curing applications such as inks, imaging, and clear coatings in the printing industry. Benzophenone prevents ultraviolet (UV) light from damaging scents and colors in products such as perfumes and soaps.


title: Benzophenone

text: Benzophenone can also be added to plastic packaging as a UV blocker to prevent photo-degradation of the packaging polymers or its contents. Its use allows manufacturers to package the product in clear glass or plastic (such as a PETE water bottle). Without it, opaque or dark packaging would be required.


title: Benzophenone

text: In biological applications, benzophenones have been used extensively as photophysical probes to identify and map peptide–protein interactions.


title: Benzophenone

text: A laboratory route involves the reaction of benzene with carbon tetrachloride followed by hydrolysis of the resulting diphenyldichloromethane. It can also be prepared by Friedel–Crafts acylation of benzene with benzoyl chloride in the presence of a Lewis acid (e.g. aluminium chloride) catalyst: since benzoyl chloride can itself be produced by the reaction of benzene with phosgene the first synthesis proceeded directly from those materials.


title: Benzophenone

text: Another route of synthesis is through a palladium(II)/oxometalate catalyst. This converts an alcohol to a ketone with two groups on each side.


title: Benzophenone

text: Another, less well-known reaction to produce benzophenone is the pyrolysis of anhydrous calcium benzoate.


title: Benzophenone

text: Benzophenone is a common photosensitizer in photochemistry. It crosses from the S state into the triplet state with nearly 100% yield. The resulting diradical will abstract a hydrogen atom from a suitable hydrogen donor to form a ketyl radical.


title: Benzophenone

text: Generally sodium is used as the alkali metal. Although inferior in terms of safety and effectiveness relative to molecular sieves, this ketyl is used in the purification of organic solvents, particularly ethers, because it reacts with water and oxygen to give non-volatile products. The ketyl is soluble in the organic solvent being dried, so it accelerates the reaction of the sodium with water and oxygen. In comparison, sodium is insoluble, and its heterogeneous reaction is much slower. When excess alkali metal is present a second reduction may occur, resulting in a color transformation from deep blue to purple:


title: Benzophenone

text: There are over 300 natural benzophenones, with great structural diversity and biological activities. They are being investigated as potential sources of new drugs. Substituted benzophenones such as oxybenzone and dioxybenzone are used in many sunscreens. The use of benzophenone-derivatives which structurally resemble a strong photosensitizer has been criticized (see sunscreen controversy).


title: Benzophenone

text: Michler's ketone has dimethylamino substituents at each "para" position. The high-strength polymer PEEK is prepared from derivatives of benzophenone.


title: Benzophenone

text: It is considered "essentially nontoxic." Benzophenone is however banned as a food additive by the US Food and Drug Administration, despite the FDA's continuing stance that this chemical does not pose a risk to public health under the conditions of its intended use. Benzophenone derivatives are known to be pharmacologically active. From a molecular chemistry point of view interaction of benzophenone with B-DNA has been demonstrated experimentally. The interaction with DNA and the successive photo-induced energy transfer is at the base of the benzophenone activity as a DNA photosensitizers and may explain part of its therapeutic potentialities.


title: Benzophenone

text: In 2014, benzophenones were named Contact Allergen of the Year by the American Contact Dermatitis Society.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Shijiazhuang (; ; ), formerly known as Shimen and romanized as Shihkiachwang, is the capital and most populous city of China’s North China's Hebei Province. Administratively a prefecture-level city, it is about southwest of Beijing, and it administers eight districts, two county-level cities, and 12 counties.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 11,235,086, with 6,230,709 in the built-up ("or metro") area comprising all urban districts but Jingxing not agglomerated and Zhengding county largely conurbated with the Shijiazhuang metropolitan area as urbanization continues to proliferate. Shijiazhuang's total population ranked twelfth in mainland China.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Shijiazhuang experienced dramatic growth after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The population of the metropolitan area has more than quadrupled in 30 years as a result of industrialization and infrastructural developments. From 2008 to 2011, Shijiazhuang implemented a three-year plan which concluded with the reorganization of the city resulting in an increase of green areas and new buildings and roads. A train station, airport and a subway system have been opened.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Shijiazhuang is situated east of the Taihang Mountains, a mountain range extending over from north to south with an average elevation of .


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The city's present name, Shijiazhuang (), first appeared during the Ming dynasty. Its literal meaning is "Shi family's village". The word Shijiazhuang was generally used after construction of the Shijiazhuang station of the Zhengtai Railway in 1907. In Chinglish style, Shijiazhuang can be translated from characters meaning to words named Rock-Home-Town (石: Rock; 家: Home; 庄: Town), the same meaning as Hometown of Rock to call.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The origin of the name is heavily disputed. One story claimed that the Wanli Emperor sent 24 officers and their families to the area, after which the group splits into two settlements consisting of 10 and 14 families. The imperial court then named the settlements "village of 10 families" () and "village of 14 families" (), respectively. Since the Chinese characters for ten () and stone () are homophones, it is speculated that the city name gradually evolved into its current spelling. Another explanation is that the settlement was named after the highest-ranking official amongst the groups, who was surnamed Shi. However, a county named Shiyi (), in present-day Luquan District, was already present during the Warring States period, suggesting that the name, or its elements, have even older origins.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: At first, the settlement was officially known only as "Shijia", as the "zhuang" was solely used to denote the nature of the settlement being a village, instead of being part of its name. This was further evidenced on June 24, 1925, when the Republican government ordered the village to be established as an autonomous city under the name Shijia. The city ended up being renamed as Shimen () when it was officially incorporated on August 29, 1925, after the merger with another village, Xiumen (). Despite being renamed, however, many documents and war plans from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War still referred to the city as "Shijiazhuang" or "Shizhuang". To avoid confusion and association with the Japanese Army, the Chinese Communist Party ultimately reverted the city's name back to Shijiazhuang on December 26, 1947. Since then, many terms regarding the city have been stemmed from the "zhuang" suffix, including its nickname "international village" (), and the colloquial demonym, "villagers" ().


title: Shijiazhuang

text: This area was occupied by Xianyu people at beginning of Zhou dynasty, and later belonged to the Zhongshan (中山國) and Zhao states at pre-Qin period.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: In pre-Han times (i.e., before 206 BC), the site of the city of Shiyi in the state of Zhao was located in this area. After taking over Zhao, Qin Shi Huang established the Hengshan Commandery in the region. It became part of the Zhao Principality under Western Han. The land was briefly granted to Liu Buyi (), son of the Emperor Hui, during Empress Dowager Lü's reign. The territory was then passed to Liu Hong, Emperor Houshao of Han, after Buyi's death. It was then granted to Liu Chao (), another son of Emperor Hui. During the defeat of the Lü clan, Liu Chao was killed and the territory became a commandery of Zhao once again. Later, due to a naming taboo of Emperor Wen of Han, whose personal name is Liu Heng, its name was changed to Changshan. From Han (206 BC–AD 220) to Sui (581–618) times it was the site of a county seat named Shiyi.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: With the reorganization of local government in the early period of the Tang dynasty (618–907), Hengshan county was abolished, and it was reestablished as a prefecture. It was renamed as Zhen Prefecture due to a naming taboo with Emperor Muzong of Tang, whose personal name was Li Heng.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Zhending was a giant city in the area, now Zhengding county, where was destination of migration from Yuan dynasty people and central area of preceding Northern Song dynasty people, particular in Kaifeng and Zhengzhou etc.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The name "Shijiazhuang" was first mentioned in 1535 on a stele of a local temple. Shijiazhuang was then little more than a local market town, subordinated to the flourishing city of Zhengding a few miles to the north.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The growth of Shijiazhuang into one of China's major cities began in 1905, when the Beijing–Wuhan (Hankou) railway reached the area, stimulating trade and encouraging local farmers to grow cash crops. Two years later the town became the junction for the new Shitai line, running from Shijiazhuang to Taiyuan, Shanxi. The connection transformed the town from a local collecting center and market into a communications center of national importance on the main route from Beijing and Tianjin to Shanxi, and later, when the railway from Taiyuan was extended to the southwest, to Shaanxi as well. The city also became the center of an extensive road network.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Pre-World War II Shijiazhuang was a large railway town as well as a commercial and collecting center for Shanxi and regions farther west and for agricultural produce of the North China Plain, particularly grain, tobacco, and cotton. By 1935 it had far outstripped Zhengding as an economic center. At the end of World War II the character of the city changed when it took on an administrative role as the preeminent city in western Hebei, and developed into an industrial city. Some industries, such as match manufacturing, tobacco processing, and glassmaking, had already been established before the war. By 1941, Shide railway line was constructed between Shijiazhuang and Dezhou, Shandong in the war occupied period, operated by North China Transportation Company.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: On November 12, 1947, the city was captured by Communist forces. Xibaipo, a village about from downtown Shijiazhuang, in Pingshan County was the location of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army during the decisive stages of the Chinese Civil War between May 26, 1948, and March 23, 1949, at which point they were moved to Beijing. Today, the area is a memorial site.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Since the city was pivotal to the People's Liberation Army's victory of the Chinese Civil War, many governmental agencies have roots in Shijiazhuang. The creation of the North China People's Government in 1947 affirmed the city's position as a key political center. A year later, as the result of the merger between the Bank of North China, the Bank of Beihai, and the Northwest Agricultural Bank, the People's Bank of China was established here, where it produced and released the first series of the renminbi.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Meanwhile, the industrialization of the city also gathered momentum thanks to government initiatives including the First Five-Year Plan. Shijiazhuang was one of the fourteen cities selected as focus cities for development. The population more than tripled in the decade 1948–58. In the 1950s, the city experienced a major expansion in the textile industry, with large-scale cotton spinning, weaving, printing, and dyeing works. In addition, there are plants processing local farm produce. In the 1960s it was the site of a new chemical industry, with plants producing fertilizer and caustic soda. Shijiazhuang also became an engineering base, with a tractor-accessory plant. There are important coal deposits at Jingxing and Huailu, now named Luquan, a few miles to the west in the foothills of the Taihang Mountains, which provide fuel for a thermal-generating plant supplying power to local industries.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Tianjin was again carved out of Hebei in 1967, remaining a separate entity today. The provincial capital was then moved to Baoding, however, the city was plunged into chaos due to the Cultural Revolution just a year later. Thus, under the direction of Mao Zedong to "prepare for war and natural disasters", Shijiazhuang became the provincial capital in 1968.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Beginning in the 1990s, Shijiazhuang saw another episode of rapid growth and development. Starting from the plains area in the east and south of the city, the focus of the developments later shifted towards the mountainous districts and counties in the west, as well as along the Hutuo River in the north.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: In the early hours of March 16, 2001, four apartment buildings were leveled after a series of explosions rocked the city, killing 108 while injuring 38. The perpetrator was a deaf, unemployed man named Jin Ruchao who police arrested weeks later. Jin confessed that he had delivered the bombs via taxi and stated that the bombings were an act of revenge on his relatives, who were among the tenants of the apartments. Jin and his accomplices were later executed.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: In December 2020, its mayor, Deng Peiran, was charged with corruption, with Ma Yujun currently serving as the acting mayor. A few weeks later, the city became a new COVID-19 hotspot: starting from the village of Xiaoguozhuang in Gaocheng District in the northern portion of the city, cases has been increasing rapidly since January 2, 2021. Due to its proximity with Beijing and the severity of the outbreak, harsh measures were put into place, with all 11 million residences undergoing mandatory testing, as well as school closures, banning of gatherings, and residential districts being sealed. All highways were blocked off, with rail and air links also suspended.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Throughout the years, the city's administrative units have been shifted and adjusted multiple times. Initially, Shijiazhuang was administered under the prefecture of the same name, along with the counties of Zhengding, Pingshan, Lingshou, Jingxing, Jianping, Huailu, Jinxian, Gaocheng, Luancheng, Zhaoxian, Shulu, Yuanshi, Zanhuang, Gaoyi, and one town, Xinji. The first new district of the city, Jingxing Mining District, was created on June 27, 1950. On November 7, 1952, Hengshui Prefecture, to the east, was merged into Shijiazhuang, adding six more counties. The prefecture continued to expand after Dingxian Prefecture was split and merged into Baoding and Shijiazhuang on June 18, 1954. Between March 1960 and May 1961, the prefecture and the city merged. Thereafter, however, the prefecture was re-established, with Hengshui Prefecture splitting away the next year. The city and its prefecture merged for good in June 1993. In the 2010s, Shijiazhuang's administrative divisions saw further changes. In 2013, the county-level city of Xinji, although still part of Shijiazhuang prefecture, is now directly administered by Hebei province. Later, the State Council of the People's Republic of China approved more adjustments to the city's divisions. Qiaodong District was dissolved and merged into Chang'an and Qiaoxi districts. Three county-level cities, Gaocheng, Luquan, and Luancheng, became urban districts.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Shijiazhuang is located in south-central Hebei, and is part of the Bohai Economic Rim. Its administrative area ranges in latitude from 37° 27' to 38° 47' N, and the longitude 113° 30' to 115° 20' E. The prefecture-level city reaches a north–south extent and a wide from east to west. The prefecture has borders stretching long and covers an area of . Bordering prefecture-level cities in Hebei are Hengshui (E), Xingtai (S), and Baoding (N/NE). To the west lies the province of Shanxi.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The city stands at the edge of the North China Plain, which rises to the Taihang Mountains to the west of the city, and lies south of the Hutuo River. From west to east, the topography can be summarised as moderately high mountains, then low-lying mountains, hills, basin, and finally plains. Out of the eight east–west routes across the Taihang Mountains, the fifth, the Niangzi Pass, connects the city directly with Taiyuan, Shanxi.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The city has a continental, monsoon-influenced semi-arid climate (Köppen "BSk"), characterised by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoon, and generally cold, windy, very dry winters that reflect the influence of the Siberian anticyclone. Spring can see sandstorms blowing in from the Mongolian steppe, accompanied by rapidly warming, but generally dry, conditions. Autumn is similar to spring in temperature and lack of rainfall. January averages , while July averages ; the annual mean is . With the monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 45 percent in July to 61 percent in May, the city receives 2,427 hours of sunshine annually. More than half of the annual rainfall occurs in July and August alone.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: According to the National Environmental Analysis released by Tsinghua University and The Asian Development Bank in January 2013, Shijiazhuang was one of ten most air-polluted cities in the world. Also according to this report, 7 of 10 most air-polluted cities are in China, including Taiyuan, Beijing, Urumqi, Lanzhou, Chongqing, Jinan and Shijiazhuang. As air pollution in China is at an all-time high, several northern cities are among the most polluted cities and have some of the worst air quality in China. Reporting on China's air quality has been accompanied by what seems like a monochromatic slideshow of the country's several cities smothered in thick smog. According to a survey made by "Global voices China" in February 2013, Shijiazhuang is among China's 10 most polluted cities along with other cities including major Chinese cities like Beijing and Zhengzhou, and 6 other prefectural cities all in Hebei. These cities are all situated in traditional geographic subdivision of "Huabei (North China) Region".


title: Shijiazhuang

text: In 2020, annual average PM2.5 Air Pollution in Shijiazhuang stood at 56 µg/m³, which is 11.2 times the World Health Organization PM2.5 Guideline (5 µg/m³: set in September, 2021). These pollution levels are estimated to reduce the Life Expectancy of an average person living in Shijiazhuang by almost 5 years.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: A dense wave of smog began in the Central and Eastern part of China on December 2, 2013, across a distance of around , including Shijiazhuang and surrounding areas. A lack of cold air flow, combined with slow-moving air masses carrying industrial emissions, collected airborne pollutants to form a thick layer of smog over the region. Officials blamed the dense pollution on lack of wind, automobile exhaust emissions under low air pressure, and coal-powered district heating system in North China region. Prevailing winds blew low-hanging air masses of factory emissions (mostly SO) towards China's east coast.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Migrants flowing in from all across China largely contributed to the population growth of Shijiazhuang in recent times. With a population of 120,000 in 1947, Shijiazhuang became the first medium-large city captured by the Chinese Communist Party from the Kuomintang. By the time of the People's Republic of China's founding in 1949, the total urban population increased to more than 270,000 people, more than doubling in a span of two years. In 1953, when China rolled out its first five-year plan, the total population of Shijiazhuang's urban area increased to 320,000. In 1960, the total population of the Shijiazhuang urban area had reached 650,000. In 1968, the city experienced a substantial increase due to it being designated the capital of Hebei to avoid chaos in Baoding amidst the Cultural Revolution. By 1980, the urban population had surpassed the one million mark, joining the ranks of a large city. As of the end of 2017, the urban population of Shijiazhuang exceeded 4.5 million.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: In just six decades, the city's population has increased by more than 20 fold. At the end of 2009, the city's total non-migrant population was 9,774,100, an increase of 109,300 over the previous year. The birth rate of the city's population is 14.65%, the death rate is 6.25%, and the natural growth rate is 8.4%.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: According to the sixth national census in 2010, the city's total non-migrant population stands at 10,163,788. Compared with the fifth national census a decade prior, there was an increase of 818,365 people, or an increase of 8.76%, and an average annual growth rate of 0.84%. Among them, the male population stood at 5,087,913, accounting for 50.06% of the total population; the female population is 5,075,875, accounting for 49.94% of the total population. The gender ratio of the total population is 100 women per 100.24 men. The population aged between 0 and 14 is 1,548,125, accounting for 15.23% of the total population; the population aged between 15 and 64 is 7,789,753, accounting for 76.64% of the total population; the population aged 65 and over is 825,910, accounting for 8.13% of the total population.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The top 10 surnames of Shijiazhuang are: Zhang (10.27%), Wang (9.25%), Li (9.17%), Liu (6.73%), Zhao (4.28%), Yang (2.82%), Gao (2.08%), Chen (1.92%), Ma (1.77%), and Guo (1.55%).


title: Shijiazhuang

text: On May 6, 2011, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences published the "2011 China Urban Competitiveness Blue Book: China Urban Competitiveness Report". In it, the happiness survey sampled 294 cities across China, arriving at the conclusion that the residents of Shijiazhuang were the happiest. This result caused strong doubts from netizens.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: In 2014, the GDP of Shijiazhuang reached CNY(RMB)￥510.02 billion (about $80.45 billion in USD), an increase of 12 percent over the previous year, and placing the city 20th in provincial capitals by GDP.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Shijiazhuang has become a major industrial city in North China and is considered to be the economic center of Hebei province, along with Tangshan. The city also located in Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang Hi-Tech Industrial Belt, which is one of the main Hi-Tech Belts in China. Nicknamed the "medicine hub of China", it's home to major pharmaceutical companies and factories like the North China Pharmaceutical Group Corporation, Shijiazhuang Pharma Group, and Shineway Pharma. The textile industry is also one of the backbones of the city's commerce. Other sectors include machinery and chemicals, building materials, light industry, and electronics. With abundant agricultural resources, Shijiazhuang has 590,000 hectares of cultivated land and is the main source of cotton, pears, dates and walnuts in Hebei province.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: In 2008, total imports reached US$1.393 billion, an increase of 42.1 percent over the previous year. Exports increased by 34.9 percent to US$5.596 billion.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: 2006 World Bank reported that Shijiazhuang was spending less than RMB400 per capita on education, as opposed to Beijing (RMB1,044) and Weihai (RMB1,631).


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The zone was established in March 1991 as a state-level development zone and is divided into three districts. National highways 107, 207, 307, 308 pass through the zone. It is away from Shijiazhuang railway station, away from Tianjin Port. Industries include pharmaceuticals, electronic information, mechanical production, automobile manufacturing, chemicals production and logistics.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The city is a center for the dairy trade, being the headquarters of the Sanlu Group. Sanlu became Shijiazhuang's largest taxpayer since it had become the largest formula seller in China for a continuous 15-year period. Richard McGregor, author of "", said that Sanlu became "an invaluable asset for a city otherwise struggling to attract industry and investment on a par with China's premier metropolises."


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Both the dairy trade and Sanlu were affected by the 2008 Chinese milk scandal. The chairman and general manager of Sanlu, and several party officials, including the vice-mayor in charge of food and agriculture, Zhang Fawang, were reportedly removed from office. Mayor Ji Chuntang reportedly resigned on September 17, 2008.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The city is served by many expressways, including the Shitai, Beijing–Shenzhen and Taiyuan–Cangzhou Expressways.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Shijiazhuang is a transportation hub at the intersection point of the Beijing–Guangzhou, Taiyuan–Dezhou, and Shuozhou–Huanghua railways. The new Shijiazhuang railway station (opened December 2012) has a rare distinction of being served by both the "conventional" Beijing–Guangzhou Railway and the new Beijing–Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong High-Speed Railway. Such an arrangement is fairly uncommon on China's high-speed rail network, as typically high-speed lines are constructed to bypass city cores, where the older "conventional" train stations are.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: In Shijiazhuang's case, to make it possible to bring the new high-speed railway into the central city, a long railway tunnel was constructed under the city. This is the first time a high-speed railway has been run "under" a Chinese city.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: There is also the smaller Shijiazhuang North railway station, used by trains going west toward Taiyuan without the need for passing though downtown.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Line 1, Line 2 and Line 3 of the Shijiazhuang Metro are currently operational. The system is in length. The latest metro plan of Shijiazhuang includes 6 lines in total.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The Shijiazhuang Zhengding International Airport is the province's center of air transportation. It is about 30 kilometers northeast of the city. There are 32 domestic routes arriving at and departing from Shijiazhuang, including destinations such as Shanghai, Shenzhen and Dalian. The airport serves 12 international destinations including four routes to Russia. The airport is being expanded and will be capable of being an alternate airport to Beijing Capital International Airport.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: With the opening of the Beijing–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway at the end of 2012, the airport got its own train station, making available fast, although infrequent, train service between the airport and Shijiazhuang railway station, as well as other stations in the region.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Most large roads in the city feature a separate cycle lane and, combined with the city being flat, make it ideal for cycling. Thousands of cyclists use the city each day and often there are more cyclists waiting at a crossroad than cars.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Shijiazhuang is headquarters of the 27th Group Army of the People's Liberation Army, one of the three group armies that comprise the Beijing Military Region responsible for defending China's capital.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The city of Shijiazhuang is similar to Beijing in that all roads run from north to south and east to west, making the city easy to navigate. Many roads have cycle paths making it cyclist friendly. In the heart of the city is the Hebei Museum which was refurbished in 2013 and 2014. It holds regular events, mostly showing traditional Chinese art and artifacts. The Yutong International Sports Centre hosts the Shijiazhuang Ever Bright football matches as well as holding pop concerts.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Shijiazhuang Zoo is located on the west side of the city. The zoo has 3,000 animals of 250 species including flamingos, golden monkeys, manchurian tigers, Indian elephants, giraffes, chimpanzees, kangaroos, seals, white tigers, springboks and pandas. Near the Shijiazhuang Zoo are the Botanical Gardens (), offering a range of exotic and native plants both to view and purchase. The Martyrs Memorial () can be found in the centre of the city, commemorating the soldiers lost in war.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Baodu Zhai (), or Baodu Village, is an ancient fortified hilltop settlement located on the west side of the city, the mountain contains walks and buddhist statues. Close to Baodu Zhai is Fenglong Mountain () is situated outside of Shijiazhuang to the west, the mountain features walks and a large stone Buddha statue situated on top of the mountain. Mount Cangyan () is a scenic area in Jingxing County, famous for its combination of natural mountain scenery with historical man-made structures. It was featured in a scene of the Chinese movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The Longxing Temple () is an ancient Buddhist monastery located just outside the city. It has been referred to as the "First Temple south of Beijing". The Anji Bridge (also known as Zhaozhou Bridge) () is the world's oldest open-spandrel stone segmental arch bridge. Credited to the design of a craftsman named Li Chun, the bridge was constructed in the years 595–605 during the Sui dynasty (581–618). It is the oldest standing bridge in China. The Pagoda of Bailin Temple ( or ) is an octagonal-based brick Chinese pagoda built in 1330 during the reign of Emperor Wenzong, ruler of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty (1271–1368).


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The downtown area of the city contains a range of parks. The largest park is found in the centre of the city known as Chang'an Park (), the park includes an underground shopping mall, a theatre, a museum, a lake, bars and restaurants. Another park is found on the south east side of the city: Century Park (), Century Park contains a lake in the centre with an amusement park to the north side. On the northwest side of the city is Water Park () which features a large lake, amusement rides, short walks and various restaurants. As well as these three large parks there are smaller parks scattered across the city.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: The largest mall in the city is the Wanda shopping mall, located in the southeast side of the city, along with the Lerthai Shopping Complex at the downtown, and Wondermall on the southwest side. The Wanda mall includes an IMAX theatre.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: During the summer barbecue restaurants () open, selling a whole range of foods, the most popular of which are lamb kebabs (). Thousands of restaurants can be found across the city offering a range of Chinese as well as western cuisine open around the clock.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Shijiazhuang Ever Bright F.C. () is a Chinese football club based in Shijiazhuang, Hebei, which competes in the Chinese Super League. It plays in the 37,000-seat Yutong International Sports Centre. The team changed to their current name on February 24, 2014.


title: Shijiazhuang

text: Yutong International Sports Center () is a multi-use stadium, used mostly for football matches. The capacity is 38,500.


title: Electric ray

text: The electric rays are a group of rays, flattened cartilaginous fish with enlarged pectoral fins, composing the order Torpediniformes . They are known for being capable of producing an electric discharge, ranging from 8 to 220 volts, depending on species, used to stun prey and for defense. There are 69 species in four families.


title: Electric ray

text: Perhaps the best known members are those of the genus "Torpedo". The torpedo undersea weapon is named after it. The name comes from the Latin , 'to be stiffened or paralyzed', from the effect on someone who touches the fish.


title: Electric ray

text: Electric rays have a rounded pectoral disc with two moderately large rounded-angular (not pointed or hooked) dorsal fins (reduced in some Narcinidae), and a stout muscular tail with a well-developed caudal fin. The body is thick and flabby, with soft loose skin with no dermal denticles or thorns. A pair of kidney-shaped electric organs are at the base of the pectoral fins. The snout is broad, large in the Narcinidae, but reduced in all other families. The mouth, nostrils, and five pairs of gill slits are underneath the disc.


title: Electric ray

text: Electric rays are found from shallow coastal waters down to at least deep. They are sluggish and slow-moving, propelling themselves with their tails, not by using their pectoral fins as other rays do. They feed on invertebrates and small fish. They lie in wait for prey below the sand or other substrate, using their electricity to stun and capture it.


title: Electric ray

text: The electrogenic properties of electric rays have been known since antiquity, although their nature was not understood. The ancient Greeks used electric rays to numb the pain of childbirth and operations. In his dialogue "Meno", Plato has the character Meno accuse Socrates of "stunning" people with his puzzling questions, in a manner similar to the way the torpedo fish stuns with electricity. Scribonius Largus, a Roman physician, recorded the use of torpedo fish for treatment of headaches and gout in his "Compositiones Medicae" of 46 AD.


title: Electric ray

text: In the 1770s the electric organs of the torpedo ray were the subject of Royal Society papers by John Walsh, and John Hunter. These appear to have influenced the thinking of Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta – the founders of electrophysiology and electrochemistry.


title: Electric ray

text: Henry Cavendish proposed that electric rays use electricity; he built an artificial ray consisting of fish shaped Leyden jars to successfully mimic their behaviour in 1773.


title: Electric ray

text: The torpedo fish, or electric ray, appears continuously in premodern natural histories as a magical creature, and its ability to numb fishermen without seeming to touch them was a significant source of evidence for the belief in occult qualities in nature during the ages before the discovery of electricity as an explanatory mode.


title: Electric ray

text: The electric rays have specialised electric organs. Many species of rays and skates outside the family have electric organs in the tail; however, the electric ray has two large kidney-shaped electric organs on each side of its head, where current passes from the lower to the upper surface of the body. The nerves that signal the organ to discharge branch repeatedly, then attach to the lower side of each plaque in the batteries. These are composed of hexagonal columns, closely packed in a honeycomb formation. Each column consists of 500 to more than 1000 plaques of modified striated muscle, adapted from the branchial (gill arch) muscles. In marine fish, these batteries are connected as a parallel circuit, whereas freshwater batteries are arranged in series. This allows freshwater rays to transmit discharges of higher voltage, as freshwater cannot conduct electricity as well as saltwater. With such a battery, an electric ray may electrocute larger prey with a voltage of between 8 volts in some narcinids to 220 volts in "Torpedo nobiliana", the Atlantic torpedo.


title: Electric ray

text: The 60 or so species of electric rays are grouped into 12 genera and two families. The Narkinae are sometimes elevated to a family, the Narkidae. The torpedinids feed on large prey, which are stunned using their electric organs and swallowed whole, while the narcinids specialize on small prey on or in the bottom substrate. Both groups use electricity for defense, but it is unclear whether the narcinids use electricity in feeding.


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: The Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) is a leading medical training institute in Pune, India, in the state of Maharashtra. The college is managed by the Indian Armed Forces.


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: Established in May 1948 as a post-graduate teaching institution after World War II on the recommendation of the BC Roy Committee, remnants of various Indian Army Medical Corps units were amalgamated to create the Armed Forces Medical Services. The AFMC undergraduate wing was established on 4 August 1962, which is also celebrated annually as AFMC Day by its alumni.


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: The institution primarily imparts training to medical undergraduates and postgraduates, dental postgraduates, nursing cadets and paramedical staff. Patient care forms an integral part of its training curriculum and the attached hospitals benefits from the expertise available at AFMC. The institution is responsible for providing the entire pool of specialists and super specialists to the Armed Forces. The college is also involved in conducting research in various medical subjects as well as those aspects which would affect the morale and performance of the Armed Forces both in war and peace.


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: The facility was originally Set up in 1944 by Lt. Colonel Darshan Singh Vohra to provide artificial limb, appliances and deliver rehabilitative care to the gallant soldiers of the Indian Army, who lost their limbs in combat. Post independence the AFMC was expanded further in 1948 in the immediate post-world war period. On the recommendations of the BC Roy Committee, remnants of the Indian Army Medical Corps units were amalgamated into one unit to create the Armed Forces Medical College. Over the past 50 years, it has grown in its functions. The "Graduate Wing" of AFMC was established on 4 August 1962. The aim of starting this wing was to increase the intake of medical graduates into the Armed Forces. The graduate wing was affiliated to the University of Pune until 1999 but presently affiliated to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences. The college is recognised by the Medical Council of India for conducting a five-year and six-month teaching programme leading to MBBS degree. The first batch passed out in Oct 1966. It also conducts post graduate courses in many disciplines.


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: One of the first plastic surgery departments in India was established at the college in the early 1950s.


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: A total of 150 students are admitted for undergraduate MBBS course, 115 boys and 30 girls and five foreign nationals. Admission is on the basis of the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (formerly through the AIPMT exam), followed by an interview and medical examination . Ten seats are reserved for ST/SC candidates. Students are not allowed to be married or to marry during the course, and are liable to serve in the medical services of the Armed Forces, on successful completion of MBBS, for seven years.


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: The college is fully residential with separate hostels for boys and girls. Residence in the hostels is mandatory for all the cadets for the entire duration of the course. The Boys Hostel is housed in a building which was built in 1965 and comprises 6 blocks of three floors each. There are a total of 277 rooms of approximately area (single-seaters) and 162 rooms of approximately area (double seaters). All the rooms are fully furnished. The girls' hostel was constructed in 1984 and can accommodate 130 cadets in 70 single-seater and 30 double seater rooms. The new Boys Hostel has four blocks with four floors each having 18 spacious rooms with balconies. The officers' floors for officers pursuing their post graduation courses have been incorporated into the boys hostel. Subsidised messing is provided to all medical cadets. The Central Cadets Mess was opened in 2009 for all cadets to dine together.


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: There are facilities for sports, including tennis, squash, basketball, and a swimming pool. Canteen facilities for defence personnel are also extended to the medical cadets. It has two auditoria named Dhanvantri and Bharadwaj where high-profile medical conferences are held. AFMC also works as a hospital for civilians and is collaborated with the command hospital (SC).


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: AFMC was ranked 34th best medical college globally by CEO World 2021 , 37th best globally in 2022 (second in India for both years),third among medical colleges in India in 2019 by "India Today" and second among medical colleges in India in 2019 by "Outlook India" and fourth in India by "The Week".


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: AFMC provides broad-based non-academic exposure too. Students are encouraged to participate in sports and many have excelled in this arena. There are a large number of societies and clubs like the Student Scientific Society, Computer Club, Hobbies Club, Debating Club, Adventure Club, Dance Club and Musimatics. where students can pursue extra-curricular interests. They are encouraged to participate in competitions and conferences all over the country for development of all round personality and officer like qualities. They have also won many laurels in debates, quiz contests and youth festivals in Pune and outside. Over 6000 doctors have graduated from AFMC until now. Recently the entire hostel has been given WiFi connectivity.


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: Various departments take up research projects either under departmental sponsorship or under the auspices of Armed Forces Medical Research Committee (AFMRC). Apart from service-oriented projects, research in clinical and laboratory subjects is also carried out. AFMC has the facility for animal house, hatcheries for disease producing insects, and a virology and bacteriology bank for these purposes. AFMC is a research and referral centre for confirmation of disease, identification of pathogens (viral and bacterial) and classification of blood disorders. AFMC acts as a referral centre, designated by WHO for certain diseases i.e. HIV-regional laboratory and centre for rickettsial diseases.


title: Armed Forces Medical College

text: Affiliated hospitals include Command Hospital (Southern Command), Military Hospital (Cardio Thoracic Centre), Artificial Limb Centre and Military Hospital (Khadki). The college is affiliated to Maharashtra University of Health Sciences.


title: Catherine Wheel (band)

text: Catherine Wheel were an English alternative rock band from Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The band was active from 1990 to 2000, releasing five full-length albums in their career, embarking on many lengthy tours and experiencing fluctuating levels of commercial success. Initially receiving attention and success after releasing their debut album "Ferment" in 1992, the band achieved peak success with the release of "Crank" and their album "Chrome" in 1993. The band also achieved minor success with other albums, including "Happy Days", which featured a popular song "Judy Staring at the Sun" as a collaboration with Tanya Donelly. Catherine Wheel also scored heavy rotation on MTV and performed there several times. Despite never having any albums or songs that achieved major success in their homeland, Catherine Wheel continue to be popular among alternative rock and shoegaze fans and critics.


title: Catherine Wheel (band)

text: Catherine Wheel formed in 1990, comprising singer-guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson), guitarist Brian Futter, bassist Dave Hawes, and drummer Neil Sims. Hawes had previously played in a Joy Division-influenced band called Eternal. They took their moniker from the firework known as the Catherine wheel, which in turn had taken its name from the medieval torture device of the same name. The band was sometimes included in the shoegazing scene, characterized by bands that made extensive use of guitar feedback and droning washes of noise, as well as their continuous interaction with extensive numbers of effects pedals on the stage floor.


title: Catherine Wheel (band)

text: The band performed a Peel session in early 1991 while still unsigned; two 12" vinyl EPs were released on the Norwich-based Wilde Club Records, named after the regular weekly Wilde Club gigs run by Barry Newman at Norwich Arts Centre. They signed to major-label Fontana Records after being courted by both Creation Records and the Brian Eno-run label Opal Records. The band's debut album, 1991/92's "Ferment", made an immediate impression on the music press and introduced Catherine Wheel's second-biggest U.S. hit, "Black Metallic", as well as the moderate hit "I Want to Touch You". The album features re-recorded versions of some of the Wilde Club-issued EPs. "Black Metallic" was later featured in the film "S. Darko".


title: Catherine Wheel (band)

text: The more aggressive "Chrome" followed in 1993, produced by Gil Norton. With this album, the band began to shed its original shoegazing tag, while still making skillful use of atmospherics, such as on the song "Fripp". In a 2007 interview, Rob Dickinson said that members of Death Cab for Cutie and Interpol told him that without this album, their bands "wouldn't exist."


title: Catherine Wheel (band)

text: 1995's "Happy Days" saw the band delving further into metallic hard rock, which alienated a portion of their fanbase, even as it increased their exposure in the United States during the post-grunge era. The single "Waydown", and especially its plane-crash themed video, received heavy play in the U.S. A more sedate strain of rock known as Britpop was taking over in the UK, causing Catherine Wheel to continue to have greater success abroad than at home.


title: Catherine Wheel (band)

text: The B-sides and outtakes collection, "Like Cats and Dogs", came out the following year, revealing a quieter, more contemplative side of the band, spanning the previous five years. This carried over into "Adam and Eve" in 1997, wherein the band scaled back the sonic force of their sound from its "Happy Days" levels, with clean playing on some songs that featured extensive use of keyboards and acoustic guitars. Alternately, songs like "Satellite" and "Here Comes the Fat Controller" were lush and orchestral in scope.


title: Catherine Wheel (band)

text: In 2000, Catherine Wheel re-emerged with a new record label, a new bassist (Ben Ellis); a modified name ("The" Catherine Wheel); and a new album, "Wishville". After mixed reviews, record company turmoil and lacklustre sales, the band went on a hiatus. In January 2022, the band began updating a new Instagram account, suggesting that the band had reformed in some capacity.


title: Catherine Wheel (band)

text: Futter and Sims have an ongoing project called 50 ft Monster. Ellis was in a band called Serafin, and went on to play with Iggy Pop. After working with/ playing live with Tracy Bonham for several years, Dickinson released a solo album in 2005 called "Fresh Wine for the Horses". Dickinson retired from recording and founded a Porsche restoration company called Singer Vehicle Design in 2009.


title: Naruto: Shippuden (season 14)

text: The episodes for the fourteenth season of the anime series "" are based on Part II for Masashi Kishimoto's manga series. The season follows Naruto Uzumaki helping the ninja alliance fight against Kabuto's army. It was directed by Hayato Date, and produced by Pierrot and TV Tokyo. The season aired from January to July 2013.


title: Naruto: Shippuden (season 14)

text: The English dub of the season began airing on Neon Alley on May 30 to November 21, 2015. The season would make its English television debut on Adult Swim's Toonami programming block and premiere from May 17 to December 6, 2020.


title: Naruto: Shippuden (season 14)

text: The season contains five musical themes between two openings and three endings. The first opening theme, "Moshimo" by Daisuke, is used from episode 296 to 306. The second opening theme, by NICO Touches the Walls, is used from episode 307 to 320. The first ending theme, by 7!!, is used from episode 296 to 306. The second ending theme, "I Can Hear" by DISH//, is used from episode 307 to 319. The third ending theme, , by Rake, is used for episode 320.


title: Goiás

text: Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goiânia. With 7.2 million inhabitants, Goiás is the most populous state in the Center-West and the 11th most populous in the country. It has the ninth largest economy among Brazilian federative units. In Brazil's geoeconomic division, Goiás belongs to the Centro-Sul (Center-South), being the northernmost state of the southern portion of Brazil. The state has 3.3% of the Brazilian population and is responsible for 2.7% of the Brazilian GDP.


title: Goiás

text: The history of Goiás dates back to the beginning of the 18th century, with the arrival of pioneers from São Paulo. The Rio Vermelho region was the first to be occupied, where Vila Boa (later renamed Goiás) was founded. The development and settlement of the state took place, in a more intensified way, starting in the 1930s with the founding of the new capital, Goiânia, and especially with the construction of Brasília in the 1950s.


title: Goiás

text: Goiás is characterized by a landscape of "chapadões" (plateaus). In the height of the drought season, from June to September, the lack of rain makes the level of the Araguaia River go down and exposes almost of beaches. At the Emas National Park in the municipality of Mineiros, it is possible to observe the typical fauna and flora from the region. At the Chapada dos Veadeiros the main attractions are the canyons, valleys, rapids and waterfalls. Other attractions include the historical city of Goiás and the hot springs of Caldas Novas.


title: Goiás

text: Goiás occupies a large plateau, the vast almost level surface of which stands between 750 and 900 m above sea level and forms the divide between three of Brazil's largest river systems: to the south, Goiás is drained by the Paranaíba river, a tributary of the Paraná River; to the east it is drained by tributaries of the São Francisco River; and northward the state is drained by the Araguaia River and the Tocantins River and their tributaries. Other major rivers in the state are the Meia Ponte, Aporé, São Marcos, Corumbá River, Claro, Maranhão, Paranã and Preto. None of these rivers is navigable except for short distances by small craft.


title: Goiás

text: Goiás is covered with a woodland savanna known in Brazil as campo cerrado, although there are still tropical forests along the rivers. The climate of the plateau is tropical. Average monthly temperatures vary from in the warmest month to in the coldest. The year is divided into a rainy season (October–March) and a dry season (April–September). Average annual rainfall is about , but this varies due to elevation and microclimate.


title: Goiás

text: Some parts of the state, however, have small remnants of tropical Atlantic forest, that mostly appears around rivers and valleys.


title: Goiás

text: The Great Central West Region, consisting of the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, and the Federal District, is among the fastest-growing regions of Brazil. The population of Goiás state tripled in size in the period from 1950 to 1980 and is still growing very quickly. However, outside the Federal District and the Goiânia metropolitan region (with a population of over a million) most of Goiás is very thinly populated. The chief concentration of settlement is in the southeast, in the area of Goiânia (Goiânia and Aparecida de Goiânia), across the border from Minas Gerais (Catalão, Rio Verde, Jataí, and Caldas Novas), and around the Federal District (Formosa, Planaltina de Goiás, and Luziânia).


title: Goiás

text: The first European exploration of this interior part of Brazil was carried out by expeditions from São Paulo in the 17th century. Gold was discovered in the gravel of a tributary of the Araguaia River by the bandeirante Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva (the Anhanguera) in 1682. The settlement he founded there, called Santa Anna, became the colonial town of Goiás Velho, the former state capital. In 1744 the large inland area, much of it still unexplored by Europeans, was made a Captaincy General, and in 1822 it became a province of the empire of Brazil. It became a state in 1889. The Brazilian constitution of 1891 specified that the nation's capital should be moved to the Brazilian Highlands (Planalto Central), and in 1956 Goiás was selected as the site for the federal district and capital national, Brasília. The seat of the federal government was officially moved to Brasília in 1960.


title: Goiás

text: Goiânia, the largest city and capital was planned in 1933 to replace the old, inaccessible former state capital of Goiás, northwest. In 1937 the state government moved there, and in 1942 the official inauguration was held. Goiânia is now one of the fastest-growing cities in Brazil and one of the most livable cities in the country. It stands out as both an industrial center (along with the neighboring towns of Anápolis and Aparecida de Goiânia) and as a cultural center for country culture and music, known as Sertanejo.


title: Goiás

text: Due to the relatively large territory of the state, which was over , communications were obviously very difficult. The northern part of the state began to feel abandoned by the southern government and began a movement for separation. Local political leaders also encouraged the movement. In 1988 the northern half of Goiás became a separate state called Tocantins.


title: Goiás

text: According to the IBGE of 2010, there were 6,004,045 people residing in the state. The population density was 16.9 inh./km.


title: Goiás

text: The last PNAD (National Research for Sample of Domiciles) census revealed the following numbers: 3,433,000 White people (51.45%), 2,076,000 Pardo (Multiracial) people (42.44%), 329,000 Black people (5.60%), 16,000 Asian people (0.26%), 15,000 Amerindian people (0.25%).


title: Goiás

text: According to an autosomal DNA study from 2008, the ancestral composition of Goiás is 83.70% European, 13.30% African and 3.0% Amerindian.


title: Goiás

text: According to the Census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in 2010 58.89% of the state's population was Roman Catholic, 28.07% were Protestants or evangelicals, 8.11% had no religion, 2.46% were Spiritists, 0.67% Jehovah's Witnesses, 1.01% other Christian religions (which include the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Mormonism and others) and 0.79% from other religions.


title: Goiás

text: Portuguese is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. English and Spanish, however, are also part of the official high school curriculum.


title: Goiás

text: The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 43.9%, followed by the industrial sector at 35.4%. Agriculture represents 20.7%, of GDP (2004). Goiás exports: soybean 49.2%, meat of cattle 10.5%, gold 9.1%, other meat 7.5%, iron 7.4%, leather 4% (2002).


title: Goiás

text: Goiás is a leader in the country in crop raising. In 2016, Goiás had the 3rd largest cattle herd in Brazil: 22.6 million head of cattle. The number of pigs in Goiás was approximately 2.0 million head in 2015. The State had the 6th largest Brazilian herd, 5% of the national herd. Among the municipalities in Goiás that stood out, Rio Verde had the 3rd largest national population. In 2016, Goiás was the 4th largest milk producer, accounting for 10.1% of the country's milk production. The number of chickens in the State was 64.2 million head in 2015. The production of chicken eggs this year was 188 million dozens. Goiás was the 9th largest producer of eggs, 5% of national production.


title: Goiás

text: Agriculture as a total represented 21% of the GDP of the state. The state of Goiás stands out in the production of sugarcane, corn, soy, sorghum, beans, sunflower, tomato, garlic, in addition to also producing cotton, rice, coffee and wheat. In 2019, Goiás was the Brazilian state with the 4th highest grain production, 10% of the national production. Goiás is the 2nd largest producer of sugarcane in the country, 11.3% of national production, with 75.7 million tons harvested in the 2019–20 harvest. In the same year, it was the 4th largest producer of soy, with 12.46 million tons. It has the national leadership in the production of sorghum: it produced 44% of the Brazilian crop production in the 2019–2020 cycle, with a harvest of 1.09 million tons. In 2017, it was the 4th largest producer of maize in the country. The state is also the Brazilian leader in tomato production: in 2019 it produced over 1.2 million tons, a third of the country's total production. In 2019, Goiás became the leader of the Brazilian production of garlic. Goiás was the 4th largest producer of beans in Brazil in the 2017–18 harvest, with 374 thousand tons, and has about 10% of the country's production. The state is also in 3rd place in the national production of cotton, however, most of the national production is from Mato Grosso and Bahia - Goiás has only 2.3% of participation. In sunflower, in 2020 Goiás was the 2nd largest national producer, with 41.8%, losing only from Mato Grosso. In rice, Goiás is the 8th largest producer in Brazil, with 1% of national production.


title: Goiás

text: Minerals are also important with the state being a major producer of nickel, copper, gold, niobium and aluminum (bauxite). Goiás had 4.58% of the national mineral participation (3rd place in the country) in 2017. At nickel, Goiás and Pará are the only two producers in the country, Goiás being the 1st in production, having obtained 154 thousand tons at a value of R$1.4 billion. In copper, it was the 2nd largest producer in the country, with 242 thousand tons, at a value of R$1.4 billion. In gold, it was the 4th largest producer in the country, with 10.2 tons, at a value of R$823 million. In niobium (in the form of pyrochlorine), it was the 2nd largest producer in the country, with 27 thousand tons, at a value of R$312 million. In aluminum (bauxite), it was the 3rd largest producer in the country, with 766 thousand tons, at a value of R$51 million.


title: Goiás

text: In gemstones, Goiás is one of the emerald producing states in Brazil. Campos Verdes is considered the "Capital of the Emeralds". The state also has known production of tourmaline (Brazil is one of the biggest productors of this gem), and sapphire (in a scarce mode).


title: Goiás

text: The strongest growing area in the state has been in industry and commerce. Goiás had in 2017 an industrial GDP of R$37.1 billion, equivalent to 3.1% of the national industry. It employs 302,952 workers in the industry. The main industrial sectors are: Construction (25.6%), Food (25.2%), Industrial Public Utility Services, such as Electricity and Water (17.2%), Petroleum Products and Biofuels (7.4%) and Chemicals (3.7%). These 5 sectors concentrate 79.1% of the state's industry.


title: Goiás

text: Goiânia and Aparecida de Goiânia have become centers of food-processing industries, Anápolis of pharmaceutical factories. Rio Verde, in the southwest, is one of the fastest growing small cities with many new industries locating in the area and Catalão is a metal-mechanical and chemical center.


title: Goiás

text: In Brazil, the automotive sector represents close to 22% of industrial GDP. Goiás has Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Hyundai factories.


title: Goiás

text: In 2017, the state had a total road network of 96,642.1 km, including municipal, state and federal roads. As of December 2021, Goiás owned, in addition to municipal roads, 21,212.67 km of Goiás state roads and 2,094.3 km of federal roads. There are more than 13,000 km of paved roads and about 1,200 km are duplicated highways. The BR-060 has more than 520 km duplicated between Brasilia, Goiânia and Jataí. The BR-050 is almost entirely duplicated in the state, with more than 200 km of highways between Cristalina and the border with Minas Gerais. The BR-153 between Goiânia and the border with Minas Gerais is also duplicated, in addition to the highways that connect Goiânia with the BR-070. Duplication of highways in the state began in the 2000s and has been constantly evolving ever since. There is currently a project to duplicate the BR-153 between Anápolis and the border with Tocantins.


title: Goiás

text: Highways in the Brazilian Highway System include BR-020, BR-040, BR-050, BR-060, BR-070, BR-080, Rodovia Transbrasiliana (BR-153), BR-158, BR-251, BR-364, BR-414, BR-452; additionally, over 60 state highways run through the state.


title: Goiás

text: Modernization work will soon get under way at Santa Genoveva Airport in the northeast side of Goiânia. With nominal yearly capacity of 600,000 passengers, in 2004 it received 950,000. With its new terminal, it will be able to handle up to 2 million users a year. Air traffic in Goiás has several airports. An airbase has been built in Anápolis for supersonic aircraft of the Brazilian Air Force.


title: Goiás

text: There is only a waterway on the Paranaíba River, and its main port is São Simão, which forms part of the Hidrovia Tietê-Paraná.


title: Goiás

text: One of the most important railways in the state is the Ferrovia Norte-Sul (North-South Railway). On March 4, 2021, the section between São Simão (GO) and Estrela d'Oeste (SP) entered into operation. In São Simão, a terminal with a static capacity of 42,000 tons and the capacity to process 5.5 million tons of soybeans, corn and soybean meal per year was built. On May 29, 2021, the first railway composition loaded with soybeans departed from the multimodal terminal of Rio Verde (GO), bound for the Port of Santos. This trip marked the inauguration of the section between Rio Verde and São Simão (GO) with just over 200 km.


title: Goiás

text: It is a city located in the southeast of the state, where hot springs are located, being the largest hydrothermal resort in the world, with several resorts that use the waters of these thermal springs for therapeutic and leisure purposes. Some resorts in the city are inspired by the ancient Roman Baths.The Region attracts tourists from all over Brazil and the world.


title: Goiás

text: It is an ecological national park famous for the diversity of its landscape and the richness of its fauna and flora.


title: Goiás

text: An internationally famous World Heritage Site, the city is notable for its historical importance and colonial architecture.


title: Goiás

text: Pirenópolis is a city in the interior of the State of Goiás, known for its preserved colonial homes and steep stone streets.


title: Goiás

text: See City population of Goiás for table showing population from 1991 to 2005 in the 37 largest cities.


title: Goiás

text: The main sport in the state is football. The main football clubs are Goiás, Atlético Goianiense, Vila Nova, Anápolis, Itumbiara, Anapolina, CRAC and Goiânia. The main stadiums in Goiás are the Serra Dourada Stadium and the Pedro Ludovico Teixeira Olympic Stadium, which was chosen as one of the hosts of the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup.


title: Goiás

text: Volleyball is also widely practiced by the population of Goiás, occupying the 3rd place in preference, with futsal in second place. Rugby occupies the fourth place in the preference of Goiás. A place where volleyball and futsal are widely practiced is in the city of Anápolis, which has an international gymnasium capable of hosting official matches, the Newton de Faria International Gymnasium.


title: Goiás

text: Olympic medalists Dante in volleyball and Carlos Jayme in swimming were born in the state, as well as medalists in world championships, such as César Sebba in basketball and Diogo Villarinho in aquatic marathon.


title: Goiás

text: The green bars in the flag symbolize the spring and the yellow bars gold. The blue rectangle in the topleft corner symbolizes the sky, with the five stars forming the constellation of the Southern Cross. The flag was adopted on 30 July 1919. It is a toned down version of the original Republican flag of Brazil, in itself not original.


title: The Body Snatchers

text: The Body Snatchers is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Finney, originally serialized in "Collier's" magazine in November–December 1954 and published in book form the following year.


title: The Body Snatchers

text: The novel describes the town of Mill Valley, in California's Marin County, being invaded by seeds that have drifted to Earth from space. The seeds, grown from plantlike pods, replace sleeping people with perfect physical duplicates with all the same knowledge, memories, scars, etc. but are incapable of human emotion or feeling. The human victims disappear forever.


title: The Body Snatchers

text: The duplicates live only five years and cannot sexually reproduce; consequently, if unstopped, they will quickly turn Earth into a dead planet and move on to the next world. One of the duplicate invaders claims this is what humans do – use up resources, wipe out indigenous populations, and destroy ecosystems in the name of survival.


title: The Body Snatchers

text: The novel has been adapted for the screen four times; the first film, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" in 1956, the second in 1978, the third in 1993, and the fourth in 2007. It was also the basis of the 1998 movie "The Faculty" and the 2019 movie "Assimilate".


title: The Body Snatchers

text: Unlike the first three film adaptations, which elected for darker, far more dystopian narratives (particularly the 1978 version), the novel contains an optimistic ending, with the aliens voluntarily vacating after deciding that they cannot tolerate the type of resistance they see in the main characters and leaving behind a small population of duplicates who are all hunted and killed shortly after.


title: The Body Snatchers

text: Under Jack Finney's entry in "The Science Fiction Encyclopedia", John Clute remarks concerning the novel:


title: The Body Snatchers

text: "Galaxy" reviewer Groff Conklin faulted the original edition, declaring that "Too many s-f novels lack outstanding originality, but this one lacks it to an outstanding degree." "F&SF" reviewer Anthony Boucher found it to be "intensely readable and unpredictably ingenious" despite noticeable inconsistencies and its sometimes lack of scientific accuracy. "Astounding Science-Fiction" reviewer P. Schuyler Miller reported that, once Finney sets out his premise, the novel becomes "a straight chase yarn, with several nice gimmicks and a not entirely convincing denouement."


title: Jhatka

text: Jhatka, or Jhataka or chatka ("" ), is the meat from an animal killed instantly, such as by a single strike of a sword or axe to sever the head within the Sikh religion. This type of slaughter is preferred by most Rajput in Hinduism Sikhs as well as meat-consuming Buddhists, Hindus and some khatiks of the Punjab region and North India, also within this method of butchering the animal must not be scared or shaken before the slaughter.


title: Jhatka

text: Although not all Sikhs maintain the practice of eating meat butchered in this style, it is well known by most Sikhs to have been mandated by the ten Sikh Gurus:


title: Jhatka

text: As stated in the official Khalsa Code of Conduct as well as the Sikh Rehat Maryada, Kutha meat is forbidden, and Sikhs are recommended to eat the jhatka form of meat.


title: Jhatka

text: "Jhatka karna" or "jhatkaund" refers to the instant severing of the head of an animal with a single stroke of any weapon, with the underlying intention of killing the animal whilst causing it minimal suffering.


title: Jhatka

text: During the British Raj, the Sikhs began to assert their right to slaughter through Jhatka. When jhatka meat was not allowed in jails, and Sikhs detained for their part in the Akali movement to resort to violence and agitations to secure this right. Among the terms in the settlement between the Akalis and the Muslim Unionist government in Punjab in 1942 was that jhatka meat be continued by Sikhs.


title: Jhatka

text: On religious Sikh festivals, including Hola Mohalla and Vaisakhi, at the Hazur Sahib Nanded, and many other Sikh Gurdwaras, jhatka meat is offered as "mahaprasad" to all visitors in a Gurdwara. This practice is considered to be unacceptable by modern Sikh sects who believe only lacto-vegetarian langar is supposed to be served inside gurudwaras after the introduction of Colonial-era "Mahants" and "Udasis" into Sikh Gurdwaras.


title: Jhatka

text: Some Sikh organizations, such as the Akhand Kirtani Jatha, have their own codes of conduct regarding meat consumption. These organizations define kutha meat as any type of slaughtered meat, and eating meat of any type is forbidden aside from that which is slaughtered on religious festivals and individual "Akhand paht" three-day prayers.


title: Jhatka

text: Both methods use sharp knives. In the kosher and halal methods, Shechita and dhabihah respectively, the animal is slaughtered by one swift, uninterrupted cut severing the trachea, esophagus, carotid arteries, jugular veins, and vagus nerves, followed by a period where the blood of the animal is drained out. In the Jhatka method, a swift uninterrupted cut severs the head and the spine. In both Shechita and Dhabihah, a prayer to God is required at the start of the slaughtering process. In Shechita one prayer is sufficient for the slaughter of multiple animals, so long as there is no interruption between them; in Dhabihah a separate prayer is required before each animal is slaughtered.


title: Jhatka

text: Slaughter by means such as kosher and halal does not meet the requirements of "jhatka" and the products of it are referred to as "kutha" meat – abstention from which is one of the requirements for a Sikh to be an initiated Khalsa or sahajdhari according to the Rehat Maryada (Sikh code of conduct).


title: Jhatka

text: In Sikhism, there are three objections to non-"jhatka" or "kutha" products: the first being the belief that sacrificing an animal in the name of God is ritualism and something to be avoided; the second being the belief that killing an animal with a slow bleeding method is inhumane; and the third being historic opposition of the right of ruling Muslims to impose its practices on non-Muslims. However, "kutha" meat doesn't include just Halal or Kosher meat but any meat produced by slow bleeding or the perceived religious sacrifice of animals, including meat from animals slaughtered ritualistically in Hinduism, for instance.


title: Jhatka

text: In Ajmer (Rajasthan, India), there are many jhatka shops, with various bylaws requiring shops to display clearly that they sell jhatka meat.


title: Jhatka

text: In the past, there has been little availability of jhatka meat in the United Kingdom, so people have found themselves eating other types of meat, although jhatka has become more widely available.


title: Edna Purviance

text: Olga Edna Purviance (; October 21, 1895 – January 13, 1958) was an American actress of the silent film era. She was the leading lady in many of Charlie Chaplin's early films and in a span of eight years, she appeared in over 30 films with him.


title: Edna Purviance

text: Edna Purviance was born in October 21,1895, in Paradise Valley, Nevada, United States of America, to English immigrant Louisa Wright Davey and American vintner to the western mining camps Madison (Matt) Gates Purviance. When she was three, the family moved to Lovelock, Nevada, where they assumed ownership of a hotel. Her parents divorced in 1902, and her mother later married Robert Nurnberger, a German plumber. Growing up, Purviance was a talented pianist.


title: Edna Purviance

text: She left Lovelock in 1913 and moved in with her married sister Bessie while attending business college in San Francisco.


title: Edna Purviance

text: In 1915, Purviance was working as a secretary in San Francisco when actor and director Charlie Chaplin was working on his second film with Essanay Studios, working out of Niles, California, 28 miles southeast of San Francisco, in Southern Alameda County. He was looking for a leading lady for "A Night Out". One of his associates noticed Purviance at a Tate's Café in San Francisco and thought she should be cast in the role. Chaplin arranged a meeting with her, but he was concerned that she might be too serious for comedic roles. Purviance still won the role.


title: Edna Purviance

text: Chaplin and Purviance were romantically involved during the making of his Essanay, Mutual, and First National films of 1915 to 1917. The romance ended suddenly when Purviance read a newspaper report of Chaplin having married 16-year-old Mildred Harris.


title: Edna Purviance

text: Purviance appeared in 33 of Chaplin's productions, including the 1921 "The Kid". Her last credited appearance in a Chaplin film, "A Woman of Paris", was also her first leading role. The film was not a success and effectively ended Purviance's career. She appeared in two more films: "Sea Gulls", also known as "A Woman of the Sea" (which Chaplin never released) and "Éducation de Prince", a French film released in 1927.


title: Edna Purviance

text: For more than 30 years afterward, Edna Purviance lived quietly outside Hollywood. Purviance married John Squire, a Pan-American Airlines pilot, in 1938. They remained married until his death in 1945.


title: Edna Purviance

text: Chaplin kept Purviance on his payroll. She received a small monthly salary from Chaplin's film company until she got married, and the payments resumed after her husband's death. "How could I forget Edna?" Chaplin responded to an interviewer after her death. "She was with me when it all began."


title: Edna Purviance

text: On January 13, 1958, Edna Purviance died from throat cancer at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California. Edna was 62 years old. Her remains are interred at Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.


title: Edna Purviance

text: She was portrayed by Penelope Ann Miller in the film "Chaplin" (1992) and by Katie Maguire in the film "Madcap Mabel" (2010).


title: Edna Purviance

text: In the TV series "Peaky Blinders" (series three, episode four), the character Tatiana Petrovna played by Gaite Jansen is said to resemble her.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Syria's economic situation has been turbulent and their economy has deteriorated considerably since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, which erupted in March 2011.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Since Syria became independent in 1946, the economy has undergone widespread structural change. Although the presence of the Allied forces during World War II stimulated commerce by providing markets for agriculture, textiles, and other locally manufactured goods, Syria lacked both the infrastructure and the resources to promote economic prosperity. Agriculture controlled the country's economy and determined the pace of industrial expansion as large landowners channeled profits from agricultural exports into agroindustrial and related urban enterprises. Syria's predominantly rural population, working under land tenure and sharecropping arrangements, derived few benefits from the agriculturally induced economic growth of the 1950s. However, Syria's union with Egypt (1958–61) and the rise of the Baath Party as the major political force in the country in the 1960s, transformed Syria's economic orientation and development strategy.


title: Economy of Syria

text: By the mid-1960s, government-sponsored land reform and nationalization of major industries and foreign investments had confirmed the new socialist direction of Syria's economic policy. As the state assumed greater control over economic decision-making by adopting centralized planning and strictly regulating commercial transactions, Syria experienced a substantial loss of skilled workers, administrators, and their capital. Despite the political upheavals, which undermined the confidence of landowners, merchants, and industrialists, the state successfully implemented large-scale development projects to expand industry, agriculture, and infrastructure.


title: Economy of Syria

text: During the 1970s, Syria achieved high rates of economic growth. The dramatic rise of world oil prices from 1973 to 1974 led to increased production from domestic refineries. Moreover, higher prices for agricultural and oil exports, as well as the state's limited economic liberalization policy, encouraged growth. Also, Syria's economic boom was furthered by increased remittances from Syrians working in the oil-rich Arab states and higher levels of Arab and other foreign aid. By the end of the decade, the Syrian economy had shifted from its traditional agrarian base to an economy dominated by the service, industrial, and commercial sectors. Massive expenditures for development of irrigation, electricity, water, road building projects, and expansion of health services and education to rural areas contributed to prosperity. However, the economy remained dependent on foreign aid and grants to finance the growing deficits both in the budget and in trade. Syria, as a front-line state in the Arab-Israeli conflict, was also vulnerable to the vagaries of Middle East politics, relying on Arab aid transfers and Soviet assistance to support mounting defense expenditures.


title: Economy of Syria

text: By the mid-1980s, the country's economic climate had shifted from prosperity to austerity. Syria's economic boom collapsed as a result of the rapid fall of world oil prices, lower export revenues, drought affecting agricultural production, and falling worker remittances. Also, Arab aid levels decreased because of economic retrenchment in the oil-producing states and Syrian support for Iran in the Iran-Iraq War. Real per capita GDP fell 22% between 1982 and 1989. To restore the economy, the government sharply reduced spending, cut back imports, encouraged more private sector and foreign investment, and launched an anticorruption campaign against smugglers and black-market money changers. However, massive defense outlays continued to divert resources from productive investments.


title: Economy of Syria

text: By the late 1980s, spot shortages of basic commodities occurred frequently, and industry operated far below capacity because of routine power outages. Foreign exchange reserves plummeted, the trade deficit widened, and real gross domestic product growth fell as economic difficulties compounded. Although the government instituted limited reforms to respond to the burgeoning crisis, Syria's pressing economic problems required a radically restructured economic policy to improve future economic performance.


title: Economy of Syria

text: In 1990, the Assad government instituted a series of economic reforms, although the economy remained highly regulated. The Syrian economy experienced strong growth throughout the 1990s, and into the 2000s. Syria's per capita GDP was US$4,058 in 2010. There is no authoritative GDP data available after 2012, due to Syria's civil war.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Following his assumption of power in 2000, Bashar al-Assad sought to frame his leadership around modernizing and opening the economy. He emphasized, in particular, "the need to modernize the regulatory environment and the industrial base, activate and encourage the private sector, remove bureaucratic obstacles to investment, increase job opportunities, qualify cadres, improve education and expand information technology." While the government's neoliberal reforms indeed contributed to ramping up trade and invigorating the private sector, these were accompanied by rising inequality, declining public services, and increasingly overt forms of corruption, which ultimately helped fuel protests in 2011. In one example of this trend, the Syrian Agricultural Workers Union complained in February 2011 that state mismanagement and the lifting of input subsidies was exacerbating the impact of drought on Syria's agricultural sector.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Before the civil war, the two main pillars of the Syrian economy were agriculture and oil, which together accounted for about one-half of GDP. Agriculture, for instance, accounted for about 26% of GDP and employed 25% of the total labor force. However, poor climatic conditions and severe drought badly affected the agricultural sector, reducing its share in the economy to about 17% of 2008 GDP, down from 20.4% in 2007, according to preliminary data from the Central Bureau of Statistics. On the other hand, higher crude oil prices countered declining oil production and led to higher budgetary and export receipts.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, the Syrian economy has been hit by massive economic sanctions restricting trade with the Arab League, Australia, Canada, the European Union, (as well as the European countries of Albania, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, and Switzerland) Georgia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. Sanctions against Syria were further extended by the US Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act that came into force in June 2020.


title: Economy of Syria

text: The sanctions, destruction and dislocation associated with the Civil War have devastated Syria's economy. By the end of 2013, the UN estimated total economic damage from the Syrian Civil War at $143 billion. The total economic loss from the Syrian Civil War will reach $237 billion by the end of 2015, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, with the Syrian opposition's capture of Nasib border crossing costing the government a further $500–$700 million a year on top of this. In 2018, the World Bank estimated that about one-third of Syria's housing stock and one half of its health and education facilities have been destroyed by the conflict. According to the World Bank, a cumulative total of $226 billion in GDP was lost due to the conflict from 2011 to 2016.


title: Economy of Syria

text: The Syrian economy suffered from conflict-related hyperinflation. The Syrian annual inflation rate is one of the highest in the world. The national currency, the Syrian pound, tumbled in mid-2020 against the US dollar. The pound, which traded at LS 47 to the dollar before the 2011 uprising, plunged to over LS 3,000 to the dollar. Prices of basic goods have skyrocketed and some staples have disappeared from the market as merchants and the public struggled to keep up with the rising cost of living.


title: Economy of Syria

text: In 2022, Syria joined the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative, which could help the country rebuild its war-torn infrastructure and economy.


title: Economy of Syria

text: During the 1960s, along socialist lines, the government nationalized most major enterprises and adopted economic policies designed to address regional and class disparities. Economic reform has been incremental and gradual. In 2001, private banking in Syria has been legalized. In 2004, four private banks began operations. In August 2004, a committee was formed to supervise the establishment of a stock market. Beyond the financial sector, the Syrian Government has enacted major changes to rental and tax laws, and is reportedly considering similar changes to the commercial code and to other laws, which impact property rights.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Syria produced heavy-grade oil from fields inside in the northeast since the late 1960s. In the early 1980s, light-grade, low-sulphur oil was discovered near Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria. This discovery relieved Syria of the need to import light oil to mix with domestic heavy crude in refineries. As the war erupted in 2011, Syria's oil production had dropped to 353,000 bpd and then plunged to 24,000 bpd by 2018. Syria's oil reserves have been gradually depleted and reached an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil reserves in 2018.


title: Economy of Syria

text: In 1990, the government established an official parallel exchange rate to provide incentives for remittances and exports through official channels. This action improved the supply of basic commodities and contained inflation by removing risk premiums on smuggled commodities.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Foreign aid to Syria in 1997 totaled an estimated US$199 million. The World Bank reported that in July 2004, it had committed a total of US$661 million for 20 operations in Syria. One investment project remained active at that time.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Despite the mitigation of the severe drought that plagued the region in the late 1990s and the recovery of energy export revenues, Syria's economy faces serious challenges. With almost 60% of its population under the age of 20, unemployment higher than the current 9% is a real possibility unless sustained and strong economic growth takes off.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Commerce has always been important to the Syrian economy, which benefited from the country's strategic location along major east–west trade routes. Syrian cities boast both traditional industries such as weaving and dried-fruit packing and modern heavy industry. Given the policies adopted from the 1960s through the late 1980s, Syria refused to join the "global economy". In late 2001, however, Syria submitted a request to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to begin the accession process. Syria had been an original contracting party of the former General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade but withdrew in 1951 because of Israel's joining. Major elements of current Syrian trade rules would have to change in order to be consistent with the WTO. In March 2007, Syria signed an Association Agreement with the European Union that would encourage both sides to negotiate a free trade agreement before 2010.


title: Economy of Syria

text: The bulk of Syrian imports have been raw materials essential for industry, agriculture, equipment, and machinery. Major exports include crude oil, refined products, raw cotton, clothing, fruits, and cereal grains.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Over time, the government has increased the number of transactions to which the more favorable neighboring country exchange rate applies. The government also introduced a quasi-rate for non-commercial transactions in 2001 broadly in line with prevailing black market rates.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Given the poor development of its own capital markets and Syria's lack of access to international money and capital markets, monetary policy remains captive to the need to cover the fiscal deficit. Although in 2003 Syria lowered interest rates for the first time in 22 years and again in 2004, rates remain fixed by law.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Under Syrian President Bashar Assad, national debt in relation to GDP went from 152.09% in 2000 down to 30.02% in 2010. Before the civil war, Syria made progress in easing its heavy foreign debt burden through bilateral rescheduling deals with virtually all of its key creditors in Europe. In December 2004, Syria and Poland reached an agreement by which Syria would pay $27 million out of the total $261.7 million debt. In January 2005, Russia and Syria signed a deal that wrote off nearly 75% of Syria's debt to Russia, approximately $13 billion. The agreement left Syria with less than €3 billion (just over $3.6 billion) owed to Moscow. Half of it would be repaid over the next 10 years, while the rest would be paid into Russian accounts in Syrian banks and could be used for Russian investment projects in Syria and for buying Syrian products. This agreement was part of a weapons deal between Russia and Syria. And later that year Syria reached an agreement with Slovakia, and the Czech Republic to settle debt estimated at $1.6 billion. Again Syria was forgiven the bulk of its debt, in exchange for a one time payment of $150 million.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Agriculture is a high priority in Syria's economic development plans, as the government seeks to achieve food self-sufficiency, increase export earnings, and halt rural out-migration. Thanks to sustained capital investment, infrastructure development, subsidies of inputs, and price supports, before the civil war Syria went from a net importer of many agricultural products to an exporter of cotton, fruits, vegetables, and other foodstuffs. One of the prime reasons for this turnaround was the government's investment in huge irrigation systems in northern and northeastern Syria. The agriculture sector, as of 2009, employed about 17% of the labor force and generates about 21% of the gross domestic product, of which livestock accounted for 16% and fruit and grains for more than 40%.


title: Economy of Syria

text: In 2015, Syria's main exports included spice seeds ($83.2 million), apples and pears ($53.2 million).


title: Economy of Syria

text: Most land is privately owned, a crucial factor behind the sector's success. Of Syria's , about 28% of it is cultivated, and 21% of that total is irrigated. Most irrigated land is designated "strategic", meaning that it encounters significant state intervention in terms of pricing, subsidies, and marketing controls. "Strategic" products such as wheat, barley, and sugar beets, must be sold to state marketing boards at fixed prices, often above world prices in order to support farmers, but at a significant cost to the state budget. The most widely grown arable crop is wheat, but the most important cash crop is cotton; cotton was the largest single export before the development of the oil sector. Nevertheless, the total area planted with cotton has declined because of an increasing problem of water shortage coupled with old and inefficient irrigation techniques. The output of grains like wheat is often underutilized because of poor storage facilities.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Water and energy are among the most pervasive issues facing the agriculture sector. Another difficulty suffered by the agricultural sector is the government's decision to liberalize prices of fertilizers, which increased between 100% and 400%. Drought was an alarming problem in 2008; however, the drought situation slightly improved in 2009. Wheat and barley production about doubled in 2009 compared to 2008. In spite of that, the livelihoods of up to 1 million agricultural workers have been threatened. In response, the UN launched an emergency appeal for $20.2 million. Wheat has been one of the crops most affected, and for the first time in 2 decades Syria has moved from being a net exporter of wheat to a net importer. During the civil war which began in 2011, the Syrian government was forced to put out a tender for 100,000 metric tonnes of wheat, one of the few trade products not subject to economic sanctions.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Less than 2.7% of Syria's land area is forested, and only a portion of that is commercially useful. Limited forestry activity is centered in the higher elevations of the mountains just inland from the coast, where rainfall is more abundant.


title: Economy of Syria

text: As of 2022, captagon is Syria's most valuable export product and a key source of income for the Syrian regime. The total value of drug shipments sold by the Syrian regime in 2021 are approximately $5.7 billion.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Phosphates are the major minerals exploited in Syria. According to estimates Syria has around 1,700 million tons of phosphate reserves. Production dropped sharply in the early 1990s when world demand and prices fell, but output has since increased to more than 2.4 million tons. Syria produced about 1.9% of the world's phosphate rock output and was the world's ninth ranked producer of phosphate rock in 2009. Other major minerals produced in Syria include cement, gypsum, industrial sand (silica), marble, natural crude asphalt, nitrogen fertilizer, phosphate fertilizer, salt, steel, and volcanic tuff, which generally are not produced for export.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Syria is a relatively small oil producer, accounting for just 0.5% of global production in 2010. Although Syria is not a major oil exporter by Middle Eastern standards, oil is a major pillar of the economy. According to the International Monetary Fund, oil sales for 2010 were projected to generate $3.2 billion for the Syrian government and account for 25.1% of the state's revenue.


title: Economy of Syria

text: According to the 2009 Syria Report of the Oxford Business Group, the oil sector accounted for 23% of government revenues, 20% of exports and 22% of GDP in 2008. Syria exported roughly 150,000 bpd in 2008, and oil accounted for a majority of the country's export income.


title: Economy of Syria

text: In 2001 Syria reportedly produced 23.3 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity and consumed 21.6 billion kWh. As of January 2002, Syria's total installed electric generating capacity was 7.6 gigawatts (GW), with fuel oil and natural gas serving as the primary energy sources and 1.5 GW generated by hydroelectric power. A network totaling 45 GW linking the electric power grids of Syria, Egypt, and Jordan was completed in March 2001. Syria's electric supply capacity is an important national priority, and the government hopes to add 3,000 megawatts of power generating capacity by 2010 at a probable cost of US$2 billion, but progress has been slowed by a lack of investment capital. Power plants in Syria are undergoing intensive maintenance, and four new generating plants have been built. The power distribution network has serious problems, with transmission losses estimated as high as 25 percent of total generated capacity as a result of poor quality wires and transformer stations. A project for the expansion and upgrading of the power transmission network is scheduled for completion in 2005.


title: Economy of Syria

text: As of May 2009 it was reported that the Islamic Development Bank and the Syrian government signed an agreement stating that the bank would provide a €100 million loan for the expansion of Deir Ali power station in Syria.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Syria abandoned its plans to build a VVER-440 reactor after the Chernobyl accident. The plans for a nuclear program were revived at the beginning of the 2000s when Syria negotiated with Russia to build a nuclear facility that would include a nuclear power plant and a seawater atomic desalination plant.


title: Economy of Syria

text: The industrial sector, which includes mining, manufacturing, construction, and petroleum, accounted for 27.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 and employed about 16 percent of the labor force. The main industrial products are petroleum, textiles, food processing, beverages, tobacco, phosphate rock mining, cement, oil seeds crushing, and car assembly. Syria's manufacturing sector was largely state dominated until the 1990s, when economic reforms allowed greater local and foreign private-sector participation. Private participation remains constrained, however, by the lack of investment funds, input/output pricing limits, cumbersome customs and foreign exchange regulations, and poor marketing.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Because land prices are not controlled by the state, real estate is one of the few domestic avenues for investment with realistic and safe returns. Activity in the construction sector tends to mirror changes in the economy. Investment Law No. 10 of 1991, which opened the country to foreign investment in some areas, marked the beginning of a strong revival, with growth in real terms increasing over 2001 and 2002.


title: Economy of Syria

text: Services accounted for 60.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017 and employed 67% of the labor force, including government, in 2008. In May 2009, it was reported that Damascus office prices were skyrocketing.


title: Economy of Syria

text: The Central Bank of Syria began operations in 1959. It controls all foreign exchange and trade transactions and gives priority to lending to the public sector. The Central Bank has been subject to US sanctions since May 2004, which has accused the Bank of money laundering. These US sanctions may have increased the role of Lebanese and European banks because a ban on transactions between U.S. financial institutions and the Central Bank of Syria created an increase in demand for intermediary sources for US$ transfers. The United States, European Union, Arab league and Turkey all also imposed sanctions on the Central Bank because of the Civil War.


title: Economy of Syria

text: The six specialized state-owned banks – the Central Bank of Syria, Commercial Bank of Syria, Agricultural Co-Operative Bank, Industrial Bank, Popular Credit Bank, and Real Estate Bank – are major financial operators. They each extend funds to, and take deposits from, a particular sector. The Industrial Bank also is directed more toward the public sector, although it is under-capitalized. As a result, the private sector often is forced to bank abroad, a process that is more expensive and therefore a poor solution to industrial financing needs. Many business people travel abroad to deposit or borrow funds. It is estimated that Syrians have deposited US$6 billion in Lebanese banks.