title: Tanks in China

text: With these newly purchased tanks the Nationalists organized three tank battalions in 1936. The 1st Battalion in Shanghai had 32 Vickers Amphibious tanks and some Vickers 6-ton tanks, and the 2nd Battalion also in Shanghai had 20 Vickers 6-ton tanks, 4 Carden Loyd tankettes and carriers. The 3rd Battalion in Nanking had 10 Panzer I Ausf. A tanks, 20 CV-35 tankettes and some Sd.Kfz. 221 and 222 armoured cars. With these armored forces the Nationalists were now able to defeat the local threat of the Communist forces, but also had to face the forces of the Japanese army.


title: Tanks in China

text: At the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in July 1937, the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) had expanded to 1.7 million men. On paper, its order of battle contained 182 infantry divisions, 46 independent brigades, 9 cavalry divisions, 6 independent cavalry brigades, 4 artillery brigades, and 20 independent artillery regiments. Theoretically, a division had two brigades; each brigade having two regiments, an artillery battalion or regiment, an engineer, a quartermaster battalion, plus small supporting units such as signals, medical and transporting. The ten German-trained élite divisions had an average of 9,000-10,000 men. The other, lesser divisions had around 5,000 men with varying numbers of support units. Independent brigades could average 4,000 men, and temporary brigades 3,000.


title: Tanks in China

text: The NRA's 1st, 2nd and 3rd armoured battalions took part in the Second Battle of Shanghai and the Battle of Nanking and were completely destroyed by the Japanese forces, with many vehicles destroyed or abandoned and captured. The few Chinese tanks and tankettes weren't grouped in large numbers, charging into battle like an armoured fist. Instead, they were dispersed in small groups for infantry support. Chinese tankers would use a motley uniform depending on their vehicles' source, mostly a mixture of German and Italian uniform and gear. All wore simple one-piece linen coveralls, likely supplied by Italy. The crash helmets were either the German 1937 model or the Italian M35 helmet, made of fibre and covered in black leather.


title: Tanks in China

text: After the Germans left, in 1938, the Soviet Union started to support the Nationalists again. The National Revolutionary Army facing Japanese forces had only a small number of armoured vehicles and mechanised troops formed into the three armoured battalions to defend a large front. In August 1937, Chiang Kai-shek's government negotiated with the Soviet government for military aid. The Soviets stepped in and began to provide advisers and tanks arrived in China for the first time in March 1938. After the Chinese armoured force was mostly destroyed in the battles for Shanghai and Nanking, new tanks, armoured cars and trucks from the Soviet Union and Italy made it possible to create the only mechanized division in the army, the Soviet-advised and organized 200th Division, which consisted of one tank regiment and one motorised infantry regiment, and equipped with the T-26 light tank.


title: Tanks in China

text: The USSR sold 82 T-26 mod. 1933 tanks to China as the Soviets were wary of having Japan on its back door. These tanks were shipped to Guangzhou harbour in the spring of 1938.The 200th Division was a mechanized division consisting of four regiments, including a tank regiment equipped with the T-26s, an armoured car regiment, a mechanized infantry regiment, and an artillery regiment. Its first commander was General Du Yuming.


title: Tanks in China

text: The tank regiments had 70 T-26, 4 BT-5 tanks, and 20 ( 92? ) CV-35 tankettes. The armoured car regiment had around 50 BA armoured cars and 12 ( 18? ) Leichter Panzerspähwagen (Sd.Kfz. 221) armoured cars. The tank regiment consisted of four tank battalions. Each tank battalion had three tank companies. The tank regiments had approximately 200 armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs). The Nationalist government bought 88 T-26 tanks and BA-10 and BA-20 armoured cars. These AFVs and remaining German AFVs were deployed in the 200th Division and the division had its baptism of fire in late 1938 against the IJA 14th Division in the Battle of Lanfeng. In September 1938 the division's original mechanized units (armoured and artillery) were placed under direct command of the 5th Corps, and the division was reorganized as a motorized unit, with 9,000 men. Major-General Dai Anlan was appointed its new commander, General Du Yuming being promoted to command the 5th Corps.


title: Tanks in China

text: The 200th Division participated, as part of 5th Corps, in inflicting a major defeat upon the Japanese army's élite 5th Division at the Battle of Kunlun Pass. Despite losing more men, the 5th Corps managed to hold the Kunlun Pass, thus maintaining its supply lines with French Indochina. The division then suffered heavy losses in an offensive against Batang, losing nearly two-thirds of its strength, having to be rebuilt and reorganized. After signing the nonaggression pact with Germany and defeating the Kwangtung Army at Khalkin Gol, the Soviet Union started to withdraw its help from China.


title: Tanks in China

text: More than 600 of the T16 CTMS tanks were supposed to be delivered to China under Lend-Lease after Pearl Harbor, the logistical difficulty and its obsolete design compelled the Chinese to reject the offer. Later 233 U.S. M2A4 light tanks were acquired by the Nationalists along with some 48 M3A3, M5A1 Stuart tanks in Lend/Lease from the US in 1943, and 35 M4A4 Sherman tanks were acquired under the United States Military Assistance Program between 1943 and 1944.


title: Tanks in China

text: Upon the American entry into the war in 1941, it began to supply China with AFVs which the Soviets were unable to provide. M3 Stuarts and M4 Shermans trickled in through Burma and formed part of the several well-equipped, well-trained armies that the Nationalists could deploy. These units were responsible for stopping numerous Japanese attacks during the later phases of the war.


title: Tanks in China

text: The 200th Division also saw action in the Burma Theatre under Joseph Stilwell; it participated in the Battle of the Yunnan-Burma Road in 1942 in the Burma campaign. The 200th Division distinguished itself in fighting in the Battle of Toungoo, and Battle of Hopong - Taunggyi but then suffered a disastrous defeat in the Battle of Hsipaw-Mogok Highway near the end of the campaign as it was attempting to retreat to China. After World War II, the remaining Chinese T-26 tanks equipped the First Armoured Regiment of the Army of the Chinese Kuomintang government, which saw service in East China during the Chinese Civil War (1946–1950) where several T-26 tanks were destroyed or captured by the People's Liberation Army during the Huaihai Campaign in 1949.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Huaihai Campaign was a military action during 1948 and 1949 that was the determining battle of the Chinese Civil War. It was one of the few conventional battles of the war with both sides using tanks, many captured from the Japanese or American tanks remaining from World War II. This campaign was one of the three campaigns that marked the end of Nationalist dominance in northern China, the other two campaigns being Liaoshen and Pingjin. 550,000 troops of the Republic of China (under the Kuomintang) were surrounded in Xuzhou (Hsuchow) and destroyed by the communist People's Liberation Army (PLA). Gongchen was the designation of a Japanese-built Type 97 Chi-Ha tank which served as the first tank of the PLA.


title: Tanks in China

text: The loss of KMT government's best troops and majority of their American equipment meant that they could no longer effectively defend the Yangtze river delta from further Communist attacks. The American government under President Harry Truman completely lost faith in Chiang Kai Shek and the nationalist government, therefore refused to give any further military and financial aid to the nationalists, and hastened collapse of KMT regime on the mainland.


title: Tanks in China

text: After Tianjin had been captured by the Communists, the Nationalist defenders in Beiping were in a hopeless situation, and the collapse of KMT regime on the mainland to the People's Liberation Army came about. On January 31, the People's Liberation Army entered Beiping to take over. The Pingjin Campaign was over. Beiping, soon to be the capital of the new People's Republic of China, was renamed Beijing.


title: Tanks in China

text: In the early 1950s, the Soviet Union gave China 1,837 T-34-85 tanks, along with some surplus Lend-Lease tanks from World War II. The T-34-85 tank also served with the North Koreans and Chinese during the Korean War. The 1954 Operations Research Office report of "Tank v Tank Combat in Korea" said there were 119 definite to possible tank v tank encounters in the Korean War, with US tanks knocked out by T-34s (includes categories of abandoned but repairable) was 38. The Chinese claimed that their T-34s destroyed a number of US tanks late in the war, as by this time most North Korean T-34s, estimated at a little over 400, had been destroyed or captured by November 1950.


title: Tanks in China

text: After the signing of Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance, the Soviets agreed to assist China in building a tank manufacturing facility to manufacture the T-54A MBT in 1956. Initially, the tanks were assembled with Soviet-supplied parts, which were gradually replaced by Chinese-made components. The tank was accepted into service by the PLA in 1959, and given the designation Type 59.The Type 59 MBT represented China's first-generation tank development. The Type 59 MBT is also known as WZ-120 by its manufacturer name. It was produced in great numbers from 1959 to the mid-1980s, totaling over 10,000. Over the years, it was upgraded with various domestic and western technologies.


title: Tanks in China

text: When the Type 59 main battle tank was being developed it became apparent that because of the high weight of the tank it would have difficulties operating in areas of southern China. These areas mostly consist of mountain ranges, hills, rice paddy fields, lakes and multiple rivers which many times are without a bridge or with bridges that could not withstand the weight of Type 59 main battle tank. Therefore, in the late 1950s the PLA Ground Force submitted requirements for a light tank that could be successfully deployed in the areas of southern China. The development of the Type 62 light tank began with 674 Factory (Harbin First Machinery Building Group Ltd) in 1958. The building of the first Type 62 light tank prototype, Type 59-16, began in 1960 and ended in 1962. The tank officially entered production and service with the PLA in 1963. After an unsuccessful attempt at fitting the Type 62 light tank with the turret from the Type 63A amphibious light tank a new turret was designed and fitted on the Type 62. This new variant was designated Type 62G.


title: Tanks in China

text: During the 1969 Sino-Soviet border conflict, China's 617 Factory (now Inner-Mongolia First Machinery Group Company Ltd.) was tasked with improving the Type 59 design. 617 Factory studied a captured Soviet T-62. tank and some of its components, such as the Luna IR searchlight system, a dual-axis stabilized 100 mm smoothbore gun, and a new 580 hp engine were copied and integrated into the Type 69 design. The Type 69 and Type 79 tanks became the first independently Chinese-developed main battle tank. However, the Type 69 was not formally accepted into PLA service until 1982, and then only in limited quantities. The PLA was unsatisfied with the Type 69's performance, but it became one of China's best armored vehicle exports. Over 2,000 were sold worldwide in the 1980s. Some western analysts incorrectly identified the Type 69 as a Chinese copy of the Soviet T-55, opposed to the Type 59 being a copy of the T-54A.


title: Tanks in China

text: The simplicity, robustness and low cost of the tanks made them attractive on the export market, and China sold hundreds to both sides during the Iran–Iraq War. Many of the vehicles were later used by Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq War. Both the Type 69 and Type 79 tanks share almost identical hulls and turrets with the older Type 59. The only difference is that the two more recent tank models have been upgraded with better technologies that were either captured or bought from other countries.


title: Tanks in China

text: By the 1970s, over 1.5 million troops from both sides were stationed along the Sino-Soviet border. At the time the best Chinese tanks were hopelessly out-matched by newer Soviet designs like the T-62, T-64, and T-72.


title: Tanks in China

text: Relations between China and the West warmed in the 1980s, and China was able to import some western technologies to improve its weapon systems. The Type 69 was upgraded with western systems such as the British Marconi FCS, and the L7 105 mm gun. The new version received the designation Type 79, which represented the last in China's first-generation tank development. As a result, new tank development was commenced and a new family of tanks that included many sub-families was the result.


title: Tanks in China

text: In the late 1970s, China's 617 Factory (main contractor), 616 Factory, 477 Factory, and 201 Institute (now China North Vehicle Research Institute) were ordered to develop China's new second-generation tank. The project benefited from imported Western Technologies in the 1980s. The first Type 80 MBT was based on the older Type 79 MBT hull, but equipped with new Chinese-made wheels/tracks, German-designed 730 hp diesel engine, British-designed dual-axis stabilized fire-control with laser range-finder, and NATO-standard 105 mm gun licensed from Austria. The improved version of this tank later entered service in 1988 under the PLA designation of Type 88. The Type 88 tank is unique in that unlike the rest series of Chinese tanks, this series actually includes versions from different families of earlier tanks. Production of the Type 88-series MBTs was stopped in 1995. The Type 89 tank destroyer was a Chinese armored vehicle that entered service in 1988. Armed with a 120 millimeter smoothbore gun, it was intended to combat newer generations of Western and Russian main battle tanks that were equipped with composite armor and 120 and 125 millimeter caliber guns. Despite a successful development process, with the end of the Cold War it became apparent that the weapon was no longer needed. Production was halted with around 100 examples built.


title: Tanks in China

text: China's North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco), unveiled their own version, the Type 85 MBT in 1988. The PLA did not initially accept the Type 85 MBT, and it was further developed for export to Pakistan (Type 85-IIAP and Type 85-IIM.) This was drastically changed later on when China obtained Soviet T-72 samples in the late 1980s (reportedly from Iran with captured Iraqi samples.) South Africa had discovered along with the Chinese that not only could the western origin 105 mm guns of the Type 80 tank defeat the armor of a T-72 tank, but that the main gun of T-72 could also easily defeat the armor of not only the Type 80 but all armor of Chinese tanks as well. Improvement of the current tanks in PLA inventory was needed and this was later further illustrated during the 1991 Gulf War, when the PLA observed that their current (1991-era) tanks they exported were vastly inferior to Western MBTs. Priorities were given to develop a third-generation tank, and as well as improving the existing second-generation design. As a result, the Type 85 tank was a direct development of the Type 80.


title: Tanks in China

text: After further improvements, including incorporating expertise gained from the Type 85-IIM such, this version was accepted by the PLA in 1996, and entered service in 1997 as the Type 96. Production of the Type 88 stopped when the Type 96 became available, and the Type 96 was mass-produced in larger numbers than the Type 88, though sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Type 88C.


title: Tanks in China

text: In comparison to the Type 85 and Type 88, the Type 96 features improved electronics and a western-style turret. Recent photos suggest the Type 96 was heavily modified with add-on armor modules and explosive reactive armor, similar to the Type 99's. Its internal electronics may also have been upgraded to Type 99 standard.


title: Tanks in China

text: In 1995, NORINCO developed the Type 85-III prototype with a 1,000-hp diesel engine and explosive reactive armor (ERA), features a more powerful engine, after finally solving the engine problem.


title: Tanks in China

text: After the designation of the Type 80 as the PRC's second-generation tank in 1981, groups emerged within the Chinese military who argued that a third, more advanced tank generation was still needed. Out of these, two main camps emerged. One group argued for a design based on the Soviet T-72, with 3 crewmembers and a 125mm autoloader cannon. The other favored an Israeli Merkava-styled design with a power pack closer to the front of the tank, a 120mm semi-automatic-loading cannon, and a high output diesel or gas turbine engine. The project was delayed for some years because of the division. Finally, in July 1984, the Army settled on the T-72-based design. In the summer of 1986, the plan was submitted to China's State Council and Central Military Commission. It was approved in the same year, and incorporated into the Major Weapons Development program of China's Seventh Five-Year Plan.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Chinese government made a decision to modernize their tank force by incorporating advanced features into their next-generation MBT, as their older tanks were becoming ineffective. The resulting tank had a hull (chassis) similar to the T-72 or T-80 while having a welded turret like most Western tanks. The aim was to create a tank that could defeat the Soviet T-80 and approach the capabilities of the German Leopard 2.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 90 was the first Chinese tank to incorporate the modular design concept for its armor. The next redesign was known as a Type 90-I as the export model for the next generation main battle tank for Pakistan, with a British Perkins Shrewsbury CV12-1200 TCA diesel engine (used in the Challenger 2 tank), and the French SESM ESM 500 automatic transmission (used in the Leclerc). However, the project was abandoned due to the arms embargo following the 1998 Pakistani nuclear tests.


title: Tanks in China

text: In order to avoid the problem of embargo and reliance on foreign industry, the power plant of the Type 90-I was replaced by the domestic Chinese equivalent and named Type 90-II. However, the result was disappointing, its reliability did not meet the standard in northern China's arid conditions and Pakistan's harsh desert climate.


title: Tanks in China

text: To overcome the shortcomings of the power-plant in these earlier Type 90 versions, a Ukrainian 6TD diesel was chosen. The final tank design of the Type 90-II was designated "Type 90-IIM". Chinese company Norinco showed the new Type 90-IIM during the March 2001 Abu Dhabi Defense Expo, under the export name "MBT 2000". The version powered by the Ukrainian engine, intended for domestic production in Pakistan, was named "Al-Khalid". The selection was impressive enough that Pakistan decided to adopt this version as its Al-Khalid main battle tank, and 600 tanks were scheduled to be produced in Pakistan by 2007 based on the MBT-2000 which is the upgraded variant of the Type 90-IIM.


title: Tanks in China

text: In the Spring of 1989, Norinco signed a contract with the Chinese government to manufacture the Type 99. At the beginning of the following year, its Factory 617 produced the first Type 99 prototype. In 1993, the front armor plating on the Type 99 was increased from 600mm to 700mm to meet government specifications. In August 1994, two prototypes produced by Norinco underwent climate durability tests in southern China. During the tests, the prototypes were driven 3800 kilometers and 200 rounds were fired. In September 1994, reliability and fording tests were carried out in the Tuoli and Huiahuling regions outside of Beijing. Additionally, from 1995 to 1996, three prototypes underwent arctic climate tests in Tahe County, Heilongjiang.


title: Tanks in China

text: On March 12, 1996, the Type 99 project formally moved into the final stage of development. In May 1996, Norinco's Factory 617 started the assembly of a finalized prototype. At the end of December 1996, two finalized prototypes were again transported to Tahe for further arctic testing. Within the two-month testing period, the prototypes were driven a total of 6,900 kilometers and 20 government testing programs were completed. At the end of 1997, four finalized prototypes underwent additional testing, traveling a collective 20,000 kilometers and test firing 760 rounds. Finally, at the end of 1999, following over five years of extensive government testing, the design of the T-98(Chinese industrial designation: 9910), as it was then known, was fully completed. Its firepower, control systems, armor and electronics were deemed by the Army to have met or exceeded the project's original goals. Small-scale production of the T-98 was begun in time for the tank to be featured in the PRC's National Day parade in 1999.


title: Tanks in China

text: Following the completion of the T-98, research into improved versions of the tank continued within the Chinese government. These programs produced the Type 99, a refined iteration of the T-98 with a better reliability record. At the end of 2001, the first batch of 40 Type 99 tanks entered service with the regular Army. The T-98 eventually gave way to what is now known as the Type 99, which was officially revealed by the government in 2001. The final version of the Type 99 included a 1,500 horsepower engine, as opposed to its immediate predecessor's 1,200 horsepower powertrain. Also added were a Leopard 2A5-style sloped-arrow armor plate on the front of the turret, and additional composite armor layers on the sides.


title: Tanks in China

text: The People's Republic of China has, since its inception, designed and built its own weapons. Many of these designs were of foreign (primarily Soviet) influence, but China is increasingly developing its own indigenous solutions.


title: Tanks in China

text: From an organizational point of view, China's tank development can be divided into three generations. The first generation is a version of the Soviet T-54A and its derivatives, produced in China as the Type 59 and Type 69/79. The second-generation main battle tank started with the Type 80, which further branched into the Type 88 and Type 96, developed in parallel by different institutes but all funded by China North Industries Corporation (NORINCO). The Third-generation started with the developmental Type 99 prototypes, heavily modified to yield the latest Type 99 tank.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 59 (Chinese industrial designation: "WZ120") main battle tank is a Chinese produced version of the Soviet T-54A tank, an improvement over the ubiquitous T-54/55. The Type 59 was the first Chinese tank ever built.


title: Tanks in China

text: The first vehicles were produced in 1958 and it was accepted into service in 1959, with serial production beginning in 1963. Approximately 9,500 of the tanks were produced by the time production ended in 1980 with approximately 5,500 serving with the Chinese armed forces. The tank formed the backbone of the Chinese People's Liberation Army into the 21st century, with an estimated 5,000 of the later Type 59-I and Type 59-II variants in service in 2002.


title: Tanks in China

text: Essentially the Type 59 is identical to the early production Soviet T-54As, however, there are some key differences. The Type 59 was not originally fitted with either the infrared searchlight or main gun stabilization that the T-54 had.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 59 has a conventional post-war layout with the fighting compartment at the front, an engine compartment at the rear, and a cast dome-shaped gun turret in the centre of the hull. The hull is welded steel varying in thickness between 99 millimeters on the front lower glacis to 20 millimeters on the hull floor. The turret is between 100 and 39 millimeters thick.


title: Tanks in China

text: The driver sits in the front left of the hull, and is provided with hatch immediately above his seat, which opens to the left. the driver has two pop-up vision blocks which give coverage ahead and slightly to the right when buttoned up. The commander sits in the turret along with the gunner and loader. The commander's hatch is on the turret left, with the gunner sitting forward and below him. The loader sits on the right of the turret and has a hatch above him. The turret has a non-rotating floor, which complicated the crew's operations.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 59 was modified several times during its service with the replacement of the 100 mm Type 59 rifled gun with a 105 mm rifled gun. It was also the basis of several later Chinese tank designs including the Type 69 and Type 79 tanks.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Norinco Type 62 is a Chinese light tank developed in the early 1960s and is based on the Type 59 with a reduced main gun caliber, lighter armour and a smaller suite of electronics and other equipment to help reduce weight. It had been upgraded to modern standards to provide the PLA with a dedicated light tank. It is also known under its industrial designation, "WZ132". The building of the first Type 62 light tank prototype, Type 59–16, began in 1960 and ended in 1962. The tank officially entered production and service with the PLA in 1963. Based on the experience gathered during the Sino-Vietnamese War an update for Type 62 was designed. It consisted of 33 different improvements and was designated Type 62-I.


title: Tanks in China

text: After an unsuccessful attempt at fitting the Type 62 light tank with the turret from the Type 63A amphibious light tank a new turret was designed and fitted on the Type 62. This new variant was designated Type 62G.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Norinco Type 63 is a Chinese amphibious light tank developed in the early 1960s and first fielded in 1963, it was a developed from experience with the earlier Soviet PT-76 which had been produced in China. The Chinese obtained a few PT-76 amphibious light tanks in the mid-1950s. In October 1958, the PLA decided to develop an indigenous amphibious tank based on the PT-76 design. A prototype known as WZ221 (Type 60) was built and tested in 1959, but the design suffered from a number of problems which led to the development of an improved version. It was jointly developed by Military Engineering Institute (MEI) and the No. 60 Research Institute of Fifth Ministry of Machine Building. The prototype was completed in 1962 and after it later passed the extensive trials (mostly dealing with crossing river, lake and sea water obstacles), the amphibious light tank was finally approved for design finalization in April 1963, and was officially designated Type 63. The Type 63 has a typical tank layout: steering compartment at the front, fighting compartment in the center and the engine compartment in the back. Although it is externally similar to PT-76 it has some essential differences from its Soviet equivalent. Instead of a three-man crew on the PT-76, the Type 63 has a four-man crew for better efficiency. The Type 63A (also known as ZTS63A) is upgraded version of the Type 63 amphibious light tank, designed for river-crossing operations at inland rivers and lakes.


title: Tanks in China

text: One Soviet T-62 tank was disabled and captured by the People's Liberation Army during the 1969 Battle of Zhenbao Island. The T-62 (No. 545) was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired from the Type-56 (Chinese copy of RPG-2) RPG launcher on the morning of 15 March 1969 during a PLA counterattack. On 16 March 1969, the Soviets entered the island to collect their dead. The Chinese held their fire. On 17 March 1969, the Soviets tried to recover the disabled T-62 from the island, but their effort was repelled by Chinese artillery. On 21 March, the Soviets sent a demolition team attempting to destroy the tank. The Chinese opened fire and thwarted the Soviets. The tank was later sunk in the frozen Ussuri (Wusuli) River to avoid being captured and studied by the Chinese Army. On April, with the help of divers of the Chinese navy, the PLA pulled the T-62 tank onshore. The tank was later given to the Chinese Military Museum. This tank was later studied and the information gathered from those studies was used for the development of the Type 69 main battle tank.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 69 (Chinese industrial designation: "WZ121") and Type 79 (Chinese industrial designation: "WZ-121D") are two models of Chinese main battle tanks. Both developments of the Type 59 (based on the Soviet T-54A), they were the first independently developed main battle tanks by China. Their lineage can be seen through the distinct gap between the first and second roadwheels. Other improvements included was equipped with a 100 mm smoothbore gun, a new engine, ballistic computers, and laser rangefinders. However, the early version of the Type 69 were only used in limited quantities. The PLA was unsatisfied, but it became one of China's most successful armored vehicle exports.


title: Tanks in China

text: Relations between China and the West warmed in the 1980s, and China was able to import some Western technologies to improve its weapon systems. The more advanced Type 79 was equipped with a 105 mm rifled gun, also seen on the later Type 80/88 tank. The Type 79 design tank entered service with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in the 1980s. The tank was followed by the Type 88.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 80 is a series of second-generation main battle tanks (MBTs) from China. The first Type 80 MBT was based on the older Type 79 MBT hull, but equipped with new Chinese-made wheels/tracks, 730 hp diesel engine, British-designed dual-axis stabilized fire-control with laser range-finder, and NATO-standard 105 mm gun licensed from Austria. The improved version of this tank later entered service in 1988 under the PLA designation of Type 88. The Type 88 tank is unique in that unlike the rest series of Chinese tanks, this series actually includes versions from different families of earlier tanks. Production of Type 88-series MBTs was stopped in 1995.


title: Tanks in China

text: China's North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco), most likely in association with 201 Institute (now China North Vehicle Research Institute), unveiled their own version, the Type 85 MBT in 1988. The PLA did not initially accept the Type 85 MBT, The Type 85 series were prototypes for export, and it was further developed for export to Pakistan (Type 85-IIAP and Type 85-III.) This was drastically changed later on when China obtained Soviet T-72 samples in the late 1980s (reportedly from Iran with captured Iraqi samples.) South Africa had discovered along with the Chinese that not only could the western origin 105 mm guns of Type 80 not defeat the armor of a T-72 tank but that the main gun of T-72 could also easily defeat the armor of not only the Type 80 but all armor of Chinese tanks as well. Production of Type 88-series MBTs was stopped in 1995. The Type 88/85 tanks was further developed into the Type 96.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 90 MBT was further developed, incorporating advanced features into their next-generation MBT, but besides a few test vehicles for evaluation, this tank was not adopted by the People's Liberation Army, instead, the tank became the export model for Pakistan which developed the MBT-2000 ("Al-Khalid") tank based on the Type 90. In the 1970s, the leadership of China's People's Liberation Army was concerned about the Soviet threat and requested an improved main battle tank (MBT). Norinco and the Inner Mongolia First Machine Group Corporation were tasked to develop a series of new tanks.


title: Tanks in China

text: After examining samples of T-72 tanks delivered by Iran in the late 1980s (captured from the Iraqi Army), the Chinese military realized contemporary Chinese tanks were still vulnerable. Design features of the T-72 and some western tanks were used to develop a second generation of Chinese tanks, eventually incorporating a redesigned hull and suspension, a new welded turret and 125 mm autoloaded tank gun. The Type 80 and Type 85 tanks led to the Type 90. The Type 90 was rejected for Chinese service in favour of other designs, but it influenced further development which would lead to China's third-generation Type 99 tanks.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 90 is an evolutionary design: the Type 90-II version shares 10% of its components with the Type 59, 15% with Type 69, 20% with Type 85/88C, and is built with 55% new components. This model was put up for sale on the international market.


title: Tanks in China

text: This tank was jointly developed by Beijing 201 Institute (China North Vehicle Research Institute) and Inner Mongolia 617 Factory (Inner Mongolia First Machine Group Corporation). The Type 90 is the first Chinese tank to incorporate the modular design concept for its armor. The frontal arc of the turret is a modular design so that when more advanced composite armor is developed, it can readily replace older composite armor.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 96 features a more powerful engine, improved electronics and a western-style turret. The Type 96 was developed from a Type 85-IIM prototype with a 780-hp diesel engine and explosive reactive armor (ERA), and expertise gained form the Type 85 such as the modular armor design, this version was accepted by the PLA in 1996, and entered service in 1997. Production of the Type 88 stopped when the Type 96 became available, and the Type 96 was mass-produced in larger numbers than the Type 88, though sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Type 88C.


title: Tanks in China

text: Recent photos suggest the Type 96 was heavily modified with add-on armor modules and explosive reactive armor, similar to the Type 99s. Its internal electronics may also have been upgraded to Type 99 standard. In turn, this new upgrade is referred to as Type 96A.


title: Tanks in China

text: In comparison to the Type 85 and Type 88, the Type 96 features a more powerful engine, improved electronics and a western-style turret. The Type 96 was heavily modified with add-on armor modules and explosive reactive armor in 2005, similar to the Type 99's. Its internal electronics may also have been upgraded to Type 99 standard. Similarly to the Soviet Union's two-tank strategy with the basic T-72 and higher-technology T-64 and T-80, the Type 96 is likely to become the standardized main battle tank in service with the PLA throughout the decade, while the more advanced and expensive Type 99 is reserved for its elite units.


title: Tanks in China

text: The 9910 tank (Type 99 prototype) had a hull (chassis) similar to the T-72 or T-80 while having a welded turret like most Western tanks. The aim was to create a tank that could defeat the Soviet T-80 and approach the capabilities of the German Leopard 2. Small-scale production of the 9910 tank was begun in time for the tank to be featured in the PRC's National Day parade in 1999. Following the completion of the 9910 tank, research into improved versions of the tank continued within the Chinese government, eventually gave rise to next Chinese design, These programs produced the Type 99. At the end of 2001, the first batch of 40 Type 99 tanks entered service with the regular Army.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 99, also known as ZTZ-99 and WZ-123, developed from the 9910 tank (in turn, a development of the Type 98), is a third generation main battle tank (MBT) fielded by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. It is made to compete with other modern tanks. Although not expected to be acquired in large numbers due to its high cost compared to the more economical Type 96, it is currently the most advanced MBT fielded by China. The website ArmyTechnology.com considers the ZTZ99 MBT to be one of the 12 best tanks in the world, and is a successor to the Type 88 tank manufactured for the People's Liberation Army (P).Three main versions of the Type 99 have been deployed, the Type 99 prototype, Type 99, and Type 99A, incorporating improved weapon system, new active protection system, and advanced electronics.


title: Tanks in China

text: The Type 15 is a lightweight main battle tank manufactured by NORINCO. The Type 15 tank's model first appeared in the exhibition Great Change: A Large Exhibition Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Reform and Opening-up which was held at the National Museum of China during November 13, 2018 and March 20, 2019.


title: Chris Ellis (actor)

text: Ellis was born in Dallas, Texas. He grew up in Frayser, a suburb of Memphis, in a middle class/working class area. He always wanted to be an actor because of what he saw on television.


title: Chris Ellis (actor)

text: It took him seven years to finish college however, because "I have always been shiftless". During those years Chris became involved in community theatre in Memphis, Tennessee, where "I did and do still think the quality of the work has always been quite good". By the time he moved to New York, he had worked with many excellent actors in about two dozen plays, classical and contemporary. "I cannot imagine what might have supplanted that background for a newcomer in New York."


title: Chris Ellis (actor)

text: His first part in either television or film came in 1979, where he played a truck driver in the television movie "The Suicide's Wife", which starred Angie Dickinson. The role resulted in little further work. After working in regional theater for a year or so, Ellis did not work for about ten years. During that time he lived in "bone-grinding poverty" in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. In one nine-month period of 1987, Ellis accepted 102 dinner invitations. "I don't know why they kept arriving, nor why I counted them, though I do know why I accepted them."


title: Chris Ellis (actor)

text: In 1990, a break came when he got a part in "Days of Thunder". This seemed to jump-start Ellis's career as parts in "My Cousin Vinny", "Addams Family Values" and "Apollo 13" as former NASA Mercury Seven astronaut Deke Slayton. He began picking up credits on well-known television series including "Melrose Place", "NYPD Blue" and "The X-Files".


title: Chris Ellis (actor)

text: After working with Hanks on "Apollo 13", the two worked together on "That Thing You Do", the television miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" and "Catch Me If You Can". Ellis played fictional NASA Mission Control when he played a flight director in 1998's "Armageddon".


title: Chris Ellis (actor)

text: Additional Ellis appearances include "Bean: The Movie", "Home Fries", "Jessabelle", "Gospel Hill", "October Sky", "Live Free or Die Hard", Tim Burton's "Planet of the Apes" and "Transformers". His television credits also include "The West Wing", "Ghost Whisperer", "Chicago Hope", "The Pretender", "Alias", "JAG", "", "Burn Notice", "Cold Case", "Veronica Mars" and "Political Animals".


title: Chris Ellis (actor)

text: He appeared in three season one episodes of "Millennium" as group member Jim Panseayres. He established a reputation for portraying Southern lawmakers or serious military or police-type characters. He played a priest in "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012).


title: Chris Ellis (actor)

text: He appeared in "Criminal Minds" as Sheriff Jimmy Rhodes. He had two guest appearances in "NCIS" as Gunnery Sergeant John Deluca. Ellis's appearance in the season 1 episode "The Curse" was uncredited while his second and final appearance in the season 2 episode "The Bone Yard" was credited.


title: Voiceless bilabial fricative

text: The voiceless bilabial fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is .


title: National Football League team captains

text: In the National Football League, the team captain designation is a team-appointed position that designates certain players as leaders on and off the field. The captains program was implemented by the NFL Player Advisory Council established by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in conjunction with the NFL Players Association. Starting in , the league began permitting teams to name up to six players as captains.


title: National Football League team captains

text: NFL rule 18 details the guidelines for team captains. Within Rule 18, there are four articles that pertain to:


title: National Football League team captains

text: Coin toss procedures – Each team can send as many as six team captains to the center of the field. On each team, one captain is designated the "speaking captain" of the delegation. The visiting team or the team designated "visitor" by the referee (if no team is declared 'visitor') shall choose "heads or tails" or in the case of a special ceremony coin, the options on the face and rear of that coin.


title: National Football League team captains

text: After the winning captain makes their choice, the opposing team captain chooses from the remaining two options.


title: National Football League team captains

text: Choice on penalty option(s) – The offended team captain has a choice of accepting a penalty enforcement or declining, except where said penalty is automatically "enforced by rule". In some circumstances, a team captain may elect to "decline" the penalty. This typically happens in a situation in which declining the penalty may mean that the next down should occur (3rd or 4th). A good example would be on an "offensive holding" enforcement, the defensive team might elect a "4th down and 5 yards to gain" v. a "3rd down and 15 yards to gain."


title: National Football League team captains

text: Players who have been named a team captain typically wear a "C" patch on their jerseys. There is a standard design used by all teams participating in the captaincy program. The patches are in team colors and are worn on the front left or right breast (depending on other patches, etc. worn by the specific team). The number of gold stars on the patch represents the number of years that player has been named captain by a team. If he has been named captain for longer than four years, the "C" on the patch is gold. On some teams' color rush jerseys, plus the Cincinnati Bengals' white uniforms, the stars (and "C", for captains with over four years of service) use team colors.


title: National Football League team captains

text: During special recognitions, the patch may be a different color such as pink for breast cancer awareness or camouflage for military service recognition. In 2018, NFL began an partnership with the American Cancer Society using a multi-color captain patch.


title: National Football League team captains

text: Some teams (e.g. Pittsburgh and New England) do not use the patch on their jerseys but still designate captains.The decision to wear or not wear patches can come from the coach or a team vote. Pittsburgh and New England have never used the patch during the respective lengthy tenures of their head coaches Mike Tomlin and Bill Belichick, although they have named permanent captains. To date, these two teams and the Ravens have never worn the patch.


title: National Football League team captains

text: Other teams who do not use the patch designate captains weekly. John Harbaugh has followed this practice since becoming head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. In the case of the Green Bay Packers, the team named weekly captains during the regular season, but would switch to assigning captains (who wore patches) whenever they qualified for the playoffs.The Kansas City Chiefs followed the same practice in the 2019 regular season and postseason, naming six captains in advance of their divisional round game versus Houston. With the hiring of head coach Matt LaFleur in 2019, the Packers began assigning three weekly captains alongside three permanent captains.


title: National Football League team captains

text: By and large, teams do not adorn the jerseys of weekly captains with patches. However, in 2019 the Carolina Panthers voted Gerald McCoy as a captain for their Week 2 matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and affixed a patch to his jersey. He continued wearing the patch as the season continued in light of an injury to Kawann Short. Similarly, London native Efe Obada was voted a team captain for the Panthers' game there in 2019.


title: National Football League team captains

text: In 2019, the NFL changed captains' patches slightly, removing the white outline at the patch's edge. Also, instead of stars "filled-in" with gold coloring to indicate years as a captain alongside "unfilled-in" white stars (i.e. a player who was in his second year as a captain would have 2 gold stars and 2 white stars on his patch), the patch now simply has gold stars indicating years served.


title: National Football League team captains

text: While NFL rules state that teams may name up to six captains, this rule is not strictly enforced. In 2019, four teams named seven captains at the beginning of the regular season: the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, and New York Giants. That same year, the Carolina Panthers dressed seven players wearing captain patches for their week 2 matchup against Tampa Bay: Cam Newton, Greg Olsen, Trai Turner, Luke Kuechly, Gerald McCoy, Kawann Short, and Colin Jones.


title: National Football League team captains

text: Captains are sometimes decided by team-wide vote, and other times are chosen by the team's head coach. Captains are generally named after the preseason ends, and just prior to the start of the regular season. In the event of an injury to a team captain requiring them to miss one or more games during the season, a replacement may be named. The decision to name (whether weekly or permanently) or not name captains rests with the head coach, who can suspend captainships should they so choose.


title: National Football League team captains

text: One notable example of suspension occurred when the New York Jets ended the use of designated team captains after an incident involving Santonio Holmes in a 2011 game. In the fourth quarter of the final game of the 2011 season against the Miami Dolphins, Holmes appeared to get into an argument with Jets offensive tackle Wayne Hunter while the team was huddling. As a result of the argument, Holmes was benched for the remainder of the game, and the Jets ended up losing the game, which resulted in the Jets missing the postseason for the first time in three years. His leadership qualities and credibilities as captain have since been questioned. Rex Ryan, coach of the Jets at the time, suspended captains for the organization ever since. In 2015, under new head coach Todd Bowles, the Jets resumed appointing captains weekly.


title: National Football League team captains

text: Because of the nature of the game, most teams include their starting quarterbacks as an offensive captain. The starting quarterback has no other responsibility or authority on field. However, he may, depending on the league or individual team, have various informal duties, such as participation in pre-game ceremonies, the coin toss, the trophy presentation, or other events outside the game. Often compared to captains of other team sports, the starting quarterback is considered the team's leader, even before the NFL implemented the team captain's patch in 2007.


title: National Football League team captains

text: Each gold star on a captain's patch indicates the number of seasons the player has served as a team captain. These are often consecutive, but not always as former Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston wore three stars on his 2019 patch despite not being named a captain the previous season; he wore four stars on his 2021 patch for New Orleans. The Panthers gave Trai Turner a gold patch in week 8 of their 2019 season after he missed 3 games due to an ankle injury, though he wore a patch with only 1 star during his previous game in week 3. Case Keenum wore a patch with two stars in week 1 of the 2019 season, but from week 2 on Keenum wore a captain's patch with 4 stars, despite only serving as a captain two seasons of his career. Teams have often used captains patches erroneously and without regard to the stars, with discrepancies occurring even mid-season. In 2017, Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams wore a patch with 5 stars and a gold 'C', but the Bills admitted this was a mistake.


title: National Football League team captains

text: Players listed in bold currently wear the 4+ star all-gold captain patches. These players have been team captains for at least four seasons, but not necessarily consecutively.


title: Toulon Tournament

text: The Toulon Tournament (officially the Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) is a football (training match) tournament, which traditionally features invited national teams composed of youth players from U-17 to U-23 level. The tournament is named after Maurice Revello, who started the tournament in 1967 and died in 2016. Although the first tournament in 1967 featured club teams, it has been limited to national teams since 1975 (except in 1986 and 1989 when INF Vichy was invited). The tournament is held around Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, with the final usually being held in Toulon.


title: Toulon Tournament

text: Toulon Tournament is a (training match) tournament not run under the supervision of FIFA or an individual national association. Therefore, it is deemed as the most prestigious of all friendly tournaments involving youth teams, and considered an unofficial world championship before FIFA introduced the official World Youth Cup in 1977. Despite the establishment of the FIFA U-20 World Cup and later, FIFA U-17 World Cup however, the Toulon Tournament remains an important (training match) tournament for youth football teams.


title: Toulon Tournament

text: The Toulon Tournament usually was played with two 40-minute halves. In 2019 every match consisted of two periods of 45 minutes each. In a match, every team has eleven named substitutes and the maximum number of substitutions permitted is four.


title: Toulon Tournament

text: In the knockout stage, if a game tied at the end of regulation time, extra time is not played and the penalty shoot-out is used to determine the winner.


title: Patrick Queen

text: Patrick Queen (born August 13, 1999) is an American football inside linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at LSU and was drafted 28th overall by the Ravens in the 2020 NFL Draft.


title: Patrick Queen

text: Born to Dwayne and Mary Sue Queen, Queen grew up in Ventress, Louisiana as the youngest (and only boy) of four children.


title: Patrick Queen

text: He played football in middle school at False River Academy before moving on to high school. He later attended Livonia High School, where he played on the football team as both a linebacker and running back. Queen was a member of Livonia High School's 2014 state championship football team. As a senior in 2016, he rushed for 1,487 yards and 19 touchdowns on offense and had 66 tackles, seven tackles for losses, and six passes broken up on defense. Queen participated in the 2014 National Combine, and received first team honors as a cornerback.


title: Patrick Queen

text: Despite his four-star prospect rating, Queen had relatively few offers from Power Five conference schools, particularly the Southeastern Conference, where he had long been interested in playing. Queen's early offers came from smaller schools Tulane, Louisiana, Louisiana–Monroe, Colorado State, McNeese State, Louisiana Tech, and South Florida before receiving offers from Nebraska, Indiana, and his preferred destination of LSU, where he committed without any additional school visits on February 28, 2016. Queen became the first player from Livonia to receive a scholarship from LSU. Queen's recruiting profile was complex, as each major sports recruiting website listed him at a different position. 247Sports, which listed him as a versatile athlete, ranked him as the 17th best ATH in the country, and the 12th best player from Louisiana. Rivals, which listed him as an outside linebacker, ranked him as the 13th best OLB in his class and 8th best recruit from Louisiana. ESPN.com, which listed him as a running back, ranked him the 30th best RB in the country and the 14th best recruit from Louisiana.


title: Patrick Queen

text: Queen made six tackles in 12 games played as a true freshman. He finished his sophomore season with 40 tackles, 5.0 tackles for loss and a sack. Queen entered his junior year on the watchlist for the Butkus Award. Queen finished the regular season with 69 tackles (eight for a loss), 2.5 sacks, three pass deflections, two breakups, an interception and a fumble recovery. Queen was named the Defensive MVP of the 2020 National Championship Game after making eight tackles with 2.5 for a loss and a combined sack against Clemson. Following the end of the season Queen announced that he would forgo his senior season to enter the 2020 NFL Draft.


title: Patrick Queen

text: Queen was selected by the Baltimore Ravens with the 28th pick in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. He is the first LSU player the Ravens have ever drafted. Queen made his professional debut in a 38–6 win against the Cleveland Browns recording a team high eight tackles, a sack and a forced fumble.


title: Patrick Queen

text: In Week 5 against the Cincinnati Bengals, Queen led the team with nine tackles, recorded a strip sack on former LSU teammate Joe Burrow that he also recovered, and recovered a fumble lost by Mike Thomas which he returned for a 53-yard touchdown during the 27–3 win. On October 14, 2020, Queen was named the AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance in Week 5. He was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list by the team on November 3, 2020, and activated four days later.


title: Patrick Queen

text: In Week 13 against the Dallas Cowboys, Queen recorded his first career interception off a pass thrown by Andy Dalton during the 34–17 win.


title: Patrick Queen

text: In 2021, Queen changed his jersey number from #48 to #6 following the relaxation of the NFL's jersey number rules.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: The order of succession to the Saudi Arabian throne is determined by, and within, the House of Saud. Every King of Saudi Arabia, upon his death, has been succeeded by the crown prince, with a new crown prince then being appointed according to agnatic seniority among the sons of Ibn Saud, though various members of the family have been bypassed for various reasons. A deputy crown prince (second in line for the throne) was first selected in 2014.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: The current ruler of Saudi Arabia is King Salman, who succeeded King Abdullah on his death on 23 January 2015. On the same day, Prince Muqrin became Crown Prince only to be replaced three months later by Muhammad bin Nayef at the order of Salman.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: On the morning of 21 June 2017, Muhammad bin Nayef was deposed as Crown Prince and Salman's son Mohammad bin Salman was appointed to the position. The current crown prince is a grandson of Ibn Saud, the second of his generation to be officially placed first in the line of succession. The Allegiance Council was created in 2006 to facilitate the royal transfer of power.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: The House of Saud controlled vast parts of the Arabian peninsula for two and a half centuries. The dynasty collapsed twice in the 1800s due to discord over succession. In 1890s, the Al Sauds were completely supplanted by the Al Rashid. The kingdom began to fight to restore itself through Emir Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman, known to the world as "Ibn Saud", and his capture of Riyadh in 1902. After much tumult, Saudi Arabia became a kingdom in 1932.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: As Ibn Saud conquered Arabia, he formed alliances by polygamous marriages to members of its biggest tribes. This strengthened his power within the Al Sauds and expanded his legitimacy in Arabia, not to mention nearly a hundred children, sixty of whom were boys. He died in 1953.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: When Ibn Saud first began the reconquest of his kingdom, he had a son named Turki, who was considered his likely heir, but he died during the great influenza epidemic of 1918–19, leaving a pregnant wife behind. It was unthinkable to have a baby as heir to a kingdom that was patently unstable, as the Emirate of Najd was in 1920. The Emir decided to leave the question open.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: In the late 1920s and early 30s, Ibn Saud's brother Muhammad bin Abdul Rahman began to argue with him as to who would be next in line, Ibn Saud's second son Saud or Muhammad's own son Khalid bin Muhammad. In 1933, the king made his choice, and Prince Saud was declared Crown Prince.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: Late in life, King ibn Saud declared that he wished that the Saudi succession would be via agnatic seniority and that Saud's heir presumptive would be his third, and more capable son, Faisal. Accordingly, when the old king died in 1953, Saud became king and Faisal was immediately declared Crown prince.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: For the eleven years of his reign, the question of who was to succeed King Saud was considered a "done deal". However, as the war between the King and Crown Prince grew more heated in the early 1960s, the King let it be known that he was considering changing the line of succession from agnatic seniority to agnatic primogeniture and naming his eldest son Crown Prince. This was unacceptable to the rest of the Royal Clan. At Faisal's request, his brother Muhammad bin Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud's fourth son) led a palace coup which ousted King Saud in late 1964.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: Faisal became the next king. Prince Mohammed served as Crown Prince from 1964 to 1965. Prince Mohammed was an intelligent and dynamic personality. leaving the possibility of another royal feud. During one of the times Faisal had taken over the government, he had appointed his half brother Khalid (Ibn Saud's fifth son) as Deputy Prime Minister in 1962, bypassing Mohammed. Secret negotiations as to the conditions to which Mohammed would step aside would last well after the reign of Faisal had begun, and in 1965, Khalid became the new Crown Prince, in the process disinheriting two other princes, Nasser and Saad (Ibn Saud's sixth and seventh sons), who were deemed "unworthy".


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: One of the reasons that Mohammed initially demured from standing down, was his distrust of the so-called Sudairi Seven, the sons of Ibn Saud's favorite wife. The eldest of the group, Prince Fahd (Ibn Saud's eighth son), had been Faisal's top choice. He was given the position of "second deputy Prime Minister" and at the same time, royal sources let it be known that Prince Abdullah (Ibn Saud's eleventh son), head of the National Guard, would be in line after him. They were the next two kings after Khalid, and between the two they reigned for thirty-three years.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: In 1975 King Faisal was assassinated, and Crown Prince Khalid became the new king. When King Khalid's health began to rapidly decline, the problem of succession came back into the fore. Crown Prince Fahd (Ibn Saud's eighth son) wanted to pass over his brothers Princes Bandar and Musa'id (Ibn Saud's tenth and twelfth sons) for "heir to the heir". Prince Musa'id was in disgrace, his son having murdered King Faisal, but Bandar was a different matter.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: For much of his life, Bandar had stayed away from government, preferring private business. However, now he demanded his right to the succession, and also to the Defense portfolio of Defense Minister Prince Sultan. He was asked to name his price for stepping aside and, seeing that his more powerful brothers were inimical to the idea of his accession, Bandar read the writing on the wall and accepted the offer of money. He is said to have named a high price, but the massive bribe, reputed to be in the tens of millions of USD (US$), was something the world's richest family could easily afford. Bandar accepted the money and yielded place to Prince Sultan.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: After King Khalid's death, King Fahd became the new king, and reigned from 1982 to 2005. Fahd had initially wanted his full brother, Prince Sultan (Ibn Saud's fifteenth son), to become his heir. But upon his death he was succeeded by his half brother Abdullah (Ibn Saud's eleventh son). Abdullah ascended the throne on his 81st birthday, and Prince Sultan was automatically promoted to the position of crown prince. Most other surviving sons of Ibn Saud were elderly and bypassed.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: Crown Prince Sultan convinced the King to appoint the next Sudairi, Nayef (Ibn Saud's twenty-third son), to the Second deputy spot. In 2011-12, both Sultan and Nayef died within months of each other, and a fourth Sudairi brother, Salman (Ibn Saud's twenty-fifth son), became crown prince on 18 June 2012.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: With the advancing ages of the sons of Ibn Saud (the youngest was born in 1945), King Abdullah created the Allegiance Council to address the shrinking number of candidates for the throne. It is composed of 28 persons: King Ibn Saud's sons, the eldest sons of the brothers who have died and the sons of King and Crown Prince. The Council was led by Prince Mishaal.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: The purpose of the Council is to ensure a smooth transition of power, and to designate future crown princes.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: This, along with an earlier decree by King Fahd, opened the possibility of considering Abdul-Aziz's grandsons as viable candidates. Beyond age, the criteria for selection include:


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: With the promotion of Crown Prince Sultan's three successors deemed automatic, and the King's writ on the subject of the appointment of the second deputy PM (the honorific "deputy crown prince" being much more recent than the position itself). The Council has proved to be little more than a "rubber stamp."


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: After almost a year with the post of second deputy Prime Minister vacant. Prince Muqrin, the youngest son of Ibn Saud, was formally designated second deputy by royal decree in 2013. This meant that he was informally second in line, bypassing several senior princes. In order to make his place in the line of succession permanent and preclude any challenges by any of the dispossessed royals, King Abdullah polled each member of the Allegiance Council individually before announcing Muqrin's new title. The Allegiance Council met on 27 March 2014, for an official vote, which was 75% yes and 25% no.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: As King Abdullah lay dying, a plot to change the line of succession was underway. It was said that Chief of the Royal Court Khaled al-Tuwaijri was conspiring with others to oust Crown Prince Salman and replace him with either Prince Muqrin or the King's son Prince Mit'eb.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: Upon the death of King Abdullah on 23 January 2015, Salman ascended to the throne and Muqrin became crown prince. At the same time, Muhammad bin Nayef, the Interior Minister and a supporter of Salman's, was appointed deputy crown prince, an act that was ratified by the Allegiance Council after the fact. Muhammad bin Nayef is the first grandson of Ibn Saud to enter the official line of succession.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: Normally, the position of Crown Prince was an extremely powerful one, with Faisal, Fahd and Abdullah running the country on behalf of, or sometimes despite, their monarch. This was not the case of Crown Prince Muqurin, who was frozen out of King Salman's new double cabinet scheme and relegated to mostly ceremonial activities.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: Instead, King Salman's son Mohammad had been showered with offices, including the Defense Ministry, the Secretaryship General of the Royal Court and Chairmanship of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, leading some in the press to dub him the "king in training."


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: Muhammad bin Nayef, the Deputy Crown Prince as well as the Interior Minister, was also a Sudairi, and it was clear that without Muqrin, the clan would have a permanent grip on power. In the early morning hours of 29 April 2015, the king signed a decree deposing Crown Prince Muqrin, promoting Muhammad to crown prince and naming Mohammad bin Salman deputy crown prince. The following day, The Allegiance Council met and formally elected Mohammed by a vote of 28 to four with two abstentions.


title: Succession to the Saudi Arabian throne

text: On the morning of 21 June 2017, state television announced that Muhammad bin Nayef had been removed as Crown Prince, and that Salman had elevated his son Mohammad bin Salman to the position. According to the "New York Times", Muhammad bin Nayef was forced to abdicate and has since been under house arrest.


title: Thousand (song)

text: "Thousand" is a song by American electronica musician Moby. It was released as a double A-side single with Moby's song "I Feel It" in the United states, serving as the fourth and final single released from his self-titled debut album.


title: Thousand (song)

text: "Thousand" was listed in "Guinness World Records" for having the fastest tempo in beats-per-minute (BPM) of any released single, peaking at approximately 1,015 BPM.


title: Common fibular nerve

text: The common fibular nerve (also known as the common peroneal nerve, external popliteal nerve, or lateral popliteal nerve) is a nerve in the lower leg that provides sensation over the posterolateral part of the leg and the knee joint. It divides at the knee into two terminal branches: the superficial fibular nerve and deep fibular nerve, which innervate the muscles of the lateral and anterior compartments of the leg respectively. When the common fibular nerve is damaged or compressed, foot drop can ensue.


title: Common fibular nerve

text: The common fibular nerve is the smaller terminal branch of the sciatic nerve. The common fibular nerve has root values of L4, L5, S1, and S2. It arises from the superior angle of the popliteal fossa and extends to the lateral angle of the popliteal fossa, along the medial border of the biceps femoris. It then winds around the neck of the fibula to pierce the fibularis longus and divides into terminal branches of the superficial fibular nerve and the deep fibular nerve. Before its division, the common fibular nerve gives off several branches in the popliteal fossa.


title: Common fibular nerve

text: There is only one motor branch that arises directly from the common fibular nerve, the nerve to the short head of the biceps femoris muscle.


title: Common fibular nerve

text: The common fibular nerve innervates the short head of the biceps femoris muscle via a motor branch that exits close to the gluteal cleft. The remainder of the fibular-innervated muscles are innervated by its branches, the deep fibular nerve and superficial fibular nerve.


title: Common fibular nerve

text: It provides sensory innervation to the skin over the upper third of the lateral aspect of the leg via the lateral sural cutaneous nerve. It gives the aural communicating nerve which joins the sural nerve in the midcalf.


title: Common fibular nerve

text: Chronic fibular (peroneal) neuropathy can result from, among other conditions, bed rest of long duration, hyperflexion of the knee, peripheral neuropathy, pressure in obstetric stirrups, and conditioning in ballet dancers. The most common cause is habitual leg crossing that compresses the common fibular nerve as it crosses around the neck of the fibula. Transient trauma to the nerve can result from peroneal strike.


title: Common fibular nerve

text: Damage to this nerve typically results in foot drop, where dorsiflexion of the foot is compromised and the foot drags (the toe points) during walking; and in sensory loss to the dorsal surface of the foot and portions of the anterior, lower-lateral leg. A common yoga kneeling exercise, the Vajrasana, has been linked to a variant called yoga foot drop.


title: Common fibular nerve

text: Anatomists are taught not to divide this nerve during its revealing. (Considering the fact that the most of them exploit this knowledge during their surgical praxis.)


title: Boyan Slat

text: Boyan Slat (born 27 July 1994) is a Dutch inventor and entrepreneur. A former aerospace engineering student, he is the CEO of The Ocean Cleanup.


title: Boyan Slat

text: In 2011, aged 16, Slat found more plastic than fish while diving. He made ocean plastic pollution the subject of a high school project examining why it was considered impossible to clean up. He later came up with the idea of building a passive plastic catchment system, using circulating ocean currents to net plastic waste, which he presented at a TEDx talk in Delft in 2012.


title: Boyan Slat

text: Slat discontinued his aerospace engineering studies at TU Delft to devote his time to developing his idea. He founded The Ocean Cleanup in 2013, and shortly after, his TEDx talk went viral after being shared on several news sites.


title: Boyan Slat

text: "Technology is the most potent agent of change. It is an amplifier of our human capabilities", Slat wrote in "The Economist". "Whereas other change-agents rely on reshuffling the existing building blocks of society, technological innovation creates entirely new ones, expanding our problem-solving toolbox."


title: Boyan Slat

text: In 2013 Slat founded the non-profit entity The Ocean Cleanup, of which he is now the CEO. The group's mission is to develop advanced technologies to rid the world's oceans of plastic. It raised US$2.2million through a crowd funding campaign with the help of 38,000 donors from 160 countries. In June 2014, the Ocean Cleanup published a 528-page feasibility study about the project's potential. Several critics declared the concept unfeasible in a technical critique of the feasibility study on the "Deep Sea News" website, which was cited by other publications, including "Popular Science" and "The Guardian".


title: Boyan Slat

text: Since the Ocean Cleanup started, the organization has raised tens of millions of dollars in donations from entrepreneurs in Europe and in Silicon Valley, including Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.


title: Boyan Slat

text: Dubbed Systems 001 and 001/B, the first and second systems encountered various technical failures, with System 001 unable to effectively retain plastic and suffering structural stress damage that caused an 18-meter section to break off at one point. However, in 2019, System 001/B, which was a redesign of System 001, successfully captured plastic. This first mission (which includes both systems) returned 60 bags of garbage.


title: Boyan Slat

text: At an unveiling of a new cleanup system dubbed The Interceptor, Slat cited research from the company which showed that 1,000 of the world's most polluted rivers were responsible for roughly 80% of the world's plastic pollution. In an effort to "close the tap" and drastically reduce the amount of plastic entering the world's oceans, The Ocean Cleanup had devised a barge-like system that was completely solar powered and was aimed to be a scalable solution that could be deployed around the world's rivers. As of mid 2022, Interceptors have been deployed in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, and Vietnam, and are prepared to be deployed in Thailand and Los Angeles, California.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: The geography of Malaysia includes both the physical and the human geography of Malaysia, a Southeast Asian country made up of two major landmasses separated by water—Peninsular Malaysia to the west and East Malaysia to the east—and numerous smaller islands that surround those landmasses. Peninsular Malaysia is on the southernmost part of the Malay Peninsula, south of Thailand, north of Singapore and east of the Indonesian island of Sumatra; East Malaysia comprises most of the northern part of Borneo island, and shares land borders with Brunei to the north and Indonesian Borneo to the south.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Located near the equator, Malaysia's climate is categorised as equatorial, being hot and humid throughout the year. The average rainfall is a year and the average temperature is . The climates of the Peninsula and the East differ, as the climate on the peninsula is directly affected by wind from the mainland, as opposed to the more maritime weather of the East. Malaysia is exposed to the El Niño effect, which reduces rainfall in the dry season. Climate change is likely to have a significant effect on Malaysia, increasing sea levels and rainfall, increasing flooding risks and leading to large droughts.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia faces two monsoon winds seasons, the Southwest Monsoon from late May to September, and the Northeast Monsoon from October to March. The Northeast Monsoon brings in more rainfall compared to the Southwest Monsoon, originating in China and the north Pacific. The southwest monsoon originates from the deserts of Australia. March and October form transitions between the two monsoons.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Local climates are affected by the presence of mountain ranges throughout Malaysia, and climate can be divided into that of the highlands, the lowlands, and coastal regions. The coasts have a sunny climate, with temperatures ranging between , and rainfall ranging from a month. The lowlands have a similar temperature, but follow a more distinctive rainfall pattern and show very high humidity levels. The highlands are cooler and wetter, and display a greater temperature variation. A large amount of cloud cover is present over the highlands, which have humidity levels that do not fall below 75%.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: The highest temperature was recorded at Chuping, Perlis on 9 April 1998 at . The lowest temperature (Official) was recorded at Cameron Highlands on 1 February 1978 at . The snowfall was recorded in a year was at Mount Kinabalu, Sabah in 1975,1993, and 2022. The highest rainfall recorded in a day was in Kota Bharu, Kelantan on 6 January 1967. The highest rainfall recorded in a year was at Sandakan, Sabah in 2006. Meanwhile, the lowest rainfall recorded in a year was at Tawau, Sabah in 1997. The wettest place in Malaysia is Kuching, Sarawak with an average rainfall of with 279 days of rain a year. The driest place in Malaysia is in Sitiawan, Perak with average rainfall of only a year.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia is located on the Sunda shelf, and is tectonically inactive. The oldest rocks in the country date from 540 million years ago, and are mostly sedimentary. The most common kind of rock is limestone that formed during the Paleozoic Era. Limestone that had accreted in East Malaysia during the Tertiary period later eroded, forming basins of sedimentary rocks that are rich in oil and natural gas. The mountain ranges in Malaysia were formed through orogenesis beginning in the Mesozoic era.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: The total land area of Malaysia is , the 66th largest country in the world in terms of area. It is the only country to contain land on both mainland Asia and the Malay archipelago. Peninsular Malaysia makes up , or almost 40% of the country's land area, while East Malaysia covers , or 60%. From the total land area, or 0.37% is made up of water such as lakes, rivers, or other internal waters. Malaysia has a total coastline of , and Peninsular Malaysia has , while East Malaysia has of coastline.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia has the 29th longest coastline in the world. The two distinct parts of Malaysia, separated from each other by the South China Sea, share a largely similar landscape in that both West (Peninsular) and East Malaysia feature coastal plains rising to hills and mountains.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Peninsular Malaysia covers the southern half of the Malay Peninsula, and extends from north to south, and its maximum width is . It is mountainous, with more than half of it over above sea level. About half of Peninsular Malaysia is covered by granite and other igneous rocks, a third more is covered by stratified rocks older than the granite, and the remainder is covered by alluvium.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Harbours are only available on the peninsula's western side, and the most fertile land occurs when river valleys flow out to the sea. The coastal plains bordering the straits of Malacca are the most densely populated areas of Malaysia, and contains Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo, has a coastline of . It is divided between coastal regions, hills and valleys, and a mountainous interior. There are only two major cities, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. Much of southern Sarawak is coastal lowlands, which shifts to a series of plateaus going north, ending in the mountainous regions of Sabah.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: The highest mountain range in Malaysia is the Crocker Range in Sabah, which divides the state in half. This range includes Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain in the country, as well as Mount Tambuyukon, the third highest in the country. Mount Kinabalu, at , is the tallest mountain in Malaysia and is protected as Kinabalu National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Mount Kinabalu is 55% (by margin) taller than Mount Trusmadi, Malaysia's second tallest mountain.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Mountain ranges in the East tend to follow north–south or northeast–southwest paths, and the highest ranges form the border between Malaysia and Indonesia. The mountains contain many jagged limestone peaks. The Trus Madi Range, also in Sabah, houses Mount Trus Madi. Bombalai Hill in Sabah is the only active volcano in Malaysia.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Peninsular Malaysia contains numerous mountain ranges running parallel from north to south along the peninsula. The main mountain range is the Titiwangsa Mountains, which divides the peninsula between its east and west coasts. It houses Mount Korbu, the second highest peak in the Peninsular. These mountains are heavily forested, and mainly composed of granite. The range is the origin of some of Peninsular Malaysia's river systems. To the east of this range is the Bintang Range. The highest peak in the Peninsular is Mount Tahan, located on the Tahan Range.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Numerous caves run through the country due to the karst landscape caused by water eroding limestone. The Mulu Caves in East Malaysia are the largest caves in the world. They are located between the Penambo range and Brunei, and form a major tourist attraction. At long and high the Sarawak Chamber is the largest cave chamber in the world. Other famous caves are the Deer Cave and Lang's Cave.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia contains numerous islands, the largest of which is Banggi Island in Sabah, which has an area of . It is followed by Betruit Island in Sarawak, Langkawi in Kedah, and Penang Island in Penang. The largest island shared with another country is Borneo, followed by Sebatik Island. In addition, Malaysia lies within the world's coral reef distribution. The reefs can be usually found around islands such as Sipadan Island, Swallow Reef, and Redang Island. Sipadan Island, an underwater mountain, is Malaysia's only oceanic island.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: A recent global remote sensing analysis suggested that there were 1,713 km of tidal flats in Malaysia, making it the 19th ranked country in terms of how much tidal flat occurs there.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysian forests can be categorised as tropical rainforest. Approximately 58.2% of Malaysian land is covered by forest. A large amount of lowland forest present below an altitude of . East Malaysia, like most of Borneo, was formerly covered with Borneo lowland rain forests with over 2000 tree species. However, much of it has been cleared, due to the increase in logging since the 1960s and the increase of shifting cultivation. Over 80% of Sarawak's forests have been felled, and the logging throughout East Malaysia has polluted waterways, increased erosion, and damaged agriculture. Some state governments have now taken measures to halt the degradation of the rainforest.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia's rainforest's are made of a variety of types, mainly dipterocarp, swamps, and mangroves. The majority of the forest is dipterocarp forests. Dipterocarps species are centred in Malaysia. There are over of mangroves in Malaysia. Some areas are designated as forest reserves, state parks, or national parks. The management of these reserves as under control of the Department of Wildlife and National Park, the Forest Department of Sarawak, the Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Foundation, and Sabah Parks. As of 2000, there are two World Heritage Sites under the natural category – Kinabalu National Park and Gunung Mulu National Park.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Peninsular Malaysia is home to the Peninsular Malaysian rain forests, Peninsular Malaysian montane rain forests, Peninsular Malaysian peat swamp forests, and Tenasserim-South Thailand semi-evergreen rain forests.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Eastern Malaysia is home to the Borneo lowland rain forests, Borneo montane rain forests, Borneo peat swamp forests, Southwest Borneo freshwater swamp forests, and Sundaland heath forests.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Peninsular Malaysia's west coast is home to the Myanmar Coast mangroves. The Indochina mangroves fringe Peninsular Malaysia's east coast. The Sunda Shelf mangroves line Borneo's coast.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: The southernmost point of Malaysia is located in the district of Serian in Sarawak. Tanjung Piai on the southern tip of Johor is the southernmost point in Peninsular, and thus of the whole of continental Eurasia. The easternmost point is found on the tip of Dent Peninsular in Lahad Datu district in Sabah. The northernmost point is found on the northern tip of Banggi Island. The westernmost point is Perak Island, a sandstone rock which is part of Kedah state that rises at the center of Strait of Malacca.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Between Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia is the South China Sea, the largest body of water around Malaysia. Facing the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia there is the Straits of Malacca towards the south, and the Andaman Sea towards the north. The Strait of Malacca, lying between Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia, is arguably the most important shipping lane in the world. These seas are marginal seas of the Indian Ocean.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Off the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia is the South China Sea, while a small part in the north lies within the Gulf of Thailand. These form part of the marginal seas of the Pacific Ocean. The Straits of Johor off the south of Peninsular acts as a maritime border of Malaysia and Singapore. In East Malaysia, the western coasts of Sabah and Sarawak faces the South China Sea. The northeast coast of Sabah faces the Sulu Sea, while the southeast coast of Sabah faces the Celebes Sea.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia claims 12 nm () as its territorial waters, which extend into the Coral Triangle. It also has an exclusive economic zone of based on nautical miles from its coastal baseline. Malaysia claims in the depth of the continental shelf or to the depth of exploration within the area below the South China Sea known as Sundaland. The territorial claim for the Straits of Malacca is shared between Malaysia and Indonesia in accordance to a treaty signed in 1970 known as the "Treaty Between the Republic of Indonesia and Malaysia on Determination of boundary Lines of Territorial Waters of the two Nations at the Strait of Malacca".


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: The Bera Lake in Pahang is one of the largest lakes in Malaysia, and one of the only two natural lakes in Malaysia with Chini Lake. Pedu Lake is a long lake located from the Malaysian-Thai border and Kenyir Lake


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: There are many systems of rivers found around in Malaysia. The longest is the Rajang River in Sarawak with a length of . The second longest is the Kinabatangan River in Sabah with a length of . The longest river in the Peninsular Malaysia is Pahang River with a length of .


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia is a megadiverse country, with a high number of species and high levels of endemism. These forests contain the Rafflesia, the largest flower in the world. The clearing of the Borneo lowland rain forests has caused wildlife to retreat into the upland rain forests inland.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia's geographical location protects the country from most major natural disasters. It is located on a seismically stable plate that minimises direct risks of earthquakes and volcanoes, is partially protected from tsunamis by surrounding landmasses, and is a rare target for tropical cyclones. However, the country's tropical climate opens the country to the risk of flooding, landslides and prolonged droughts. Global climate change may exacerbate the situation with extreme weather events in Southeast Asia raising the economic, political and social risks for Malaysia.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: With 189 water basins and an average rainfall of over 2000–4000 mm per year, Malaysia is prone to riverine, muddy floods that range from hours-long flash floods, to prolonged flooding on flat, low-lying land along major tributaries and main stems. 15 instances of major flooding in the region have occurred since 1926; notable floods include the 1971 floods in and around Kuala Lumpur that killed 32, affected 180,000 and prompted the launch of flood control projects in the city, 2006 and 2007 floods in Johor that resulted in the loss of 18 lives and RM1.5 billion in damages in addition to the temporary displacement of 110,000 people, and major flooding centered around the Klang Valley in 2021–2022 that led to 54 fatalities, at least RM5.3–6.5 billion in damages and 125,490 displacements. Flooding has been a major concern in recent decades due to rapid development in river catchment areas that has led to increased surface and river runoffs, increased sediment buildup in rivers, and frequent erosion along river banks.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Due to weak Coriolis forces from its close proximity to the equator, tropical cyclones are rare for the country despite its proximity to the highly active Northwestern Pacific tropical cyclone basin. The only tropical cyclones to significantly affect Malaysia since records began were Tropical Storm Greg in 1996 and Tropical Storm Vamei in 2001; the former's passage over Sabah remains the deadliest tropical storm in the country's history, with 238 dead and 102 missing. However, tropical depressions as well as outlying storm patterns generated by passing cyclones have made landfall regularly, often leading to abnormally high rainfall and flooding; notably, the path of 2021's Tropical Depression 29W across central Peninsular Malaysia contributed to record precipitation and protracted flooding in the region between December 2021 and January 2022.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia is largely seismically stable with little modern history of volcanic activity, being situated entirely on the Sunda tectonic plate, between two major boundaries of the Australian Plate and Eurasian Plate in the west of Peninsular Malaysia, and the Philippine Sea Plate and Eurasian Plate at Bornean Malaysia.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Peninsular Malaysia is more accustomed to only light tremors caused by earthquakes along the Sumatran islands of Indonesia generated predominantly by the Great Sumatran fault and Sunda megathrust. However, a pair of rare earthquakes that did not originate in Sumatra were felt in much of Malaya and Singapore on 31 January 1922 and 7 February 1922. As is with Singapore, the effects of tremors are also felt more significantly on skyscrapers common in populated centres in Malaysia due to the effects of mechanical resonance. Borneon states, particularly Sabah, are at risk of more moderate interplate and intraplate earthquakes due to its closer proximity to active tectonic activities along the Ring of Fire, with record earthquakes in the country occurring in Sabah in 1923, 1951, 1976 and 2015 at an average of 6.0–6.5 M. The fringes of Sabah also lay host to a series of the country's only volcanoes at the Tawau volcanic field and off the state's coast. Prominently, Mount Bombalai last erupted during the Holocene epoch, while the last documented eruption in present-day Malaysia occurred during the formation of Pulau Tiga, a high island, in 1897.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Interest towards tsunami risks to Malaysia has also heighten since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Although the western coast of Peninsular Malaysia was largely shielded by the Sumatran island from the full effects of waves generated by the earthquake, weaker deflected tsunami waves led to damage and casualties along the northwestern coast of Peninsular Malaysia, affecting coastal Perlis, Kedah, Penang and Perak. The disaster also highlights the risk of further tsunamis that may strike coasts in direct line of undersea faults, primarily around the South China Sea.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia produces petroleum and is a net exporter. Malaysia also produces liquefied natural gas as well as various other related products, most of which are found off the coasts of Terengganu, Sabah, and Sarawak. Among other notable natural resources includes tin, timber, copper, iron, ore, and bauxite.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia was the largest exporter of tin until the industry-wide collapse in the 1980s. Tin deposits are found in areas in Selangor, Kinta valley in Perak, Pahang and Johor. There are significant deposit of gold in Pahang towns of Raub and Kuala Lipis and also Kelantan's district of Gua Musang.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Timber can be found in the vast jungles in Malaysia, especially in East Malaysia. Malaysia total exports for timber and other timber products amounted to MYR 23.4 billion in 2007.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Large areas of land are used as palm oil plantations, rubber plantations, and paddy fields. Malaysia is the largest exporter of palm oil in the world producing 15.8 million tonnes of crude palm oil in 2007. Malaysia is also one of the largest producers and exporters of rubber and other rubber products.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: As of 2011, the percentage arable land in Malaysia is 5.44%. Croplands consists of 17.49% while other land uses consists of 77.07%. As of 2009, irrigated land covers 3,800 km. Total renewable water resource total 580 cubic km as of 2011.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Peninsular Malaysia is more populated than East Malaysia where 79.2% of the population lives in the Peninsular. In 2002, 59% of Malaysian population lived in urban areas, while the rest live in rural areas. The largest city is Kuala Lumpur with a population of 1.89 million people in the city, and about 7 million in the metropolitan area known as Klang Valley. Other major cities include George Town, Ipoh, Johor Bahru, Kuching, and Kota Kinabalu.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia is divided into thirteen states and three Federal Territories. Eleven states and two Federal Territories are found in Peninsular Malaysia. While two states and one Federal Territory are found in East Malaysia. The states are further divided into administrative districts. In Sabah and Sarawak, they are first divided into divisions, then further divided into districts. There are separate subdivisions for electoral districts for polling purposes.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: International borders between Malaysia and Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Brunei are defined mostly by geological features such as the Perlis River and Golok River between Malaysia and Thailand; Straits of Johor between Malaysia and Singapore; and Pagalayan Canal between Malaysia and Brunei. However, borders that extends to the seas are defined by agreements such as Straits Settlement and Johore Territorial Waters Agreement of 1927 which defines Malaysia and Singapore water borders.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia's land borders are well established. The border with Thailand was established in 1909 when Siam ceded Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis and Terengganu to the British. Maritime border disputes between Brunei and Malaysia and a Bruneian claim on Limbang, Sarawak were resolved in an exchange of letters between the two countries on 16 March 2009 after 20 years of negotiations.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: Malaysia and Indonesia have some overlapping maritime claims, notably in the area around Sabah. An ongoing series of meetings to resolve these claims has produced 16 border agreements (to September 2010). Malaysia and Singapore also have disputes concerning some maritime borders.


title: Geography of Malaysia

text: The Philippines has a dormant claim to the eastern part of the Malaysian state of Sabah. Malaysia is also involved in a dispute involving Vietnam, Brunei, the People's Republic of China, the Philippines, and the Republic of China (Taiwan), concerning the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.


title: Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse

text: Donatus, Prince and Landgrave of Hesse (legally "Heinrich Donatus Philipp Umberto Prinz und Landgraf von Hessen"; born 17 October 1966) is the head of the House of Brabant and the German House of Hesse. He is the eldest son and successor of German aristocrat Moritz, Landgrave of Hesse, and his former wife, Princess Tatiana of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg. A great-grandson of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, he is named in part after Georg Donatus, Hereditary Grand Duke of Hesse. He is also a descendant of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and of Frederick III, German Emperor. He is a distant cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, whose funeral he attended. The two are related through the Duke's British-born mother and a Princess of Battenberg by birth, Princess Alice of Greece and Denmark. Donatus also attended the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey, London, on 19 September, 2022 with his wife, Floria.


title: Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse

text: Donatus directs the "Hessische Hausstiftung" (Foundation of the House of Hesse), a foundation "(see below)" established to curate and showcase the cultural heritage and history of the House of Hesse, a dynasty which ruled the Electorate of Hesse-Cassel until 1866, the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine until 1918, and whose male-line antecedents and co-lateral ties include the Protestant leader Philip the Magnanimous, the Swedish king Frederick I, Russia's last tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, the exiled Spanish queen Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, and Britain's last viceroy of India, the assassinated Louis, Earl Mountbatten of Burma.


title: Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse

text: Donatus also manages "Prinz von Hessen", a winery specializing in production of varietal vintages on his 45 hectare vineyard.


title: Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse

text: Prince Donatus's father became the head of the Hesse-Cassel line on the death of his own father, Landgrave Philipp in 1980. Having also been the adopted son and heir of his distant cousin, Louis, Prince of Hesse and by Rhine, the latter's death in 1968 as the last male of the Hesse-Darmstadt branch left Moritz head of the entire House of Hesse, to which Donatus is the successor.


title: Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse

text: Donatus married Countess Floria Franziska Marie-Luisa Erika von Faber-Castell (born 14 October 1974 Düsseldorf) in a civil ceremony in Wiesbaden on 25 April 2003. The bride is a communications professional and a niece of Count Anton Wolfgang von Faber-Castell, chairman of the board of the famous Faber-Castell pen-and-pencil company headquartered near Nuremberg and scion of the eponymous family, which is a morganatic branch of the Castell-Rüdenhausen Princely family. Prince Donatus and Floria Franziska are 6th cousins, as both descended from Frederick II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and his first wife Princess Mary of Great Britain.


title: Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse

text: The couple's religious wedding ceremony took place on 17 May 2003, attended by royalty and aristocrats. Held at the "Johanneskirche" and followed by a grand ball in the "Green Salon", state room of the former Friedrichshof palace in Kronberg (now a luxury hotel and golf course) where Donatus's ancestress, the German Empress Frederick, lived in widowhood, more than 300 guests were present. Among them was Caroline, Princess of Hanover, Princess Benedikte of Denmark, aunt of the bridegroom and sister of Queens Margrethe II and Anne-Marie of Greece; and Gloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis.