Terminology.

Originally, most electoral districts were equivalent to the counties used for local government, hence the French unofficial term "comté". However, it became common, especially in Ontario, to divide counties with sufficient population into multiple electoral divisions. The Constitution Act, 1867, which created the electoral map for Ontario for the first general election, used the term "ridings" to describe districts which were sub-divisions of counties. The word "riding", from Old English "*þriðing" "one-third" (compare "farthing", literally "one-fourth"), is an English term denoting a sub-division of a county.  In some of Canada's earliest censuses, in fact, some citizens in the Ontario ridings of Bothwell, Cardwell, Monck and Niagara listed their electoral district as their "county" of residence instead of their actual county.  Although the term "riding" is no longer used officially to indicate an electoral district, it has passed into common usage. Soon after Confederation, the urban population grew—and more importantly, most city dwellers gained the franchise after property ownership was no longer required to gain the vote. Rural constituencies therefore became geographically larger through the 20th century and generally encompassed one or more counties each, and the word "riding" became used to refer to any electoral division.  A political party's local organization is generally known as a riding association; the legal term is "electoral district association" or EDA.

Naming conventions.

Electoral district names are usually geographic in nature, and chosen to represent the community or region within the electoral district boundaries. Some electoral districts in Quebec are named for historical figures rather than geography, e.g., Louis-Hébert, Honoré-Mercier. Similarly in Alberta provincial districts mix geographic names with those of historical personages (e.g., Edmonton-Decore after Laurence Decore, Calgary-Lougheed after Peter Lougheed and James Alexander Lougheed). This practice is no longer employed in the other provinces and territories.

Boundary adjustment for federal electoral districts.

Electoral district boundaries are adjusted to reflect population changes after each decennial census. Depending on the significance of a boundary change, an electoral district's name may change as well. Any adjustment of electoral district boundaries is official as of the date the changes are legislated, but is not put into actual effect until the first subsequent election. Thus, an electoral district may officially cease to exist, but will continue to be represented "status quo" in the House of Commons until the next election is called. This, for example, gives new riding associations time to organize, and prevents the confusion that would result from changing elected MPs' electoral district assignments in the middle of a Parliament.  On some occasions (e.g., Timiskaming—French River, Toronto—Danforth), a riding's name may be changed without a boundary adjustment. This usually happens when it is determined at a later date that the existing name is not sufficiently representative of the district's geographic boundaries. This is the only circumstance in which a sitting MP's riding name may change between elections.

Formula for adjusting federal electoral boundaries.

The present formula for adjusting electoral boundaries was adopted in 1985. It starts with the number of seats in Parliament at that time, 282. One seat is automatically allocated to each of Canada's three territories, leaving 279. The total population of Canada's provinces is thus divided by 279, resulting in an "electoral quotient", and then the population of each individual province is divided by this electoral quotient to determine the number of seats to which the province is officially entitled.  Finally, a few special rules are applied. Under the "senatorial clause", a province's number of seats in the House of Commons can never be lower than its constitutionally mandated number of senators, regardless of the province's population. Under the "grandfather clause", the province's number of seats can also never fall below the number of seats it had in the 33rd Canadian Parliament.  A province may be allocated extra seats over its base entitlement to ensure that these rules are met. In 2004, for example, Prince Edward Island would have been entitled to only a single seat according to the electoral quotient, but through the senatorial clause the province gained three more seats to equal its four senators. Quebec was only entitled to 68 seats by the electoral quotient alone, but through the grandfather clause the province gained seven seats to equal the 75 seats it had in the 33rd Parliament. Saskatchewan and Manitoba also gained seats under the grandfather clause, New Brunswick gained seats under the senatorial clause, and Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador gained seats under "both" clauses.  A third protection clause exists, under which a province may not lose more than 15 per cent of its seats in a single adjustment, but specific application of this rule has never been needed. In practice, the process results in most provinces maintaining the same number of seats from one redistribution to the next, due to the senatorial and grandfather clauses—prior to the 2015 election, only Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, traditionally the country's three fastest-growing provinces, had ever gained seats in a redistribution. All other provinces still held the same number of seats that they held in 1985, and were thus already protected from losing even one seat by the other clauses. The 2012 redistribution, which added three new seats in Quebec, was the first time since 1985 that any of the other seven provinces had ever gained new seats. The 15 per cent clause will thus only become relevant if Ontario, Alberta or British Columbia undergoes a rapid population decline, leading to a reduction in their seat entitlement, in the future.  Some sources incorrectly state that a special provision guaranteeing a certain number of seats to Quebec is also applied. While such a provision was proposed in the failed Charlottetown Accord, no such rule currently exists—Quebec's seat allotment in the House of Commons is in fact governed by the same adjustment clauses as all other provinces, and not by any provisions unique to Quebec alone.  In 2008 the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper proposed an amendment to the process which would have given Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, the three provinces whose electoral districts have an average size larger than those in Quebec, a total of 32 additional seats by applying Quebec's average of 105,000. The measure initially included only British Columbia and Alberta; Harper later proposed an alternative plan which included Ontario. However, opposition then emerged in Quebec, where politicians expressed concern about the province losing clout in Ottawa if its proportion of seats in the House of Commons were reduced; finally, three new seats were allotted to Quebec as well. The measure did not pass before the 2011 election was called, but was put forward again after the election. It was passed on December 16, 2011 as the Fair Representation Act (Bill C-20), and resulted in the 2012 redistribution process.

Boundary review of federal electoral districts.

When the province's final seat allotment is determined, an independent election boundaries commission in each province reviews the existing boundaries and proposes adjustments. Public input is then sought, which may then lead to changes in the final boundary proposal. For instance, the proposed boundaries may not accurately reflect a community's historical, political or economic relationship with its surrounding region; the community would thus advise the boundary commission that it wished to be included in a different electoral district.  For example, in the 2003 boundary adjustment, the boundary commission in Ontario originally proposed dividing the city of Greater Sudbury into three districts. The urban core would have remained largely unchanged as Sudbury, while communities west of the central city would have been merged with Algoma—Manitoulin to form the new riding of Greater Sudbury—Manitoulin, and those east and north of the central city would have been merged with Timiskaming to create the riding of Timiskaming—Greater Sudbury.  Due to the region's economic and transportation patterns, however, "Timiskaming—Greater Sudbury" was particularly opposed by its potential residents — voters in Sudbury were concerned about the weakening of their representation if the city were divided into one city-based riding and two large rural ones rather than two city-based ridings, while the Timiskaming District is much more strongly aligned with and connected to North Bay, to which it has a direct highway link, than to Sudbury. In a deputation to the boundary commission, Sudbury's deputy mayor Ron Dupuis stated that "An electoral district must be more than a mere conglomeration of arbitrary and random groups of individuals. Districts should, as much as possible, be cohesive units with common interests related to representation. This makes a representative's job of articulating the interests of his or her constituency much easier." Instead, in the final report that was passed by the House of Commons, the Sudbury area's existing ridings of Sudbury and Nickel Belt were retained with only minor boundary adjustments, while the Timiskaming riding was merged with Nipissing. Despite the opposition that arose to the 2003 process, however, virtually the same tripartite division of the city was proposed in the boundary adjustment of 2012, although due to concerns around balancing the Northern Ontario region's population against its geographic size, the commission announced in 2013 that it would retain the existing electoral districts again.  Similarly, opposition arose in Toronto during the 2012 redistribution process, especially to a proposal which would have divided the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood, the city's primary gay village, between the existing riding of Toronto Centre and a new riding of Mount Pleasant along the length of Wellesley Street. In the final report, the northern boundary of Toronto Centre was shifted north to Charles Street.  Once the final report is produced, it is then submitted to Parliament for approval, which is given by voting on the report as a piece of legislation known as a "Representation Order". From Canadian Confederation, the boundaries were defined by the Constitution Act, 1867. Boundaries for one or more electoral districts were updated in 1872, 1882, 1892, 1903, 1914, 1924, 1933, and 1947. Subsequent changes are known as "Representation Order", and occurred in 1952, 1966, 1976, 1987, 1996 and 2003. Such changes come into force "on the first dissolution of Parliament that occurs at least one year after its proclamation". For example, the 2003 Representation Order was deemed to be effective 1 January 2004, and came into force after dissolution of the 37th Canadian Parliament on 23 May 2004.

Boundary adjustment for provincial and territorial electoral districts.

The boundary adjustment processes for electoral districts in provincial or territorial legislative assemblies follow provincial or territorial, rather than federal, law; they are overseen by each province's or territory's own election agency rather than by Elections Canada, and legislated by the provincial legislature rather than the federal parliament. Each province is free to decide its own number of legislative assembly seats, and is not required to comply with the federal quotas that govern its number of parliamentary districts.

Ontario.

Prior to 1999, provincial electoral districts were defined independently of federal districts; at the time of the 1995 Ontario general election, the province had 103 seats in the Canadian House of Commons but 130 in its provincial legislature. For the 1999 Ontario general election, however, the government of Mike Harris passed legislation which mandated that seats in the provincial legislature would follow federal electoral district boundaries, both reducing the size of the legislature and eliminating the cost of the province conducting its own boundary adjustment process. After each federal boundary adjustment, seats in the legislative assembly would henceforth be automatically realigned to match the federal boundaries at the first subsequent provincial election.  Although most electoral districts in the province still conform to federal boundaries, later amendments to the 1999 legislation have reauthorized the introduction of some differences from the federal map. In the Southern Ontario region, provincial districts remain in precise alignment with the federal ones; in the Northern Ontario region, however, because the region's slower growth would result in the gradual loss of seats compared to the more rapidly growing south, most districts still retain the same boundaries as the federal districts that were in place as of 2003, and are not readjusted to correspond to current federal boundaries. For the 2018 Ontario general election, further, two new uniquely provincial districts were added to improve representation for the far north of the province. As a result, the province currently has 121 seats in the House of Commons, but 124 seats in the provincial legislature.

Prince Edward Island.

When Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1873, it set a fixed formula in which each of the province's three counties was divided into five electoral districts per county, each of which elected two representatives to the provincial legislature. These districts were never adjusted for demographic changes, except in 1966 when the district for the capital city of Charlottetown was divided into two. After 1966, however, the electoral district boundaries again remained unchanged until 1996, when the province adopted new single-member districts. Under the new model, electoral districts are now adjusted every ten years, although most adjustments are geographically modest and the district's name is sometimes, but not always, the only substantive change that actually occurs.

Political issues.

Because electoral district boundaries are proposed by an arms-length body, rather than directly by political parties themselves, gerrymandering is not generally seen as an issue in Canada. However, in 2006 the provincial government of Prince Edward Island was accused of gerrymandering after it rejected the independent boundary commission's report and instead proposed a new map that would have seen the cities of Charlottetown and Summerside each gain one additional seat, with two fewer seats allocated to rural areas of the province. The alternate map gave every incumbent member of the governing party a "safe" seat to run in, while the original report would have forced some of the party's MLAs to compete against each other in nomination contests. In Alberta too gerrymandering was an issue, when the provincial Conservative government ignored the report of the independent boundary commission in 1991/2. The changes it did bring in were instrumental in losing two NDP seats (Ewasiuk's and Martin's). As well, the Social Credit government's move away from multi-member constituencies (and the STV) in 1957 was an attempt (successful for a decade) to retain power.  The unequal size of electoral districts across Canada has sometimes given rise to discussion of whether all Canadians enjoy equal democratic representation by population. For example, the four federal electoral districts in Prince Edward Island have an average size of just 33,963 voters each, while federal electoral districts in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia have an average size of over 125,000 voters each—only slightly smaller, in fact, than the "entire" population of Prince Edward Island.  Conversely, pure representation by population creates distinct disadvantages for some Canadians, giving rise to frequent debate about how to balance the population size of electoral districts against their geographic size. Whereas urban districts, such as Toronto Centre, Vancouver Quadra or Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, may be as small as 50 km or less, more rural districts, such as Timmins—James Bay, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou or Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River may encompass tens or hundreds of thousands of square kilometres in size. Thus, while Canadians who reside in major urban centres typically live within walking distance of their federal or provincial representatives' constituency offices, a rural resident may not even be able to call their federal or provincial representative's constituency offices without incurring long-distance calling charges.  Further, a rural politician who represents dozens of geographically dispersed small towns must normally incur much greater travel expenses, being forced to drive for several hours, or even to travel by air, in order to visit parts of their own district—and may even need to maintain more than one constituency office in order to properly represent all of their constituents. In Ontario, for example, the highest annual expense budgets among members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario are consistently filed by the representatives for Mushkegowuk—James Bay and Kiiwetinoong, the province's two largest and northernmost electoral districts; both must spend far more on travel to and from Toronto, travel within their own ridings and additional support staff in multiple communities within their ridings than any other legislator in the province.

An electoral district in Canada, also known as a "constituency" or a "riding", is a geographical constituency upon which Canada's representative democracy is based. It is officially known in Canadian French as a "circonscription", but frequently called a "comté" (county).


Early life and education.

Birthistle was born in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, but moved with her family to Derry, Northern Ireland when she was 14. She was raised Catholic but attended the non-denominational Foyle College. After her GCSEs, she studied acting at The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin.

Career.

In 1995, she got her first TV role as Regina Crosbie in the serial "Glenroe". She stayed for three years until 1998. She was offered her first feature film in 1997, "All Souls' Day" by Alan Gilsenan. She played a variety of roles in Irish films, including "Drinking Crude" (1997), co-starring Colin Farrell, and TV movie "Miracle at Midnight" (1998), with Mia Farrow. In 2002, Eva appeared in "Sunday", a dramatization of the events of Bloody Sunday written by Jimmy McGovern.  In 2003, she appeared in the TV series "Trust" before starring as Roisin Hanlon in the Ken Loach movie "Ae Fond Kiss..." (2003–04), which won her the 2005 London Critics Circle Film Award as "British Actress of the Year". She appeared in "Breakfast on Pluto", "Imagine Me & You" and "Save Angel Hope" (by Lukas Erni) in 2005, and in Brian Kirk's "Middletown" in 2006. She starred as human rights lawyer Jane Lavery in the TV conspiracy drama "The State Within", and played Rosaleen in the "Taken at the Flood" episode of "Agatha Christie's Poirot" in 2006. In late 2007, she featured as Rembrandt's wife Saskia van Uylenburg in the historical drama, "Nightwatching" by Peter Greenaway.  She featured in the BBC drama "The Last Enemy" in early 2008, playing the role of Eleanor Brooke, a junior minister. In 2009, she portrayed Jenette in the last episode of the second season of the BBC hit series "Ashes to Ashes". She also appeared in two successful horror films "The Children" (2008) and "Wake Wood" (2011). In 2010, she won Best Actress at the Myrtle Beach International Film Festival for her acclaimed performance as a lovelorn paralegal in Curt Truninger's "The Rendezvous".  She played "Annette Nicholls" in the 2010 three-part TV series "Five Daughters". She appeared as Detective Superintendent Sarah Cavendish in the ninth, and final, series of "Waking the Dead". In 2011, Birthistle appeared in the Sky1 TV series "" as Captain Kate Marshall. In 2013, Birthistle was co-starring Anna Friel in the Sky1 TV production "The Psychopath Next Door". In "Brooklyn" she played Georgina, the cabin-mate of Eilis (Saoirse Ronan), mentoring her in surviving the voyage to New York and dealing with immigration to the USA. In 2014, she portrayed Sarah Bailey in the miniseries "Amber". Since 2015, she has starred in "The Last Kingdom" as Hild, a nun turned warrior and friend of Uhtred of Bebbanburg. She appeared in the 2017 Irish film "The Delinquent Season" opposite Cillian Murphy.

Personal life.

Birthistle's husband, Ross, is an acupuncturist. They have a son, Jesse, born in 2013, and a daughter, Joni (named after Joni Mitchell) born in 2017.

Eva Birthistle (born 1 January 1974) is an Irish actress and writer. She is best known for her role in "Ae Fond Kiss..." and since 2015 has starred in "The Last Kingdom". She won the London Film Critics Circle British Actress of the Year Award in 2004, and has twice won the IFTA Best Actress in a Leading Role (Film) award.


Publication history.

American Eagle first appears in "Marvel Two-in-One Annual" #6 (October 1981), by writer Doug Moench and penciler Ron Wilson. In the story entitled "An Eagle from America!" Strongbow gains superhuman powers and becomes American Eagle. He joins with Thing, Ka-Zar, and Wyatt Wingfoot to defeat Klaw.  The character subsequently appears in "Contest of Champions" #1, 3 (June & August 1982), "Incredible Hulk" vol. 1 #279 (January 1983), and "Rom" #65-66 (April 1985-May 1985). He makes several appearances in stand-alone stories in "Marvel Comics Presents" vol. 1, including issues #27 (September 1989), 128 (May 1993), 130 (June 1993), and 147-148 (February 1994). The story "Just Another Shade of Hate", in issue #27, is its first solo adventure.  The American Eagle is not seen again for some time until his appearance in "Thunderbolts" #112-115 (May 2007-August 2007) where the writer Warren Ellis and the artist Mike Deodato Jr gave him a new look. American Eagle appears in his own digital comic on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited published Nov. 12, 2008. Titled "American Eagle: Just a Little Old-Fashioned Justice", it is an eight-page story written by Jason Aaron with art by Richard Isanove. This eight-page digital story was later printed in "Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular" #1 (2009). He plays a big role in the story "Homeland" in "War Machine" vol. 2 #6-7 (2010) written by Greg Pak. He appears in "Heroic Age: Heroes" #1 (November 2010) and "Fear Itself: The Home Front" #5 (October 2011).  American Eagle received an entry in the original "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" #1, in the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition" #1, in "The Marvel Encyclopedia" (2009) and in the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A To Z Update" #2 (2010).

Fictional character biography.

Jason Strongbow is a member of the Navajo Nation who was born in Kaibito, Arizona. He attempted to stop a mining company from excavating a mountain sacred to his tribe. He discovered that the villain Klaw was in league with the mining company. Klaw needed uranium to augment his sonic powers. Strongbow's brother Ward did not agree with him about preserving the mountain. Inside the mine, an argument erupted between the brothers and Klaw which led to violence. During the fight, Klaw used his sonic blaster on the two brothers. Somehow, a combination of the sonic energy of the blast and the exposure to the uranium gave both of the Strongbow brothers enhanced physical abilities. Klaw fled with his crew and Ward to the Savage Land in hopes of gaining vibranium to augment his powers.  Jason emerged from the mine. Taking inspiration from a flying eagle, he took up the mantle of American Eagle. He followed Klaw to the Savage Land. There, he met Ka-Zar, Thing, and Wyatt Wingfoot. The four joined forces and defeated Klaw and his minions. During the battle, Ward was shot and killed by one of the miners.  American Eagle returned to become a champion of his tribe, subsequently identified as the Navajo Nation. Since his battle with Klaw in the Savage Land, he was among the heroes of the world gathered to take part in the Contest of Champions, he was among the heroes who gathered to honor the Hulk, and he was among the heroes who helped Rom the Spaceknight defeat the Dire Wraiths.  In his first solo adventure, the American Eagle defeated the Peace Monger and his Knights of Saint Virgil in Washington, D.C.. With the NYPD, American Eagle arrests his cousin Jimmy Littlehawk who - along with two friends - robbed a casino on the Reservation then left for New York City. He helped F.B.I. agent Dale Peck arrest Jonas Murphy, a mutant and a serial killer. With Detective Frank Ramirez, Strongbow stopped a drug ring led by a man named Sinner, who used children to sell his merchandise. Strongbow escaped execution by John Marshall, who stole land from Native Americans man and was later ruined through a real estate charge by American Eagle. With the help of Interpol, Strongbow lured Marshall and his soldiers into a trap.  After the 2006 "Civil War" storyline, Jason Strongbow confirms to his friend Steve Rogers that he is strongly against the Super-Human Registration Act, and is planning to fight Iron Man over it. He also bears a new costume with fewer stereotypically Native American attributes, including a leather jacket and a helmet resembling the head and beak of a bald eagle. It is his intent to prevent the Steel Spider from direct confrontation with an angry group of men from Jason's Navajo reservation by persuading the Steel Spider to ease up on his zealous vigilante act. By talking to Ollie, he hopes to defuse a time bomb of local violence just waiting to explode.  The Eagle finds the Steel Spider in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, as the Thunderbolts unexpectedly arrive. Ollie argues that they will try to kill him and replace him with "Some Good Government Worker". When the Thunderbolts eventually do emerge, Jason decides to ally himself with Steel Spider, shooting the team's leader, Moonstone, through the wrist with a crossbow bolt. After a prolonged fight, Sepulchre becomes involved, and the three defeat Venom, the Swordsman, Songbird, and Radioactive Man. Though the latter two wish to try to defeat them using the old team's methods, leaving Sepulchre and the Eagle, Moonstone orders that Bullseye cripple the Eagle in the same way he did Jack Flag. The issue ends with Songbird, Radioactive Man, Penance and Venom squaring up against Steel Spider, Sepulchre and Jason, in what Steel Spider describes as 'almost... a fair fight'. The Eagle ends up crippling Bullseye before making his escape.  A news reporter stated that because American Eagle lives on a Native American Reservation he is exempt from the Registration Act, and that the Commission on Superhuman Activities would take no action against him because of this.  During the 2008-09 "Dark Reign" storyline, it is revealed that Jason is hiding James Rhodes' mother inside the Navajo County. Norman Osborn later tries to convince him to subdue War Machine, besides he has no jurisdiction over Strongbow. Jason refuses to act for anyone other than the interests of the Navajo and fights together with War Machine against a "Giant Ultimo Head" Rhodes stumbled upon along the way to find the men behind the "Ultimo Virus" deployed in Acquiria.  During the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, American Eagle deals with the fear and chaos in Bleachville as well as drug traffickers and the town's mayor.  American Eagle later appears as a member of the Agents of Wakanda.

Powers, abilities and equipment.

American Eagle possesses superhuman strength, enabling him to lift (press) approximately 15 tons under optimal conditions. He also possesses superhuman speed, agility, stamina, and sturdiness as a result of radiation-induced mutation. Strongbow's bodily tissues are somewhat harder and more resistant to physical injury than that of an ordinary human. However, he is far from invulnerable. While he can be injured by weapons composed of conventional materials, he can withstand impact forces that would severely injure or kill a normal human with little to no injury to show for it. He can run at a maximum speed of 65 miles per hour for approximately 5 hours before tiring to an appreciable degree.  American Eagle's sensory organs have also been fortified by the radiation-induced mutation. Like his namesake, the Eagle, he has hyperkeen eyesight, able to see at what the average human being sees at. His senses of hearing, smell, taste, and touch are approximately three times that of an average human being.  He also carries a crossbow which fires special bolts.

Analysis.

In "Native Americans in Comic Books - A Critical Study", Michael A. Sheyahshe notes that while American Eagle "may have some inherent stereotypic issues, the fact that American Eagle's powers come from a non-ethnically based source (and not, say, the Great Spirit) marks a significant improvement for Indigenous characters."  During an interview with Comic Book Resources, the assistant editor Lauren Sankovitch explains why she chose to represent American Eagle in "Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular" #1 (2009):  In an interview, Greg Pak, the writer of the story "Homeland" in "War Machine" vol. 2 #6-7 (2010), told that Jason Strongbow, aka American Eagle, is easily his "favorite reinvented character of the past decade." Indeed, the modern character has undergone some transformations compared to its appearances from 1981 to 1994. At the beginning, the Navajo hero was wearing a stereotypical costume with feather headdress and buckskin boots. When the writer Warren Ellis and the artist Mike Deodato Jr. used the character in "Thunderbolts", its new look is composed of ordinary clothes, a leather jacket and a helmet resembling the head and beak of a bald eagle. In its first appearances, Strongbow was running under his own power, at the opposite the new version uses a motorcycle.

Other characters named American Eagle.

World War II.

There was an American Eagle before Strongbow took the mantle. Lt. Col. James Fletcher, a renowned battlefield hero of World War I in recent times became the security chief and trainer for Project: Rebirth. He was captured by agents of the Red Skull (Johann Schmidt) and was tortured by the Master Interrogator. He refused to yield any information and committed suicide to avoid breaking under further torture. First appeared in "Adventures of Captain America" #1 (September 1991) and appeared through to issue #3 (December 1991) which depicted his death.

Earth-712.

There have also been two incarnations of characters named the "American Eagle" in the Squadron Supreme:

American Eagle (Jason Strongbow) is a fictional character, a Navajo superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.


Signage.

Autoroutes are identified by blue-and-red shields, similar to the American Interstate system. The red header of the shield contains a white image representing a highway overpass, and the blue lower portion of the shield contains the Autoroute's number in white, along with a fleur-de-lis, which is a provincial symbol of Quebec.  Most Autoroute and road traffic signs in the province are in French, though English is also used on federally-financed or -owned routes, such as the Bonaventure Expressway in Montreal. To surmount the language barrier, however, most signs in Quebec use pictograms and text is avoided in most cases, with the exceptions usually only being the names of control cities. Other exceptions that are posted in both languages is the illegal use of radar detectors when entering the province that reads "DÉTECTEURS DE RADAR INTERDITS/RADAR DETECTORS PROHIBITED", as well as areas where roads can be slippery due to melting ice and snow, marked "DEGEL/THAW".

Numbering system.

Autoroutes are divided into three types – principal routes, deviation routes, and collector routes – and are laid out and numbered in a fashion similar to the Interstate Highway System in the United States. The principal Autoroutes are the major highways of the province, and have single- or double-digit numbers. East-west Autoroutes running parallel to the Saint Lawrence River (for example, Autoroute 20 and Autoroute 40) are assigned even numbers, while north-south Autoroutes running perpendicular to the Saint Lawrence (such as Autoroute 5 and Autoroute 15) are given odd numbers. Deviation and collector Autoroutes both feature triple-digit numbers. Deviation routes are bypasses intended for truck traffic to circumvent urban areas, and are identified by an even number prefixing the number of the nearby Autoroute that it bypasses (for example, Autoroute 440 in Laval). Collector Autoroutes, by contrast, are spur routes into urban areas, and are identified by an odd number prefixing the number of the nearby Autoroute that it branches off of (such as Autoroute 720, a spur of Autoroute 20 into downtown Montreal).

History.

Quebec's first Autoroute was the "Autoroute des Laurentides" (Laurentian Autoroute), which opened in 1959 as a toll road. This initiative to bring freeways into Quebec was started by Maurice Duplessis, whose government saw the construction of the Laurentian Autoroute (now A-15) from Montreal to Saint-Jérôme and the first section of the Boulevard Métropolitain (A-40), which opened in 1960.

1960s.

It was the Quebec Liberal government of the 1960s that saw the construction of further Autoroutes, with a grid numbering system and the introduction of the blue and red shield. The sign is inspired by the American Interstate sign. This was especially needed in light of the fact that many visitors would be flocking to Montreal by car for Expo 67. Montreal's "Autoroute Décarie" (A-15) and the Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine Bridge–Tunnel were constructed for that very reason. The "Autoroute des Cantons-de-l'Est" (Eastern Townships Autoroute - A-10) opened in 1964, and its continuation, A-55 between Magog and Rock Island, opened in 1967, connecting with Interstate 91. What are now the A-20 (part of the Trans-Canada Highway) and the A-15 to New York (connecting with Interstate 87), originally built in the 1940s, were upgraded to expressway standards. The A-20 also connects with Highway 401 in Ontario. A-40 was extended out to Berthierville, and later to Trois-Rivières in the 1970s. Others include Autoroutes 25, 30 (southern beltway), 31, 35 (eventually connecting to Interstate 89), "Autoroute Laurentienne" (73), and 640 (an unfinished proposed northern beltway).

1970s.

The 1970s also saw the completion of the Pierre Laporte Bridge in Quebec City, connecting the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River to the north. In addition to this, the A-73 was extended to Beauce, the A-20 was extended to Rivière-du-Loup, and the Chomedey Autoroute (A-13), the A-19 and the A-440 were constructed in Laval. Autoroutes were built (two sections of A-440, and A-740) and a few more planned in the Quebec City region, creating a dense web, which led to significant sprawl. In 1976, the Parti Québécois came to power, whose platform mandated an expansion of public transportation over the construction of more Autoroutes. Existing Autoroutes were extended (e.g., the A-40 was extended from Trois-Rivières to Quebec City) but no new Autoroutes were built.  The Autoroute des Laurentides, the Autoroute des Cantons-de-l'Est, the Autoroute de la Rive-Nord (North Shore Autoroute), and the A-13 were toll roads until the mid-1980s, when the toll barriers were removed and the province stopped collecting tolls from vehicles using the Autoroutes. The last toll booth was on the Champlain Bridge (A-10,A-15 and A-20). It was removed in 1990 because the Champlain Bridge is federal property and is thus not subject to provincial tolls.

2000s.

In the 2000s, there were several high-profile failures and collapses around some Autoroutes, due to aging and crumbling infrastructure, including the Boulevard du Souvenir overpass collapse, De la Concorde overpass collapse, and most recently the Ville-Marie tunnel collapse. An online poll by Léger Marketing conducted shortly after the Viger tunnel collapse found that 88 percent of Montrealers are "worried" about the state of roads, bridges and tunnels in the city, with more than half of respondents saying they are downright "scared" to drive under an overpass (58 percent), on a bridge (54 per cent), or through a tunnel (53 per cent). McGill University's Saeed Mirza stated that ill-advised design choices and poor-quality concrete were used in the construction rush ahead of Expo '67 and the 1976 Olympics. In particular, the concrete used was permeable with lack of proper drainage, and these allowed chlorides from de-icing salts to corrode the steel reinforcements.

The autoroute system is a network of freeways within the province of Quebec, Canada, operating under the same principle of controlled access as the Interstate Highway System in the United States and the 400-series highways in neighbouring Ontario. The Autoroutes are the backbone of Quebec's highway system, spanning almost. The speed limit on the Autoroutes is generally in rural areas and in urban areas; most roads are made of asphalt concrete.


Route description.

The A-31 begins just south of its interchange with A-40 in Lavaltrie. Motorists exiting the A-40 can opt to travel north on A-31 (multiplexed with Route 131) or south on Route 131 to Lavaltrie's city centre. The A-31/A-40 interchange has an unusual configuration, built to accommodate tollbooths (since dismantled). Also unusual for a Quebec autoroute: agricultural vehicles like tractors are permitted to cross over the A-40 by travelling on A-31 from its southern terminus to exit 2. For this reason, an automated traffic regulation system (commissioned in 2009) lowers the speed limit automatically from 100/60 km/h to 90/30 km/h as needed.  Exits at km 2 and km 7 provide access to local roads, while a partial interchange at km 12 serves an industrial zone south of Joliette. The A-31 ends at km 15 at a cloverleaf interchange with Route 158. Plans for Quebec's autoroute system initially called for A-31 to meet the A-50 at this interchange. Anticipating this outcome, Route 158 in the immediate vicinity of the interchange was constructed as a limited-access highway and signed as A-50. Once plans to extend the A-50 east of the A-15 were abandoned in the 1980s, this stretch of highway was redesignated Route 158. A series of deadly accidents on Route 158 prompted a 2014 petition drive to reconstruct the highway to Autoroute standards and return the designation of A-50.  Motorists exiting the A-31 at km 15 may continue on Route 158 west to St-Esprit, Route 158 east to Berthierville, or Route 131 north to Saint-Félix-de-Valois. Past this interchange, A-31 ends and becomes Boulevard Dollard, which continues into downtown Joliette.

Autoroute 31 (A-31) is an Autoroute in the region of Lanaudière in Quebec. Constructed in 1966, the A-31 primarily links Joliette with the A-40 and in turn to Montreal, Trois-Rivières, and other points served by Quebec's autoroute system. The A-31 is only long, making it one of the shortest autoroutes in the province. It is multiplexed with Route 131 for its entire length.


Name and history.

Thomas Aquinas was one of the major Doctors of the Church of the Middle Ages. The name of Saint Thomas Aquinas was also given to the nearby Église Saint-Thomas-d'Aquin (Paris), built in the 17th century, and to the neighboring parish. It is also given to the neighborhood.

Current establishment.

Today, the lycée Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin is a lycée of general French Catholic private education, under contract in association with the state, located at 44, rue de Grenelle in Paris (7th arrondissement of Paris) headed by Olivier Duchenoy.  It is relatively small (no more than 500 students.)

Classes.

Today, the establishment consists of around 12 classes from the second year to finish, and includes Baccalauréat. There are also options in languages, economics, maths, and sciences, with specialities including theatre, plastic arts, and sport. Languages include English, German, Spanish, and Italian. The lycée also offer a special option: a second year immersion in the USA. The results for the Baccalauréat in 2010 were at 96% compared to an expected result of 94%. In 2017, the level of results was at 100%.

Ranking of the Lycée.

In 2015, the lycée ranked 32nd of 109 at departmental level in terms of teaching quality, and 288th at national level. The ranking was based on three criteria: the level of bac results, the proportion of students who achieved their baccalauréat and spent their last two years at the establishment, and the "added value" (calculated based on social origin of the students, their age, and their diploma results).

The lycée Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin is a school famous as the establishment where Général de Gaulle undertook his primary studies. It is also known as the école des Frères des écoles chrétiennes de la paroisse Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin. It was a primary school at the time. Since then, the original building has been completely destroyed, and a new building constructed in its place. Charles de Gaulle later became President of the Republic, head of the French Resistance and of Free France. A commemorative plaque noting his attendance at the school can be found in the hall of establishment above the doors to the courtyard (primary classes).


Description.

Tracing paper is paper made to have low opacity, allowing light to pass through. It is named as such for its ability for an image to be traced onto it. It was originally developed for architects and design engineers to create drawings which could be copied precisely using the diazo copy process;  When tracing paper is placed onto a picture, the picture is easily visible through the paper. Thus, it becomes easy to find edges in the picture and trace the image onto the tracing paper. Pure cellulose fiber is translucent, and it is the air trapped between fibers that makes paper opaque and look white. If the fibers are refined and beaten until all the air is taken out, then the resulting sheet will be translucent. Translucent papers are dense and contain up to 10% moisture at 50% humidity.

Production.

Tracing paper is usually made from sulfite pulp by reducing the fibres to a state of fine subdivision and hydrolysing them by very prolonged beating in water.  There are three main processes to manufacture this type of paper, as follows:-  The sizing in production will determine whether it is for laser printer or inkjet/offset printing.  Tracing paper may be uncoated or coated. Natural tracing paper for laser printing is usually uncoated.  The HS code for tracing paper is 4806.30.  Tracing paper can be recycled and also can be made from up to 30% recycled fibre.

Technical specifications.

The follows are common standards for tracing paper Though, generally it is manufactured in grammages over 60 GSM:

Tracing paper is paper made to have low opacity, allowing light to pass through. It was originally developed for architects and design engineers to create drawings which could be copied precisely using the diazo copy process; it then found many other uses. The original use for drawing and tracing was largely superseded by technologies which do not require diazo copying or manual copying (by tracing) of drawings.


History.

Moimenta's history is fairly recent: Alfonso III of Asturias conquered Lamego from the Moors, when the first settlements along the Douro began by remnants of Visigothic tribes. ""And there they entered into power, becoming absolute masters of everything that the force of arms would take"", from the writings of the Scribe Santa Rosa Viterbo.  These bands created rural villages and homes that received in their local dialects the names Leomil, Baldos, Alvite, Toitam, Mileu, Segões, Sever and Ariz. The inhabitants of the mountains and castros, such as Pêra, Caria and São Félix, began to descend into the valleys, abandoning the rudimentary and fragile fortifications to work in the towns for the signeurial masters.  During this epoch, one of these lands (actually insignificant), whose name was implied to the localities ceremonial and funerary importance; it served as a place of homage and worship of the dead, and its name "Moimenta" () was in reference to its mausoleum in honour of the dead.  By the 12th century all the civil parishes that now exist were already part of the Moimenta administration, although Leomil ("Couto") and Caria ("Honra") had their own magistrate until 1258.  One hundred years later, in the 14th century, the lands of the municipality of Moimenta da Beira, had three ecclesiastical parishes: Santa Maria de Caria, Santa Maria de Lobozaim and São Tiago de Leomil. Sever and Alvite were part of the "Couto de São João de Tarouca" (a military administration) created in 1140, while Vilar was part of the "Honra de Fonte Arcada" (an honorific title bestowed to nobility). After the 14th century, as the management of rural territories necessitated an administrative authority, eight municipalities were established in the region, which extended into the 19th century: Paçô; Nagosa e Castelo; Sever e Alvite; Pêra e Peravelha; Ariz e Peva; and Moimenta (then known as "Moimenta de São João Baptista de Leomil"), were formed at the expense of Leomil. Meanwhile, the parishes of Paradinha, Cabaços e Baldos, were separated from Leomil (resulting in this municipality only retaining the parishes of Sarzedo and Paraduça). Finally, the municipality of Caria, already a municipal seat with pillory in the "Vila da Rua", included the small parishes of Arcozelos, Aldeia de Nacomba, Faia, Penso, Carregal, Lamosa, Quintela da Lapa and Segões.  The administrative reform of 1834 initiated a concentration of municipal authority in fewer administrative units: the small municipalities of Peravelha, Castelo, Nagosa and Arcos were extinguished and incorporated into the municipality of Moimenta da Beira; the municipality of Caria received the parishes of Arcozelos, Aldeia de Nacomba and Segões; and Leomil grew to include the municipalities of Paçô and Sever. In 1855 the municipality of Leomil was extinct and all its assets redistributed to Moimenta da Beira, which also received the parish of Vilar from the extinguished municipality of Sernancelhe.  On 21 May 1896, Caria and Rua were transferred from Sernancelhe to Moimenta da Beira. In the short span of 21 yeast, the small municipality of Moimenta, which included only Moimenta, Paradinha, Cabaços and Baldos, in 1834, grew to 19 by 1855. It was only in 1896 when the geographic limits were finally settled.

Geography.

The municipality is bounded by Tabuaço the northeast, Sernancelhe in the southeast, Sátão in the south, Vila Nova de Paiva in the west and Tarouca and Armamar in the northwest.  Administratively, the municipality is divided into 16 civil parishes ("freguesias"):

Moimenta da Beira () is a municipality in the northern part of Portugal, located in the district of Viseu. The population in 2011 was 10,212, in an area of 219.97 km2.


Kingdom of Mann and the Isles (836–1237).

Since the emergence of Somerled and his descendants in the 12th century, the Manx kings began to lose territory and power in the Hebrides. Before the reigns of the three sons of Olaf the Black, the Manx kings styled themselves "King of the Isles". By the time of the reigns of Olaf's sons, the kings had begun to style themselves "King of Mann and the Isles".

Scottish and English rule (1265–1333).

Between 1265 and 1333, Mann was ruled directly by the kings of Scotland (1265–1290, 1293–1296, 1313–1317, 1328–1333) or the kings of England (1290–1293, 1296–1313, 1317–1328).

Independent kingdom (1333–1399).

On 9 August 1333 Edward III renounced all English claims over the Isle of Man, and recognised it as an independent kingdom under its then king, William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury.  William le Scrope, Earl of Wiltshire was the last King of Mann in this line, claiming descent from the House of Godred Crovan, the earlier Norse Rulers.  William le Scrope was executed for treason for his support of Richard II in his struggle with Henry Bolingbroke, who defeated Richard and became Henry IV. Le Scrope's possessions, including the Isle of Man, passed to the Crown.

English suzerainty (1399–1504).

As Henry's predecessor, Edward III, had recognised Mann as an independent kingdom, Henry IV did not directly claim the Manx throne, but instead proclaimed that he had acquired the island by right of conquest, which in international legal theory at that time erased any existing constitutional arrangements. He then on 19 October 1399 granted the Island, as a fiefdom under the English Crown, to Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland together with wide-ranging powers of government and associated regalities, together with the style of 'Lord of Man', in a position of feudality and thus without sovereignty. Despite this, Percy styled himself as 'King of Mann'.  Following Percy's treasonous rebellion, Henry IV granted the suzerainty of the Isle of Man, on similar terms but only for the term of his life, to Sir John Stanley in 1405. In addition, but separate from the power of governance over the Island, John Stanley was also granted the patronage of the Diocese of Sodor and Man.  A second letters-patent were issued and re-granted to Sir John Stanley on 6 April 1406, the difference being that the grant was inheritable and had a different feudal fee, the service of which comprised rendering homage and a tribute of two falcons to all future kings of England on their coronations.

Lord of Mann (1504—present).

Edward Stanley, 3rd Earl of Derby, the son of Thomas Stanley, 2nd Earl of Derby, did not take the style 'King', and he and his successors were generally known instead as Lord of Mann. However, the Latin style "Rex Manniae et Insularum" (King of Mann and the Isles) continued to be occasionally used in official documents until at least the 17th century.  In 1765 the title was revested in the Crown of Great Britain; thus today the title, Lord of Mann, is used by Queen Elizabeth II.

The King of Mann () was the title taken between 1237 and 1504 by the various rulers, both sovereign and suzerain, over the Kingdom of Mann – the Isle of Man which is located in the Irish Sea, at the centre of the British Isles.


Club career.

Early career.

Obinna played for Nigerian clubs Plateau United and Kwara United, he went on trials with Italian clubs Internazionale, Perugia and Juventus before signing with Brazilian club Internacional, but international clearance problems meant that the transfer was never finalised. He rejoined Enyimba to take part in their domestic league campaign and CAF Champions League defence.

Chievo.

Obinna was signed by Italian club Chievo on a five-year contract in July 2005. But also reported that Chievo formed an agreement with Internazionale that Obinna first registered as Chievo player in order to use the non-EU registration quota of Chievo, like Júlio César in the 2004–05 season. Then he would be call back to Inter.  In his first season with Chievo, Obinna scored six goals in 26 games, including a goal on his Serie A debut against Parma in a 1–0 win, 11 September 2005. In the first months of the 2006 season, Obinna was suspended for having signed a contract with both Internacional and Chievo in 2005. Chievo were relegated at the end of the 2006–07 season, casting some doubt over Obinna's future; the club choosing to keep Obinna in the squad to help gain promotion back to Serie A.  On 4 October 2007, Obinna was involved in a car accident on his way home from training in which he swerved away from a vehicle that had tried to overtake him around a bend. He escaped with only a few cuts and bruises. The car flipped several times and was heavily damaged. He lost consciousness and was taken to hospital. The accident occurred only a few hundred yards away from where former Chievo player Jason Mayélé was killed in a car accident in 2002.

Internazionale.

In the summer of 2008, Obinna moved back to Inter for a €1.2 million transfer fee in a three-year contract. English club Everton attempted to immediately sign him on loan, but were unable to secure a work permit for the player. Obinna's first goal for Inter came on 19 October in a 4–0 win over Roma. Internazionale coach José Mourinho described Obinna as one of Inter's best talents for the future.

Málaga.

On 26 August 2009, Spanish La Liga side Málaga signed Obinna on a season-long loan. He scored his first goal for the Andalusian club on 4 October in 1–1 a draw against Xerez, a match in which he was also sent off.

West Ham United.

On 27 August 2010, Obinna signed for West Ham United on a season-long loan with the option of a permanent deal in 2011. He made his debut for West Ham on 11 September in a 3–1 home defeat to Chelsea. He scored his first goal for West Ham in a 2–1 win against Sunderland in the third round of the League Cup at the Stadium of Light on 21 September 2010. He scored his first league goal in 3–1 win against Wigan Athletic on 27 November 2010. He continued the fine form with four assists in a 4–0 win against Manchester United on 30 November 2010, automatically booking a first League Cup semi-final for 20 years.  Obinna was sent off during West Ham's semi-final, first leg match on 11 January 2011 against Birmingham City for an off the ball challenge on Sebastian Larsson with West Ham having conceded an equaliser just minutes earlier. On 30 January, Obinna scored a hat-trick in a FA Cup 4th round tie against Nottingham Forest, leading West Ham to a 3–2 victory. He followed that up three days later with two goals as West Ham beat Blackpool 3–1 at Bloomfield Road.

Lokomotiv Moscow.

On 19 June 2011, Obinna signed a four-year deal with Lokomotiv Moscow on a free transfer.

MSV Duisburg.

Obinna joined MSV Duisburg on 9 September 2015 for the 2015–16 season.

Darmstadt.

He joined SV Darmstadt on 5 August 2016. He was released on 31 January 2017.

Cape Town City.

In September 2017, Obinna signed for Premier Soccer League side Cape Town City. At the time of signing, the club were managed by former West Ham teammate Benni McCarthy.

International career.

Obinna was a member of the U-20 Flying Eagles that won the gold in Benin in the African Youth Tournament in 2005 he was called up to the Nigerian senior squad at the 2006 African Cup of Nations, scoring once before his side's semifinal elimination.  In August 2008, he was named amongst Nigeria's squad for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Obinna scored Nigeria's first goal in a 2–1 win against Japan the "Dream Team IV" winning goal in the final group match against the United States, ensuring that Nigeria qualified for the quarter-finals. Nigeria were drawn against Ivory Coast who they beat 2–0, with Obinna scoring a penalty and setting up Peter Odemwingie for the other goal. He later captained the Nigerian team when they beat Belgium 4–1 in the semi-final match, before losing to Argentina in the final.

Career statistics.

Club.

Source:

International.

Source:

Honours.

Club.

Chievo  Internazionale

Victor Nsofor Obinna (born 25 March 1987) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker. Obinna in Igbo, literally means "father's heart". He played for Chievo in Italy's Serie B, having played regularly in Serie A with the club until their relegation in 2007. He made his full international debut for Nigeria at the 2006 African Cup of Nations, scoring once in three appearances as his side were eliminated in the semi-finals.


Early life.

Margarita Zavala was born on 25 July 1967 in Mexico City. She is the fifth of seven siblings: Diego Hildebrando, Mercedes, Pablo, Juan Ignacio, Rafael and Mónica. Her parents, Diego Zavala Pérez and Mercedes Gómez del Campo, were lawyers. Her father was a magistrate in the. She attended the Instituto Asunción, an academy run by nuns. She became a youth leader of the Partido Acción Nacional at age 17. She first met Felipe Calderón in 1984, when both were activists for the PAN party. Zavala studied law at the Escuela Libre de Derecho, where she graduated with a 9.5 (out of ten) grade point average. Her thesis, "La Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos: antecedentes, estructura y propuestas", was on the National Human Rights Commission.

Career.

Zavala worked for the private law firms Estrada, González y de Ovendo and Sodi y Asociados. Zavala was a Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District between 15 September 1994 and 14 September 1997. Zavala was a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana (1991-1992) and also taught law at the Instituto Asunción (1990 to 1999), her high-school alma mater. Zavala is a regular op-ed contributor to "El Universal".

National Action Party leadership roles.

Zavala has been a national councilor for the National Action Party (PAN) since 1991, and was the PAN's Legal Director of the National Executive Committee from 1993 to 1994. In 1995, she was a Mexican delegate to the Fourth World Conference on Women. Zavala was named by Luis Felipe Bravo Mena to head the Secretaria de Promoción Política de la Mujer, which is the party's office for the promotion of the participation of women in politics, serving from 1999 to 2003. During her four years as head, the proportion of female PAN federal deputies increased from 19% to 32%, the largest of any political party.  She was part of the transition team of Vicente Fox, advising on women's issues. She was a founding member of the Junta de Gobierno del (2001), which is the government office that works toward gender equality and elimination of discrimination and violence against women.

Chamber of Deputies.

Zavala was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2003, as part of the LIX Legislature of the Mexican Congress. She was nominated through the National Action Party's list under the principle of proportional representation. She served on three Chamber of Deputies commissions: Commission on Labor and Social Security (2003–06), Commission on Justice and Human Rights (2003–06), Commission on National Defense (2003–06). She was also a member on the Law Studies and Parliamentary Investigations Center Committee (2004–06). Additionally, she served as Sub-Coordinator of Social Politics of PAN's Parliamentary Group. Zavala resigned in April 2006 to campaign for her husband's 2006 bid for the Mexican presidency.

First Lady of Mexico.

Margarita's primary objective in the changing Mexican government was to help her newly elected husband run the educational programs throughout the country.  As the wife of Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico during 2006-2012, Margarita Zavala was considered "First Lady" although such function is not defined by the legal framework. She is the only First Lady to have served in Congress, although she served as non-elected member through a position defined as plurinominal by the Mexican law. She served as president of the civic advisory board to the Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, a government agency that promotes child and family development.  She supported organizations that fight drug addiction and others that help migrant children returning from the United States. Zavala became a pledged organ and tissue donor upon death in 2009 to help promote organ donation in Mexico. She launched an anti-addiction program called Nueva Vida, which planned to have 310 centers nationwide as of 2011. Zavala continued to hold influence in the PAN, with the election of Gustavo Madero Muñoz for PAN presidency cited as an example of her lobbying.  During her husband's administration her family was involved in corruption scandals, including a privately run, publicly funded day care facility in Hermosillo, Mexico, which caught fire on June 5, 2009, resulting in the death of 49 children. It later became known that the facility never met safety standards, and among the owners was Marcia Matilde Altagracia Gómez del Campo Tonella, a cousin of the first lady. Though she was not found guilty by a jury, many people question a possible interference from the executive branch of the government given the family ties.  Moreover, her brother's company, Diego Hildebrando Zavala, was awarded some public contracts both during the administration of Felipe Calderón, and before when he was Secretary of Energy, an issue which some Corruption Watch organizations point out as evidence of conflicts of interest from the former president.  Her cousin Luis Felipe Zavala MacGregor was murdered in gang-related violence.  Mariana Gomez del Campo, another cousin of her, became president of the National Action Party of Mexico City amid allegations of electoral fraud by other party members. They also accused her of misappropriation of public money from the party's budget, and nepotism as she appointed her own sister, Teresa Gomez del Campo to the local Mexican Youth Institute, known by its acronym in Spanish IMJUVE with a monthly salary of $28,125 pesos which is almost the double of an average salary in Mexico City.

Post-Calderón presidency.

Speculations surrounding Zavala's political career began after her husband's presidency ended. She was eyed as the possible leader of the National Action Party, as well as a potential presidential candidate in 2018, though in 2013 she declined both.  In September 2014, after two years as private citizen, Zavala revealed her intentions of becoming a candidate for the Mexican Chamber of Deputies. On January 2015, Zavala formally registered as a pre-candidate for a term as a Federal Deputy, through the means of proportional representation in the fourth constituency, stating that Mexico required a Congress capable of balancing power. She was backed by several members of her party, including former presidential candidate Josefina Vázquez Mota. However, she was left out of the first 15 places in the PAN's national list, significantly reducing her chances of winning a position in Congress.  A day later, she announced that she would seek the presidency of the PAN, stating that the party needed to change. In February, however, she left open the possibility of running for president in 2018.  Zavala campaigned for various PAN candidates at municipal and state levels during the 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017 election cycles.

2018 presidential campaign.

On 14 June 2015, Zavala released a video announcing her desire to run as a presidential candidate in 2018.  While attending the Guadalajara International Book Fair, she was asked for the three books that impacted her life (commonly asked to presidential candidates), to which she answered: the Bible, "The Price of My Soul" by Bernadette Devlin and "Caudillos culturales en la Revolución Mexicana" by Enrique Krauze.  Zavala was consistently been the among likely PAN presidential candidates between March 2016 and April 2017. She released her financial records in December 2016.  On May 16, 2018, Zavala publicly withdrew her name from the ticket, ending her presidential campaign.

Political stances.

Zavala was a proponent for constitutional amendments that would have allowed politicians to seek reelection. Congress members were allowed to seek reelection since 2014 (four terms for the lower house and two for the upper house, total of 12 years, while the president remains limited to one term).  Zavala opposes abortion; with her only political declaration during her time as First Lady being the condemnation of the legalization of abortion in Mexico City.  Following the Supreme Court's June 2015 declaration of state laws defining marriage as unconstitutional, Zavala was asked her stance on the matter in an interview on "Al Punto" to which she responded: the Court has been clear on same-sex marriage, including on a previous challenge to Mexico City's civil code, various resolutions make it jurisprudence and "I do not have any problem". However, during an event in which she was collecting signatures for her independent candidacy, a lesbian couple with children approached her, while they were recorded, they introduced themselves to her and, as the recording shows, Zavala's immediate reaction was of shock followed by instructing the person recording to put it off saying "this is something different", then she turned again at the couple and told them "I believe..." and the recording ends abruptly. She was criticized by the media, and was asked again to clarify her position on same-sex marriage which caused her to say she regretted having done that.

Personal life.

After six years of dating, she married Felipe Calderón in January 1993. They have three children: María (born 1997), Luis Felipe (born 1999) and Juan Pablo (born 2003).  Zavala is a Roman Catholic.  On 13 June 2012, Zavala underwent surgery in her right eye to avoid retinal detachment from an injury; she was submitted to emergency surgery following a retinal detachment on 18 October 2016.

Public image.

Zavala became known for wearing rebozos, a traditional shawl. Her austere personality during her time as First Lady was contrasted with the frequently outspoken Marta Sahagún. Zavala's political discreteness was seen as intentional to avoid the scrutiny Sahagún received for her prominence in the Fox administration.

Margarita Zavala de Calderón (; born Margarita Ester Zavala Gómez del Campo. on 25 July 1967) is a Mexican lawyer and politician. She is the wife of the former President of Mexico Felipe Calderón and served as the First Lady of Mexico during her husband's tenure. Zavala also ran as an independent candidate for the presidency of Mexico between 12 October 2017 and 16 May 2018.


Place setting and service order.

For the most correct "service à la russe", in its modern form (significantly different from the original) the following must be observed:  The place setting (called a cover) for each guest includes a service plate, all the necessary cutlery except those required for dessert, and stemmed glasses for water, wines and champagne. Atop the service plate is a rolled napkin, and atop that is the place card. Above the plate is a saltcellar, nut dish, and a menu.  The cutlery to the right of the service plate is, from the outside in, the oyster fork resting in the bowl of the soup spoon, the fish knife, the meat knife and the salad knife (or fruit knife). On the left, from the outside in, are the fish fork, the meat fork and a salad fork (or fruit fork). If both a salad and a fruit course are served, the necessary extra flatware is brought out on a platter, as it is bad form to have more than three knives or forks on the table at once, the oyster fork excepted.  Guests are seated according to their place cards and immediately remove their napkins and place them in their laps. Another view maintains that the napkin is only removed after the host has removed his or hers. (In the same manner, the host is first to begin eating, and guests follow.) The oyster plate is placed atop the service plate. Once that is cleared, the soup plate replaces it. After the soup course is finished, both the soup plate and service plate are removed from the table, and a heated plate is put in their place. The rule is as such: a filled plate is always replaced with an empty one, and no place goes without a plate until just before the dessert course.  The fish and meat courses are now always served from platters because in correct service a filled plate is never placed before a guest, as this would indirectly dictate how much food the guest is to eat. This was not the case historically, nor is it often followed in restaurants.  Directly before dessert, everything is removed from the place settings except the wine and water glasses. Crumbs are cleared. The dessert plate is then brought out with a doily on top of it, a finger bowl on top of that, and a fork and spoon, the former balanced on the left side of the plate and the latter on the right. Guests remove the doily and finger bowls, move them to the left of the plate and place the fork to the left side of the plate and the spoon to its right. Guests do not actually need to use the finger bowl, since they may have not used their fingers to eat with, unless they also had bread with the meal.

A multi-course dinner served "à la russe".

The number of dishes (or courses) served at a meal "à la russe" has changed over time; but an underlying pattern of service—beginning with soup, then moving through various entrées, then to the roast or game, and then to vegetables (including salads), sweets and coffee—persisted from the mid-19th century (when this type of service was introduced to France) until WWII, and continued in a much-reduced form into the 21st century. The order of dishes descends directly from the much older "service à la française". In that style of service, all sorts of dishes were arranged on the table and guests served themselves and each other. As Jean-Louis Flandrin has shown, the order of "consumption"—known to the guests of the time but rarely evident from contemporary menus or descriptions of meals—was essentially the same as the order of "presentation" in "service à la russe".  The most elaborate version of "service à la russe", which reached its pinnacle in the last decades of the Victorian era, was described by Sarah Tyson Rorer in 1886. Rorer was critical of this elaborate service and offered a much simpler alternative, which in fact represents the core principles of this style of service.  The elaborate and conventional dinner, complete at all points, which the dinner-giving of a century and a half has evolved, is beyond any but the very wealthy. Very few of them succeed in giving it, and still fewer of their guests enjoy it. Its triple triplets of oysters, soup, and fish, the relevé, entrées, and roast, a pause of rum punch to stimulate languishing digestion, game with salad, sweets and ice, coffee to close, and a bewildering series of wines, with an alcoholic appetizer to begin and end, have, however, had their effect in making many feel that a formal dinner must only follow this model from afar. So, with only the resources of a simple household, they compass, with infinite labor, oysters, soup, and fish, add some made dish to the meat, and put salad before and ice cream after the pudding or sweets.But success here, with a moderate income, is as rare as success with the long dinner at the complete table. Try to grasp the theory of the elaborate edifice which custom and convention has piled up, and see if your own resources cannot reproduce its purpose with better success. After having carefully analyzed it, you will see at once that the most complex dinner simply aims to begin with something of easy digestion, slide by some transition to the roast, and make sure that through salad, sweets and coffee, the last half of your dinner shall interest the appetite as well as satisfy hunger. You, have, therefore, soup, roast, dessert, which make up the usual dinner of thoroughly civilized people, and below you will see how, with but moderate resources, you may so vary this as to make a “little dinner” complete and satisfying in itself; more, the most elaborate meal at Delmonico’s cannot do.  In Britain and the United States, fish is a distinct course; relevés are large, solid joints of meat or whole fowl, generally baked, braised, or boiled but not roasted; entrées are elaborate "made dishes" of, typically, fillets of beef or other butcher's meat (and sometimes fowl, but—apart from days of religious observance—not fish), served in fine sauces. Roasts are solid joints of meat (and sometimes fowl) other than feathered game, usually spit-roasted but often baked. Game is feathered not furred, spit-roasted whole and served rather simply. (Rorer's "roast" here refers to a roasted entrée, but this terminology is not typical of the period. In her time, the "roast" followed the punch, and it was always game, if available.)  At the time Rorer was writing, Alessandro Filippini, a chef at Delmonico's restaurant on Pine Street in New York, wrote a book of menus for "every family of means in the habit of giving a few dinners to its friends during the year", with a brief discussion of table service and a guide to wines. He recommended the types of menus criticized by Rorer but common among the wealthy. French dinners are generally served in three main courses, viz., Relevés, Entrées, and Rotis; all the rest are considered side courses. It depends entirely on the taste of the host as to how many main courses he desires served. The author would suggest two relevés, three entrées, and one or two rotis; this could be made an elaborate dinner.  About a third of Filippini's book contains menus for breakfast, luncheon, and dinner for every day of the year. The dinner menus begin with the "side courses", as he calls them: oysters or clams, soup, and hors d'œuvre; followed by the three "main courses": several relevés and entrées, and one roti (roast); and finally a few other "side courses": sweet entremets, ices, and coffee.  Hors-d'œuvre are usually small cold items (such as olives, celery, radishes, charcuterie, caviar), but they might also include hot made dishes (such as timbales, croustades, croquettes). In the French style of "service à la russe", used by Filippini for many of his menus, there is no distinct "fish course", as both relevés and entrées may be of meat, fowl, or fish indiscriminately. Punch often precedes the roast. The roast can be meat, fowl, or fish (though fish is generally limited to days of religious observance); when game is served, it always comprises the roast course. Entremets are the vegetables, including salads, served with the relevés and entrées; they not as a separate course, though they are often listed as such. Sweet entremets are cakes, puddings, and such. Ices are frozen sweets, served as a separate course. Fruit, petits fours, coffee, and cordials are offered at the end of the meal.  A few years after Filippini wrote his book, Charles Ranhofer, another chef at Delmonico's restaurant (variously at the 14th Street, 26th Street, and 44th Street locations), in his cookbook "The Epicurean", outlined in great detail the dishes necessary for dinners ranging from six to fourteen courses. The six-course dinner is very much like Rorer's "little dinner": oysters, soup, fish, entrée, roast, salad, and dessert. Longer dinners are arranged by adding side dishes, removes, and various cold dishes, and by serving a greater number of entrées and desserts. The longest of these menus is as follows: Figure 1—36 covers:  "S.D." are "side dishes", i.e. hors d'œuvre. There is a separate fish course, then relevés and entrées. Cold dishes, such as mayonnaise salads and aspics, had become very popular at this time, as is evident in the menu. Roasts could be of butchers' meat, fowl, or game (rarely, if ever, fish). When more than one dish was appointed for a course (e.g. 2 Soups, 2 Fish, 2 roasts, 2 colds), the guest was expected to choose one or the other, not both. A guest might decline one or more of the courses.  Ranhofer also gives elaborate instructions for the service of wine. FIRST SERVICE. "With Oysters."—Sauterne, Barsac, Graves, Mont Rachet, Chablis. "After the Soup."—Madeira, Sherry or Xeres. "With Fish."—(Rhine wines) Johannisberger, Marcobrunner, Hochheimer, Laubenheimer, Liebfraumilch, Steinberger. (Moselle) Brauneberger, Zeltinger, Berncasteler. "With Removes."—Côte St. Jacques, Moulin-à-vent, Macon, Clos de Vougeot, Beaune. "With Entrées."—St. Émilion, Médoc du Bordelais, St. Julien. Dry champagnes for certain countries. Iced Punches and Sherbets, Rum, Madeira.  SECOND SERVICE. "With Roasts."—(Burgundies) Pommard, Nuits, Corton, Chambertin, Romanée Conti. "Cold Roasts."—Vin de Paille, Steinberger. "With Hot Desserts."—(Bordeaux) Château Margaux, Léoville, Laffitte, Château Larose, Pontet-Canet, St. Pierre, Côtes de Rhone, Hermitage and Côte-Rôtie. (Red Champagne) Bouzy, Verzenay, Porto Première.  THIRD SERVICE. "With Dessert."—(Burgundy) Volnay, Mousseux. (Champagnes) Delmonico, Roederer, Rosé Mousseux, Pommery, Cliquot, Perrier-Jouët, Moët, Mumm. "Wine Liquors."—Muscatel, Malaga, Alicante, Malvoisie of Madeira, Lacryma Christi, red and white Cape, Tokay, Constance, Schiraz. "Cordials."—Curaçoa [sic], Kirsch, Cognac, Chartreuse, Maraschino, Prunelle, Anisette, Bénédictine. "Beers."—Bass’ Ales, Porter, Tivoli, Milwaukee.  Several decades later, shorter meals had become the norm and the extravagant dinners of the Victorian period were considered vulgar, as noted by Emily Post in 1922: Under no circumstances would a private dinner, no matter how formal, consist of more than: The menu for an informal dinner would leave out the entrée, and possibly either the hors-d’oeuvre or the soup.  As a matter of fact, the marked shortening of the menu is in informal dinners and at the home table of the well-to-do. Formal dinners have been as short as the above schedule for twenty-five years. [c.1900.] A dinner interlarded with a row of extra entrées, Roman punch, and hot dessert is unknown except at a public dinner, or in the dining-room of a parvenu. About thirty-five years ago [c.1890] such dinners are said to have been in fashion!  At the time Post was writing, hors-d’œuvre meant rather narrowly light cold dishes like oysters, clams, melon, or citrus. Entrées meant elaborate "made dishes" of fillets of beef or other butcher's meat served in a fine sauce, or some sort of pastry dish. Roasts could be of any meat, which was not necessarily roasted. The preferred dish of a truly fine dinner was wild feathered game, spit-roasted and served rather simply. Dessert was molded ice cream only, to the exclusion of all other sweets. Despite Post's complaints about extra entrées, many dinners continued to feature two meat courses between the fish and the roast.  Post's first book was published during Prohibition, and she noted, "A water glass standing alone at each place makes such a meager and untrimmed looking table that most people put on at least two wine glasses, sherry and champagne, or claret and sherry, and pour something pinkish or yellowish into them. [...] Those few who still have cellars, serve wines exactly as they used to, white wine, claret, sherry and Burgundy warm, champagne ice cold; and after dinner, green mint poured over crushed ice in little glasses, and other liqueurs of room temperature."  After World War II, dinners were curtailed even more. As Post writes in the 1950 edition of her book, the shorter "informal" meal of her earlier book had become the norm for formal dinners: It is rare for a modern dinner to consist of more than five courses. However, 'tasting menus' - whereby diners are served numerous courses do exist. These are the exception though, and a formal dinner today would typically include:: After-dinner coffee  In addition to the set courses, little relish dishes of radishes, celery, olives, or almonds could be set on the table as "hors-d'œuvre". Wines, too, were often greatly reduced in number. Amy Vanderbilt noted in her book, "The Complete Book of Etiquette", "At a formal dinner champagne may be the only wine served after the service of sherry with the soup."  This five-course service might be further reduced by serving either soup or fish (or shellfish) as a first course, but not both. Dinners in the French style usually include a cheese course after the roast, generally resulting in a 6-course meal (see, for example, the formal menus in Richard Olney's "The French Menu Cookbook"); alternatively, one or more of the other courses can be omitted (see, for example, the formal menus in Simone Beck's "Simca's Cuisine"). Dinners in the American style often place the salad as a first course instead of soup, an innovation that appeared in the 1950s in California and was noted by Vanderbilt ; in this arrangement, dessert is served immediately after the roast. Wine service may include a separate wine for each course, or simply be champagne throughout; or, most commonly, service may be limited to three wines: a white for the soup and fish, a red for the roast, and a sweet wine or champagne for dessert.  These and similar arrangements of four- and five-course formal dinners were the norm throughout the second half of the 20th century.

The historical form of (; "service in the Russian style") is a manner of dining that involves courses being brought to the table sequentially, and the food being portioned on the plate by servants (usually at a sideboard in the dining room) before being given to the diner. It became the norm in very formal dining in the Western world over the 19th century. It contrasts with the older (; "service in the French style") in which all the food (or at least several courses) is brought out simultaneously, in an impressive display of tureens and serving dishes, and the diners put it on their plates themselves.


Etymology.

Karur is mentioned in inscriptions and literature by two names, Karuvoor and Vanji. Additionally, it has been referred to as: Adipuram, Tiruaanilai, Paupatheechuram, Karuvaippatinam, Vanjularanyam, Garbhapuram, Thiru vithuvakkottam, Bhaskarapuram, Mudivazhangu Viracholapuram, Karapuram, Aadaga maadam, Cherama nagar and Shanmangala Kshetram. Among them, the name Adipuram, meaning the first city seems to indicate that it was held as the foremost city by the medieval writers. It was also called Vanci moothur, the ancient city of Vanji. In the foreign notices of Ptolemy, it was called Karoura – an inland capital of the Cheras.

History.

Karur is one of the oldest towns in Tamil Nadu and has played a very significant role in the history and culture of the Tamils. The history dates back to the Sangam period when it was a flourishing trade centre. Karur was built on the banks of river Amaravathi which was called Aanporunai during the Sangam days. According to Hinduism, Brahma began the work of creation here, which is referred to as the "place of the sacred cow."  Epigraphical, archaeological and literary evidence indicate that Karur was the capital of early Chera kings of Sangam age. The names of early Chera kings who ruled from Karur have been found in the rock inscriptions in Aaru Nattar Malai close to Karur. The Tamil epic "Silapathikaram" mentions that the famous Chera King Senguttuvan ruled from Karur. The archaeological excavations undertaken in Karur resulted in the excavation of mat-designed pottery, bricks, mud-toys, Roman coins, Chera coins, Pallava coins, Roman Amphorae, Rasset coated ware and rare rings. Karur might have been the center for old jewellery-making and gem setting (with the gold imported mainly from Rome), as seen from various excavations. In 150 CE, Greek scholar Ptolemy mentioned "Korevora" (Karur) as a very famous inland trading center in South India. It was ruled by the Cheras, Western Gangas, Cholas, the Vijayanagara Nayaks, Tipu Sultan and the British successively.  Karur municipality was constituted in 1874. It was upgraded to a I grade municipality on 24.10.69, upgraded to selection grade municipality on 24.05.1988, and upgraded to a special grade municipality on 07.04.1988. The town is very expanded now, with 48 wards, much like a city corporation.

Geography and climate.

Karur is located at and has an average elevation of 101 metres (331 feet). The town is located in Karur district of the South Indian state, Tamil Nadu, at a distance of from Chennai. Karur is located on the banks of Amaravathi river. The topography is almost plain, with no major geological formation. There are no notable mineral resources available in and around the town. The soil types are black and red that are conducive for common crops in the Cauvery delta. The temperature ranges from a maximum of to a minimum of. Like the rest of the state, April to June are the hottest months and December to January are the coldest. Karur receives an average of annually, which is lesser than the state average of. The South west monsoon, with an onset in June and lasting up to August, brings scant rainfall since Karur being a rainshadow region. The bulk of the rainfall comes during summer months (late April, May) and the North East monsoon in the months of October, November and December.  The prevailing climate in Karur is known as a local steppe climate. According to Köppen and Geiger, this climate is classified as BSh. The average temperature in Karur is 28.7 °C. The average annual rainfall is 590–600 mm. The driest month is March. There is 8 mm of precipitation in March. Most precipitation falls in October, with an average of 166 mm. The precipitation varies 158 mm between the driest month and the wettest month. The average temperatures vary during the year by 5.9 °C. With an average of 31.5 °C, May is the warmest month. In December, the average temperature is 25.6 °C.

Demographics.

Karur urban area is the 15th Populous city in the state of Tamil Nadu. Karur City Area divided into Three Regions Karur, Inam karur and Thanthoni Region which is further divided into 12 divisions. Currently Karur City has population about 234,506, with a sex-ratio of 1,032 females for every 1,000 males, much above the national average of 929. A total of 6,147 were under the age of six, constituting 3,162 males and 2,985 females. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes accounted for 12.11% and.08% of the population respectively. The average literacy of the city was 81.71%, compared to the national average of 72.99%. The city had a total of 49344 households. There were a total of 30,216 workers, comprising 125 cultivators, 181 main agricultural labourers, 469 in household industries, 26,660 other workers, 2,781 marginal workers, 24 marginal cultivators, 82 marginal agricultural labourers, 140 marginal workers in household industries and 2,535 other marginal workers. As of 2001, 13 slums were identified in the town. As per the religious census of 2011, Karur (M) had 91.41% Hindus, 5.62% Muslims, 2.88% Christians, 0.01% Sikhs, 0.01% Buddhists, 0.07% following other religions and 0.01% following no religion or did not indicate any religious preference.  The city covers an area of. More than 8% of the total population of the Karur district and 25% of the total urban population in the district resides in the town. The town has a large floating population. Out of the total area, 86.85% of the land is marked developed and 37.63% of the city remains undeveloped. Residential areas make up 39.41% of the town's total area while commercial enterprises and industrial units make up 4.72% and 1.99% respectively.  The population density of the city in the 2001 census was 128 persons per hectare and the average household size was 3.95 as of 2001. Hindus form the majority of the urban population, followed by Muslims and Christians. Tamil is the main language spoken in the city, but the use of English is relatively common; English is the medium of instruction in most educational institutions and offices in the service sector.

Municipal administration and politics.

Karur is the headquarters of the Karur District. The town was constituted as a municipality in 1874, promoted to first-grade during 1969, selected-grade during 1983 and special-grade as of 1988. The Karur municipality has 48 wards and there is an elected councillor for each of those wards. The functions of the municipality are devolved into six departments: general administration/personnel, Engineering, Revenue, Public Health, city planning and Information Technology (IT). All these departments are under the control of a Municipal Commissioner who is the executive head. The legislative powers are vested in a body of 48 members, one each from the 60 wards. The legislative body is headed by an elected Chairperson assisted by a Deputy Chairperson.  Karur is a part of the Karur assembly constituency and it elects a member to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly once every five years. From the 1977 elections, All India Anna Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) won the assembly seat five times (in 1977, 1980, 1984, 1991, 2006 and 2011 elections) and two times by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK, 1989 and 1996) and Indian National Congress (INC) won once during 2001 elections. The current MLA of Karur constituency is M.R.Vijaya baskar from the ADMK party.  Karur is a part of the Karur (Lok Sabha constituency). From 1957, the Karur parliament seat was held by the Indian National Congress for eight times (during 1957, 1962, 1967, 1971, 1977, 1980, 1984 and 2019 elections), ADMK for six times (during 1989, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2009 and 2014 elections), Tamil Maanila Congress once (during 1996 elections) and Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam once (during the 2004 elections).

Law & Order.

Law and order in the city in maintained by the Karur sub division of the Tamil Nadu Police headed by a Superintendent of Police. There are 4 police stations for law and order, 2 for traffic and 1 all women police station and more than 10 police outpost in the city, There are special units like prohibition enforcement, district crime, social justice and human rights, district crime records and special branch that operate at the district level police division headed by a Superintendent of Police.

Arts, society and culture.

The town formed a part of the traditional Chera and Chola empires and has a number of exquisitely sculpted temples. Karuvurar born in medieval Karur, is one among the nine devotees who sung the divine Music Thiruvichaippa, which is the ninth Thirumurai. He is the single largest composer among the nine authors of Thiruvichaippa. He lived during the reign of the Chola king Raja Raja Chola I. In addition to the Pasupatheeswarar Siva temple, there is a Vishnu temple at Thiruvithuvakkodu suburb of Karur, sung by famous Kulasekaraazhvaar (7th-8th century). The same temple is presumably mentioned in epic Silappadikaram as "Adaha maadam" Ranganathar whose blessings Cheran Senguttuvan sought before his north Indian expedition.  Sadasiva Brahmendra Jeeva Samadhi Temple - Sadasiva Brahmendra was a saint who lived in the eighteenth century in Tamil Nadu. Sadasiva Brahmendra was born to highly religious parents Somasundara Avadhani and Parvati in Madurai. It is said that his mother Parvati was initiated into Rama japa and advised to chant it crores of times so that every cell in her body was charged with the nama. A child born to her in this state would become an exalted mahaan or saint. The couple prayed for a child to Ramanathaswamy in the famous temple in Rameshwaram and the son born named Sivaramakrishnan.  At the age of 17, he was married but left home soon after to pursue his true calling. He went to Tiruvenkadu to meet his guru Paramasivendra Saraswati under whose tutelage he became a brilliant scholar well versed in the Vedas. He authored several Sanskrit works which include commentaries on the Brahma Sutras and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.  Sadasiva Brahmendra attained Jeeva Samadhi in 1750 A.D. near Karur. He fulfilled the wish of his ardent disciple Raja Vijaya Raghunatha Thondaiman that he should settle down in land that belonged to the king. Here the river Kaveri flows south (dakshina) which adds to the sanctity of the place. Before he was immersed in Jeeva Samadhi, Sadasiva Brahman had clearly stated that on the ninth day following his Jeeva Samadhi, a holy bilva tree (bael tree) would grow above his head. On the tenth day a Brahmachari would bring a sivalingam from Kasi (Varanasi) which should be consecrated 12 feet in front of the bilva tree. All the incidents came to pass exactly as predicted. The Raja of Pudukottai built a temple in which the lingam was consecrated and arranged for regular pujas to be done at the temple and at the Jeeva Samadhi of the Guru.  The temple is exactly 10 kilometers from Karur.

Economy.

The town has about 19% of its total area under agricultural land use. The major crops are rice, cotton, sugar cane and oil seeds, while the major horticultural crops are coconut, banana, betel and mango. The town is the commercial centre for trading of agricultural commodities from the nearby towns and villages. Karur, being the headquarters of the district, has registered growth in tertiary sectors, with a corresponding decrease in the primary sector. Approximately 80 per cent of the workforce is employed in tertiary sector, 17 per cent in primary sector and 4% in secondary sector activities.  Karur is a major home textile centre and has five major product groups — bed linens, kitchen linens, toilet linens, table linens and wall hangings. The city generates around 10000 crores[More than 1.5 Billion US$ in foreign exchange through direct and indirect exports. Major importers are Wallmart, Sears in the US, IKEA in Sweden and other major retailers in the UK. Allied industries like ginning and spinning mills, dyeing factories and weaving employ around 300,000 people in and around Karur. Hand-loom Exports from Karur began on a modest scale with just 15 exporters in 1975. Karur is also home to an integrated textile park, 190 crore Karur Textile Park Limited (KTPL) a premier facility of its kind in the country for its technical and ancillary facilities.  Karur is a major hub for Bus Body [coach] building in South India, with a major market share of almost 70% of bus coaches being built here locally.. The total business turnover from building bus coaches is estimated to be around 1000 crore per annum.  About 60% of mosquito nets in India are manufactured in Karur. About 2000 units are engaged in making High-density polyethylene (HDPE) mono filament yarn and associated products and employ about 50,000 people.  Bharat Petroleum Corporation formed a joint venture with Petronet CCK and has installed a pipeline facility from Cochin to Karur for transporting petroleum products. The petroleum products received at the BPCL-Karur terminal in Athur is supplied to more than 20 districts of Tamil Nadu through tanker trucks.  TNPL promoted by the Government of Tamil Nadu with loan assistance from the World Bank, located near Karur, is the largest producer of bagasse (sugarcane waste from Sugar mills) based paper in the world and the second-largest paper producer in Asia. The firm produces 230,000 tonnes of printing and writing paper and consumes 1 million tonnes of bagasse every year.  Chettinad group has established a wet process cement plant at Puliyur near Karur with a capacity of 1.7 MTPA.

Banking.

Karur Vysya Bank and Lakshmi Vilas Bank, Leading Old generation private banks started by the trader community to meet their working capital financing needs, have their headquarters in Karur. Other than that, all major government and private banks had set up their branches at Karur.

Road.

The Karur municipality maintains of roads. The city has concrete roads, WBM roads, gravel roads and bituminous road. A total of of state highways is maintained by the State Highways Department and of national highways by the national highways department.  There are 2 national highways namely the NH 44 (new numbering) National Highway 7 (India)(old numbering) (Varanasi - Kanyakumari road (now called NSC North-South corridor road NH 44) and NH 67 Nagapattinam - Gudalur road that pass via Karur. It connects the city with all other parts of the country.  Karur bus stand is a B-grade bus stand located in the center of the town. The State Express Transport Corporation operates long distance buses connecting the city to important cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Thirupathi, Nagercoil, etc. Apart from this, Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation operates city and moffusil busses from Karur to other parts of Tamil Nadu and neighbourhood states. Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation and Kerala State Road Transport Corporation also operates few busses to and from Karur. Karur is situated at the centre of Tamilnadu so you can reach any part of Tamilnadu within seven hours.

Railway.

Karur Junction railway station (station code - KRR) is one of the railway junctions under the Salem division of the Indian Railways network. It is one of the major railway station in Southern Railways and also an A grade junction in salem division. Almost All trains to various part of the country halts here. It has 5 active Platforms and 7 broad gauge electrified tracks, that forms the intersection between Erode-Tiruchirapalli, Erode-Madurai and Salem-Karur. section.

Airport.

The nearest local and international airport is the Tiruchirapalli International Airport, located 78 kms, Coimbatore International Airport, located 121 kms & Salem Airport, located 116 kms away from the city.

Education.

There are 72 government and private schools, 1 government arts college, and number of private arts and science, architecture, engineering, polytechnic, Teacher training, nursing, catering colleges and large number of engineering colleges are in and around Karur. Karur medical college has recently been established at the cost of 115 crores.

Utilities.

Electricity supply to Karur is regulated and distributed by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB). The town along with its suburbs forms the Karur Electricity Distribution Circle. A Chief Distribution engineer is stationed at the regional headquarters. Water supply is provided by the Karur Municipality from the Cauvery river through Chinnandan Kovil head water work and Thirumanilaiyur water pumping station. In the period 2000–2001, a total of 7 million litres of water was supplied everyday for households in the town.  As per the municipal data for 2011, about 45 metric tonnes of solid waste were collected from Karur every day by door-to-door collection and subsequently the source segregation and dumping was carried out by the sanitary department of the Karur municipality. The coverage of solid waste management in the town by the municipality had an efficiency of 100% as of 2001. There is no underground drainage system in the town and the sewerage system for disposal of sullage is through septic tanks, open drains and public conveniences.  The municipality maintained a total of of storm water drains in 2011. As of 2011, there is one government medical college hospital, one municipal dispensary, 19 private dispensaries, one ESI dispensary, one municipal Siddha centre, two Ayurvedic clinics, three private general clinics, one private skin care clinic, nine private ENT clinics and one private tuberclosis clinics that take care of the health care needs of the citizens. As of 2011, the municipality maintained a total of 2,584 street lamps: 706 sodium lamps, 151 mercury vapour lamps, 2,274 tube lights and three high mast beam lamp. The municipality operates three markets, namely the Gandhi Market, Kamaraj Market and Uzhavar Santhai that cater to the needs of the town and the rural areas around it.

Karur is a city in Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Karur is the administrative headquarters of Karur district. It is located on the banks of River Amaravathi in the Kongunadu region of Tamilnadu. Karur is well known for the export of Home Textile products to USA and Europe so well known as Textile export hub. It is situated at about 395 kilometres (245 mi) southwest of the state capital Chennai and 295 kilometres away from Bengaluru.