Abul Kalam Azad (politician)

Abul Kalam Azad (born 5 March 1947) is a former Bangladeshi politician of the Jamaat-e-Islami, televangelist and convicted war criminal of the Bangladesh liberation war.
He was the first of nine prominent Jamaat-e-Islami members accused of war crimes by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 of Bangladesh to be convicted for crimes against humanity, including murder and rape. On 21 January 2013 Azad was sentenced to death by hanging for his crimes.
Early life.
Abul Kalam Azad was born on 5 March 1947 to an impoverished farmer, Abdus Salam Mia and his wife of Barakhardia village, under Saltha Police Station of Faridpur District. After attending a qawmi madrasa, he was a student at Rajendra College in Faridpur.
Career.
Social activism.
In the 1980s Azad became a regular speaker at a major mosque in Dhaka. He also led an Islamic charity.
In 1999, he founded the MACCA, a social charity. Reflecting on its activities he said "We strongly believe that religion and development should work together to help people. We believe development work is only sustainable through religion; otherwise sustainable development is impossible." As part of his social activism, he involved MACCA in an awareness campaign against AIDS.
Televangelism.
He anchored a TV show called "Apnar Jiggasa (আপনার জিজ্ঞাসা)", or "Your Questions" on a private TV channel in Bangladesh for several years before the trial.
Controversy.
Bangladesh Liberation War 1971.
The investigations alleged that during the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, he, then known as "Bachchu", aged 24, was a close associate of Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, then president of the East Pakistan "Islami Chhatra Sangha", the student wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami. The prosecution alleges that before the formation of the Razakar paramilitary force, Azad actively aided the Pakistani army in committing criminal acts.
The prosecution alleged that Azad had assisted the Pakistani military as the chief of the Al-Badr force in Faridpur; the members of the force were young men mostly drawn from colleges. He could speak Urdu well because he had studied in a madrasa. As a close associate of the Pakistani army, he participated in committing atrocities on civilians, including the Hindu community and pro-liberation Bengali people. His defence counsel calls these allegations "false."
In absentia trial.
In 2010 the Bangladesh government established the International Crimes Tribunal under a 1973 act of Parliament. It has indicted nine suspects who are prominent Jamaat-e-Islami leaders, and two who are Bangladesh National Party leaders. The government was responding to popular support to have the trials and settle longstanding accusations dating to the liberation war of 1971.
The trial was held "in absentia" because Azad went into hiding hours before Tribunal-2 issued an arrest warrant against him on 3 April 2012. He is believed to have fled to India or Pakistan. The court appointed a defence attorney for him, Supreme Court lawyer Abdus Sukur Khan.
Azad was indicted on eight counts for murder, rape and genocide. Investigators alleged that they had identified 14 people murdered by Bachchu: three were women he had raped and nine were other abducted civilians. Testimony was offered by 22 prosecution witnesses, including friends and families of the victims. The prosecution said that Bachchu had burnt down at least five houses, looted 15, and forced at least nine Hindus to convert to Islam.
On January 2013, his trial was the first to be completed; he was convicted of war crimes, on six of eight counts, including murder of unarmed civilians and rape committed during the War. On 21 January 2013 Azad was sentenced to the death penalty.
Current status.
Abul Kalam Azad is currently believed to have fled to India or Pakistan. MACCA, the organisation founded by him, has disavowed him.


Scott Alden

Samuel Scott Alden (1907 – December 12, 1977) was an American special assistant to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director J. Edgar Hoover, FBI special agent, director of the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, lawyer, college professor, and a college athletics head coach. He was also a direct descendant of John Alden, a pilgrim who came to the United States on the "Mayflower". Alden studied at the University of Tennessee where he played for coach Robert Neyland on their 1927 football team, but did not graduate from there. He instead enrolled in and graduated from Peabody College, then chose to pursue a law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School.
Alden spent 27 years in the FBI, he was either a special agent or a special agent in charge of offices in Miami, Savannah, Knoxville, Dallas, Little Rock, and Baltimore. When he was in charge of the Knoxville office he was appointed as the first director of the state's Alcoholic Beverage Commission, a position he held for nine years (1963–1972).
In addition to Alden's government life, he served as the head coach for the football, basketball, and baseball teams at Austin Peay State University. He was one of the first coaches in all three sports at the school and finished with career head coaching records of 9–8–5 (football), 24–17 (basketball), and 6–7 (baseball). While at Austin Peay, Alden was also a professor of history.


Etienne Saqr

Étienne Saqr (; born 1937; last name also spelt Sakr), also known by his kunya ""Abu Arz"” (), is a Lebanese nationalist leader and founder of the Guardians of the Cedars militia and political party (, "Ḥurrās al-ʿArz" in Arabic). Saqr and his militia participated in the Lebanese Civil War facing the Palestinians and the Syrians in the 1970s and 1980s, and remained militantly active until he was expelled from the country with the flight of the South Lebanon Army, of which he was not a member, in May 2000.
Early life and education.
Saqr was born in Ain Ebel in 1937 into Maronite family, one of eleven children, of whom eight were boys and three were girls. His father was a school principal. Saqr was educated in French schools in Tripoli and Beirut.
Career.
Saqr joined the "Sûreté générale" (General Security Directorate) in 1954 and was involved in fighting against pan-Arab forces in the Lebanon crisis of 1958. He left the security services in 1969, went into business, and became politically active in Lebanese nationalist circles. He opposed the Cairo Agreement of 1969. Worth noting is the pan-Lebanese conception of the party whose members were drawn not only from Christian circles but Muslim and Druze as well.
In the early 1970s, Saqr helped to organize the Lebanese Renewal Party, and in 1975 he formed the Guardians of the Cedars inspired by his 'nom de guerre' Abu Arz (father of the cedars) and made a coalition with the Israeli army in south Lebanon. The Guardians of the Cedars fought under the slogans "No Palestinian will remain in Lebanon" and "Lebanon, at your service". The Guardians of the Cedars joined the Lebanese Front, a coalition of mainly Christian parties intended to act as a counter force to the Lebanese National Movement of Kamal Jumblatt and others. While Saqr objected to the Syrian intervention in 1976, the Lebanese Front accepted it. Saqr withdrew from the Front and the Guardians retreated to the mountains but continued to fight on the LF side in key battles, including East Beirut (1978) and Zahlé (1981).
Saqr was placed under house arrest in 1990 by his former allies, the Lebanese Forces, after the latter accepted the Taif Agreement. Eventually, Saqr was forced to leave Beirut for southern Lebanon and upon Israel's withdrawal from the south in 2000, Saqr left for Israel. In an address to the Knesset a few days later, Saqr argued against the withdrawal saying Israel had "made heroes out of Hezbollah." He has been sentenced to death in absentia by a Lebanese court on charges of collaborating with Israel, and remains in exile in Cyprus.
Personal life.
Etienne Saqr has two daughters who are both famous Lebanese singers, Karol Sakr and Pascale Sakr and a son named Curtis Adams.


Esteban de Luca

Esteban de Luca (August 2, 1786 — May 17, 1824) was an Argentine military officer, poet, and government official during the nation's early years.
Life.
Esteban de Luca y Patrón was born in Buenos Aires. His mother belonged to a wealthy creole family, and his Italian father was a colonial administrator during the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. Educated at the Royal College of San Carlos, de Luca enlisted in the newly formed Patricios Regiment during the British invasions of the Río de la Plata of 1806 and 1807, and attained the rank of Officer.
Shortly after these incidents, in which the invasions were thwarted, de Luca enrolled in the School of Mathematics established by Manuel Belgrano, and became a skilled weapons engineer. He adapted designs for cannons, munitions, and rifles, copying these latter from weapons captured during the earlier conflict.
The May Revolution of 1810 prompted the wars for independence. The United Provinces of South America struggled to supply their troops, however, and in 1813, the Buenos Aires Munitions Works were established by the Primera Junta regime; de Luca was appointed director of the facility in 1814. One of only two such facilities (the other being in Tucumán), the munitions works forged guns, carbines, sabers, cannon, ordnance, and horseshoes mainly with salvaged scrap iron and de Luca's adaptations.
De Luca was also an accomplished poet. He wrote, among other works, odes to General José de San Martín, as well to his victories in the battles of Chacabuco, Maipú, San Martín's Liberation of Peru, and in eulogy to General Manuel Belgrano; his "Marcha Patriótica" was, from 1812 to 1813, the unofficial Argentine National Anthem.
With the dissolution of the United Province, he put the munitions works at the service of the Province of Buenos Aires, and although these were destroyed shortly afterward in the Battle of Cepeda (1820), de Luca salvaged the facility and maintained it, albeit at minimal levels. A charge brought against him several months later of complicity in a plot by General Carlos María de Alvear against Governor Martín Rodríguez resulted in de Luca's acquittal; the factory, however, closed.
He was among the founders of the Buenos Aires Literary Society in 1822, and wrote for the two leading Buenos Aires periodicals of the time, "La Abeja" and "El Argos". De Luca's columns advocated at length for the westward expansion into the pampas, and he became known also for his translations of works by Italian dramatist Vittorio Alfieri (numerous of whose plays were then produced in Buenos Aires).
De Luca was appointed secretary to diplomatic envoy Valentín Gómez, who in 1823 was entrusted to negotiate for the return of the "Banda Oriental" (Uruguay) by the Empire of Brazil. As they returned from a May 1824 round of talks in Rio de Janeiro, the brigantine carrying them sank, and although Gómez survived, Esteban de Luca drowned in the Río de la Plata at age 37.
His home in Buenos Aires' San Telmo ward, the "Casa de Esteban de Luca", was declared a National Historic Monument in 1941.


Franklin Dodge

Franklin L. Dodge, Jr. (July 29, 1891 – November 26, 1968) was a Bureau of Investigation agent in the early 1920s who had an affair with Imogene Remus, the wife of millionaire bootlegger George Remus.
Franklin L. Dodge, Jr. was born in Lansing, Michigan in 1891. His father, Franklin L. Dodge, Sr. was a prominent lawyer and businessman who served two terms as a representative in the Michigan State Legislature and made several unsuccessful bids for higher office as a Democrat. Dodge, Jr. joined the Bureau of Investigation, forerunner of today's F.B.I.
While an agent, Dodge was credited for the investigation that led to the conviction of the "Savannah Four", a ring of bootleggers led by Willie Haar. He proceeded to conduct an undercover investigation of the corrupt practices of Albert Sartain, warden of the Atlanta Federal Prison, who was removed and convicted. It was during this investigation that he met George Remus, a millionaire bootlegger from Cincinnati who had entered the Atlanta Federal Prison in 1924. Soon after, Dodge resigned from the Bureau and began an affair with Remus' wife Imogene, who had been given power of attorney to manage Remus' many holdings. Dodge convinced Imogene to begin liquidating her husband's assets and hide as much money as possible. They also sold Remus's huge Fleischmann distillery, and gave Remus only $100 of the multimillion-dollar empire he created. To protect themselves, they then tried to have Remus deported. When that failed, they paid a hitman $15,000 to kill Remus, which also failed. The controversy became public when Congressman Fiorello La Guardia, a fierce opponent of Prohibition, detailed records of these transactions on the floor of Congress in March 1926 as an example of how bootlegging profits were corrupting law enforcement. In October 1927, six months after he was released from prison, Remus shot Imogene to death in broad daylight in a Cincinnati park. During the murder trial, Remus defended himself by making Dodge and his deceased wife the villains of the tragedy and secured his acquittal by reason of temporary insanity.
Now outside the public eye, Dodge lived the rest of his life in Michigan, where he worked for the Michigan Liquor Control Commission after the end of Prohibition. He eventually married. He died in 1968 and is buried in Lansing, Michigan.


Maya Dolas

Maya Dolas (15 October 1966 – 16 November 1991), born Mahindra Dolas, was an Indian underworld gangster who used to work for the D-Company don, Dawood Ibrahim. He was killed in an encounter at the 1991 Lokhandwala Complex shootout by the then Additional Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Aftab Ahmed Khan, at the age of 25.
Dolas' story was made into a 2007 movie titled "Shootout at Lokhandwala", with Vivek Oberoi playing the role of Maya, and Amrita Singh acting as his mother Ratnaprabha Dolas.
Biography.
Dolas was born to Vithoba and Ratnaprabha Dolas. He was one of their six children. Dolas joined the Ashok Joshi gang in 1980 and rose quickly through the ranks in the outfit. He ran several successful extortion rackets for the criminal - politician Ashok Joshi's gang at Kanjur village which was also affiliated with the Byculla Company.
Education.
Dolas completed his education at ITI Bombay in Bombay now Mumbai, India.
Shootout at Lokhandwala.
The Lokhandwala Complex is an upper end middle-class housing area in Andheri Lokhandwala Swati A wing Flat no 002 and 003, Mumbai, where Shiv Sena criminal-politician Gopal Rajwani had purchased a flat for mega-mobster Dawood Ibrahim. In 1991, Dawood henchmen Dolas and Dilip Buwa, along with four others, were in this apartment when they were surrounded by the Mumbai Police led by Aftab Ahmed Khan; it was later alleged that Khan had been tipped off by Dawood who wanted the police to kill them.
The ensuing four-hour shootout, much of it publicised live on news channels, made Dolas infamous, and the police officer Khan a household name. After the encounter, it was alleged that the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) which had participated in the encounter had made off with Rs. 70 lakh (Rs. 70,00,000) cash which was with Dolas. A number of inquiries conducted by the Mumbai police failed to turn up any concrete evidence.
Dolas' mother Ratnaprabha had moved court to ban the movie "Shootout at Lokhandwala" stating that the movie presents her son falsely. For example, the movie shows that he had killed his abusive father at age nine, whereas his father outlived Dolas and died only in 1997. She also claimed that he was an ITI passout (Industrial Training Institute ). Taking note of the fact that the movie also portrays Ratnaprabha as encouraging the criminal tendencies in her son, the suit wanted the producer to re-do the film. Chhota Rajan also objected to the film, saying that it "grossly distorts the facts". In response, A A Khan, the cop who led up front the team which gunned down Dolas, rubbished Rajan's claim, saying that the operation was videographed and it was conducted in full view of the public.
The directors claim that the movie is highly fictionalised, although it uses the real names, and the movie opens with an apology to the real characters. A Mumbai sessions court refused to stay the film release based on the case in May 2012.


5 Minutes (The Stranglers song)

"5 Minutes" is a 1978 single by English band The Stranglers. The song is sung by bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel. It gives an account of a rape that occurred at a shared flat in London he lived in during 1977. The lyrics, which are sung both in English and French, convey Burnell's frustrations over finding the five men who committed the attack.
The song was recorded in between "No More Heroes" and "Black and White". It reached number 11 in the UK Singles Chart.
Background.
In 1977, Burnel was living in a London flat with Wilko Johnson, then the lead singer and guitarist of the band Dr. Feelgood, as well as a female employee of the Sex Pistols. One night, while Burnel was playing a concert with The Stranglers, his flatmate was raped, an event so traumatizing that Burnel left the apartment soonly after.
The title of the song refers to Burnel's apartment being located in a dangerous area of London just five minutes away from The Bishops Avenue, one of the wealthiest streets in the world, and the juxtaposition of the two communities.
The lyric "some say that I should hate them all," according to Burnel, refers to how people used the fact that the five rapists were black men as an excuse for racism.


Stacy Lemmens


Libertus (character)


Ollie Halsall

Peter John "Ollie" Halsall (14 March 1949 – 29 May 1992) was an English guitarist best known for his role in the Rutles, the bands Timebox, Patto and Boxer, and for his contribution to the music of Kevin Ayers. He is also notable as one of the few players of the vibraphone in rock music. He was known by his childhood nickname 'Olly' or 'Ollie' which was simply a corruption of his surname. The Ollie Halsall Archive was established in 1998, with the aim of documenting and promoting his work.
Career.
"Ollie may not have been the best guitarist in the world, but he was certainly among the top two." John Halsey, 1997
Halsall began his musical career in 1964 playing drums with various local bands such as Pete and the Pawnees, the Gunslingers, the Music Students and Rhythm and Blues Incorporated. In 1965 he taught himself to play the vibraphone and was invited to London to join fellow Southport musicians bassist Clive Griffiths and keyboardist 'Professor' Chris Holmes in pop rock outfit Take Five, which became Timebox. in 1967, Halsall took up guitar. They enlisted Mike Patto on vocals and drummer 'Admiral' John Halsey.
In 1970, following the departure of Holmes, Timebox evolved into the progressive rock band Patto, featuring Halsall on both guitar and vibraphone.
In 1973, Halsall left to join Jon Hiseman's Tempest. After less than a year, he quit and did numerous sessions, including a track for Kevin Ayers which led to a permanent position in Ayers' band "the Soporifics". He was briefly considered as a possible replacement for Mick Taylor following his departure from the Rolling Stones.
His UK session work included concerts and recordings with the Scaffold, Grimms, Neil Innes, Centipede, Andy Roberts, Michael d'Albuquerque, John Otway, John Cale and Vivian Stanshall.
In 1975, Patto staged a brief reunion comprising just three benefit gigs. The reuniting of Halsall and Patto sparked the formation of Boxer during 1975. They released two albums on the Virgin record label before Patto died of lymphoid leukemia in 1979, and one posthumous album following that.
Halsall's most commercially successful recording is his work on the album "The Rutles" (1978), which reached the top 20 in the UK, on which he plays many of the instruments and provides lead and backing vocals – most notably on the tracks "Doubleback Alley", "With a Girl Like You" and "Get Up and Go". Eric Idle was cast in his place in the accompanying film and Halsall only featured in a very minor cameo role as "Leppo", the fifth Rutle who got lost in Hamburg.
During 1976 Halsall had rejoined Ayers with whom he stayed for the next sixteen years. For much of that time he frequented the town of Deià in the north of the Spanish island of Mallorca, commuting to Madrid on the mainland to produce and play for numerous Spanish artists, including his final work with pop rock band Radio Futura.
In the 1980s he was, together with vocalist Zanna Gregmar, part of a Spanish synth-pop band, called Cinemaspop, created by Spanish producer Julian Ruiz. They released two studio albums – 'Cinemaspop' (1983), just a collection of synth-pop covers of classical movie tunes, and 'A Clockwork Orange' (1984) which included some compositions and vocals by Halsall, as well as a bizarre electronic version of the Troggs' Wild Thing. In 1989, he replaced the ill Enrique Sierra in Radio Futura, another Spanish rock band.
A finished solo album, produced by Robert Fripp, remains unreleased.
Halsall died from a drug-induced heart attack on 29 May 1992 at the age of 43 in Calle de la Amargura, Madrid, Spain.
Legacy.
Halsall has been described as an influence by Alvin Lee of Ten Years After, Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe, Allan Holdsworth, Kee Marcello of Europe and Cheap Trick's guitarist Rick Nielsen. XTC's Andy Partridge cites Halsall as one of his top three influences, saying "He made the guitar sound more like Albert Ayler or John Coltrane, more like a sort of fluid piano player."


Rudyard Kipling (ship)

The Rudyard Kipling was a British steam trawler launched in 1920 that undertook fishing operations off the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland for almost 20 years. On 16 September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the trawler was captured west of Clare Island by the . After removing food, equipment, and the crew from the ship, the Germans sunk her with the use of scuttling charges. Several hours later the crew of the "Rudyard Kipling" were cast adrift off the coast of Ireland. They eventually landed their lifeboats at Killybegs.
The "Rudyard Kipling" was the 27th merchant ship, the 26th British merchant ship, and the second British trawler to be sunk by a German U-boat in World War II.
Construction and design.
The "Rudyard Kipling" was constructed in the town of Selby by the shipbuilder Cochrane & Sons Ltd. The trawler was launched from yard number 686 on 11 November 1920. Named the "Rudyard Kipling" by the ship's owner Newington Steam Trawling Co Ltd., she was registered in the port of Hull on 4 February 1921 and completed later that month. Her official number was 144068. She had a net tonnage of 140 and her gross tonnage was 333. The trawler was from bow to stern with a draught of and a breadth of . Her engine was a T.3-cylinder from C. D. Holmes & Co Ltd., also of Hull.
Service history.
Early service.
Following completion and registration, the "Rudyard Kipling" began fishing off of the coast of Ireland and Great Britain. In May 1934, the trawler was sold to The Sun Steam Trawling Co Ltd. On 10 May, her registry from Hull was closed and on 16 May, she was registered in the English port town of Fleetwood, where her new owners were based. The "Rudyard Kipling" remained with the Sun Steam Trawling Co Ltd. for the rest of her career.
Sinking.
On 16 September 1939, the "Rudyard Kipling" left Fleetwood for a routine fishing trip to an area off the west coast of Ireland. The trawler, under the command of Skipper Charles Robinson and with a crew of 12 men, was about west of the Irish town of Donegal when came alongside and ordered them to pull over to the submarine and surrender. The German crew then took the "Rudyard Kipling"s food, including sugar, bread and fish, as well as the trawler's wireless radios, and transferred them over to the U-boat. Timed explosive charges were then placed on the trawler and three minutes later, at 15:53, the trawler exploded and sank.
While raiding the trawler, the Germans took the crew of the "Rudyard Kipling" on board and provided them with food and warm clothes. Eight hours later, in the early hours of 17 September, the Germans allowed the crew of the "Rudyard Kipling" to reboard their lifeboats and set them adrift west of the port town of Donegal. Sometime later the crew landed at Killybegs to the west of the town. The "Rudyard Kipling" was the 27th merchant ship (the 26th one to be British) and the second British trawler to be sunk by a German U-boat in World War II.


Chenagai airstrike

The Chenagai airstrike took place on October 30, 2006, around 5:00 am local time. Missiles were fired at a madrassa in Chenagai village in Bajaur region of Pakistan. An eyewitness has stated that the madrassa was filled with local students who had resumed studies after the Eid ul-Fitr holiday. 82 people died in the attack. The United States was accused of the attacks. The U.S. government denied involvement in the attack. Long War Journal blamed U.S. for the air strike as only U.S. was able to conduct precision night strikes in the region. Later on it was found that United States was indeed responsible for the airstrike.
Background.
In January 2006, US forces in Afghanistan carried out an airstrike in Bajaur's Damadola village which US officials tried to cover up by saying it was aimed at al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri. However, Al-Zawahiri never went to Bajaur.
The airstrike.
The attack took place in Chenagai village near the town of Khar, the main town in Bajaur region. The leader of the madrassa, cleric Maulana Liaqat Ullah Hussain, was suspected to be sheltering al-Qaeda militants and was among the dead. Locals claimed that the missiles were fired by US drones.
U.S. involvement.
According to the American Broadcasting Company, the attack was launched by a MQ-1 Predator with Ayman al-Zawahiri as its intended target. However, the report's author has since been removed from ABC's site due to questions concerning the reliability of his reporting.
Pakistani officials have claimed that the strike was conducted by the U.S. and that they have also requested the U.S. not to violate their sovereignty again. Local people claimed the victims included boys as young as 12. Long War Journal, after conducting analysis of the strike, claimed that strike was indeed carried out U.S. as Pakistan does not possess capabilities to conduct precision night strikes. Later on, it was found that U.S. was indeed responsible for the airstrike.
Reaction.
There were angry reactions in response to the strike. Many Muslim groups have condemned the action. Siraj-ul-Haq, the senior Minister and Provincial Chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, resigned from the provincial cabinet in protest against the strikes. Sahibzada Haroonur Rashid, MNA (Member of National Assembly) from Bajaur Agency, also resigned from the National Assembly in protest.
Retaliation.
Following attacks against the madrasa in the Bajaur tribal agency, on November 8, 2006, a suicide bomber killed 42 Pakistani soldiers and injured 20 others in Dargai, 85 miles north-west of Islamabad. It has already called the deadliest attack by the militants on the army since it began operations against pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. Though no one has claimed responsibility as yet, the attack has been linked to the Bajaur militants.


Notes for My Son

Notes for My Son () is a 2020 Argentinian drama film directed by Carlos Sorin and starring Mónica Antonópulos, Paola Barrientos and Valeria Bertuccelli. Bertuccelli plays the terminal cancer mother who keeps a notebook of advice for her young son.
Plot summary.
A woman with terminal cancer decides to keep a notebook full of musings on life and love for her toddler son to read after she dies.


Alan Breck Stewart

Alan Breck Stewart (Gaelic: "Ailean Breac Stiùbhart"; c. 1711 – c. 1791) was a Scottish soldier and Jacobite. He was also a central figure in a murder case that inspired novels by Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Life and the Appin murder.
In accordance with the fosterage customs of the Highland clans, Alan Stewart and his brothers grew up under the care of their relative James of the Glen in Appin. His nickname, Breck, came from the Gaelic for "spotted", as his face bore scars from smallpox. Stewart enlisted in the British Army of George II in 1745, just before the Jacobite rising of that year. He fought at the Battle of Prestonpans, but deserted to the Highland Jacobites. He subsequently fought for the Jacobites, but after they were defeated at the Battle of Culloden, he fled to France, accompanying his commander and clan captain, Colonel Charles Stewart of Ardshiel (Ardshiel was not the chief of the Appin Stewarts, but took command in the absence of the chief). After joining one of the Scottish regiments serving in the French Army, Stewart was sent back to Scotland to collect rents for the exiled clan leaders and to recruit soldiers for the French crown.
On 14 May 1752, Colin Campbell of Glenure, the royal agent collecting rents from the Ardshiel Stewarts, was murdered. As Alan Stewart had previously publicly threatened Glenure and had enquired about his schedule for the day in question, a warrant was issued for his arrest. However, he evaded capture. He was "tried in absentia" and sentenced to death. His foster father, James, was convicted as an accessory to the murder and hanged. Later investigations suggest that the murderer could not have been Stewart. In the murder of Glenure, the British government saw the potential danger of Jacobite assassinations of their agents in the Highlands, on the one hand, and also a potential renewal of a Campbell/Stewart feud, on the other. The execution of James of the Glen increased the Stewarts' discontent. Locally, especially after he was immortalised in fiction, Alan Breck Stewart was portrayed as a romantic figure.
There is no record of what happened to Stewart after the trial. One common story, derived from Sir Walter Scott, is that he returned to military service for the French crown and served against the British in North America during the French and Indian War. Another tale, passed down through the Stewart family, is that he fled to Ireland and set up a farm. There are now many Stewart descendants living in Ireland.
The Alan Breck's Prestonpans Volunteer Regiment.
Founded in 2007, the Alan Breck's Prestonpans Volunteer Regiment is a living history and battle re-enactment society focusing on the 1745 Rising and associated histories. Half of the society portray redcoat soldiers and half Jacobites, in recognition of Stewart's service on both sides of the conflict, and is accordingly named after him. The society is based in Prestonpans, East Lothian, but performs at events around the country and has members from across Scotland.


Thomas R. Norris

Thomas Rolland Norris (born January 14, 1944) is a retired United States Navy SEAL and Distinguished Eagle Scout who received the Medal of Honor for his ground rescue with the assistance of Petty Officer Third Class Nguyen Van Kiet of two downed aircrew members in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam on April 10–13, 1972. At the time of the action, Lieutenant Norris was a SEAL Advisor with the Strategic Technical Directorate Assistance Team. Norris was one of three SEALs to receive the Medal of Honor for actions during the Vietnam War.
Early life.
Thomas Norris was born on January 14, 1944 in Jacksonville, Florida. He grew up in Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. As a youth, he was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and attained the rank of Eagle Scout. Following high school, he entered the University of Maryland in 1963, with the intent of pursuing a criminology career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology with a specialty in Criminology in 1967. While at university, he was an Atlantic Coast Conference wrestling champion in 1965 and 1966.
United States Navy.
Norris enlisted in the United States Navy when his student deferment from the draft was not extended. He hoped to join the navy and fly jets, but he had problems with his visual acuity and depth perception that disqualified him from becoming a pilot. He then became a Navy SEAL. Norris struggled during BUD/S training, and the instructors considered removing him from the course. Ultimately, however, the instructors decided to allow Norris to try and finish the training, and he graduated from BUD/S Class 45. Norris completed his first tour of duty in Vietnam with SEAL Team 2 earning Bronze Star Medal with combat "V" device.
Ground rescue operation.
In April 1972, Norris was one of few remaining SEALs in Vietnam serving with MACVSOG Danang Naval Advisory Detachment. When Lieutenant Colonel Iceal Hambleton was shot down behind enemy lines, aerial combat search and rescue operations failed, leading to the loss of five additional aircraft and the death of 11 or more airmen, two captured, and three more down and needing rescue. Norris was tasked with mounting a ground operation to recover Hambleton, Lieutenant Mark Clark, and Lieutenant Bruce Walker from behind enemy lines. Assisted by Vietnamese Sea Commando forces, he and Republic of Vietnam Navy Petty Officer Nguyen Van Kiet went more than behind enemy lines and successfully rescued two of the downed American aviators. Walker was discovered and killed by the North Vietnamese Army. Though Norris at first rejected the honor, he was recognized with the Medal of Honor in 1975. His actions were dramatized in the movie Bat*21.
Intelligence gathering mission.
Six months later, on October 31, 1972, Norris and fellow Navy SEAL Michael E. Thornton accompanied three South Vietnamese special forces soldiers on an intelligence gathering operation south of the demilitarized zone. They intended to reconnoiter the area around the Cửa Việt Base near the coast of Quảng Trị Province, just south of the Demilitarized Zone.
Approaching by sea, the group was transported by junk until sunset, then paddled a rubber boat to within a mile of shore and swam the remaining distance. Moving inland past numerous North Vietnamese encampments, the group reconnoitered through the night.
When morning dawned, the 5-man group realized that they had landed to the north and were actually in North Vietnam. They soon encountered a two-man North Vietnamese patrol, which the South Vietnamese attempted to capture. Instead, enemy troops were alerted to their position. For the next four hours, the five men held off an enemy force estimated at about 200–300 strong. Norris called in naval firepower on the enemy's positions, helping to keep them alive.
The North Vietnamese regrouped and surrounded the troops. The SEALs and South Vietnamese decided to withdraw. Norris protected their rear while the others moved towards the water. He was shot in the head and severely wounded. One of the South Vietnamese who saw Norris' wound assumed he was dead. Thornton, upon hearing the news, ran through heavy fire to recover the body of his fallen comrade, only to discover that Norris was still just barely alive. He killed several North Vietnamese as they surmounted the dunes around his position and then carried the unconscious Norris into the water.
Thornton also carried one of the South Vietnamese soldiers who had been wounded and was unable to swim into the ocean. Thornton swam and supported the two injured men for more than two hours before they were picked up by the same junk that had dropped them off the night before. Norris' first surgery lasted 19 hours.
Thornton was recognized with the Medal of Honor for his actions by President Richard Nixon during a ceremony at the White House on October 15, 1973. He snuck Norris out of the hospital in the middle of the night so Norris could attend the ceremony. Norris was later awarded the Medal of Honor by President Gerald R. Ford in a White House ceremony on March 6, 1976. Thornton thus became the first Medal of Honor recipient recognized for saving the life of another Medal of Honor recipient. Norris lost an eye and part of his skull. He spent three years recovering from his injuries in the hospital and over a six-year period underwent many major surgeries. As a result of the head injury, he was medically retired from the navy in May 1975.
FBI.
In 1979, Norris joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and requested a waiver for his disabilities. FBI director William Webster responded, "If you can pass the same test as anybody else applying for this organization, I will waive your disabilities." In September 1979, Norris passed the test and subsequently was an FBI Special Agent for 20 years. He was an original member of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team as an assault team leader. He is a member of the Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Medal of Honor citation.
Citation:
Honors and recognitions.
The Naval Special Warfare Group Two in Little Creek, Virginia is located in the Lt. Thomas R. Norris Building.
Norris' Medal of Honor actions have been re-told in numerous books and in the feature film "Bat*21", which was the call sign for an EB-66C from the 42nd Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron (42 TEWS), 388th Tactical Fighter Wing, at Korat, Thailand. The aircraft was shot down while flying pathfinder escort for a cell of three B-52 bombing near the Demilitarized Zone.
Norris received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in 2011. He is one of eleven Eagle Scouts who received the Medal of Honor.
In 1976, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
Military awards.
Norris' military decorations and awards include the following:


Harold H. Velde

Harold Himmel Velde (April 1, 1910 – September 1, 1985) was a Republican American political figure from Illinois. While United States Congressman for Illinois' 18th congressional district he was chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee between 1953 and 1955.
Background.
Velde was born on a farm near Parkland, Tazewell County, Illinois. After attending rural grade and high school, he attended Bradley University from 1927 to 1929, then graduated from Northwestern University in 1931 and from University of Illinois Law School in 1937.
Career.
Velde was admitted to the bar as a lawyer, taking up practice in Pekin, Illinois.
Velde served as a private in the United States Army Signal Corps in 1942 until becoming a special agent for the FBI's sabotage and counterespionage division in 1943, staying there until 1946.
In 1946, he was then elected judge for Tazewell County, Illinois and remained judge until 1949.
In 1948, Velde won election to the United States House of Representatives, taking his seat on January 3, 1949.
In the 83rd United States Congress, he became chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee after the previous chairman, J. Parnell Thomas of New Jersey, went to prison for taking kickbacks.
Velde did not run in 1956, and ended his four terms in Congress on January 3, 1957.
After Congress, Velde returned to practicing law: He was a lawyer in Urbana, Illinois and Washington, D.C. until May 5, 1969. He became a regional counsel for the General Services Administration in Lansing, Illinois in 1969.
Personal and death.
In 1974, he retired to Sun City, Arizona, where he died on September 1, 1985. His ashes were interred in Pekin, Illinois, at Lakeside Cemetery.


Aloysius Pendergast

Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast is a fictional character appearing in novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. He first appeared as a supporting character in their first novel, "Relic" (1995), and in its 1997 sequel "Reliquary", before assuming the protagonist role in the 2002 novel "The Cabinet of Curiosities".
Pendergast is a special agent with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He once worked out of the New Orleans Field Office of the FBI, but resides in New York City and works out of the New York Field Office; he frequently travels out of state to investigate cases which interest him, often those appearing to be the work of serial killers.
Background.
Aloysius Xingu Leng Pendergast was born in early December 1960 and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. Pendergast retains his Southern manners and mellifluous Deep Southern accent. He studied anthropology at Harvard University (graduating summa cum laude) and received two D. Phil. degrees, one in Classics and the other in philosophy, from Balliol College, Oxford.
Pendergast once served with the U.S. Special Forces in the elite "Ghost Company", a spiritual successor to the "Blue Light" detachment (now Delta Force) with Michael Decker and Howard Longstreet, his superiors at the FBI, and Proctor, who later became his bodyguard and chauffeur. The symbol for this company was "a ghost on a blue field, decorated with a star throwing a thunderbolt at a cat's eye with the number nine as its pupil, symbolizing the nine lives [its] members [...] were alleged to have..." The motto was "Fidelitas usque ad mortem" (Loyalty unto death). Most of his military records are classified and unknown.
A number of years before the series began, Pendergast was married to Helen Esterhazy Pendergast. She was presumed killed in a hunting accident while in Africa (mauled by a lion), but reappears in the "Helen Trilogy".
Pendergast is generally described as being stoically aloof and eccentric, though his ineffable politeness and unerring intellect imbue him with an irresistible charm or enigmatic sense of danger if the occasion should call for it. Well-learned in many subjects, he converses easily with doctors, scientists, intellectuals, vagabonds, highly specialized masters of specific disciplines, and people of a wide variety of language and culture alike. He is a master of psychological manipulation, disguise, and improvisation.
Pendergast appreciates the finer things in life, including expensive cuisine and wines. Food and drink he enjoys include Château Pétrus wine, antipasto, green tea of only the purest and most spiritual kind, gelato, and steak tartare. He has a great distaste for opera. His interests encompass a wide variety of vastly differing walks of life, yet all focus on the enlightenment of the human mind, body, and soul. He spent a year in Tibet studying the deep meditative art of Chongg Ran, taught to him by the monks of the Gsalrig Chongg monastery.
Pendergast is polyglot, demonstrating mastery of French, Italian, Latin, Greek, and Cantonese, and appears semi-fluent in Mandarin. He also has some knowledge of Japanese and Portuguese. He communicates with one of his housekeepers, who is deaf and mute, using American Sign Language.
Appearance.
Pendergast is always described as being tall and slender. He is fit, graceful in movement and physically powerful despite his slight frame. His skin is very pale and many people refer to him as "corpse-like" or as an "albino". He has platinum blond hair, and eyes that are most often described as silver or gray. Pendergast religiously dresses in black, bespoke suits (of Italian design) made of a special blend of wool made only in the 1950s, thus he is often described as looking like an undertaker.
In many cases, Pendergast's normal appearance is irrelevant. A master of disguises, he has fooled even close acquaintances on several occasions.
Accoutrements.
Pendergast owns a 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith (he used to have two but sold one). His chauffeur and personal assistant is a mysterious man named Proctor. All of Pendergast's suits are custom-made in Italy, and his shoes hand-made by John Lobb of London.
Pendergast's personal sidearm is usually a customized .45 Caliber Les Baer Government Model M1911 pistol. In "Relic" he carried a .45 Colt Anaconda double-action revolver. He owns a Signature Grade Colt 1911 .45ACP tuned by pistolsmith Hilton Yam (now owner of 10-8 Consulting).
Pendergast maintains an apartment at The Dakota in New York City, and later inherits and renovates a Beaux Arts mansion near Harlem from his great-granduncle in "The Cabinet of Curiosities". In his Dakota apartment, which is actually three apartments combined, there is a full zen garden where Pendergast performs the tea ceremony and sometimes meditates.
Though he is a scrupulously scientific man, he wears a talisman or amulet on a chain, that consists of his own modified version of the Pendergast family crest: a lidless eye over two moons, one new and one full, with a phoenix (the original version featured a lion).
Pendergast carries a variety of hidden tools, such as lock picks, flashlights of various sizes, test tubes, syringes, and forensic chemicals.
The Pendergast family.
Officially, much of the Pendergast's family wealth came from pharmaceuticals, and the family was sufficiently old and established in New Orleans to conduct themselves as aristocracy. However, there are hints that much of the fortune actually came from patent medicine ("snake oil"), and that some of the family's customers suffered permanent injury or even death from its effects.
Pendergast also confides, to his shame, that a streak of insanity has afflicted his family for generations, such that many of them have been convicted of horrible crimes, and ended their lives in asylums.
Chronicles.
Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast appears in several stand-alone novels and stars in two trilogies. All of these books have been jointly written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
Proposed television adaptation.
On February 1, 2016, authors Preston and Child confirmed that producer Gale Anne Hurd would be heading a television adaptation of the novels "Relic" and "Cabinet of Curiosities". The adaptation, simply titled "Pendergast", would air on Spike TV. The first season would focus on "Pendergast investigating a present-day crime mimicking a century-old mystery — that links to his own family's dark past."
On November 8, 2017 Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child posted on their Facebook page that the series, under development at Paramount, was cancelled.


Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge

The Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge is a vertical-lift bridge that spans the James River between Jordan's Point in Prince George County and Charles City County near Hopewell, Virginia. The bridge carries vehicle traffic of State Route 106 and State Route 156, and is owned by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). It is named after Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a Governor of Virginia, who lived nearby at Berkeley Plantation.
Originally completed in 1966, it was substantially rebuilt following a February 24, 1977 collision by a ship. Repairs took 20 months to complete. The cost of repairs and operations for an innovative passenger shuttle service contracted by the state were $9.7 million. The costs were recovered from the insurer for the shipping company following a lawsuit in U.S. District Court.
Working in conjunction with the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, the Benjamin Harrison Bridge and its VDOT staff host a successful breeding program for peregrine falcons on its high towers.
History.
The mile-long drawbridge replaced ferry service when it was completed in 1966 by Hardesty & Hanover L.L.P., a New York-based bridge engineering firm. It featured a vertical lift span to facilitate passage of shipping traffic on this portion of the James River, which is navigable from Hampton Roads upstream to the Port of Richmond, about west of the bridge.
Disaster in 1977.
Tanker ship crashes into bridge.
On February 24, 1977, the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge was the scene of a spectacular and costly accident. A small, ocean-going, WWII-surplus tanker ship, the 5,700 ton, 523-ft long , was eastbound, heading downriver from Allied Signal Corp. in Hopewell, Virginia. Once underway and only a short distance from the Benjamin Harrison Bridge, the steering gear that powers the ships rudder malfunctioned, and caused the ship to suddenly lose control and ability to maneuver.
The bridge tender had placed the lift span in the "raised" position in anticipation of the ship's passage, and motorists were sitting in their vehicles behind the warning gates waiting. As the large ship veered off course to the north and blew warning blasts on its horn, the occupants of southbound vehicles waiting on the bridge saw the ship coming directly toward them, and managed to get out of their cars and run to safety before the ship rammed the bridge.
As the ship departed the channel to the north, the crew blew the emergency signal of 6 blasts on the ship's horn, put the engine into reverse and dropped the starboard anchor to attempt to steer the ship back into the main channel, but it was too late to counteract the tons of momentum. The ship missed the opened, movable, portion of the bridge over the main channel, and struck part of the fixed span. One section of the concrete bridge deck adjacent the north tower and two unoccupied vehicles tumbled into the river. The vehicles included a Ford conversion van belonging to a person from the Virginia Beach area and a pickup truck belonging to a local plumbing company. The bridge structure of the north tower stopped the ship's forward movement when the lower part struck the deckhouse. The bridge tender, a state employee, was trapped in the control booth located on the raised lift span near the south end. Despite the considerable damage, there were no serious injuries or fatalities. Immediately after the collision, a tugboat, the "Virginia B.", raced downriver from Hopewell to the scene of the accident. A resident of the Jordan Point Yacht Haven launched a 19 foot runabout and with the help of a local rescue squad member began a search of the area for survivors. The US Coast Guard Strike Team 1 deployed Lt. Cmdr Chambers and an enlisted diver to the scene by helicopter. The diver operated off the resident's runabout for 3 days until their dive boat arrived on scene.
Post-collision actions.
Representatives of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the United States Coast Guard, and Virginia Governor Mills E. Godwin Jr.'s Office of Emergency Services responded to the scene. Civil engineering contractors were summoned to assess damages and assist with planning repairs to the bridge. Local land and water transportation contractors were solicited to immediately develop proposals to provide alternate transportation for displaced motorists.
According to official state records, the damage to the bridge entailed the "destruction of two spans north of the lift span, the north tower, the lift span, and serious damage to the south tower." and "elimination of both highway and river traffic with immediate serious effect upon highway users and industries relying upon supplies by water"
Special arrangements to help displaced commuters.
While river traffic was restored in relatively short order, the loss of the bridge as a highway artery caused substantial hardship to commuters and the communities on both sides of the river beginning immediately after the collision. Clearly, repairs would take quite some time before the bridge could reopen to highway traffic and would be costly.
Prior to completion of the bridge in 1966, an automobile-carrying passenger ferry service had operated at this location, but the docks had rotted and silt had filled in the areas where the large ferryboats, if their service was to be restored, would need to dock. Due to a dredging restriction in place because of Kepone contamination, it was not feasible to restore the automobile-carrying ferry service, although a similar operation was still serving about downstream at the Jamestown Ferry.
Alternative driving routes were unacceptably lengthy. The only fixed crossing downstream was the James River Bridge, which would require an additional drive. The nearest highway bridge upstream was located on Interstate 95 at Richmond, necessitating an additional driving distance of over . The existing Jamestown Ferry service about downstream between Scotland in Surry County and Glass House Point in James City County was already operating at capacity, with delays during peak commuting hours.
Later on the day of the accident, state officials called upon local bus, taxicab, and water transportation providers, including both Greyhound Lines and Trailways, to offer potential solutions for the commuters. Virginia Governor Mills E. Godwin Jr.'s Office of Emergency Services identified an innovative solution, selecting a hybrid combination of land and water services of two local contractors to comprise a unique system for commuters.
Richmond-based Virginia Overland Transportation (VOTC), which managed several of the state's older urban-suburban bus lines, was contracted to implement a shuttle bus and passenger van system on each side of the river. The land-based services were coordinated with a passenger ferry system contracted by VDOT from another company. The passenger ferry had small craft which could utilize the old ferry landings without dredging operations.
Both services were to accommodate the individual schedules of commuting citizens impacted by the bridge closure. The contractors were given only 3 business days to have their emergency operations in place. The contractors met the state's deadline, and their service was in place three days later, essentially operating from dawn to dusk, with schedules adjusted to suit commuters as much as possible. Virginia Overland used two-way radio-equipped vans and school buses based on each side of the river to coordinate with the passenger ferries. Expanded parking was provided by VDOT at both docks. During this operation, commuters would drive to the ferry dock area on the side of their residence and literally "Park, Ride, and Ride."
The van and bus service on the south shore ran between the dock at Jordan's Point and various schools and places of employment, including many businesses in Prince George County, Hopewell and notably Fort Lee, a U.S. Army installation located in Prince George.
In the opposite situation, some workers who lived on the south side of the river, parked and rode the ferry, and then vans or buses transported them to employment, mostly at Charles City County schools and other governmental agencies.
By acting quickly, major disruptions to commuters and employers was primarily limited the initial few days. Since the state (and ultimately the ship's insurers) bore the expense of the passenger ferries and shuttle services, some commuters found budget savings in their commuting expenses as a meaningful offset to the inconvenience.
Additionally, a light-duty car-float, which was essentially a barge guided by a tugboat, was later introduced which could transport a small number of automobiles and light trucks during favorable weather conditions to supplement the passenger ferry and shuttle bus/van arrangements, providing the commuters with a choice. However, the car-float, which rode quite close to the water, and resembled a raft, was considered somewhat unstable by some commuters, and the original "Park and Ride and Ride" services continued for 20 months until the bridge was reopened.
Reconstruction of the bridge.
About 10 days after the initial collision, the damaged south tower which was supporting one end of the lift span (which had been askew with the north end down along with the north tower, and the south end still up) collapsed onto the ship. A total reconstruction of the lift portion of the bridge and several spans of the north approach was required. This was accomplished by McLean Contracting Company out of Baltimore Maryland, supervised by Bill Sinclair
The reconstruction of the damaged bridge was to cost 9.5 million dollars and take 20 months to complete. One design change incorporated was relocation of the bridge tender's station to a fixed portion of the structure which did not go up and down with the lift span. Another major design flaw with the bridge was not fixed. Shortly before the accident Captains Ron Blaha (Blaha Towing Company) and Virginia Pilot Bobby Stone (Virginia Pilots Association) stated during an interview on local television news that because the drawbridge was located at a bend in the channel the traffic gates should be moved back away from the channel to prevent cars from falling into the river in the event that a ship was unable to make the turn and hit the fixed span. VDOT had previously been advised that the bridge was in such a position along the channel that this type of accident was possible. Following the accident, the news media picked up on the fact that Captains Stone and Blaha had previously warned that the traffic gates should be moved, however the traffic gates were never relocated by VDOT.
Fault, liability for damages.
The NTSB issued a report, MAR-78-01, which was adopted on January 1, 1978. The investigation made recommendations for future prevention. The State of Virginia filed suit in U.S. District Court against the shipping company operating the "Marine Floridian", which was found to be liable for the damages, a decision affirmed by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The rebuilt Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge was reopened to traffic in the fall of 1978. The total cost of damages from the accident was $9.7 million.
Peregrine falcon program.
Eastern Virginia has long been a habitat for once endangered birds, notably bald eagles and peregrine falcons. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has come to learn that some of its high bridge structures closely match their preferred nesting environment on cliff faces and in high trees.
In an award-winning program, nesting boxes for these rare birds were established in several bridges, including the Benjamin Harrison Memorial Bridge. Bridge pairs now represent approximately 30 percent of the Virginia peregrine falcon population. In a major victory for the endangered species, and VDOT's environmental efforts, in the spring of 2003, nearly a dozen peregrine falcon chicks were hatched. Most were taken from their nesting boxes on various VDOT bridges for banding and release.
That spring, three chicks or "eyases" on the Benjamin Harrison Bridge on Route 156 over the James River were banded with a transmitter for tracking purposes, and two were released at Shenandoah National Park. Environmentalists like to leave one chick with its parents when possible, but the birds have a better chance of staying alive when released in the wild. One concern is that a falcon learning to fly may not survive a fall onto a bridge or even the water below.
VDOT employees who work on the bridge can see the nesting box on top of the tower from where they work. They can see into the nest when they go up into the tower to work on the mechanisms used to open the drawbridge. The drawbridge is opened on demand sometimes three or four times a day, but some days not at all. The openings do not disturb the peregrine falcons. Bridge employees keep the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary informed of the birds' movements.
Peregrine falcons were listed as federally endangered in 1970 under the Endangered Species Conservation Act. At that time, there were virtually none in the east, and the population in the rest of the country had fallen by 80 to 90 percent. Beginning in the 1970s, a national effort was undertaken to recover breeding populations and to restore the species. Their population has significantly recovered over the past 30 years, thanks to conservation efforts such as VDOT's. Today, more than 1,500 breeding pairs have been counted in the U.S. and Canada.
Along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the Conservation Center, VDOT monitors the falcons on each bridge to ensure they and their habitat are doing well. VDOT has even established falcon-specific contract requirements for the Structure and Bridge Division as it continues to identify other nesting sites.
Through placement of nesting boxes on 10 bridges maintained by VDOT, the endangered peregrine falcons – considered the world's fastest birds – once again fly high over Virginia's eastern seaboard. Because of the significant role it played in the recovery of the peregrine falcon in Virginia, VDOT earned the 1998 Federal Highway Administration Excellence Award in the category of Environment Protection and Enhancements.


Bill Munson

William Alan Munson (August 11, 1941 – July 10, 2000) was an American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) from 1964 through 1979. He also played college football for Utah State where he set multiple passing records as a senior in 1963.
Drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the first round of the 1964 NFL Draft, Munson was the Rams' starting quarterback in 1964 and 1965 and a backup to Roman Gabriel in 1966 and 1967. In 1968, Munson was traded to the Detroit Lions where he remained for eight seasons (1968–1975), competing all the while for the starting quarterback position with Greg Landry. Munson concluded his career as a backup quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks (1976), San Diego Chargers (1977), and Buffalo Bills (1978–1979).
In 16 NFL seasons, Munson appeared in 107 games, 66 of them as a starting quarterback. His teams compiled a 27–34–5 record in the 66 games he started. Munson completed 1,070 of 1,982 passes for 12,896 yards, 84 touchdowns, and 80 interceptions. He also accumulated 548 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns on 130 carries.
Early years.
Munson was born in Sacramento, California, in 1941. He moved to Lodi, California, as a boy and attended Lodi High School.
Munson attended Utah State University where he played college football for the Utah State Aggies football team. As senior in 1963, he led the Aggies to an 8-2 record and broke multiple school passing records, completing 120 of 201 passes (.592 completion percentage) for 1,699 yards, 12 touchdowns, and three interceptions. He was also named Utah State's athlete of the year for the 1963–64 academic year.
Professional football.
Los Angeles Rams.
Munson was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the first round, seventh overall pick, of the 1964 NFL Draft. As a rookie in 1964, he started eight games for the Rams, leading them to a 2–4–2 record in those games. On December 14, 1964, he connected with Bucky Pope for a 95-yard touchdown against the Green Bay Packers, ranking as the longest pass play in the NFL during the 1964 season. The following year, he started the first 10 games for the Rams, compiling a 1–9 record, but missed the final four games due to a knee injury. Munson eventually lost the starting quarterback job to Roman Gabriel and saw only limited action as a backup for the Rams in 1966 and 1967.
Detroit Lions.
In May 1968, Munson was traded by the Rams to the Detroit Lions along with a third round draft pick in exchange for Pat Studstill, Tom Watkins, Milt Plum, and Detroit's first round draft pick in the 1969 NFL Draft. For the next eight years, Munson competed for the Lions' starting quarterback job with Greg Landry, who the Lions had selected with their first round pick in the 1968 NFL Draft.
In his first season in Detroit, Munson started 10 games for the Lions, leading them to a 4–6–2 record and completing 181 of 329 passes for a career-high 2,311 yards, 15 touchdowns and eight interceptions. His 2.4% interception percentage was the best in the NFL in 1968. In 1969, Munson shared the starting quarterback position with Landry, each of them starting seven games. Munson and Landry again shared the quarterback position for the 1970 Lions, with Munson starting eight games and Landry seven. By 1971, Landry had won the starting job, and Munson served solely in a backup role during the 1971 and 1972 seasons.
In 1972, Landry and Munson returned to shared responsibilities with each starting seven games as the Lions' quarterback. Then, in 1974, Landry was injured in the final pre-season game, and Munson started 11 of 14 games for the Lions, completing 166 of 292 passes for 1,874 yards, eight touchdowns and seven interceptions. In 1975, Munson started only three games for the Lions, compiling a 1–2 record in those games.
1976 to 1979 seasons.
In early September 1976, the Lions traded Munson to the Seattle Seahawks in exchange for a future draft choice. Munson spent the 1976 season as a backup for the Seahawks. He concluded his career serving as a backup for the San Diego Chargers (signed as a free agent) in 1977 and for the Buffalo Bills (traded by the Chargers) in 1978 and 1979.
Career statistics.
Munson played for five NFL teams over 16 years from 1964 to 1979. He appeared in 107 games, 66 of them as a starting quarterback. His teams compiled a 27-34-5 record in the 66 games he started. Munson completed 1,070 of 1,982 passes for 12,896 yards, 84 touchdowns, and 80 interceptions. He also accumulated 548 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns on 130 carries.
Later years.
After retiring from football, Munson lived in the Detroit area for several years, working for an automobile tooling business. He later retired and moved back to his home town of Lodi, California. Munson died in July 2000 at age 58. His body was found in the swimming pool of his home in Lodi.


HMS Effingham

HMS "Effingham" was one of five heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. She was not finished during the war and construction proceeded very slowly after the end of the war in 1918. Completed in 1925, the ship was assigned to the East Indies Station, sometimes serving as a flagship. She returned home in 1932 and was assigned to the Reserve Fleet as its flagship for the next four years. "Effingham" was rearmed and modernized in 1937–1938 and then resumed her previous role.
When the Second World War began in September 1939, "Effingham" was assigned to the Northern Patrol, but severe engine problems caused her to spend most of the next six months under repair. In between dockyard visits, the ship ferried a load of gold bullion to Canada and was briefly assigned to the North America and West Indies Station. After a lengthy refit at the beginning of 1940, "Effingham" supported Allied troops during the Norwegian Campaign, mostly bombarding German positions and providing naval gunfire support to troops ashore. While ferrying troops and supplies to Bodø on 18 May, the ship struck a shoal due to a navigational error and sank in shallow water. Her crew was evacuated without loss and the cruiser destroyed by a pair of torpedoes from an accompanying destroyer. Her wreck was salvaged after the war with only some minor wreckage remaining.
Design and description.
The "Hawkins"-class cruisers were designed to be able to hunt down commerce raiders in the open ocean, for which they needed a heavy armament, high speed and long range. "Effingham" had an overall length of , a beam of and a draught of at deep load. The ship displaced at (standard load) and at deep load. Her crew numbered 690 officers and ratings.
The ships were originally designed with propulsion machinery, but the Admiralty decided in 1917 to replace their four coal-fired boilers with more powerful oil-burning ones. This change could only be applied to the three least-advanced ships, including "Effingham", although she did not receive the full upgrade. The ship was powered by four Brown-Curtis geared steam turbine sets, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by 10 Yarrow boilers that were ducted into two funnels. The turbines were rated at for a speed of . "Effingham" carried of fuel oil to give her a range of at .
The main armament of the "Hawkins"-class ships consisted of seven Mk VI guns in single mounts protected by gun shields. They were arranged with five guns on the centreline, four of which were in superfiring pairs fore and aft of the superstructure, the fifth gun was further aft on the quarterdeck, and the last two as wing guns abreast the aft funnel. Their anti-aircraft suite consisted of three Mk V guns and a pair of two-pounder () guns. Two of the Mk V guns were positioned at the base of the mainmast and the third gun was on the quarterdeck. The two-pounders were mounted on a platform between the funnels. The ships were also fitted with six 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, one submerged and two above water on each broadside.
"Effinham"s guns were controlled by a mechanical Mark III Dreyer Fire-control Table. It used data provided by the coincidence rangefinder in the gunnery director positioned under the spotting top at the head of the tripod mast. The ship was also fitted with three rangefinders.
The "Hawkins" class were protected by a full-length waterline armoured belt that covered most of the ships' sides. It was thickest over the boiler and engine rooms, ranging from thick. Their magazines were protected by an additional of armour. There was a 1-inch aft transverse bulkhead and the conning tower was protected by 3-inch armour plates. The ships' deck protection consisted of 1 to 1.5 inches of high-tensile steel.
Modernisation.
The London Naval Treaty of 1930 had placed a limit on the number of cruisers with an armament greater than and the "Hawkins" class were due to be demilitarized by December 1936 to avoid exceeding the allotted number of 15 heavy cruisers. The ships were still in good shape and could usefully remain in service if rearmed with smaller guns. "Effingham" was chosen to be the lead ship in the modernisation programme, using the spare Mark XII guns from the light cruisers and that were being rearmed and converted into anti-aircraft cruisers.
In 1937–1938 all of the ship's existing guns were removed, as were her pair of underwater torpedo tubes, and the forward superstructure and bridge was rebuilt to accommodate nine 6-inch guns in two superfiring trios fore and aft of the superstructure, plus one gun further aft on the quarterdeck and one more on each broadside. At their maximum elevation of +30°, the guns had a range of . "Effingham"s anti-aircraft armament was increased to four Mk V guns and the two-pounders were replaced by three quadruple mounts for Vickers AA machine guns. Her aft pair of boilers were removed and the aft boiler room was converted into an oil tank, which increased her oil storage to and her range to at .
The removal of the two boilers reduced her total horsepower to and her speed about , although her boilers were re-tubed during the modernization. The conversion of the aft boiler room into an oil tank rendered her aft funnel redundant and her existing forward funnel was enlarged. This made space available amidships for a E.IV.H catapult and an aircraft-handling crane, although the catapult and its intended Supermarine Walrus flying boat were not fitted at that time. The spotting top was rebuilt and the gunnery director was moved to its roof. Provision was made for one Mk III* High-Angle Control System (HACS) on the spotting top roof and another amidships, although they were not installed until a refit in mid-1939. Provision was also made for a pair of octuple mounts for two-pounder Mk VIII "pom-poms" and their directors, but they were not installed until another refit in early 1940. The 1939 refit also saw the replacement of the Mk V AA guns by four twin-gun mounts for four-inch Mk XVI dual-purpose guns. All these changes increased the ship's wartime crew to over 800 men.
Construction and career.
"Effingham", named after the Lord High Admiral Lord Howard of Effingham, one of the leaders of the fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada in 1587, has been the only ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy. The ship was laid down by HM Dockyard, Portsmouth, on 6 April 1917, launched on 8 June 1921 and completed in July 1925, with Captain Cecil Reyne in command. She was assigned to the 4th Light Cruiser Squadron (LCS) on the East Indies Station after working up. Captain Bruce Fraser (later First Sea Lord) assumed command of the ship in September 1929. Representatives from "Effingham" attended the coronation of the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, on 2 November 1930 and her Royal Marine band provided entertainment during the affair. On 14 June 1932 the ship briefly became the flagship of Rear-Admiral Martin Dunbar-Nasmith, Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station, but he hauled his flag down on 1 October and the cruiser rejoined the 4th LCS. After a cruise in the Bay of Bengal in March–April 1933, "Effingham" returned home.
On 30 July she became flagship of the Reserve Fleet when Vice-Admiral William Munro Kerr hoisted his flag aboard her. Kerr was relieved by Vice-Admiral Edward Astley-Rushton. After the former's premature death in June 1935, Vice-Admiral Gerald Charles Dickens assumed command on 28 June. The ship was present at the Silver Jubilee Fleet Review for King George V on 16 July. She became a private ship on 29 September 1936 in anticipation of her modernisation.
"Effingham" recommissioned on 15 June 1938 with Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee in command and became the flagship of Vice-Admiral Max Horton, Commander-in-Chief, Reserve Fleet. Captain John Howson relieved Warburton-Lee on 17 April 1939. At some point during the year before August, the ship received her missing HACS directors and exchanged her single four-inch guns for new twin-gun mounts. On 9 August she hosted King George VI as he met the captains of sixty ships during his review of the recommissioned Reserve Fleet in Weymouth Bay. She remained in commission after the review and began working up. "Effingham" arrived at the naval base in Scapa Flow on 25 August and was assigned to the 12th Cruiser Squadron. The ship remained Horton's flagship as he assumed command of the Northern Patrol which was tasked with intercepting German ships attempting to reach home before the declaration of war.
World War II service.
After the British declared war on Germany on 3 September, the Northern Patrol's tasks expanded to include intercepting any German commerce raiders attempting to breakout into the Atlantic. "Effingham" was damaged during her first patrol on 6 September and arrived at HM Dockyard, Devonport on 3 October for repairs that lasted until the 9th. The ship relieved the heavy cruiser escorting Convoy KJ-3 six days later, but had to return to Devonport on the 25th for engine repairs. A boiler cleaning lasted until 7 November when she loaded £2 million in gold for transport to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. After arriving 10 days later, Howson was appointed Senior Naval Officer, West Indies Patrol and "Effingham" sailed south to Bermuda on the 24th, together with the Australian light cruiser , to patrol the area between Kingston, Jamaica, and Halifax. "Effingham" was only able to participate in the patrols on 3–6 December before more engine problems evidenced themselves. The ship put into HM Dockyard, Bermuda for repairs, but the replacement boiler tubes proved to be defective and the cruiser would need to have them replaced at home. She sailed back to Halifax to escort Convoy HX-14 across the Atlantic on 29 December.
"Effingham" arrived at Portsmouth for the necessary repairs on 9 January 1940. Her engines had to be stripped down and her boiler tubes replaced; her "pom-poms" and their directors were finally installed during this time, as was her catapult. The ship was not ready for action again until 12 April when she sailed to Scapa Flow. The Navy intended "Effingham" to participate in Plan R 4, during which British forces would occupy Narvik, Norway, and the iron mines in Kiruna and Malmberget, Sweden if the Germans invaded Norway. The British plan had been rendered obsolete when the Germans invaded on 8 April.
Norwegian Campaign.
Together with the heavy cruiser , the anti-aircraft cruiser and several destroyers, "Effingham" was ordered on 17 April to search for a group of five German destroyers that had been spotted off Stavanger by an aircraft. The report was false, but the ships remained off the entrance to the Romsdalsfjord on 17–18 April as the British began landing troops at Molde and Åndalsnes, further inside the fjord. The made an unsuccessful attack on the cruiser during the early hours of 19 April. "Effingham" and her consorts arrived back at Scapa Flow later that day. On the 20th, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Cork, the newly appointed supreme commander of Allied forces in Norway, hoisted his flag aboard the cruiser. Four days later the ship participated in an ineffective bombardment of German-held Narvik in a snowstorm on the 24th. On 1 and 3 May, she helped to bombard targets in the towns of Ankenes and Bjerkvik in preparation for a planned Allied attack on Narvik itself. "Effingham" was the command ship for the landings at Bjerkvik on 12–13 May, hosting Lord Cork and the French commander Brigadier General () Antoine Béthouart; Lieutenant-General Claude Auchinleck was also aboard the ship, but only as an observer. "Effingham" also ferried about 750 men of the landing force from the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion () and provided naval gunfire support during the attack.
As soon as the 2nd Battalion, the South Wales Borderers could be transferred from Ankenes to Harstad, Auchinleck decided to send them and the headquarters of the 24th Guards Brigade to reinforce the defences of Bodø. The threat of aerial attack ruled out the use of slow troopships, so the Admiralty selected "Effingham" to transport the troops. Howson had insisted on no more than of supplies and ammunition could be accommodated aboard the cruiser in addition to the 1,020 British and French troops, but he was overruled by the Army and were actually loaded in addition to ten Bren Carriers, hindering the use of some of the ship's six- and four-inch guns.
Together with the rest of the 20th Cruiser Squadron, the anti-aircraft cruisers "Coventry" and and escorted by the destroyers and , "Effingham" departed Harstad at 01:00 on 17 May. To minimise the risk of air attack, the Admiralty had avoided using the much-shorter route through the Tjeldsundet Strait and the Vestfjorden, although it meant a much higher average speed enroute to arrive meet the scheduled 20:00 arrival time and allow the ship to unload in the darkness, safe from attacks by the Luftwaffe. As the ships approached Bodø, Howson suggested that the threat of submarine attack was higher in the main channel and that the squadron could use a narrow strait between the island of Bliksvær and the Terra Archipelago instead. "Effingham" had a large-scale map of the area and Howson believed that passage was practicable for his ship, the largest ship in the squadron. Rear-Admiral John Vivian, commander of the squadron in Coventry, lacked a copy of the map, but concurred and ordered that "Effingham" should become the guide ship for the squadron with all the other ships conforming to her movements. Traveling at , "Matabele" was in the lead and "Echo" was trailing on her starboard side, with "Effingham" following "Matabele". As the squadron was entering the entrance to the strait around 19:47, the destroyer touched a submerged rock of the Faxsen Shoal, tearing off her port propeller and its bracket, but not further damaging the ship. About a minute later "Effingham" struck the shoal herself, tearing large holes in her hull, and "Coventry" just touched her stern as she turned to starboard to avoid "Effingham".
The cruiser quickly lost power due to flooding after she passed over the shoal and began drifting. Although the ship was settling on an even keel, Howson was concerned that she might capsize with the loss of most of her crew and passengers and ordered "Echo" to tow "Effingham" to shallow water to allow her to be beached around 20:15. The tow was not able to progress much and Vivian ordered it to be cast off at 20:45 so the cruiser would sink in deep water where she could not be salvaged by the Germans. During this time, "Echo" was able to take aboard all of the passengers and over 200 of the ship's crew. By 22:10 she had transferred all of the men to Coventry and returned to "Effingham" to take off the remaining crewmen. In the meantime, the cruiser had grounded off Skjoldsh Island in an upright position, east of Bliksvær, in about of water. Boats from "Matabele" also rescued some men and they were transferred to "Cairo" after that ship returned from summoning ships from Bodø for assistance as there was no further room aboard "Coventry". The two anti-aircraft cruisers and "Matabele" departed for Harstad later that night.
"Echo" was left behind and Howson went aboard her to supervise the attempt to salvage material by the small ships from Bodø and to ensure that "Effingham" was thoroughly wrecked. Although four Bren Carriers and some mortars were recovered, only a small amount of material could salvaged during the night and transported to Bodø. The detonators for the torpedo warheads and other explosives aboard the cruiser were underwater, but her guns were thoroughly sabotaged, her ready-use ammunition was thrown overboard and "Echo" put a pair of torpedoes into her at 08:00 which caused "Effingham" to capsize at coordinates . The wreck was dismantled by Høvding Skipsopphugging after the war with only a few plates and components now being left on the sea bed.


BUtterfield 8 (novel)

BUtterfield 8 (1935) is a realist novel by John O'Hara. It is a roman à clef loosely based upon the life of socialite and flapper Starr Faithfull, whose unsolved death in 1931 became a tabloid sensation. Reviews were mixed but the novel was a best-seller.
It was adapted for a 1960 movie of the same name, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Laurence Harvey. A paperback edition published at the same time sold more than one million copies. In 2019 it was one of four John O'Hara novels published in a collection by the Library of America.
Plot summary.
The novel explores the life of Gloria Wandrous, a young woman having an affair with Weston Liggett, an older, married businessman. Set in New York circa 1931, it fills in her family background and sexual history, and it locates her within a circle of friends, their relationships, and economic struggles, providing a closely observed tour of "the sordid and sensational lives of people on the fringe of café society and the underworld". The minor character of Jimmy Malloy, a junior newspaper reporter, serves as O'Hara’s alter ego; he has the style of a Yale University graduate but not the means.
The title of the novel derives from the pattern of telephone exchange names in the United States and Canada. Until the early 1970s, telephone exchanges were indicated by two letters and commonly referred to by names instead of by numbers, with the BU represented on the telephone dial as "28," followed by four digits. In December 1930 an additional digit was appended to the exchange name. BUtterfield was an exchange that provided service to Manhattan's well-to-do Upper East Side, and BUtterfield 8 was still new when the novel was published.
Reception.
Clifton Fadiman's review in "The New Yorker" was titled "Disappointment in O'Hara", and Heywood Broun said O'Hara's characters all spoke with the same voice. Ernest Hemingway supplied the publisher with a blurb: "John O'Hara writes better all the time."
The "New York Times" said it provided "the ultra-ultra in fictional depiction of the willful degradation of sex".
Adaptations.
The novel was adapted for a film of the same name that was released in 1960. It starred Elizabeth Taylor, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Gloria Wandrous. O'Hara did not participate in writing the adaptation, and publicity for the film did not mention his name.
With the release of the movie, more than 1 million paperback copies of the novel were sold. In a review of the movie, the "Harvard Crimson" described "BUtterfield 8" "one of O'Hara's few good novels" and "one of the truly great chronicles of the 1930s".
In 1960, at the time of the movie and paperback edition, O'Hara described his ambition in writing this novel: "I was determined to make plain what I had seen." He claimed to have suppressed the more shocking details of the story and enjoyed that it was nevertheless "a shocker to the literary cocktail party set". He wrote:
O'Hara donated the typescript of the novel to Yale, and complained when an article in the "Yale Alumni Magazine" about the school’s holdings in American literature omitted mention of him.
Later reviews.
When Random House republished the novel in 1995, Margo Jefferson criticized its prose but wrote that O'Hara was
"full of passion and honest spleen, driven to show why we live and act the way we do. And how he understands class structure, American-style! The comedy of it and the meanness, the social climbing and the downward plunges, the tricky business of balancing your ethnic debits against your physical or financial assets."
In 2013, writing in "The New Yorker", Lorin Stein called "BUtterfield 8" "one of the great novels of New York in the Depression". He noted that the novel remains fresh in presenting a wide range of sexual behaviors from the point of view of a woman and also allowing her an intense friendship–love on his part–with a male peer, commercial illustrator Eddie Brunner.
Legacy and honors.
"BUtterfield 8" was one of four O'Hara novels included in a collection published by the Library of America in 2019.


Joseph S. Farland

Joseph Simpson Farland (August 11, 1914 – January 28, 2007) served as United States Ambassador to four countries.
Farland was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia and raised in that city as well as in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He received his bachelors and a law degree from West Virginia University and did further studies at Princeton University and Stanford University. Farland was a practicing lawyer for several years.
During World War II Farland worked with the FBI and then was in the Navy. After the war besides continuing his law activities Farland also served as president of coal companies. Farland became United States Ambassador to the Dominican Republic in 1957. He was then appointed Ambassador to Panama in 1960 serving in that post until 1963. In 1963 Farland returned to practicing law in Washington, D.C.. Farland later served as United States Ambassador to Pakistan from 1969 to 1972 and then as Ambassador to Iran from 1972 to 1973. During his term as ambassador to Pakistan, Farland arranged for Henry Kissinger to visit China via Pakistan in 1971. Kissinger's clandestine meeting with Chou En-lai paved the way for President Richard Nixon's own visit to China. Farland was then appointed Ambassador to New Zealand, but did not accept the position and returned to the practice of law. He retired to Winchester, Virginia, where he died on January 28, 2007.


Mohamed v President of the Republic of South Africa

Mohamed v President of the Republic of South Africa, [2001] ZACC 18, is a 2001 decision of the Constitutional Court of South Africa dealing with the legality of the South African government's actions in handing over Khalfan Khamis Mohamed to United States authorities. The court ruled that the South African government may not extradite a suspect who may face the death penalty without seeking an assurance from the receiving country that the suspect will not be sentenced to death.


K. P. Fabian

Ambassador K. P. Fabian (born 23 September 1940) is an Indian Diplomat who served in the Indian Foreign Service between 1964 and 2000, during which time he was posted to Madagascar, Austria, Iran, Sri Lanka, Canada, Finland, Qatar and Italy.
Career.
During his time in the diplomatic service, he spent three years in Iran (from 1976 to 1979), witnessing the Iranian Revolution first hand. As Joint Secretary (Gulf), Fabian coordinated the evacuation of over 176,000 Indian nationals from Iraq and Kuwait in 1990–91. His multilateral experience includes representing India at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, International Atomic Energy Agency, International Civil Aviation Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. He is also the author of two books, Commonsense on the War on Iraq, which was published in 2003 and Diplomacy: Indian Style. Even while in service, Ambassador Fabian wrote and spoke on international affairs, mainly at universities in Madagascar, Austria, Iran, Sri Lanka, Canada, Finland, Qatar and Italy. The first address he delivered was on Mahatma Gandhi in 1969 at The Charles de Gaulle University, Tananarive, Madagascar. His presentation on the North-South Dialogue was published as a monograph by McGill University, Montreal(1983). In the corporate sector, for three years starting from 2002, he was on the board of Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers in Mumbai and concurrently chaired the Audit Committee of the Board. He was on the board of the Syndicate Bank from 2003-2006. He was a visiting professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi from 2003-04. He held the position of KPS Menon Chair at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam from 2012-13. He was also the Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings, Chennai. Currently he is a board member of The Hope Project, New Delhi and Professor, at the Indian Society of International Law, New Delhi. He is also the Chief Advisor of Minerva Model United Nations founded by Arsh Arora and Yash Maheshwari.
Evacuation of Indians from Kuwait.
During the Invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's Iraq Fabian worked closely with Gujral then Joint Secretary (Gulf Division, Ministry of External Affairs), KP Fabian coordinated the evacuation initiative. This involved working with officers across ministries working in the Gulf, and respond to the needs of the stranded people in Kuwait. He also was personally responsible in keeping the Air India ready for the emergency operation. The 1990 airlift of Indians from Kuwait was carried out from August 13, 1990 to October 20, 1990 after the Invasion of Kuwait. Air India helped evacuate 175,000 people by civil airliners. The operation was carried out before the Persian Gulf War in 1990 to evacuate Indian expatriates from Kuwait.Those stranded were evacuated from Amman, Jordan, to Mumbai by Air India, operating 488 flights in coordination with Indian Airlines.


Ariel Castro


Ram Raja Prasad Singh

Ram Raja Prasad Singh () (1936 – 12 September 2012) was a Nepalese politician. In July 2008, Singh was proposed by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), a Nepalese political party which merged with other communist parties and renamed to Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre) , or CPN(M-C) as their candidate in the first presidential election in the country.
Singh hailed from Saptari district, eastern Nepal. His father, Jaya Mangal Prasad Singh was a wealthy landowner. Singh's first encounter with the realities of political life came abruptly at the age of seven. In 1942 the Indian socialist leaders Jayprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia came to Nepal to mobilise support for the Quit India Movement and organise the formation of a guerrilla army to fight against British colonial rule. The two stayed at Singh's household. One day Lohia and Narayan, along with three other comrades, were caught by Nepalese police and their weaponry was seized. Singh's father and the remaining guerrilla soldiers attacked the detention centre and freed the two Indian leaders. Jaya Mangal Prasad Singh was later arrested and sentenced for the killing of two policemen during the raid. Ram Raja Prasad Singh and his brother Laxman were made to stay in jail with their father. They were released after India became independent.
Ram Raja Prasad Singh went on to study law. Once, whilst studying at Delhi University, he was able to meet with the Latin American revolutionary leader Che Guevara. Guevara advised Singh to take up guerrilla struggle in Nepal. Singh is probably the only Nepalese politician who met with Guevara.
Singh, a young Supreme Court lawyer, contested one of the four graduate seats in the 1971 Rastriya Panchayat election. Singh won the seat on a platform of restoring parliamentary democracy in Nepal, and his victory was seen as a humiliation of the regime. Whilst several other candidates for the graduate seats had declared their wish for gradual democratic reforms (17 candidates contested on a common reformist platform), Singh was the sole candidate to call for immediate transition to democracy.
The presiding officer of the Rastriya Panchayat was reluctant to let Singh be sworn in along with the other members of the assembly. He was arrested by plainclothes policemen inside the lobby of the assembly. A special tribunal sentenced him. On August 26, 1971, he was given a royal pardon and could later be sworn in as a member of the Rastriya Panchayat. After his release, Singh continued to be a vocal advocate of democratic change and began organising public meetings in different parts of the country.
In 1976 he established Nepal Janabadi Morcha (Nepal Democratic Front), a left-wing political movement in Nepal.
Singh claimed responsibility for the 1985 bombings in Kathmandu. He was convicted of the bombings and his property was confiscated by the government. However, Singh escaped Nepal and went into exile in India. At least eight people were killed, including a member of parliament. In the capital, the blasts went off near the royal palace, at the deluxe Hotel de l'Annapurna owned by the royal family, Singh Durbar, the prime minister's office, and parliament. Bombs also went off at the Bhairahawa airport, Nepalganj and Mahendranagar in the west as well as Birgunj, Janakpur, Biratnagar and Jhapa in the east.
He returned to Nepal in 1990.
Singh died on 12 September 2012 during the course of his treatment at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in the capital Kathmandu. He was 77 years old.


Lieutenant Bak