Dixon Edward Hoste

Dixon Edward Hoste (23 July 1861 – 11 May 1946) was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China and the longest lived of the Cambridge Seven. He became the successor to James Hudson Taylor as General Director of the China Inland Mission, (from 1902 to 1935).
Life.
Hoste was born in 1861 as the son of Major General Dixon Edward Hoste. He was educated at Clifton College and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and at the age of 18 was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery. In 1882 he experienced a Christian conversion under the influence of Dwight Lyman Moody.
In 1883 he became interested in the work of the China Inland Mission, and was the first of the Cambridge Seven to apply to work with this mission, and after some delay he was accepted, sailing for China in 1885. He was sent to Küwu (presumably Quwo), to the south of Linfen in Southern Shanxi. In 1886, he was ordained as a pastor by Hudson Taylor, and moved to Hungtung (now Hongdong or Hongtong) to work with Stanley P. Smith (Peregrine) who had opened an opium refuge there at the invitation of Pastor Hsi. He worked under Hsi, wore Chinese clothes, ate Chinese food, and tried to get an insight into the Chinese mind. Hoste is credited with making the Chinese churches apply the indigenous principles of self-government, self-support, and self-propagation.
In 1893, he married Gertrude Broomhall, daughter of CIM General Secretary Benjamin Broomhall and his wife Amelia, (Hudson Taylor's sister). Because of ill-health Mr Hoste visited England in 1896 and then spent some time in Australia before returning to China. During his appointment as general director of the China Inland Mission, he was based in Shanghai, and after internment there by the Japanese Army from 1944 to 1945, returned to England, where he died in 1946 at the Mildmay Nursing Home. His wife had died in Shanghai 12 April 1944.


Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Northern China

The Campaign to Suppress Bandits in Northern China was a counter-guerrilla / counterinsurgency campaign the communists fought against the nationalist guerrilla that mostly consisted of bandits and nationalist regular troops left behind after the nationalist government withdrew from mainland China. The campaign was fought during the Chinese Civil War in the post-World War II era, and resulted in communist victory.
Campaign.
Before the nationalist government withdrew from North China, it ordered troops left behind to join local bandits to fight guerrilla war against the communists. To further boost the fighting capabilities of bandits, many military professionals were sent to the bands of bandits without any significant former nationalist troop presence, so that their military operations could be strengthened. The size of each band of bandits various, from the smallest of barely a dozen to the largest consisting of several thousands, usually, the typical size was several hundred. In March 1949, the bandit activity reached its peak, totaling a hundred and three attacks.
The future field marshal of the communist force, Nie Rongzhen was in charge of eradicating bandits in northern China. In April 1949, orders were given to suppress local bandits, emphasizing on not to underestimate these bandits. A month later, a conference on bandit suppression was held, setting the strategies that included adopting political pressure against bandits, and mobilizing the general populace to eliminate the social bases of bandits. In June 1949, further strategies were devised, concentrating on using small striking force in quick assaults, instead of ineffective large formation that was easy to be discovered and slow moving.
The communists came to important realization that the nationalist force left behind and deserters would be a huge reserve for bandits if left unattended. Nie Rongzhen ordered communist forces to immediately accept the surrender of deserters of nationalist force and providing for them so that their livelihood would be stabilized, and thus preventing them from turning into bandits. By June 1949, over thirty-seven thousand former nationalist troops left behind had surrendered, and the communists eliminated a huge potential threat. After a year of fighting, the campaign was finally concluded with a communist victory with the annihilation of over twenty-nine thousand bandits. The communist victory ensured that Beijing, the new capital of the People's Republic of China became relatively safe in the infancy of the new nation.
Outcome.
Although sharing the common anticommunist goal, the nationalist guerrilla and insurgency warfare was largely handicapped by the enlistment of bandits, many of whom had fought and killed nationalist troops earlier in the eradication / pacification campaign, and also looted, kidnapped and even killed landlords and business owners, an important faction that supported the nationalist government, but now must united against the common enemy, which is half-hearted at the best. Compounding the problem further with additional differences within the ranks of the nationalist guerillas themselves, the futile nationalist guerrilla and insurgency warfare against its communist enemy was destined to fail.


Lena Guilbert Ford

Lena Guilbert Brown Ford, middle name sometimes listed as Gilbert, (1870 – March 7, 1918) was a lyricist, best known for "Keep the Home Fires Burning" which she wrote during the First World War.
She was born Lena Guilbert Brown in Venango County, Pennsylvania and attended Elmira College, graduating in 1887. She married physician Harry Hale Ford and settled in Elmira, later divorcing him and relocating, with her mother and son, to London, England, where they would remain for twenty years. During World War I, Ford opened her home to soldiers and took care of them.
While in Britain she met Ivor Novello, with whom she collaborated to produce "Keep the Home Fires Burning" in 1914. It was the first major success for Novello and the only one for Ford. Among Ford's other published musical works are "When God Gave You to Me", "We Are Coming, Mother England", and "God Guard You" (with Westell Gordon).
Ford and her thirty-year-old son Walter were the first United States citizens to become fatalities of a German air raid on London, their home being hit by one of eighteen bombs that fell on the city on the night of 7/8 March 1918. Mrs. Brown, Ford's mother, was only hurt in the bombing. Their remains were returned to and interred in the United States.


To War with Whitaker

To War with Whitaker: The Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly 1939–1945 is a memoir of World War II written, in diary form, by Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly. It was first published by William Heinemann in 1994. The following year, Mandarin Publishing issued it in paperback, describing the memoir as "A love story that knows no bounds":
When World War II broke out, Dan Ranfurly was dispatched to the Middle East with his faithful valet, Whitaker. These are the diaries of his young wife, Hermione, who, defying the War Office, raced off in hot pursuit of her husband. When Dan was taken prisoner, Hermione vowed never to return home until they were reunited. For six years, travelling alone from Cape Town to Palestine, and meeting such charismatic characters as Churchill, Eisenhower, and a parrot called Coco on the way, she kept her promise.
The Countess's lively prose style is characterised by frankness, a sharp eye for character – not least that of the short, chubby, phlegmatic valet Whitaker – and an acute ear for dialogue. For example, when the Earl received a telegram at the outbreak of war in 1939 ordering him to report to his regiment, she writes: "After reading this Dan asked Whitaker if he would like to go with him. The old fatty looked over the top of his spectacles and said, 'To the War, my Lord? Very good, my Lord.'"
Her husband, The 6th Earl of Ranfurly, a nobleman of Ulster-Scots descent, was a lieutenant in the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry. Lord Ranfurly, often known simply as Dan Ranfurly, was captured by soldiers of Rommel's Afrika Korps, along with General Sir Richard O'Connor and other officers, in Libya in April 1941 when their driver became lost in the dark. A military historian later described it as "the most valuable car-load of booty to fall to the Afrika Korps during its entire existence". Dan spent the next two years as a prisoner-of-war in Italy.
Dan and other British officers escaped following the Italian surrender in 1943 and, after several months on the run behind German lines, he was finally reunited with his wife in Algiers in May 1944. After the war, Lord Ranfurly served as Governor of the Bahamas, where his wife established a lending library service in Nassau that she later extended to other parts of the world in need of English language books. That service later became Book Aid International.
When the Countess died in 2001, her obituarist for the "Daily Telegraph" wrote: "Hermione, Countess of Ranfurly, who has died aged 87, was the author of one of the most delightful memoirs of recent times, "To War with Whitaker" (1994), and the kind of woman for whom words such as pluck and spirit might have been invented."
The film rights to Lady Ranfurly's diary were optioned by the Los Angeles-based production company Grandiosity Films in 2016.


Treaty of Marrakech


Socialist Democratic Union

Socialist Democratic Union (Greek: Σοσιαλιστική Δημοκρατική Ένωση) was one of the many anti-dictatorial struggle groups that fought against the Greek military junta of 1967-1974. The Socialist Democratic Union organized and mobilized Greeks working and studying in Western Europe against the colonel's junta.
Among the founders of the group was former President of the Hellenic Republic Karolos Papoulias.


Tender Comrade

Tender Comrade is a 1943 black-and-white film released by RKO Radio Pictures, showing women on the home front living communally while their husbands are away at war.
The film stars Ginger Rogers, Robert Ryan, Ruth Hussey, and Kim Hunter and was directed by Edward Dmytryk. The film was later used by the HUAC as evidence of Dalton Trumbo spreading communist propaganda. Trumbo was subsequently blacklisted.
The film's title comes from a line in Robert Louis Stevenson's poem "My Wife" first published in "Songs of Travel and Other Verses" (1896).
Plot.
Jo Jones (Ginger Rogers) works in an airplane factory and longs for the day when she will see her husband (Robert Ryan) again. The couple have a heart wrenching farewell at the train station before he leaves for overseas duty in the war. With their husbands off fighting in World War II, Jo and her co-workers struggle to pay living expenses. Dissatisfied with their living arrangements, they decide to pool their money and rent a house together, soon after which they hire a German immigrant housekeeper, Manya (Mady Christians). Jo discovers she is pregnant and ends up having a son whom she names Chris after his father. The women are overjoyed when Doris's (Kim Hunter) husband comes home, but the same day Jo receives a telegram informing her that her husband has been killed. She hides her grief and as the film ends descends the stairs in order to rejoin the homecoming celebration.
Reception.
The film made a profit of $843,000.


Military Vicariate of Great Britain


Fred Pentland

Frederick Beaconsfield Pentland (29 July 1883 – 16 March 1962) was an English football player and coach.
Pentland played club football in the Football League for Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers and Middlesbrough, in the Southern Football League for Brentford, Queens Park Rangers and Stoke, and in the Midland League for Halifax Town. He was capped five times for England in 1909. He played as a forward, mainly at outside right.
As a manager, he took charge of the Germany Olympic team, the French national team, and Spanish club sides Racing de Santander, Athletic Bilbao, Atlético Madrid and Real Oviedo, before returning to England where he briefly managed Barrow.
Playing career.
Pentland began his football career with Avondale Juniors and Willenhall Swifts before joining Football League Second Division club Small Heath in August 1900 at the age of 17. He played for Small Heath's reserves in the Birmingham & District League, but made no senior league appearances, and after the club's promotion to the First Division at the end of the 1900–01 season, it became more difficult to break through. His only senior appearance was in a 2–1 defeat at Portsmouth in the 1901–02 FA Cup, playing at inside forward in a team weakened by injuries, and in 1903 he signed for Blackpool.
Blackpool used him at centre forward: he scored his first senior goal on 26 September, at home to Stockport County, completed a run of five goals in four matches with a double in a 4–1 win away to Burnley on 17 October, and eleven days later, signed for First Division Blackburn Rovers in a deal reported as "a good bargain" for Blackpool. Over the next two-and-a-half seasons, Pentland contributed 9 goals from 51 League appearances as Blackburn twice finished near the foot of the division and once climbed to mid-table. In 1906, the club listed him for transfer at a fee of £250. There were no takers from the Football League, so he moved into the Southern League, initially with Brentford. He had been so popular at Blackburn that a "crowd of players and friends", accompanied by the Palace Theatre band, saw him off at the station with renditions of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" and "Auld Lang Syne".
He missed only two league matches and contributed twelve goals as Brentford finished in mid-table, but was not retained. He remained in west London with another Southern League club, Queens Park Rangers, who had ended the previous season eight places below Brentford. Under the management of James Cowan, QPR won the 1907–08 title. Playing at outside right, Pentland scored 14 goals from 37 Southern League matches, and was selected for The South to face The North in an international trial. Although his performance in the trial did not earn him selection for his country, he was first reserve at outside right for that season's internationals. As Southern League winners, Queens Park Rangers faced the Football League champions, in this case Manchester United, in a match for the new Football Association Charity Shield. Pentland played, and the match was drawn. It was replayed in August, by which time Pentland had left QPR; although he was reportedly keen to play, and the Football Association granted special dispensation for his inclusion, QPR's directors did not select him because, according to the "Kilburn Times", he had been insistent on leaving the club despite being offered the maximum salary.
In June 1908, Pentland returned to the First Division with Middlesbrough, who had to pay fees to both clubs with an interest in the player: £350 to Queens Park Rangers and £150 to Blackburn Rovers. Playing with such teammates as Alf Common and Steve Bloomer, he helped Middlesbrough finish ninth in his first season, and in 1909, was rewarded with his first cap for England. He played at outside right, alongside captain Vivian Woodward, as England beat Wales and Scotland to complete victory in the 1908–09 British Home Championship. He won three more caps, on a tour of central Europe that same year. In the next two seasons, Pentland continued to play regularly, although Middlesbrough were less successful, and in 1911 he spent some time suspended by the club for "neglecting his training". He made only one first-team appearance in 1911–12, to take his totals to 11 goals from 96 appearances in all senior competition.
In August 1912 he joined Halifax Town, newly admitted to the Midland League. He scored freely, finishing the season as the club's top scorer, as well as acting as player-manager, and helped Halifax reach the first round proper of the 1912–13 FA Cup. With the club in straitened financial circumstances, he was sold to Southern League Stoke in February for a substantial fee. He remained with Stoke until December of that year, contributing six league goals in twelve appearances, before returning to Halifax where his career ended a few months later through injury.
Prisoner in Germany.
After retiring as a player, Pentland went to Berlin in 1914 to take charge of the German Olympic football team. However within a few months, the First World War broke out and he was subsequently interned at Ruhleben, a civilian detention camp in the Spandau district of Berlin. The camp contained between 4,000 and 5,500 prisoners. Gradually a mini-society evolved and football became a popular activity. Cup and league competitions were organised and as many as 1,000 attended the bigger games. Pentland was prominent in organising and playing football within the camp. He was chairman of the Ruhleben Football Association and regularly contributed to football articles in the camp magazine.
Pentland was one of several former professional footballers at Ruhleben. Others included former club teammates and fellow England internationals, Samuel Wolstenholme and Steve Bloomer, a Scotland international, John Cameron, a German international Edwin Dutton, and John Brearley, once of Everton and Tottenham Hotspur. On 2 May 1915 an "England XI" featuring Pentland, Wolstenholme, Brearley and Bloomer played a "World XI" captained by Cameron. Towards the end of the war an international triangular tournament called the "Coupe de Allies", featuring a "British XI", a "French XI" and a "Belgium XI", was organised. Pentland remained in the camp until the end of the war and then returned to England. During his recuperation, he met Nahneen Hayes, a war widow working as a nurse with a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD); the couple married in 1923.
Olympic Games with France.
In 1919, rebuilt AS Strasbourg, formerly "Straßburger FV", appointed Pentland as manager-coach. In 1920 Pentland coached France at the Olympic Games. France received a bye to the quarter-final stages where they beat Italy 3–1. However, in the semi-finals they lost 4–1 to Czechoslovakia. The final stages of the tournament descended into farce and France missed out on the opportunity to win the silver medal. The host nation, Belgium won the gold medal by default after Czechoslovakia walked off in protest during the final, unhappy with the performance of the referee and the conditions surrounding the match. As a result, they were disqualified and a second consolation tournament was organised to decide the silver and bronze medallists. However France and Pentland, presuming the competition was over, had already returned home and Spain eventually won the silver medal.
Manager in Spain.
In 1920 Pentland joined Racing de Santander but after one season he was poached by Athletic Bilbao. He revolutionised the way Athletic played, favouring the short-passing game, and in 1923 he led the club to victory in the Copa del Rey. However, in 1925 he left Athletic and went on to coach Atlético Madrid, leading them to the Copa final in 1926. He then left the Madrid club for one season and coached Real Oviedo. In 1927 he returned to Atlético Madrid and guided them to victory in the Campeonato del Centro. He was also manager at the Madrid side during the inaugural La Liga season. In May 1929 he helped coach the Spanish national team, under manager José María Mateos, when they beat England 4–3 at Athletic Madrid's Metropolitano Stadium. As a result, Spain became the first non-British team to beat England.
In 1929 Pentland rejoined Athletic Bilbao. He subsequently led them to La Liga–Copa del Rey "doubles" in 1930 and 1931. He also guided the club as they won the Copa del Rey four times in a row between 1930 and 1933 and finished as La Liga runners-up in 1932 and 1933. In 1931 he also masterminded Athletic's 12–1 victory over Barcelona, the latter's worst ever defeat. In 1933 he joined Atlético Madrid for a third time but returned to England at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.


Careful, Soft Shoulders

Careful, Soft Shoulders is a 1942 American comedy film written and directed by Oliver H.P. Garrett. The film has stars such as Virginia Bruce, James Ellison, Aubrey Mather, Sheila Ryan, Ralph Byrd and Sigfrid Tor. The film was released on September 18, 1942, by 20th Century Fox.
Plot.
The attack on Pearl Harbor occurs and America's declaration of war stirs patriotism in Connie Mathers, who until now has been more interested in Washington, D.C. parties and clothes. A comment by shipping magnate's son Tommy Aldrich that people like Connie and him are "useless" to the war effort inspires Connie to prove him wrong.
Offering her services as a spy to sister Agatha's boyfriend Elliott, an army intelligence agent, Connie ends up being approached by a mysterious man who identifies himself as "Mr. Fortune" and assigns tasks to test her, using passages from the book "Gone with the Wind" as a code. When she meets Mr. Fortune's approval, he has her investigate whether Tommy is an enemy spy. A confused Connie confides in Elliott, but soon he disappears.
After her sister also vanishes, Connie realizes she's been duped by Mr. Fortune, who proceeds to take her and Tommy captive as well. Luckily, she escapes in time to help the military head off an enemy submarine, saving the day.


Chen Changhao

Chen Changhao (; 18 September 1906 – 30 July 1967) was a member of the 28 Bolsheviks and an important military figure of Zhang Guotao's 4th Red Army from Hanyang, Wuhan. Chen had also been known as Cangmu.
Biography.
Chen had a childhood education that engraved his solid foundation in Sinology. In 1926, he was able to enroll into the Central China Normal University and in 1927 transferred to the Wuhan University. In the same year, he joined the Communist Youth League of China and following the White Terror in 1927, he enrolled himself to the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University in December. During his stay in Moscow, he became close associates with Wang Ming, Bo Gu and others would later form the 28 Bolsheviks.
Together with Shen Zemin and Shen Demin, he returned to China on 14 November 1930, disclosing Comintern's October letter to Wang Ming. By the end of 1930, Chen and Wang among others joined the Chinese Communist Party. In the 1931 Fourth Plenary Session of the Chinese Communist Party, he was an ardent supporter of Wang Ming. In November, he was appointed as the Political Commissar of The Red Fourth Army. Chen took part in a purge of the Red Fourth Army where more than 2,500 officers and men were executed for "counter-revolutionary" activities.
In November 1931, during the battle of Huang-an, Chen took part in a flight mission over the Nationalist Army on a
captured Corsair trainer plane, threw hand grenades' at enemy force below; it's known as the first air operation
in the history of Chinese communist force.
On 12 October 1932, Chen and Zhang's Red Fourth Army was forced to leave the Anhui and Hunan Soviets due to a series of military defeats. Consequently, they set up the Shaanxi/Sichuan Soviet. Chen was elected to be an alternate member of the Central Committee in January 1934. Chen supported Wang Ming and Bo Gu in purging key founders of the Red Forth Army, such as Xu Jishen, Zhou Weijiong and others.
In 1935, Chen was tasked to lead the Red Fourth Army on the Long March, and was to rendezvous in July at Xiaojin County, Sichuan. At the rendezvous with Mao Zedong Red First Army, the Fourth Army had far superior personnel numbers in the scale of eight to one. He entered the Politburo for a short period of time in August, but under the orders of Zhang Guotao to divert away from the route of the march, he led the Red Fourth Army and the Red Thirteenth Army Southwards.
Due to setbacks in the Xikang region, Chen and Zhang went into conflict with each other. In July 1936, Chen urged Zhang to pursue a northern route, influenced by Zhu De, Liu Bocheng and Xu Xiangqian, and by October Chen's force rendezvoused with the main CCP force in Huining, Gansu.
After the failure to implement the "Ningxia Plan", Chen was appointed as Chairman of the Military Committee of the West Army, to lead an attempt with Xu Xiangqian to open a passage to the USSR. However, after a 4-month battle against the Ma Clique in the Hexi Corridor and facing lack of reinforcements, the West Army was crushed. Chen was able to escape under the cover of wounded of the defeated West Army, and returned safely to Yan'an on 16 March 1937. Due to the start of the Second United Front, he returned to the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region in mid August 1937.
He became an lecturer at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China and Counter-Japanese Military and Political University following his return to the Shaan-Gan-Ning Border Region. He made a successful request to be sent to USSR for "medical treatment" in August 1939. He was involved in the Battle of Moscow against Hitler's forces in 1941 and contributed to the city's rebuilding. From 1943 to 1952, Chen translated and edited works such as "The Collected Works of Lenin "and "The Russo-Chinese Dictionary" which became the de facto textbook for all Chinese students who were studying the Russian language.
In 1952 Chen returned to mainland China and was appointed deputy dean of the Central Institute of Marxism-Leninism. In 1953 he became the vice director of the Compilation and Translation Bureau. Following persecution during the Cultural Revolution, he committed suicide through poison in July 1967. His status was only politically rehabilitated on 21 August 1980.


Constituency results of the 2008 Zimbabwean parliamentary election

The 2008 Zimbabwean parliamentary election included elections to the House of Assembly and the Senate, contested by three major parties, the ruling ZANU-PF and the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T and MDC-M), as well as several smaller parties and many independents officially backed by presidential candidate Simba Makoni through the Mavambo movement.
Candidates for the House of Assembly election.
Mashonaland West.
Sabina mugabe


Godfrey Tawonezvi

Godfrey Tawonezvi is an Anglican bishopin Zimbabwe: he has been the inaugural Bishop of Masvingo since
2002.


United States World War 2 war bonds


Arbeitseinsatz

Arbeitseinsatz () was a forced labour category of internment within Nazi Germany () during World War II. When German men were called up for military service, Nazi German authorities rounded up civilians to fill in the vacancies and to expand manufacturing operations. Some labourers came from Germany but exponentially more from roundups ("łapanka") in the German-occupied territories. "Arbeitseinsatz" was not restricted to the industry sector and to arms producing factories; it also took place, for example, in the farming sector, community services, and even in the churches.
Labour categories.
There were many affected populations who could be grouped by various (often overlapping) variables such as geographic, ethnic, religious, political, and health categories. They included German political prisoners of the SA, Gestapo, and SS; foreign civilian men and women from occupied territories of Eastern Europe ("Ostarbeiter"); prisoners of war; institutionalized people (mentally or physically disabled people, or medical and psychiatric patients); and various ethnic, religious, or ethnoreligious groupings (for example, Jews, Sinti, Romani, Yeniche, and Jehovah's Witnesses). They lived in various kinds of camps, called labor camps ("Arbeitslager" in German) and concentration camps ("Konzentrationslager" [KZ] in German). Nazi concentration camps were often meant not only for forced labor but also extermination. In 1945 about 7.7 million workers in the German industry were of non-German origin. Many of them were very young, and about half of them were women.


Military Ordinariate of the Netherlands

The Military Ordinariate of the Netherlands is a military ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church. Immediately subject to the Holy See, it provides pastoral care to Roman Catholics serving in the Dutch Armed Forces and their families.
History.
It was established as a military vicariate on 16 April 1957 and elevated to a military ordinariate on 21 July 1986. Since 1993, no military ordinaries have been appointed.
Office holders.
Military ordinaries.
No military ordinaries appointed since 1993


Richard Belding


Kuomintang Youth League

The Kuomintang Youth League (), also known as Young KMT, is a youth group under the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang Youth League was created in 2006 by Kuomintang chairman Ma Ying-jeou to help promote cultural and political awareness among Chinese youths. The Kuomintang Youth League now has numerous chapters spread throughout the sovereign lands of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and its extensive overseas network include many cities in the United States.
History.
The Kuomintang Youth League was established in 2006 by Kuomintang Chairman Ma Ying-jeou. The primary goal of the Kuomintang Youth League is to serve the Republic of China and local communities. Because many youths are frustrated with the political situation of the Republic of China, the Kuomintang Youth League hopes to use young people's passion for politics to contribute to society. In addition to passionate youths, the Kuomintang Youth League hopes to regain the trust of apathetic youths. Since charges of corruption against Chen Shui-bian surfaced in 2006, many youths have lost faith in politicians and try to avoid the topic altogether. Hoping to regain the support of youths in politics, the Kuomintang developed the Youth League to help bring political awareness to students.
Purpose.
There are over 1 million youths between the ages of 20 and 29 living in Taiwan.
To help youths become better citizens, the Kuomintang hopes more young people will go to their local polling places and vote no matter who they vote for, KMT or DPP. As citizens of one of the few truly democratic nations in Asia, youths should fulfill their obligation and cast their votes. The Kuomintang Youth League not only raises political awareness but encourages its members to be good citizens and exercise their democratic rights. The Kuomintang Youth League also promotes community service whether the Youth League chapter is located in the Republic of China or abroad. The KMT Young League is somewhat different from the mainstream KMT. They however do not strongly support Chinese unification, and liberal views of social issues, such as LGBT rights in Taiwan.
Overseas Extensions.
The Kuomintang Youth League has a wide support group in the United States and Canada, especially in California. Local communities place this youth political organisation in very high regards for their community service activities. The first overseas KMT Youth League formed in Los Angeles 中國國民黨青年團洛杉磯分團 in 2006 (AKA: Just Blue). The newest overseas Kuomintang Youth League is located in Victoria, BC.


Joseph L. Rauh Jr.

Joseph Louis Rauh Jr. (January 3, 1911 – September 3, 1992) was one of the United States' foremost civil rights and civil liberties lawyers. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, by President Bill Clinton on November 30, 1993.
Background.
Rauh was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Jewish parents. His mother, Sarah, was born in the U.S. His father who manufactured shirts, was born in Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany. He shirked the textiles business for Harvard University where his older brother had gone to school. His older sister became a physician. In Harvard, he played center for the Ivy League school's basketball team. He graduated "magna cum laude" with a degree in economics in 1932, continuing his education at Harvard Law School, where he finished first of his class.
Career.
Rauh worked with Ben Cohen and Tom Corcoran, both from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Brain Trust, writing New Deal legislation, before clerking at the Supreme Court, with Justices Benjamin N. Cardozo and Felix Frankfurter. Frankfurter had mentored him at Harvard Law and helped him to become a clerk for Cardozo. after working as the Deputy Counsel for both the Lend-Lease Administration and the Office of Emergency Management, He and Phil Graham, later the "Washington Post" publisher, tried to enlist in the Army Air Corps the day after Pearl Harbor. He was commissioned into the Army at the rank of lieutenant in 1942, and soon was detailed to Australia, an administration expert in the midst of World War II. He served in civil affairs in the South Pacific, he and Dick Bolling joining General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines, both sharing the opinion that MacArthur had surrounded himself with sycophants. He ultimately reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. He returned to Washington after the war and worked in private practice, focusing his efforts on fighting for civil liberties. He was general counsel for labor leader Walter Reuther and the United Auto Workers, handling much of the UAW's civil liberties policy.
Civil rights.
Rauh is best known for his championing of various civil rights causes.
In 1947, again with Bolling, he helped found Americans for Democratic Action, alongside Eleanor Roosevelt, Walter Reuther, and Hubert Humphrey, among others.
Starting as a Democratic National Convention delegate in July 1948, he was a leader that year in writing up the civil rights plank for Humphrey. In the letter of support promoting his award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, its authors described the plank as "the foundation for all of the human rights and equal protection laws that have since been enacted."
On September 12, 1948 (a Sunday) at 8:30 PM, Elizabeth Bentley appeared again on the first-ever television broadcast via WNBT of NBC's "Meet the Press" and was the first interviewed. Journalists included: Nelson Frank, Inez Robb, Cecil Brown, and Lawrence Spivak. Cecil Brown asked her three times whether she would accuse William Remington of being a communist outside of congressional protection, she finally did so. Joseph Rauh defended Remington before a Truman Loyalty Review Board.
In 1959, Rauh successfully represented Quaker printer David H. Scull before the US Supreme Court in "Scull v. Virginia ex rel. Committee on Law Reform & Racial Activities", which concerned aggressive and unclear questioning by the pro-segregation chairman of a Virginia legislative committee, which had led to a contempt citation the Supreme Court overturned.
Rauh also lobbied Congress for the passage of many civil rights bills, having a hand in the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. In addition, he fought against McCarthyism and was a long-time executive board member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Personal life.
Rauh died in 1992 and was survived by his wife of 57 years, the former Olie Westheimer, and two sons, B. Michael Rauh and Carl S. Rauh and three grandchildren.
His son, Carl S. Rauh, a Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania Law School graduate and lawyer in private practice, served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1980 and was nominated by President Ronald Reagan as a member of the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission in 1986. His other son, B Michael Rauh, also was also a distinguished litigant in Washington, D.C., is the "University of the District of Columbia" School of Law Foundation Chair, the organization that hosts the annual Joseph L. Rauh Lectures.


John Mortimer Warfield

Air Commodore John "Johnnie" Mortimer Warfield CBE RAF was a bomber pilot during the Second World War, a senior RAF staff officer and commander during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s and, as an Air Commodore in his final tour, the ninth Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps.
Service history.
RAF service.
Warfield joined the Royal Air Force on 29 December 1930 on a short service commission and commenced training at the RAF Central Depot, RAF Uxbridge and two months later transferred to the No. 2 Flying Training School as a pilot under instruction. On 29 December 1931 he was posted as a pilot in the rank of Pilot Officer to No. 13 Squadron RAF.
Promoted to Flying Officer in August 1932 and Flight Lieutenant in April 1936, Warfield was appointed as a flight commander on 13 Squadron before being posted to as a supernumerary officer at the Air Armaments School just three months later. Following his course on 3 July 1937 he was posted as Armament Officer at No. 5 Armament Training Establishment at RAF Penrhos. The following year he was posted overseas to RAF Kalafrana seaplane base on Malta where he was promoted to Squadron Leader.
In February 1939, just before the Second World War started, Warfield was appointed as Command Armament Staff Officer at HQ Mediterranean Command at RAF Luqa serving under Air Vice Marshal Hugh Lloyd, a post he held until the spring of 1941 when he was promoted to Wing Commander and appointed as Officer Commanding of the Malta airbase RAF Ta' Qali.
In December 1942 Warfield returned to the UK and was appointed as Officer Commanding No. 226 Squadron RAF flying Douglas Boston III twin engined bombers from RAF Wattisham in support of the United States Air Force during daylight raids over Germany. In April 1943 Warfield was promoted in temporary rank of Group Captain and served as the station commander of RAF Wattisham where he remained until near the end of the war, when he was reverted to the rank of Wing Commander briefly. When the war finished he was serving as Senior Officer Administration at Headquarters No 12 Group RAF.
Immediately after the war Warfield was involved in the conflict with communist guerrilla forces on the Malayan Peninsula that created the Malayan Union. He was posted as Command Armament Officer at Headquarters Far Eastern Air Command. The following year he was promoted as a substantive Group Captain and appointed as Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) at Air Headquarters Malaya, later moving to Advance AHQ Malaya. In 1950 Warfield returned to the UK as Officer Commanding RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
In September 1955 Warfield was promoted to Acting Air Commodore as Air Officer Commanding No. 66 (Scottish) Group RAF. In January 1957 the Air Commodore rank was made substantive and he was appointed as Air Officer Administration at Headquarters British Forces Arabian Peninsula.
Royal Observer Corps.
On 29 June 1959 Warfield took over as Commandant Royal Observer Corps from Air Commodore J H T Simpson. The ROC was Warfield's final service appointment and he retired on 26 June 1961, handing over command to Air Commodore C M Wight-Boycott.


Ammo (comics)


Xiang Shouzhi

Xiang Shouzhi (; November 28, 1917 – September 2, 2017) was a Chinese general and revolutionist. He was promoted to the rank of major general ("shao jiang") in 1955 and general (Shang jiang) in 1988. He was a member of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the 12th CPC Central Committee.
Xiang began to take part in the revolution at the age of 15, and successively participated in the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese Civil War and Korean War. He was eventually purged during the Cultural Revolution but later reinstated. He is hailed as founding father of the Chinese ballistic missile forces. Later in his life, he served as commander of the Nanjing Military Region until his retirement in 1990.
Biography.
Xiang was born Xiang Shouzhi () in Xuanhan County, Sichuan, with his ancestral home in Macheng, Hubei.
In 1933 he joined the Young Pioneers in the Shuanghechang area and served as its captain. In 1934 he enlisted in the Red Army and successively served as soldier, squad leader, and platoon sergeant. In 1935 he took part in the Communist Youth League. He participated in the counter-campaign against "encirclement and suppression" of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area; after the war, the Red Army were defeated and he participated in the Long March, a forced expedition over in the 1930s. In 1936 he attended the Red Army Infantry School and that same year became a member of the Communist Party.
After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, he assumed various posts in the 129th Infantry Division, including company commander, battalion commander, and regimental commander. He was present at the Battle of Linnan in 1943 and the Battle of Taihang Mountains.
During the Chinese Civil War, he was deputy division leader of the First Squad of the Taihang Military Region. He took part in the Battle of Handan. Then he participated in many campaigns, such as the Battle of North Henan, Battle of East Henan, Battle of Zhengzhou, Crossing River Campaigns, and Southwest Campaign.
In the winter of 1951, he was chief of staff of the Fifteenth Army and participated in the fifth campaign of the Korean War to counter the fall of tactical combat; he suffered head injuries. After the war in 1955 he was awarded the military rank of major general (shao jiang) by Mao Zedong.
In 1958 he was accepted to the PLA National Defence University, where he graduated in 1960. After graduation in June, Prime Minister Zhou Enlai appointed him as president of Xi'an Artillery School (now PLA Rocket Force University of Engineering). During his term in office, the DF-1 missile was launched successfully. In August 1965 the Chinese government commissioned him as deputy commander of the Second Artillery Force. In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. He was promoted to commander on July 4, 1967, but having held the position for only 43 days, he was discharged by Lin Biao because "he's out of Lin's faction". He was sent to prisons and suffered political persecution over the next six years.
He returned to work in 1972 and then was appointed commander and CPC first secretary of the Second Artillery Force. He served as deputy commander of the Nanjing Military Region in September 1977, and five years later promoted to the Commander position, serving in the post until his retirement in 1990. In 1987 he was elected as a member of the 2nd Central Advisory Commission. He was promoted to the rank of general (shang jiang) in 1988. Xiang died on September 2, 2017 in Nanjing, three months before his 100th birthday.
Personal life.
Xiang married Zhang Ling (, born in 1919 in Kaifeng, Henan) in Pingdong County of Shandong Province on May 25, 1945. They had four children.


Michalis Vardanis

Michalis Vardanis (; 1936 – 14 January 2014) was a Greek Army officer, a lawyer and a major figure in the resistance against the Regime of the Colonels.
Life.
Michalis Vardanis was born in the village of Apeiranthos on the Aegean island of Naxos in 1936. He entered the Hellenic Army Academy, from where he graduated in 1958 with the rank of second lieutenant. Already during his days in the academy, he became known for his pro-leftist views, an unusual—and dangerous—stance for an officer following the Greek Civil War.
 At the time of the colonels' coup d'état of 21 April 1967, Vardanis was serving as a captain of in a tank unit in Polygyros. Following the establishment of the military regime, he became privy, through his regimental commander, of the plans for the counter-coup by King Constantine II and the royalist Army leadership. Already before the—ultimately unsuccessful—royal counter-coup broke out, however, his activity aroused suspicion and was betrayed to the Army intelligence, so that on 26 October 1967 Vardanis was dismissed from the Army.
Vardanis then enrolled in the Athens University Law School, and after receiving his degree worked for a few years as a lawyer. At the same time, he became active in almost every resistance group established among those in the officer corps who were ready to oppose the regime: thus he participated in Colonel Dimitrios Opropoulos' Free Greeks group, and in Wing Commander Tasos Minis' A-A-A group, for which he was arrested on 22 April 1972, along with Minis. Released, he was re-arrested in September of the same year for his membership in the Free Greeks. Despite torture by the Greek Military Police (EAT-ESA), he did not confess, and was released on 16 December. Soon after that, he became privy to the plans for a major mutiny by the Navy, through another dismissed Army officer, Spyros Moustaklis. After the Navy mutiny was betrayed and the abortive coup was pre-empted by the junta on 25 May 1973, Vardanis was again arrested on 1 June. He was held along with Moustaklis in strict isolation for the next three months and again tortured by EAT-ESA—Moustaklis remained crippled as a result—until the general amnesty proclaimed on 24 August 1973 by the dictator Georgios Papadopoulos in his effort to usher in a guided transition to democratic rule.
Following the fall of the junta in 1974, he was among the signatories in the founding declaration of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, and served as a prosecution witness in the Junta Trials. In 1976 he was rehabilitated and allowed to resume his career in the Army, where he continued to serve until 1990, reaching the rank of major general (lieutenant general in retirement). Following his retirement, he became active in the ranks of the Communist Party of Greece, and from 1995 until 2005 was chairman of the Society of the Imprisoned and Exiled Resistance Members 1967–74.


The Barber of Birmingham

The Barber of Birmingham is a 2011 documentary film about James Armstrong, one of the unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. A World War II veteran and an original flag bearer for the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, Armstrong has run a voter education program out of his barbershop in Birmingham, Alabama for 50 years. The film was co-directed and produced by Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday. It premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, three months after Dolgin's death in October 2010 from breast cancer. It was named best short documentary at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 84th Academy Awards. It later aired on television on the PBS series "POV".


George Merritt (actor)

Frederick George Merritt (10 December 1890 – 27 September 1977) was an English theatre, film and television actor, often in authoritarian roles. He studied German theatre in Magdeburg, Germany, and taught at the Berlitz School at the outbreak of the First World War, when he was held as a British Civil Prisoner of War, and interned at Ruhleben, 1914–1918. He was involved in over 50 plays at Ruhleben. He lived for many years in Lissenden Gardens, Parliament Hill, north west London.


Xinjiang Province, Republic of China

Xinjiang Province () or Sinkiang Province refers to a former province of the Republic of China. First set up in 1884 as a province of the Qing dynasty, it was replaced in 1955 by the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. The original provincial government was relocated to Taipei as the Sinkiang Provincial Government Office (新疆省政府辦事處) until its dissolution in 1992.
Administration.
The province inherited the borders of the Qing dynasty province, bordering Kansu, Tsinghai, the Mongol Area, Tibet Area and the countries Soviet Union, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. The claimed boundaries of the province included all of today's Xinjiang and parts of Mongolia, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The province had an area of 1,711,931 km2.
History.
In 1912, the Qing dynasty was replaced by the Republic of China. Yuan Dahua, the last Qing governor of Xinjiang, fled. One of his subordinates, Yang Zengxin, took control of the province and acceded in name to the Republic of China in March of the same year. Through Machiavellian politics and clever balancing of mixed ethnic constituencies, Yang maintained control over Xinjiang until his assassination in 1928 after the Northern Expedition of the Kuomintang.
The Kumul Rebellion and other rebellions arose against his successor Jin Shuren in the early 1930s throughout Xinjiang, involving Uyghurs, other Turkic groups, and Hui (Muslim) Chinese. Jin drafted White Russians to crush the revolt. In the Kashgar region on November 12, 1933, the short-lived self-proclaimed First East Turkistan Republic was declared. The Hui Kuomintang 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) destroyed the army of the First East Turkestan Republic at the Battle of Kashgar (1934), bringing the Republic to an end. The Soviet Union invaded the province in the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang. In the Xinjiang War (1937), the entire province was brought under the control of northeast Manchu warlord Sheng Shicai, who ruled Xinjiang for the next decade with close support from the Soviet Union. In 1944, the President and Premier of China, Chiang Kai-shek, informed by the Soviets of Sheng's intention to join the Soviet Union, decided to shift him out of Xinjiang to Chongqing as the Minister of Agriculture and Forest. More than a decade of Sheng's era had ended. However, a short-lived Soviet-backed Second East Turkestan Republic was established in that year, which lasted until 1949 in what is now Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture (Ili, Tarbagatay and Altay Districts) in northern Xinjiang.
During the Ili Rebellion the Soviet Union backed Uyghur separatists to form the Second East Turkistan Republic (2nd ETR) in Ili region while the majority of Xinjiang was under Republic of China Kuomintang control. The People's Liberation Army entered Xinjiang in 1949 and the Kuomintang commander Tao Zhiyue surrendered the province to them. The original provincial government was relocated to Taipei as the Sinkiang Provincial Government Office (新疆省政府辦事處) to symbolize the ROC's claim of sovereignty over the province; it was eventually dissolved in 1992.


A Rumor of War

A Rumor of War is a 1977 memoir by Philip Caputo about his service in the United States Marine Corps (USMC) in the early years of the Vietnam War.
Summary.
In the foreword, Caputo makes clear that this is not a history book, nor is it a historical accusation; it is a story about war, based on his experience.
The first section "The Splendid Little War", describes Lieutenant Philip Caputo's reasons for joining the United States Marine Corps (USMC), the training that followed and his arrival in Vietnam. Lt. Caputo was a member of the 9th Expeditionary Brigade of the USMC, the first American regular troops unit sent to take part in the Vietnam War. He arrived on March 8, 1965 and his early experiences reminded him of the colonial wars portrayed by Rudyard Kipling. The 9th Expeditionary Brigade was deployed to Da Nang (formerly Tourane) on a "merely defensive" condition, primarily to set a perimeter around an airstrip that ensured arrival and departure of military goods and personnel. The first skirmishes against the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong made it clear to Lt. Caputo and his comrades that their earlier impression about Vietnam war as small and unimportant were all wrong.
In the second part of the book, "The Officer in Charge of the Dead", Lt. Caputo is reassigned from his rifle company to a desk job documenting casualties. His new position in the Joint Staff of the brigade was a change that did not suit him, because he was proud of his rifle company duties and had a certain desire to return to basic infantry command. This distance from the Main Line of Resistance gave Lt. Caputo a different perspective of the conflict. Lt. Caputo described senior officers as being more worried about trivial matters than strategy, movies being played in the open at night, risking potentially devastating mortar attacks. Lt. Caputo also witnessed enemy corpses being treasured as hunting trophies and shown off to generals; he also describes American corpses carrying evidence of Viet Cong torture.
In the final part, "In Death's Grey Land", Lt. Caputo is reassigned to a rifle company. He describes the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong as fierce and skilled fighters, earning the grudging respect of American soldiers. Lt. Caputo describes his fellow Marines as having stopped wishing for epic, World War II-style battles; they had learned to detect boobytraps, to counter-snipe and to comb the jungle in search of enemy bunkers and their rations. Lt. Caputo took part in these operations, until troops under his command miscarried orders and shot two suspects deliberately. Lt. Caputo assumed full responsibility for the incident and faced a general court-martial; he was relieved of his command and the charges were dropped. Lt. Caputo was then reassigned to a training camp in North Carolina and eventually received an honorable discharge from the service.
In the Epilogue, almost ten years after the end of his tour of duty, Philip Caputo returned to Vietnam as a war journalist for a newspaper. Old memories of his war experiences and his comrades flood his mind as he witnesses the fall of Saigon to the troops of North Vietnam. Caputo left Vietnam on April 29, 1975. A postscript published in 1996 details some of the anxieties Caputo experienced while writing the memoir and the difficulties he had handling his fame and notoriety after its publication.
1980 TV miniseries.
Caputo's book was filmed as "A Rumor of War" at Camp Pendleton and Churubusco Studios, Mexico with a cast featuring Brad Davis, Brian Dennehy, Keith Carradine, Michael O'Keefe and Christopher Mitchum.


Council of Ministers of Zimbabwe

The Council of Ministers is a proposed body of Zimbabwean government ministers. It was conceptualized as a separate body from the Cabinet according to the agreement reached at the conclusion of negotiations between presidential rivals Morgan Tsvangirai and Robert Mugabe. It will be instituted by the next constitution of Zimbabwe.
While the Cabinet will be chaired by the president and will be a policy decision-making body, the Council of Ministers will be headed by the prime minister and will be a liaison office; in addition, the council will assist in the formulation of policies, the supervision of government ministries by the prime minister and the implementation of cabinet policies. While it is not currently known how the Council of Ministers will be composed, many reports indicate that the ministers in the Cabinet (composing 31 out of 43 members) will also be the members of the Council of Ministers.
Composition.
The Council of Ministers, which will form a subset of the larger Cabinet, will be chaired by the prime minister; the 31 seats will be divided between the MDC, whose Tsvangirai and Mutambara branches will possess 13 and 3 ministers respectively, and the ZANU-PF, which will possess 15 members.
The deputy ministers of government will also be divided along proportional lines: Zanu 8, MDC-T 6 and MDC-M 1. The retaining of 15 deputy ministers instead of the previous 20 was also a provision of the negotiated deal.
Retained ministries under the Council of Ministers.
The prime minister shall be the chair of the council of ministers and they shall meet weekly to check on the progress of the government


Gregor Dorfmeister

Gregor Dorfmeister (March 7, 1929 – February 4, 2018) was a German journalist and writer. Under the pseudonym Manfred Gregor, Dorfmeister published three novels.
His debut novel, "Die Brücke" ("The Bridge"), was turned into a Golden Globe Award-winning film of the same name. The second, " Das Urteil" ("The Verdict"), is best known in the United States where it was made into the movie "Town Without Pity" starring Kirk Douglas and featuring an Academy Award-nominated song of the same name performed by Gene Pitney.
Life.
Born in Tailfingen, today part of Albstadt, Gregor Dorfmeister grew up in Bad Tölz, where he attended high school. In the spring of 1945 at age 16, he was a member of the Volkssturm in his home region and participated in defending two bridges against advancing American tanks. Seeing one of the tank-crew members wounded was "terrible. ... That's when I became a pacifist". Seven of eight of his young fellow German fighters were also killed in the day's battles before the town fell. In 1946 he finished high school and then worked for a construction company and in the wood processing industry. From 1948 he studied drama, journalism and philosophy at the University of Munich. During this period he completed an internship at a Munich newspaper. From 1954 he was Außenredakteur of the newspaper Munich "Merkur" in Tegernsee, from 1957 in Miesbach and 1960 in Bad Tölz. From 1962 he headed the local paper "Tölzer Courier".
Dorfmeister, who in addition to his journalistic work has been committed to the support for disabled people, lived in retirement in Bad Tölz. In 1981 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He died in Bad Tölz in 2018.
Dorfmeister released three novels under the name Manfred Gregor:


James Dey

James Dey (14 October 1869 – 8 May 1946) was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the Bishop of the Forces from 1935 to 1946.
Born in Walsall on 14 October 1869, he was ordained to the priesthood on 17 February 1894. He was appointed the Bishop of the Forces and Titular Bishop of "Sebastopolis in Armenia" by the Holy See on 13 April 1935.
His consecration to the Episcopate took place on 2 June 1935, the principal consecrator was Cardinal Arthur Hinsley, Archbishop of Westminster, and the principal co-consecrators were Archbishop Thomas Leighton Williams of Birmingham and Bishop Ambrose James Moriarty of Shrewsbury.
He died in office on 8 May 1946, aged 76.


Military Ordinariate of Chile

The Military Bishopric of Chile () is a military ordinariate of the Roman Catholic Church. Immediately subject to the Holy See, it provides pastoral care to Roman Catholics serving in the Chilean Armed Forces and their families.
History.
It was first established as a military vicariate on 3 May 1910 with the first military vicar appointment on 27 May 1910. It was elevated to a military ordinariate 21 July 1986. The military ordinary's seat is located at the Military Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel ("Catedral Castrense de Nuestra Señora del Carmen") in the city of Santiago, Chile.


Nostradamos (band)

Nostradamos () was a Greek pop group founded in 1971 by Stelios Fotiadis, Ippokratis Exarchopoulos–also known as Charlie ()–and English female vocalist Chris King. It was one of the most popular pop groups in Greece which dominated the Greek pop-rock scene in the early to mid-seventies. Despoina Glezou joined the group in time to perform at the 1972 Thessaloniki Song Festival where they won the best new composer and performer prize with the song "Dos Mou to Heri Sou" (Give Me Your Hand) which became a huge success in Greece during the junta years. Glezou was also a member of the other pioneering Greek pop group Poll. Nostradamos has been ranked as number 9 in a list of the top 10 most influential rock groups during the dictatorship in Greece. In 1974, during the dictatorship, the group won the first Greek Eurovision participation contest run by the state broadcaster ERT to represent Greece at Eurovision but was not allowed to participate due to a scandal.
History.
Rise to stardom.
Nostradamos was founded in 1971 by Stelios Fotiadis, Ippokratis Exarchopoulos, and Chris King. It was one of the most popular pop groups in Greece which dominated the Greek pop-rock scene in the early to mid-seventies. The group took its name from French astrologer Nostradamus. Despoina Glezou joined the group in time to perform at the 1972 Music Festival of Thessaloniki where they won the best new group and best new composer and performer prize with the song "Dos Mou to Heri Sou" (Give Me Your Hand) which became a huge success in Greece. Glezou was also a member of the other pioneering Greek pop group Poll. Their success was meteoric and their single "Dos Mou to Heri Sou" sold 9,000 copies in one month. In 1973, the group reached the height of their popularity and went on a Panhellenic tour which was met with great success.
Scandal and sudden fall.
During their successful 1973 tour, the group were touring Northern Greece when police and junta security forces went to a Thessaloniki hotel where the band stayed, and arrested Ippokratis Exarchopoulos and the sound engineer of the band on charges of raping a 16-year-old girl, stemming from a deposition made by the girl's family to the police. Exarchopoulos denied the charges saying that the girl was a fan who had followed the group from Kavala without his knowledge. The girl was found in the hotel and was returned to her family in Kavala. Following the arrests, the girl's father offered to drop the charges for a large sum of money.
The group did not have the funds to pay for the damages the family of the girl had demanded, and they resorted to asking for money from friends and acquaintances. The money was finally collected and the girl's family dropped the charges. Subsequently, Charlie was released from jail. Following the incident, the junta forbade any broadcast of the group's music while at the same time a directive was issued to all Greek schools that prohibited students from attending concerts by the group.
The affair greatly damaged the group, and even more so Charlie, who never psychologically recovered from the incident. In 1974, during the dictatorship, the group won the first Eurovision participation contest run by the state broadcaster ERT to represent Greece at Eurovision. However, close to the competition date, the band was prevented from competing at Eurovision, due to the scandal; Greek laiko singer Marinella was sent instead. In 1974, Charlie and Chris King left the group and two new members, Rena Pangrati and Michalis Lambropoulos, joined the band. A year later, in 1975, the group broke up.
Aftermath.
After the breakup of Nostradamos, Charlie worked at various entertainment venues to try to earn money to pay back the loans he received to pay the girl's family. While he tried to launch a solo career, he never attained the same success that he had as a member of the group. His only notable solo accomplishment was his song "Ο Θάνατος του Kλόουν" (Death of the Clown), which he sang at the Music Festival of Thessaloniki with success.
After "Death of the Clown", Charlie started using drugs. He was arrested in the 1990s for possession and trafficking of heroin, and was sent to prison. In his car, according to the police, guns and hand grenades were found, and he was in possession of about of heroin, Kalashnikov rifles, and Magnum pistols. Since the heroin was found in Charlie's apartment, which he shared with his wife, the couple was arrested by the Greek police. It was one of the biggest heroin busts of the decade.
In his second year of incarceration, days before his trial date, Charlie overdosed and died at the Tzaneio Hospital for inmates of Korydallos Prison on 21 March 2000, six days shy of his 47th birthday. Group member Rena Pangrati had died on 25 June 1998 from a pill overdose. In a 2016 interview with "Lifo" magazine, Despoina Glezou stated that she was "hard with the fans" of the group, and "she was trying to protect the other three [members]" from the fans. She also stated that this made it easier for her to eventually leave the group. Nostradamos has been ranked as number 9 in a list of the top 10 most influential rock groups during the dictatorship in Greece.
Discography.
This is the complete discography of Nostradamos from the compilation "Νοστράδαμος – Νοσταλγοί Του Rock 'N' Roll - 20 Μεγάλες Επιτυχίες" ("Nostradamos – Nostalgic for Rock 'N' Roll – 20 Big Hits") released in 2007 by Δίφωνο on CD. The songs were also released as vinyl singles and albums in the 1970s.


Wang Dongxing

Wang Dongxing (; 9 January 1916 – 21 August 2015) was a Chinese military commander and politician, famous for being the chief of Mao Zedong's personal bodyguard force, the 9th Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security (which included the "8341 Special Regiment"). Wang held many important positions, both in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the government; he was Deputy Minister of Public Security in 1955–1958 and again in 1960–1970 and notably served as CCP Vice Chairman from 1977 to 1980, under Chairman Hua Guofeng.
Wang and his trusted security force played a very significant role in ending the Cultural Revolution by arresting the Gang of Four; however, Wang opposed Deng Xiaoping's proposed changes in economic policy, remaining loyal to Hua Guofeng and the continuation of the Maoist political line. As a result, when Deng consolidated power, he removed Wang from his government and Party posts, but did not harm him any further.
Early life and military service.
Wang was born to a peasant family in Yiyang County, Jiangxi on 9 January 1916. He joined the Communist Youth League of China in 1932, and the Chinese Red Army (the predecessor of the People's Liberation Army) in 1933, at the age of 17. He received military and political training at the "Pengyang Infantry School" and later at the "Anti-Japanese Military and Political University". In 1934-35 he took part in the Long March, accompanying Mao to Yan'an. He later fought as an infantry officer in the war against Japan, and, after the defeat of the Japanese, in the Chinese Civil War, which led to the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
Mao's chief of security.
With the creation of the new Communist government, Wang Dongxing was named Deputy Director of the General Office of the Communist Party of China (an important bureaucratic position dealing with administration and personnel) and, crucially, Director of the 9th Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security, in charge of Mao Zedong's personal security detail, and also of protecting Zhongnanhai, the seat of government power. The 9th Bureau included the "8341 Special Regiment". Wang and his men were the only ones allowed to carry weapons inside Zhongnanhai. Mao trusted Wang, and made him responsible for checking the background of all staff serving in Zhongnanhai (not only bodyguards, but also waiters, cooks, secretaries etc.) According to Li Zhisui he also took charge of Zhongnanhai's Cultural Work Troupe, effectively Mao's harem.
Mao's continued trust and support led to Wang becoming, in 1955, Deputy Minister of Public Security, under Minister Luo Ruiqing. For "his efforts in public security work", Wang was awarded the rank of Major General of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, also in 1955.
In June 1958 Mao suddenly demoted Wang, sending him to Jiangxi as Director of the Provincial Land Reclamation Department. From February 1959 to August 1960, Wang served as member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party Jiangxi Provincial Committee, and as Vice President and Party Secretary of the Communist Labor University of Jiangxi.
However, in August 1960, Mao decided to recall Wang back to Beijing, and named him, again, chief of his bodyguards and Deputy Minister of Public Security, under Minister Xie Fuzhi (Xie was also very loyal to Mao). Throughout the chaos and instability of the Cultural Revolution, Wang remained a loyal and effective associate of Mao, although he couldn't prevent the Red Guards from denouncing and attacking many security officers of the Ministry of Public Security (Minister Xie explicitly allowed and even encouraged his favored Red Guard factions to attack security officials loyal to his predecessor Luo Ruiqing).
In 1966, at the start of the Cultural Revolution, Wang Dongxing was often seen in the great Red Guard rallies, sitting next to Mao's chauffeur in the open-top car from which Mao reviewed his supporters.
Arresting the Gang of Four and prominence under Hua Guofeng.
Wang was instrumental in the coup d'état against the Gang of Four immediately after Mao's death. On orders from Hua Guofeng (Mao's designated successor) he assembled a group of trusted officers, made them swear an oath of loyalty and secrecy, and instructed them to "shoot to kill" if there was any armed resistance.
In the event, no blood was shed: Jiang’s three close associates (Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen) were quickly and easily arrested after being lured to a high-level meeting in Zhongnanhai, ostensibly to discuss the building of Mao's Mausoleum and the publication of his latest works. Jiang herself was seized separately, again with no resistance.
Wang Dongxing was prominent under Chairman Hua Guofeng, being named Vice Chairman of the Party and one of the five members of the Politburo Standing Committee, a committee whose membership varies between 5 and 11 and includes the top leadership of the Communist Party of China.
Later years.
Wang Dongxing and his patron Hua Guofeng were gradually outmaneuvered by Deng Xiaoping who rose to supreme power and were deprived of all their important government and Party posts in the early 1980s.
However, as a gesture both to Wang's role as personal protector of Mao, and also to signal that political foes would no longer be persecuted, Wang was elected to the last alternate position of the CPC Central Committee at the 12th National Congress, in 1982.
Wang died on 21 August 2015 in Beijing at the age of 99 (100 according to Chinese tradition).
After Mao’s death, Wang remained a constant supporter of the Chairman's memory, always visiting the mausoleum in Tiananmen Square with flowers on Mao’s birthday, and also published a diary in 1993 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mao’s birth.
In 2011 he complained that Chinese socialism was in retreat, and that everyone was now "fixated on getting money". No Chinese political leader would have dared talk publicly in such a way, but Wang remained wedded to his early beliefs (thus becoming a champion of the Chinese New Left), declaring himself "a loyal soldier of Chairman Mao to the end".


Institute of Revolutionary Practice

The Institute of Revolutionary Practice () is an educational institution established in 1949, and affiliated with the Kuomintang.
History.
On 8 July 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and a group of Kuomintang leaders, among them Chang Chi-yun, , Ku Cheng-kang, and Sun Li-jen, founded the Institute of Revolutionary Practice. Later that month, Chiang Ching-kuo, , and were appointed to the preparatory committee. The institute published its own newsletter, "Practice", the first issue of which was dated 15 October 1949. The institute's first students were admitted on 16 October 1949. During the 1950s, Chiang Kai-shek attempted to reform the Kuomintang, so that its members were loyal to him. The trainees at the Institute of Revolutionary Practice and other programs were a part of this reform. While in a leadership position at the school, Chiang Ching-kuo relied on his role to build his political influence with younger party members, who trained there to become mid- to high-level members of the Kuomintang. Upon the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975, the oversight of the Institute of Revolutionary Practice was delegated to the . The institution was known as the National Development and Research Institute between October 1999 and 2017, when it returned to its original name. The institute resumed training sessions in July 2020, twenty years after they had been suspended.
The institute is located in the Muzha portion of Wenshan District in Taipei, on a plot of land known as Zhongxing Shanzhuang. The Kuomintang acquired the land on which the property is located in 1964. A portion of the plot was sold to the Yuanlih Group in August 2005 for NT$4.25 billion. In 2014, portions of the institute's premises were designated by the Taipei City Government as historic buildings.
Kuomintang chairman Johnny Chiang stated in 2020 that the institute's directorship is an unpaid and "obligatory post".