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Naruto Episode 56 Summary: Life or Death?! Mastering the Move is Life Threatening!

2007-07-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

After three weeks of training, a weary Naruto summons a frog/tadpole hybrid before passing out. Meanwhile Anko, still feeling guilty about her past confrontation with Orochimaru, is consoled by an understanding Hokage. He tells her that at this point, no ninjas in Konoha could take on Orochimaru, including himself. Anko wishes the Fourth was still alive... but the Third quickly tells her that he's dead. They must defend the village on their own.

Jiraiya tells Naruto that in order to learn to summon, he must train harder, as if his life depended on it. Naruto agrees, and Jiraiya and Naruto spend the first part of the day living as if Naruto were about to die soon :) They bathe in the hot springs, then head into town to eat Ramen (though Jiraiya won't treat). He then tells Naruto to go hug the girl he likes - under the guise of training. After second guessing himself, a nervous Naruto hunts down Sakura only to be met with one of her uppercuts.

Afterwards, Jiraiya asks Naruto if he has anything else he wants to do. When Naruto replies no, Jiraiya punches him hard in the gut, knocking him out. He then picks up Naruto's unconscious body and tosses him over a cliff. He is to find mastery of the summoning technique within this experience or he will die.

Naruto finds himself falling into a steep pit with no hope of grabbing hold of the rocks along the side to slow his fall or save him. His only hope is Kyubi.

In town, Iruka tells the kids about the four Hokages. The Fifth has yet to be determined. The Third then wanders into class and Iruka explains that he was once known as the Professor, the strongest of all the Hokages. The kids aren't impressed with the old man they see before them. The Third tells them they are all very young and maybe one day they will become the Hokage. He tells them to always protect those important to them - those you accept, believe, and love from your heart - regardless of what path they choose in life. The kids ask if the Hokage if he has anyone like that. He replies his grandson, Konohamaru and everyone in this village.

Meanwhile, Naruto awakens in a damp cellar. He hears growling from below and recognizes the red chakra. As he walks towards the glow, he sees the seal that binds the vicious Kyubi. Kyubi encourages Naruto to come closer, only to take a swipe at him with his massive paw. Naruto suddenly comes to the realization that this is the Nine Tails who gives him the red chakra. And so he bargains with the demon fox. Since Kyubi is currently residing in his body, he should pay Naruto rent - with his chakra. Entertained, Kyubi agrees, knowing that if Naruto dies, he will also die. With the pact made, Naruto regains consciousness of the ground below and performs his summoning technique. This time he is quite successful and finds himself atop a very large, unmistakable toad.

Source

Naruto Episode 55 Summary: Painful Feelings: A Single Flower With A Wish

2007-07-13T06:38:00.000-07:00

Naruto practices his summoning technique religiously, though with little improvement, as Sakura sits alone in her room concerned for Sasuke.

The Hokage alerts the Konoha nins that Hayate's body was found near Kikyo Castle. Kakashi suspects that Hayate was spying on Kabuto and that Orochimaru probably has something to do with this. They debate whether they should stop the Chuunin exam, but decide that continuing would be in their best interest after Orochimaru's warning. They also realize that some of their ally countries must be working with the Sound. The elders explain that an alliance treaty is equivalent to a verbal agreement, like the Ninkai Taisen (Great Ninja War) was... however, if someone was to betray them... They decide to send out some of the higher level nins to find out more.

Meanwhile, Sakura worries herself sick over Sasuke. She wonders if she should have stopped him... Later, Sakura visits Ino's flower shop to buy flowers for Sasuke and Lee-san on her way to the hospital. Ino chooses a rose, while Sakura chooses the Narcissus, the brave flower that stands valiantly even in the coldness of winter and waits for the spring.

As Sakura and Ino head to the hospital, they hear Choji gobbling down Yakiniku for lunch with Shikamaru and Asuma. Asuma explains that they are preparing Choji to help Shikamaru train. Elsewhere, TenTen helps Neji practice while Kuronai works with Shino, and Naruto is still summoning tadpoles.

Ino and Sakura enter Sasuke's room at the hospital only to find he is nowhere to be found. All his clothes are gone. Sakura immediately is concerned that he went to Orochimaru. Elsewhere, Kakashi trains himself by climbing a cliff one handed. When he reaches the top, he finds Sasuke waiting.

The girls then check on Lee, who also is not in his room. A badly injured but determined Lee is outside pushing himself to the limit with a series of one armed pushups. When the nurse finds him, she severely reprimands him. Sakura remembers what Ino had told her earlier - that Lee is seriously injured and with his body, he will have to give up being a ninja. Meanwhile, Lee continues his pushups until he falls to the ground wearily. The nurse runs for a stretcher as Sakura and Ino watch over his unconscious body. Sakura asks Ino why boys always push themselves too far.

Back in the hospital, Lee looks over to see the flower that Sakura left for him. Meanwhile, a frustrated but determined Naruto summons a tadpole with hind legs.

Source

Naruto Episode 54 Summary: Taught directly by the Pervert Sennin. It’s the Summon No Jutsu!

2007-07-13T06:35:00.000-07:00

Ebisu meets Jiraiya as Naruto sleeps and asks about Jiraiya's purpose for visiting. Meanwhile, Dosu confronts Gaara about his match with Sasuke. Gaara, uber-freaky now during the full moon, goes psycho and transforms into his ultimate form (which we only get a silhouette of). Still seeking out blood, Gaara quickly kills Dosu.

Elsewhere, Hayate catches Kabuto conversing with Sand nin, Baki. Kabuto admits Orochimaru ordered him to abduct Sasuke. Baki warns him that if Konoha learns of his intentions, it may be problematic for the Sand's plans to crush Leaf Village. Kabuot hands him a scroll which contains battle plans and an account of Gaara's abilities to take back to Kazekage. Sensing he's just overheard some ultra-sensitive info, Hayate tries to sneak way to let the Hokage know immediately, but Kabuto and Baki are on to him.

Baki then confronts Hayate on the rooftop. Hayate attacks with Konoha-ryu Mikazuki no Mai (Dance of the Crecent Moon) Baki and deliver a striking blow to his shoulder. Baki is able to block before any major damage is done and, keeping control over Hayate's sword, performs a wind attack to slash Hayate.

The next day, Jiraiya continues his girl watching activities as Naruto desperately tries to get the pervert sennin to train him. Finally he gives up and transforms into sexy no jutsu to sweet talk Jiraiya. Jiraiya gives in and soon lectures Naruto on controlling Kyubi's chakra. Naruto has tremendous difficulties tapping into the red chakra, and Jiraiya realizes that Naruto can only utilize Kyubi when he's in a life threatening situation or enraged. However, if Naruto can learn to tap into Kyubi's power source, it will become his greatest weapon. He also explains that because Naruto has such great stamina, he should focus on power rather than control and learn to release as much chakra as possible. To do so, he decides to teach Naruto how to summon. (Kuchiyose-no-jutsu)

To summon, the summoner must make a blood contract with an animal. He will then be able to call for their help in battle with ninjutsu. The technique itself is a space-time ninjutsu. However, in order for Naruto to learn this, he must first use up all his regular chakra so he can tap into Kyubi's chakra. Naruto quickly does Kage Bunshin and engages in a battle royal with his 20+ clones.

Soon, Naruto has won and is completely exhausted. Jiraiya then slices his hand and uses his bleeding hand to summon a toad. The toad then gives Naruto the summoning contract that was handed down from prior generations. If Naruto is to summon them, he must write his name with blood. Then, he is to put blood on each of the fingertips of one hand and place the bloody handprint underneath his name. To summon, he must channel the chakra and use the hand he made the agreement with to call forth a toad. The seals used in summoning are boar, dog, hen, monkey, and sheep.

Naruto does the necessary actions and soon, the contract is official. Excitedly, Naruto summons his first toad... er tadpole.

Meanwhile, the other Konoha nins find Hayate's dead body and realize there's trouble...

Source

Naruto Episode 53 Summary: Hey, Stop for a Second! Pervert-Sennin Appears!

2007-07-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

Naruto walks over to Ebisu and asks if he's ok. He does Senen Goroshi (1000 years of pain) and sticks his fingers up Ebisu's butt. Ebisu doesn't move. Naruto then asks what the hell the big frog is and who the open pervert is. The man replies that he's the spirit master of the Toad from Myouboku-mountain called Gama-Sennin.

Naruto then asks him what he's going to do since he just took out his trainer. Jiraiya says he's a writer, authoring such books as Icha Icha Paradise, the book Kakashi reads. Jiraiya is at the bath house gathering inspiration for future novels. Naruto doesn't care and demands the Sennin to train him, but Jairya refuses. Soon, Naruto begins his quest to get Jiraiya to train him.

He soon finds Jiraiya harassing a lady in the local bar. Naruto demands that Jiraiya has a responsibility to train him. Uninterested, Jiraiya stuffs Naruto into a pot and walks away.

Later, Jiraiya sits in the forest longing for a girl. Naruto runs at him throwing stars, but Jiraiya dodges with Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Swapping). Jiraiya then agrees if Naruto does him a favor, he may help him. Naruto should gather well ripened fruit. When Naruto returns with two watermelon, he finds Jiraiya distracted by two women. He again asks for training to pass the Chuunin final and surpass the Hokage. When Jiraiya again refuses, Naruto transforms into Sexy No Jutsu. Jiraiya is infatuated and agrees to train him on one condition - that he always stay in that form in front of him.

Finally, Jiraiya agrees to train Naruto and they continue his water training. Naruto still can't control his chakra, so after Jiraiya watches amused, a frustrated Naruto strips to his boxers and tries again. As he concentrates on moving chakra into his feet, the seal on his stomach appears. Jiraiya then understands. The seal of Kyubi has been doubly sealed by two Shishou-Fuin (Four symbol seal). That's the Hakke-Fuin style (Eight Trigram seal). The fourth Hokage gave Kyubi's power to him. But the flow of chakra has been sealed by Gogyu-Fiun (Five element seal). By putting an odd number seal on top of the even numbered seals, the chakra of Naruto and Kyubi mix together out of order and become unstable. That's why he can't channel chakra well. Jiraiya realizes it must be Orochimaru's work and tells Naruto to raise his arms. He then uses Gogyo-Kaiin (Five element opening seal) to release the seal.

Jiraiya then asks Naruto to try walking on water again. This time he has no trouble at all. Pleased, Jiraiya then decides to teach Naruto his first technique. He explains that Naruto has two types of chakra and asks if Naruto recognizes each. Naruto replies that he did gain a lot of chakra once, but he doesn't remember it. It was a different feeling. He says his chakra is usually blue, but the new one is red if he described it in terms of colors.

Jiraiya and Naruto end the day in the hot springs. Naruto asks again about the great technique as the toad emerges from the hot spring.

That night, Jiraiya watches over Naruto as Ebisu approaches. He apologizes that he took his student. Ebisu, on the other hand, is surprised to see the Sennin in town and mentions the Hokage has been looking for him. Jiraiya tells him he has no intention of getting involved with Orochimaru.

Source

Naruto Episode 52 Summary: Ebisu returns! I don’t allow shameless deeds!

2007-07-13T06:23:00.000-07:00

At the hospital, Kakashi introduces Naruto to his new trainer, the closet pervert, Ebisu. Naruto can't believe Ebisu will be his sensei. After all, he beat him with harem no jutsu. Ebisu then begs Naruto not to tell Kakashi anything else. Kakashi tries to explain that Ebisu is a special jounin and can teach him the basic skills. His are worse than both Sakura's and Sasuke's. Kakashi then leaves the two. Naruto then accuses Ebisu of being weaker than him. Ebisu then challenges Naruto. If Naruto can completely escape him, he will personally tell kakashi to find another trainer. Naruto accepts and the challenge begins.

Naruto sees a movie poster with a pretty girl and assumes her pose. Ebisu sees through the disguise. With a Kage Bushin no Jutsu, Naruto takes off, but Ebisu also knows that technique, replicates, and chases after him. One by one, the naruto clones are exposed.

Finally, Naruto gives in and Ebisu explains that Naruto is not good at controlling his chakra. When Sakura uses the bushin no jutsu, she's great at controlling chakra. Sasuke is slightly worse at channeling chakra, but his chakra control is great. He uses a bit more chakra than Sakura. Naruto is bad at both channeling and controlling chakra. He uses more chakra than both Sasuke and Sakura. He'd only replicate twice for each of his teammates who'd replicate 5 times. But he does have far more stamina than everyone else.

Ebisu takes naruto to the hot springs near a women's bath house to begin his chakra training. Naruto is to walk on the hot water. Ebisu explains the tree climbing without using his hands was similar to walking on water. To float on water, he needs to continuously release the appropriate amount of chakra onto the water from the bottom of his feet, and need to balance it with body in order to float. It trains him to release a controlled amount of chakra. Ebisu then demonstrates.

Naruto tries again and again, but keeps falling in. Soon Naruto starts to get the hang of it, though he falls in when he sees a man peeping in the women's bath. The man turns with his frog and Jiraiya takes Ebisu out.

Source

INLAND EMPIRE Movie Review

2007-07-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

David Lynch’s three hour digital Video opus INLAND EMPIRE is the kind of film that makes you question exactly what it is that makes good cinema. Particularly it asks if you need to understand a movie to be moved by it. Lynch has often frustrated viewers with the fractured narratives of films like Mulholland Dr., Lost Highway and Eraserhead. But at the same time his mix of beautiful imagery and unexplainable terror has attracted a large, devoted cult following. His films are not for everyone, but anyone who has seen them probably can’t shake certain images. And many are likely still trying to figure out what it all means. Almost all of his work is up to interpretation on some level, but repeated viewings usually help make sense of the madness. With Mulholland Dr., for example, focusing on a different character’s point of view makes it much more straightforward.

Which brings us to INLAND EMPIRE. After three viewings the film is still a puzzle – one that may never be solved. Then again, maybe that’s not the point. The main storyline seems to focus on an actress named Nikki Grace (Laura Dern), who lands a comeback role alongside womanizing leading man Devon Berk (Justin Theroux) in a film called On High in Blue Tomorrows. The film, based on a polish folk tale, turns out to be cursed, a remake of a (German?) movie in which the leading actors were killed. However, the “real” story may also be about Susan Blue, the character in On High in Blue Tomorrows. Then again, it may be about someone else entirely – the Lost Girl (Karolina Gruszka) trapped in a room watching surreal sitcoms about bunnies waiting to be saved. Lynch shot INLAND EMPIRE on a commercial grade DV camcorder and says he’ll never use film again. If you’re a fan of his imagery, don’t let this scare you off. While we may not get the saturated beauty of Blue Velvet and Mulholland Dr., there is still a lot of eye candy here. In fact, the DV is even more effective than film would have been in some scenes – particularly when Lynch sets out to creep us out. The film has an amazing supporting cast including several unknown (at least in North America) polish actors, as well as Jeremy Irons, William H. Macy, and Lynch regulars Harry Dean Stanton and Grace Zabriskie.

But it’s Laura Dern who holds it together in a role that deserved the Oscar nod Lynch was campaigning for. Playing more than one character and probably not knowing the connections herself, Dern puts in an incredible performance that could be looked at as a meditation on the concept of method acting. Repeated viewings don’t straighten-out the story, but they do draw the viewer further into Lynch’s world – possibilities increase, secrets are uncovered, connections are made, and questions are raised. Many reviewers have said that the best way to watch INLAND EMPIRE is to surrender to it and not even attempt to make sense of it. While this is true to a degree, it’s also somewhat impossible. We want to make sense of it because curiosity is our nature. Like Lynch said about Blue Velvet – we love mysteries, we’re all detectives. The answers may not always be there in this film, but looking for them is what makes it such a unique, beautiful experience – one that allows us experience film on a whole new level.

Our experience of this INLAND EMPIRE is a lot like what is happening on screen – Nikki confusing her life with the role she is playing; Susan questioning whether she is a housewife, an actress or a prostitute; the Lost Girl being moved by images on a TV screen, possibly under some kind of trance. Unlike other three-hour movies out there this year (hello, “Pirates”), INLAND EMPIRE is one that doesn’t overstay its welcome. While it’s certainly not for everyone, those willing to go along for the ride will experience something unforgettable, that they will revisit and keep with them long after the credits roll.

Source

Japanese Resident Evil Extinction Poster !

2007-07-08T19:22:00.000-07:00

We just added a new Japanese poster for Resident Evil Extinction to the site. I like it. Its clean, simple andit works. The third and final installment of the $100 million "Resident Evil" hits, "Resident Evil: Extinction" is again based on the wildly popular video game series and picks up where the last film left off. The film comes to cinemas September 21st.

Alice (Milla Jovovich), now in hiding in the Nevada desert, once again joins forces with Carlos Olivera (Oded Fehr) and L.J. (Mike Epps), along with new survivors Claire (Ali Larter), K-Mart (Spencer Locke) and Nurse Betty (Ashanti) to try to eliminate the deadly virus that threatens to make every human being undead... and to seek justice. Since being captured by the Umbrella Corporation, Alice has been subjected to biogenic experimentation and becomes genetically altered, with super-human strengths, senses and dexterity. These skills, and more, will be needed if anyone is to remain alive.

Source

Ash

2007-07-07T12:28:00.000-07:00

Ash are an alternative rock band that formed in Downpatrick, Northern Ireland in 1992. The media originally pegged Ash's music as Britpop when the band first found mainstream success, but the band's musical style in fact spans a number of genres including punk, power pop, grunge and hard rock.


Background information
Origin	Northern Ireland
Genre(s)	Alternative Rock, Punk Rock, Britpop, Pop punk
Years active	1992–present
Label(s)	Infectious (UK), Warner Bros. Records (USA)
Website	Official website
Members
Tim Wheeler Mark Hamilton Rick McMurray
Former members
Charlotte Hatherley (1997-2006)

The original band members were Tim Wheeler (vocals and guitar), Mark Hamilton (bass guitar) and Rick McMurray (drums).

Initially inspired by Twisted Sister and Iron Maiden in the early 1990s, Tim and Mark formed a heavy metal band called Vietnam with a few school friends. After barely two gigs, they were left stranded when their bandmates left. Requiring a drummer, they had a few drinks with Rick who was a year ahead of them in school and had switched from playing the guitar to drums. With Rick on board, they ambitiously set out to develop a new style of music inspired by grunge bands such as Nirvana, Mudhoney and the Pixies.

Early 1990s

Ash officially formed in 1992. They created three demo tapes this year, Solar Happy in June, Shed in September, and the Home Demo in November. These tapes featured their earliest material and the first recordings of some songs that would later be on their 1995 release, Trailer, including "Intense Thing", "Get Out", "Obscure Thing," and their future single, "Jack Names the Planets".

In 1993, Ash made the demo tape, Garage Girl, which featured "Jack Names the Planets" and "Intense Thing" taken from Shed, as well as some new tracks including "Petrol". They released their compilation demo tape, Pipe Smokin' Brick later this year, which featured an assortment of their best demo songs from the other 4 demo tapes. Downpatrick Musician Ray Valentine recorded Ash's demo's at his studio, Cosmic Rays.

The demo tapes had not gained much attention yet and Ash was still playing small shows at local clubs, however, in early 1994, Stephen Taverner came across the Garage Girl demo tape. Suitably impressed Stephen put up the money so that they could press 1000 7″ copies of "Jack Names the Planets" on Stephen's own LaLaLand record label. The band was on its way and Stephen became their full-time manager.

Ash released their mini album, Trailer, in October 1994, which only included seven songs. They received some airplay from DJ Steve Lamacq on BBC Radio 1 and so followed up their debut single with "Petrol", and "Uncle Pat" on their new label Infectious Records.

In 1995, Ash left school and released their breakthrough singles "Kung Fu", "Girl From Mars" and "Angel Interceptor".

Late 1990s

Ash's No.1 album 1977

1996 saw them release the singles "Goldfinger" and "Oh Yeah" either side of their album 1977, which saw considerable success. On 17 February 1997, Ash released Live at the Wireless, a live album, recorded at the Triple J Studios in Australia. The UK fans could buy a limited edition CD of it on the band's own Deathstar label.

During their time touring with Weezer, Ash felt the limitation of a three-piece band. As a result they recruited Charlotte Hatherley who had previously been with the band Nightnurse and she made her gig debut at a few small gigs a week before appearing at the V festival in 1997. The first single that she appeared on, "A Life Less Ordinary", featured on the soundtrack to the Ewan McGregor / Cameron Diaz film of the same name.

In September 1998, Ash released "Jesus Says" the following month the second album proper, Nu-Clear Sounds, and in November "Wildsurf". The stress of near non-stop touring of 1977 and Nu-Clear sounds began to affect the band's mentality.

Early 2000s

Ash in Tempe, Arizona - Mark, Rick, Charlotte, Tim - March 2005

In 2000, Tim Wheeler disappeared for a short while following the commercial and critical failure of Nu-Clear Sounds. He eventually emerged in New York making the self-deprecating, blood, drug and sex fueled video for Numbskull. A note for Stephen Taverner attached to the video said, "I've killed Bambi".

Ash nearly became bankrupt as they prepared to release possibly their last album. Luckily, this was not to be the case. The band retreated to Wheeler's parents' house, to play and write songs in the same garage where the band began.

The single "Shining Light" was released in January 2001, followed by the number one album Free All Angels in April. Subsequent singles released from Free All Angels were "Burn Baby Burn", "Sometimes", "Candy", and "There's a Star" . The single "Shining Light" won the "Best Contemporary Song" award at the 2002 Ivor Novello awards. A new single "Envy" was released, followed shortly afterwards by the singles collection Intergalactic Sonic 7″s with the bonus disk entitled Cosmic Debris. Q magazine named Ash as #2 of its "50 Bands To See Before You Die".

The Infamous Charlotte Shower Scene from 'Slashed'

In 2003, it was leaked to the music and tabloid press that Ash were working on a horror film described as a 'teen slasher'. The film called 'Slashed' was shot while the band were on tour in America but some scenes were also shot in the UK. The screenplay, written by Jed Shepherd and directed by Alexander Marks included star roles by Chris Martin (Sherbet Bones) and Jonny Buckland (Agent Ford) of Coldplay as a pair of FBI agents hired to track down a supernatural serial killer. Other star performances include that of Moby, James Nesbitt, Dave Grohl and Ash themselves. The film was much hyped due to the celebrity performances but it was never generally released to the public and is now currently being held in storage. Rumours circulated that certain scenes were too gory and would not be suitable for Ash's audience, but it was also said that Chris Martin vetoed its release due to scenes of him running around in his boxer shorts, covered in blood, fighting demons which may have been detrimental to his new celebrity status.

On 29 June 2004, Ash released Meltdown. It reached number five in the UK. The band teamed up with Lucasarts for a new Star Wars game entitled Republic Commando. "Clones", taken from the album Meltdown is the first licensed music to be used in anything Star Wars-related. "Meltdown" and "Orpheus" are featured on the popular British movie, Shaun of the Dead as well as appearing on the ingame soundtrack for the video game Burnout 3: Takedown. Also featured is their cover of the Buzzcocks song "Everybody's Happy Nowadays" featuring Chris Martin on backing vocals. "Starcrossed" and "Renegade Cavalcade" were later released as singles from the album. Meltdown gets a US release date of 8 March, through Warner Bros. Records imprint Record Collection. Also in 2005, Tim Wheeler received a companionship (a honorary degree) from LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts).

Ash in Tempe, Arizona - March 2005 - Photo by Nancy J Price

During the recording of Meltdown, Charlotte Hatherley also wrote and recorded her solo side project album Grey Will Fade, which included hit single "Bastardo".

Late 2000s

On 20 January 2006, Charlotte Hatherley left the band after nine years leaving only the original members remaining. An official statement reads: "After 9 years Ash and Charlotte Hatherley have mutually agreed to part company. The decision is completely amicable and they wish each other the very best for the future". On 6 June 2006, NME reported that Ash were in a New York recording studio and had twenty seven "rough" songs. Wheeler hinted that the album is likely to be more retro sounding than any of their previous material. Ash are recording the follow up to 2004's Meltdown, with a release date scheduled for June 2007. No shows were planned for the remainder of 2006, but Wheeler says Ash are hoping to test out their new songs "in tiny New York bars" once the album is completed.

Ash's 5th Full Studio Album Twilight of the Innocents

Early in 2007, Ash announced a full-length UK tour for February and March 2007. The tour is a warm-up for their album release in June and summer festival appearances, including the Isle of Wight Festival on 9 June 2007. The tour is of small clubs nationwide and calls at Preston, Newcastle, Glasgow, Norwich, Liverpool, Sheffield and Southampton amongst others. Named "The Higher Education Tour", Ash are to work closely with the National Union of Students (NUS), including student pre-sale, which explains their gigs at universities in Southampton, Keele, Sheffield, Exeter, Warwick and Kings College London amongst others. Support will be the indie-rock band, V//Formation.

On the 19 February 2007 Ash released the first song from their new album, which was announced as being called "Twilight of the Innocents". This new material was a download only sneak-preview track called "I Started A Fire". The first physical single "You Can't Have It All" was released on 16 April 2007^[1]. The release of YCHIA coincided with an in-store gig and signing in Virgin Megastore, Belfast. The music video for "You Can't Have It All" debuted on MTV 2 on 11 March 2007.

On 12 June 2007 Ash revealed that Twilight of the Innocents would be their last album. They however denied that they were splitting and instead stated they would only release singles from now on as "The way people listen to music has changed, with the advent of the download the emphasis has reverted to single tracks".^[2]

Studio albums

Album Cover	Date of Release	Title	Label	UK Chart Peak
	October, 1994	Trailer	Infectious	#143 UK^[3]
	6 May 1996	1977	Infectious	#1 UK^[3]
	5 October 1998	Nu-Clear Sounds	Infectious	#7 UK^[3]
	23 April 2001	Free All Angels	Infectious	#1 UK^[3]
	17 May 2004	Meltdown	Infectious	#5 UK^[3]
	2 July 2007	Twilight of the Innocents	Infectious	#? UK

Source

The Cribs : Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever

2007-07-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

The Cribs specialize in songs about staying out too late, embarrassing your friends and losing your heart to girls who are even drunker than you are but deserve better than you anyway. It's a theme that never gets old, and their third album is a holler-along Brit-punk gem. Three brothers from the mining town of Wakefield, the Cribs didn't make an impression at first, but despite abysmal sound quality, their melodies unfolded over time – "We Can No Longer Cheat You" was one of 2005's great lost pop tunes. On Men's Needs, the Cribs give max boom and blast to snotty pub stomps like "Our Bovine Public," "My Life Flashed Before My Eyes" and "Girls Like Mystery." Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos turns out to be a great producer, while Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo adds vocals to the spoken-word oddity "Be Safe." Finally, the Cribs deliver the tour de force they had in them, and it's about time.

Source

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)

2007-07-07T11:47:00.000-07:00

In theaters Friday, July 20th 2007,

Chuck Levine and Larry Valentine are the pride of their fire station: two guy's guys always side-by-side and willing to do anything for each other. Grateful Chuck owes Larry for saving his life in a fire, and Larry calls in that favor big time when civic red tape prevents him from naming his own two kids as his life insurance beneficiaries.

But when an overzealous, spot-checking bureaucrat becomes suspicious, the new couple's arrangement becomes a citywide issue and goes from confidential to front-page news. Forced to improvise as love-struck newlyweds, Chuck and Larry must now fumble through a hilarious charade of domestic bliss under one roof. After surviving their mandatory honeymoon and dodging the threat of exposure, the well-intentioned con men discover that sticking together in your time of need is what truly makes a family.

Director: Dennis Dugan
Cast: Adam Sandler, Jessica Biel, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, Dan Akroyd

Source

CashBack

2007-07-07T11:39:00.001-07:00

In theaters Friday, July 20th 2007,

When art student Ben Willis is dumped by his girlfriend Suzy, he develops insomnia. To pass the long hours of the night, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket. There he meets a colorful cast of characters, all of whom have their own 'art' in dealing with the boredom of an eight-hour-shift. Ben's art is that he imagines himself stopping time. This way, he can appreciate the artistic beauty of the frozen world and the people inside it - especially Sharon, the quiet checkout girl, who perhaps holds the answer to solving the problem of Ben's insomnia.

Director: Sean Ellis
Cast: Emilia Fox, Michelle Ryan, Shaun Evans, Stuart Gordan

Source

New D-War Poster

2007-07-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

WE just added a new D-War Poster! I love all the D-War posters they are some of the best I have ever seen. D-Wars, aka Dragon Wars, is finally coming. I have been waiting for this movie for along time and finally the director, Shim Hyung Rae, spoke to the Korean Media about the film. Here is what KFCCinema had to report.

This film is set in the Chosun dynasty, 500 years ago, and New York City in the 21st Century. One special girl was born in the Chosun dynasty with the power of the Dragon Ball. The villain, Imugi, attacks the land in an attempt to get the Dragon Ball and to possess its power, but a fighter appears to protect the girl. 500 years later, the girl and the fighter are reborn in 21st Century New York, and a new fight is about to begin.

D War : Based on the Korean legend, unknown creatures will return and devastate the planet. Reporter Ethan Kendrick is called in to investigate the matter, and he arrives at the conclusion that a girl stricken with a mysterious illness named Sarah is suppose to help him. The Imoogi makes its way to Los Angeles, wreaking havoc and destruction. With the entire city under arms, will Ethan and Sarah ...

Source

Azerbaijan

2007-06-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

Map of Azerbaijan

Republic of Azerbaijan

National Name: Azarbaycan Respublikasi

President: Ilham Aliyev (2003)

Prime Minister: Artur Rasizade (2003)

Current government officials

Land area: 33,243 sq mi (86,100 sq km); total area: 33,436 sq mi (86,600 sq km)

Population (2006 est.): 7,961,619 (growth rate: 0.7%); birth rate: 20.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 79.0/1000; life expectancy: 63.9; density per sq mi: 238

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Baku, 2,118,600 (metro area), 1,235,400 (city proper), a port on the Caspian Sea

Other large cities (2004 est.): Ganja, 303,000; Sumgait, 280,500

Monetary unit: Manat

Languages: Azerbaijani Turkic 89%, Russian 3%, Armenian 2%, other 6% (1995 est.)

Ethnicity/race: Azeri 90.6%, Dagestani 2.2%, Russian 1.8%, Armenian 1.5%, other 3.9% (1999). Note: almost all Armenians live in the separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region

Religions: Islam 93%, Russian Orthodox 3%, Armenian Orthodox 2%, other 2% (1995 est.)

Literacy rate: 97% (1989 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $37.03 billion; per capita $4,700. Real growth rate: 19.7%. Inflation: 12%. Unemployment: 1.2% (official rate). Arable land: 20.62%. Agriculture: cotton, grain, rice, grapes, fruit, vegetables, tea, tobacco; cattle, pigs, sheep, goats. Labor force: 5.45 million; agriculture and forestry 41%, industry 7%, services 52% (2001). Industries: petroleum and natural gas, petroleum products, oilfield equipment; steel, iron ore; cement; chemicals and petrochemicals; textiles. Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, nonferrous metals, alumina. Exports: $6.117 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): oil and gas 90%, machinery, cotton, foodstuffs. Imports: $4.656 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and equipment, oil products, foodstuffs, metals, chemicals. Major trading partners: Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Indonesia, Romania, Georgia, Russia, Turkey, France, UK, Ukraine, Netherlands, U.S. (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 1,025,400 (2004); mobile cellular: ,456,500 (2004). Radio broadcast stations: AM 10, FM 17, shortwave 1 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 2 (1997). Internet hosts: 460 (2005). Internet users: 408,000 (2005).

Transportation: Railways: total: 2,957 km (2004). Highways: total: 27,016 km; paved: 12,698 km (including 128 km of expressways); unpaved: 14,318 km (2003). Ports and harbors: Baku (Baki). Airports: 45 (2005).

International disputes: Armenia supports ethnic Armenian secessionists in Nagorno-Karabakh and since the early 1990s has militarily occupied 16% of Azerbaijan; over 800,000 mostly ethnic Azerbaijanis were driven from the occupied lands and Armenia; about 230,000 ethnic Armenians were driven from their homes in Azerbaijan into Armenia; Azerbaijan seeks transit route through Armenia to connect to Naxcivan exclave; Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) continues to mediate dispute; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Russia ratify Caspian seabed delimitation treaties based on equidistance, while Iran continues to insist on an even one-fifth allocation and challenges Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon exploration in disputed waters; bilateral talks continue with Turkmenistan on dividing the seabed and contested oilfields in the middle of the Caspian; Azerbaijan and Georgia continue to discuss the alignment of their boundary at certain crossing areas

Geography

Azerbaijan is located on the western shore of the Caspian Sea at the southeast extremity of the Caucasus. The region is a mountainous country, and only about 7% of it is arable land. The Kura River Valley is the area's major agricultural zone.

Government

Constitutional republic.

History

Northern Azerbaijan was known as Caucasian Albania in ancient times. The area was the site of many conflicts involving Arabs, Kazars, and Turks. After the 11th century, the territory became dominated by Turks and eventually was a stronghold of the Shiite Muslim religion and Islamic culture. The territory of Soviet Azerbaijan was acquired by Russia from Persia through the Treaty of Gulistan in 1813 and the Treaty of Turkamanchai in 1828.

After the Bolshevik Revolution, Azerbaijan declared its independence from Russia in May 1918. The republic was reconquered by the Red Army in 1920 and was annexed into the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1922. It was later reestablished as a separate Soviet Republic on Dec. 5, 1936. Azerbaijan declared independence from the collapsing Soviet Union on Aug. 30, 1991.

Since 1988, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been feuding over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The majority of the enclave's inhabitants are Armenian Christians agitating to secede from the predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan and join with Armenia. War broke out in 1988 when Nagorno-Karabakh tried to break away and annex itself to Armenia, and 30,000 died before a cease-fire agreement was reached in 1994, with Armenia regaining its hold over the disputed enclave. Final plans on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh have yet to be determined.

The country's economic troubles are expected to be transformed through Western investment in Azerbaijan's oil resources, an untapped reserve whose estimated worth is trillions of dollars. Since 1994, the Azerbaijan state oil company (SOCAR) has signed several billion-dollar agreements with international oil companies. Azerbaijan's pro-Western stance and its careful economic management have made it the most attractive of the oil-rich Caspian countries for foreign investment. In the years since its independence, the country has undergone rapid privatization, and the IMF gave it high marks as one of the most successful economic overhauls ever. In Sept. 2002, construction of the 1,100-mile Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline (a route through Georgia and Turkey) began. Major investors are Britain's BP (33%), Azerbaijan's SOCAR (25%), the U.S.'s Unocal (8.9%), and Norway's Statoil (8.7%). In July 2006, the pipeline opened.

In 2003, President Heydar Aliyev, who was seriously ill, chose his son as the new prime minister, paving the way for his eventual succession. The opposition protested strenuously. In October elections, the president's son, Ilham Aliyev, was elected president. Heydar Aliyev died in December.

In Nov. 2005 parliamentary elections, Aliyev's New Azerbaijan Party won the largest number of seats. International election monitors declared the election fraudulent, and opposition candidates staged protests.

source

Austria

2007-06-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

Map of Austria

Republic of Austria

National name: Republik Österreich

President: Heinz Fischer (2004)

Chancellor: Alfred Gusenbauer (2007)

Current government officials

Land area: 31,942 sq mi (82,730 sq km); total area: 32,382 sq mi (83,870 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 8,199,783 (growth rate: 0.1%); birth rate 8.7/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.5/1000; life expectancy: 79.2; density per sq mi: 257

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Vienna, 2,041,300 (metro area), 1,523,600 (city proper)

Other large cities: Graz, 219,500; Linz, 185,300; Salzburg, 145,500; Innsbruck, 115,600

Monetary units: Euro (formerly schilling)

Languages: German (official nationwide); Slovene, Croatian, Hungarian (each official in one region)

Ethnicity/race: Austrians 91.1%, former Yugoslavs 4% (includes Croatians, Slovenes, Serbs, Bosniaks), Turks 1.6%, German 0.9%, other or unspecified 2.4% (2001)

Religions: Roman Catholic 74%, Protestant 5%, Islam 4%, none 12% (2001)

Literacy rate: 98%

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $269.6 billion; per capita $32,900. Real growth rate: 1.8%. Inflation: 2.3%. Unemployment: 5.1%. Arable land: 16.59%. Agriculture: grains, potatoes, sugar beets, wine, fruit; dairy products, cattle, pigs, poultry; lumber. Labor force: 3.49 million; agriculture and forestry 3%, industry and crafts 27%, services 70%. Industries: construction, machinery, vehicles and parts, food, metals, chemicals, lumber and wood processing, paper and paperboard, communications equipment, tourism. Natural resources: oil, coal, lignite, timber, iron ore, copper, zinc, antimony, magnesite, tungsten, graphite, salt, hydropower. Exports: $122.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and equipment, motor vehicles and parts, paper and paperboard, metal goods, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs. Imports: $118.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal goods, oil and oil products; foodstuffs. Major trading partners: Germany, Italy, U.S., Switzerland, France, UK (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 3.791 million (2004); mobile cellular: 7.99 million (2004). Radio broadcast stations: AM 2, FM 65 (plus several hundred repeaters), shortwave 1 (2001). Television broadcast stations: 10 (plus more than 1,000 repeaters) (2001). Internet hosts: 1,812,776 (2005). Internet users: 4.65 million (2005).

Transportation: Railways: total: 6,021 km (3,552 km electrified) (2004). Highways: 133,718 km; paved: 133,718 km (including 1,677 km of expressways) (2003). Waterways: 358 km (2003). Ports and harbors: Enns, Krems, Linz, Vienna. Airports: 55 (2005).

International disputes: Austrian anti-nuclear activists have revived blockades of the Czech-Austrian border to protest operation of the Temelin nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic.

Geography

Slightly smaller than Maine, Austria includes much of the mountainous territory of the eastern Alps (about 75% of the area). The country contains many snowfields, glaciers, and snowcapped peaks, the highest being the Grossglockner (12,530 ft; 3,819 m). The Danube is the principal river. Forests and woodlands cover about 40% of the land.

Government

Federal republic.

History

Settled in prehistoric times, the central European land that is now Austria was overrun in pre-Roman times by various tribes, including the Celts. After the fall of the Roman Empire, of which Austria was part, the area was invaded by Bavarians and Slavic Avars. Charlemagne conquered the area in 788 and encouraged colonization and Christianity. In 1252, Ottokar, king of Bohemia, gained possession, only to lose the territories to Rudolf of Hapsburg in 1278. Thereafter, until World War I, Austria's history was largely that of its ruling house, the Hapsburgs. Austria emerged from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as the continent's dominant power. The Ausgleich of 1867 provided for a dual sovereignty, the empire of Austria and the kingdom of Hungary, under Franz Joseph I, who ruled until his death on Nov. 21, 1916. The Austrian-Hungarian minority rule of this immensely diverse empire, which included German, Czech, Romanian, Serbian, and many other lands, became increasingly difficult in an age of emerging nationalist movements. When Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo in 1914, World War I, as well as the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, began.

During World War I, Austria-Hungary was one of the Central powers with Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey, and the conflict left the country in political chaos and economic ruin. Austria, shorn of Hungary, was proclaimed a republic in 1918, and the monarchy was dissolved in 1919. A parliamentary democracy was set up by the constitution of Nov. 10, 1920. To check the power of Nazis advocating union with Germany, Chancellor Engelbert Dolfuss in 1933 established a dictatorship, but he was assassinated by the Nazis on July 25, 1934. Kurt von Schuschnigg, his successor, struggled to keep Austria independent, but on March 12, 1938, German troops occupied the country, and Hitler proclaimed its Anschluss (union) with Germany, annexing it to the Third Reich.

After World War II, the U.S. and Britain declared the Austrians a “liberated” people, but the Russians prolonged the occupation. Finally Austria concluded a state treaty with the USSR and the other occupying powers and regained its independence on May 15, 1955. The second Austrian republic, established Dec. 19, 1945, on the basis of the 1920 constitution (amended in 1929), was declared by the federal parliament to be permanently neutral.

On June 8, 1986, former UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim was elected to the ceremonial office of president in a campaign marked by controversy over his alleged links to Nazi war crimes in Yugoslavia. Austria became a member of the European Union in 1995, but it retained its strict constitutional neutrality and forbade the stationing of foreign troops on its soil.

In Feb. 2000 the conservative People's Party formed a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party, headed by Jörg Haider. A nationalist against immigration, Haider had made several controversial remarks praising some Nazi policies, which he has since recanted. His gradual rise to power was credited to voters weary of decades of stasis under the rule of the Social Democrats. The European Union condemned Austria's new coalition, froze diplomatic contacts, and imposed sanctions, accusing Haider of being a racist, xenophobe, and Nazi sympathizer. Given the controversy, Haider chose not to join the government, but he continued to wield influence from the sidelines.

In Sept. 2002, the coalition between the People's Party and the Freedom Party dissolved after a shake-up in the Freedom Party, instigated by Haider. In Nov. 2002, the People's Party made large gains in general elections. After failed coalition talks with other parties, the People's Party again formed a government with the Freedom Party in Feb. 2003. A government plan to overhaul the country's pension program led to widespread strikes in May and June 2003—the first national strikes in decades.

In 2004, Heinz Fischer, known as the “left conscience” of the Social Democrat Party, was elected to the largely ceremonial role of president.

Austria's tough laws against Nazi propaganda led to a three-year prison sentence for infamous British historian David Irving, who pleaded guilty in Feb. 2006 to denying the Holocaust. In Dec. 2006, he was released from prison early, and deported to England.

Three months after elections, Austria's two main parties formed a coalition government in Jan. 2007. The leader of the Social Democrats, Alfred Gusenbauer, became chancellor.

Parliament passed a law in June 2007 that lowered the voting age in Austria to 16.

Source

Australia

2007-06-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

Map of Australia

Commonwealth of Australia

Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)

Governor-General: Michael Jeffery (2003)

Prime Minister: John Howard (1996)

Current government officials

Land area: 2,941,283 sq mi (7,617,931 sq km); total area: 2,967,893 sq mi (7,686,850 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 20,434,176 (growth rate: 0.8%); birth rate: 12.0/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.6/1000; life expectancy: 80.6; density per sq mi: 7

Capital (2003 est.): Canberra, 327,700

Largest cities: Sydney, 4,250,100; Melbourne, 3,610,800; Brisbane, 1,545,700; Perth, 1,375,200; Adelaide, 1,087,600

Monetary unit: Australian dollar

Languages: English 79%, native and other languages

Ethnicity/race: Caucasian 92%, Asian 7%, aboriginal and other 1%

Religions: Roman Catholic 26%, Anglican 21%, other Christian 21%, Buddhist 2%, Islam 2%, other 1%, none 15% (2001)

Literacy rate: 100% (1980 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $642.1 billion; per capita $32,000. Real growth rate: 2.6%. Inflation: 2.7%. Unemployment: 5.2%. Arable land: 6.15%. Agriculture: wheat, barley, sugarcane, fruits; cattle, sheep, poultry. Labor force: 10.42 million; agriculture 3.6%, industry 21.2%, services 75.2% (2004 est.). Industries: mining, industrial and transportation equipment, food processing, chemicals, steel. Natural resources: bauxite, coal, iron ore, copper, tin, gold, silver, uranium, nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, zinc, diamonds, natural gas, petroleum. Exports: $103 billion (2005 est.): coal, gold, meat, wool, alumina, iron ore, wheat, machinery and transport equipment. Imports: $119.6 billion (2005 est.): machinery and transport equipment, computers and office machines, telecommunication equipment and parts; crude oil and petroleum products. Major trading partners: Japan, China, U.S., South Korea, New Zealand, India, UK, Germany, Singapore (2004).

Member of Commonwealth of Nations

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 11.66 million (2004); mobile cellular: 16.48 million (2004). Radio broadcast stations: AM 262, FM 345, shortwave 1 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 104 (1997). Internet hosts: 5,351,622 (2005). Internet users: 14,189,544 (2005).

Transportation: Railways: total: 54,652 km (3,859 km electrified) (2004). Highways: total: 811,601 km; paved: 316,524 km; unpaved: 495,077 km (2002). Waterways: 2,000 km (mainly used for recreation on Murray and Murray-Darling river systems) (2002). Ports and harbors: Brisbane, Dampier, Fremantle, Gladstone, Hay Point, Melbourne, Newcastle, Port Hedland, Port Kembla, Port Walcott, Sydney. Airports: 450 (2005).

International disputes: East Timor and Australia agreed in 2005 to defer the disputed portion of the boundary for fifty years and to split hydrocarbon revenues evenly outside the Joint Petroleum Development Area covered by the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty; East Timor dispute hampers creation of a revised maritime boundary with Indonesia (see also Ashmore and Cartier Islands dispute); regional states express concern over Australia's 2004 declaration of a 1,000-nautical mile-wide maritime identification zone; Australia asserts land and maritime claims to Antarctica (see Antarctica); in 2004 Australia submitted its claims to UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) to extend its continental margin from both its mainland and Antarctic claims

Geography

The continent of Australia, with the island state of Tasmania, is approximately equal in area to the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii). Mountain ranges run from north to south along the east coast, reaching their highest point in Mount Kosciusko (7,308 ft; 2,228 m). The western half of the continent is occupied by a desert plateau that rises into barren, rolling hills near the west coast. The Great Barrier Reef, extending about 1,245 mi (2,000 km), lies along the northeast coast. The island of Tasmania (26,178 sq mi; 67,800 sq km) is off the southeast coast.

Government

Democracy. Symbolic executive power is vested in the British monarch, who is represented throughout Australia by the governor-general.

History

The first inhabitants of Australia were the Aborigines, who migrated there at least 40,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. There may have been between a half million to a full million Aborigines at the time of European settlement; today about 350,000 live in Australia.

Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish ships sighted Australia in the 17th century; the Dutch landed at the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1606. In 1616 the territory became known as New Holland. The British arrived in 1688, but it was not until Captain James Cook's voyage in 1770 that Great Britain claimed possession of the vast island, calling it New South Wales. A British penal colony was set up at Port Jackson (what is now Sydney) in 1788, and about 161,000 transported English convicts were settled there until the system was suspended in 1839.

Free settlers and former prisoners established six colonies: New South Wales (1786), Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) (1825), Western Australia (1829), South Australia (1834), Victoria (1851), and Queensland (1859). Various gold rushes attracted settlers, as did the mining of other minerals. Sheep farming and grain soon grew into important economic enterprises. The six colonies became states and in 1901 federated into the Commonwealth of Australia with a constitution that incorporated British parliamentary and U.S. federal traditions. Australia became known for its liberal legislation: free compulsory education, protected trade unionism with industrial conciliation and arbitration, the secret ballot, women's suffrage, maternity allowances, and sickness and old-age pensions.

Australia fought alongside Britain in World War I, notably with the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) in the Dardanelles campaign (1915). Participation in World War II brought Australia closer to the United States. Parliamentary power in the second half of the 20th century shifted between three political parties: the Australian Labour Party, the Liberal Party, and the National Party. Australia relaxed its discriminatory immigration laws in the 1960s and 1970s, which favored Northern Europeans. Thereafter, about 40% of its immigrants came from Asia, diversifying a population that was predominantly of English and Irish heritage. An Aboriginal movement grew in the 1960s that gained full citizenship and improved education for the country's poorest socioeconomic group.

In March 1996 the opposition Liberal Party–National Party coalition easily won the national elections, removing the Labour Party after 13 years in power. Pressure from the new, conservative One Nation Party threatened to reduce the gains made by Aborigines and to limit immigration.

In Sept. 1999, Australia led the international peacekeeping force sent to restore order in East Timor after pro-Indonesian militias began massacring civilians to thwart East Timor's referendum on independence.

In Nov. 1999, Australia's 11.6 million voters rejected a referendum that would have ended Australia's formal allegiance to the British Crown. In 2000, Prime Minister Howard instituted a new tax system, lowering income and corporate taxes, and adding sales taxes on goods and services.

John Howard won a third term in Nov. 2001, primarily as the result of his tough policy against illegal immigration. This policy has also brought him considerable criticism: refugees attempting to enter Australia—most of them from Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq and numbering about 5,000 annually—have been imprisoned in bleak detention camps and subjected to a lengthy immigration process. Asylum-seekers have staged riots and hunger strikes. Howard has also dealt with refugees through the “Pacific solution,” which reroutes boat people from Australian shores to camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. In 2004, however, the government began easing its policies on immigration.

Prime Minister Howard sent 2,000 Australian troops to fight alongside American and British troops in the 2003 Iraq war, despite strong opposition among Australians.

In July 2003, Australia successfully restored order to the Solomon Islands, which had descended into lawlessness during a brutal civil war.

Australia has been the victim of two significant terrorist attacks in recent years: the 2002 Bali, Indonesia, bombings by a group with ties to al-Qaeda in which 202 died, many of whom were Australian, and the 2004 attack on the Australian embassy in Indonesia, which killed ten.

In Oct. 2004, Howard won a fourth term as prime minister. When rival security forces in East Timor began fighting each other in 2006, Australia sent 3,000 peacekeeping troops to stem the violence.

source

Armenia

2007-06-30T21:18:00.000-07:00

Map of Armenia

REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA

National Name: Hayastani Hanrapetut'yun

President: Robert Kocharian (1998)

Prime Minister: Serzh Sarkisyan (2007)

Current government officials

Land area: 11,506 sq mi (29,800 sq km); total area: 11,506 sq mi (29,800 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 2,971,650 (growth rate: –0.1%); (Armenian, 93%; others, Kurds, Ukrainians, and Russians); birth rate: 12.3/1000; infant mortality rate: 21.7/1000; life expectancy: 72.1; density per sq mi: 258

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Yerevan, 1,462,700 (metro. area), 1,267,600 (city proper)

Other large cities: Vanadzor, 147,400; Gyumri (Leninakan), 125,300; Abovian, 59,300

Monetary unit: Dram

Languages: Armenian 98%, Yezidi, Russian

Ethnicity/race: Armenian 97.9%, Russian 0.5%, Kurds 1.3%, other 0.3% (2001)

Religion: Armenian Apostolic 95%, other Christian 4%, Yezidi 1%

Literacy rate: 99% (1989 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $15.7 billion; per capita $5,300. Real growth rate: 13.9%. Inflation: –0.2%. Unemployment: 31.6% (2004 est.). Arable land: 16.78%. Agriculture: fruit (especially grapes), vegetables; livestock. Labor force: 1.2 million; agriculture 45%, industry 25%, services 30% (2002 est). Industries: diamond processing, metal-cutting machine tools, forging-pressing machines, electric motors, tires, knitted wear, hosiery, shoes, silk fabric, chemicals, trucks, instruments, microelectronics, jewelry manufacturing, software development, food processing, brandy. Natural resources: small deposits of gold, copper, molybdenum, zinc, alumina. Exports: $800 million f.o.b. (2005 est.): diamonds, mineral products, foodstuffs, energy. Imports: $$1.5 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): natural gas, petroleum, tobacco products, foodstuffs, diamonds. Major trading partners: Belgium, Israel, Germany, Russia, U.S., Netherlands, Iran, Georgia, UAE, Ukraine, Italy, France.

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 582,500 (2004); mobile cellular: 203,300 (2004). Radio broadcast stations: AM 9, FM 6, shortwave 1 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 3 (plus an unknown number of repeaters) (1998). Internet hosts: 8,852 (2005). Internet users: 150,000 (2005).

Transportation: Railways: total: 845 km (2004). Highways: total: 7,633 km; paved: 7,633 km (includes 1,561 km of expressways) (2003). Waterways: n.a. Ports and harbors: none. Airports: 16 (2005).

International disputes: Armenia supports ethnic Armenian secessionists in Nagorno-Karabakh and since the early 1990s, has militarily occupied 16% of Azerbaijan - Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) continues to mediate dispute; over 800,000 mostly ethnic Azerbaijanis were driven from the occupied lands and Armenia; about 230,000 ethnic Armenians were driven from their homes in Azerbaijan into Armenia; Azerbaijan seeks transit route through Armenia to connect to Naxcivan exclave; border with Turkey remains closed over Nagorno-Karabakh dispute; ethnic Armenian groups in Javakheti region of Georgia seek greater autonomy; tens of thousands of Armenians emigrate, primarily to Russia, to seek employment

Geography

Armenia is located in the southern Caucasus and is the smallest of the former Soviet republics. It is bounded by Georgia on the north, Azerbaijan on the east, Iran on the south, and Turkey on the west. Contemporary Armenia is a fraction of the size of ancient Armenia. A land of rugged mountains and extinct volcanoes, its highest point is Mount Aragats, 13,435 ft (4,095 m).

Government

Republic.

History

One of the world's oldest civilizations, Armenia once included Mount Ararat, which biblical tradition identifies as the mountain that Noah's ark rested on after the flood. It was the first country in the world to officially embrace Christianity as its religion (c. A.D. 300).

In the 6th century B.C., Armenians settled in the kingdom of Urartu (the Assyrian name for Ararat), which was in decline. Under Tigrane the Great (fl. 95–55 B.C.) the Armenian empire reached its height and became one of the most powerful in Asia, stretching from the Caspian to the Mediterranean seas. Throughout most of its long history, however, Armenia has been invaded by a succession of empires. Under constant threat of domination by foreign forces, Armenians became both cosmopolitan as well as fierce protectors of their culture and tradition.

Over the centuries Armenia was conquered by Greeks, Romans, Persians, Byzantines, Mongols, Arabs, Ottoman Turks, and Russians. From the 16th century through World War I, major portions of Armenia were controlled by their most brutal invader, the Ottoman Turks, under whom the Armenians experienced discrimination, religious persecution, heavy taxation, and armed attacks. In response to Armenian nationalist stirrings, the Turks massacred thousands of Armenians in 1894 and 1896. The most horrific massacre took place in April 1915 during World War I, when the Turks ordered the deportation of the Armenian population to the deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia. According to the majority of historians, between 600,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were murdered or died of starvation. The Armenian massacre is considered the first genocide in the 20th century. Turkey denies that a genocide took place and claims that a much smaller number died in a civil war.

After the Turkish defeat in World War I, the independent Republic of Armenia was established on May 28, 1918, but survived only until Nov. 29, 1920, when it was annexed by the Soviet army. On March 12, 1922, the Soviets joined Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan to form the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic, which became part of the USSR. In 1936, after a reorganization, Armenia became a separate constituent republic of the USSR. Armenia declared its independence from the collapsing Soviet Union on Sept. 23, 1991.

In 1988, Armenia became involved in a territorial dispute with Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, to which both laid claim. The majority of the enclave were Armenian Christians who wanted to secede from Azerbaijan and either become part of Armenia or gain full independence. War broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the region from 1992–1994, resulting in 30,000 casualties. Armenia effectively controls the region today, although no formal resolution exists.

An Armenian diaspora has existed throughout the nation's history, and Armenian emigration has been particularly heavy since independence from the Soviet Union. An estimated 60% of the total 8 million Armenians worldwide live outside the country, with 1 million each in the U.S. and Russia. Other significant Armenian communities are located in Georgia, France, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Argentina, and Canada.

Prime Minister Andranik Markarian died suddenly in March 2007. He was replaced by Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisyan.

Source

Argentina

2007-06-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

Map of Argentina

Argentine Republic

National name: República Argentina

President: Néstor Kirchner (2003)

Current government officials

Land area: 1,056,636 sq mi (2,736,690 sq km); total area: 1,068,296 sq mi (2,766,890 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 40,301,927 (growth rate: 0.9%); birth rate: 16.5/1000; infant mortality rate: 14.3/1000; life expectancy: 76.3; density per sq mi: 38

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Buenos Aires, 13,349,000 (metro. area), 2,768,772 (city proper)

Other large cities: Córdoba, 1,486,200; Rosario, 1,276,900; Mendoza, 988,600; Mar del Plata, 683,700

Monetary unit: Peso

Languages: Spanish (official), English, Italian, German, French

Ethnicity/race: white (mostly Spanish and Italian) 97%; mestizo, Amerindian, other 3%

Religions: Roman Catholic 92%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 2%, other 4%

Literacy rate: 96.2% (1995 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $542.8 billion; per capita $13,700. Real growth rate: 8.7%. Inflation: 12.3%. Unemployment: 11.1%. Arable land: 10.03%. Agriculture: sunflower seeds, lemons, soybeans, grapes, corn, tobacco, peanuts, tea, wheat; livestock. Labor force: 15.34 million; agriculture n.a., industry n.a., services n.a. Industries: food processing, motor vehicles, consumer durables, textiles, chemicals and petrochemicals, printing, metallurgy, steel. Natural resources: fertile plains of the pampas, lead, zinc, tin, copper, iron ore, manganese, petroleum, uranium. Exports: $40 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): edible oils, fuels and energy, cereals, feed, motor vehicles. Imports: $28.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals, metal manufactures, plastics. Major trading partners: Brazil, Chile, U.S., China, Spain, Germany (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use 8.7 million (2004); mobile cellular: 13,512,400 (2004). Radio broadcast stations: AM 260 (including 10 inactive stations), FM n.a. (probably more than 1,000, mostly unlicensed), shortwave 6 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 42 (plus 444 repeaters) (1997). Internet hosts: 1,233,175 (2005). Internet users: 10 million (2005).

Transportation: Railways: total: 34,091 km (167 km electrified) (2004). Highways: total: 229,144 km; paved: 68,809 km (including 734 km of expressways); unpaved: 160,335 km (2004). Waterways: 11,000 km (2005). Ports and harbors: Bahia Blanca, Buenos Aires, Concepcion del Uruguay, La Plata, Punta Colorada, Rosario, San Lorenzo-San Martin, San Nicolas. Airports: 1,334 (2004 est.).

International disputes: Argentina continues to assert its claims to the UK-administered Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in its constitution, forcibly occupying the Falklands in 1982, but in 1995 agreed no longer to seek settlement by force; territorial claim in Antarctica partially overlaps UK and Chilean claims (see Antarctic disputes); unruly region at convergence of Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay borders is locus of money laundering, smuggling, arms and illegal narcotics trafficking, and fundraising for extremist organizations; uncontested dispute between Brazil and Uruguay over Braziliera Island in the Quarai/Cuareim River leaves the tripoint with Argentina in question

Geography

Second in South America only to Brazil in size and population, Argentina is a plain, rising from the Atlantic to the Chilean border and the towering Andes peaks. Aconcagua (22,834 ft, 6,960 m) is the highest peak in the world outside Asia. Argentina is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay on the north, and by Uruguay and Brazil on the east. The northern area is the swampy and partly wooded Gran Chaco, bordering on Bolivia and Paraguay. South of that are the rolling, fertile Pampas, which are rich in agriculture and sheep- and cattle-grazing and support most of the population. Next southward is Patagonia, a region of cool, arid steppes with some wooded and fertile sections.

Government

Republic.

History

First explored in 1516 by Juan Díaz de Solis, Argentina developed slowly under Spanish colonial rule. Buenos Aires was settled in 1580; the cattle industry was thriving as early as 1600. Invading British forces were expelled in 1806–1807, and after Napoléon conquered Spain (1808), the Argentinians set up their own government in 1810. On July 9, 1816, independence was formally declared.

As it had in World War I, Argentina proclaimed neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, but in the closing phase declared war on the Axis powers on March 27, 1945. Juan D. Perón, an army colonel, emerged as the strongman of the postwar era, winning the presidential elections of 1946 and 1951. Perón's political strength was reinforced by his second wife—Eva Duarte de Perón (Evita)—and her popularity with the working classes. Although she never held a government post, Evita acted as de facto minister of health and labor, establishing a national charitable organization, and awarding generous wage increases to the unions, who responded with political support for Perón. Opposition to Perón's increasing authoritarianism led to a coup by the armed forces, which sent Perón into exile in 1955, three years after Evita's death. Argentina entered a long period of military dictatorships with brief intervals of constitutional government.

The former dictator returned to power in 1973 and his third wife, Isabel Martínez de Perón, was elected vice president. After Perón's death in 1974, she became the hemisphere's first woman chief of state, assuming control of a nation teetering on economic and political collapse. In 1975, terrorist acts by left- and right-wing groups killed some 700 people. The cost of living rose 355%, while strikes and demonstrations were constant. On March 24, 1976, a military junta led by army commander Lt. Gen. Jorge Rafael Videla seized power and imposed martial law.

The military began the “dirty war” to restore order and eradicate its opponents. The Argentine Commission for Human Rights, in Geneva, has charged the junta with 2,300 political murders, over 10,000 political arrests, and the disappearance of 20,000 to 30,000 people. While violence declined, the economy remained in chaos. In March 1981 Videla was deposed by Field Marshal Roberto Viola, who in turn was succeeded by Lt. Gen. Leopoldo Galtieri.

On April 2, 1982, Galtieri invaded the British-held Falkland Islands, known as Las Islas Malvinas (Malvinas Islands) in Spanish, in what was seen as an attempt to increase his popularity. Great Britain, however, won a decisive victory, and Galtieri resigned in disgrace three days after Argentina’s surrender. Maj. Gen. Reynaldo Bignone took over June 14, amid increasing prodemocratic public sentiment. As the 1983 elections approached, inflation hit 900% and Argentina’s crippling foreign debt reached unprecedented levels.

In the presidential election of Oct. 1983, Raúl Alfonsín, leader of the Radical Civic Union, handed the Peronist Party its first defeat since its founding. Growing unemployment and quadruple-digit inflation, however, led to a Peronist victory in the elections of May 1989. Alfonsín resigned a month later in the wake of riots over high food prices, in favor of the new Peronist president, Carlos Menem. In 1991, Menem promoted economic austerity measures that deregulated businesses and privatized state-owned industries. But beginning in Sept. 1998, eight years into Menem's two-term presidency, Argentina entered its worst recession in a decade. Menem's economic policies, tolerance of corruption, and pardoning of military leaders involved in the dirty war eventually lost him the support of the poor and the working class who had elected him.

In Dec. 1999 Fernando de la Rua became president. Despite the introduction of several tough economic austerity plans, by 2001 the recession slid into its third year. The IMF gave Argentina $13.7 billion in emergency aid in Jan. 2001 and $8 billion in Aug. 2001. The international help was not enough, however, and by the end of 2001, Argentina verged on economic collapse. Rioters protesting government austerity measures forced De la Rua to resign in Dec. 2001. Argentina then defaulted on its $155 billion foreign debt payments, the largest such default in history.

After more instability, Congress named Eduardo Duhalde president on Jan. 1, 2002. Duhalde soon announced an economic plan devaluing the Argentine peso, which had been pegged to the dollar for a decade. The devaluation plunged the banking industry into crisis and wiped out much of the savings of the middle class, plunging millions of Argentinians into poverty.

In July 2002, former junta leader Galtieri and 42 other military officers were arrested and charged with the torture and execution of 22 leftist guerrillas during Argentina's 7-year military dictatorship. In recent years, judges have found legal loopholes allowing them to circumvent the blanket amnesty laws passed in 1986 and 1987, which allowed many accused of atrocities during the dirty war to walk free. In June 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that these amnesty laws were unconstitutional and in 2006, numerous military and police officials went on trial.

Peronist Néstor Kirchner, the former governor of Santa Cruz, became Argentina's president in May 2003, after former president Carlos Menem abandoned the race. Kirchner has vowed to aggressively reform the courts, police, and armed services and to prosecute perpetrators of the dirty war. Argentina's economy has been rebounding since its near collapse in 2001, with an impressive growth rate of about 8% since Kirchner took office. In March 2005, Kirchner announced that the country's debt had been successfully restructured. In Jan. 2006, Argentina paid off its remaining multi-million IMF debt early, a dramatic move that not all economists thought was beneficial.

Source

Antigua and Barbuda

2007-06-30T21:08:00.000-07:00

Map of Antigua and Barbuda

Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)

Governor-General: James Beethoven Carlisle (1993)

Prime Minister: Baldwin Spencer (2004)

Current government officials

Total area: 170 sq mi (440 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 69,481 (growth rate: 0.5%); birth rate: 16.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 18.3/1000; life expectancy: 72.4; density per sq mi: 409

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): St. John's, 23,500

Other large cities: English Harbour, 2,900; Codrington (capital of Barbuda), est. pop. 870

Monetary unit: East Caribbean dollar

Languages: English (official), local dialects

Ethnicity/race: black, British, Portuguese, Lebanese, Syrian

Religions: Christian (predominantly Anglican and other Protestant; some Roman Catholic)

Literacy rate: 89% (1960 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2002 est.): $750 million; per capita $11,000. Real growth rate: 3%. Inflation: 0.4% (2000 est.). Unemployment: 11% (2001 est.). Arable land: 18.18%. Agriculture: cotton, fruits, vegetables, bananas, coconuts, cucumbers, mangoes, sugarcane; livestock. Labor force: 30,000; commerce and services 82%, industry 11%, agriculture 7% (1983). Industries: tourism, construction, light manufacturing (clothing, alcohol, household appliances). Natural resources: negl.; pleasant climate fosters tourism. Exports: $214 million (2004 est.): petroleum products 48%, manufactures 23%, machinery and transport equipment 17%, food and live animals 4%, other 8%. Imports: $735 million (2004 est.): food and live animals, machinery and transport equipment, manufactures, chemicals, oil. Major trading partners: Poland, UK, Germany, China, U.S., Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago (2004).

Member of Commonwealth of Nations

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 38,000 (2004); mobile cellular: 54,000 (2004). Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 2, shortwave 0 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 2 (1997). Internet hosts: 2,143 (2005). Internet users: 20,000 (2005).

Transportation: Highways: total: 1,165 km, paved: 384 km, unpaved: 781 km (2002). Ports and harbors: Saint John's. Airports: 3 (2005).

International disputes: none.

Geography

Antigua, the larger of the two main islands, is 108 sq mi (280 sq km). The island dependencies of Redonda (an uninhabited rocky islet) and Barbuda (a coral island formerly known as Dulcina) are 0.5 sq mi (1.30 sq km) and 62 sq mi (161 sq km), respectively.

Government

Constitutional monarchy.

History

Antigua was explored by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and named for the Church of Santa Maria de la Antigua in Seville. Antigua was colonized by Britain in 1632; Barbuda was first colonized in 1678. The country joined the West Indies Federation in 1958. With the breakup of the federation, it became one of the West Indies Associated States in 1967, self-governing its internal affairs. Full independence was granted Nov. 1, 1981.

The Bird family has controlled the islands since Vere C. Bird founded the Antigua Labor Party in the mid-1940s. While tourism and financial services have turned the country into one of the more prosperous in the Caribbean, law enforcement officials have charged that Antigua and Barbuda is a major center of money laundering, drug trafficking, and arms smuggling. Several scandals tainted the Bird family, especially the 1995 conviction of Prime Minister Lester Bird's brother, Ivor, for cocaine smuggling. In 2000, Antigua and 35 other offshore banking centers agreed to reforms to prevent money laundering.

In March 2004, the Bird political dynasty came to an end when labor activist Baldwin Spencer defeated Lester Bird, who had been prime minister since 1994. In 2005, income tax, which had been eliminated in 1975, was reintroduced to help alleviate Antigua's deficit.

source

Angola

2007-06-30T21:06:00.001-07:00

Map of Angola

Republic of Angola

National name: Republica de Angola

President: José Eduardo dos Santos (1979)

Prime Minister: Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos (2003)

Current government officials

Total area: 481,350 sq mi (1,246,699 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 12,263,596 (growth rate: 2.2%); birth rate: 44.5/1000; infant mortality rate: 184.4/1000; life expectancy: 37.6; density per sq mi: 25

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Luanda, 2,297,200

Other large cities: Huambo, 171,000; Lubango, 136,000

Monetary unit: New Kwanza

Languages: Portuguese (official), Bantu and other African languages

Ethnicity/race: Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, Bakongo 13%, mestico (mixed European and Native African) 2%, European 1%, other 22%

Religions: Indigenous 47%, Roman Catholic 38%, Protestant 15% (1998 est.)

Literacy rate: 42% (1998 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $45.93 billion; per capita $3,200. Real growth rate: 19.1%. Inflation: 17.7%. Unemployment: extensive unemployment and underemployment affecting more than half the population (2001 est.). Arable land: 2.65%. Agriculture: bananas, sugarcane, coffee, sisal, corn, cotton, manioc (tapioca), tobacco, vegetables, plantains; livestock; forest products; fish. Labor force: 5.58 million; agriculture 85%, industry and services 15% (2003 est.). Industries: petroleum; diamonds, iron ore, phosphates, feldspar, bauxite, uranium, and gold; cement; basic metal products; fish processing; food processing, brewing, tobacco products, sugar; textiles; ship repair. Natural resources: petroleum, diamonds, iron ore, phosphates, copper, feldspar, gold, bauxite, uranium. Exports: $26.8 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): crude oil, diamonds, refined petroleum products, gas, coffee, sisal, fish and fish products, timber, cotton. Imports: $8.165 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and electrical equipment, vehicles and spare parts; medicines, food, textiles, military goods. Major trading partners: U.S., China, Taiwan, France, South Korea, Portugal, South Africa, Brazil, Japan (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 96,300 (2003); mobile cellular: 940,000 (2004). Radio broadcast stations: AM 36, FM 7, shortwave 9 (2000). Television broadcast stations: 6 (2000). Internet hosts: 2,502 (2005). Internet users: 172,000 (2005).

Transportation: Railways: total: 2,761 km (2004). Highways: total: 51,429 km; paved: 5,349 km; unpaved: 46,080 km (2001). Waterways: 1,300 km (2005). Ports and harbors: Cabinda, Luanda, Soyo. Airports: 243 (2005).

International disputes: many Cabinda exclave secessionists have sought shelter in neighboring states

Geography

Angola, more than three times the size of California, extends for more than 1,000 mi (1,609 km) along the South Atlantic in southwest Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo are to the north and east, Zambia is to the east, and Namibia is to the south. A plateau averaging 6,000 ft (1,829 m) above sea level rises abruptly from the coastal lowlands. Nearly all the land is desert or savanna, with hardwood forests in the northeast.

Government

Angola underwent a transition from a one-party socialist state to a nominally multiparty democracy in 1992.

History

The original inhabitants of Angola are thought to have been Khoisan speakers. After 1000, large numbers of Bantu speakers migrated to the region and became the dominant group. Angola derives its name from the Bantu kingdom of Ndongo, whose name for its king is ngola.

Explored by the Portuguese navigator Diego Cão in 1482, Angola became a link in trade with India and Southeast Asia. Later it was a major source of slaves for Portugal's New World colony of Brazil. Development of the interior began after the Berlin Conference in 1885 fixed the colony's borders, and British and Portuguese investment fostered mining, railways, and agriculture.

Following World War II, independence movements began but were sternly suppressed by Portuguese military forces. The major nationalist organizations were the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a Marxist party; National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA); and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). After 14 years of war, Portugal finally granted independence to Angola in 1975. The MPLA, which had led the independence movement, has controlled the government ever since. But no period of peace followed Angola's long war for independence. UNITA disputed the MPLA's ascendancy, and civil war broke out almost immediately. With the Soviet Union and Cuba supporting the Marxist MPLA, and the United States and South Africa supporting the anti-Communist UNITA, the country became a cold war battleground.

With the waning of the cold war and the withdrawal of Cuban troops in 1989, the MPLA began to make the transition to a multiparty democracy. Despite shifting ideologies, the civil war continued, with UNITA's charismatic rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi, armed and sustained by his control of approximately 80% of the country's diamond trade. Free elections took place in 1992, with incumbent president José Eduardo dos Santos and the MPLA winning the UN-certified election over Savimbi and UNITA. Savimbi then withdrew, charging election fraud, and the civil war resumed.

Four years of relative peace took place between 1994 and 1998, when the UN, at a cost of $1.6 billion, oversaw the 1994 Lusaka peace accord. In 1997 it was agreed that a coalition government with UNITA would be implemented. But Savimbi violated the accord repeatedly by refusing to give up his strongholds, failing to demobilize his army, and retaking territory. As a result, the government suspended coalition rule in Sept. 1998, and the country again plunged into civil war. Angola’s citizens continued to suffer. The hostilities affected an estimated 4 million people, about a third of the total population, and there were almost 2 million refugees.

On Feb. 22, 2002, government troops killed Jonas Savimbi, and six weeks later, on April 4, rebel leaders signed a cease-fire deal with the government, signaling the end of 30 years of civil war. While peace finally seemed secure, more than a half-million Angolans were faced with starvation.

Angola is the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, yet its people are among the continent's poorest. The corruption of the Dos Santos government bears much of the blame. According to the International Monetary Fund, more than $4 billion in oil receipts have disappeared from Angola's treasury in the last six years.

In Aug. 2006, a peace deal was signed with separatist rebels from the Cabinda region. That clash has been called Angola's “forgotten war.” About 65% of Angola's oil comes from the region.

Source

Andorra

2007-06-30T21:05:00.000-07:00

Map of Andorra

Principality of Andorra

National name: Principat d'Andorra

Head of Government: Albert Pintat Santolària (2005)

Chiefs of State (Coprinces): Frederic de Saint-Sernin for France and Nemesi Marques Oste for Spain

Current government officials

Total area: 174 sq mi (451 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 71,822 (growth rate: 0.8%); birth rate: 8.5/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.0/1000; life expectancy: 83.5; density per sq mi: 412

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Andorra la Vella, 23,000

Monetary units: Euro

Languages: Catalán (official), French, Castilian, Portuguese

Ethnicity/race: Spanish 43%, Andorran 33%, Portuguese 11%, French 7%, other 6% (1998)

Religion: Roman Catholic (predominant)

Literacy rate: 100%

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2004): $1.84 billion; per capita $24,000. Real growth rate: 4%. Inflation: 3.4%. Unemployment: 0% (1996 est.). Arable land: 2%. Agriculture: small quantities of rye, wheat, barley, oats, vegetables; sheep. Labor force: 48,740; agriculture 0.34%, industry 19.63%, services 80.03%. Industries: tourism (particularly skiing), cattle raising, timber, banking. Natural resources: hydropower, mineral water, timber, iron ore, lead. Exports: $145 million f.o.b. (2004): tobacco products, furniture. Imports: $1.077 billion (1998): consumer goods, food, electricity. Major trading partners: Spain, France, U.S.

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 35,000 (2001); mobile cellular: 51,900 (2003). Radio broadcast stations: AM 0, FM 15, shortwave 0 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 0 (1997). Internet hosts: 4,144 (2004). Internet users: 24,500 (2001).

Transportation: Railways: 0 km. Highways: total: 269 km; paved: 198 km; unpaved: 71 km. Ports and harbors: none. Airports: none.

International disputes: none.

Geography

Andorra is nestled high in the Pyrénées Mountains on the French-Spanish border.

Government

A parliamentary coprincipality composed of the bishop of Urgel (Spain) and the president of France. Their representatives are listed above. The principality was internationally recognized as a sovereign state in 1993.

History

An autonomous and semi-independent coprincipality, Andorra has been under the joint suzerainty of the French state and the Spanish bishops of Urgel since 1278. It maintains closer ties to Spain, however, and Catalán is its official language. In the late 20th century, Andorra became a popular tourist and winter sports destination and a wealthy international commercial center because of its banking facilities, low taxes, and lack of customs duties. In 1990 Andorra approved a customs union treaty with the EU permitting free movement of industrial goods between the two, but with Andorra applying the EU's external tariffs to third countries. Andorra became a member of the UN in 1993 and a member of the Council of Europe in 1994. In 2002, Andorra shut down an incinerator that was emitting 1,000 times the dioxin levels permitted by the EU.

Source

Algeria

2007-06-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Map of Algeria

People's Democratic Republic of Algeria

National name: Al Jumhuriyah al Jaza'iriyah ad Dimuqratiyah ash Sha'biyah

President: Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika (1999)

Prime Minister: Ahmed Ouyahia (2003)

Current government officials

Total area: 919,590 sq mi (2,381,741 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 33,333,216 (growth rate: 1.2%); birth rate: 17.1/1000; infant mortality rate: 28.8/1000; life expectancy: 73.5; density per sq mi: 36

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Algiers, 3,917,000 (metro. area), 1,742,800 (city proper)

Other large cities: Oran, 752,200; Constantine, 530,100; Batna, 278,100; Annaba, 246,700

Monetary unit: Dinar

Languages: Arabic (official), French, Berber dialects

Ethnicity/race: Arab-Berber 99%, European less than 1%

Religion: Islam (Sunni) 99% (state religion), Christian and Jewish 1%

Literacy rate: 70%

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $233.9 billion; per capita $7,200. Real growth rate: 6%. Inflation: 4.7%. Unemployment: 22.5%. Arable land: 3.17%. Agriculture: wheat, barley, oats, grapes, olives, citrus, fruits; sheep, cattle. Labor force: 10.15 million; agriculture 14%, industry 13.4%, construction and public works 10%, trade 14.6%, government 32%, other 16% (2003 est.). Industries: petroleum, natural gas, light industries, mining, electrical, petrochemical, food processing. Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, uranium, lead, zinc. Exports: $49.59 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): petroleum, natural gas, and petroleum products 97%. Imports: $22.53 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): capital goods, foodstuffs, consumer goods. Major trading partners: U.S., Italy, France, Spain, Canada, Brazil, Belgium, Germany, China, Turkey (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 2.288 million (2004); mobile cellular: 4,682,700 (2004). Radio broadcast stations: AM 25, FM 1, shortwave 8 (1999). Television broadcast stations: 46 (plus 216 repeaters) (1995). Internet hosts: 1,175 (2005). Internet users: 845,000 (2005).

Transportation: Railways: total: 3,973 km (2004). Highways: total: 104,000 km; paved: 71,656 km; unpaved: 32,344 km (1999). Ports and harbors: Algiers, Annaba, Arzew, Bejaia, Djendjene, Jijel, Mostaganem, Oran, Skikda. Airports: 137 (2005).

International disputes: Algeria supports the exiled Sahrawi Polisario Front and rejects Moroccan administration of Western Sahara; Algeria's border with Morocco remains an irritant to bilateral relations; each nation has accused the other of harboring militants and arms smuggling; in an attempt to improve relations after unilaterally imposing a visa requirement on Algerians in the early 1990s, Morocco lifted the requirement in mid-2004 - a gesture not reciprocated by Algeria; Algeria remains concerned about armed bandits operating throughout the Sahel who sometimes destabilize southern Algerian towns; dormant disputes include Libyan claims of about 32,000 sq km still reflected on its maps of southeastern Algeria and the FLN's assertions of a claim to Chirac Pastures in southeastern Morocco.

Geography

Nearly four times the size of Texas, Algeria is bordered on the west by Morocco and Western Sahara and on the east by Tunisia and Libya. The Mediterranean Sea is to the north, and to the south are Mauritania, Mali, and Niger. The Saharan region, which is 85% of the country, is almost completely uninhabited. The highest point is Mount Tahat in the Sahara, which rises 9,850 ft (3,000 m).

Government

Parliamentary republic.

History

Excavations in Algeria have indicated that Homo erectus resided there between 500,000 and 700,000 years ago. Phoenician traders settled on the Mediterranean coast in the 1st millennium B.C. As ancient Numidia, Algeria became a Roman colony, part of what was called Mauretania Caesariensis, at the close of the Punic Wars (145 B.C.). Conquered by the Vandals about A.D. 440, it fell from a high state of civilization to virtual barbarism, from which it partly recovered after an invasion by Arabs about 650. Christian during its Roman period, the indigenous Berbers were then converted to Islam. Falling under the control of the Ottoman Empire by 1536, Algiers served for three centuries as the headquarters of the Barbary pirates. Ostensibly to rid the region of the pirates, the French occupied Algeria in 1830 and made it a part of France in 1848.

Algerian independence movements led to the uprisings of 1954–1955, which developed into full-scale war. In 1962, French president Charles de Gaulle began the peace negotiations, and on July 5, 1962, Algeria was proclaimed independent. In Oct. 1963, Ahmed Ben Bella was elected president, and the country became Socialist. He began to nationalize foreign holdings and aroused opposition. He was overthrown in a military coup on June 19, 1965, by Col. Houari Boumédienne, who suspended the constitution and sought to restore economic stability. After his death, Boumédienne was succeeded by Col. Chadli Bendjedid in 1978. Berbers rioted in 1980 when Arabic was made the country's only official language. Algeria entered a major recession after world oil prices plummeted in the 1980s.

The fundamentalist Islamic Salvation Front (Front Islamique du Salut; FIS) won the largest number of votes in the country's first-ever parliamentary elections in Dec. 1991. To thwart the electoral results, the army canceled the general election, which plunged the country into a bloody civil war. An estimated 100,000 people have been massacred by Islamic terrorists since war began in Jan. 1992. The undeclared civil war escalated in its brutality and senselessness in 1997–1998. Islamic extremists, who had originally focused their attacks on government officials and then shifted to intellectuals and journalists, abandoned political motivations entirely and targeted defenseless villagers. The mass slaughters were as savage as they were random, and the government was markedly ineffectual in stemming the violence.

Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika's ascension to the presidency in April 1999 was initially expected to bring peace and some economic improvement to this desperate war-torn country. Bouteflika, however, remains locked in power struggles with the military, whose support is crucial. Despite the appearance of democracy, Algeria remains in essence a military dictatorship. In 2001 violence by Islamic militants was again on the rise, and the long-disaffected Berber minority engaged in several large-scale protests.

Algeria's most destructive earthquake in two decades struck near the capital on May 21, 2003, killing over 2,000 people and injuring many more thousands.

In April 2004 presidential elections, praised by international monitors for their fairness, incumbent Bouteflika won 85% of the vote. Bouteflika stated that his second term would be devoted to solving the three-year-old crisis in the Berber region of Kabylia, freeing women from restrictive family codes, and bringing about “true national reconciliation” caused by the civil war. The country's dire economic situation has improved slightly, but Algeria still faces a high unemployment rate.

In Oct. 2005, Algerians approved a controversial referendum sponsored by Bouteflika, the Charter on Peace and National Reconciliation, which grants amnesty to all Islamists and military officials involved in the country's bloody civil war. There is considerable doubt whether reconciliation is possible without holding anyone accountable, and the president's plan has been referred to as one of amnesia rather than amnesty.

In April 2007, about 35 people were killed and hundreds wounded when suicide bombers attack a government building in Algiers and a police station on the outskirts of the capital. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the attack.

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Albania

2007-06-30T20:58:00.000-07:00

Map of Albania

Republic of Albania

National name: Republika e Shqiperise

President: Alfred Moisiu (2002)

Prime Minister: Sali Berisha (2005)

Current government officials

Land area: 10,579 sq mi (27,400 sq km); total area: 11,100 sq mi (28,748 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 3,600,523 (growth rate: 0.5%); birth rate: 15.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 20.0/1000; life expectancy: 77.6; density per sq mi: 340

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Tirana, 353,400

Other large cities: Durres, 113,900; Elbasan, 97,000

Monetary unit: Lek

Languages: Albanian (Tosk is the official dialect), Greek

Ethnicity/race: Albanian 95%, Greeks 3%, other 2%: Vlachs, Gypsies, Serbs, and Bulgarians (1989 est.)

Religions: Islam 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10% (est.)

Literacy rate: 87% (2003 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $18.07 billion; per capita $4,900. Real growth rate: 5.5%. Inflation: 2.4%. Unemployment: 14.3% official rate, but may exceed 30%. Arable land: 20.1%. Agriculture: wheat, corn, potatoes, vegetables, fruits, sugar beets, grapes; meat, dairy products. Labor force: 1.09 million (not including 352,000 emigrant workers); agriculture 58%, nonagricultural private sector 19%, public sector 23% (2004 est.). Industries: food processing, textiles and clothing; lumber, oil, cement, chemicals, mining, basic metals, hydropower. Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, coal, bauxite, chromite, copper, iron ore, nickel, salt, timber, hydropower. Exports: $650.1 million f.o.b. (2005 est.): textiles and footwear; asphalt, metals and metallic ores, crude oil; vegetables, fruits, tobacco. Imports: $2.473 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, textiles, chemicals. Major trading partners: Italy, Canada, Germany, Greece, Turkey (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 255,000 (2003); mobile cellular: 1.1 million (2003). Radio broadcast stations: AM 13, FM 46 (3 national, 62 local), shortwave 1 (2005). Television broadcast stations: 65 (3 national, 62 local); note - 2 cable networks (2005). Internet hosts: 749 (2005). Internet users: 75,000 (2005).

Transportation: Railways: total: 447 km (2004). Highways: total: 18,000 km; paved: 5,400 km; unpaved: 12,600 km (2002). Waterways: 43 km (2006). Ports and harbors: Durres, Sarande, Shengjin, Vlore. Airports: 11 (2005).

International disputes: the Albanian Government calls for the protection of the rights of ethnic Albanians in neighboring countries, and the peaceful resolution of interethnic disputes; some ethnic Albanian groups in neighboring countries advocate for a "greater Albania," but the idea has little appeal among Albanian nationals; thousands of unemployed Albanians emigrate annually to nearby Italy and other developed countries.

Geography

Albania is situated on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, with Montenegro and Serbia to the north, Macedonia to the east, and Greece to the south. Slightly larger than Maryland, Albania is composed of two major regions: a mountainous highland region (north, east, and south) constituting 70% of the land area, and a western coastal lowland region that contains nearly all of the country's agricultural land and is the most densely populated part of Albania.

Government

Emerging democracy.

History

A part of Illyria in ancient times and later of the Roman Empire, Albania was ruled by the Byzantine Empire from 535 to 1204. An alliance (1444–1466) of Albanian chiefs failed to halt the advance of the Ottoman Turks, and the country remained under at least nominal Turkish rule for more than four centuries, until it proclaimed its independence on Nov. 28, 1912.

Largely agricultural, Albania is one of the poorest countries in Europe. A battlefield in World War I, after the war it became a republic in which a conservative Muslim landlord, Ahmed Zogu, proclaimed himself president in 1925 and king (Zog I) in 1928. He ruled until Italy annexed Albania in 1939. Communist guerrillas under Enver Hoxha seized power in 1944, near the end of World War II. Hoxha was a devotee of Stalin, emulating the Soviet leader's repressive tactics, imprisoning or executing landowners and others who did not conform to the socialist ideal. Hoxha eventually broke with Soviet communism in 1961 because of differences with Khrushchev and then aligned himself with Chinese communism, which he also abandoned in 1978 after the death of Mao. From then on Albania went its own way to forge its individual version of the socialist state and became one of the most isolated—and economically underdeveloped—countries in the world. Hoxha was succeeded by Ramiz Alia in 1982.

Elections in March 1991 gave the Communists a decisive majority. But a general strike and street demonstrations soon forced the all-Communist cabinet to resign. In June 1991 the Communist Party of Labor renamed itself the Socialist Party and renounced its past ideology. The opposition Democratic Party won a landslide victory in the 1992 elections, and Sali Berisha, a former cardiologist, became Albania's first elected president. The following year, ex-Communists, including Ramiz Alia and former prime minister Fatos Nano, were imprisoned on corruption charges.

But Albania's experiment with democratic reform and a free-market economy went disastrously awry in March 1997, when large numbers of its citizens invested in shady get-rich-quick pyramid schemes. When five of these schemes collapsed in the beginning of the year, robbing Albanians of an estimated $1.2 billion in savings, Albanians' rage turned against the government, which appeared to have sanctioned the nationwide swindle. Rioting broke out, the country's fragile infrastructure collapsed, and gangsters and rebels overran the country, plunging it into virtual anarchy. A multinational protection force eventually restored order and set up the elections that formally ousted President Sali Berisha.

In spring 1999, Albania was heavily involved in the affairs of its fellow ethnic Albanians to the north, in Kosovo. Albania served as an outpost for NATO troops and took in approximately 440,000 Kosovar refugees, about half the total number of ethnic Albanians who were driven from their homes in Kosovo.

Ilir Meta, elected prime minister in 1999, rapidly moved forward in his first years to modernize the economy, privatize business, fight crime, and reform the judiciary and tax systems. He resigned in Jan. 2002, frustrated by political infighting. In June 2002, former general Alfred Moisiu was elected president, endorsed by both the Socialists (headed by Fatos Nano) and the Democrats (led by Sali Berisha) in an effort to end the unproductive political fractiousness that has stalemated the government. The political duel between Nano and Berisha continued, however, and little improvement was evident in the standard of living for Albanians. In 2005 elections, Berisha replaced Nano as prime minister.

Source

Afghanistan

2007-06-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

Map of Afghanistan

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

National name: Jomhuri-ye Eslami-ye Afghanestan

President: Hamid Karzai (2002)

Current government officials

Total area: 250,000 sq mi (647,500 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 31,889,923 (growth rate: 2.6%); birth rate: 46.2/1000; infant mortality rate: 157.4/1000; life expectancy: 43.8; density per sq mi: 128

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Kabul, 2,206,300

Other large cities: Kandahar, 349,300; Mazar-i-Sharif, 246,900; Charikar, 202,600; Herat, 171,500

Monetary unit: Afghani

Languages: Dari Persian, Pashtu (both official), other Turkic and minor languages

Ethnicity/race: Pashtun 42%, Tajik 27%, Hazara 9%, Uzbek 9%, Aimaks 4%, Turkmen 3%, Baloch 2%, others 4%

Religion: Islam (Sunni 80%, Shiite 19%), other 1%

Literacy rate: 36% (1999 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2004 est.): $21.5 billion; per capita 800. Real growth rate: 8%. Inflation: 16.3% (2005 est.). Unemployment: 40% (2005 est.). Arable land: 12.13%. Agriculture: opium, wheat, fruits, nuts; wool, mutton, sheepskins, lambskins. Labor force: 15 million; agriculture 80%, industry 10%, services 10%. Natural resources: natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, chromite, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, salt, precious and semiprecious stones. Industries: small-scale production of textiles, soap, furniture, shoes, fertilizer, cement; handwoven carpets; natural gas, coal, copper. Exports: $471 million; note—not including illicit exports or reexports (2005 est.): opium, fruits and nuts, handwoven carpets, wool, cotton, hides and pelts, precious and semiprecious gems. Imports: $3.87 billion (2005 est.): capital goods, food, textiles, petroleum products. Major trading partners: Pakistan, India, U.S., Germany, Turkmenistan, Kenya, South Korea, Russia (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 50,000 (2004); mobile cellular: 600,000 (2004). Radio broadcast stations: AM 21, FM 23, shortwave 1 (broadcasts in Pashtu, Afghan Persian (Dari), Urdu, and English) (2003). Television broadcast stations: at least 10 (one government run central television station in Kabul and regional stations in nine of the 30 provinces; the regional stations operate on a reduced schedule; also, in 1997, there was a station in Mazar-e Sharif reaching four northern Afghanistan provinces) (1998). Internet users: 25,000 (2005).

Transportation: Highways: total: 34,789 km; paved: 8,231 km; unpaved: 26,558 km (26,558). Waterways: 1,200 km; chiefly Amu Darya, which handles vessels up to about 500 DWT (2005). Ports and harbors: Kheyrabad, Shir Khan. Airports: 46 (2005).

International disputes: Most Afghan refugees in Pakistan have been repatriated, but thousands still remain in Iran, many at their own choosing; Coalition and Pakistani forces continue to patrol remote tribal areas to control the borders and stem organized terrorist and other illegal cross-border activities; regular meetings between Pakistani and Coalition allies aim to resolve periodic claims of boundary encroachments; regional conflicts over water-sharing arrangements with Amu Darya and Helmand River states.

Geography

Afghanistan, approximately the size of Texas, is bordered on the north by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, on the extreme northeast by China, on the east and south by Pakistan, and by Iran on the west. The country is split east to west by the Hindu Kush mountain range, rising in the east to heights of 24,000 ft (7,315 m). With the exception of the southwest, most of the country is covered by high snow-capped mountains and is traversed by deep valleys.

Government

In June 2002 a multiparty republic replaced an interim government that had been established in Dec. 2001, following the fall of the Islamic Taliban government.

History

Darius I and Alexander the Great were the first to use Afghanistan as the gateway to India. Islamic conquerors arrived in the 7th century, and Genghis Khan and Tamerlane followed in the 13th and 14th centuries.

In the 19th century, Afghanistan became a battleground in the rivalry between imperial Britain and czarist Russia for control of Central Asia. Three Anglo-Afghan wars (1839–1842, 1878–1880, and 1919) ended inconclusively. In 1893 Britain established an unofficial border, the Durand Line, separating Afghanistan from British India, and London granted full independence in 1919. Emir Amanullah founded an Afghan monarchy in 1926.

During the cold war, King Mohammed Zahir Shah developed close ties with the Soviet Union, accepting extensive economic assistance from Moscow. He was deposed in 1973 by his cousin Mohammed Daoud, who proclaimed a republic. Daoud was killed in a 1978 coup, and Noor Taraki took power, setting up a Marxist regime. He, in turn, was executed in Sept. 1979, and Hafizullah Amin became president. Amin was killed in Dec. 1979, as the Soviets launched a full-scale invasion of Afghanistan and installed Babrak Karmal as president.

The Soviets, and the Soviet-backed Afghan government, were met with fierce popular resistance. Guerrilla forces, calling themselves mujahideen, pledged a jihad, or holy war, to expel the invaders. Initially armed with outdated weapons, the mujahideen became a focus of U.S. cold war strategy against the Soviet Union, and with Pakistan's help, Washington began funneling sophisticated arms to the resistance. Moscow's troops were soon bogged down in a no-win conflict with determined Afghan fighters. In 1986 Karmal resigned, and was replaced by Mohammad Najibullah. In April 1988 the USSR, U.S., Afghanistan, and Pakistan signed accords calling for an end to outside aid to the warring factions. In return, a Soviet withdrawal took place in Feb. 1989, but the pro-Soviet government of President Najibullah was left in the capital, Kabul.

By mid-April 1992 Najibullah was ousted as Islamic rebels advanced on the capital. Almost immediately, the various rebel groups began fighting one another for control. Amid the chaos of competing factions, a group calling itself the Taliban—consisting of Islamic students—seized control of Kabul in Sept. 1996. It imposed harsh fundamentalist laws, including stoning for adultery and severing hands for theft. Women were prohibited from work and school, and they were required to cover themselves from head to foot in public. By fall 1998 the Taliban controlled about 90% of the country and, with its scorched-earth tactics and human rights abuses, had turned itself into an international pariah. Only three countries—Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAR—recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate government.

On Aug. 20, 1998, U.S. cruise missiles struck a terrorist training complex in Afghanistan believed to have been financed by Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Islamic radical sheltered by the Taliban. The U.S. asked for the deportation of Bin Laden, whom it believed was involved in the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998. The UN also demanded the Taliban hand over Bin Laden for trial.

In Sept. 2001, legendary guerrilla leader Ahmed Shah Masoud was killed by suicide bombers, a seeming death knell for the anti-Taliban forces, a loosely connected group referred to as the Northern Alliance. Days later, terrorists attacked New York's World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon, and Bin Laden emerged as the primary suspect in the tragedy.

On Oct. 7, after the Taliban repeatedly and defiantly refused to turn over Bin Laden, the U.S. and its allies began daily air strikes against Afghan military installations and terrorist training camps. Five weeks later, with the help of U.S. air support, the Northern Alliance managed with breathtaking speed to take the key cities of Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul, the capital. On Dec. 7, the Taliban regime collapsed entirely when its troops fled their last stronghold, Kandahar. However, al-Qaeda members and other mujahideen from various parts of the Islamic world who had earlier fought alongside the Taliban persisted in pockets of fierce resistance, forcing U.S. and allied troops to maintain a presence in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar remained at large.

In Dec. 2001, Hamid Karzai, a Pashtun (the dominant ethnic group in the country) and the leader of the powerful 500,000-strong Populzai clan, was named head of Afghanistan's interim government; in June 2002, he formally became president. The U.S. maintained about 12,000 troops to combat the remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and about 31 nations also contributed NATO-led peacekeeping forces. In 2003, after the United States shifted its military efforts to fighting the war in Iraq, attacks on American-led forces intensified as the Taliban and al-Qaeda began to regroup.

President Hamid Karzai's hold on power remained tenuous, as entrenched warlords continued to exert regional control. Remarkably, however, Afghanistan's first democratic presidential elections in Oct. 2004 were a success. Ten million Afghans, more than a third of the country, registered to vote, including more than 40% of eligible women. Karzai was declared the winner in November, taking 55% of the vote, and was inaugurated in December.

In May 2005, 17 people were killed during anti-American protests prompted by a report in Newsweek that American guards at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had desecrated the Koran. In September 2005, Afghanistan held its first democratic parliamentary elections in more than 25 years.

The Taliban continued to attack U.S. troops throughout 2005 and 2006—the latter becoming the deadliest year for U.S. troops since the war ended in 2001. In 2004 and 2005, American troop levels in Afghanistan had gradually increased to nearly 18,000 from a low of 10,000. Throughout the spring of 2006, Taliban militants—by then a force of several thousand—infiltrated southern Afghanistan, terrorizing local villagers and attacking Afghan and U.S. troops. In May and June, Operation Mount Thrust was launched, deploying more than 10,000 Afghan and coalition forces in the south. About 700 people, most of whom were Taliban, were killed. In Aug. 2006, NATO troops took over military operations in southern Afghanistan from the U.S.-led coalition. NATO's Afghanistan mission is considered the most dangerous undertaken in its 57-year history.

Attacks by the Taliban intensified and increased in late 2006 and into 2007, with militants crossing into eastern Afghanistan from Pakistan's tribal areas. The Pakistani government denied that its intelligence agency has supported the Islamic militants, despite contradictory reports from Western diplomats and the media.

Mullah Dadullah, a top Taliban operational commander who has organized assassinations and abductions, was killed in a raid in Helmand Province in May 2007 carried out by Afghan security forces, NATO troops, and American soldiers.

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Indonesia

2007-06-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

Map of Indonesia

Republic of Indonesia

National name: Republik Indonesia

President: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (2004)

Current government officials

Land area: 705,188 sq mi (1,826,440 sq km); total area: 741,100 sq mi (1,919,440 sq km)

Population (2006 est.): 245,452,739 (growth rate: 1.4%); birth rate: 20.3/1000; infant mortality rate: 34.4/1000; life expectancy: 69.9; density per sq mi: 351

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Jakarta, 13,194,000 (metro. area), 8,389,443 (city proper)

Other large cities: Surabaya, 3,038,800; Bandung, 2,733,500; Medan, 2,204,300; Semarang, 1,267,100

Monetary unit: Rupiah

Languages: Bahasa Indonesia (official), English, Dutch, Javanese, and more than 580 other languages and dialects

Ethnicity/race: Javanese 45%, Sundanese 14%, Madurese 7.5%, coastal Malays 7.5%, other 26%

Religions: Islam 88%, Protestant 5%, Roman Catholic 3%, Hindu 2%, Buddhist 1% (1998)

Literacy rate: 89% (2003 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $901.7 billion; per capita $3,700. Real growth rate: 5.4%. Inflation: 10.4%. Unemployment: 10.9%. Arable land: 11%. Agriculture: rice, cassava (tapioca), peanuts, rubber, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, copra; poultry, beef, pork, eggs. Labor force: 94.2 million (2005 est.); agriculture 46.5%, industry 11.8%, services 41.7% (1999 est.). Industries: petroleum and natural gas, textiles, apparel, footwear, mining, cement, chemical fertilizers, plywood, rubber, food, tourism. Natural resources: petroleum, tin, natural gas, nickel, timber, bauxite, copper, fertile soils, coal, gold, silver. Exports: $83.64 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): oil and gas, electrical appliances, plywood, textiles, rubber. Imports: $62.02 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels, foodstuffs. Major trading partners: Japan, U.S., Singapore, South Korea, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Saudi Arabia (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 7.75 million (2002); mobile cellular: 11.7 million (2002). Radio broadcast stations: AM 678, FM 43, shortwave 82 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 41 (1999). Internet hosts: 62,036 (2003). Internet users: 8 million (2002).

Transportation: Railways: total: 6,458 km (2004). Highways: total: 342,700 km; paved: 158,670 km; unpaved: 184,030 km (1999 est.). Waterways: 21,579 km; note: Sumatra 5,471 km, Java and Madura 820 km, Kalimantan 10,460 km, Sulawesi (Celebes) 241 km, Irian Jaya 4,587 km (2004). Ports and harbors: Banjarmasin, Belawan, Ciwandan, Krueg Geukueh, Palembang, Panjang, Sungai Pakning, Tanjung Perak, Tanjung Priok. Airports: 667 (2004 est.).

International disputes: East Timor-Indonesia Boundary Committee continues to meet, survey and delimit land boundary, but several sections of the boundary remain unresolved; Indonesia and East Timor contest the sovereignty of the uninhabited coral island of Palau Batek/Fatu Sinai, which hinders a decision on a northern maritime boundary; a 1997 treaty between Indonesia and Australia settled some parts of their maritime boundary but outstanding issues remain; ICJ's award of Sipadan and Ligitan islands to Malaysia in 2002 left maritime boundary in the hydrocarbon-rich Celebes Sea in dispute, culminating in hostile confrontations in March 2005 over concessions to the Ambalat oil block; the ICJ decision has prompted Indonesia to assert claims to and to establish a presence on its smaller outer islands; Indonesia and Singapore pledged in 2005 to finalize their 1973 maritime boundary agreement by defining unresolved areas north of Batam Island; Indonesian secessionists, squatters, and illegal migrants create repatriation problems for Papua New Guinea; piracy remains a problem in the Malacca Strait.

Geography

Indonesia is an archipelago in Southeast Asia consisting of 17,000 islands (6,000 inhabited) and straddling the equator. The largest islands are Sumatra, Java (the most populous), Bali, Kalimantan (Indonesia's part of Borneo), Sulawesi (Celebes), the Nusa Tenggara islands, the Moluccas Islands, and Irian Jaya (also called West Papua), the western part of New Guinea. Its neighbor to the north is Malaysia and to the east is Papua New Guinea.

Indonesia, part of the “ring of fire,” has the largest number of active volcanoes in the world. Earthquakes are frequent. Wallace's line, a zoological demarcation between Asian and Australian flora and fauna, divides Indonesia.

Government

Republic.

History

The 17,000 islands that make up Indonesia were home to a diversity of cultures and indigenous beliefs when the islands came under the influence of Hindu priests and traders in the first and second centuries A.D. Muslim invasions began in the 13th century, and most of the archipelago had converted to Islam by the 15th century. Portuguese traders arrived early in the next century but were ousted by the Dutch around 1595. The Dutch United East India Company established posts on the island of Java, in an effort to control the spice trade.

After Napoléon subjugated the Netherlands in 1811, the British seized the islands but returned them to the Dutch in 1816. In 1922, Indonesia was made an integral part of the Dutch kingdom. During World War II, Japan seized the islands. Tokyo was primarily interested in Indonesia's oil, which was vital to the war effort, and tolerated fledgling nationalists such as Sukarno and Mohammed Hatta. After Japan's surrender, Sukarno and Hatta proclaimed Indonesian independence on Aug. 17, 1945. Allied troops, mostly British Indian forces, fought nationalist militias to reassert the prewar status quo until the arrival of Dutch troops.

In Nov. 1946, a draft agreement on forming a Netherlands-Indonesian Union was reached, but differences in interpretation resulted in more fighting between Dutch and nationalist forces. Following a bitter war for independence, leaders on both sides agreed to terms of a union on Nov. 2, 1949. The transfer of sovereignty took place in Amsterdam on Dec. 27, 1949. In Feb. 1956, Indonesia abrogated the union and began seizing Dutch property in the islands.

In 1963, Netherlands New Guinea (the Dutch portion of the island of New Guinea) was transferred to Indonesia and renamed West Irian, which became Irian Jaya in 1973 and West Papua in 2000. Hatta and Sukarno, the cofathers of Indonesian independence, split over Sukarno's concept of “guided democracy,” and under Sukarno's rule the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) steadily increased its influence.

Sukarno was named president for life in 1966. He enjoyed mass support for his policies, but a growing power struggle between the military and the PKI loomed over his government. After an attempted military coup was put down by army chief of staff, General Suharto, and officers loyal to him, Suharto's forces killed hundreds of thousands of suspected Communists in a massive purge aimed at undermining Sukarno's rule.

Suharto took over the reins of government and gradually eased Sukarno out of office, completing his consolidation of power in 1967. Under Suharto the military assumed an overarching role in national affairs, and relations with the West were enhanced. Indonesia's economy improved dramatically and national elections were permitted, although the opposition was so tightly controlled as to virtually choke off dissent.

In 1975, Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese half of the island of Timor; it seized the territory in 1976. A separatist movement developed at once. Unlike the rest of Indonesia, which had been a Dutch colony, East Timor was governed by the Portuguese for 400 years, and while 90% of Indonesians are Muslim, the East Timorese are primarily Catholic. More than 200,000 Timorese are reported to have died from famine, disease, and fighting since the annexation. In 1996, two East Timorese resistance activists, Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta, received the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the summer of 1997, Indonesia suffered a major economic setback, along with most other Asian economies. Banks failed and the value of Indonesia's currency, the rupiah, plummeted. Antigovernment demonstrations and riots broke out, directed mainly at the country's prosperous ethnic Chinese. As the economic crisis deepened, student demonstrators occupied the national parliament, demanding Suharto's ouster. On May 21, 1998, Suharto stepped down, ending 32 years of rule, and handed over power to Vice President B. J. Habibie.

June 7, 1999, marked Indonesia's first free parliamentary election since 1955. The ruling Golkar Party took a backseat to the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P), led by Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of Sukarno, Indonesia's first president.

The ethnic, religious, and political tensions kept in check during Suharto's 32 years of authoritarian rule erupted in the months following his downfall. Rioting and violence shook the provinces of Aceh, Ambon (in the Moluccas), Borneo, and Irian Jaya. But nowhere was the violence more brutal and unjust than in East Timor. Habibie unexpectedly ended 25 years of Indonesian intransigence by announcing in Feb. 1999 that he was willing to hold a referendum on East Timorese independence. Twice rescheduled because of violence, a UN-organized referendum took place on Aug. 30, 1999, with 78.5% of the population voting to secede from Indonesia. In the days following the election, pro-Indonesian militias and Indonesian soldiers massacred civilians and forced a third of the population out of the region. After enormous international pressure, the government, which was either unwilling or unable to stop the violent rampage, finally agreed to allow UN forces into East Timor on Sept. 12, 1999. East Timor achieved independence on May 20, 2002.

On Oct. 20, 1999, in a surprising upset, the Indonesian parliament elected Abdurrahman Wahid as the new president of Indonesia, defeating Megawati Sukarnoputri, the popular leader of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle. Wahid was a Sufi cleric as well as an adept politician with a reputation for honesty and moderation.

Rioting, bombing, and growing unrest continued to plague Indonesia in 2000. On June 4, 2000, separatists declared Irian Jaya (also called West Papua) an independent state. Wahid flatly opposed independence for the province, which contains sizable copper and gold mines. Unlike East Timor, there is little international support for an independent Irian Jaya.

In fall 2000, Suharto failed twice to show up in court to face corruption charges of embezzling $570 million in state funds, but his lawyers insisted he was too ill to stand trial.

In Sept. 2000, Suharto's playboy son, Hutomo “Tommy” Mandala Putra, was arrested for his role in a fraudulent multimillion-dollar land deal. He fled and was finally arrested and jailed in November 2001 after a manhunt. In July 2002, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted of coordinating the murder of the judge who had sentenced him in the corruption trial.

In the fall of 2000 and winter of 2001, President Wahid came under increasing criticism for corruption and incompetence. He was blamed for not stopping ethnic clashes and killings in Aceh, Irian Jaya, the Moluccas Islands, and especially in Borneo, where the Dayak people turned against Madurese immigrants, slaughtering hundreds. Wahid was forced from power in July 2001, and Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri assumed the helm.

A terrorist bombing on Oct. 12, 2002, at a nightclub in Bali killed more than 200 people, mostly tourists. In 2003, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Imam Samudra, members of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamic terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, were sentenced to death for their roles in the bombing. But the radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, believed to be the head of Jemaah Islamiyah, was only given a light three-year sentence on lesser charges, causing some in the international community to question Indonesia's commitment to fighting terrorism. Authorities arrested Bashir in April 2004—on the same day he was set to be released from prison—claiming they had new evidence that proved he is in fact the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah and that he approved the Bali bombing. In March 2005, he was found not guilty of terrorism charges in the bombings of Jakarta's Marriott Hotel in 2003 and the Bali nightclub. He was, however, convicted of a lesser charge—criminal conspiracy. That charge was overturned in Dec. 2006.

In May 2003, President Megawati declared military rule in Aceh and launched an offensive intended to destroy the Free Aceh Movement. The invasion marked the end of a cease-fire that was signed in Dec. 2002 between the Indonesian government and Aceh separatists. The government and the separatists signed a peace treaty in Aug. 2005, ending the 30-year war that had claimed the lives of 15,000 people. As part of the accord, the rebels will surrender their arms and the government will gradually withdraw its troops. In addition, the Acehnese agreed to give up their demand for independence in exchange for the right to establish political parties. The separatists disbanded their army in December, finalizing the end to their insurgency.

Violence erupted again in the Moluccas Islands in April 2004, when more than 40 people died in fighting between Christians and Muslims. The two groups signed a cease-fire in 2002.

Megawati's PDI-P Party fared poorly in April 2004 elections, placing second behind the Golkar Party of former president Suharto. In July, retired general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono placed first in the country's inaugural direct presidential elections, but he did not garner enough votes to win outright. However, he soundly defeated Megawati in the September runoff.

On Dec. 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, whose epicenter was off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, caused a tremendously powerful tsunami in the Indian Ocean that devastated 12 Asian countries. At least 225,000 people died in the disaster, and millions were left homeless. Indonesia was the heaviest hit, with more than 150,000 casualties. Many of the deaths occurred in the war-torn province of Aceh.

About two dozen people died in Sept. 2005 when suicide bombers attacked tourist sites in Bali. The attack was eerily similar to the one that took place two years earlier.

On May 26, 2006, more than 6,200 people were killed in a 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Java. About 130,000 were left homeless. Just two months later, on July 17, an earthquake and tsunami struck Java, killing more than 500 people. It was the fourth major earthquake to strike the country in 19 months.

Floods ravaged Jakarta in Feb. 2007, killing about 30 people and leaving approximately 340,000 homeless.

In June 2007, police arrested Abu Dujana, a senior military leader of the militant group Jemaah Islamiah who police suspect was involved in the 2003 bombing of the Marriott Hotel. Authorities hoped that his arrest would strike a blow to the group's operations.

The Strokes discography

2007-06-30T20:07:00.000-07:00

Studio Albums

Is This It

Is This It

Studio album by The Strokes
Released	27 August 2001 (UK) 9 October 2001 (US)
Recorded	2001
Genre	Garage rock, Post-punk revival
Length	36:28 (UK) 35:34 (US)
Label	RCA
Producer(s)	Gordon Raphael

Is This It is The Strokes' debut album, released in 2001 (see 2001 in music). The Strokes were the first band to break into the mainstream as part of the turn-of-the-millennium garage rock trend.

After signing with RCA Records, the band went on the opposite way of recording adopted by traditional rock bands. Instead of doing their full-length debut in a professional studio, the Strokes instead opted to record in a basement on Manhattan's Lower East Side, to which they put the name Transporter Raum Studio.

Hyped by the music press on both sides of the Atlantic, The Strokes' auspicious debut garnered them critical and popular attention, as well as a backlash from listeners turned off by the hype. Nonetheless, Is This It's more famous songs "The Modern Age", "Last Nite", "Hard To Explain" and "Someday" won the band much respect and helped the album reach #2 in the UK and #33 in the US.

The track "New York City Cops" was pulled from the North American edition of Is This It following the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack and was replaced by "When It Started". This was because the band and their management thought the song might be considered insensitive, particularly the main chorus line "New York City Cops, they ain't too smart", which is repeated throughout. The band still plays "New York City Cops" live and the song is available on the international edition of the album, along with its original cover art.

In 2002, Is This It was re-released with a DVD with music videos and outtakes from a performance on MTV2.

Is This It is one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the 2000s. It was ranked 89th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 367 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In June 2005, the album was ranked number 100 on Spin Magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005". In July 2006, the album was ranked 48 on The Observer's list of 'The 50 Albums That Changed Music.' In addition to being ranked among the greatest albums of all time, the album cover [non-US version] has been ranked as one of the greatest album covers of all time.

Track listing

All songs by Julian Casablancas.

"Is This It" – 2:34
"The Modern Age" – 3:32
"Soma" – 2:37
"Barely Legal" – 3:58
"Someday" – 3:07
"Alone, Together" – 3:12
"Last Nite" – 3:17
"Hard to Explain" – 3:47
"New York City Cops" – 3:36
- "When It Started" (replaces "New York City Cops" on the U.S. edition) – 2:57
"Trying Your Luck" – 3:27
"Take It or Leave It" – 3:16

Room on Fire

Room on Fire

Studio album by The Strokes
Released	28 October 2003
Recorded	2003
Genre	Garage Rock, Post-punk revival
Length	33:05
Label	RCA
Producer(s)	Gordon Raphael

Room on Fire is the second album by the band The Strokes. Released in October 2003, this album follows up 2001's Is This It and includes three singles" "12:51", "Reptilia" and "The End Has No End".

Grammy-winning producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Travis, Beck) was initially tapped to produce Room on Fire, but the Strokes felt that he made the songs seem "soulless", and so they went back to Is This It producer Gordon Raphael.

Although Room on Fire received warm reviews upon release and reached #2 in the UK and debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200, going gold, the album's eventual US sales were significantly less than Is This It's 1 million units, with 597,000 sales in the US as of October 2006.

The album's opening track, "What Ever Happened?", was featured on the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's 2006 film Marie Antoinette.

Track listing

All songs by Julian Casablancas, except where noted.

"What Ever Happened?" – 2:54
"Reptilia" – 3:41
"Automatic Stop" (Casablancas/Albert Hammond, Jr.) – 3:26
"12:51" – 2:33
"You Talk Way Too Much" – 3:04
"Between Love & Hate" – 3:15
"Meet Me in the Bathroom" – 2:57
"Under Control" – 3:06
"The Way It Is" – 2:22
"The End Has No End" – 3:07
"I Can't Win" – 2:34

The UK edition of the album reverses the order of "The Way It Is" and "The End Has No End"

First Impressions of Earth

First Impressions of Earth

Studio album by The Strokes
Released	January 3, 2006
Recorded	January - May 2005 in New York City
Genre	Garage Rock, Indie rock, Post-punk revival
Length	52:19
Label	RCA
Producer(s)	David Kahne Gordon Raphael

First Impressions of Earth is the third album by the American rock band The Strokes. It was released in January 2006 (see 2006 in music), having been preceded by lead hit single "Juicebox" some weeks earlier. It is also the first album by The Strokes to have a Parental Advisory Label.

The album was recorded over a ten month period. The Strokes initially set out to record it with Gordon Raphael, the producer of their first two albums. Later on, guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. introduced them to Grammy-winning producer David Kahne (Tony Bennett, Sublime, Paul McCartney), who stepped in to collaborate with Raphael. However, the collaboration was not working out and so Raphael stepped down. As a result, the majority of the album was produced by Kahne.

First Impressions of Earth is widely seen as an expansion beyond The Strokes' first two albums, Is This It and Room on Fire. However, the album received mixed reviews from critics, unlike their previous material which was generally acclaimed. "Heart in a Cage" was the album's second single, followed by "You Only Live Once". NME rated First Impressions of Earth at #8 in its Albums of the Year 2006 list.^[1]

First Impressions of Earth entered the UK album chart at #1, The Strokes' first one at the top spot, while it reached #4 in the US, with an entry sales week of 88,000 units, somewhat below expectations. As of October 2006, the album has sold 271,000 units in the US, falling short of gold certification.

Track listing

All songs written by Julian Casablancas, except where noted.

"You Only Live Once" – 3:09
"Juicebox" – 3:17
"Heart in a Cage" – 3:27
"Razorblade" – 3:29
"On the Other Side" – 4:38
"Vision of Division" – 4:20
"Ask Me Anything" (Julian Casablancas/Nick Valensi) – 3:12
"Electricityscape" – 3:33
"Killing Lies" (Julian Casablancas/Nikolai Fraiture) – 3:50
"Fear of Sleep" – 4:00
"15 Minutes" – 4:34
"Ize of the World" – 4:29
"Evening Sun" (Julian Casablancas/Fabrizio Moretti) – 3:06
"Red Light" – 3:11

Singles

Cover	Information
	"Juicebox" Released: October 2005 Chart positions: #5 (UK Singles Chart) #9 (US Modern Rock)
	"Heart In A Cage" Released: April 18, 2006 Chart positions: #14 (US Modern Rock) #25 (UK Singles Chart)
	"You Only Live Once" Released: July 24, 2006 Chart positions: #35 (US Modern Rock)

Source

Strokes

2007-06-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

The Strokes are a band from New York, led by singer Julian Casablancas and guitarist Albert Hammond, that became a sensation in Britain with the single Hard To Explain/ New York City Cops, the EP The Modern Age (Rough Trade, 2000), and the album Is This It (RCA, 2001). While a few songs (The Modern Age) try to rock out, the majority dwells comfortably in a pop genre that borrows riffs and rhythms from Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground and Television (Is This It, Last Nite, Someday, Hard To Explain). Nick Valensi's and Albert Hammond's predictable guitar workouts and a formidable rhythm section (bassist Nikolai Fraiture and drummer Fabrizio Moretti) provide the ideal balance of dejavu and fashionably.

Background information
The Strokes performing in March 2006
Origin	New York City, USA
Genre(s)	Garage rock revival Post-punk revival
Years active	1998– present
Label(s)	SonyBMG/RCA/Rough Trade
Website	Official website
Members
Julian Casablancas (Vocals) Nick Valensi (Guitar) Albert Hammond, Jr. (Guitar) Nikolai Fraiture (Bass Guitar) Fabrizio Moretti (Drums)

Despite the hype that surrounded its release, Room On Fire (Rough Trade, 2003) was only a timid, derivative collection of average-sounding songs. The effervescent Between Love and Hate and 12.51 picked up where their singles left off, and You Talk Way Too Much continued the Strokes' obsession for redeeming the Velvet Underground. Embarrassing ventures into genres such as reggae (Automatic Stop), funk (What Ever Happened), ska (Automatic Stop), soul (Under Control), attest to the bands' limited skills. The End Has No End, which "boldly" crosses Michael Jackson's Billie Jean and Guns N' Roses' Sweet Child O Mine, says it all. This is mostly generic rock'n'roll (Meet Me In The Bathroom, The Way It Is, I Can't Win). There is virtually no musical depth in this album. This is as challenging as Britney Spears.

There are few moments on First Impressions of Earth (RCA, 2006) that recall the past: Juicebox and You Only Live Once being the best ones. But Electricityscape, Heart In A Cage and the naked ballad Ask Me Anything add arena-rock or MOR touches that are reminiscent of U2 and other moronic-pop acts. The second half of the album is haphazard at best, relying too much on mediocre lyrics. The band, for whom originality was never an asset, has lost quite a bit of its verve. Less filler (this album is almost twice longer than their debut) might have justified the effort to smooth out and calm down the music, but so much filler makes one think that maybe writing/singing filler is precisely what the Strokes' second phase is going to be about. "Heart in a Cage" and "Razorblade"

The Brave One (2007) Movie Posters

2007-06-29T00:08:00.000-07:00

The Brave One (2007) : New York radio host Erica Bain (Jodie Foster) has a life that she loves and a fiancé she adores. All of it is taken from her when a brutal attack leaves Erica badly wounded and her fiancé dead. Unable to move past the tragedy, Erica begins prowling the city streets at night to track down the men she holds responsible. Her dark pursuit of justice catches the public’s attention...

Source

Lake Dead (2007)

2007-06-28T23:51:00.000-07:00

In theaters Friday, July 13th 2007,

Three beautiful sisters learn of a long lost grandfather, but only make this dicovery upon the news of his grisly death. Enticed to visit grandpa's old home after hearing of an inheritance, the sister's head to the back country with some friends.

We quickly follow the group of friends through the gates of a redneck infested hell. The psychotic family occupying the inherited property goes on a long awaited, and much enjoyed killing spree. Delightfully over the top, and never at a loss for just the right amount of murder, necrophilia, and incest, LAKE DEAD will make you cringe, but you won't be able to make yourself turn away.

As the family's twisted motives unravel, the sisters discorver a terror worse than death. It's a nauseating thrill ride, as the sisters desperately fight to free themselves from this living nightmare. With all of its secrets and its sickness, LAKE DEAD will draw you into a world that strains the very fiber of human morality. A depraved little train wreck, you won't be a able to look away. LAKE DEAD clearly emulates the style and influence of some of the greatest classic horror films ever made, while exhibiting a disturbing originality that could set the mold for a new style of modern day horror.

Director: George Bessudo
Cast: Alex A Quinn, Tara Gerard, Dan Woods, Vanessa Viola, Kelsey Wedeen, James C Burns, Jim Devoti, Edwin Craig, Kelsey Crane

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Meizu M8 more photo

2007-06-28T23:44:00.000-07:00

M8 measuring 57×105x11.5-mm and packs both a GSM and Chinese TD-SCDMA 3G radio, a 3.3-inch 720×480 pixel display, TV out, Line in/out,Bluetooth, a 3 megapixel camera, and an ARM11 CPU capable of recording video at 30fpswith a 720 x 480 resolution.

Source

Apple IPhone

2007-06-28T23:21:00.000-07:00

Aplle Iphone concept is a preaty phone is unique phone with 3.5 inches touch display that uses multy-touch technology for navigation,2 megapixel cam, 4GB or 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP.Apple IPhone is a slim phone with dimension 115 x 61 x 11.6mm and wight 135 g.

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Avatar: The Last Airbender

2007-06-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Avatar: The Last Airbender (also known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang in several countries) is an American animated television series that currently airs on the Nickelodeon television network. Set in an Asian-influenced world of martial arts and elemental magic, the series follows the adventures of the latest of a long line of Avatars, Aang, and his friends in their quest to save the world from the ruthless Fire Nation. The series is written in the form of a book series, with each episode serving as a "chapter" and each individual season as a "book."

Originally slated to begin airing November 2004, Avatar: The Last Airbender debuted on TV on February 21, 2005. The show is also available on DVD or for download at the iTunes Store and Xbox Live Marketplace.^[1] Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko are the creators and executive producers of the series. The show receives high ratings in the Nicktoons lineup, even outside its intended 6-to-11-year-old demographic. Avatar: The Last Airbender is popular with both audiences and critics,^[2] garnering 4.4 million viewers on its best-rated showing.^[3]

The series' success prompted Nickelodeon to order a second season.^[4] The third season start date has not yet been announced. Merchandise based on the series includes six DVD sets of episodes, six-inch (15.34 cm) scale action figures, a trading card game, a video game, stuffed animals distributed by Paramount Parks, and two Lego sets.^[5]

Creation

Avatar: The Last Airbender is co-created/produced by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko at Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, California. It is animated in South Korea. The first episode of Avatar was created six years following its original conception, a period much longer than the norm for animated shows.^[6] While it was originally set to premiere in November 2004, the first episode of Avatar aired in February 2005. Following the conclusion of the first season of Avatar, Nickelodeon promptly ordered a second twenty-episode season that premiered on March 17, 2006, and concluded on December 1.^[4] A third season will begin airing in 2007.^[7]

Premise

A map of the four nations

Avatar: The Last Airbender takes place in a fantasy world, home to humans, fantastic animals, and supernatural spirits. Human civilization is divided into four nations, the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads, and the Fire Nation. Within each nation, an order of men and women called "Benders" have the ability to manipulate their native element. These Bending arts combine a certain style of martial arts and elemental mysticism. The Bending types are Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, and Airbending.^[8]

In each generation, one person is capable of Bending all four elements; this is the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form. When the Avatar dies, he or she is reincarnated into an unborn baby native in the next of the four nations in the Avatar Cycle, which parallels the seasons: winter for water, spring for earth, summer for fire, and autumn for air.^[9] While legend holds that the Avatar must master the elements in order, starting with their native element, this can sometimes be compromised when the situation requires it. Learning to bend the element opposite one's native element is extremely difficult because opposing Bending arts are based on opposing fighting styles and doctrines.^[10]

The Avatar possesses a unique power that resides within him or her, called the Avatar State. It is a defense mechanism that empowers the Avatar with the skills and knowledge of all the past Avatars. When the state is reached, the current Avatar will be able to wield the combined power of all past lives. When the Avatar enters this state, his or her eyes and mouth, and tattoos in the case of an Airbender, begin to glow. The glow is the representation of all the Avatar's previous incarnations focusing their energy through his or her body. However, if the Avatar is killed in the Avatar State, then the reincarnation cycle will be broken, and the Avatar will cease to exist.^[11]

Through the ages, countless incarnations of the Avatar have served to keep the four nations in harmony and maintain world order.^[8] The Avatar also serves as the bridge between the physical world and the Spirit World, home of the world's disembodied spirits.^[12]

Plot synopsis

Main article: List of Avatar: The Last Airbender episodes

A century prior to the series' opening, Aang, a 12-year-old Airbender of the Air Nomads' Southern Air Temple, learned from the elder monks that he was the Avatar. Usually, the Avatar is told of his or her true identity after turning sixteen; however, the monks feared that a war between the four nations was on the horizon and that soon the Avatar would be required to maintain balance and order in the world. Shortly thereafter, the monks decreed that Aang would be separated from his guardian, Monk Gyatso, and sent to the Eastern Air Temple to complete his training.

Two siblings make a discovery

Confused, frightened, and overwhelmed by these recent events and his new responsibilities as the Avatar, Aang fled from his home on his flying bison, Appa. While traveling over frigid southern ocean waters, a sudden storm caused Appa to plunge deep into the sea. Aang unconsciously entered the Avatar State, and used a combination of Airbending and Waterbending to protect Appa and himself. By creating an air bubble around them and then freezing it, Aang was able to ensure that he and Appa could breathe and be protected from the storm until it dissipated. However, the storm transferred the bubble very near the south pole and it could not thaw, forcing the two of them into a state of suspended animation.^[9]

The series opens one hundred years later, with the Fire Nation on the brink of victory in its imperialist war. All of the Air Nomads have been destroyed. The Water Tribes are in crisis — the Southern Water Tribe's warriors have left to wage war, leaving their home defenseless, while the Northern Water Tribe, though largely intact, is continually on the defensive.^[13] The vast Earth Kingdom is now the only true barrier to the Fire Nation's conquest, but as the Fire Nation continues to encroach on its borders and conquer its territories, hopes of victory grow bleaker with each passing year.

Two teenage siblings from the Southern Water Tribe — Katara, an inexperienced Waterbender, and her brother, Sokka, a warrior and caretaker of the tribe — discover and free Aang and Appa from the iceberg. Aang soon discovers to his horror that, during his absence, a century-long war has been waged. The very year he vanished, Fire Lord Sozin took advantage of both the Avatar's absence and the Firebending-enhancing powers of a passing comet to launch a war on the other nations.^[14] To Aang's shock and disbelief, the Fire Nation's opening gambit had been a genocidal assault on the Air Nomads. The Air Temples were stormed and the Airbenders slaughtered in the Fire Nation's effort to break the Avatar Cycle, leaving Aang as the last known Airbender in existence.^[9]

As the Avatar, Aang's duty is to restore harmony and peace to the four nations. Along with his newly discovered friends Katara and Sokka, his flying bison Appa and his winged lemur Momo, and later the blind Earthbender Toph, Aang travels the world to master all four elements. During his quest, he must constantly evade capture by the banished Prince Zuko and, later, his sister, Princess Azula.

Although normally years of disciplined training are required to master a single Bending art, Aang must be a master of all four and defeat Fire Lord Ozai by summer's end, when the return of Sozin's Comet will give the Firebenders the power to win the war. If these events come to pass, not even the Avatar will possess the ability to restore balance to the world

Main characters

One of the Avatar series' strong points is character development and depth. All the main characters are portrayed as "marvelously flawed human beings," and the series shone in its initial season with the characterizations of its main antagonists.^[15]

Aang (Mitchel Musso in the unaired pilot, Zach Tyler Eisen onwards) is the fun-loving, 112-year-old protagonist of the series. He is the current incarnation of the Avatar, the spirit of the planet manifested in human form. As the Avatar, Aang must master all four elements to bring peace to the world and restore the balance between the Four Nations.^[16] Aang loves to travel the world and is always eager to learn new things. At times he is somewhat naïve of the world and others' true feelings, as he is often too preoccupied with the events immediately surrounding him to notice what occurs on a more in-depth level.

Katara (Mae Whitman) is the 14-year-old sole remaining Waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe. Katara, along with her brother, Sokka, discovers Aang at the beginning of the series. She and Sokka accompany him on his quest to defeat the Fire Lord and bring peace to the war-torn nations. Katara is mature, loving, and responsible. Always looking out for the well-being of others, she is an apt leader when the situation calls for one.^[17] However, she can be overbearing at times, and believes without exception that her way is the right way, never relenting on her views even when they are disproved.^[18] Despite Katara's kind nature, she has a temper which, when combined with her impressive Waterbending skills and idealistic views, can be quite destructive. After the passing of their mother at the hands of the Fire Nation, Katara took on a motherly role over her older brother, Sokka, a nature that she later took to in relation to Aang. She is also the only person who can calm Aang down when he's in the avatar state.

Sokka (Jack DeSena) is a 15-year-old warrior of the Southern Water Tribe who, with his sister Katara, accompanies Aang on his quest to defeat the Fire Lord. Sokka describes himself as "meat-loving" and "sarcastic."^[10] Unlike his companions, Sokka cannot Bend an element. However, the series frequently grants him opportunities to demonstrate his true gift: ingenuity. He takes great pride in his mental and physical strength, though it is often overshadowed by others' ability to Bend. He is extremely clever, relying on science where the mystical and martial arts elude him, though his silly and immature manner often causes others to underestimate his intellect.

Toph Bei Fong (Jessie Flower) is a 12-year-old, blind Earthbender who leaves her wealthy lifestyle and home to join Aang on his quest in order to teach him earthbending. Toph has largely lived alone all her life due to over protective parents, which makes her somewhat selfish, sarcastic, and, at times, bitter and arrogant. (She is the strong and silent type.) She also does not hesitate to speak her mind and be bluntly truthful. Though blind, Toph has been shown to be a very exceptional Earthbender. She "sees" with Earthbending, feeling vibrations in the ground that objects make when moving.^[19]

Zuko (Dante Basco) is the exiled 16-year-old prince of the Fire Nation. Zuko is obsessed with capturing the Avatar in his quest to restore his honor and redeem himself in the eyes of his father, Fire Lord Ozai. His character matures throughout the show, influenced by his time as an exile, and he becomes less of a spoiled prince and more of an emotional outcast, at times struggling with his feelings of pity and bonding with the same people his nation has terrorized. He often acts coldly, but has revealed himself to be a very caring character as well - a trait which most often is exhibited in the presence of his Uncle Iroh. Zuko's appearance is well-known due to the scar over his left eye, which he received during an Agni Kai with his own father. His regret, hate, and shame includes the loss of his mother.^[20]

Azula (Grey DeLisle) is the 14-year-old princess of the Fire Nation, Zuko's sister, and Fire Lord Ozai's favorite child. Azula has been cruel and self-centered her entire life. Her mind is set on war and power; she manipulates and even tortures others to advance her own desires, ignoring family and emotional bonds whenever necessary. As a Firebending prodigy with a sadistic personality, Azula is a dangerous bender. She is one of only two benders shown who can bend and produce lightning. She sees others as expendable, and intimidates her lackeys and all those under her command.^[11]

Iroh (Mako in seasons 1 and 2, Greg Baldwin onwards) is a retired Fire Nation general and Prince Zuko's uncle. Iroh is the older brother of Fire Lord Ozai and was the original heir to the throne of the Fire Nation.^[21] A powerful Firebender of great renown and respect, he looks upon Zuko as a son more than as a nephew, especially after the loss of his own son, Lu Ten. On the surface, Iroh is a cheerful and kind old man whose hobbies include drinking tea, playing Pai Sho, and singing. While studying the Water Tribes, Iroh found a method of re-routing electrical currents, either natural or artificial, and aside from Azula he is the only Firebender that is shown to be able to create lightning. Much older and more experienced than any of the other main characters, Iroh chooses to take a less active role in the affairs of the series, acting as more of a mentor and guide to Zuko and most everyone he meets, including Aang and company.

Cultural references

Avatar is notable for borrowing extensively from Asian art and mythology to create a fully realized fictional universe. Apart from its anime-inspired character designs, Avatar also draws on a mix of Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian, Korean, Indian, and Tibetan philosophy, religion, language, clothing, martial arts, and culture. In addition, the show's Water Tribe is heavily influenced by Inuit culture. Explicitly stated influences include Chinese art and history, Japanese anime, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism,^[23] and Yoga.^[24] The production staff employs a cultural consultant, Edwin Zane, to review scripts.

Avatar

The term "Avatar" comes from the Sanskrit word Avatāra, which means "descent." In Hindu mythology, gods often manifest themselves into Avatars to restore balance on earth after a period of great evil. The Chinese characters appearing above the word "Avatar" in the show's opening mean "the divine medium who has descended upon the mortal world."^[25]

When Aang was a child, he unknowingly revealed that he was the Avatar when he chose four toys out of thousands. These four toys were the same ones that past Avatars had chosen for generations when they were children, revealing that Aang was the reincarnation of the Avatar. There is a similar test a child must pass in order to be recognized as the reincarnation of a Tulku Lama in Tibetan Buddhism. According to the book Magic and Mystery in Tibet by Alexandra David-Neel, "a number of objects such as rosaries, ritualistic implements, books, tea-cups, etc., are placed together, and the child must pick out those which belonged to the late tulku, thus showing that he recognizes the things which were his in his previous life."^[26] Avatar's official site states "the successor is expected to show signs of continuity with the previous Avatar, such as being born within a week of the death."^[8]

Elements

Avatar draws on four classical elements for its bending arts: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. Although each has its own variation, almost all ancient philosophies incorporate these four elements in some way. They are commonly used as the basis of elemental magic in modern fiction. In the show’s opening, each element is accompanied by 2 Chinese characters—an ancient Chinese seal script character of the element on the left, along with a more modern Chinese character of the corresponding attribute on the right:

Water (水) is associated with "" (Chinese: 善; Pinyin: shàn), which means "benevolent" or "adaptive."
Earth (土) is associated with "" (Traditional Chinese: 強; Simplified Chinese: 强; Pinyin: qiáng), which means "strong."
Fire (火) is associated with "" (Chinese: 烈; Pinyin: liè), which means "intense" or "ferocious."
Air (气) is associated with "" (Chinese: 和; Pinyin: hé), which means "peaceful" or "harmonious".^[27]

When read from right to left in the way Chinese characters used to be written, they form actual Chinese phrases—namely, the "benevolent water", the "strong earth", the "intense fire" and the "harmonious air".

Asian culture

Calligraphy

An example of Chinese calligraphy

Chinese characters done in traditional East Asian calligraphy styles are used for nearly all the writing that appears in Avatar. For each instance of calligraphy, an appropriate style is used, ranging from the seal script (more archaic) to the clerical script.^[25] The show employs calligrapher Siu-Leung Lee as a consultant and translator.

Fighting styles

The fighting choreography of Avatar draws from martial arts, and the fighting styles and weaponry are based on Chinese martial arts, with each bending art corresponding to a certain real-world style or styles. The creators use Tai Chi for waterbending, Hung Gar for earthbending (although Toph employs Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis style),^[28] Northern Shaolin for firebending, and Ba Gua for airbending.^[8] The show employs Sifu Kisu of the Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Association as a martial arts consultant.^[29]

Each fighting style was chosen to represent the element it projected:

Tai Chi creates flowing, fluid movements to represent water.
Hung Gar was chosen for its firmly rooted stances to represent solid earth.
Northern Shaolin uses fast and swift strikes to mimic the power of fire.
Ba Gua's soft, circular movements were chosen to represent air's tranquility.
Chu Gar Praying Mantis' distinguishing movements and unique steppings complement Toph's blindness to give her an anomalous style of Earthbending.^[28]^[30]

The flow of chi is the engine behind the bending arts. Benders require chi to flow from the breath as form of energy derived from breathing and oxygenation, and then extend it past their body to manipulate or manifest their element. This chi is stored in the abdomen of the bender, known among martial artists as the Dantian. Different choices of directing energy are referred to different kinds of Jing (Traditional Chinese: 勁; Simplified Chinese: 劲; Pinyin: jìng), a concept akin to momentum in martial arts.

The ability to bend stems from a compound of genetics and spirituality. As stated by the creators, all Air Nomads are benders as a result of their increased spirituality compared to other nations. Civilization reduces spirituality and thus every nation has a different percentage of benders.^[31]

Asian film

Asian cinema had a profound effect on the utilization of the choreographed martial art bending moves. Avatar creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino stated the particular influence in a magazine interview:

"Asian cinema is really good at action comedy. Shaolin Soccer is one of our favorite movies. It has tons of fantastic action and lots of funny moments. Some of the effects provided inspiration for how bending moves might look on the show."^[32]

Anime

While Avatar is not considered an anime because of its American origin, one review has commented that "Avatar blurs the line between anime and (US) domestic cartoons until it becomes irrelevant."^[33] In addition, Avatar has many features of anime such as having a different color palette than other animated shows.^[34]

However, Avatar creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino confirmed a particular anime influence in a magazine interview:

"The best anime balances great action sequences with humor and emotion, something we try to do on Avatar. We love all the films of Hayao Miyazaki, especially Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. Both movies deal with spirituality and the environment in an entertaining way. Also, there's a lot of great animation."^[35]

According to an interview with the artists involved in creating Avatar, Appa's design was based on the Catbus in My Neighbor Totoro, due to the peculiar task of creating a mammal with six legs.^[36]

Avatar also draws inspiration from the anime works of Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo, as well as FLCL (Fooly Cooly) of Gainax. Other various studios from which inspiration was drawn include Studio 4°C, Production I.G., and Studio Ghibli.^[37] Bryan has commented that some of his most cherished Watanabe fight scenes were the fight between Bebop's Spike Spiegel and a drug smuggler in "Asteroid Blues," as well as the duel between Mugen and a blind female Jojutsu-user in the Champloo episode "Elegy of Entrapment (Verse 2)." Avatar director Giancarlo Volpe also claims the staff "were all ordered to buy Fooly Cooly and watch every single episode of it."^[38]

Ratings

When the show debuted, it was rated the best animated television series in its demographic.^[39] The show averages 1.1 million viewers on the Friday Night block of programming on Nickelodeon when new episodes premiere at 8:00 EST.^[39] The one-hour special showing of Secret of the Fire Nation (consisting of the episodes "The Serpent's Pass" and "The Drill"), which was aired on September 15, 2006, gathered an audience of 4.1 million viewers. According to the Nielsen Media Research, the special was the best performing cable television show airing in that week.^[40]

Nominations and awards

Avatar won two Pulcinella Awards in 2005 for "Best Action/Adventure Series" and "Best Series of the Year."^[41] It received Annie Award nominations for "Best Animated Television Production" and "Writing in an Animated Television Production" ("The Fortuneteller"), and won "Storyboarding in an Animated Television Production" ("The Deserter").^[42] For 2006, two Avatar crew members were nominated for and achieved an Annie Award: Yu Jae Myung for "Character Animation in a Television Production" ("The Blind Bandit") and Giancarlo Volpe for "Directing in an Animated Television Production" ("The Drill").^[43] On March 27, 2007, Avatar received a Genesis Award from The Humane Society of the United States in the category "Outstanding Children's Programming" for Appa's Lost Days, which the HSUS Genesis Award press release described as "...a mythical tale about animals held captive for human entertainment that resonates with the way animals are used in circuses today."^[44]

Broadcast history

The show was first revealed to the public in a teaser reel at Comic-Con 2004.^[45] It was scheduled to air on Nickelodeon on November 29 of that year, but was delayed until February 21 of 2005. The first two episodes of the series were shown together in a one-hour premiere event in the United States.

Promotion and merchandising

Avatar's success has led to promotions with Burger King and Upper Deck Entertainment, an Avatar-themed roller coaster that debuted on April 14, 2006, at Kings Island amusement park and a second to open in 2008 at The Park at MOA, and a special issue of Nick Mag Presents dedicated entirely to the show. Various members of the Avatar staff and cast appeared at the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con International convention, while co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko appeared as guests of honor with Martial Arts Consultant Sifu Kisu at the Pacific Media Expo on October 28, 2006. Avatar also has its own line of t-shirts, LEGO playsets, toys, a trading card game, a cine-manga, and a video game.

Feature film adaptation

On January 8, 2007, Paramount Pictures' MTV Films and Nick Movies announced that they have signed M. Night Shyamalan to write, direct and produce a trilogy of live-action films based on the series, the first of which will encompass the main characters' adventures of Book one. The film is now in a dispute with James Cameron's film Avatar regarding title ownership.^[46]

Avatar co-creators Mike DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko have come forward to voice their opinion within an interview regarding M. Night Shymalan writing, directing and producing the film. The two displayed much enthusiasm over Shyamalan's decision for the adaption, stating that they admire his work and he in turn respects their material. This newfound information dispels fears that the co-creators were going to be left completely out of the creative process as Paramount did not specify their level of contribution when initial announcements of the deal with Shyamalan came forward.^[47]

Musical score

Avatar features an extensive original musical score, written by composers Benjamin Wynn and Jeremy Zuckerman, otherwise known as The Track Team.^[48]

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3GP Converter

2007-06-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

Xilisoft 3GP Video converter is powerful 3GP converter software for all mobile phone users. The 3GP converter allows users to convert MPEG to 3GP, AVI to 3GP easily and fast to enjoy your favorite movies on 3GP mobile phone at any time.

Xilisoft 3GP Video Converter supports all mobile phone video formats including 3GP (3GPP), 3G2 (3GPP2) and MPEG-4 (.mp4). The 3GP converter supports converting so comprehensive video formats including MPEG1/2/4, WMV, MP4, MOV, RM, DV, YUV, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC to 3GP, MPEG-4 video files. And the 3GP Converter software could also convert 3GP video to popular video file formats such as 3GP to AVI, 3GP to MPEG, 3GP to DivX.

Source

MS Office Tutorial

2007-06-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a Microsoft Word tutorial, this is the site

Free Download MS Word tutorial
Free Download MS Excel tutorial

Driver Collector

2007-06-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

Driver Collector finds and collects the installed driver files for the hardware you select on your PC
After it collects the files, the program copies to your hard drive, in a specific folder.

Free Download Driver Collector

Source

YMulti Messenger description

2007-06-26T21:32:00.000-07:00

YMulti Messenger is the ultimate Yahoo Messenger patch that allows you to run multiple instances of Yahoo Messenger

Requirements :

Yahoo mesenger

Free Download Y multi login

Advanced Office Password Recovery

2007-06-26T21:25:00.000-07:00

Advanced Office Password Recovery enables you to recover lost or forgotten passwords to files and documents created in Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, Access, Project, Money, PowerPoint, Publisher, Visio, OneNote, Backup, Schedule+, and Mail. In addition, it also allows you to reset the Internet Explorer Content Advisor password, and open password-protected VBA projects via the backdoor. The program offers brute force, as well as dictionary attack methods, and can use a password cache to quickly scan for a range of known passwords.

Free download password recovery suite

Source

Holy Qur'an Viewer

2007-06-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

Free Download Holy Qur'an Viewer

Qur'an Viewer is far more advanced than it's predecessor. Features include:

- Additional Qur'an Languages and Translations can be installed.
- Additional Qur'an Manucript Pages can be installed.
- Remote recitation feature can be enabled from within the software.

Full Arabic Text - The Entire script of the Holy Qur'an in Arabic is built into Qur'an Viewer.

English Translation - The most widely accepted translation of the Holy Qur'an into English, is that of Abdullah Yusuf Ali's and is also built-in.

Transliteration - Qur'anic text that has been processed to work within Qur'an Viewer and shows the pronunciation of the Arabic words written in English.

Pure Saturday

2007-06-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

Pure Saturday, Indonesian indie darlings. Formed by Muhammad Suar Nasution (vocals, guitar), Ade Purnama (bass), Aditya "Adhi" Ardinugraha (guitar), Yudistira "Udhi" Ardinugraha (drums) and Arief Hamdani (guitar) in 1994, they were pioneers of the Bandung indie scene. Their self-titled debut album was released in 1996, the first 5000 copies of which were sold innovatively via mail-order through a teen magazine. The album was then available on wide distribution after the band signed with Ceepee Records. The single "Kosong" made them household names, with the artistic accompanying video gaining heavy rotation.

Their more complex and challenging second album, Utopia, was released in 1999 through Aquarius Musikindo. Because of family and business reasons, Pure Saturday was mostly inactive for several years, culminating in Suar's departure in 2004. After unsuccessful auditions to find a suitable replacement vocalist, fate intervened one day when Satria "Iyo" NB, the band's manager, filled in during rehearsals. The guy they were looking for was there all along!

With their new lead singer in tow, Pure Saturday released its long-awaited third album, Elora, in March 2005 through FastForward Records.

Source

The Wannadies

2007-06-25T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Wannadies are an alternative rock band formed in 1988 in Skellefteå, northern Sweden. The band's initial line-up featured Pär Wiksten (vocals, guitars), Christina Bergmark (born 1 March 1963) (keyboards, vocals), Stefan Schönfeldt (born 5 June 1965) (guitars) and his younger brother Frederick Schönfeldt (bass) with Gunnar Karlsson (drums) and Björn Malmquist (violin).

Early influences included Australian band The Go-Betweens as well as The Sisters of Mercy and John Lennon with The Pixies and The Clash having a big effect on their later material.

Origin	Sweden
Genre(s)	Alternative rock
Years active	1988– present
Label(s)	Cooking Vinyl, RCA, Sony Bmg
Website	official site

You and Me song lyric Download This song

always when we fight
i try to make you laugh
until everything's forgotten
i know you hate that

ba ba ra ra ba ba ba ba
ba ba ra ra ba ba ba ba

always when we fight
i kiss you once or twice
and everything's forgotten
i know you hate that

i love you sunday sun
the week's not yet begun
and everything is quiet

and it's always
you and me - always - and forever
you and me - always - and forever
ba ba ba ba ba
it was always
you and me - always

you tell me i'm a real man
and try to look impressed
not very convincing
but you know i love it

then we watch tv
until we fall asleep
not very exciting

but it's you and me
and we'll always be together
you and me - always - and forever
you and me - always - and forever
ba ba ba ba ba

it was always
you and me - always - and forever
you and me - always - and forever
ba ba ba ba ba

it was always
you and me - always - and forever
you and me - always - and forever
ba ba ba ba ba

Someone Somewhere Lyric Download This song

Hello again, my sunshine in rain
I hope you're well, I've missed you so, it's hard to tell
say goodnight, my blueberry light
and dream of me, and while you dream I have to leave

to someone, somewhere, I'll be coming back
cause somewhere, someone, is waiting

here again, you never know when
I want you near, at least a weekend every year
say goodbye, my blueberry pie
I think you're oh, so beautiful, I have to go

to someone, somewhere, I'll be coming back
cause somewhere, someone, is waiting

LINGER Lyrics - CRANBERRIES

2007-06-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Free download LINGER - CRANBERRIES

If you, if you could return, don't let it burn, don't let it fade.
I'm sure I'm not being rude, but it's just your attitude,
It's tearing me apart, It's ruining everything.

I swore, I swore I would be true, and honey, so did you.
So why were you holding her hand? Is that the way we stand?
Were you lying all the time? Was it just a game to you?

But I'm in so deep. You know I'm such a fool for you.
You got me wrapped around your finger, ah, ha, ha.
Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to,
Do you have to let it linger?

Oh, I thought the world of you.
I thought nothing could go wrong,
But I was wrong. I was wrong.
If you, if you could get by, trying not to lie,
Things wouldn't be so confused and I wouldn't feel so used,
But you always really knew, I just wanna be with you.

But I'm in so deep. You know I'm such a fool for you.
You got me wrapped around your finger, ah, ha, ha.
Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to,
Do you have to let it linger?

And I'm in so deep. You know I'm such a fool for you.
You got me wrapped around your finger, ah, ha, ha.
Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to,
Do you have to let it linger?

You know I'm such a fool for you.
You got me wrapped around your finger, ah, ha, ha.
Do you have to let it linger? Do you have to, do you have to,
Do you have to let it linger?

Linguist Software

2007-06-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Free Download Linguist Software

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. Someone who engages in this study is called a linguist.

Theoretical (or general) linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields, such as the study of language structure (grammar) and meaning (semantics). The study of grammar encompasses morphology (formation and alteration of words) and syntax (the rules that determine the way words combine into phrases and sentences). Also a part of this field are phonology, the study of sound systems and abstract sound units, and phonetics, which is concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds (phones), non-speech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived.

Linguistics compares languages (comparative linguistics) and explores their histories, in order to find universal properties of language and to account for its development and origins (historical linguistics).

Applied linguistics puts linguistic theories into practice in areas such as foreign language teaching, speech therapy, translation and speech pathology.

AdSense

2007-06-25T21:04:00.000-07:00

Free download Adsense e-book

AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis. Google is also currently beta-testing a cost-per-action based service.

Google utilizes its search technology to serve ads based on website content, the user's geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google's targeted ad system may sign up through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the ads are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the ads is often relevant to the website.

Currently, the AdSense uses JavaScript code to incorporate the advertisements into a participating site. If it is included on a site which has not yet been crawled by the Mediabot, it will temporarily display advertisements for charitable causes known as public service announcements (PSAs). (Note that the Mediabot is a separate crawler from the Googlebot that maintains Google's search index.)

Many sites use AdSense to monetize their content and some webmasters work hard to maximize their own AdSense income. They do this in three ways:

They use a wide range of traffic generating techniques including but not limited to online advertising.
They build valuable content on their sites which attracts AdSense ads which pay out the most when they get clicked.
They use copy on their websites that encourage clicks on ads. Note that Google prohibits people from using phrases like "Click on my AdSense ads" to increase click rates. Phrases accepted are "Sponsored Links" and "Advertisements".

The source of all AdSense income is the AdWords program which in turn has a complex pricing model based on a Vickrey second price auction, in that it commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid (not observable by competitors). Additionally, for any given click received, advertisers only pay one bid increment above the second-highest bid.

History

The underlying technology behind AdSense was derived originally from WordNet and Simpli, a company started by the founder of Wordnet — George A. Miller — and a number of professors and graduate students from Brown University, including James A. Anderson, Jeff Stibel and Steve Reiss.^[1] A variation of this technology utilizing Wordnet was developed by Oingo, a small search engine company based in Santa Monica founded in 1998.^[2] Oingo focused on semantic searches rather than brute force string searches.^[3] Oingo changed its name to Applied Semantics, which was then bought by Google for $102 million in April 2003, to replace a similar system being developed in house

AdSense for feeds

In May 2005, Google unveiled AdSense for feeds, a version of AdSense that runs on RSS and Atom feeds that have more than 100 active subscribers. According to the Official Google Blog, "advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising — and in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from".

AdSense for feeds works by inserting images into a feed. When the image is displayed by the reader/browser, Google writes the ad content into the image that it returns. The ad content is chosen based on the content of the feed surrounding the image. When the user clicks the image, he or she is redirected to the advertiser's site in the same way as regular AdSense ads.

AdSense for search

A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search lets website owners place Google search boxes on their pages. When a user searches the web or the site with the search box, Google shares any ad revenue it makes from those searches with the site owner. However, only if the ads on the page are clicked, the publisher is paid. Adsense does not pay publishers for mere searches.

How AdSense works

Each time a visitor visits a page with an AdSense tag, a piece of JavaScript writes an iframe tag, whose src attribute includes the URL of the page. Google's servers use a cache of the page for the URL or the keywords in the URL itself to determine a set of high-value keywords. (Some of the details are described in the AdSense patent.) If keywords have been cached already, ads are served for those keywords based on the AdWords bidding system.

Abuse

Some webmasters create sites tailored to lure searchers from Google and other engines onto their AdSense site to make money from clicks. These "zombie" sites often contain nothing but a large amount of interconnected, automated content (e.g.: A directory with content from the Open Directory Project, or scraper sites relying on RSS feeds for content). Possibly the most popular form of such "AdSense farms" are splogs ("spam blogs"), which are centered around known high-paying keywords. Many of these sites use content from other web sites, such as Wikipedia, to attract visitors. These and related approaches are considered to be search engine spam and can be reported to Google.

There have also been reports of Trojans engineered to produce fake Google ads that are formatted to look like legitimate ones. The Trojan Horse apparently downloads itself onto an unsuspecting computer through a web page and then replaces the original ads with its own set of malicious ads.^[5]

Criticism

Due to concerns about click fraud, Google AdSense has been criticized by some Search engine optimization firms as a large source of what Google calls "invalid clicks" in which one company clicks on a rival's search engine ads to drive up its costs.^[6] Some publishers have been blocked by Google, complaining that little justification or transparency was provided.^[7]

To help prevent click fraud, publishers can choose from a number of click tracking programs. These programs will display detailed information about the visitors who click on the AdSense advertisements. Publishers can use that data to determine if they've been a victim of click fraud or not. There are a number of such commercial scripts available for purchase. An open source alternative is AdLogger.

Google has also come under fire for allowing AdWords advertisers to abuse trademarks. In 2004, Google started allowing advertisers to bid on any search terms, including the trademarks of their competitors.^[8]

The payment terms for AdSense customers have also been criticized.^[9] Google withholds payment until an account reaches US$100 ^[10], but many small content providers require a long time - years in many cases - to build up this much AdSense revenue. These pending payments are recorded on Google's balance sheet as "accrued revenue share". ^[11] At the close of its 2006 fiscal year, the sum of all these small debts amounted to a little over US $370 million - cash that Google is able to invest but which effectively belongs to its customers.

Google came recently under fire after the official Google AdSense Blog showcased the French video-site Imineo.com that clearly violates Google’s AdSense Program Policies by displaying AdSense near explicit adult content while other site owners were banned for showing adult content.^[12]

source

Hangaroo

2007-06-24T01:15:00.000-07:00

HangARoo

Game Code by
Jajul Flash

iPhone Release Date Now Officially June 29th

2007-06-23T23:53:00.000-07:00

It was rumored that CNBC had the scoop on the iPhone release date of June 20th. But their sources appear to have been wrong. Apple has confirmed the official release date of Friday June 29th at 6pm Local Time. The picture above is the final screen of Apple’s first commercials for the iPhone. Apple ran three commercials during CBS’s “60 Minutes” TV show on Sunday to show off the vast capabilities of the iPhone. The commercials included video of the iPhone, going through email, and playing with Google maps which are integrated into the iPhone.

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Beastie Boys : The Mix Up

2007-06-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, when the Beastie Boys ruled the world, they let U2 appear on their Tibetan Freedom Concert album. It was poignant to hear U2 sound lost and confused, at their commercial and creative nadir, floundering through the vaguely anthemic "One." Poor old U2 had no clue how to connect with a Beastie-worshipping young mod world. But now, with U2 bigger than ever and vague anthems all the rage, the Beasties can be forgiven for sounding confused themselves, as they try to bring their Grand Royal chutzpah up to date. The Mix-Up is all-instrumental, digging into the familiar organ-heavy lounge funk of Check Your Head and Ill Communication. Yet it's poignant, because the Beasties play their old grooves like they realize how bad people miss them and how high their stock remains despite so many years away.

The Beasties could have knocked out all twelve jams in a lazy weekend in 1992, 2007 or anywhere in between, and the album isn't meant too seriously; Mike D still drums like Meg White's dad. But it's definitely fun to play loud on a sunny afternoon, especially the conga groove of "The Melee," the "See Emily Play"-style psychedelia of "14th St. Break," the stoner fuzak drones of "The Kangaroo Rat" and "Off the Grid." I was surprised to find the rest of the songs were not simply titled "Weedbreak, I-VIII." And despite the Beasties' New York roots, there's no punk or post-punk; if they've heard LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, CSS or any of the young funkateers they keep inspiring all over the world, you can't tell from The Mix-Up. Hopefully, this is only a warm-up for their next big move.

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Sonic Youth : Daydream Nation

2007-06-23T23:37:00.000-07:00

Loosed on the world in 1988, Daydream Nation made alt-rock a life force. Over two vinyl discs containing just fourteen titles, it fused Sonic Youth's displaced guitar tunings with tunes as hummable as the Beatles' or the Ramones' – a standard they've matched ever since, but never again with quite so much anthemic consistency. The album's evident mastery won them a major-label deal they're still working even though their three singers have never shown any commercial potential. And soon they persuaded Geffen to sign a band whose singer did: Nirvana.

Heard today, Daydream Nation's evocation of sonic youths with talent to burn and nowhere to build a fire is clearly rooted in the specifics of a Manhattan bohemia since transformed by Internet money and real estate sharks. Post-irony, its confusion-as-sex seems almost innocent. But its tunings keep it honest and its anthems keep it thrilling. A terrific bonus disc compiles covers that do justice to the band's ambition – Mudhoney's "Touch Me I'm Sick," Neil Young's "Computer Age," the Beatles' "Within You Without You" – and unearths live versions of every Daydream Nation song. These are rough, intense, welcome. But the studio versions are definitive, as dense as cluster bombs. "Your life is such a mess/Forget the past, and just say yes"? "You can buy some more and more and more and more"? As words, admissions of futility. Atop marshaled guitars, artistic war cries.

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Nick Drake : Family Tree

2007-06-23T23:27:00.000-07:00

The three LPs Nick Drake had completed by the time of his 1974 death - each of them pretty, vaguely haunting and emo before there was such a thing - have gone from cult treasures to consistent sellers, which explains the demand for this twenty-eight-track collection of rarities, covers and alternate versions, many of them home-recorded. Too bad Drake's back pages are so forgettable. A couple of songs stand up: The gorgeous pastoral daydream "Rain," a low-fi take on Dylan's "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" with bottles clinking in the background, and "If You Leave Me," a blues standard transmuted by Drake's pale-eyed croon. But an early version of the 1969 signature song "Way to Blue" has all the presence of doodles in a sketch pad. And only hard-core enthusiasts or biographers could have much interest in the cameos from Drake's mother or the family-assisted version of Mozart's "Kegelstatt Trio," which shows Drake could play clarinet

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

2007-06-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

In theaters Friday, July 13th 2007,

Director: David Yates
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Emma Thompson, Julie Walters, Helena Bonham Carter, David Thewlis, Fiona Shaw, Richard Griffiths, David Bradley, Robert Hardy, Mark Williams, Imelda Staunton, George Harris, Natalia Tena playing Nymphadora Tonks, Kathryn Hunter, Evanna Lynch

In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", Harry returns for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts and discovers that much of the wizarding community is in denial about the teenager's recent encounter with the evil Lord Voldemort, preferring to turn a blind eye to the news that Voldemort has returned. Fearing that Hogwarts' venerable Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is lying about Voldemort's return in order to undermine his power and take his job, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, appoints a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher to keep watch over Dumbledore and the Hogwarts students.

But Professor Dolores Umbridge's Ministry-approved course of defensive magic leaves the young wizards woefully unprepared to defend themselves against the dark forces threatening them and the entire wizarding community, so at the prompting of his friends Hermione and Ron, Harry takes matters into his own hands. Meeting secretly with a small group of students who name themselves "Dumbledore's Army", Harry teaches them how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts, preparing the courageous young wizards for the extraordinary battle that lies ahead.

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La Vie En Rose

2007-06-23T23:15:00.000-07:00

In theaters Sunday, July 8th 2007,

Director: Oliver Dahan
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Gerard Depardieu

On stage she was a singing legend. But for Edith Piaf, life was the greatest performance of all. From Director Olivier Dahan comes the long awaited biopic of the legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf. Starring Marion Cotillard (A Good Year, A Very Long Engagement) in the lead role, this impressive film reveals the extraordinary life of one of the world’s greatest performers.

From the streets of the cutthroat Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York’s most glamorous concert halls, Edith Piaf’s life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in abject poverty, surrounded by hookers and pimps, Edith’s magical voice made her a star on both sides of the Atlantic. Her passionate romances and friendships with some of the greatest names of the period – Yves Montand, Jean Cocteau, Charles Aznavour, Marlene Dietrich and boxing world champion Marcel Cerdan – made her a household name, as did her memorable live performances and beautiful renditions of songs that were listened to by audiences across the globe: La Vie en Rose, Hymn To Love, Non Je ne Regrette Rien and many more.

But despite her determination to deny her tragic destiny, the “Little Sparrow” – as she was known – flew so high that she could not fail to burn her wings.

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Captivity

2007-06-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

In theaters Friday, July 13th 2007,

Director: Roland Joffé
Cast: Elisha Cuthbert, Daniel Gillies, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Laz Alonso, Michael Harney, Margaret Damon

Top cover girl and fashion model, Jennifer Tree (ELISHA CUTHBERT) has it all - beauty, fame, money and power. Her face appears on covers of hundreds of magazines. At the top of her game, Jennifer is America’s sweetheart. She is loved and adored and sought after. Everyone wants her. But someone out there has been watching and waiting. Someone wants her in the worst way. Out alone at a charity event in Soho, Jennifer is drugged and taken.

Held captive in a cell, Jennifer is subjected to a series of terrifying, life-threatening tortures that could only be conceived by a twisted, sadistic mind.

Inspired by the fact that over 850,000 are reported missing every year in the United States, many of whom are never seen again, CAPTIVITY, follows the story of one woman who is abducted and tortured, held against her will in a place where days turn into weeks. Her will to escape and survive is challenged every moment by a maniac’s desire to demoralize innocent victims and play out his sick game that has been played many times before Jennifer was taken.

A combination of SAW and HOSTEL meets SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, CAPTIVITY is a psychological thriller/horror film that shows us the true terror of the crimes of abduction and confinement that are committed every day by serial killers and psychopaths at large. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Roland Joffe (THE KILLING FIELDS, THE MISSION), CAPTIVITY delves deeply into the minds of both captor and victim with a fresh and terrifying view of this epidemic horror.

Being released this summer in theatres nation-wide, CAPTIVITY has been called one of the most controversial films of the year. It’s a disturbing and raw, yet classy and thought provoking film which will leave you terrified, and looking over your shoulder as you leave the theatre wondering if you could be next

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Live Free or Die Hard

2007-06-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

Director: Len Wiseman
Cast: Bruce Willis, Justin Long, Maggie Q, Timothy Olyphant, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Cliff Curtis

In the past few years, aging police officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) has spent his time in and out of Alcoholics Anonymous and is divorced from his wife. He is no longer employed by the police department, but has found a position with the United States Department of Homeland Security chasing dangerous computer hackers. On his way to turn a young hacker named Matt Foster (Justin Long) into custody, he experiences a modern version of a terrorist attack first hand when he gets stuck in traffic. A group of hackers, headed by Greg Pope (Timothy Olyphant), have struck at the vulnerable United States computer infrastructure and are systematically shutting it down, beginning with the traffic light system.

As they move on to crash banking networks and the stock market, the indices plummet and America's economy becomes crippled. As usual, McClane gets caught up in the middle of the excitement. It turns out that the recently captured Matt seems bright enough to understand exactly what the terrorists are doing and what steps they are taking to achieve their mission. The sophisticated criminals have a nearly foolproof plan to bring the country to a halt, but they didn't count on an old-school cop and his computer-smart buddy to figure things out. Soon, the crime-fighting duo of McClane and Foster are pulling out all the stops and matching wits with the terrorists, hoping to figure out the motives behind their actions and to stop them before the entire nation collapses.

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Download Accelerator Plus

2007-06-23T20:17:00.000-07:00

Download Accelerator Plus (DAP)--the popular download manager with over 136 million users. DAP leverages patented technology, easy management of downloads and rich features including: multi connections, download security feature by ZoneAlarm, auto-recovery, privacy tools, faster downloads from fastest sources, preview of files as you download; broadband optimization; tabbed downloading. Availabe in 10 languages.

Free Download DAP

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Internet Download Manager

2007-06-23T19:43:00.000-07:00

Internet Download Manager (IDM) is a tool to increase download speeds by up to 5 times, resume and schedule downloads. Comprehensive error recovery and resume capability will restart broken or interrupted downloads due to lost connections, network problems, computer shutdowns, or unexpected power outages. Simple graphic user interface makes IDM user friendly and easy to use.

Free Download Internet Download Manager

Internet Download Manager has a smart download logic accelerator that features intelligent dynamic file segmentation and safe multipart downloading technology to accelerate your downloads. Unlike other download managers and accelerators Internet Download Manager segments downloaded files dynamically during download process and reuses available connections without additional connect and login stages to achieve best acceleration performance.

Internet Download Manager supports proxy servers, ftp and http protocols, firewalls, redirects, cookies, authorization, MP3 audio and MPEG video content processing. IDM integrates seamlessly into Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, MSN Explorer, AOL, Opera, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firebird, Avant Browser, MyIE2, and all other popular browsers to automatically handle your downloads. You can also drag and drop files, or use Internet Download Manager from command line. Internet Download Manager can dial your modem at the set time, download the files you want, then hang up or even shut down your computer when it's done.

Other features include multilingual support, zip preview, download categories, scheduler pro, sounds on different events, HTTPS support, queue processor, html help and tutorial, enhanced virus protection on download completion, progressive downloading with quotas (useful for connections that use some kind of fair access policy or FAP like Direcway, Direct PC, Hughes, etc.), built-in download accelerator, and many others.

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Limewire

2007-06-23T00:57:00.000-07:00

LimeWire is a peer-to-peer file sharing client for the Java Platform, which uses the Gnutella network to locate and transfer files. Released under the GNU General Public License, Limewire is free software. It also encourages the user to pay a fee, which will then give the user access to LimeWire Pro.

Features
Written in the Java programming language, LimeWire runs on any computer with Java Virtual Machine installed. Installers are provided for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and RPM-based Linux distributions. Support for Mac OS 9 and other previous versions was dropped with the release of LimeWire 4.0.10.

LimeWire uses SHA-1 and tiger tree hash cryptographic hash functions to ensure that downloaded data is uncompromised. Although researchers have identified possible vulnerabilities in the SHA-1 algorithm, because LimeWire does not rely on SHA-1 alone, these vulnerabilities do not have many adverse implications for LimeWire's verification of downloaded files.^{[citation needed]}

Limewire offers the sharing of its library through Digital Audio Access Protocol. As such, when LimeWire is running, any files shared will be detectable on the local network by DAAP-enabled devices (eg. iTunes).

Free download LimeWire

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Yahoo Messenger

2007-06-23T00:51:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! Messenger is a popular advertisement-supported instant messaging client and protocol provided by Yahoo!. Yahoo! Messenger is provided free of charge and can be downloaded and used with a generic "Yahoo! ID" which also allows access to other Yahoo! services, such as Yahoo! Mail, where users can be automatically notified when they receive new email. Yahoo! offers PC to PC telephone, file transfers, webcam hosting, text messaging service, and chat rooms in various categories.

In addition to instant messaging features similar to those offered by ICQ, it also offers (on Microsoft Windows) many unique features such as: IMVironments (customizing the look of Instant Message windows), address-book integration and Custom Status Messages. It was also the first major IM client to feature BUZZing and music-status. Another recently added feature is customized avatars.

Free Download Yahoo Mesenger

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Folder guard

2007-06-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

Folder Guard^® is a powerful computer security software that you can use to control access to files, folders, and other Windows resources, such as Control Panel, Start Menu, and so on. You can use Folder Guard to lock your personal files and folders with passwords, to stop other users from peeking into your records. You can even completely hide your private folders from virtually all applications, and such folders would remain invisible until you enter a valid password. You can also protect sensitive system files from modification or destruction, disable access to the removable drives, restrict access to Control Panel, and more.

Free Download FolderGuard+Keygen

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Create Professional AdobeÂ® Compatible PDF Documents

2007-06-22T23:26:00.000-07:00

PDF Creator is a cost effective solution over the leading PDF product, Adobe AcrobatÂ® 8. PDF Creator allows you to create PDF files from documents, spreadsheets, presentations, emails, websites, and virtually any file that can be printed. PDF Creator is a virtual printer so it's automatically integrated and ready for use in all of your favorite WindowsÂ® programs. This includes all of your Business applications, Multimedia applications, Web applications, Presentation applications and the list goes on and on. If you can print it, you can turn it into a PDF document.

Free download PDFcreator

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