title: Electoral fraud

text: End-to-end auditable voting systems provide voters with a receipt to allow them to verify their vote was cast correctly, and an audit mechanism to verify that the results were tabulated correctly and all votes were cast by valid voters. However, the ballot receipt does not permit voters to prove to others how they voted, since this would open the door towards forced voting and blackmail. End-to-end systems include Punchscan and Scantegrity, the latter being an add-on to optical scan systems instead of a replacement.


title: Electoral fraud

text: In many cases, election observers are used to help prevent fraud and assure voters that the election is fair. International observers (bilateral and multilateral) may be invited to observe the elections (examples include election observation by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), European Union election observation missions, observation missions of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as well as international observation organised by NGOs, such as CIS-EMO, European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), etc.). Some countries also invite foreign observers (i.e. bi-lateral observation, as opposed to multi-lateral observation by international observers).


title: Electoral fraud

text: In addition, national legislatures of countries often permit domestic observation. Domestic election observers can be either partisan (i.e. representing interests of one or a group of election contestants) or non-partisan (usually done by civil society groups). Legislations of different countries permit various forms and extents of international and domestic election observation.


title: Electoral fraud

text: Election observation is also prescribed by various international legal instruments. For example, paragraph 8 of the 1990 Copenhagen Document states that "The [OSCE] participating States consider that the presence of observers, both foreign and domestic, can enhance the electoral process for States in which elections are taking place. They, therefore, invite observers from any other CSCE participating States and any appropriate private institutions and organisations who may wish to do so to observe the course of their national election proceedings, to the extent permitted by law. They will also endeavour to facilitate similar access for election proceedings held below the national level. Such observers will undertake not to interfere in the electoral proceedings".


title: Electoral fraud

text: Critics note that observers cannot spot certain types of election fraud like targeted voter suppression or manipulated software of voting machines.


title: Electoral fraud

text: Various forms of statistics can be indicators of election fraud – e.g., exit polls which diverge from the final results. Well-conducted exit polls serve as a deterrent to electoral fraud. However, exit polls are still notoriously imprecise. For instance, in the Czech Republic, some voters are afraid or ashamed to admit that they voted for the Communist Party (exit polls in 2002 gave the Communist party 2–3 percentage points less than the actual result). Variations in willingness to participate in an exit poll may result in an unrepresentative sample compared to the overall voting population.


title: Electoral fraud

text: When elections are marred by ballot-box stuffing (e.g., the Armenian presidential elections of 1996 and 1998), the affected polling stations will show abnormally high voter turnouts with results favouring a single candidate. By graphing the number of votes against turnout percentage (i.e., aggregating polling stations results within a given turnout range), the divergence from bell-curve distribution gives an indication of the extent of the fraud. Stuffing votes in favour of a single candidate affects votes vs. turnout distributions for that candidate and other candidates differently; this difference could be used to quantitatively assess the number of votes stuffed. Also, these distributions sometimes exhibit spikes at round-number turnout percentage values. High numbers of invalid ballots, overvoting or undervoting are other potential indicators. Risk-limiting audits are methods to assess the validity of an election result statistically without the effort of a full election recount.


title: Electoral fraud

text: Though election forensics can determine if election results are anomalous, the statistical results still need to be interpreted. Alan Hicken and Walter R. Mebane describe the results of election forensic analyses as not providing "definitive proof" of fraud. Election forensics can be combined with other fraud detection and prevention strategies, such as in-person monitoring.


title: Electoral fraud

text: One method for verifying voting machine accuracy is Parallel Testing, the process of using an independent set of results compared to the original machine results. Parallel testing can be done prior to or during an election. During an election, one form of parallel testing is the VVPAT. Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) or verified paper record (VPR) is a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballotless voting system. A VVPAT is intended as an independent verification system for voting machines designed to allow voters to verify that their vote was cast correctly, to detect possible election fraud or malfunction, and to provide a means to audit the stored electronic results. This method is only effective if statistically significant numbers of voters verify that their intended vote matches both the electronic and paper votes.


title: Electoral fraud

text: On election day, a statistically significant number of voting machines can be randomly selected from polling locations and used for testing. This can be used to detect potential fraud or malfunction unless manipulated software would only start to cheat after a certain event like a voter pressing a special key combination (Or a machine might cheat only if someone does not perform the combination, which requires more insider access but fewer voters).


title: Electoral fraud

text: Another form of testing is Logic & Accuracy Testing (L&A), pre-election testing of voting machines using test votes to determine if they are functioning correctly.


title: Electoral fraud

text: Another method to ensure the integrity of electronic voting machines is independent software verification and certification. Once a software is certified, code signing can ensure the software certified is identical to that which is used on election day. Some argue certification would be more effective if voting machine software was publicly available or open source.


title: Electoral fraud

text: Certification and testing processes conducted publicly and with oversight from interested parties can promote transparency in the election process. The integrity of those conducting testing can be questioned.


title: Electoral fraud

text: Testing and certification can prevent voting machines from being a black box where voters cannot be sure that counting inside is done as intended.


title: Electoral fraud

text: One method that people have argued would help prevent these machines from being tampered with would be for the companies that produce the machines to share the source code, which displays and captures the ballots, with computer scientists. This would allow external sources to make sure that the machines are working correctly.


title: Electoral fraud

text: The Help America Vote Act (), or HAVA, is a United States federal law enacted on October 29, 2002. It was drafted (at least in part) in reaction to the controversy surrounding the 2000 U.S. presidential election. The goals of HAVA are: to replace punchcard and lever-based voting systems; create the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections; and establish minimum election administration standards.


title: Electoral fraud

text: This was the most important federal legislation of the 20th century to protect voting rights, especially of ethnic and language minorities who had been disenfranchised for decades by states' constitutions and practices. Initially, it was particularly important for enforcing the constitutional right of African Americans in the South to vote, where millions of people had been mostly disenfranchised since the turn of the 20th century and excluded from politics. The law has also protected other ethnicities, such as Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, and language minorities in other states, who have been discriminated against at various times, especially in the process of voter registration and electoral practices.


title: Electoral fraud

text: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 () was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and other minorities.


title: Venom

text: Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved "venom apparatus", such as fangs or a stinger, in a process called envenomation. Venom is often distinguished from poison, which is a toxin that is passively delivered by being ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin, and toxungen, which is actively transferred to the external surface of another animal via a physical delivery mechanism.


title: Venom

text: Venom has evolved in terrestrial and marine environments and in a wide variety of animals: both predators and prey, and both vertebrates and invertebrates. Venoms kill through the action of at least four major classes of toxin, namely necrotoxins and cytotoxins, which kill cells; neurotoxins, which affect nervous systems; myotoxins, which damage muscles; and haemotoxins, which disrupt blood clotting. Venomous animals cause tens of thousands of human deaths per year.


title: Venom

text: Venoms are often complex mixtures of toxins of differing types. Toxins from venom are used to treat a wide range of medical conditions including thrombosis, arthritis, and some cancers. Studies in venomics are investigating the potential use of venom toxins for many other conditions.


title: Venom

text: The use of venom across a wide variety of taxa is an example of convergent evolution. It is difficult to conclude exactly how this trait came to be so intensely widespread and diversified. The multigene families that encode the toxins of venomous animals are actively selected, creating more diverse toxins with specific functions. Venoms adapt to their environment and victims and accordingly evolve to become maximally efficient on a predator's particular prey (particularly the precise ion channels within the prey). Consequently, venoms become specialized to an animal's standard diet.


title: Venom

text: Venoms cause their biological effects via the many toxins that they contain; some venoms are complex mixtures of toxins of differing types. Major classes of toxin in venoms include:


title: Venom

text: Venom is widely distributed taxonomically, being found in both invertebrates and vertebrates, in aquatic and terrestrial animals, and among both predators and prey. The major groups of venomous animals are described below.


title: Venom

text: Venomous arthropods include spiders, which use fangs on their chelicerae to inject venom; and centipedes, which use forcipules, modified legs, to deliver venom; while scorpions and stinging insects inject venom with a sting. In bees and wasps, the sting is a modified egg-laying device – the ovipositor. In "Polistes fuscatus", the female continuously releases a venom that contains a sex pheromone that induces copulatory behavior in males. In wasps such as "Polistes exclamans", venom is used as an alarm pheromone, coordinating a response with from the nest and attracting nearby wasps to attack the predator. In some species, such as "Parischnogaster striatula", venom is applied all over the body as an antimicrobial protection.


title: Venom

text: Many caterpillars have defensive venom glands associated with specialized bristles on the body called urticating hairs. These are usually merely irritating, but those of the "Lonomia" moth can be fatal to humans.


title: Venom

text: Bees synthesize and employ an acidic venom (apitoxin) to defend their hives and food stores, whereas wasps use a chemically different venom to paralyse prey, so their prey remains alive to provision the food chambers of their young. The use of venom is much more widespread than just these examples; many other insects, such as true bugs and many ants, also produce venom. The ant species "Polyrhachis dives" uses venom topically for the sterilisation of pathogens.


title: Venom

text: There are venomous invertebrates in several phyla, including jellyfish such as the dangerous box jellyfish and sea anemones among the Cnidaria, sea urchins among the Echinodermata,and cone snails and cephalopods, including octopuses, among the Molluscs.


title: Venom

text: Venom is found in some 200 cartilaginous fishes, including stingrays, sharks, and chimaeras; the catfishes (about 1000 venomous species); and 11 clades of spiny-rayed fishes (Acanthomorpha), containing the scorpionfishes (over 300 species), stonefishes (over 80 species), gurnard perches, blennies, rabbitfishes, surgeonfishes, some velvetfishes, some toadfishes, coral crouchers, red velvetfishes, scats, rockfishes, deepwater scorpionfishes, waspfishes, weevers, and stargazers.


title: Venom

text: Some salamanders can extrude sharp venom-tipped ribs. Two frog species in Brazil have tiny spines around the crown of their skulls which, on impact, deliver venom into their targets.


title: Venom

text: Some 450 species of snake are venomous. Snake venom is produced by glands below the eye (the mandibular glands) and delivered to the target through tubular or channeled fangs. Snake venoms contain a variety of peptide toxins, including proteases, which hydrolyze protein peptide bonds; nucleases, which hydrolyze the phosphodiester bonds of DNA; and neurotoxins, which disrupt signalling in the nervous system. Snake venom causes symptoms including pain, swelling, tissue necrosis, low blood pressure, convulsions, haemorrhage (varying by species of snake), respiratory paralysis, kidney failure, coma, and death. Snake venom may have originated with duplication of genes that had been expressed in the salivary glands of ancestors.


title: Venom

text: Venom is found in a few other reptiles such as the Mexican beaded lizard, the gila monster, and some monitor lizards, including the Komodo dragon. Mass spectrometry showed that the mixture of proteins present in their venom is as complex as the mixture of proteins found in snake venom.


title: Venom

text: Some lizards possess a venom gland; they form a hypothetical clade, Toxicofera, containing the suborders Serpentes and Iguania and the families Varanidae, Anguidae, and Helodermatidae.


title: Venom

text: "Euchambersia", an extinct genus of therocephalians, is hypothesized to have had venom glands attached to its canine teeth.


title: Venom

text: A few species of living mammals are venomous, including solenodons, shrews, vampire bats, male platypuses, and slow lorises. Shrews have venomous saliva and most likely evolved their trait similarly to snakes. The presence of tarsal spurs akin to those of the platypus in many non-therian Mammaliaformes groups suggests that venom was an ancestral characteristic among mammals.


title: Venom

text: Extensive research on platypuses shows that their toxin was initially formed from gene duplication, but data provides evidence that the further evolution of platypus venom does not rely as much on gene duplication as was once thought. Modified sweat glands are what evolved into platypus venom glands. Although it is proven that reptile and platypus venom have independently evolved, it is thought that there are certain protein structures that are favored to evolve into toxic molecules. This provides more evidence of why venom has become a homoplastic trait and why very different animals have convergently evolved.


title: Venom

text: Envenomation resulted in 57,000 human deaths in 2013, down from 76,000 deaths in 1990. Venoms, found in over 173,000 species, have potential to treat a wide range of diseases, explored in over 5,000 scientific papers.


title: Venom

text: In medicine, snake venom proteins are used to treat conditions including thrombosis, arthritis, and some cancers. Gila monster venom contains exenatide, used to treat type 2 diabetes. Solenopsins extracted from fire ant venom has demonstrated biomedical applications, ranging from cancer treatment to psoriasis. A branch of science, venomics, has been established to study the proteins associated with venom and how individual components of venom can be used for pharmaceutical means.


title: Venom

text: Venom is used as a trophic weapon by many predator species. The coevolution between predators and prey is the driving force of venom resistance, which has evolved multiple times throughout the animal kingdom. The coevolution between venomous predators and venom-resistant prey has been described as a chemical arms race. Predator and prey pairs are expected to coevolve over long periods of time. As the predator capitalizes on susceptible individuals, the surviving individuals are limited to those able to evade predation. Resistance typically increases over time as the predator becomes increasingly unable to subdue resistant prey. The cost of developing venom resistance is high for both predator and prey. The payoff for the cost of physiological resistance is an increased chance of survival for prey, but it allows predators to expand into underutilised trophic niches.


title: Venom

text: The California ground squirrel has varying degrees of resistance to the venom of the Northern Pacific rattlesnake. The resistance involves toxin scavenging and depends on the population. Where rattlesnake populations are denser, squirrel resistance is higher. Rattlesnakes have responded locally by increasing the effectiveness of their venom.


title: Venom

text: The kingsnakes of the Americas are constrictors that prey on many venomous snakes. They have evolved resistance which does not vary with age or exposure. They are immune to the venom of snakes in their immediate environment, like copperheads, cottonmouths, and North American rattlesnakes, but not to the venom of, for example, king cobras or black mambas.


title: Venom

text: Among marine animals, eels are resistant to sea snake venoms, which contain complex mixtures of neurotoxins, myotoxins, and nephrotoxins, varying according to species. Eels are especially resistant to the venom of sea snakes that specialise in feeding on them, implying coevolution; non-prey fishes have little resistance to sea snake venom.


title: Venom

text: Clownfish always live among the tentacles of venomous sea anemones (an obligatory symbiosis for the fish), and are resistant to their venom. Only 10 known species of anemones are hosts to clownfish and only certain pairs of anemones and clownfish are compatible. All sea anemones produce venoms delivered through discharging nematocysts and mucous secretions. The toxins are composed of peptides and proteins. They are used to acquire prey and to deter predators by causing pain, loss of muscular coordination, and tissue damage. Clownfish have a protective mucus that acts as a chemical camouflage or macromolecular mimicry preventing "not self" recognition by the sea anemone and nematocyst discharge. Clownfish may acclimate their mucus to resemble that of a specific species of sea anemone.


title: Rani Mukerji filmography

text: Rani Mukerji is an Indian actress known for her work in Hindi films. She made her screen debut with a parallel lead role in "Biyer Phool" (1996), a Bengali film directed by her father Ram Mukherjee. Her first leading role was that of a rape victim in the 1996 social drama "Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat", for which she won a special jury trophy at the Screen Awards. In 1998 she received wider recognition for her role alongside Aamir Khan in the action film "Ghulam". Later that year, her breakthrough role as the romantic interest of Shah Rukh Khan's character in the romantic drama "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" earned Mukerji her first Filmfare Award in the Best Supporting Actress category. She followed this initial success by portraying the leading lady in several films, including "Hello Brother" (1999) and "" (2001), none of which helped propel her career forward.


title: Rani Mukerji filmography

text: Mukerji's career prospects improved in 2002 when she played the lead role of a medical student in Yash Raj Films' "Saathiya", a romantic drama that gained her a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. For her roles in the 2004 romantic comedy "Hum Tum" and the composite drama "Yuva", Mukerji became the only actress to win both the Filmfare Award for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively, in the same year. Also that year, she starred in "Veer-Zaara"the highest-grossing Bollywood film of the year. In 2005 she garnered praise for portraying a blind, deaf and mute woman in the drama "Black", and starred in the critically acclaimed fantasy film "Paheli". She also played a con woman that year in the crime comedy film "Bunty Aur Babli". For her performance in "Black", she was awarded the Best Actress and Best Actress (Critics) trophies at Filmfare. The following year, she played an unhappily married woman in the musical romantic drama "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna"one of the top-grossing Bollywood films in domestic and overseas markets.


title: Rani Mukerji filmography

text: Following a leading role in the moderately financially successful family drama "Ta Ra Rum Pum" (2007), Mukerji starred primarily in films produced by Yash Raj Films for the next two years. None of these films performed well at the box office, after which she featured as a talent judge for the Sony Entertainment Television reality show "Dance Premier League" (2009). The role of a headstrong television reporter in the 2011 semi-biographical thriller "No One Killed Jessica" earned her another Best Supporting Actress trophy at Filmfare, and the film proved to be her first box office success in four years. In 2012, she portrayed a grieving mother in the supernatural thriller "" and in 2014 she appeared as a police officer in the crime thriller "Mardaani". Following a four-year hiatus, Mukerji played a woman suffering from Tourette syndrome in "Hichki" (2018), which ranks among Hindi cinema's highest-grossing female-led films. She reprised her role in "Mardaani 2" (2019), a sequel to "Mardaani", which was a critical and commercial success.


title: Rani Mukerji filmography

text: "Bombay Talkies" consisted of four short films, directed by Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar.


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: Natalie Morales-Rhodes (born Natalie Leticia Morales; June 6, 1972) is an American journalist who is currently a co-host and moderator of the CBS Daytime talk show "The Talk". Prior to that, Morales worked for NBC News for twenty two years in various roles


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: In August 2016, after the Rio Summer Olympics, Morales moved to Los Angeles, where she became both the West Coast anchor of "Today", and Billy Bush's replacement as host of "Access Hollywood" and "Access Hollywood Live", while continuing as a correspondent for "Dateline".


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: In addition to her other duties, she also hosts the Reelz series "Behind Closed Doors with Natalie Morales".


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: Morales was born in Taiwan, to a Brazilian mother, Penelope, and a Puerto Rican father, Lieutenant Colonel Mario Morales, Jr. She speaks Spanish and Portuguese and spent the first eighteen years of her life living in USA and overseas in Panama, Brazil, and Spain as a "U.S. Air Force brat". She graduated in 1990 from Caesar Rodney High School located in Camden, Delaware.


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: Morales holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rutgers University with dual majors in Journalism & Media Studies and Latin American studies. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and graduated "summa cum laude".


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: Following college, Morales worked at Chase Bank before pursuing her journalism career. She began her on-air career at News 12 – The Bronx as the first morning anchor under News 12 - The Bronx's first news director Roberto Soto, and original studio directors Tom D’Elia, Brian Webb, Darryl Stith, and David Rein. She also served as a camera operator, editor, and producer for that network.


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: Morales went on to serve as a weekend anchor/reporter and morning co-anchor at WVIT-TV in Hartford, Connecticut, where she reported on the Columbine shootings, Hurricane Floyd, the 2000 Presidential election and the September 11, 2001 attacks. She also co-hosted and reported for the Emmy-nominated documentary, "Save Our Sound", a joint production with WNBC on preserving the Long Island Sound. In 1999, she was voted one of the 50 Most Influential Latinas for her news coverage and reports by the Hispanic daily newspaper "El Diario La Prensa". Previously, Morales spent two years working behind the scenes at Court TV.


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: Morales was an anchor and correspondent for MSNBC from 2002 to 2006. She covered a number of major news stories there including the 2004 Presidential election, the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, the Iraqi prisoner abuse, Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, the Blackout of 2003, the 2002 D.C. sniper attacks and the investigation and trial of Scott Peterson. Additionally, she was named one of "Hispanic Magazine’s" Top Trendsetters of 2003.


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: Morales joined the "Today" show in 2006 as a national correspondent, and was named co-anchor of the third hour of the show in March 2008. On May 9, 2011, it was announced that Morales would replace Ann Curry as the news anchor for "Today", when Curry succeeded Meredith Vieira as host of "Today" in June 2011. In 2016, it was announced that Morales would be moving west to host "Access" and become the West Coast anchor of "Today". In 2019, Morales stepped away from hosting "Access" and remained on "Today".


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: In October 2021, it was announced that Morales would be leaving NBC News after 22 years and it was confirmed that she would join the CBS Daytime talk show "The Talk" as a permanent co-host and moderator. In October 2022, it was announced that Morales would be joining CBS News as a correspondent.


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: Morales married Joseph Rhodes on August 22, 1998. In 2002 they purchased a US$1 million townhouse in Hoboken, New Jersey, and expanded it in 2008 to 3,600 square feet. In June 2016, after Morales was made the West Coast anchor of "Today", the family put the Hoboken townhouse on the market, and moved into a house in Brentwood, California, the following month. By October, the townhouse had sold for $3.1 million.


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: In November 2003, Morales gave birth to a son, Josh, via C-section at Hoboken's St. Mary Hospital. Their second son, Luke Hudson, was born in late 2008.


title: Natalie Morales (journalist)

text: Morales is an avid runner, having competed in five marathons, including three New York City Marathons. She has run and completed the 1995, 1996, and 2006 NYC Marathons. Morales also participates in triathlons. She has been featured in a full-length article and on the cover of the October 2010 issue of "Triathlete Magazine".


title: Ossetian language

text: Ossetian (, , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Greater Caucasus. It is the native language of the Ossetian people, and is one of the few Iranian languages spoken in Europe; it is a relative and possibly a descendant of the extinct Scythian, Sarmatian, and Alanic languages.


title: Ossetian language

text: The northern half of the Ossetia region is part of Russia and is known as North Ossetia–Alania, while the southern half is part of the "de facto" country of South Ossetia (recognized by the United Nations as Russian-occupied territory that is "de jure" part of Georgia). Ossetian-speakers number about 614,350, with 451,000 recorded in Russia per the 2010 Russian census.


title: Ossetian language

text: Ossetian is the spoken and literary language of the Ossetians, an Iranian ethnic group living in the central part of the Caucasus and constituting the basic population of North Ossetia–Alania, which is part of the Russian Federation, and of the "de facto" country of South Ossetia (recognized by the United Nations as "de jure" part of the Republic of Georgia). The Ossetian language belongs to the Iranian group of the Indo-European family of languages (as hinted by its endonym: ). Within Iranian, it is placed in the Eastern subgroup and further to a Northeastern sub-subgroup, but these are areal rather than genetic groups. The other Eastern Iranian languages such as Pashto (spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan) and Yaghnobi (spoken in Tajikistan) show certain commonalities, but also deep-reaching divergences from Ossetian.


title: Ossetian language

text: From deep classical antiquity (since the 7th–8th centuries BCE), the languages of the Iranian group were distributed across a vast territory spanning present-day Iran (Persia), Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus. Ossetian is the sole survivor of the branch of Iranian languages known as Scythian. The Scythian group included numerous tribes, known in ancient sources as the Scythians, the Massagetae, the Saka, the Sarmatians, the Alans, and the Roxolani. The more easterly Khwarazm and Sogdians were also closely affiliated in linguistic terms.


title: Ossetian language

text: Ossetian, together with Kurdish, Tat, and Talysh, is one of the main Iranian languages with a sizable community of speakers in the Caucasus. As it is descended from Alanic, spoken by the Alan medieval tribes emerging from the earlier Sarmatians, it is believed to be the only surviving descendant of a Sarmatian language. The closest genetically related language may be the Yaghnobi language of Tajikistan, the only other living Northeastern Iranian language. Ossetian has a plural formed by the suffix -"ta", a feature it shares with Yaghnobi, Sarmatian and the now-extinct Sogdian; this is taken as evidence of a formerly wide-ranging Iranian-language dialect continuum on the Central Asian steppe. The names of ancient Iranian tribes (as transmitted through Ancient Greek) in fact reflect this pluralization, e.g. "Saromatae" () and "Masagetae" ().


title: Ossetian language

text: The earliest known written sample of Ossetian is an inscription which dates back to the 10th–12th centuries and was found near the Bolshoy Zelenchuk River in Arkhyz, Russia. The text is written in the Greek alphabet, with special digraphs.


title: Ossetian language

text: The only other extant record of Proto-Ossetic are the two lines of "Alanic" phrases appearing in the "Theogony" of John Tzetzes, a 12th century Byzantine poet and grammarian:


title: Ossetian language

text: The portions in bold face above are Ossetian. Going beyond a direct transliteration of the Greek text, scholars have attempted a phonological reconstruction using the Greek as clues, thus, while τ (tau) would usually be given the value "t", it instead is "d", which is thought to be the way the early Ossetes would have pronounced it. The scholarly transliteration of the Alanic phrases is: "dӕ ban xʷӕrz, mӕ sfili, (ӕ)xsinjӕ kurθi kӕndӕ" and "du farnitz, kintzӕ mӕ sfili, kajci fӕ wa sawgin?"; equivalents in modern Ossetian would be ""Dӕ bon xwarz, me’fšini ‘xšinӕ, kurdigӕj dӕ?"" and ""(De’) f(s)arm neč(ij), kinźi ӕfšini xӕcc(ӕ) (ku) fӕwwa sawgin"". The passage translates as:


title: Ossetian language

text: Marginalia of Greek religious books, with some parts (such as headlines) of the book translated into Old Ossetic, have recently been found.


title: Ossetian language

text: It is theorized that during the Proto-Ossetic phase, Ossetian underwent a process of phonological change conditioned by a "Rhythmusgesetz" or "Rhythm-law" whereby nouns were divided into two classes, those heavily or lightly stressed. "Heavy-stem" nouns possessed a "heavy" long vowel or diphthong, and were stressed on the first-occurring syllable of this type; "light-stem" nouns were stressed on their final syllable. This is precisely the situation observed in the earliest (though admittedly scanty) records of Ossetian presented above. This situation also obtains in Modern Ossetian, although the emphasis in Digor is also affected by the "openness" of the vowel. The trend is also found in a glossary of the Jassic dialect dating from 1422.


title: Ossetian language

text: There are two important dialects: Digoron (distributed in the west of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and Kabardino-Balkaria) and Iron (in the rest of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania and in South Ossetia and Karachay-Cherkessia), spoken by one-sixth and five-sixths of the population, respectively. A third dialect of Ossetian, Jassic, was formerly spoken in Hungary.


title: Ossetian language

text: The Ossetian researcher V. I. Abayev postulates 26 plain consonants for Ossetian, to which five labialized consonants and two semivowels may be added. Unusually for an Indo-European language, there is a series of glottalized (ejective) stops and affricates. This may constitute an areal feature of languages of the Caucasus.


title: Ossetian language

text: Voiceless consonants become voiced word-medially (this is reflected in the orthography as well). , , and were originally allophones of , , and when followed by , and ; this alternation is still retained to a large extent.


title: Ossetian language

text: Stress normally falls on the first syllable, unless it contains a central vowel ( or ), in which case stress falls on the second syllable. Thus, "су́дзаг|súdzag" /ˈsud͡zag/ 'burning', but "cӕнӕ́фсыр/sænǽfsyr" /sɐˈnɐfsɘr/ 'grapes'. In addition, proper names are usually stressed on the second syllable regardless of their vowels, and recent Russian loanwords retain the stress they have in the source language.


title: Ossetian language

text: In the Iron dialect, definiteness is expressed in words with stress on second syllable by shifting the stress to the initial syllable. This reflects the fact that historically they received a syllabic definite article (as they still do in the Digor dialect), and the addition of the syllable caused the stress to shift. The above patterns apply not just within the content word, rather to prosodic words, units that result from content words being joined into a single prosodic group with only one stress. Not only compound verbs, but also every noun phrase constitutes such a group containing only one stressed syllable, regardless of its length, for instance "мӕ чи́ныг/mӕ čínyg" /mɐˈt͡ʃinɘg/ 'my book', "мӕгуы́р зӕронд лӕг/mæguýr zærond læg" /mɐˈgwɘr zɐrond lɐg/ 'a poor old man'. Since an initial particle and a conjunction are also included in the prosodic group, the single stress of the group may fall on them, too: "фӕлӕ́ уый/fælǽ uyj" 'but he'.


title: Ossetian language

text: 1.In derivation or compounding, stems containing vowels /a o / <а o> change to the central vowel /ɐ/ <ӕ>, whereas those containing /i u/ < и/I у/u> may be replaced with /ɘ/:


title: Ossetian language

text: 2. Sequences /ɐ/ + /i/ ("ӕ + и/i)", /ɐ/ + /ə/ ("ӕ + ы/y)," and /ɐ/ + /ɐ/ ("ӕ + ӕ)" assimilate, yielding the vowel /е/ <e>.


title: Ossetian language

text: 3. the palatalisation of the velars "к (k)" to "ч (č)", "г (g)" to "дж (dž)" and "къ (kh)" to "чъ (čh)" before the (currently or historically) front vowels, namely "е (e)", "и (i)" and "ы (y)", for instance "карк (kark)" 'hen' — "карчы (karčy)" 'hen (genitive)'.


title: Ossetian language

text: 4. the voicing of voiceless consonants in voiced environments: "тых (tyx)" 'strength' — "ӕмдых (æmdyx)" 'of equal strength'.


title: Ossetian language

text: 5. consonant gemination in certain grammatical forms, such as after the prefix "ны (ny-)" and before the suffixes "-ag" and "-on".


title: Ossetian language

text: Ossetic has lost the grammatical category of gender which many Indo-European languages have preserved until today.


title: Ossetian language

text: According to the Encyclopӕdia Britannica 2006 Ossetian preserves many archaic features of Old Iranian, such as eight cases and verbal prefixes. It is debated how many of these cases are actually inherited from Indo-Iranian case morphemes and how many have re-developed, after the loss of the original case forms, through cliticization of adverbs or re-interpretations of derivational suffixes: the number of "inherited" cases according to different scholars ranges from as few as three (nominative, genitive and inessive) to as many as six (nominative, dative, ablative, directive, inessive). Some (the comitative, equative, and adessive) are secondary beyond any doubt.


title: Ossetian language

text: Definiteness in the Iron dialect is, according to Abaev, only expressed by shift of word accent from the second to the first syllable (which is not possible in all nouns):


title: Ossetian language

text: Erschler reported in 2021 that he has been unable to replicate Abaev's observations of a distinction between definite and indefinite nouns in Iron.


title: Ossetian language

text: There is only one plural suffix for the nominal parts of speech, -т(ӕ) "-t(ӕ)", with the vowel ӕ "ӕ" occurring in the nominative case (see "Cases" below): e.g. сӕр "sӕr" 'head' - сӕртӕ "sӕrtӕ" 'heads'. Nevertheless, the complexity of the system is increased to some extent by the fact that this suffixation may be accompanied by a number of morphophonemic alternations. A svarabhakti vowel ы "y" is normally inserted after stems ending in a cluster (цӕст "cӕst" 'flower' - цӕстытӕ "cӕstytӕ" 'flowers'), but there are also numerous exceptions from this. This insertion of ы "y" regularly palatalises preceding velars to affricates in Iron: чызг "čyzg" 'girl' - чызджытӕ "čyzdžytӕ" 'girls'. In words ending in -ӕг "ӕg", the vowel is usually elided in the plural, making the stem eligible for the above-mentioned svarabhakti insertion: барӕг "barӕg" 'rider' - барджытӕ "bardžytӕ" 'riders'. The same happens in words ending in -ыг "-yg", but the consonant is also labialised there: мӕсыг "mӕsyg" - мӕсгуытӕ "mӕsguytӕ". The vowels а "a" and о "o" in closed syllables are weakened to ӕ "ӕ" before the suffix - фарс "fars" 'side' - фӕрстӕ "fӕrstӕ" 'sides'; this happens regularly in polysyllabic words, but with many exceptions in monosyllabic ones. Finally, the suffix consonant is geminated after sonorants: хӕдзар "xӕdzar" 'house' - хӕдзӕрттӕ "xӕdzӕrttӕ" 'houses'.


title: Ossetian language

text: Nouns and adjectives share the same morphology and distinguish two numbers (singular and plural) and nine cases: nominative, genitive, dative, directive, ablative, inessive, adessive, equative, and comitative. The nominal morphology is agglutinative: the case suffixes and the number suffix are separate, the case suffixes are the same for both numbers and the number suffix is the same for all cases (illustrated here for the Iron dialect with the noun сӕр "sӕr" "head"):


title: Ossetian language

text: Since inessive and genitive show the same forms in both numbers, it is sometimes debated whether Ossetian might possess eight case forms for each number instead of nine. If the addition of the case suffix would result in hiatus, the consonant й "j" is usually inserted between them: зӕрдӕ-й-ӕн "zærdæ-j-æn" 'heart (dative)'.


title: Ossetian language

text: There is no morphological distinction between adjectives and nouns in Ossetian. The suffix -дӕр "-dær" can express the meaning of a comparative degree: рӕсугъддӕр "ræsuhddær" 'more beautiful'. It, too, can be added to typical nouns: лӕг "læg" 'man' - лӕгдӕр "lægdær" 'more of a man, more manly'.


title: Ossetian language

text: The personal pronouns mostly take the same endings as the nouns. The 1st and 2nd person singular exhibit suppletion between the stem used in the nominative case and the stem used in the other (oblique) cases; the oblique stem without other endings is the genitive case form. The 1st and 2nd persons plural have only one stem each, functioning as both nominative and genitive. The third person pronoun coincides with the demonstrative 'that'. In addition, there are enclitic non-nominative forms of the pronouns of all three persons, which are somewhat deviant. Their genitive ends in -ӕ "-ӕ"; not only the inessive, but also the ablative coincides with the genitive; the allative ends in -м "-m" and the dative has the vowel -у- "-y-" before the ending (e.g. мын "myn"); and the comitative has the vowel -е- "-e-" (e.g. мемӕ "memӕ"). The 3rd singular stem has the doublet forms йV- "jV-" and "∅V-" everywhere outside of the ablative and inessive, which appears as дзы "dzy", and the comitative, which can only have йV- "jV-".


title: Ossetian language

text: Reflexive forms are constructed from the enclitic forms of the personal pronouns and the reflexive pronoun хӕдӕг "xӕdӕg" 'self' (with the oblique forms хиц- "xic-" in the dative and ablative, хиу- "xiu-" in the adessive and хи "xi" in the other cases).


title: Ossetian language

text: There are two demonstratives - ай "aj" (stem а- "a-", pl. адон "adon") 'this' and (stem уы- "uy-", pl. уыдон ) 'that'. The interrogative pronouns are чи "či" (oblique stem кӕ- "kӕ-") 'who' and сы "cy" (oblique stem сӕ- "cӕ-"). Indefinite pronouns meaning "any-" and "some-" are formed from the interrogatives by means of the prefix ис- "is-" and the suffix -дӕр "-dӕr", respectively. Negatives are formed similarly, but with the prefix ни- "ni-"; the totality prefix ('every-') is ал- "al-", and ӕлы "ӕly" is used adjectivally. Other pronouns meaning 'all' are ӕгас "ӕgas" and ӕппӕт "ӕppӕt". There are two pronouns meaning 'other': иннӕ "innӕ" for 'another of two, a definite other one' and ӕндӕр "ӕndӕr" for 'some other, an indefinite other one'.


title: Ossetian language

text: Verbs distinguish six persons (1st, 2nd and 3rd, singular and plural), three tenses (present, past and future, all expressed synthetically), three moods (indicative, subjunctive, imperative), and belong to one of two grammatical aspects (perfective and imperfective). The person, tense and mood morphemes are mostly fused. The following description is of Iron.


title: Ossetian language

text: Each verb has a present stem and a past stem (similar in practice to Persian), the latter normally being identical to the past participle. The past stem commonly differs from the present stem by adding т "t" or д "d" (e.g. дар- "dar-" : дард- "dard-" 'to hold'; уарз- : уарзт 'to love'), or, more rarely, -ст "-st" (e.g. бар- "bar" : барст- "barst" 'weigh') or -ыд "yd" (зар- "zar-" : зарыд- 'sing'; nonetheless, the past participle of this type is still formed with -д/т "t/d": зард- "zard-"). However, there are usually various other vowel and consonant changes as well. Some of the most common vowel alternations are ӕ "ӕ" : а "a" (e.g. кӕс- "kӕs" : каст- "kast-" 'look'), и "i" : ы "y" (e.g. риз- "riz-" : рызт- "ryzt-" 'tremble'), and у "u" : ы "y" (e.g. дзур- "dzur-" : дзырд- "dzyrd-" 'speak'); some other alternations are a "a" : ӕ "ӕ" (mostly in bisyllabic stems, e.g. араз- "araz-" : арӕз- "arӕz-" 'make'), ау "au" : ы "y", ӕу "ӕu" : ы "y", and о "o" : ы "y". Frequent consonant changes are -д "d", -т "t", -тт "tt", -нд "nd", -нт "nt" > -ст "st" (e.g. кӕрд- "kӕrd-" : карст "karst" 'cut'), -дз "dz", -ц "-c", -ндз "-ndz", -нц "-nc" > -гъд "hd" (лидз- "lidz-" : лыгъд- 'run away'), elision of a final н "n" or м "m" (e.g. нӕм "nӕm" : над "nad"). Suppletion is found in the stem pair дӕттын "dӕttyn" : лӕвӕрд "lӕvӕrd" 'give'. It is also seen in the copula, whose past stem is уыд- "uyd-", whereas the present forms are highly irregular and begin in д- "d-", ст- "st-" оr in a vowel (see below).


title: Ossetian language

text: There are also many related transitive-intransitive verb pairs, which also differ by means of a vowel alternation (commonly а "a" : ӕ "ӕ", e.g. сафын 'lose' : сӕфын "sӕfyn" 'be lost', and у "u" : уы "uy", e.g. хъусын 'hear' : хъуысын 'be heard') and sometimes by the addition of the consonant -с "s" (тавын 'to warm' : тафсын 'to be warm').


title: Ossetian language

text: The future tense forms consist of the present stem, the element -дзы(н)- ~ -дзӕн- (originally a separate root meaning 'wish' according to Fredrik Thordarson) and endings which appear to derive from encliticised copula уын "uyn" 'be' (see above table) used as an auxiliary. Thus, the resulting composite endings are:


title: Ossetian language

text: The past tense uses the past stem. The endings, however, are different for intransitive and transitive verbs. The intransitive endings are:


title: Ossetian language

text: The construction appears to be, in origin, a periphrastic combination of the past passive participle and the copula; that is why the endings are similar to the ones added to -дзы(н)- in the future tense.


title: Ossetian language

text: Remarkably, these forms actually derive from the old past "subjunctive" rather than the indicative (which is why the endings still almost entirely coincide with those of the future subjunctive, apart from the initial consonant т "t"). The variable -т- "-t" of the transitive as well as the intransitive past endings appear in verbs whose present stem ends in vowels and sonorants (й "j", у "u", р "r", л "l", м "m", н "n"), since only these consonants are phonotactically compatible with a following sequence -дт- "dt", which would normally arise from the combinations of the dentals of the stem and the ending: e.g. кал-д-т-он "kal-d-t-on" 'I poured', but саф-т-он "saf-t-on" 'I lost'.


title: Ossetian language

text: In addition, a т "t" is added before the ending in transitive verbs. The future forms derive from the historical subjunctive and the others from the historical optative. In spite of some nuances and tendencies reflecting from their historical functions, there is a lot of overlap between the uses of the 'present-future' and the 'future' subjunctive (desire, possibility etc.), but a clear contrast between the two is found in conditional clauses, where the former expresses unreal conditions and the latter - real ones.


title: Ossetian language

text: Passive voice is expressed periphrastically with the past passive participle and an auxiliary verb цӕуын "cӕuyn" 'to go': аразын 'build' – арӕзт цӕуын "arӕzt cӕuyn" 'be built'; causative meaning is also expressed periphrastically by combining the infinitive and the verb кӕнын "kӕnyn" 'to do': e.g. бадын 'to sit' - бадын кӕнын 'to seat'. Reflexive meaning is expressed by adding the reflexive pronoun хи "xi": дасын 'to shave (something, somebody)' – хи дасын 'shave oneself'.


title: Ossetian language

text: Somewhat similarly to the Slavic languages, verbs belong to one of two lexical aspects: perfective vs. imperfective, and the aspects are most commonly expressed by prefixes of prepositional origin, which simultaneously express direction or other abstract meanings: цӕуын "cӕuyn" 'go (imperf.)' - рацӕуын "racӕuyn" 'go out (perf.). The directional prefixes simultaneously express ventive or andative direction:


title: Ossetian language

text: In addition, these prefixes may express small aspectual nuances: а- "a-" is used for rapid, brief and superficial motion, арба- "arba-" also for rapid and sudden action, ба- "ba-" for more substantial action, ны- "ny-" for especially intensive action, while фӕ- "fӕ-" can express habituality in the present and either repetition or rapidity and brevity in the past. A morphophonological peculiarity of the prefixes is that when they are added to roots beginning in the vowel а "a", as well as to the copula's form ис "is", the consonant ц "c" is epenthesised: фӕ-ц-ис "fӕ-c-is" 'became (3rd person)'. The prefix ны "ny" also causes gemination of the following consonant: кӕлын "kӕlyn" 'pour' - ныккӕлын "nykkӕlyn" 'spill'.


title: Ossetian language

text: Iterativity or habituality may be expressed with the separate particle иу iu. To make a prefixed form receive imperfective meaning, the article цӕй cӕj is inserted: рацӕйцыди "racӕjcydy" 'he was going out'.


title: Ossetian language

text: There is an infinitive, four participles (present and past active, past passive, and future), and a gerund.


title: Ossetian language

text: The infinitive is formed from the present stem with the ending -ын "-yn", which phonologically coincides with the 1st person singular: цӕуын "cӕuyn" 'to go' (and 'I go').


title: Ossetian language

text: The past passive participle in -т "t" or -д "d" coincides with the past stem (фыссын 'write' – фыст "fyst" 'written'); it is often nominalised to a verbal noun. All the other participles, as well as the gerund, are formed from the present stem. The future participle in -инаг -"inag" may have either active or passive meaning: фыссинаг 'who will write / will be written'. Together with the copula used as an auxiliary, it forms a periphrastic immediate future tense. The dedicated active participles in -ӕг "-ӕg" and receive 'present' or 'past', or more accurately, imperfective or perfective meaning depending on the aspect of the stem: фыссӕг "fyssӕg" 'writing' – ныффыссӕг 'having written'. The participle-gerund form ending in -гӕ "-gӕ" (бадгӕ "badgӕ" '(while) sitting'), can be used adverbially, as a gerund, but also attributively like a participle with absolutive voice: кӕрдгӕ "kӕrdgӕ" may mean '(which has been) cut', судзгӕ "sudzgӕ" may mean '(which is) burning', etc. To receive an unambiguously adverbial, i.e. gerundial interpretation, it needs to be declined in the ablative case, as does an adjective: бадгӕйӕ "badgӕjӕ" '(while) sitting'. There are also verbal nouns: one derived from the present stem with the suffix -ӕн "-ӕn" with the meaning 'fit to be X-ed' - e.g. зын ссарӕн "zyn ssarӕn" 'hard to find' - and one in -аг "-ag" denoting permanent quality - e.g. нуазаг "nuazag" 'drunkard'.


title: Ossetian language

text: Ossetic uses mostly postpositions (derived from nouns), although two prepositions exist in the language. Noun modifiers precede nouns. The word order is not rigid, but tends towards SOV. Wackernagel's law applies. The morphosyntactic alignment is nominative–accusative, although there is no accusative case: rather, the direct object is in the nominative (typically if inanimate or indefinite) or in the genitive (typically if animate or definite).


title: Ossetian language

text: For numerals above 20, two systems are in use – a decimal one used officially, and a vigesimal one used colloquially. The vigesimal system was predominant in traditional usage. The decimal one is said to have been used in pre-modern times by shepherds who had borrowed it from the Balkars, but it came into more general use only after its introduction in Ossetian schools in 1925 to facilitate the teaching of arithmetic. For example, 40 is цыппор (from цыппар 'four') and 60 is ӕхсӕй "æxsaj" (from ӕхсӕз "æxsæz" 'six') in the decimal system, whereas the vigesimal designations are дыууиссӕдзы "dywwissædzy" (from дыууӕ "dywwæ" 'two' and ссӕдз "ssædz" 'twenty') and ӕртиссӕдзы "ærtissædzy" (from ӕртӕ "ærtæ" 'three' and ссӕдз "ssædz" 'twenty'). In the same way, the inherited decimal сӕдӕ "sædæ" 'one hundred' has the vigesimal equivalent фондзыссӕдзы "fondzyssædzy" ('5 times twenty'). An additional difference is that the decimal system places tens before units (35 is ӕртын фондз "ærtyn fondz" '30 + 5'), whereas the vigesimal uses the opposite order (35 is фынддӕс ӕмӕ сӕндз "fynddæs æmæ ssædz" '15 + 20'). Ordinal numbers are formed with the suffix -ӕм "-æm", or, for the first three numbers, -аг "-ag".


title: Ossetian language

text: An Old Ossetic Greek Script inscription of the 10th–12th centuries is found in Arxyz, the oldest known attestation of the Ossetian language.


title: Ossetian language

text: Written Ossetian may be immediately recognized by its use of the Cyrillic letter Ae (Ӕ ӕ), a letter to be found in no other language using Cyrillic script. The father of the modern Ossetian literary language is the national poet Kosta Khetagurov (1859–1906).


title: Ossetian language

text: An Iron literary language was established in the 18th century, written using the Cyrillic script in Russia and the Georgian script in Georgia. The first Ossetian book was published in Cyrillic in 1798, and in 1844 the alphabet was revised by a Russian scientist of Finland-Swedish origin, Andreas Sjögren. A new alphabet based on the Latin script was made official in the 1920s, but in 1937 a revised Cyrillic alphabet was introduced, with digraphs replacing most diacritics of the 1844 alphabet.


title: Ossetian language

text: In 1820, I. Yalguzidze published a Georgian-script alphabetic primer, adding three letters to the Georgian alphabet. The Georgian orthography receded in the 19th century, but was made official with Georgian autonomy in 1937. The "one nation – two alphabets" issue caused discontent in South Ossetia in the year 1951 demanding reunification of the script, and in 1954 Georgian was replaced with the 1937 Cyrillic alphabet.


title: Ossetian language

text: The table below shows the modern Cyrillic alphabet, used since 1937, with phonetic values for the Iron dialect in the IPA. Di- and tri-graphs in parentheses are not officially letters of the alphabet, but are listed here to represent phonemically distinctive sounds:


title: Ossetian language

text: In addition, the letters and were used to transcribe Russian words. The "weak" vowels and are among the most common vowels in the language.


title: Ossetian language

text: The first printed book in Ossetian was a short catechism published in Moscow in 1798. The first newspaper, "Iron Gâžêt", appeared on July 23, 1906, in Vladikavkaz.


title: Ossetian language

text: While Ossetian is the official language in both South and North Ossetia (along with Russian), its official use is limited to publishing new laws in Ossetian newspapers. There are two daily newspapers in Ossetian: "Ræstdzinad" (Рӕстдзинад / Рӕстꚉінад, "Truth") in the North and "Xurzærin" (Хурзӕрин, "The Sun") in the South. Some smaller newspapers, such as district newspapers, use Ossetian for some articles. There is a monthly magazine "Max dug" (Мах дуг, "Our era"), mostly devoted to contemporary Ossetian fiction and poetry.


title: Ossetian language

text: Ossetian is taught in secondary schools for all pupils. Native Ossetian speakers also take courses in Ossetian literature.


title: Ossetian language

text: The first Ossetian language Bible was published in 2010. It is currently the only full version of the Bible in the Ossetian language. In May, 2021, the Russian Bible Society announced the completion of a Bible translation into Ossetian; fundraising continues in order to have it printed.


title: Banoffee pie

text: Banoffee pie is a British dessert pie made from bananas, whipped cream and a thick caramel sauce (made from boiled condensed milk, or dulce de leche), combined either on a buttery biscuit base or one made from crumbled biscuits and butter. Some versions of the recipe also include chocolate, coffee or both.


title: Banoffee pie

text: Credit for the pie's invention is claimed by Nigel Mackenzie and Ian Dowding,<ref name="iandowding/true-banoffi"></ref><ref name="nytimes/1020360"></ref> the owner and chef, respectively, of The Hungry Monk Restaurant in Jevington, East Sussex, England (now closed). They claim<ref name="iandowding/inventor-Banoffi"></ref> to have based the dessert, in 1971, on a San Francisco recipe, that they could not consistently copy,<ref name="greatbritishlife/22569166"></ref> for "Blum's Coffee Toffee Pie", using Dulce de leche, a soft toffee made by boiling an unopened can of condensed milk for several hours. After trying various changes including the addition of apple or mandarin orange, Mackenzie suggested banana and Dowding later said that "straight away we knew we had got it right". Mackenzie suggested the name "Banoffi Pie", and the dish proved so popular with their customers that they "couldn't take it off" the menu.


title: Banoffee pie

text: The recipe was published in "The Deeper Secrets of the Hungry Monk" in 1974, and reprinted in the 1997 cookbook "In Heaven with The Hungry Monk". Dowding has stated that his "pet hates are biscuit crumb bases and that horrible cream in aerosols". It was Margaret Thatcher's favourite food to cook.


title: Banoffee pie

text: In 1975, a "Pecan Bottom Chocolate Toffee Pie with Mocha Whipped Cream" at Mecklenburg Gardens, in Cincinnati became popular.<ref name="dannwoellertthefoodetymologist/coffee-toffee-pie"></ref>


title: Banoffee pie

text: Similar recipes were adopted by other restaurants throughout the world. In 1984, a number of supermarkets began selling it as an American pie, leading Nigel Mackenzie to offer a £10,000 prize to anyone who could disprove their claim to be the English inventors.


title: Banoffee pie

text: The word "Banoffee" entered the English language and became used to describe any food or product that tastes or smells of both banana and toffee. A recipe for the pie, using a biscuit crumb base, is often printed on tins of Nestlé's condensed milk, although that recipe calls for the contents of the tin to be boiled with additional butter and sugar instead of boiling the unopened tin – presumably for safety reasons, as tins of Nestlé Carnation Condensed Milk bear the following warning: "CAUTION - Do not boil unopened can as bursting may occur."


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: The Billionaire Boys Club was an investing and social club organized in 1983 by Joseph Henry Hunt (born Joseph Henry Gamsky) in Southern California. It was originally simply named "BBC", the initials of Bombay Bicycle Club, a restaurant Hunt had frequented as a young man in Chicago. The "get rich quick" investments the group offered to clients added up to what was essentially one big Ponzi scheme.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: The club enticed the sons of wealthy families from the Harvard School for Boys (now Harvard-Westlake School; not affiliated with Harvard University) in the Los Angeles area with get-rich-quick schemes. Due to the reputation of the organization for being composed of young, inexperienced men from moneyed families, it was jokingly referred to as the "Billionaire Boys' Club". Hunt himself came from a single-parent family in the lower-middle-class suburb of Van Nuys, and was able to attend the Harvard School only with the help of scholarships.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: In 1984, Hunt was arrested for murdering Ron Levin, the group's main investor and himself a con artist, and Hedayat Eslaminia, the father of one of the club's members.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: The organization was run as a Ponzi scheme, and money contributed by investors was spent on supporting lavish lifestyles for young members of the club.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: Hunt and club security director Jim Pittman were charged with the murder of Levin, a con artist who had allegedly swindled the BBC out of over $4 million. Levin's body was never found, and Hunt maintains that Levin, who was under criminal investigation and out on bail at the time of his disappearance, instead fled the country to escape prosecution.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: When authorities began to investigate the murders, Dean Karny, the club's second-in-command and Hunt's best friend, turned state's evidence on both murders in return for immunity from prosecution on three different felony charges in exchange for testimony.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: BBC members Hunt, Pittman, Karny (before his immunity deal), Arben Dosti, and Reza Eslaminia were charged with the murder of Hedayat Eslaminia, Reza's father. They allegedly killed him to acquire his fortune, which was reputed to be $35 million (the senior Eslaminia was, in fact, nearly penniless).


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: During his trial for the murder of Levin, Hunt's defense attorney presented two witnesses, Carmen Canchola and Jesus Lopez, who testified that they saw Levin after his alleged murder, in September 1986 at a gas station in Tucson, Arizona. Canchola and Lopez identified pictures of Levin from multiple photographic lineups as the same man they had seen at the gas station. In 1987 a Southern California Court found Hunt guilty of Levin's 1984 murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: Pittman was unable to make $500,000 bail ($ million today), so he was kept incarcerated through two Southern California trials for his active role in the murder of Levin. Both ended in hung juries. In 1988, before a third trial, prosecutors offered Pittman a deal, whereby he pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact and possession of a concealed weapon, and was sentenced to time served, being the years he was incarcerated since his 1984 arrest.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: The trials for the murder of Hedayat Eslaminia were held in Northern California. With the testimony of accomplice Karny, both Dosti and Reza Eslaminia were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Dosti and Reza Eslaminia both were released on appeal using evidence from Hunt's second trial, and Hunt was also acquitted of the Eslaminia murder charge.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: Hunt and Pitman's trials for murdering Levin had delayed their trials for murdering Eslaminia, with other pre-trial motions pushing Hunt's Northern California trial to 1992. Hunt acted as his own attorney during this trial and contended that star witness Karny had killed Eslaminia. The result was a hung jury, 8–4, in favor of Hunt's acquittal. Hunt is the only person in California legal history to represent himself in a capital case and not receive the death penalty. When prosecutors realized they likely could convict neither Hunt nor Pittman, they dismissed all charges against Hunt and Pittman in the murder of Eslaminia.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: On May 20, 1993, a few months after all charges were dropped against him in the Eslaminia case, Jim Pittman admitted on the television program "A Current Affair" to have participated in the Levin murder, confessing that he was the one who shot Levin and bragging that he was now untouchable in court due to the restriction on double jeopardy. Pittman, granted release with time served in two murders, died of kidney failure in 1997, age 44.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: Hunt maintains that Levin's con artistry extends to having faked his own death, as no body was found in the case. At the time of his disappearance, Levin was free on bail and awaiting trial, and Hunt's defense team argued that Levin left the country to escape a pending FBI investigation into his financial misdeeds.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: After Hunt's conviction, eight witnesses came forward stating that they had seen Ron Levin alive in various locations in 1986 and 1987, including Greece and Los Angeles. One witness, Nadia Ghaleb, who was acquainted with Levin, testified that she saw him getting into a car on San Vicente Boulevard in West Los Angeles; another, Ivan Werner, who worked as a funeral director at Pierce Brothers Funeral Home in Westwood, testified that he saw Levin attending a funeral.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: In his appeal, Hunt's defense counsel argued that key facts were withheld from jurors during his original trial for Levin's murder. These include Levin's "habit of writing large, worthless checks," his conversations with witnesses about plans to leave for New York or for Granada, Spain, and a conversation with another witness requesting advice on how to dye his hair. Defense attorneys also pointed out that Levin had restructured his already-made bail arrangements to release his parents from liability, and asked one witness for information about Brazilian extradition treaties. There was also a purchase made using Levin's American Express card on the day after the murder was thought to have taken place, of underwear from the Brooks Brothers store in Los Angeles, where Levin was known to shop.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: As of September 2018, Hunt's family has offered a $100,000 reward for evidence of Levin's whereabouts after June 6, 1984.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: On the basis of multiple witness statements that Levin had been seen alive, and claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and judicial misconduct, Hunt sought to have his murder conviction overturned and get a new trial.Hunt's direct appeal was denied on July 12, 1996. However, in a federal habeas proceeding in 2004, Hunt's continuing effort to have his murder conviction overturned was revived, as the Ninth Circuit reversed a dismissal of his habeas petition. But this appeal, too, was ultimately unsuccessful.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: In June 2016, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the Central District of California's denial of Hunt's habeas corpus petition. In its affirmance, the court noted that "fairminded jurists could disagree" as to whether Hunt's trial lawyer was ineffective in his defense of Hunt, but cited the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996's "doubly deferential lens" in its refusal to overturn the Central District's decision.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: In January 2018, Hunt filed an application for commutation of his sentence, which would change it from life without possibility of parole to an indeterminate life term, which would give Hunt the opportunity to prove his rehabilitation before a parole board.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: The petition notes that in prison, Hunt "is a different person: a chapel assistant and law clerk," and "a voice for nonviolence". The petition also describes Hunt's in-custody record of conduct as "exceptional" and details his founding and facilitation of a men's spiritual group at the California State Prison in Sacramento where Hunt was imprisoned until 2012.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: In September 2018, Hunt's family and friends launched the website FreeJoeHunt.com in support of his release.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: In 1987, NBC aired a miniseries based on the story of the Billionaire Boys Club, starring Judd Nelson as Joe Hunt, Brian McNamara as Dean Karny, and Ron Silver as Ron Levin. Hunt was the basis for Philip Swann, a character in the "Law & Order" Season 4 episode "American Dream," which was subsequently adapted into the "" episode "Unsafe". The Billionaire Boys Club is also the topic of two books: "The Billionaire Boys Club" by Sue Horton and "The Price of Experience" by Randall Sullivan. The murders are also the subject of the song "Things to Do Today" by Chicago band Big Black.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: On July 17, 2002, TruTV aired an episode of "Dominick Dunne's Power, Privilege and Justice" titled "Billionaire Boys Club", presented by author Dominick Dunne, which summarized the events surrounding the "club" and the kidnapping, murders, and trials. Investigation Discovery's "Behind Mansion Walls" revisited the case in the 2011 episode "Fatal Greed".


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: A feature film titled "Billionaire Boys Club" starring Ansel Elgort as Joe Hunt, Taron Egerton as Dean Karny, and Kevin Spacey as Ron Levin was released in 2018. The film debuted to a dismal opening night, grossing a meager $126.00, mainly due to the involvement of Spacey, who months earlier had been accused of several instances of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Judd Nelson, who played Hunt in the 1987 miniseries, played Hunt's father.


title: Billionaire Boys Club

text: The true-crime podcast series "Hollywood & Crime", narrated by actor Timothy Olyphant, covered the subject in the summer of 2020.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Sega producer Toshihiro Nagoshi created Kiryu alongside Hase Seishū, a novelist who helped write the plotlines of the series' first two games. Nagoshi stated he was created to appeal to a broad audience. Kiryu was the sole playable character for the first three games; in the next three, additional playable characters are included, causing him to take on a smaller role. The series' seventh main installment, "", is the final game to feature him as a playable character (and he is the only one in the game), and concludes his story arc. While Kiryu still makes an appearance, stars a new protagonist.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Critical reception to Kiryu has been generally positive. Several critics have praised how Kiryu, despite his history as a yakuza, stood out because of his kindness and character development across the series' story. Kiryu is also often considered a PlayStation mascot. On the other hand, he has also been viewed as a somewhat typical gaming protagonist.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: In creating Kazuma Kiryu, there were some issues regarding how realistic his position and age were. Writer Hasei Seishu told the staff the positions were too high for his age and thus Kiryu's age was revised. When describing Kiryu, the staff found his position would be of the noble samurai type who would often protect others. According to Sega producer Toshihiro Nagoshi, dragons have a strong image about them, and that when players sample it, they would, as the title suggests, get a feel for the strength and manliness of the main character. Although Kiryu is the player character for "Yakuza", Nagoshi refrained from calling him the protagonist as the narrative was focused on the character Haruka Sawamura who has a character arc instead in the game. The same basis was used for "Yakuza 2" where the narrative focuses more on the new character Kaoru Sayama rather than Kiryu.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: When the spin-off "Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!" was released, he commented that the tale of Kazuma Kiryu had yet to be completed. As a result, he had Kiryu and Haruka trying to live a "more 'human' life" throughout "Yakuza 3". For this game Toshihiro Nagoshi stated Kiryu was highly different from an iconic hero as a result of the way he enjoys his life. Furthermore, Nagoshi said this difference is shown across the series. Nagoshi thanked staff member Yokoyama that the team could further develop Kiryu's appeal across the franchise. The inclusion of Kiryu running an orphanage for "Yakuza 3" was enjoyed by Yokoyama despite rewriting this subplot multiple times. Originally, Kiryu was meant to go to prison once again but because it was going to be obvious they changed his story in this game. Due to Kiryu taking care of the orphans, Yokoyama feared the character became too kind. Initially, there were issues in regards to how Kiryu would act in the game within the Sega staff. Designer Ryosuke Horii came across with the idea of expanding the idea of minigames to the point the character would do karaoke or go fishing if the player wanted. This was discouraged by Sega as it would make Kiryu be out of character, especially his actor. Horii defended his idea as Kiryu had been viewed a permanently frowning man and by doing this minigames, Kiryu would come across as a cooler character. Soon Horii's idea was approved by Nagoshi among other members from the team at least as a try.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Across all these games, the development team developed a sturdy understanding of his personality, and there was a lot of effort put into making the character attractive to the audiences as a result of being the only playable character. By "Yakuza 4", Kiryu was seen as "indestructible" by the staff, and as a result, he was made the last character playable in the game, following three new characters that stood out thanks to their different traits. In localizing the games, the character was often referred to by his first name, but by "Yakuza 4", producer Yasuhiro Noguchi made him most commonly called Kiryu in an attempt to make him fit with the other main characters also called by their last names. For "Yakuza 5", while once again there were other protagonists alongside Kiryu, a new one, Haruka, was added as playable for the first time in order to make her character arc connect with the role of Kiryu and the other characters. Kiryu was made into a taxi driver but in a new city where he is not known by other people, this was done by the staff as they thought it would be the best choice for him.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: For the prequel "Yakuza 0" Sega wanted to make Goro Majima stand out from the Kiryu as in this title the two share the role of protagonists. Sega described Kiryu as a "straight man trait – tough but honorable and keeps to himself a bit" implying there are not too many difficulties in writing him. Through this game and the remake of the first game, "Kiwami", the relationship between Kiryu and Majima becomes more explored in contrast to the initial game of the franchise, most notably because of the changes made to Majima's characterization and the way he sees Kiryu's actions while being both friends and enemies at the same time. "Yakuza 0" also served as a story of Kiryu that Sega wanted players to know before reaching "Yakuza 6". Kiryu's traits in "Yakuza 0" were specifically changed to a "loose-cannon hot-head" to the point long time fans would be surprised by his actions. However, chief Masayoshi Yokoyama stated the character would mature across the storyline. Despite Kiryu's fame, Sato noted that players ended up enjoying Majima far more in the franchise.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: During development of "Yakuza 4", the staff started wondering how would they end Kiryu's story as, unlike other video game characters, he did not possess supernatural powers. They compared the character with James Bond whose actor changed multiple times across his movies. Describing him as "a super-cool and masculine guy, but since he's a well-established character with a specific personality, there are things that he would and wouldn't do" the team decided he would need a successor who would bring the staff more creativity to work with. In late 2016, Nagoshi claimed he had been doing Kazuma's story for nearly a decade, stating "it had its pros and cons". He concluded saying "I also think that's a way to give back to Kazuma Kiryu. Sooner or later, I want to announce something different." In April 2017 Sega confirmed that while "Yakuza 6" will end Kiryu's story, the series will still go on. Deciding to bring the last tale Kiryu with "Yakuza 6", the staff wanted to do the game as appealing as possible. The game focuses on the family relationship between Kiryu and Haruka after years of being separated.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: English voice actor Darryl Kurylo said that he wanted to sound as good as possible after being impressed by the characterization of Kiryu and the lines he had to give. However, he regrets some lines were lost in translation of the original game. Nevertheless, Kurylo enjoyed the experience to the point of playing the game multiple times alongside his son. In order to fit the lipsyncing from the original Japanese game, Kurylo often had to say a line in different styles. Kurylo still found more fun when doing the yells for the fight scenes.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Nogashi was impressed by Kiryu's Japanese voice actor, Takaya Kuroda, due to how he sang in the music minigame. Another staff member, Sato, was impressed by the karaoke game as it helped to show a fun side of Kiryu. Kuroda highly enjoyed voicing his character, being anxious in most scenes regardless of the tone he had to make. As a result, he wants to keep Kiryu in character. Kuroda describes Kiryu as a true shy character, stating he does not consider himself too attractive to the point he could not form a formal romantic relationship with Sayama in "Yakuza 2". Kuroda was surprised with the success of the first "Yakuza" game and thus hoped the series would continue. Kuroda expressed joy with his work as he recalls people who distinguished his voice from the games.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Kiryu is a famous member of the Tojo clan, who earned the nickname of "the Dragon of Dojima". Early in the first game he was planning on starting his own subsidiary group until he takes the blame for the murder of his boss, Sohei Dojima, to protect his best friend, Akira Nishikiyama, and is imprisoned for ten years. After his release, Kiryu returns to his home town, Kamurocho, but due to his patricide he is marked for death by the entire yakuza community. Kiryu then learns that 10 billion yen has been stolen from the Tojo Clan. Soon after he meets a young girl called Haruka, whom seemingly every criminal group in the country is after. With help of detective Date, Kiryu manages to learn the truth of the money. Upon reuniting with Yumi, his childhood love and Haruka's mother he is confronted by Kyohei Jingu, Haruka's father, and the true owner of the money. After defeating Jingu, Kiryu is reunited with his old friend Nishiki. The two fight, with Kiryu coming out victorious. Jingu tries to shoot Kiryu but Yumi takes the bullet for him. Nishikiyama then kills himself with Jingu. After Yumi dies in Kiryu's arms, Kiryu subsequently decides to start a new, honest life with Haruka.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: In "Yakuza 2", the fifth Chairman of the Tojo Clan, Yukio Terada, is assassinated and Kazuma Kiryu wants Sohei Dojima's son Daigo to take the clan's leadership and prevent an upcoming yakuza families war. While attempting to broker a peace deal between the Tojo and the Omi, Daigo and Jin Goda, Omi chairman, are kidnapped by Ryuji Goda, Jin's adopted son. Ryuji, through working with the Jingweon mafia, attempts to destroy Kamurocho and Kiryu to be the only dragon in Japan. Kiryu is put under the protective custody of a female detective called Kaoru Sayama, who uses him to get close to the Tojo to discover her past. Eventually, Kiryu and Ryuji fight atop Kamurocho Hills. Kiryu is victorious, but Yukio Terada appears, revealing that he faked his own death to start a war and is really a Jingweon survivor. Terada is also defeated, but begs Kiryu to trust him. After Jin Goda, Takashima and Terada are dead, Kiryu and Ryuji have a final showdown, which Kiryu wins. A bomb Terada had triggered, but secretly removed the fuse from, fails to detonate, saving Kiryu and Kaoru's lives.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: For "Yakuza 3" Kiryu leaves Kamurocho for Okinawa, where he now runs the Orphanage. There he raises nine children, including Haruka. As time passes, Kiryu befriends the Ryudo Family from Okinawa despite initial conflicts over the Morning Glory's ownership. Kiryu is caught up in a government plot when Morning Glory's land is in the way of a proposed resort. Daigo is shot and falls into a coma; Nakahara is also attacked, and the deed to the orphanage is stolen by the brother of the late Shintaro Kazama. Date gives him information on the three most likely suspects for Kashiwagi's death: Yoshitaka Mine, a white collar yakuza, Goh Hamazaki, a patriarch with ties to the triads, and Tsuyoshi Kanda, who has taken over the gang once controlled by Kiryu's sworn brother, Nishikiyama. The Military Base Expansion Bill is actually part of a CIA operation to eliminate a group of arms smugglers known as Black Monday, and the mystery assassin is Joji Kazama, Shintaro's younger brother who works for the CIA's Japanese division. In return for his help, Tamiya asks Kiryu to protect Toma, his former secretary, from a planned hit by Joji. Kiryu fights through his men to reach the Daigo's hospital room, where he meets CIA operative Andre Richardson. Richardson explains that he has been using Mine as a way to gain access to what he believes to be an advanced missile defense system, unaware that it does not exist. Nevertheless, he prepares to finish off Kiryu. Daigo, having woken up from his coma, suddenly shoots him through the chest before Mine, in an act of self-sacrifice, throws himself and Richardson off the roof to their deaths.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: During "Yakuza 4", Kiryu continues to run the orphanage. There, Haruka and him nurse a wounded prisoner, Taiga Saejima, washed ashore one day. Kiryu provides for him, allowing Saejima to return to the district upon his recovery. Some time after Saejima leaves, Hamazaki washes ashore, warning Kiryu of a threat to the Tojo clan. Kiryu leaves and meets Saejima's sister, Yasuko, in their journey to Kamurocho to find his brother. There Kiryu witnesses Goro Majima being arrested and dragged away from Millennium Tower to police patrol cars. He chases her into the sewers, where Tanimura and Akiyama mistake him for an Ueno Seiwa Clan member, and attack. After defeating them Kiryu chases Yasuko into Purgatory only to discover that she, along with Saejima, have been kidnapped by the Ueno Seiwa Clan. Kiryu speaks with Katsuragi and agrees to meet on the roof of Kamurocho Hills on the condition that he fights through the entire Ueno Seiwa Clan to get there. Once he does, he finds Yasuko and Saejima bound and gagged by Katsuragi. During the events that follow Yasuko is shot and kills Katsuragi before dying herself. Kiryu later fights Daigo Dojima on top of the Millennium Tower who was seeking money to run the Tojo Clan which was offered as bait by Akiyama. Following his defeat, Kiryu welcomes Saejima back into the Tojo Clan.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: In "Yakuza 5", Kiryu has left the orphanage in Okinawa and becomes a taxi driver in Fukuoka under a false identity: . When it is revealed that Daigo Dojima has gone missing, the truce between Tojo Clan and the Omi Alliance leads to a potential war. Kazuhiko Serizawa, an Osakan detective with the Organized Crimes Unit, warns Kiryu that he needs to meet with Omi Alliance Lieutenant Masaru Watase to prevent the war. Kiryu proposes he take on Aoyama’s forces by himself to minimize bloodshed and is victorious. Before Aoyama can reveal his master’s identity, he’s shot in the head by Morinaga, who is part of the conspiracy. In Kamurocho, Kiryu learns of how the current war will affect the debut of Haruka's performance as an idol. At the Tojo Clan Headquarters, Kiryu learns that Aizawa is Kurosawa’s son. Kurosawa wanted to leave Aizawa the entirety of the Tojo Clan and Omi Alliance as a legacy, but Aizawa is only interested in defeating Kiryu. A wounded Kiryu defeats Aizawa and reunites with Haruka.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Set seventeen years before "Yakuza", a 20 year-old Kiryu is framed for killing a civilian during a routine debt collection and must find the true killer before his family is forced to take responsibility on his behalf. With the help of real estate agents Tetsu Tachibana and Jun Oda, Kiryu realizes that his situation was deliberately engineered by Sohei Dojima, who wished to remove the Kazama Family so that he could acquire the Empty Lot and gain supremacy over the Tojo Clan. They work to take over Kamurocho and protect the Empty Lot's owner, Makoto Makimura, who is also Tachibana's sister, from the bloodthirsty Dojima Family. After the Dojima Family admits defeat, Kiryu rejoins so that he could find purpose as a true yakuza. He also meets Goro Majima, his future rival, for the first time.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: In "", Kiryu is imprisoned for three years. Once free, he learns Haruka is involved in a mysterious hit-and-run. Furthermore, Kiryu learns she is now a mother of an infant named Haruto and decides to take care of him until Haruka recovers from her coma. Finding out who is responsible takes Kiryu reluctantly back into the extra-judicial underbelly of Japan — Kamurocho, as well as a small fishing town near Hiroshima called Onomichi. There, Kiryu befriends the Yomei Alliance's Hirose family who know of Haruka but do not know of Haruto. During Kiryu's investigation, he learns that elements of the Tojo and Yomei Alliance have been secretly manipulating events behind the scenes in order to maintain "The Secret of Onimichi". Haruka's hit-and-run incident is later to be revealed as part of a retaliatory attack against the Yomei Alliance by the Kamurocho-based Saio Triad. Kiryu returns to Kamurocho with the Hirose's Tsuyoshi Nagumo and Yuta Usami, learning the child's father is a former member who hit Haruka. However, they find him dead and Hirose reveals that Yuta is the actual father, something he kept in secret due to him being the heir of the Saio Triad. Kiryu makes peace with Yuta but Hirose tries to kill him when revealing the secret of Onomichi, a hidden battle ship made since World War II developed by Iwami Shipbuilding, a company founded by the chairman of the Yomei Alliance. Tojo Clan advisor Katsumi Sugai and Iwami Shipbuilding CEO Tsuneo Iwami reveal themselves to be the masterminds behind the conflict, and in an attempt to halt Kiryu's interference, kidnap Haruka and Haruto. Kiryu's allies intervene, but Kiryu receives multiple injuries from Iwami and Sugai, with the latter attempting to shoot Haruka, Haruto, and Yuta before Kiryu is able to protect them at the last second, with him being shot instead. Afterwards, Kiryu fakes his death to protect Haruka and Haruto in exchange for keeping quiet on the secret of Onomichi. With Kiryu's apparent death, Haruka, Haruto, and Yuta start a new life at Morning Glory together.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: While not its main protagonist, Kiryu appeared in "" as a supporting character. His first appearance is stopping an Omi Alliance officer from attacking Masaru Watase shortly after his announcement of the Omi Alliance's disbandment. After Masumi Arakawa's death, Kiryu prevents protagonist Ichiban Kasuga from killing a man out of rage. He tells Kasuga that he has information regarding Ryo Aoki's next move, and that he would be waiting at Geomijul. After defeating Kasuga's party, Kiryu shares the information with him, disappearing shortly afterwards. He refuses to join Kasuga's party to uphold the deal he made with the Fixer's men, which he did to protect his family.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Upon defeating Amon in the post-game Final Millennium Tower dungeon, Kiryu expresses his approval of Kasuga – not as his successor, but as someone that could live his own life.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: During the events of the zombie spinoff "", he returns to Kamurocho after Haruka is kidnapped by a mysterious man. Kiryu's avatar is also used in "Ryū ga Gotoku Kenzan!" for the samurai Miyamoto Musashi. In "Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin!", Kiryu's avatar is once again used by a samurai, Sakamoto Ryōma.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: In the film adaptation "", he is portrayed by professional wrestler and mixed martial arts pioneer Masakatsu Funaki. This film serves as a prequel of the first "Yakuza" game describing Kiryu's youth where he meets recurring characters from the series. As he grows up, Kiryu starts desiring to form his own group, but gives up on this when his girlfriend is sexually assaulted and he decides to take the blame for killing the person to protect Nishikiyama. In the film, "Like a Dragon", an adaptation of the first "Yakuza" game, he is portrayed by Kazuki Kitamura. In the "Ryu ga Gotoku" stage play, he is portrayed by Eiji Takigawa.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Outside the "Yakuza" series, Kiryu appears as a guest character via downloadable content in the Japanese versions of "Binary Domain" and "Everybody's Golf 6". He is also a playable in "Project X Zone 2" alongside Majima. In "", a spinoff based on "Fist of the North Star", Kiryu appears as a skin for Kenshiro via downloadable content. Kiryu also appears as an unlockable playable character in "Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania".


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Kiryu is also set to appear in "Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name", set between the events of "Yakuza 6" and "Yakuza: Like a Dragon," where he assumes a new name, Joryu.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Critical reception to Kiryu's character has been generally positive. Juan Castro from IGN praised him as an appealing character noting, both his violent traits as well as his kindness. They further noted that while being a "badass", he stands out thanks to his kindness. The same website listed him as a notorious anti-hero as he "walks a fine line between good and bad." Cheat Code Central expressed similar comments noting that despite the character's occupation, he is so kind he takes the blame of Dojima's death in the start of the first game resulting in the expulsion from his family. Eurogamer similarly commented that "Despite all the violence, Kazuma is quite a personable bloke, whose love for his friends sees him banged up for ten years over a murder his 'brother' Nishiki committed." VideoGamer.com's Wesley Yin-Poole also shared similar commenting adding that " Kazuma isn't averse to the odd spot of humanitarian work either – he's just a big softy really." Greg Orlando from the magazine "Newtype" found him entertaining due to multiple actions he does across the series. When reviewing "Yakuza 3", Sam Marchello from RPGamer noted the character's notable development comparing his life with the Yakuza to the orphans. Greg Miller from IGN noted how developers wanted players to connect to Kiryu's side in "Yakuza 3" as a result of being his motivation, resulting in several cutscenes and minigames which left him mixed feelings. Anthony John Agnello from GamesRadar praised Kiryu's initial appearance alongside his personality. Matt Kim from US Gamer said Kiryu was his favorite paternal figure in gaming due to how caring he is to Haruka and to people in general despite his connections with the yakuza. Push Square listed him as one of the best characters seen in PlayStation games based on his skills in combat and sense of justice. The character's rivalry with "Yakuza 2" antagonist Ryuji Goda was also the subject of positive response even if some writers felt it underused.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: On a more critical view, Greg Kasavin from GameSpot stated that while Kiryu often resorts to profanity "he's your prototypical hero taking on your prototypical villains." 1UP.com called him "a hard-boiled thug" comparing him with characters like Niko and Alex Mercer due to his inhuman powers. They further noted that his powers can be "ridiculous." Real life yakuza Midoriyama commented on the character during a review of the third game that "Kiryu is the way yakuza used to be. We kept the streets clean. People liked us. We didn't bother ordinary citizens. We respected our bosses. Now, guys like that only exist in video games." In a "Famitsu" poll from 2010, Kiryu was voted as the eleventh best video game character. In a retrospective of the series, GameSpot compared Kiryu with Michael Corleone, the protagonist of the novel "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo. GameSpot noted that while Kiryu was featured with pacifistic traits as he wishes to have a peaceful life with Haruka, he still has violent traits as he has no problems with beating up enemies across the series. In addition to Kiryu's story, the site also commented on how well developed were from clunky to more unique as latter games in the franchise included new characters with different fighting styles. Colin Campbell from Polygon praised his heroic traits explored when dealing with multiple yakuzas.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Critics have also noted Kiryu was handled different in the prequel "Yakuza 0" and had mixed feelings on its execution. Anime News Network writer Dustin Bailey praised Kiryu's role in "Yakuza 0" saying that while in most of the games he was portrayed as a "saintly Superman", in the prequel he enjoyed seeing the character involved in darker scenarios. As a result, he found the PlayStation 3 "Yakuza" games less interesting due to a focus on Kiryu's struggle for a peaceful life, but, conversely, found "Yakuza 5" to be more unique due to its inclusion of bizarre enemies for Kiryu to fight, most notably a bear. Due to Majima showing a different characterization in the prequel, writers found him more interesting than Kiryu. "EGMNOW" liked the contrast the duo had in the narrative because of the different quests they had to pass to achieve their goals. "The Jimquisition" said that both characters were "like-able protagonists who consistently have to act as straight men in a variety of weird situations".


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: As multiple games involved Kiryu returning to the yakuza life despite his retirement in the first game, "USGamer" criticized this recycling format and expected "Yakuza 6" follow the true end of Kiryu's arc. For the review of "Yakuza 6: The Song of Life", UK Anime Network believed Sega managed to close Kiryu's story in an appealing despite his interactions with Haruto, an infant Kiryu looks after across the game. Destructoid liked the handling of Kiryu, due to his more serious personality caused by Haruka's crisis. GameInformer felt that the narrative gave the character an appropriate closure even if it is sad. GameRevolution shared similar comments, mainly on how Haruka also has been developing in previous games to stay close to her adoptive father and it was this time Kiryu's quest to protect her. GameSpot noted the game touched deep themes as Kiryu often interacted with families, making it fitting for his final game with him as the main character. "Kotaku" claimed while Haruka's newfound happiness with Haruto serves a positive note to close Kiryu's arc, the fact that Kiryu survives after receiving mortal wounds and leaves reduced the tension the player has.


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Kiryu's image was used to promote the male shaving brand Kai Razor, with "" featuring a scene of Kiryu using the product. Sega also sponsored a contest where the winner would get Kiryu's $9000 tattoo. The winner was Fari Salievski. The process took six months to complete. Salivevski commented, "Well, my nickname is now "The Dragon"... Whilst in Thailand, I had people coming up to me and taking photos, others came around wondering what all the fuss was about thinking I am some kind of celebrity. I could not stop laughing! my Facebook page gets a lot of comments too."


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: Kazuma Kiryu was requested to be a second guest character in Bandai Namco's fighting game "Tekken 7". Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of "Tekken 7" and director of the series, stated that he was taken aback by the amount of demand there was for the character in the West. Even after the revealed guest characters were Geese Howard, Noctis Lucis Caelum, and Negan fans took to Twitter to express their enthusiasm for having Kiryu included in the game. "Yakuza" producer Daisuke Sato stated that "As far as it comes down to the whole "Tekken" thing, if Harada-san actually says he wants to use Kiryu, then there it is."


title: Kazuma Kiryu

text: In speaking to Red Bull France in an interview, Sega's chief creative officer Toshihiro Nagoshi had this to say in regard to Kiryu joining the "Tekken" roster: "We do get this request a lot. Of course, there are exceptions, but fighting games generally have female characters, and personally, I don’t really want to see Kiryu beating up women."


title: Belgaum

text: Belgaum (ISO: "Bēḷagāma"; also Belgaon and officially known as Belagavi) is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka located in its northern part along the Western Ghats. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous Belagavi division and Belagavi district. The Government of Karnataka has proposed making Belagavi the second capital of Karnataka alongside Bengaluru, hence a second state administrative building Suvarna Vidhana Soudha was inaugurated on 11 October 2012.


title: Belgaum

text: Belagavi has been selected in first phase out of 20 cities, as one of the hundred Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under PM Narendra Modi's flagship Smart Cities Mission.


title: Belgaum

text: Belgaum was founded in late 12th century AD by the Ratta dynasty, who shifted from nearby Saundatti. A Ratta official named Bichiraja built Kamal Basadi, a Jain temple, dedicated to Neminatha in 1204, which came to be called Kamalabasti. Pillars found inside Belgaum fort have Kannada inscriptions in Nagari scripts, one from 1199 by Ratta King Kartaveerya IV. The city original name was Venugrama, a Sanskrit word which means "village of bamboo". Alternatively, it is referred to as Venupura in early Indian texts, which means "city of bamboo".


title: Belgaum

text: Belgaum became a part of the Yadava dynasty kingdom (Sevunas) in early 13th century. An inscription from 1261 of King Krishna belonging to the Yadava dynasty attests to this. The region was invaded by Khalji dynasty of Delhi Sultanate in 14th century. Shortly thereafter, the Vijayanagara Empire was founded, and Belgaum came under the rule of Vijayanagara. In 1474, the Bahmani Sultanate conquered Belgaum with an army led by Mahamood Gawan.


title: Belgaum

text: The Belgaum fort was strengthened by the Adil Shah dynasty Sultans and they built the Safa Mosque. A Persian inscription states that the mosque was built by Asad Khan, a Bijapur Commander. In 1518, the Bahamani sultanate splintered into five small states and Belgaum became part of the Bijapur Sultanate. The Adilshahis extended their control to the port of Goa, but retreated after the arrival and wars with the Portuguese. In 1686, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb overthrew the Bijapur sultanate and Belgaum passed nominally to the Mughals, who called it "Azamnagar". However, the Mughal empire control collapsed after the death of Aurangzeb in 1707. The Maratha confederacy took control of the area during the rule of the Peshwas. In 1776, the region was overrun by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan after Hyder Ali's coup in the Kingdom of Mysore. The Peshwa regained Belgaum, after Tipu Sultan was defeated by the British forces. In 1818, the British annexed Belgaum and the region in the control of the Peshwa. Kitturu Chennamma (1778–1829) was the queen of the princely state of Kittur in Karnataka and in 1824 she led an unsuccessful armed rebellion against the British in response to the Doctrine of lapse.


title: Belgaum

text: Belgaum was chosen as the venue of the 39th session of the Indian National Congress in December 1924 under the presidency of Mahatma Gandhi. The city served as a major military installation for the British Raj, primarily due to its proximity to Goa, which was then a Portuguese territory. Once the British left India, the Indian government continued and still continues to have armed forces installations in Belgaum. In 1961, the Indian government, under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, used forces from Belgaum to end Portuguese rule of Goa.