title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Panić combined well-motivated paramilitary infantry with trained engineering units to clear mines and defensive positions, supported by heavy armour and artillery. The paramilitaries spearheaded a fresh offensive that began on 30 September. The assault succeeded in cutting the Croatian supply route to Vukovar when the village of Marinci, on the route out of the town, was captured on 1 October. Shortly afterwards, the Croatian 204th Brigade's commander, Mile Dedaković, broke out with a small escort, slipping through the Serbian lines to reach the Croatian-held town of Vinkovci. His deputy, Branko Borković, took over command of Vukovar's defences. General Anton Tus, commander of the Croatian forces outside the Vukovar perimeter, put Dedaković in charge of a breakthrough operation to relieve the town and launched a counter-offensive on 13 October. Around 800 soldiers and 10 tanks were engaged in the attack, which began in the early morning with artillery preparation. Special police forces entered Marinci before noon, but had to retreat as they did not have enough strength to hold their positions. Croatian tanks and infantry encountered heavy resistance from the JNA and were halted at Nuštar by artillery fire. The JNA's 252nd Armoured Brigade inflicted heavy losses on the Croatian side. The elite Lučko Anti-Terrorist Unit alone suffered 12 fatalities. Around 13:00 the attack was stopped by the HV General Staff. A humanitarian convoy of the Red Cross was let through to Vukovar.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: During the battle's final phase, Vukovar's remaining inhabitants, including several thousand Serbs, took refuge in cellars and communal bomb shelters, which housed up to 700 people each. A crisis committee was established, operating from a nuclear bunker beneath the municipal hospital. The committee assumed control of the town's management and organised the delivery of food, water and medical supplies. It kept the number of civilians on the streets to a minimum and ensured that each shelter was guarded and had at least one doctor and nurse assigned to it.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Vukovar's hospital had to deal with hundreds of injuries. In the second half of September, the number of wounded reached between 16 and 80 per day, three-quarters of them civilians. Even though it was marked with the Red Cross symbol, the hospital was struck by over 800 shells during the battle. Much of the building was wrecked, and the staff and patients had to relocate to underground service corridors. The intensive care unit was moved into the building's nuclear bomb shelter. On 4 October, the Yugoslav Air Force attacked the hospital, destroying its operating theatre. One bomb fell through several floors, failed to explode and landed on the foot of a wounded man, without injuring him.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Croatian forces adapted several Antonov An-2 biplanes to parachute supplies to Vukovar. The aircraft also dropped improvised bombs made of fuel cans and boilers filled with explosive and metal bars. The crews used GPS to locate their targets, then pushed the ordnance through the side door.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The European Community attempted to provide humanitarian aid to the 12,000 civilians trapped within the perimeter, but only one aid convoy made it through. On 12 October, the Croatians suspended military action to allow the convoy to pass, but the JNA used the pause as cover to make further military gains. Once the convoy set off, the JNA delayed it for two days and used the time to lay mines, bring in reinforcements and consolidate JNA control of the road out of Vukovar. When the convoy arrived, it delivered medical supplies to Vukovar's hospital and evacuated 114 wounded civilians.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: On 16 October, the JNA mounted a major attack against Borovo Naselje. It made some progress, but became bogged down in the face of determined Croatian resistance. On 30 October, the JNA launched a fully coordinated assault, spearheaded by paramilitary forces, with infantry and engineering troops systematically forcing their way past the Croatian lines. The JNA's forces, divided into northern and southern operations sectors, attacked several points simultaneously and pushed the Croatians back. The JNA also adopted new tactics, such as firing directly into houses and then driving tanks through them, as well as using tear gas and smoke bombs to drive out those inside. Buildings were also captured with the use of anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: On 2 November, the JNA reached the strategic suburb of Lužac, between Borovo Naselje and Vukovar, cutting one of the two roads linking the town centre with its northern suburb. Meanwhile, the ZNG (which had been renamed the Croatian Army) attempted to retake the villages of Marinci and Cerić to reopen the supply route to Vukovar. It mounted a heavy bombardment of the JNA's access routes to Vukovar and launched a tank attack on the JNA's lines. On 4 November, JNA General Mladen Bratić was killed when his tank was hit by a shell. The JNA's advantage in artillery and rockets enabled it to halt the Croatian advance and inflict heavy casualties.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: JNA troops launched an amphibious assault across the Danube north of Lužac on 3 November to link up with Arkan's "Tigers". This attack split the Croatian perimeter in half and divided the main group of defenders in the town centre from a smaller stronghold in Borovo Naselje. The JNA's Operational Group South began systematically clearing the town centre, cutting off the remaining Croatian soldiers. On 5 November, Croatian forces shelled the Serbian town of Šid, killing three civilians and wounding several others. The JNA and paramilitaries captured a key hilltop, Milova Brda, on 9 November, giving them a clear view of Vukovar. The assault was spearheaded by paramilitaries, with JNA soldiers and TO fighters playing a supporting role, especially in demining operations and close artillery support. The Croatian-held village of Bogdanovci, just west of Vukovar, fell on 10 November. As many as 87 civilians were killed after its capture.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: On 13 November, the JNA cut the last link between Borovo Naselje and Vukovar. Croatian forces outside the Vukovar perimeter mounted a last-ditch attempt to break the siege by attacking from the village of Nuštar, but were repelled by the JNA once again. By now, the Croatians were running out of ammunition and were exhausted from fighting around the clock without any prospect of relief. They had been reduced to three separate pockets. With defeat now inevitable, several hundred Croatian soldiers and civilians attempted to break out over the course of several days, as the JNA mounted its final offensive. Most of those in Borovo Naselje were unable to do so and were killed.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: On 18 November, the last Croatian soldiers in Vukovar's town centre surrendered. By 18 November, many of Vukovar's civilian inhabitants were living in squalid conditions and nearing starvation. One woman told UN Special Envoy Cyrus Vance that she had spent the two previous months in a bomb shelter with her five children without toilets or water for washing. They lived on two slices of bread and a piece of pâté per day. One of the Croatian soldiers described conditions as the battle reached its peak:


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: When the battle ended, the scale of the town's destruction shocked many who had not left their shelters in weeks. Siniša Glavašević, a reporter for Croatian Radio and a native of Vukovar, who had stayed in the town throughout the battle, described the scene as the survivors emerged:


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Although active combat had ended in central Vukovar by 18 November, sporadic fighting continued for several days elsewhere in the town. Some Croatian soldiers continued to resist until 20 November and a few managed to slip away from Borovo Naselje as late as 23 November. Foreign journalists and international monitors entered the town soon after the surrender and recorded what they saw. Blaine Harden of "The Washington Post" wrote:


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Laura Silber and the BBC's Allan Little described how "corpses of people and animals littered the streets. Grisly skeletons of buildings still burned, barely a square inch had escaped damage. Serbian volunteers, wild-eyed, roared down the streets, their pockets full of looted treasures." The JNA celebrated its victory, as Marc Champion of "The Independent" described:


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Overall, around 3,000 people died during the battle. Croatia suffered heavy military and civilian casualties. The Croatian side initially reported 1,798 killed in the siege, both soldiers and civilians. Croatian general Anton Tus later stated that about 1,100 Croatian soldiers were killed, and 2,600 soldiers and civilians were listed as missing. Another 1,000 Croatian soldiers were killed on the approaches to Vinkovci and Osijek, according to Tus. He noted that the fighting was so intense that losses in eastern Slavonia between September and November 1991 constituted half of all Croatian war casualties from that year. According to figures published in 2006 by the Croatian Ministry of Defence, 879 Croatian soldiers were killed and 770 wounded in Vukovar. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) estimates Croatian casualties at around 4,000–5,000 dead across eastern Slavonia as a whole. The 204th Vukovar Brigade lost over 60 percent of its strength in the battle. The CIA reports that 1,131 civilians were killed over the course of the fighting. Among the dead were 86 children. Kardov estimated that 550 civilians went missing during the battle. According to Croatian officials, in eastern Slavonia, 2,000 Croatians were killed, 800 went missing, 3,000 were taken prisoner and 42,852 were made refugees by the end of 1991.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Although JNA losses were undoubtedly substantial, the exact numbers are unclear because of a lack of official data. The JNA officially acknowledged 1,279 killed in action, including 177 officers, during the entire war in Croatia. The military historian Norman Cigar contends that the actual number may have been considerably greater as casualties were consistently under-reported during the war. According to Tus, the JNA's Novi Sad corps alone lost 1,300 soldiers during the campaign in eastern Slavonia. He extrapolates from this to estimate that between 6,000 and 8,000 soldiers and volunteers died in eastern Slavonia, with the loss of 600 armoured vehicles and heavy weapons, as well as over 20 aircraft.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Serbian sources disagree with this assessment. Following the war, Colonel Milisav Sekulić said that the battle resulted in the deaths of 1,180 JNA soldiers and TO personnel. General Andrija Biorčević, the former commander of the Novi Sad corps, remarked that there were "[not] more than 1,500 killed on our side." This sentiment was echoed by JNA General Života Panić, who shared a similar figure. In 1997, the journalist Miroslav Lazanski, who has close ties to the Serbian military, wrote in the Belgrade newspaper "Večernje novosti" that "on the side of the JNA, Territorial Defence and volunteer units, exactly 1,103 members were killed." He cited losses of 110 armoured vehicles and two combat aircraft shot down, plus another destroyed due to technical failure. At the time, Lazanski's assessment was endorsed by three retired JNA generals. According to Croatian Serb sources, 350 Vukovar Serbs perished in the battle, including 203 TO fighters and 147 civilians.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Many captured Croatian soldiers and civilians were summarily executed after the battle. Journalists witnessed one such killing in Vukovar's main street. They also reported seeing the streets strewn with bodies in civilian attire. BBC television reporters recorded Serbian paramilitaries chanting: ""Slobodane, Slobodane, šalji nam salate, biće mesa, biće mesa, klaćemo Hrvate!"" ("Slobodan [Milošević], Slobodan, send us some salad, [for] there will be meat, there will be meat, we will slaughter Croats"). A Serbian journalist embedded with the JNA reserve forces in Vukovar later reported:


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Around 400 people from Vukovar's hospital – non-Serb patients, medical personnel, local political figures and others who had taken refuge there – were taken by the JNA. Although some were subsequently released, around 200 were transported to the nearby Ovčara farm and executed in what became known as the Vukovar massacre. At least 50 others were taken elsewhere and never seen again. Thousands more were transferred to prison camps in Serbia and rebel-controlled Croatia. Further mass killings followed. At Dalj, north of Vukovar, where many inhabitants were previously massacred, numerous prisoners from Vukovar were subjected to harsh interrogations, beatings and torture, and at least 35 were killed. The JNA imprisoned 2,000 people at the Velepromet industrial facility in Vukovar, 800 of whom were classified by the JNA as prisoners of war. Many were brutally interrogated, several were shot on the spot by TO members and paramilitaries, and others were sent to Ovčara, where they were killed in the massacre. The remaining prisoners were transferred to a JNA-run prison camp in Sremska Mitrovica. They were stripped naked on arrival, beaten and interrogated, and forced to sleep for weeks on bare wooden floors. Most were released in January 1992 under an agreement brokered by UN envoy Cyrus Vance. Others were kept prisoner until mid-1992. Serbs who fought on the Croatian side were regarded as traitors by their captors and treated particularly harshly, enduring savage beatings.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Detainees who were not suspected of involvement in military activities were evacuated from Vukovar to other locations in Serbia and Croatia. The non-Serb population of the town and the surrounding region was systematically ethnically cleansed, and at least 20,000 of Vukovar's inhabitants were forced to leave, adding to the tens of thousands already expelled from across eastern Slavonia. About 2,600 people went missing as a result of the battle. , the whereabouts of more than 440 of these individuals are unknown. There were also incidents of war rape, for which two soldiers were later convicted.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Serb forces singled out a number of prominent individuals. Among them was Dr. Vesna Bosanac, the director of the town's hospital, who was regarded as a heroine in Croatia but demonised by the Serbian media. She and her husband were taken to Sremska Mitrovica prison, where she was locked up in a single room with more than 60 other women for several weeks. Her husband was subjected to repeated beatings. After appeals from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the couple were eventually released in a prisoner exchange. The journalist Siniša Glavašević was taken to Ovčara, severely beaten and shot along with the other victims of the massacre.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Vukovar was systematically looted after its capture. A JNA soldier who fought at Vukovar told the Serbian newspaper "Dnevni Telegraf" that "the Chetnik [paramilitaries] behaved like professional plunderers, they knew what to look for in the houses they looted." The JNA also participated in the looting; an official in the Serbian Ministry of Defence commented: "Tell me of even one reservist, especially if he is an officer, who has spent more than a month at the front and has not brought back a fine car filled with everything that would fit inside the car." More than 8,000 works of art were looted during the battle, including the contents of the municipal museum, Eltz Castle, which was bombed and destroyed during the siege. Serbia returned 2,000 pieces of looted art in December 2001.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Three JNA officers – Mile Mrkšić, Veselin Šljivančanin and Miroslav Radić – were indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on multiple counts of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws of war, having surrendered or been captured in 2002 and 2003. On 27 September 2007, Mrkšić was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment on charges of murder and torture, Šljivančanin was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for torture and Radić was acquitted. Šljivančanin's sentence was increased to 17 years on appeal. It was reduced to ten years after a second appeal and he was granted early release in July 2011. Slavko Dokmanović, the Serb mayor of Vukovar, was also indicted and arrested for his role in the massacre, but committed suicide in June 1998, shortly before judgement was to be passed.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Serbian paramilitary leader Vojislav Šešelj was indicted on war crimes charges, including several counts of extermination, for the Vukovar hospital massacre, in which his "White Eagles" were allegedly involved. In March 2016, Šešelj was acquitted on all counts pending appeal. On 11 April 2018, the Appeals Chamber of the follow-up Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals convicted him of crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 10 years' imprisonment for a speech delivered in May 1992 in which he called for the expulsion of Croats from Vojvodina. He was acquitted of the war crimes and crimes against humanity that he was alleged to have committed elsewhere, including in Vukovar.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The ICTY's indictment of Slobodan Milošević characterised the overall JNA and Serb offensive in Croatia – including the fighting in eastern Slavonia – as a "joint criminal enterprise" to remove non-Serb populations from Serb-inhabited areas of Croatia. Milošević was charged with numerous crimes against humanity, violations of the laws of war, and breaches of the Geneva Conventions in relation to the battle and its aftermath. He died in March 2006, before his trial could be completed. The Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadžić was indicted for "wanton destruction of homes, religious and cultural buildings" and "devastation not justified by military necessity" across eastern Slavonia, and for deporting Vukovar's non-Serb population. He was arrested in July 2011, after seven years on the run, and pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He died in July 2016, before his trial could be completed.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: In December 2005, a Serbian court convicted 14 former paramilitaries for their involvement in the hospital massacre. In 2011, a Serbian court indicted more than 40 Croatians for alleged war crimes committed in Vukovar. An earlier indictment against a Croatian soldier was dropped because of irregularities in the investigation. Croatia also indicted a number of Serbs for war crimes committed in Vukovar, including former JNA generals Veljko Kadijević and Blagoje Adžić. Adžić died of natural causes in Belgrade in March 2012 and never faced trial. Kadijević fled Yugoslavia following Milošević's overthrow and sought asylum in Russia. He was granted Russian citizenship in 2008 and died in Moscow in November 2014. In 1999, Croatia sued Yugoslavia before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), claiming that genocide had been committed in Vukovar. Following Serbia and Montenegro's dissolution in 2006, this suit was passed on to Serbia. In February 2015, the ICJ ruled that the battle and ensuing massacre did not constitute genocide, but affirmed that serious crimes had been committed by the JNA and Serb paramilitaries.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The Serbian and Croatian media waged a fierce propaganda struggle over the progress of the battle and the reasons behind it. Both sides' propaganda machines aimed to promote ultra-nationalist sentiments and denigrate the other side with no pretence of objectivity or self-criticism. The Croatian media described the Serbian forces as "Serb terrorists" and a "Serbo-Communist army of occupation" intent on crushing the thousand-year dream of an independent Croatia. The propaganda reached peak intensity in the wake of Vukovar's fall. The Croatian newspaper "Novi list" denounced the Serbs as "cannibals" and "brutal Serb extremists". The Serbian media depicted the JNA and Serbian forces as "liberators" and "defenders" of the Serbian people, and the Croatian forces as "Ustashoid hordes", "blackshirts", "militants" and "drunk and stoned monsters". There were overt appeals to racial and gender prejudice, including claims that Croatian combatants had "put on female dress to escape from the town" and had recruited "black men".


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Victim status became a central aim for the propaganda machines of both sides, and the battle was used to support claims of atrocities. Victims became interchangeable as anonymous victims were identified as Croats by the Croatian media and as Serbs by the Serbian media. According to the Serbian opposition periodical "Republika", the state-owned station TV Novi Sad was under orders to identify any bodies its reporters filmed as being "Serbian corpses". After the battle, Belgrade television showed pictures of hundreds of corpses lined up outside Vukovar's hospital and claimed that they were Serbs who had been "massacred" by the Croats. According to Human Rights Watch, the bodies belonged to those who had died of their injuries at the hospital, whose staff had been prevented from burying them by the intense Serbian bombardment, and had been forced to leave them lying in the open. Serbian television continued to broadcast claims of "massacred Serbs in Vukovar" for some time after the town's fall.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Such victim-centred propaganda had a powerful motivating effect. One Serbian volunteer said that he had never seen the town before the war, but had come to fight because "the Croats had a network of catacombs under the city where they killed and tortured children just because they were Serbs." Reuters erroneously reported that 41 children had been massacred in Vukovar by Croatian soldiers. Although the claim was retracted a day later, it was used by the Serbian media to justify military action in Croatia. Many of those fighting at Vukovar believed that they were engaged in a struggle to liberate the town from a hostile occupier.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The international community made repeated unsuccessful attempts to end the fighting. Both sides violated cease-fires, often within hours. Calls by some European Community members for the Western European Union to intervene militarily were vetoed by the British government. Instead, a Conference for Yugoslavia was established under the chairmanship of Lord Carrington to find a way to end the conflict. The United Nations (UN) imposed an arms embargo on all of the Yugoslav republics in September 1991 under Security Council Resolution 713, but this was ineffective, in part because the JNA had no need to import weapons. The European powers abandoned attempts to keep Yugoslavia united and agreed to recognise the independence of Croatia and Slovenia on 15 January 1992.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: International observers tried unsuccessfully to prevent the human rights abuses that followed the battle. A visit by UN envoys Marrack Goulding and Cyrus Vance was systematically obstructed by the JNA. Vance's demands to see the hospital, from which wounded patients were being dragged out to be killed, were rebuffed by one of the massacre's chief architects, Major Veselin Šljivančanin. The major also blocked Red Cross representatives in an angry confrontation recorded by TV cameras: "This is my country, we have conquered this. This is Yugoslavia, and I am in command here!"


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: There was no international media presence in Vukovar, as there was in the simultaneous Siege of Dubrovnik and the subsequent Siege of Sarajevo, and relatively little of the fighting in Vukovar was broadcast to foreign audiences. The British journalist Misha Glenny commented that the JNA, the Croatian Serb government and many ordinary Serbs were often hostile to the foreign media, while the Croatians were more open and friendly.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The Croatian media gave heavy coverage to the battle, repeatedly airing broadcasts from the besieged town by the journalist Siniša Glavašević. Much popular war art focused on the "VukoWAR", as posters dubbed it. The Croatian government began suppressing Glavašević's broadcasts when it became clear that defeat was inevitable, despite the confident slogans of "Vukovar shall not fall" and "Vukovar must not fall." Two of the main daily newspapers, "Večernji list" and "Novi list", failed to report the loss of Vukovar and, on 20 November, two days after it had fallen, repeated the official line that the fight was still continuing. News of the surrender was dismissed as Serbian propaganda. Many Croatians soon saw Western satellite broadcasts of JNA soldiers and Serb paramilitaries walking freely through the town and detaining its inhabitants. When the surrender could no longer be denied, the two newspapers interpreted the loss as a demonstration of Croatian bravery and resistance, blaming the international community for not intervening to help Croatia.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The Croatian government was criticised for its approach to the battle. Surviving defenders and right-wing politicians accused the government of betraying and deliberately sacrificing Vukovar to secure Croatia's international recognition. The only explanation that many were willing to accept for the town's fall was that it had been given up as part of a conspiracy. The Croatian commanders in Vukovar, Mile Dedaković and Branko Borković, both survived the battle and spoke out publicly against the government's actions. In an apparent attempt to silence them, both men were briefly detained by the Croatian military police. The Croatian government also suppressed an issue of the newspaper "Slobodni tjednik" that published a transcript of a telephone call from Vukovar, in which Dedaković had pleaded with an evasive Tuđman for military assistance. The revelations caused public outrage and reinforced perceptions that the defenders had been betrayed.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: From a military point of view, the outcome at Vukovar was not a disaster for Croatia's overall war effort. The battle broke the back of the JNA, leaving it exhausted and unable to press deeper into the country. Vukovar was probably indefensible, being almost completely surrounded by Serb-held territory and located closer to Belgrade than to Zagreb. Although the defeat was damaging to Croatian morale, in a strategic context, the damage and delays inflicted on the JNA more than made up for the loss of the town.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Following the battle, Vukovar became a symbol of Croatian resistance and suffering. The survivors, veterans and journalists wrote numerous memoirs, songs and testimonies about the battle and its symbolism, calling it variously "the phenomenon", "the pride", "the hell" and "the Croatian knight". Writers appealed to the "Vukovar principle", the "spirituality of Vukovar" and "Vukovar ethics", the qualities said to have been exhibited by the defenders and townspeople. Croatian war veterans were presented with medals bearing the name of Vukovar. In 1994, when Croatia replaced the Croatian dinar with its new currency, the kuna, it used the destroyed Eltz Castle in Vukovar and the Vučedol Dove – an artefact from an ancient Neolithic culture centred on eastern Slavonia, which was discovered near Vukovar – on the new twenty-kuna note. The imagery emphasised the Croatian nature of Vukovar, which at the time was under Serb control. In 1993 and 1994, there was a national debate on how Vukovar should be rebuilt following its reintegration into Croatia, with some Croatians suggesting that it should be preserved as a monument.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The ruling HDZ made extensive use of popular culture relating to Vukovar as propaganda in the years before the region was reintegrated into Croatia. In 1997, President Tuđman mounted a tour of eastern Slavonia, accompanied by a musical campaign called "Sve hrvatske pobjede za Vukovar" ("All Croatian victories for Vukovar"). The campaign was commemorated by the release of a compilation of patriotic music from Croatia Records. When Vukovar was returned to Croatian control in 1998, its recovery was hailed as the completion of a long struggle for freedom and Croatian national identity. Tuđman alluded to such sentiments when he gave a speech in Vukovar to mark its reintegration into Croatia:


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Although the battle had been fought in the name of Serbian defence and unity, reactions in Serbia were deeply divided. The JNA, the state-controlled Serbian media and Serbian ultra-nationalists hailed the victory as a triumph. The JNA even erected a triumphal arch in Belgrade through which its returning soldiers could march, and officers were congratulated for taking "the toughest and fiercest "Ustaša" fortress". The Serbian newspaper "Politika" ran a front-page headline on 20 November announcing: "Vukovar Finally Free". In January 1992, from the ruins of Vukovar, the ultranationalist painter Milić Stanković wrote an article for the Serbian periodical "Pogledi" ("Viewpoints"), in which he declared: "Europe must know Vukovar was liberated from the Croat Nazis. They were helped by Central European scum. They crawled from under the papal tiara, as a dart of the serpent's tongue that protruded from the bloated Kraut and overstretched Eurocommunal anus."


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The Serbian geographer Jovan Ilić set out a vision for the future of the region, envisaging it being annexed to Serbia and its expelled Croatian population being replaced with Serbs from elsewhere in Croatia. The redrawing of Serbia's borders would unite all Serbs in a single state, and would cure Croats of opposition to Serbian nationalism, which Ilić termed an "ethno-psychic disorder". Thus, Ilić argued, "the new borders should primarily be a therapy for the treatment of ethno-psychic disorders, primarily among the Croatian population." Other Serbian nationalist writers acknowledged that the historical record showed that eastern Slavonia had been inhabited by Croats for centuries, but accused the region's Croat majority of "conversion to Catholicism, Uniating and Croatisation", as well as "genocidal destruction". Most irredentist propaganda focused on the region's proximity to Serbia and its sizeable Serb population.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The Croatian Serb leadership also took a positive view of the battle's outcome. Between 1991 and 1995, while Vukovar was under the control of the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK), the city's fall was officially commemorated as "Liberation Day". The battle was portrayed as a successful struggle by local Serbs to defend their lives and property from the aggression of the Croatian state. Thousands of Vukovar Serbs that had suffered alongside their Croatian neighbours, sheltering in basements or bomb shelters for three months in appalling conditions, were now denigrated as "podrumaši", the "people from the basement". Serb civilian dead were denied recognition, and the only people buried in the Serbian memorial cemetery at Vukovar were local Serbs who had fought with or alongside the JNA.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: In contrast, many in Serbia were strongly opposed to the battle and the wider war, and resisted efforts by the state to involve them in the conflict. Multiple anti-war movements appeared in Serbia as Yugoslavia began to disintegrate. In Belgrade, sizeable anti-war protests were organized in opposition to the battle. The protesters demanded that a referendum be held on a formal declaration of war, as well as an end to conscription. When the JNA tried to call up reservists, parents and relatives gathered around barracks to prevent their children taking part in the operation. Resistance to conscription became widespread across Serbia, ranging from individual acts of defiance to collective mutinies by hundreds of reservists at a time. A number of Serbian opposition politicians condemned the war. Desimir Tošić of the Democratic Party accused Milošević of "using the conflict to cling to power", and Vuk Drašković, the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, appealed to JNA soldiers to "pick up their guns and run". After the fall of Vukovar, he condemned what had been done in the name of Yugoslavia, writing in the daily newspaper "Borba":


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: By late December 1991, just over a month after victory had been proclaimed in Vukovar, opinion polls found that 64 percent wanted to end the war immediately and only 27 percent were willing for it to continue. Milošević and other senior Serbian leaders decided against continuing the fighting, as they saw it as politically impossible to mobilise more conscripts to fight in Croatia. Desertions from the JNA continued as the well-motivated and increasingly well-equipped Croatian Army became more difficult to counter. By the end of 1991, Serbia's political and military leadership concluded that it would be counter-productive to continue the war. The looming conflict in Bosnia also required that the military resources tied up in Croatia be freed for future use.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Although the battle was publicly portrayed as a triumph, it profoundly affected the JNA's character and leadership behind the scenes. The army's leaders realised that they had overestimated their ability to pursue operations against heavily defended urban targets, such as the strategic central Croatian town of Gospić, which the JNA assessed as potentially a "second Vukovar". The "Serbianisation" of the army was greatly accelerated, and, by the end of 1991, it was estimated to be 90 percent Serb. Its formerly pro-communist, pan-Yugoslav identity was abandoned, and new officers were now advised to "love, above all else, their unit, their army and their homeland – Serbia and Montenegro". The JNA's failure enabled the Serbian government to tighten its control over the military, whose leadership was purged and replaced with pro-Milošević nationalists. After the battle, General Veljko Kadijević, commander of the JNA, was forced into retirement for "health reasons", and in early 1992, another 38 generals and other officers were forced to retire, with several put on trial for incompetence and treason.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Many individual JNA soldiers who took part in the battle were revolted by what they had seen and protested to their superiors about the behaviour of the paramilitaries. Colonel Milorad Vučić later commented that "they simply do not want to die for such things". The atrocities that they witnessed led some to experience subsequent feelings of trauma and guilt. A JNA veteran told a journalist from the Arabic-language newspaper "Asharq Al-Awsat":


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: In Bosnia and Herzegovina, President Alija Izetbegović made a televised appeal to Bosnian citizens to refuse the draft on the grounds that "this is not our war". He called it their "right and duty" to resist the "evil deeds" being committed in Croatia and said: "Let those who want it, wage it. We do not want this war." When JNA troops transferred to the front via the Višegrad region of north-eastern Bosnia, local Bosnian Croats and Muslims set up barricades and machine-gun posts. They halted a column of 60 JNA tanks but were dispersed by force the following day. More than 1,000 people had to flee the area. This action, nearly seven months before the start of the Bosnian War, caused the first casualties of the Yugoslav Wars in Bosnia.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Macedonia's parliament adopted a declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in January 1991, but it did not take effect until a referendum in September 1991 confirmed it. A group of Macedonian JNA officers secretly sought to prevent soldiers from Macedonia being sent to Croatia, and busloads of soldiers' parents, funded by the Macedonian government, travelled to Montenegro to find their sons and bring them home. Meanwhile, Macedonians continued to be conscripted into the JNA and serve in the war in Croatia. The commander of JNA forces in the first phase of the battle, General Aleksandar Spirkovski, was a Macedonian. His ethnicity was probably a significant factor in the decision to replace him with Života Panić, a Serb. In 2005, the Macedonian Army's Chief of Staff, General Miroslav Stojanovski, became the focus of international controversy after it was alleged that he had been involved in possible war crimes following the battle.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Vukovar suffered catastrophic damage in the battle. Croatian officials estimated that 90 percent of its housing stock was damaged or destroyed, accounting for 15,000 housing units in total. The authorities placed the cost of reconstruction at $2.5 billion. The town barely recovered during its seven years under Serb control. Marcus Tanner of "The Independent" described post-battle Vukovar as:


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The population increased to about 20,000 as Serb refugees from other parts of Croatia and Bosnia were relocated by RSK authorities. They initially lived without water or electricity, in damaged buildings patched up with plastic sheeting and wooden boards. Residents scavenged the ruins for fragments of glass that they could stick back together to make windows for themselves. The main sources of income were war profiteering and smuggling, though some were able to find jobs in eastern Slavonia's revived oil industry. Reconstruction was greatly delayed by economic sanctions and lack of international aid.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: After the Erdut Agreement was signed in 1995, the United Nations Transitional Authority for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) was established to enable the return of Croatian refugees and to prepare the region for reintegration into Croatia. This UN peacekeeping force provided security during the transition period between 1996 and 1998. It was only in 1999 that Croats began returning to Vukovar in significant numbers, and many of the pre-war inhabitants never returned. By March 2001, the municipality was recorded as having 31,670 inhabitants – less than half the pre-war total – of whom 18,199 (57.46 percent) were Croats and 10,412 (32.88 percent) were Serbs. The community did not recover its mixed character: Croats and Serbs now lived separate social lives. Public facilities such as shops, cafés, restaurants, sports clubs, schools, non-governmental organisations and radio stations were re-established on segregated lines, with separate facilities for each community.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Although the Croatian government sponsored reconstruction efforts in and around Vukovar, the Serb-populated town centre remained in ruins until 2003. Both Croat and Serb residents believed the government had neglected it deliberately, in order to punish the Serb community. Human Rights Watch noted that, of 4,000 homes that had been rebuilt, none of them were inhabited by Serbs. Unemployment was high because of the destruction of the town's major industries, and many of the inhabitants could not sell their houses. Most houses and many of Vukovar's historic buildings had been restored by 2011.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Signs of the battle are still widely apparent in Vukovar, where many buildings remain visibly scarred by bullets and shrapnel. The town hospital presents an exhibition and reconstruction of the conditions in the building during the battle. At Ovčara, the site of the massacre is marked by a mass grave and exhibition about the atrocity. Local guides, some of whom lived through the battle, offer tourists the opportunity to visit these and other sites on walking and bicycle tours. The riverside water tower was long preserved in its badly damaged state as a war memorial. In 2016, a campaign was launched to restore the water tower to its pre-war state. The reconstructed water tower was opened to the public in October 2020.


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: Every November, Vukovar's authorities hold four days of festivities to commemorate the town's fall, culminating in a "Procession of Memory" held on 18 November. This represents the expulsion of the town's Croat inhabitants and involves a five-kilometre (3.1 mile) walk from the city's hospital to the Croatian Memorial Cemetery of Homeland War Victims. It is attended by tens of thousands of people from across Croatia. Local Serbs have avoided participating in the Croatian commemorations, often preferring either to leave the town or stay indoors on 18 November. Until 2003, they held a separate, low-key commemoration at the Serbian military cemetery on 17 November. Such commemorations have been held on 18 November since then. The RSK-era term "Liberation Day" has been dropped, but Serbs also avoid using the Croatian terminology, instead calling it simply "18 November". The issue of how to remember the Serb dead has posed particular difficulties. Local Serbs who died fighting alongside the JNA were buried by the Croatian Serb authorities on a plot of land where Croatian houses had once stood. The gravestones were originally topped with a sculptural evocation of the V-shaped Serbian military cap, or "šajkača". After Vukovar's reintegration into Croatia, the gravestones were repeatedly vandalised. The Serb community replaced them with more neutral gravestones without overt military connotations. Vukovar Serbs report feeling marginalised and excluded from places associated with Croatian nationalist sentiment, such as war monuments. The Croatian sociologist Kruno Kardov gives the example of a prominent memorial, a large cross made from white stone, where the Vuka flows into the Danube. According to Kardov, Serbs rarely if ever go there, and they feel great stress if they do. A Serb boy spoke of how he wanted to know what was written on the monument but was too frightened to go and read the inscription; one day he got up the courage, ran to the monument, read it and immediately ran back to "safety". As Kardov puts it, Vukovar remains divided by an "invisible boundary line ... inscribed only on the cognitive map of the members of one particular group."


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The battle is widely commemorated in Croatia. Almost every town has streets named after Vukovar. In 2009, the lead vessel of the Croatian Navy's two newly launched "Helsinki"-class missile boats was named after the town. The Croatian Parliament has declared 18 November to be the "Remembrance Day of the Sacrifice of Vukovar in 1991", when "all those who participated in the defence of the city of Vukovar – the symbol of Croatian freedom – are appropriately honoured with dignity."


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: As a symbol of Croatia's national identity, Vukovar has become a place of pilgrimage for people from across Croatia who seek to evoke feelings of "vicarious insideness", as Kardov describes them, in the suffering endured during the country's war of independence. Some gather in front of the town's main memorial cross on New Year's Eve to pray as the year ends, though such sentiments have attracted criticism from local Croats for not allowing them to "rejoice for even a single night", as one put it. The town has thus become, in Kardov's words, "the embodiment of a pure Croatian identity" and the battle "the foundational myth of the Croatian state". This has led to it becoming as much an "imagined place", a receptacle for Croatian national sentiment and symbolism, as a real place. Kardov concludes that it is questionable whether Vukovar can ever once again be "one place for all its citizens".


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: In November 2010, Boris Tadić became the first President of Serbia to travel to Vukovar, when he visited the massacre site at Ovčara and expressed his "apology and regret".


title: Battle of Vukovar

text: The battle was portrayed in the Serbian films "Dezerter" ("The Deserter") (1992), "Kaži zašto me ostavi" ("Why Have You Left Me?") (1993) and "Vukovar, jedna priča" ("Vukovar: A Story") (1994); in the Croatian films "" ("Vukovar: The Way Home") (1994), "Zapamtite Vukovar" ("Remember Vukovar") (2008); and in the French film "Harrison's Flowers" (2000). A 2006 Serbian documentary film about the battle, "Vukovar – Final Cut", won the Human Rights Award at the 2006 Sarajevo Film Festival. The battle is also at the centre of Serbian writer Vladimir Arsenijević's 1995 novel "U potpalublju" ("In the Hold").Also, the Croatian film "Sixth Bus (2022)" ("Šesti autobus"), which opened the Pula Film Festival 2022 has the Battle for Vukovar as its theme.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India. It is tasked with "regulating the public exhibition of films under the provisions of the Cinematograph Act 1952." The Cinematograph Act 1952 outlines a strict certification process for commercial films shown in public venues. Films screened in cinemas and on television may only be publicly exhibited in India after certification by the board and edited.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: The board currently issues four certificates. Originally, there were two: U (unrestricted public exhibition with family-friendly movies) and A (restricted to adult audiences but any kind of Nudity not allowed). Two more were added in June U/A (unrestricted public exhibition, with parental guidance for children under 12) and S (restricted to specialised audiences, such as Doctors or Scientists). The board may refuse to certify a film. Additionally, V/U, V/UA, V/A are used for video releases with U, U/A and A carrying the same meaning as above.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: Films with the U certification are fit for unrestricted public exhibition and are family-friendly. These films can contain universal themes like education, family, drama, romance, sci-fi, action etc. Now, these films can also contain some mild violence, but it should not be prolonged. It may also contain very mild sexual scenes (without any traces of nudity or sexual detail).


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: Films with the U/A certification can contain moderate adult themes, that is not strong in nature and can be watched by a child below 12 years of age under parental guidance. These films contain moderate to strong violence, moderate sexual scenes (traces of nudity and moderate sexual detail can be found), frightening scenes or muted abusive language.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: Films with the A certification are available for public exhibition, but with restriction to adults (aged 18+). These films can contain violence, sexual scenes, abusive language, but words which insult or degrade women or any social group and nudity are not allowed. Some controversial and adult themes are be considered unsuitable for young viewers. Such films are often re-certified with V/U and V/UA for TV and video viewing, which doesn't happen in case of U and U/A certified movies.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: Films with S certification should not be viewed by the public. Only people associated with it (Engineers, Doctors, Scientists, etc.), have permission to watch those films.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: The Indian Cinematograph Act came into effect in 1920, seven years after the production of India's first film: Dadasaheb Phalke's "Raja Harishchandra". Censorship boards were originally independent bodies under the police chiefs of the cities of Madras (now Chennai), Bombay (now Mumbai), Calcutta (now Kolkata), Lahore (now in Pakistan), and Rangoon (now Yangon in Myanmar).


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: After the 1947 independence of India, autonomous regional censors were absorbed into the Bombay Board of Film Censors. The Cinematograph Act of 1952 reorganised the Bombay board into the Central Board of Film Censors. With the 1983 revision of cinematography rules, the body was renamed the Central Board of Film Certification.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: The board's guiding principles are to ensure healthy public entertainment and education and, using modern technology, to make the certification process and board activities transparent to filmmakers, the media and the public also every video have to undergo CBFC certification for telecasting or distributing over any platform in India and suggestible same standards for any where in the world.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: In addition to the certifications above, there is also the possibility of the board refusing to certify the film at all.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: Since 2004, censorship has been rigorously enforced. An incident was reported in which exhibitor staff – a clerk who sold the ticket, the usher who allowed minors to sit, a theatre manager and the partners of the theatre complex – were arrested for non-compliance with certification rules.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: The board consists of a chairperson and 23 members, all of whom are appointed by the central government. Prasoon Joshi chairs the board; Joshi became its 28th chairperson on 11 August 2017, after Pahlaj Nihalani was fired. Nihalani had succeeded Leela Samson after Samson quit in protest of an appellate tribunal's overturning of a board decision to refuse certification for "". Samson had succeeded Sharmila Tagore.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: The board has been associated with a number of scandals. Film producers reportedly bribe the CBFC to obtain a UA certificate, which entitles them to a 30-percent reduction in entertainment tax.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: In 2002, "War and Peace" (a documentary film by Anand Patwardhan which depicted nuclear weapons testing and the September 11 attacks) was edited 21 times before the film was approved for release. According to Patwardhan, "The cuts that [the Board] asked for are so ridiculous that they won't hold up in court. But if these cuts do make it, it will be the end of freedom of expression in the Indian media." A court ruled that the cut requirement was unconstitutional, and the film was shown uncensored.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: That year, Indian filmmaker and CBFC chair Vijay Anand proposed legalising the exhibition of X-rated films in selected cinemas. Anand said, "Porn is shown everywhere in India clandestinely ... and the best way to fight this onslaught of blue movies is to show them openly in theatres with legally authorised licences". Anand resigned less than a year after becoming chairperson in the wake of his proposal.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: The board refused to certify "Gulabi Aaina" (a film about Indian transsexuals produced and directed by Sridhar Rangayan) in 2003; Rangayan unsuccessfully appealed the decision twice. Although the film is banned in India, it has been screened in the UK.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: "Final Solution", a 2004 documentary examining religious riots between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat which killed over 1,000 people, was also banned. According to the board, the film was "highly provocative and may trigger off unrest and communal violence". After a sustained campaign, the ban was lifted in October of that year.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: The CBFC demanded five cuts from the 2011 American film, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", because of nudity and rape scenes. The producers and the director, David Fincher, eventually decided not to release the film in India.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: CEO Rakesh Kumar was arrested in August 2014 for accepting bribes to expedite the issuance of certificates. The board demanded four cuts (three visual and one audio) from the 2015 Malayalam film, "Chaayam Poosiya Veedu") (directed by brothers Santosh Babusenan and Satish Babusenan), because of nude scenes. The directors refused to make the changes, and the film was not certified.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: CBFC chair Leela Samson resigned in protest of political interference in the board's work in 2015 after its decision to refuse certification of the film, "", was overturned by an appellate tribunal. Samson was replaced by Pahlaj Nihalani, whose Bharatiya Janata Party affiliation triggered a wave of additional board resignations. The board was criticised for ordering the screen time of two kissing scenes in the James Bond film "Spectre" (2015) to be cut by half for release.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: "Udta Punjab" (2016), co-produced by Anurag Kashyap and Ekta Kapoor, inspired a list of 94 cuts and 13 pointers (including an order to remove Punjabi city names). The film was approved for release with one cut and disclaimers by the Bombay High Court.  A copy of the film was leaked online, with evidence indicating possible CBFC involvement. Kashyap posted on Facebook that although he did not object to free downloads, he hoped that viewers would pay for the film. In August 2017, days after his removal as CBFC chair, Nihalani said in an interview that he had received instructions from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to block the release of this film and at least one other.


title: Central Board of Film Certification

text: "Lipstick Under My Burkha" (2017), directed by Alankrita Shrivastava and produced by Prakash Jha, was originally denied certification. The film, which had been screened at international film festivals, was eligible for the Golden Globe Awards. The filmmakers appealed to the board's Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT), which authorised its release. The FCAT requested some cuts (primarily to sex scenes), and the film was released with an A certificate. Shrivastava said, "Of course I would have loved no cuts, but the FCAT has been very fair and clear. I feel that we will be able to release the film without hampering the narrative or diluting its essence."


title: Rukshar Dhillon

text: Rukshar Dhillon (born 12 October 1993) is an actress based in India who primarily works in Telugu films. Dhillon was born in London and brought up in India. She made her debut in 2016 with the Kannada "Run Antony." She went on to star in Telugu films such as "Aakatayi, Krishnarjuna Yudham," and . In 2020 she appeared in the Hindi film "Bhangra Paa Le."


title: Rukshar Dhillon

text: Rukshar Dhillon was born in London and is of Punjabi descent. She was brought up in Goa and her family is now settled in Bangalore. She graduated in fashion designing.


title: Rukshar Dhillon

text: Dhillon began her film career with "Run Antony" opposite Vinay Rajkumar, grandson of actor Dr. Rajkumar. The film was a romantic-thriller written and directed by director Raghu Shastry."The Times of India" reviewed the movie and gave her special mentions. The newspaper stated, "Rukshar excels in her role".


title: Rukshar Dhillon

text: In April 2018, she appeared in the Telugu film "Krishnarjuna Yudham" opposite Nani. "The Times of India" stated,"Rukshar Dhillon too looks adorable in her role".


title: Rukshar Dhillon

text: She made her Hindi debut with "Bhangra Paa Le" in 2020. "The Times of India" stated "Rukshar Dhillon as the big city girl is confidence personified". Filmfare further on mentioned "Rukshar does a good job for her first film. She too has killer moves and has a strong screen presence".


title: David Lauren

text: David Lauren (born October 31, 1971) is an American businessman. He is the middle child and youngest son of clothing designer Ralph Lauren and husband of Lauren Bush.


title: David Lauren

text: David Lauren was born on October 31, 1971, to Ricky Ann (née Loew-Beer) and fashion designer and businessman Ralph Lauren. His father was a son of Belarus-born Jewish immigrants. His mother was the daughter of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, both immigrants from Austria. The second of three children, Lauren has an older brother, Andrew Lauren, and a younger sister, Dylan Lauren.


title: David Lauren

text: Lauren attended Duke University, where he studied political science. At Duke, he founded "Swing", a general interest lifestyle publication for Generation X, where he served as president and editor-in-chief. "Swing" was eventually published by Hachette Filipacchi Médias.


title: David Lauren

text: Lauren is currently the Chief Innovation Officer, Strategic Advisor to the CEO, Head of the Ralph Lauren Foundation and Vice Chairman of the Board. Lauren previously held the position of Executive Vice President, Global Advertising, Marketing and Communications at Ralph Lauren Corporation where he was responsible for the global advertising and marketing campaigns for the company and all of its brands, as well as the company's corporate and fashion communications and strategic marketing partnerships.


title: David Lauren

text: Lauren joined Ralph Lauren Corporation in 2000 to run the company's internet operations with Ralph Lauren Media, LLC., where he launched the Ralph Lauren website under an idea he called "merchan-tainment", or the combination of merchandising and entertainment.


title: David Lauren

text: In his time at Ralph Lauren Corporation, Lauren has played a role in many key initiatives, including the establishment of RalphLauren.com, the launch of the Rugby brand, and Ralph Lauren Corporation's entry into mobile applications. Lauren has also orchestrated the company's sponsorship of several international sporting events and teams, including Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the U.S. Olympic teams. In 2007, he was named "Daily News Record" "Marketer of the Year".


title: David Lauren

text: Lauren serves as president of the Polo Ralph Lauren Foundation, with which he participates in numerous charitable organizations, including the Pink Pony fund, the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention, the Polo Jeans G.I.V.E. program, and the Star-Spangled Banner Preservation Project at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.


title: David Lauren

text: On September 4, 2011, Lauren married Lauren Bush, a granddaughter of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, in Colorado. Their son James Richard Lauren was born November 21, 2015.


title: David Lauren

text: Their second son, Max Walker Lauren, was born in 2018. Their third son, Robert Rocky Lauren, was born on April 10, 2021.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Moyamoya disease is a disease in which certain arteries in the brain are constricted. Blood flow is blocked by constriction and blood clots (thrombosis). A collateral circulation develops around the blocked vessels to compensate for the blockage, but the collateral vessels are small, weak, and prone to bleeding, aneurysm and thrombosis. On conventional angiography, these collateral vessels have the appearance of a "puff of smoke" (described as "もやもや ("moyamoya")" in Japanese).


title: Moyamoya disease

text: When moyamoya is diagnosed by itself, with no underlying correlational conditions, it is diagnosed as moyamoya disease. This is also the case when the arterial constriction and collateral circulation are bilateral. Moyamoya syndrome is unilateral arterial constriction, or occurs when one of the several specified conditions is also present. This may also be considered as moyamoya being secondary to the primary condition. Mainly, occlusion of the distal internal carotid artery occurs. On angiography, a "puff of smoke" appearance is seen, and the treatment of choice is surgical bypass.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Patients usually present with TIA, ischemic/hemorrhagic stroke, or seizure. The age distribution is bimodal being either young adolescence or mid-forties.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: About 10% of cases of moyamoya disease are familial, and some cases result from specific genetic mutations. Susceptibility to moyamoya disease-2 (MYMY2; 607151) is caused by variation in the RNF213 gene (613768) on the long arm of chromosome 17 (17q25). Moyamoya disease-5 (MYMY5; 614042) is caused by mutation in the ACTA2 gene (102620) on the long arm of chromosome 10 (10q23.3); and moyamoya disease-6 with achalasia (MYMY6; 615750) is caused by mutation in the GUCY1A3 gene (139396) on the long arm of chromosome 4 (4q32). Loci for the disorder have been mapped to the short arm of chromosome 3 (MYMY1) and the long arm of chromosome 8 (8q23) (MYMY3; 608796). See also MYMY4 (300845), an X-linked recessive syndromic disorder characterized by moyamoya disease, short stature, hypergonadotropic hypogonadism, and facial dysmorphism, and linked to q25.3, on chromosome 17.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: In the United States moyamoya has an incidence rate of 0.086 per 100,000. In Japan the overall incidence is higher (0.35 per 100,000). In North America, women in the third or fourth decade of life are most often affected, but the condition may also occur during infancy or childhood. These women frequently experience transient ischaemic attacks (TIA), cerebral hemorrhage, or may not experience any symptoms at all. They have a higher risk of recurrent stroke and may be experiencing a distinct underlying pathophysiology compared to patients from Japan.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Moyamoya disease can be either congenital or acquired. Patients with Down syndrome, sickle cell anemia, neurofibromatosis type 1, congenital heart disease, fibromuscular dysplasia, activated protein C resistance, or head trauma can develop moyamoya malformations. It is more common in women than in men, although about a third of those affected are male.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: The disease moyamoya, which is a Japanese mimetic word, gets its characteristic name due to the appearance of smoke on relevant angiographs resultant from the tangle of tiny vessels in response to stenosis. This makes the blood leak out of the arteries, causing pressure to the brain and subsequent headaches. Over the last six decades since the disease was first described, pathogenesis of moyamoya disease remained elusive, although the gene ring finger protein 213 (RNF213) has been implicated. In September 2021, a south Indian researcher has proposed a pathbreaking theory on moyamoya pathogenesis. Coined the "Mechano-biological theory", the disease has a multifactorial pathogenesis. The authors provide a tangible explanation of the occurrence of moyamoya phenomenon in the idiopathic and syndromic variants of the disease. In short, the authors report that moyamoya disease likely occurs due to a number of factors (e.g., differences in vascular anatomy) that ultimately contribute to broad cerebral blood vessel occlusion and consequent shifts in vessel connections to try to provide blood for the compromised brain.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Once it begins, the vascular occlusion tends to continue despite any known medical management. In some people this leads to transient ischemic attacks or repeated strokes with severe functional impairment or even death. In others, the blockage may not cause any symptoms.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: The disease causes constrictions primarily in the internal carotid artery, and often extends to the middle and anterior cerebral arteries, branches of the internal carotid artery inside the skull. When the internal carotid artery becomes completely blocked, the fine collateral circulation that it supplies is obliterated. Patients often survive on the collateral circulation from the back (posterior) of the circle of Willis, arising from the basilar artery.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: The arterial constrictions in moyamoya disease are unlike the constrictions in atherosclerosis. In atherosclerosis, the walls of arteries are damaged, leading to the deposition of fat and immune cells, and ultimately the accumulation of immune cells laden with fat. In moyamoya, the inner layer of the carotid artery proliferates within the arterial lumen. The artery also fills with blood clots, which may cause strokes.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Moyamoya disease tends to affect adults in the third to fourth decade of life. In children it tends to cause strokes or seizures. In adults it tends to cause strokes or bleeding. The clinical features are strokes, recurrent transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), sensorimotor paralysis (numbness and paralysis of the extremities), convulsions and/or migraine-like headaches. Moreover, following a stroke, secondary bleeding may occur. Such bleeding, called hemorrhagic strokes, may also stem from rupture of the weak neovascular vessel walls.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Cerebral angiography is the gold standard of diagnosing moyamoya disease and its progression. According to Suzuki's system, it can be classified into six stages:


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is also useful in diagnosing the disease with good correlation with Suzuki's grading system.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Proliferation of smooth muscle cells in the walls of the moyamoya-affected arteries has been found to be representative of the disease. A study of six autopsies of six patients who died from moyamoya disease lead to the finding that there is evidence that supports the theory that there is a thickening, or proliferation, of the innermost layer of the vessels affected by moyamoya. These vessels are the ACA (anterior cerebral artery), MCA (middle cerebral artery), and ICA (internal carotid artery). The occlusion of the ICA results in concomitant diminution of the "puff-of-smoke" collaterals, as they are supplied by the ICA.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Often nuclear medicine studies such as SPECT (single photon emission computerized tomography) are used to demonstrate the decreased blood and oxygen supply to areas of the brain involved with moyamoya disease. Conventional angiography provides the conclusive diagnosis of moyamoya disease in most cases and should be performed before any surgical considerations.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Darren B. Orbach explains how the disease progresses as well as the role angiography plays in detecting the progression of moyamoya in a short video. In 2019, author and artist Sarah Lippett published a graphic novel about her decade-long struggle to get a diagnosis and treatment for moyamoya disease, called "A Puff of Smoke" (published with Jonathan Cape). The book was praised in the newspaper "The Guardian" as a "wonderfully drawn memoir of a serious childhood illness." It was one of the paper's "graphic novels of the year" in 2019 and "The Observer" newspaper's graphic novel of the month in November 2019.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Smith (2015) conducted a study that looked into specific biological markers that correlate to moyamoya disease. Some of the categories of these biomarkers include phenotypes - conditions commonly related to moyamoya, radiographical markers for the diagnosis of moyamoya, and proteins as well as cellular changes that occur in cases of moyamoya.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Similar to moyamoya disease, there are conditions that are closely associated with moyamoya disease. Some of the more common medical conditions that are closely associated with moyamoya disease include trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome), sickle cell disease, and neurofibromatosis type 1. There is also evidence that identifies hyperthyroidism and congenital dwarfing syndromes as two of the more loosely associated syndromes that correlate with the possibility of being diagnosed with moyamoya disease later in life.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: There is also research that has shown that certain radiographic biomarkers that lead to the diagnosis of moyamoya disease have been identified. The specific radiographic markers are now considered an acceptable key component to moyamoya disease and have been added to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). These biomarkers of moyamoya are "stenosis of the distal ICA's up to and including the bifurcation, along with segments of the proximal ACA and MCA...dilated basal collateral vessels must be present" Some other common findings that have not been added to the classification index of those with moyamoya disease which are found using radiography involve very distinct changes in the vessels of the brain. These changes include newly formed vessels made to compensate for another change noted, ischemia and cerebrovascular reserve, both found on MRI. Functional changes include evidence of ischemia in vessels of the brain (ICA, ACA, MCA, specifically). It is important to also note that the radiographic biomarkers, in order to be classified as moyamoya disease, all findings must be bilateral. If this is not the case and the findings are unilateral, it is diagnosed as moyamoya syndrome.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: There are also several protein biomarkers that have been linked to the moyamoya disease diagnosis. Although the sample size of the studies performed are small due to the rarity of the disease, the findings are indicative of a correlation between the disease and several specific protein biomarkers. Other studies have confirmed the correlation of moyamoya and adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1) being increased as compared to normal vascular function counterparts. Furthermore, it has been concluded that the localization of inflammatory cells suggests that the inflammation stimulus itself may be responsible for the proliferation and occlusion in the ICA, ACA, and MCA found in those with moyamoya disease.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Drugs such as antiplatelet agents (including aspirin) are usually given to prevent clots, but surgery is usually recommended. Because moyamoya tends to affect only the internal carotid artery and nearby sections of the adjacent anterior and middle cerebral arteries, surgeons can direct other arteries, such as the external carotid artery or the superficial temporal artery to replace its circulation. The arteries are either sewn directly into the brain circulation, or placed on the surface of the brain to reestablish new circulation after a few weeks.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: There are many operations that have been developed for the condition, but currently the most favored are the in-direct procedures EDAS, EMS, and multiple burr holes and the direct procedure STA-MCA. Combined revascularisation procedure, which includes both the direct superficial temporal artery (STA) to middle cerebral artery (MCA) bypass performed with a combination of in-direct procedures is considered the treatment of choice. Although its efficacy, particularly for hemorrhagic disease, remains uncertain, the procedure is thought to reduce the hemodynamic burden on the engorged collateral blood vessels. Multiple burr holes have been used in frontal and parietal lobes with good neovascularisation achieved.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: The EDAS (encephaloduroarteriosynangiosis) procedure is a synangiosis procedure that requires dissection of a scalp artery over a course of several centimeters and then making a small temporary opening in the skull directly beneath the artery. The artery is then sutured to a branch of the middle cerebral artery on the surface of the brain and the bone is replaced.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: In the EMS (encephalomyosynangiosis) procedure, the temporalis muscle, which is in the temple region of the forehead, is dissected and through an opening in the skull placed onto the surface of the brain.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: In the multiple burr holes procedure, multiple small holes (burr holes) are placed in the skull to allow for growth of new vessels into the brain from the scalp.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: In the STA-MCA procedure, the scalp artery (superficial temporal artery or STA) is directly sutured to an artery on the surface of the brain (middle cerebral artery or MCA). This procedure is also commonly referred to as an EC-IC (External Carotid-Internal Carotid) bypass.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: All of these operations have in common the concept of a blood and oxygen "starved" brain reaching out to grasp and develop new and more efficient means of bringing blood to the brain and bypassing the areas of blockage. The modified direct anastomosis and encephalo-myo-arterio-synangiosis play a role in this improvement by increasing cerebral blood flow (CBF) after the operation. A significant correlation is found between the postoperative effect and the stages of preoperative angiograms. It is crucial for surgery that the anesthesiologist have experience in managing children being treated for moyamoya, as the type of anesthesia they require is very different from the standard anesthetic children get for almost any other type of neurosurgical procedure.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: The natural history of this disorder is not well known. The long term outlook for patients with treated moyamoya seems to be good when direct bypass is used. Although symptoms may seem to improve almost immediately after the in-direct EDAS, EMS, and multiple burr holes surgeries, it will take probably 6 to 12 months before new vessels can develop to give a sufficient blood supply. With the direct STA-MCA surgery, increased blood supply is immediate.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Once a major stroke or bleeding takes place, even with treatment, the patient may be left with permanent loss of function so it is very important to treat this condition promptly.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: Recent investigations have established that both moyamoya disease and arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) of the lining of the brain, the dura, are associated with dural angiogenesis. These factors may represent a mechanism for ischemia contributing to the formation of dural AVFs. At least one case of simultaneous unilateral moyamoya syndrome and ipsilateral dural arteriovenous fistula has been reported at the Barrow Neurological Institute. In this case a 44-year-old man presented with headache, tinnitus, and an intraventricular hemorrhage, as seen on computed tomographic scans. Cerebral angiography showed a right moyamoya pattern and an ipsilateral dural AVF fed by branches of the external carotid artery and draining into the transverse sinus. This extremely rare coincidental presentation may have deeper pathogenic implications.


title: Moyamoya disease

text: The research into the pathogenesis of moyamoya disease has found a breakthrough with the proposal of a "Mechano-biological theory" of pathogenesis of this disease. A research group in southern India have proposed this unifying theory based on computational fluid dynamics studies and longitudinal data. This proposal unifies the pathogenesis of moyamoya disease and moyamoya syndromes described in literature under a single mechanism.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment is an American self-help, consumer goods and media company based in Cos Cob, Connecticut. It is known for the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book series. The first book, like most subsequent titles in the series, consisted of inspirational true stories about ordinary people's lives. The books are widely varied, each with a different theme. Today Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC continues to publish about a dozen new books per year.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: The company has branched out into other categories such as food, pet food, and television programming.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: Motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen collaborated on the first "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book, compiling inspirational, true stories they had heard from their audience members. Many of the stories came from members of the audience of their inspirational talks. The book was rejected by major publishers in New York but accepted by a small, self-help publisher in Florida called HCI.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: After the success of the first book, Canfield and Hansen, with HCI, published additional, similar "Chicken Soup for the Soul" titles. Later, they published "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books for specific demographics, such as "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul", which came out in 1997 and was a major best-seller. New "Chicken Soup for the Soul" titles and sequels to existing books have been published on a regular basis since the first book came out in 1993. As of 2020, the series included more than 250 titles.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: In 2008, the founders, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, sold the company to a new ownership group led by William J. Rouhana and Robert D. Jacobs. Since then all new titles have been published by Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing, LLC and distributed by Simon & Schuster.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: Under the new ownership group, Chicken Soup for the Soul has expanded into other products besides books. The company markets pet foods under the brand Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul and a line of soups, sauces and other prepared foods under the brand Chicken Soup for the Soul.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: In 2009, author Adeline Lee Zhia Ern was found to have plagiarized the story "Happiness" by Sarah Provençal from Jack Canfield's "Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul IV".


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: In 2013, the company announced plans to produce a television series and movie with Alcon Entertainment. Chicken Soup for the Soul has produced television programming with other partners, including PBS. In 2016, Chicken Soup for the Soul acquired a majority stake in the website A Plus.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment went public in 2017. Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment now owns Screen Media Ventures, LLC, an independent television and film distribution company, and Popcornflix, an ad-based online video service.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: On March 28, 2019, it was announced that Sony Pictures Television would sell a majority stake of Sony Crackle to Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, with the service has reverted into the "Crackle" name.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: On November 5, 2019, it was announced that the Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment division would purchase foreign sales company Foresight Unlimited for the new Screen Media division.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: On December 15, 2020, Sony traded its remaining shares in Crackle for a yet to be disclosed preferential stake to Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment effectively giving them control of the ad-supported streaming service.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: In April 2021, Chicken Soup for the Soul acquired the film and television catalogue of Sonar Entertainment. In return, Sonar will hold a 5 percent stake in a new AVOD network featuring its library.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: On March 2, 2022, Chicken Soup for the Soul announced its acquisition of specialty film distributor, 1091 Pictures, for $15.55 million, in a mix of cash ($8 million) and stock (newly issued Series A preferred stock and Class A common stock). The deal included an estimated 4,000 movies and TV series from the 1091 catalog, as well as its portfolio of free, ad-supported networks and channels.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: On May 11, 2022, Chicken Soup for the Soul announced its intention to acquire Redbox for $357 million ($36 million in stock and $321 million in assumed debt). The acquisition closed on August 11, 2022.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: The original series held a spot on the "New York Times" Best Seller list continuously from 1994 to 1998.


title: Chicken Soup for the Soul

text: "Chicken Soup for the Soul: What I Learned From the Dog" was named "Best Anthology" of 2010 by the Dog Writers Association of America.


title: Lauren Socha

text: Lauren Marie Socha (born 9 June 1990) is an English actress. She rose to prominence during her role as Kelly Bailey in the E4 comedy-drama television series "Misfits", for which she won a BAFTA TV Award in the Best Supporting Actress category. She is also known for her role in the Channel 4 television film "The Unloved".


title: Lauren Socha

text: Socha was born in Derby, Derbyshire to Robert and Kathleen (née Lyons) Socha. Her mother is English and her father was British of Polish/Italian parents. She has an older brother, Michael Socha, also an actor. She attended St. George's RC Primary School, Burton College and St. Benedict's Catholic School and Performing Arts College, Derby. She trained at the Central Junior Television Workshop based in Nottingham.


title: Lauren Socha

text: Socha was first recognised by agents and casting directors when she attended a local drama workshop, having been inspired by her older brother. This led to her being cast as the lead in the Arctic Monkeys' video for their 2006 single "When the Sun Goes Down" at the age of 15.


title: Lauren Socha

text: In 2009, Socha went on to star in Samantha Morton's directorial debut "The Unloved" in which she played a sixteen-year-old girl in a care home. She was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role. A week later she auditioned for the role of Kelly Bailey in British comedy drama "Misfits" and got the part.


title: Lauren Socha

text: In 2010, Socha starred alongside Tim McInnerny in the short film "Missing". She also had a minor role in the television mini-series "Five Daughters", based on the Ipswich serial murders.


title: Lauren Socha

text: In May 2011, she won a BAFTA in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role of Kelly in "Misfits". Socha was nominated for Outstanding Actress in the fiction category at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in 2011. She later appeared in the short "The Child", playing a version of Marilyn Monroe. She also took part in the BBC learning project "Off By Heart Shakespeare" where she played Juliet from "Romeo and Juliet", performing the speech: "Blistered be thy tongue".


title: Lauren Socha

text: She also appeared in five episodes of "Catastrophe" as the babysitter and in 2017 and 2020 played one of the sisters in comedy series "The Other One".


title: Lauren Socha

text: Socha lives in Derby. She has three tattoos: three stars on her neck, a bow on her back and her initials with a star on her wrist, which her parents allowed her to have done. Her brother, Michael Socha, is also an actor.


title: Lauren Socha

text: On 23 January 2012, it was reported that Socha had been charged with racially aggravated assault in connection with an incident involving a Derby taxi driver the previous October. On 2 May 2012, Socha pleaded guilty to the charge, and was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months. The taxi driver had an eight-minute voice recording of Socha's rant, and said to reporters after the verdict: "She called me a P***, a dirty b****** and said: 'You're Asian, f*** off back to where you came from.' She said: 'Do you know who I am? I'll have your family lifted.'"


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: Aladdin is a fictional character and the titular protagonist of Walt Disney Pictures' 31st animated feature of the same name based on Aladdin, a folk tale of Middle Eastern origin. He is voiced by American actor Scott Weinger, while his singing voice is provided by Brad Kane. He also stars in the two direct-to-video sequels "The Return of Jafar" (1994) and "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" (1996), as well as the animated television series based on the film. Mena Massoud played a live-action version of the character in a live action adaptation of the 1992 film.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: When Aladdin is initially introduced, he is an 18 year old man. He never received a formal education, and has only learned by living on the streets of the city Agrabah. He has to steal food in the local market in order to survive. When Aladdin was only an infant, his father, Cassim, left him and his mother in order to find a better life for his family.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: One of the first issues that the animators faced during the production of "Aladdin" was the depiction of Aladdin himself. Director and producer John Musker explains: "In early screenings, we played with him being a little bit younger, and he had a mother in the story. [...] In design he became more athletic-looking, more filled out, more of a young leading man, more of a teen-hunk version than before." He was initially going to be as young as 13, but that eventually changed to 18.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: Supervising animator Glen Keane was inspired by various teen idols and movie actors in designing Aladdin's physique. The main inspiration for his appearance was originally Michael J. Fox in "Back to the Future", but later changed to Tom Cruise. Keane based the movement of Aladdin's loose pants on rapper MC Hammer. Some have said this conception of the character makes him too contemporary, given the film's setting.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: Aladdin was drawn with large eyes, like those of other Disney heroes, to indicate innocence. The lineaments of his body are more free-flowing and more rounded than is usual for Disney heroes. He looks like a modern 18-year-old, except for his wardrobe. In the movie, they often describe him as a street rat.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: Aladdin is portrayed as quick-witted, and ultimately a caring person. Like most Disney male protagonists, he is a heroic young man who seeks to win the affection of many other characters, which demonstrates his insecurity. He is not above lying and stealing, though never with malicious intentions, but in order to survive. The biggest difference from the norm is that, unlike most youthful Disney heroes, he is a doer rather than a passive character.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: As a street urchin, he wears a red fez hat, a purple vest, a baggy cream dhoti (with a patch covering a hole) and goes barefoot; he retains this appearance even in the animated series after his engagement to Jasmine.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: In the first film, street rat Aladdin meets a girl in the marketplace. He falls deeply in love with her at first sight, but he gets into trouble when their meeting is interrupted by guards who arrest him. She reveals that she is actually Princess Jasmine. Despite Jasmine's efforts to demand the guards to release Aladdin immediately, they tell her that she must first deal with Jafar in order to free him.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: In prison, Aladdin meets an old man (who is actually Jafar in disguise) who mentions a cave filled with treasure and that he needs Aladdin to enter it. The old man reveals a secret exit, and Aladdin escapes with him and follows him into the desert. He enters the Cave of Wonders, where he meets a sentient magic carpet and is commanded to only get a magic lamp. He gets it, but Abu's grabbing of a giant gem causes the cave to collapse. Aladdin, Abu, and the carpet are left in the cave. Abu delivers the lamp to Aladdin, and when he rubs it, a giant blue Genie appears, telling Aladdin he will fulfill three wishes. After leaving the collapsed cave with the Genie's help, he decides to become a prince in order to win Jasmine's heart.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: In the first direct-to-video sequel, "The Return of Jafar" (1994), Jasmine begins to question her love for Aladdin, wondering if he is a duplicitous liar after he saves Iago, Jafar's former pet parrot who had tortured her father. Meanwhile, Jafar is freed from his lamp by a bumbling bandit named Abis Mal, and immediately plots his retribution against Aladdin.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: An animated series was created for Disney Channel and Toon Disney which aired from 1994 to 1996, based on the original 1992 feature. The series picked up where "The Return of Jafar" left off, with Aladdin still living on the streets of Agrabah, engaged to Jasmine.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: In the "Aladdin" television episode "The Lost Ones" it is shown that he had a childhood friend named Amal. The episode "Seems Like Old Crimes" shows that when Aladdin was sixteen, he fell in with a group of circus performers where he met his pet monkey Abu.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: In the second direct-to-video/DVD movie and third film in the series, "Aladdin and the King of Thieves", Aladdin discovers that his long-lost father, Cassim, is still alive, and sets out to find him. Cassim had left the family shortly after his son's birth. Aladdin's mother died when he was just a child. At the climax of the film, Jasmine and Aladdin are finally wed, and Aladdin reconciles with his father. "The Return of Jafar" and "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" together serve as bookends to the Aladdin (TV series) as its prologue and epilogue, respectively.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: In the live action movie-adaptation of the first Aladdin movie of the same name, Aladdin is portrayed by Mena Massoud. The plot follows the story of human form Genie, as he tells a story to his two children about a street urchin named Aladdin, who falls in love with Princess Jasmine, befriends a wish-granting Genie, and battles the conspiring Jafar.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: Aladdin was formerly a member of the Disney Adventurers franchise targeted at young boys sold by the Disney Store from 1999–2004, which sold various merchandise, mostly including toys.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: "Hercules and the Arabian Night" is set after the end of "King of Thieves" as Jasmine refers to herself as married. He is featured as a guest in "Disney's House of Mouse", "" and "Mickey's House of Villains".


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: Aladdin appears in various video games, including the game versions of the film. Aladdin has also appeared in the acclaimed "Kingdom Hearts" series of games. In all his appearances in the series, he is a playable character or can be added to player's party. He wields a scimitar as his primary weapon and can utilize Abu to solve puzzles when he is an active party member. In the first game, Princess Jasmine is kidnapped by Jafar and Maleficent. Aladdin teams up with Sora to save her. In "Kingdom Hearts II", Aladdin is found experiencing deep depression due to his loneliness after Genie went to see the other worlds. When Genie comes back all is well again.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: Aladdin appears in the Nintendo 3DS game "Disney Magical World". Agrabah is one of the four movie worlds accessible to the player, and several characters from the movie appear in the game. The player may also collect a number of Aladdin-themed items and clothing pieces.


title: Aladdin (Disney character)

text: Aladdin also appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character. He is a frequently-seen character, and often accompanied by Jasmine, and occasionally Genie. Though he goes barefoot in the film, he wears moccasins in his street rat clothes. Aladdin and his fellow characters are mostly found in Adventureland. Aladdin, Jasmine, Carpet, Abu and Genie make cameo appearances in the Hong Kong Disneyland version of It's a Small World.


title: Grave Encounters

text: Grave Encounters is a 2011 Canadian found footage supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by the Vicious Brothers. It stars Sean Rogerson, Ashleigh Gryzko, Merwin Mondesir, Mackenzie Gray, and Juan Riedinger as the crew of a paranormal reality television program who lock themselves in a supposedly haunted psychiatric hospital in search of evidence of paranormal activity, as they shoot what ends up becoming their final episode.


title: Grave Encounters

text: "Grave Encounters" premiered on April 22, 2011, at the Tribeca Film Festival. Prior to its premiere, its trailer went viral online, generating over 30 million views. The film had a limited theatrical run in select theaters in the United States, and was released on video-on-demand on August 25, 2011. Two months prior, the film had its Italian premiere via distributor Eagle Pictures under the title "ESP Fenomeni Paranormali".


title: Grave Encounters

text: The film received mixed reviews, was a box office success, spawned a sequel in 2012, and has attained a cult following since its release.


title: Grave Encounters

text: Jerry Hartfield is the producer of "Grave Encounters", a paranormal reality television program directed by ghost hunter Lance Preston. Hartfield explains that the show was cancelled after five episodes following the disappearance of its crew, and presents raw scenes from recovered footage of the sixth and final episode. The "Grave Encounters" crew consists of Lance, occult specialist Sasha Parker, surveillance operator Matt White, cameraman T.C. Gibson, and fake medium Houston Grey. The crew is invited to examine the abandoned Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital, where unexplained phenomena have been reported for years. Kenny, the hospital's caretaker, takes the crew on a day tour and informs them of the hospital's history, particularly of a doctor named Arthur Friedkin, who performed unethical experiments and lobotomies on the hospital's patients before being killed by them.


title: Grave Encounters

text: The crew lock themselves inside the hospital for the night and begin their investigation, setting up camp near the main entrance and positioning static cameras throughout the building. No paranormal activity seems to occur within the first few hours until T.C. captures a door slamming behind him. The crew attempts to establish contact with any entities that might be in the hospital; they soon hear unexplained sounds, and Sasha's hair appears to be lifted into the air by an unseen force. They return downstairs to pack in preparation for Kenny's return. Matt sets out alone to retrieve the static cameras. Before Matt can retrieve the last camera, a loud banging noise grabs Matt's attention and he walks off to investigate it.


title: Grave Encounters

text: When neither Matt nor Kenny returns, the crew forces the front doors open but discover that it leads to another hallway. They aimlessly walk the hallways and realize that despite their clocks saying it's dawn, it is still dark outside. The crew return to the lobby and sleep but are awoken when the construction light they set up falls forward and breaks. T.C. tells Lance that there is a fire escape on the roof and they head off to find a stairwell with rooftop access. They are successful but find that the stairs are blocked off by a randomly built wall blocking their escape.


title: Grave Encounters

text: They decide to back track and while looking at a map on the wall, the arrows on their compass spin in random directions. The group hear what sounds like Matt screaming and run through the halls hoping to find him.


title: Grave Encounters

text: Once they find the room where they heard Matt's screams, they encounter a metal bed frame that levitates into the air and they run in terror. The crew stops to rest and when they wake up, they find the word "HELLO" scratched onto Sasha's back. They once again go looking for Matt after hearing his voice on the walkie-talkie. The group comes across a woman in a hospital gown and when they catch up with her, her face distorts grotesquely. They flee from the entity in fear, and Houston is separated from the other crew members. Houston wanders the halls in the darkness and is then lifted into the air and choked before a bright light bursts from the end of the hallway which sends Houston flying and kills him. After hiding in a room for several hours, Lance, Sasha, and T.C. discover that they have been fitted with hospital identification bracelets bearing their names. The trio roam the halls again and an arm smashes through the window on a door and grabs Sasha. Lance frees her and they run down the hallways. While Lance comforts Sasha, T.C. yells at them to come into a room which Matt is sitting in. Matt, wearing a hospital gown and now insane, mumbles incoherently and claims that they can leave the building once they are "better".


title: Grave Encounters

text: The four rest inside a room and when they wake up, several hands are reaching through the ceiling and walls. The group flee into a room full of bathtubs and find Matt staring down at a bathtub full of blood. T.C. attempts to pull Matt away from the tub, but a figure emerges from the blood and drags T.C. into it. Sasha and Lance tip the tub over but T.C. is not inside it which causes Sasha and Matt to become hysterical. Lance finds an elevator but struggles to pull the doors open. He leaves Sasha and Matt behind to look for something to try open the doors. Lance yanks a rod off of a hospital cart and notices a bloody severed tongue in the corner of the room. Lance then sees a ghostly figure huddled up in the corner of the ceiling which chases after him. Lance makes it back to Sasha and Matt and successfully tries opening the elevator doors. He hears the figure making its way to them, so Lance and Sasha keep the entity at bay by keeping the door closed. While the two are busy, Matt leans forward and plunges several feet down the elevator shaft, killing himself.


title: Grave Encounters

text: Lance and Sasha enter the tunnels beneath the building in search of an exit. Sasha falls ill and begins to cough up blood violently. The two stop to sleep and Sasha is abducted by a mist. Lance, now all by himself, wanders the tunnels for several hours. An increasingly unstable Lance wanders the tunnels alone and feeds on live rats to survive. Lance passes out and after waking up, finds a door leading into Friedkin's operating room, which contains evidence of occult rituals and graphic photos of his operations. He sees apparitions of Friedkin and several nurses, and is dragged away from his camera. A lobotomized Lance records himself proclaiming that he is cured and allowed to leave.


title: Grave Encounters

text: "Grave Encounters" was produced in collaboration with American Express, Digital Interference, Twin Engine Films and Darclight.