title: Alberto Ascari

text: The first Formula One World Championship season took place in 1950, and the Ferrari team made its World Championship debut at Monte Carlo with Ascari, Villoresi and the famous French driver Raymond Sommer on the team. The team had a mixed year – their supercharged Tipo 125 was too slow to challenge the dominant Alfa Romeo team so instead Ferrari began working on an unblown 4.5l car. Much of the year was lost as the team's 2-litre Formula Two engine was progressively enlarged, though when the full 4.5l Tipo 375 arrived for the Gran Premio d'Italia (the final round of the championship) Ascari gave Alfa Romeo their sternest challenge of the year before retiring; he then took over teammate Dorino Serafini's car to finish second. The new Ferrari then won the non-championship Gran Premio do Penya Rhin.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: Throughout 1951, Ascari was a threat to the Alfa Romeo team though initially he was undone by unreliability. However, after winning at the Nürburgring and Monza he was only two points behind Juan Manuel Fangio in the championship standings ahead of the climactic Gran Premio de España. Ascari took pole position, but a disastrous tyre choice for the race saw the Ferraris unable to challenge, Ascari coming home 4th while Fangio won the race and the title.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: For 1952 the World Championship season switched to using the 2-litre Formula Two regulations, with Ascari driving Ferrari's Tipo 500 car. He missed the first race of the championship season as he was qualifying for the Indianapolis 500, at the time a World Championship event. He was the only European driver to race at Indy in its 11 years on the World Championship schedule, but his race ended after 40 laps without having made much of an impression, as a result of a wheel collapse. Returning to Europe he then won the remaining six rounds of the series to clinch the world title (also taking five non-championship wins) and recording the fastest lap in each race. He scored the maximum number of points a driver could earn since only the best four of eight scores counted towards the World Championship. Fangio missed most of the season after a crash in the Gran Premio dell'Autodromo di Monza in June.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: He won three more consecutive races to start the 1953 season, giving him nine straight championship wins (not counting Indy) before his streak ended when he finished fourth in France, although it was a close fourth as the race was highly competitive. He earned two more wins later in the year to give himself a second consecutive World Championship, already becoming Formula One's first two-time champion.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: Following a dispute over his salary, Ascari left Ferrari at the end of the season and switched to Lancia for the 1954 campaign. However, as their car was not eventually ready for the final race of the season, Gianni Lancia allowed him to drive twice for Maserati (sharing fastest lap at the RAC British Grand Prix) and once for Ferrari. Ascari did at least get to win the Mille Miglia that year, driving a Lancia sportscar, surviving the dreadful weather and the failure of a throttle spring, which was temporarily replaced with a rubber band. When the Lancia D50 was ready, Ascari took pole position on its debut and led impressively early on (and set fastest lap) before retiring with a clutch problem, meaning a full season of competing against Fangio's previously dominant Mercedes was much anticipated.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: His 1955 season started promisingly, the Lancia taking victories at the non-championship races in Turin and Naples, where the Lancias took on and beat the hitherto all-conquering Mercedes. though in world championship event, he retired in Gran Premio de la Republica Argentina.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: 22 May 1955, the Grand Prix Automobiles de Monaco, it was late in the race when he crashed into the harbour, through hay bales and sandbags after missing a chicane while leading, reportedly distracted by either the crowd's reaction to Stirling Moss' retirement or the close attentions of the lapped Cesare Perdisa behind. Whatever distracted him, he approached the chicane too quickly, and chose the only way out and took his D50 clean through the barriers into the sea, narrowly missing a small barrel-sized iron bollard by about 30 cm.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: His car disappeared into the Mediterranean Sea and sank, marked only by an oil slick and stream of bubbles and steam. Three seconds passed before Ascari's pale blue helmet appeared bobbing on the surface. He was hauled into a boat and escaped with a broken nose.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: On 26 May, he went to Monza to watch his friend Eugenio Castellotti test a Ferrari 750 Monza sports car. They were to co-drive the car in the 1000 km Monza race, having been given special dispensation by Lancia. Ascari was not supposed to drive that day but decided to try a few laps. In his jacket and tie, shirt sleeves, ordinary trousers and Castellotti's white helmet he set off. As he emerged from a fast curve on the third lap the car inexplicably skidded, turned on its nose and somersaulted twice. Thrown out onto the track, Ascari suffered multiple injuries and died a few minutes later. The crash occurred on the "Curva del Vialone", one of the track's challenging high-speed corners. The corner where the accident happened, renamed in his honour, has been subsequently replaced with a chicane, now called "Variante Ascari".


title: Alberto Ascari

text: Motor racing fans from all over mourned, as Ascari was laid to rest next to the grave of his father in the Cimitero Monumentale in Milan, to be forever remembered as one of the greatest racers of all time. His distraught wife Mietta Ascari told Enzo Ferrari that "were it not for their children she would gladly have joined her beloved Alberto in heaven". His death is often considered to be a contributing factor to the withdrawal of Lancia from motor racing in 1955, just three days after his funeral (though the company was also in considerable financial trouble, needing a government subsidy to survive), handing his team, drivers, cars and spare parts over to Enzo Ferrari.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: A street in Rome (in the Esposizione Universale Roma area) is named in his honour, while both the Autodromo Nazionale Monza and Autodromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez have chicanes named after him. In 1992, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. The British supercar manufacturer Ascari Cars is named in his honour.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: Italian-born American racing legend Mario Andretti counts Ascari as one of his racing heroes, having watched him at the Monza circuit in his youth.


title: Alberto Ascari

text: In 2009, an "Autosport" survey taken by 217 Formula One drivers saw Ascari voted as the sixteenth greatest F1 driver of all time. In 2020, Carteret Analytics used quantitative analysis methods to rank Formula One drivers. According to this ranking, Ascari is Formula 1's fourth best driver of all time.


title: Syrian Army

text: The Syrian Army, officially the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) (), is the land force branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It is the dominant military service of the four uniformed services, controlling the most senior posts in the armed forces, and has the greatest manpower, approximately 80 percent of the combined services. The Syrian Army originated in local military forces formed by the French after World War I, after France obtained a mandate over the region. It officially came into being in 1945, before Syria obtained full independence the following year.


title: Syrian Army

text: Since 1946, it has played a major role in Syria's governance, mounting six military coups: two in 1949, including the March 1949 Syrian coup d'état and the August 1949 coup by Colonel Sami al-Hinnawi, and one each in 1954, 1963, 1966, and 1970. It has fought four wars with Israel (1948, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Yom kippur war of 1973, and 1982 in Lebanon) and one with Jordan (Black September in Jordan, 1970). An armored division was also deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1990–91 during the Persian Gulf War, but saw little action. From 1976 to 2005 it was the major pillar of the Syrian occupation of Lebanon. Internally, it played a major part in suppressing the 1979–82 Islamist uprising in Syria, and since early 2011 has been heavily engaged in fighting the Syrian Civil War, the most violent and prolonged war the Syrian Army has taken part in since its establishment in the 1940s.


title: Syrian Army

text: In 1919, the French formed the "" as part of the Army of the Levant in the French Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon. The former with 8,000 men later grew into both the Syrian and Lebanese armies. This force was used primarily as auxiliaries in support of French troops, and senior officer posts were held by Frenchmen, although Syrians were allowed to hold commissions below the rank of major.


title: Syrian Army

text: As Syria gained independence in 1946, its leaders envisioned a division-sized army. On June 19, 1947, the Syrian Army took the survivors of Pan Am Flight 121 to the Presbyterian mission hospital at Deir ez-Zor. The 1st Brigade was ready by the time of the Syrian war against Israel on May 15, 1948. It consisted of two infantry battalions and one armored battalion. The 2nd Brigade was organized during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and also included two infantry battalions and one armored battalion.


title: Syrian Army

text: At the time of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the army was small, poorly armed, and poorly trained. "Paris had relied primarily on French regulars to keep the peace in Syria and had neglected indigenous forces. Consequently, training was lackadaisical, discipline lax, and staff work almost unheard of. ... there were about 12,000 men in the Syrian army. These troops were mostly grouped into three infantry brigades and an armored force of about battalion size," writes Pollack.


title: Syrian Army

text: Between 1948 and 1967, a series of military coups destroyed the stability of the government and any remaining professionalism within the army. In March 1949, the chief of staff, General Husni al-Za'im, installed himself as president. Two more military dictators followed by December 1949. General Adib Shishakli then held power until deposed in the 1954 Syrian coup d'etat. Further coups followed, each attended by a purge of the officer corps to remove supporters of the losers from the force. 'Discipline in the army broke down across the board as units and their commanders pledged their allegiance to different groups and parties. Indeed, by the late 1950s, the situation had become so bad that Syrian officers regularly disobeyed the orders of superiors who belonged to different ethnic or political groups. The 1963 Syrian coup d'état had as one of its key objectives the seizure of the Al-Kiswah military camp, home to the 70th Armored Brigade. There was another 1966 Syrian coup d'etat.


title: Syrian Army

text: However, in 1967 the army did appear to have some strength. It had around 70,000 personnel, roughly 550 tanks and assault guns, 500 APCs, and nearly 300 artillery pieces. The army had sixteen brigades: twelve infantry, two armored (probably including the 70th Armored), and two mechanized. The Syrian government deployed twelve of the sixteen brigades to the Golan, including both armored brigades and one mechanized brigade. Three 'brigade groups', each comprising four brigades, were deployed: the 12th in the north, holding the sector from the B'nat Ya'acov bridge to the slopes of Mount Hermon, the 35th in the south from the B'nat Ya'acov bridge to the Yarmuk River border with Jordan, and the 42nd in reserve, earmarked for a theater-level counterattack role. During the Six-Day War Israeli assault of the Golan heights, the Syrian army failed to counterattack the Israelis as the Israelis breached the Syrian positions. While Syrian units fought hard whenever the Israelis entered their fields of fire, no attempts appear to have been made to exploit Israeli disorientation and confusion during the initial assault.


title: Syrian Army

text: Judging from reports of 1967–1970, including the reporting of the 5th Infantry Division in 1970, the Army appears to have formed its first divisions during this period. The 1st and 3rd Armored Division, and 5th, 7th, and 9th Mechanized Infantry Divisions were all formed prior to 1973. Samuel M. Katz writes that after Hafez al-Assad gained power in November 1970, the army expanded to the five divisions listed above, plus ten independent brigades, an artillery rocket brigade (the 69th), and "a reinforced brigade variously termed the 70th Armored Brigade or the Assad Republican Guard. It is today known as the Armored Defense Force; as Assad's praetorian guard it is stationed in and around Damascus and subordinate to the Defense Companies under the command of Assad's brother Rifa'at."


title: Syrian Army

text: On 18 September 1970, the Syrian government became involved in Black September in Jordan when it sent a reinforced armored brigade to aid the Palestine Liberation Organization. Syrian armored units crossed the border and overran Irbid with the help of local Palestinian forces. They encountered several Jordanian Army detachments, but rebuffed them without major difficulty. Two days later, the 5th Infantry Division, heavily reinforced, was also sent into Jordan. Two armored brigades were attached to the division, bringing its tank strength up to over 300 T-55s and its manpower to over 16,000. The division entered Jordan at ar-Ramtha, destroyed a company of Jordanian Centurion tanks there, and continued directly towards Amman. Pollack says it is likely that they intended to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy itself. Despite defeating the Jordanian Army at al-Ramtha on 21 September, after fierce air attacks on 22 September, the Syrians stopped the attack and began to retreat.The retreat was caused by Jordan's appeal for international aid : "The report said that Hussein “not only appealed for the moral and diplomatic support of the United Kingdom and the United States, coupled with the threat of international action, but had also asked for an air strike by Israel against Syrian troops.” (New York Post)


title: Syrian Army

text: The Syrian armed forces have also been involved in suppressing dissident movements within Syria, for example the Islamist uprising in Syria in 1979–1982. In March 1980 the 3rd Armored Division and detachments from the Defense Companies arrived in Aleppo. The division was under the command of General Shafiq Fayadh, Hafiz Assad's first cousin. The troops sealed "off whole quarters and carr[ied] out house-to-house searches, often preceded by tank fire." Hundreds of suspects were rounded up. Only two conventional Army brigades deployed to Hama in 1982, the 3rd Armored Division's 47th Armored and 21st Mechanized Brigades. Three quarters of the officers and one third of the soldiers in the two brigades were Alawites. Most of the repression was carried out by the Defense Companies and the Special Forces. Meanwhile, the Special Forces were isolating and combing through Hama, killing and capturing suspected government opponents.


title: Syrian Army

text: In 1984, Major General Ali Haidar's Special Forces were instrumental in blocking an abortive attempt by Rifaat Assad and his Defense Companies to seize the capital. Fayadh's 3rd Armoured Division moved into the capital to join Haidar's forces in the confrontation with the Defense Companies. The 3rd Armoured Division, it seems, had historically been based at al-Qutayfah, near Damascus.


title: Syrian Army

text: Bennett dates the establishment of corps in the Syrian Army to 1985. Writing forty years later, Tom Cooper says "..despite the establishment of.. corps.. most division commanders continued reporting directly to the President. Correspondingly, not only the Chief of Staff of the Syrian Armed Forces but also the Corps HQ exercised only a limited operational control over the Army's divisions." Declassified CIA documents from February 1987 say that the 3rd Corps and 17th and 18th Armoured Divisions were established in 1986.


title: Syrian Army

text: The 9th Armoured Division served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War as the Arab Joint Forces Command North reserve and saw little action.


title: Syrian Army

text: In 1994, Haidar expressed objections to the Syrian president's decision to bring Bashar home from his studies in Britain and groom him for the succession after the death of Basil, the eldest Assad son. Soon afterwards, on 3 September 1994, "Jane's Defence Weekly" reported that then-President Hafez Assad had dismissed at least 16 senior military commanders. Among them was Haidar, then commander of the Special Forces, and General Shafiq Fayadh, a cousin of the President who had commanded the "crack" 3rd Armored Division for nearly two decades. The 3rd Armored Division was "deployed around Damascus." JDW commented that "the Special Forces and the 3rd Armored Division, along with the 1st Armored Division are key elements in the security structure that protects Assad's government. Any command changes involving those formations have considerable political significance." Post-uprising reporting indicated the 1st Armored Division had historically been at al-Kiswah.


title: Syrian Army

text: On 29 September 2004, "Jane's Defence Weekly" reported that Syria had begun to redeploy elements of one or more Syrian Army special forces regiments based in the coastal hills a few kilometres south of Beirut in Lebanon. A senior Lebanese Army officer told JDW that the 3,000 troops involved would return to Syria.


title: Syrian Army

text: Cordesman wrote that in 2006 the Syrian Army had "organized two corps that reported to the Land Forces General Staff and the Commander of the Land Force."


title: Syrian Army

text: In 2009 and 2010, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Syrian army comprised 220,000 regular personnel, and the entire armed forces (including the navy, air force and air defenses) had 325,000 regular troops. Additionally, it had about 290,000 reservists.


title: Syrian Army

text: At October 1, 2011, according to high-ranking defected Syrian Colonel Riad Assaad, 10,000 soldiers, including high-ranking officers, had deserted the Syrian Army.


title: Syrian Army

text: Some of these defectors had formed the Free Syrian Army, engaging in combat with security forces and soldiers in what would turn into the Syrian Civil War.


title: Syrian Army

text: At 16 November 2011, Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, however estimated that less than 1,000 soldiers had deserted the Syrian Army; at the same moment, an FSA battalion commander claimed that the FSA embraced 25,000 army deserters. Also in November 2011, the Free Syrian Army or the website of France 24 estimated the Syrian Army at 200,000 troops. According to General Mustafa al-Sheikh, one of the most senior defectors, however, in January 2012 the Syrian forces were estimated at 280,000 including conscripts.


title: Syrian Army

text: By March 15, 2012, many more soldiers, unhappy with crackdowns on pro-democracy protesters, switched sides and a Turkish official said that 60,000 soldiers had deserted the Syrian army, including 20,000 since February 20. It was added that most of the deserters were junior officers and soldiers. By 5 July 2012, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated "tens of thousands" soldiers to have defected. By August 2012, 40 Brigadier generals from the Army had defected to the opposition army, out of a total of 1,200 generals.


title: Syrian Army

text: On June 14, 2013, 73 Syrian Army officers and their families, some 202 people in total, sought refuge in Turkey. Amongst their number were seven generals and 20 colonels.


title: Syrian Army

text: Up until July 2012, the scale of defections from the Syrian Army, though hard to quantify, was too small to make an impact on the strength of that army, according to Aram Nerguizian from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. Strategically important units of the Syrian armed forces are always controlled by Alawite officers; defecting soldiers – by July 2012 "tens of thousands" according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – are mainly Sunni without access to vital command and control, Nerguizian said, however the formed Syrian Minister of Defense General Dawoud Rajiha killed in the 18 July 2012 Damascus bombing was a Christian.


title: Syrian Army

text: Analyst Joseph Holliday wrote in 2013 that "the Assad government has from the beginning of the conflict been unable to mobilize all of its forces without risking largescale defections. The single greatest liability that the Assad regime has faced in employing its forces has been the challenge of relying on units to carry out orders to brutalize the opposition." This has resulted in Bashar's following his father's precedent by attaching regular army units to more reliable forces (Special Forces, Republican Guard, or 4th Armored Division). When Hafez al-Assad directed the suppression of revolts in Hama in 1982, this technique was also used.


title: Syrian Army

text: In 2014, analyst Charles Lister wrote that "As of April 1, 2014, the SAA had incurred at least 35,601 fatalities, which when combined with a reasonable ratio of 3 wounded personnel for every soldier killed and approximately 50,000 defections, suggests the SAA presently commands roughly 125,000 personnel. This loss of manpower is exacerbated by Syria's longentrenched problem of having to selectively deploy forces based on their perceived trustworthiness."


title: Syrian Army

text: The International Institute for Strategic Studies in London calculated that by August 2013 the strength of the Syrian army had, compared with 2010, roughly been cut in half, due to defections, desertions and casualties: it now counted 110,000 troops.


title: Syrian Army

text: The Syrian Arab Army suffers from serious recruitment issues as the Syrian Civil War drags on, with military age men across sectarian lines no longer willing to join or serve their conscription terms. These issues are especially notable among the Druze population, who have clashed with regime security forces and broken Druze youths out of regime imprisonment to avoid them serving in the army. Increasingly, Assad's Alawite base of support refuse to send their sons to the military due to massive casualty rates among military age men in their community; according to pro oppositions sources a third of 250,000 Alawite men of fighting age have been killed in the Syrian Civil War, leading to major tensions between the sect and the Syrian government.


title: Syrian Army

text: As of mid-2018, then-Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that the Syrian Arab Army had regained its pre-2011 strength levels, recovering from manpower shortages earlier in the Syrian Civil War.


title: Syrian Army

text: The 3rd Armored Division has deployed elements of three brigades from its bases around Qutayfah to Deraa, Zabadani, and Hama, while the 11th Armored Division has stayed close to its bases in Homs and Hama.


title: Syrian Army

text: The European Council named Major General Wajih Mahmud as commander of the 18th Armored Division in the "Official Journal of the European Union" on 15 November 2011, sanctioning him for violence committed in Homs. Henry Boyd of the IISS noted that "in Homs, the 18th Armored Division was reinforced by Special Forces units and ... by elements of the 4th Division under Maher's de facto command."


title: Syrian Army

text: Information from Holliday 2013 suggests that the reserve armored division is the 17th (rather than any other designation), which was responsible for eastern Syria. The division's 93rd Brigade left Idlib to secure Raqqa Governorate in early 2012. Following the reported capture of Raqqa on 3–6 March 2013, elements of the 17th Division remained under siege to the north of the city in October 2013.


title: Syrian Army

text: The National Defense Force is under the control and supervision of the Syrian Army and acts in an infantry role, directly fighting against rebels on the ground and running counter-insurgency operations in co-ordination with the army which provides them logistical and artillery support.


title: Syrian Army

text: Struggling with reliability issues and defections, officers of the SAA increasingly prefer the part-time volunteers of the NDF, who they regard as more motivated and loyal, over regular army conscripts to conduct infantry operations and act as support for advancing tanks.


title: Syrian Army

text: An officer in Homs, who asked not to be identified, said the army was increasingly playing a logistical and directive role, while NDF fighters act as combatants on the ground.


title: Syrian Army

text: In October 2015, the 4th Assault Army Corps (Arabic: 4 فيلق اقتحام) was established in the northeast. The NDF continues to play a significant role in military operations across Syria despite the formation of other elite units, many of which receive direct assistance from Russia.


title: Syrian Army

text: Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the Syrian Arab Army and many hold high governmental positions. From the start of the Syrian Civil War till now, the Syrian Arab Army has been composed mainly of Sunni Syrians (for example, the 4th Mechanized Division is entirely composed and led by Sunnis), with mixed religious leadership at higher military positions. the Minister of Defense and also Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Armed Forces (previously Special Forces) General Major Fahd Jassem al-Freij, and Major General Mohammad al-Shaar, an Interior Minister, are some of the Sunni Muslims in the positions of power. There also operate pro-Assad Sunni militias composed of a Baathist loyalists, such as the Ba'ath Brigades. Brigades are made up of Sunni Syrians and other Arab Sunnis from the Middle Eastern region that adhere to pan-Arab ideals. Liwa al-Quds is a pro-government, Sunni Palestinian militia that operates in Aleppo.


title: Syrian Army

text: Richard Bennett wrote in 2001 that "..corps [were] formed in 1985 to give the Army more flexibility and to improve combat efficiency by decentralizing the command structure, absorbing at least some of the lessons learned during the Israeli invasion of the Lebanon in 1982." The organization and military doctrine of the army followed the Soviet model.


title: Syrian Army

text: Bennett said the 1st Corps also [had] four independent special forces regiments, including two trained for heliborne commando operations against the Israeli signals intelligence & observation posts on Mount Hermon and elsewhere in the Golan Heights.


title: Syrian Army

text: "Note:" "Special Forces" in the Syrian Arab Army denotes specialized "light" infantry (airborne, air assault) and are "elite" only in relation to the conventional mechanized, armored units of the SAA. According to a declassified CIA report the stated Special Forces regiments were created to conduct counter-insurgency operations. Special Forces units include the: 41st, 45th, 46th, 47th, 53rd and 54th independent special forces regiments. Special Forces were heavily used from the early stage of the Syrian Civil War and as a result suffered heavy casualties, possibly up to three regiments (41st, 46th, 54th) may have been destroyed during the Syrian Civil War, the surviving three regiments were merged to other formations such as the Republican Guard, Tiger Forces and 4th Corps. Later reports state that two battalions from the 54th regiment serve within the 17th Division.


title: Syrian Army

text: On February 24, 2016, abna24.com reported that "Last Spring, the Syrian Arab Army's 87th Brigade of 11th Tank Division began their massive retreat across the Idlib Governorate, conceding the provincial capital and the strategic cities of Ariha and Jisr Al-Shughour to Jaysh Al-Fateh (the Army of Conquest) en route to their embarrassing exit from this province in northern Syria."


title: Syrian Army

text: Two new corps have been established since the civil war began in 2011. The "4th Corps", "4th Assault Corps", or "4th Volunteer Assault Corps", also called the Fourth Legion - Assault is a new formation of the Syrian Army, organized with Russian help since 2015. The original plan for the 4th Corps was to reorganize the weakened regular army units as well as irregular pro-government militias, including some National Defence Forces (NDF) units, in the governorates of Latakia as well as Tartus, and on the al-Ghab Plain. These forces would be trained, organized and armed by the Russian Armed Forces, so that they could become "special" ground forces which would retake northernwestern Syria with Russian air support.


title: Syrian Army

text: When the 4th Corps was subsequently organized in summer and fall 2015, forces of widely different origins were included: Among these were the 103rd Republican Guard Brigade which would serve as HQ for the new corps, along with troops drawn from the 3rd and 4th Divisions, as well as Ba'ath Party, NDF, and Alawite militias. The Alawite fighters were organized into 12 units which fought under the joint command of Russian, Syrian, and Iranian officers. The remained was grouped into four "volunteer brigades", while several smaller Russian units were assigned to it in a support role. Directly paid by the Republican Guard and the government, the 4th Corps was described by Carnegie Middle East Center's expert Kheder Khaddour a formation that "blends army and militia forces".


title: Syrian Army

text: Although the 4th Corps' initial operations such as during the 2015–16 Latakia offensive and Northwestern Syria offensive (October–November 2015) were relatively successful, the inclusion of more militias into the corps remained elusive. This was probably due to the fact that Iran remained unwilling to allow Syrian units under its control to be integrated to a primarily Russian-led formation, while many militias generally resisted any attempts to reduce their autonomy by including them in the 4th Corps. As result, the 4th Corps remained mostly limited to Latakia, where it continues to be active. As its performance during the 2016 Latakia offensive was lacking, however, its overall commander Maj. Gen. Shuqi Yusuf was dismissed in July 2016. Overall, the 4th Corps did not "live up to Moscow's expectations" and its Syrian commanders "demonstrated poor performance", despite the fact that the corps had actually succeeded in reforming the included militias into a "disciplined, organized military force".


title: Syrian Army

text: Gregory Waters wrote via Twitter in November 2017 that '..the 6th Division [was] one of two divisions created under the Russian-built 4th Corps back in 2015. The 4th Corps project largely failed & the 6th & 2nd Divisions have remained in Latakia since.'


title: Syrian Army

text: Fifth Attack Troop Corps, also called the Fifth Legion, is an all-volunteer force, part of Syrian Army involved in the Syrian Civil War fighting against the Syrian opposition, Al-Qaeda in Syria, and ISIS. The Fifth Corps of Volunteers recruits men from over age 18 from across the country "not already eligible for military service or deserters".


title: Syrian Army

text: According to Abdullah Soleiman Ali in al-Safir paper, formation of 'Fifth Attack Troop Corps' is the apex point of cooperation among members of Russia–Syria–Iran–Iraq coalition. 5th Corps soldiers are trained, equipped and advised by Russian military personnel since their intervention in 2015. Most main battle tanks of the 5th Assault Corps are modernized Soviet tanks, including the T-62M and T-72B3.


title: Syrian Army

text: The 5th Corps unit, "The Ba'ath Legion", was formed from Ba'ath Brigades volunteers. According to the Russian International Affairs Council, the Qalamoun Shield Forces also joined the Fifth Corps, though no other sources confirmed this.


title: Syrian Army

text: In March 2021, the 5th Corps unit supported by the Russians managed to control Tuenan gas plant and Al-Thawrah oilfield in Raqqa Governorate, previously held by Liwa Fatemiyoun. That month, its commander since January 2018, Major General Zaid Salah (formerly commander the Republican Guard’s 30th Division) was sanctioned by the United Kingdom, who named him as "Responsible for the violent repression of the civilian population by troops under his command, particularly during the increased violence of the Idlib/Hama offensive which began in April 2019."


title: Syrian Army

text: Service uniforms for Syrian officers generally follow the British Army style, although army combat clothing follows the Soviet model. Each uniform has two coats: a long one for dress and a short jacket for informal wear. Army officer uniforms are khaki in summer, olive in winter. Certain Army (paratroops and special forces) and Air Defense Force personnel may wear camouflage uniforms. Among the camouflage are Red Lizard, and Syrian Leaf pattern; a locally-made copy of the ERDL. Officers have a variety of headgear, including a service cap, garrison cap, and beret (linen in summer and wool in winter). The color of the beret varies according to the officer's unit. The most common beret color is black, for infantry, Engineering, Signals and supporting arms personnel, followed by Green, for Armored, Mechanized and Artillery personnel, Red for the Republican Guard and Military Police, and Maroon for the Special Forces.


title: Syrian Army

text: In 2011, the standard issue combat helmets were the olive Chinese QGF-02, and the Soviet SSh-68 for the reserve forces. Both of them can be equipped with the "Syrian Leaf" camouflage helmet covers. The Republican Guard and Special Forces were the only units equipped with TAT-BA-7 bullet-proof vests.


title: Syrian Army

text: Commissioned officers' rank insignia are identical for the army and air force. These are gold on a bright green or black shoulder board for the army and gold on a bright blue board for the air force. Officer ranks are standard, although the highest is the equivalent of Colonel General, a rank held in 1986 only by the commander in chief and the minister of defense. Navy officer rank insignia are gold stripes worn on the lower sleeve. The highest-ranking officer in Syria's navy is the equivalent of lieutenant general. Army and air force rank for warrant officers is indicated by gold stars on an olive green shield worn on the upper left arm. Lower noncommissioned ranks are indicated by upright and inverted chevrons worn on the upper left arm.


title: Syrian Army

text: Although some twenty-five orders and medals are authorized, generally only senior officers and warrant officers wear medal ribbons. The following are some important Syrian awards: Order of Umayyad, Medal of Military Honor, the War Medal, Medal for Courage, Yarmuk Medal, Wounded in Action Medal, and Medal of March 8, 1963.


title: Syrian Army

text: The Chief of the General Staff of the Army and Armed Forces () is the professional head of the Syrian Armed Forces and the Syrian Army. The Chief of the General Staff is appointed by the President of Syria, who is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. As of 2019, the Chief of the General Staff has been Salim Harba, who was appointed to the role by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: Isabelle Geffroy (born 1 May 1980), known professionally as Zaz, is a French singer and songwriter who mixes jazzy styles, French variety, soul and acoustic. She is known for her single "Je veux", taken from her self-titled debut album, released on 10 May 2010.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: Zaz was born in Tours, France. Her mother was a Spanish teacher, and her father worked for an electric company. In 1985, she entered the Conservatoire de Tours with her sister and her brother, attending courses from the ages of 6 to 11. She studied music theory, specifically the violin, piano, guitar, and choral singing. In 1994, she moved to Bordeaux. In 1995, she took singing lessons and played sports for a year in Bordeaux. In 2000, she won a scholarship from the regional council, which allowed her to join a school of modern music, the CIAM (Centre for Musical Activities and Information) of Bordeaux. Her musical influences included 'Four Seasons' by Vivaldi, jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald, and other singers such as Enrico Macias, Bobby McFerrin, and Richard Bona, as well as African, Latin, and Cuban rhythms. In 2006, she moved to Paris.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: In 2001, she started her singing career in the blues band "Fifty Fingers". She sang in musical groups in Angoulême, especially in a jazz quintet. She became one of the four singers of Izar-Adatz (Basque for "Shooting Star"), a variety band which consisted of sixteen people with whom she toured for two years, especially in the Midi-Pyrenees and the Basque Country. She worked in the studio as a backing singer in Toulouse and performed with many singers, including Maeso, Art Mengo, Vladimir Max, Jean-Pierre Mader, and Serge Guerao.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: In 2011, Zaz won an EBBA Award. Every year the European Border Breakers Awards (EBBA) recognize the success of ten emerging artists or groups who reached audiences outside their own countries with their first internationally released album in the past year.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: In May 2010, French magazine "Télérama" announced: "Rumor has swelled in recent weeks: Zaz is an extraordinary voice, and she will be the revelation of the summer!". On 10 May 2010, Zaz released her first album. It contains songs she wrote ("Trop sensible") and co-composed ("Les passants", "Le long de la route", "Prends garde à ta langue", "J'aime à nouveau", "Ni oui ni non"). Kerredine Soltani produced the album on the label "Play On" and wrote and composed the hit single "Je veux". The pop singer Raphaël Haroche wrote her songs "Éblouie par la nuit", "Port Coton" and "La fée". In 2010, she signed a contract for her tours with Caramba and publisher Sony ATV. She was invited to make several television appearances (such as "Taratata" or "Chabada") and was featured in several programs on the radio. On Sunday 6 October 2013, Zaz appeared on BBC One's "The Andrew Marr Show" in London and sang "Je veux" live.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: Zaz then toured France (Paris, La Rochelle, Montauban, Saint-Ouen, Chateauroux, Landerneau, Fécamp...), performed at the Francofolies of Montreal (Canada), and sang in Monthey (Switzerland), Brussels, Berlin, and Milan. In autumn Zaz topped the charts in Belgium, Switzerland, and Austria. Matthieu Baligand, her manager and producer at Caramba Entertainment, explained to "Libération": ""There's a lot about her right now and people want to see her tour... But despite the demand, it seems preferable for her to begin touring in fifty small places, which will make her more credible. Zaz is a popular, intuitive artist, who is familiar with music, who can sing, but doing a quality show is something else (...)."" In November 2010, the debut album "Zaz" became double platinum and she was awarded "Revelation Song" by the Académie Charles Cros. Zaz also won the European Border Breakers Award: she was named the French artist most played abroad in 2010. According to a survey published by "L'Internaute", Zaz was the most popular French singer in the 2010 ranking.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: She is also featured on the song "Cœur Volant" for the soundtrack of the 2011 film, "Hugo". Her live CD and DVD "Zaz live tour Sans Tsu Tsou" was revealed.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: Her song "Eblouie Par La Nuit" was featured in the 2013 American neo-noir crime thriller, "Dead Man Down".


title: Zaz (singer)

text: In 2012, Zaz went on tour and held concerts in various countries around the world including Japan, Canada, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Slovenia, Czech Republic (Colours of Ostrava), Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Turkey, among other countries.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: In 2016, Zaz was invited to perform in Zacatecas City, Mexico as part of the Festival Cultural Zacatecas.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: In September 2018, Zaz released "Qué vendrá", the first track from an upcoming album titled "Effet miroir" ("Mirror Effect"). The track's title and chorus are in Spanish.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: In 2019 Zaz took a career break in order to, "look after myself...There has to be a balance because it's Isa [a contraction of her real name] who feeds Zaz, not Zaz who feeds Isa." In October 2021 Zaz released her fifth studio album, Isa.


title: Zaz (singer)

text: Zaz created the project Zazimut to "develop and promote projects for a society more respectful of life in all its forms".


title: Hero (1983 film)

text: Hero is a 1983 Indian Hindi-language romantic action film directed by Subhash Ghai. Jackie Shroff played the lead role, and achieved stardom through this film. The actress Meenakshi Sheshadri, who had been Miss India in 1981 and played the lead female role gained popularity through this movie. The music was written by Laxmikant Pyarelal and songs are still popular. The movie was declared a blockbuster in the box office.


title: Hero (1983 film)

text: "Hero" was remade in Telugu as "Vikram" and in Kannada as "Ranadheera". A Hindi remake was released in 2015 directed by Nikhil Advani. The film ranked third position in the Box Office collection list 1983.


title: Hero (1983 film)

text: The film starts with Pasha (Amrish Puri) being taken to prison. To get out of the situation, he writes to his best man, Jackie (Jackie Shroff). Jackie goes to Police Commissioner Shrikanth Mathur (Shammi Kapoor) and warns him. He then kidnaps Shrikanth's daughter Radha (Meenakshi Sheshadri). He tells her that he is a police officer and they fall in love; however, she finds out that he is a gangster but does not leave him and urges him to surrender. Transformed by true love, Jackie surrenders to the police and is imprisoned for two years.


title: Hero (1983 film)

text: Back home, Radha tells her brother Daamodar (Sanjeev Kumar) the truth. To prevent Radha from marrying somebody else, he calls his friend Jimmy (Shakti Kapoor) to put on a show that Radha and Jimmy love each other. Jimmy misunderstands the situation and falls in love with Radha. When Jackie comes back, he starts work in a garage and tries to reform himself. Despite everything, Shrikanth kicks him out of his life. After many days and events that follow, Daamodar finds out that Jimmy is a drug smuggler. After his release from prison, Pasha desires revenge against both Shrikanth and Jackie, so he kidnaps Radha, Shrikanth and Daamodar. Jackie comes at the last moment and frees all of them. In the end, Shrikanth lets Radha marry Jackie.


title: Hero (1983 film)

text: The film was declared a "blockbuster" at the Indian box office, with Shroff and Sheshadri becoming stars after its release. "Hero" ran for 750 days in many cities in India. Both actors were in demand after its release and began a long association with Ghai. Younger audiences enjoyed the performances, and critics applauded Ghai for using fresh faces at a time when Amitabh Bachchan was the dominant star in Bollywood. The Yamaha Rajdoot 350 bike was heavily promoted in this movie.


title: Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club

text: They are featured in the spin-off game "Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars" along with μ's and Aqours. They also appear as SR rarity cards in "Love Live! School Idol Festival". The girls were initially split up into groups of three to begin activities in three different apps before their addition to the game: Dengeki Online website (Kasumi, Karin, Setsuna), Famitsu App website (Ayumu, Ai, Rina), and the game's official website (Emma, Shizuku, Kanata). Each place is working as a separate room or branch office for the Nijigasaki High School. Later, they were officially split into three subunits: DiverDiva, A・Zu・Na, and Qu4rtz. An anime television series adaptation by Bandai Namco Filmworks (formerly known as Sunrise) aired from October to December 2020. A second season aired from April to June 2022. An original video animation episode is set to premiere in theaters in Q3 2023.


text: An anime television series adaptation of the spin-off manga "Nijiyon: Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Dōkōkai Yon-Koma", titled "Nijiyon Animation", will premiere in January 2023.


text: is located in Odaiba, Tokyo. The school is popular due to its free school style and diverse majors. The story centers on the members of the school idol club in Nijigasaki, who work together as solo idols and their attempt to prevent the club from being abolished. As the story progresses, more girls begin to participate in the club's activities.


text: Where appropriate, plot descriptions mentioned below refer to the story in "Love Live! School Idol Festival All Stars". Other parts of the franchise, such as the manga and animation series, feature some variations in the storyline.


text: The anime television series is animated by Sunrise and directed by Tomoyuki Kawamura, with Jin Tanaka handling series composition and Takumi Yokota designing the characters. A public vote was held to decide the name of one of the anime's characters, Yu Takasaki, who is voiced by Hinaki Yano and based on the player character in the game. The 13-episode anime aired from October 3 to December 26, 2020 on Tokyo MX, SUN, and KBS, October 4 on BS11, and October 6 on region-exclusive channels. It was also streamed live through the Bandai Channel, Line Live, and YouTube Live. Odex licensed the anime in Southeast Asian territories excluding Thailand, where it is licensed by Dream Express (DEX). Funimation (now Crunchyroll, LLC) licensed the series and streams it on their website in North America, and on AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand. Nijigasaki High School Idol Club performed both the opening and ending themes, respectively titled and "Neo Sky, Neo Map!".


text: During the group's 3rd live concert at the MetLife Dome on May 9, 2021, a second season was announced. The main cast and staff of the first season reprised their roles. It aired from April 2 to June 25, 2022. Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, now along with new members Shioriko, Mia, and Lanzhu, returns to perform both the opening and ending themes, titled "Colorful Dreams! Colorful Smiles!" and respectively.


text: During the "Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club 5th Live! Where Rainbows Bloom" concert on September 18, 2022, an anime television series adaptation of the spin-off four-panel manga "Nijiyon: Love Live! Nijigasaki Gakuen School Idol Dōkōkai Yon-Koma" was announced. Titled "Nijiyon Animation" and directed by Yūya Horiuchi, it is set to premiere on January 6, 2023 on Tokyo MX and BS11.


text: During the live-streamed special for the "Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club" project on November 24, 2022, an original video animation episode for the main anime series was announced. It is set to premiere in theaters in Q3 2023.


text: While working individually, the girls also released singles as group as well as divided into three mini units. The members of each unit were decided by votes from fans. Instead of three mini units consisting of three members each as previously seen with μ's and Aqours, the Nijigasaki girls were divided into groups of two, three, and four. Voting on the three first mini units along with their names concluded on June 10, 2019. The fourth subunit was announced on July 1, 2021 with their name decided on September 1.


text: As of September 1, 2021, there are currently four subunits: DiverDiva (Karin and Ai), A・Zu・Na (Ayumu, Shizuku, and Setsuna), Qu4rtz (pronounced "Quartz", Kasumi, Kanata, Emma, and Rina), and R3birth (pronounced "Rebirth", Shioriko, Mia, and Lanzhu).


title: Ben Ferencz

text: Benjamin Berell Ferencz (born March 11, 1920) is an American lawyer. He was an investigator of Nazi war crimes after World War II and the chief prosecutor for the United States Army at the Einsatzgruppen Trial, one of the 12 Subsequent Nuremberg Trials held by the U.S. authorities at Nuremberg, Germany. Later, he became an advocate of international rule of law and for the establishment of an International Criminal Court. From 1985 to 1996, he was adjunct professor of international law at Pace University.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: Ferencz was born on March 11, 1920, in Csolt, Szatmár County, Kingdom of Hungary, located close to the historical Transylvania region (today part of Șomcuta Mare, Romania) into a Jewish family. A few months later, Transylvania was ceded to Romania under the Treaty of Trianon (1920), the result of World War I. The dictat cost Hungary 2/3 of its territory. When Ferencz was ten months old, his family emigrated to the United States, which, according to his own account, was to avoid the persecution of Hungarian Jews by Romania after Romania gained formal control of Transylvania and Eastern Hungary.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: Ferencz studied crime prevention at the City College of New York, and his criminal law exam result won him a scholarship to Harvard Law School. At Harvard, he studied under Roscoe Pound and also did research for Sheldon Glueck who, at that time, was writing a book on war crimes. Ferencz graduated from Harvard in 1943. After his studies, he joined the U.S. Army. His time as a soldier in the army began bleakly with a job as a typist in Camp Davis in North Carolina. At that time, he was not familiar with using a typewriter, and he couldn't fire a weapon. His job duties also consisted of unceremoniously cleaning toilets and scrubbing pots and floors. In 1944, he


title: Ben Ferencz

text: In 1945, he was transferred to the headquarters of General Patton's Third Army, where he was assigned to a team tasked with setting up a war crimes branch and collecting evidence for such crimes. In that role, he was sent to the concentration camps that had been liberated by the U.S. army.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: On Christmas 1945, Ferencz was honorably discharged from the Army with the rank of sergeant. He returned to New York, but was recruited only a few weeks later to participate as a prosecutor (and now made a full Colonel as part of his agreement to go) in the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials in the legal team of Telford Taylor. Taylor appointed him chief prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Case —Ferencz's first case. All of the 22 men on trial were convicted; 13 of them received death sentences, of which four were eventually carried out. Apart from East Germany, they were the last executions performed on German soil, and in the federal republic.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: In a 2005 interview for "The Washington Post", he revealed some of his activities during his period in Germany by way of showing how different military legal norms were at the time:


title: Ben Ferencz

text: Ferencz stayed in Germany after the Nuremberg Trials, together with his wife Gertrude, whom he had married in New York on March 31, 1946. Together with Kurt May and others, he participated in the setup of reparation and rehabilitation programs for the victims of persecutions by the Nazis, and also had a part in the negotiations that led to the Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany signed on September 10, 1952 and the first German Restitution Law in 1953. In 1956, the family—they had four children by then—returned to the U.S., where Ferencz entered private law practice as a partner of Telford Taylor. While pursuing claims of Jewish forced laborers against the Flick concern (the subject of the Flick trial), Ferencz observed the "interesting phenomenon of history and psychology that very frequently the criminal comes to see himself as the victim".


title: Ben Ferencz

text: Experiences just after World War II left a defining impression on Ferencz. After 13 years, and under the influence of the events of the Vietnam War, Ferencz left the private law practice and henceforth worked for the institution of an International Criminal Court that would serve as a worldwide highest instance for issues of crimes against humanity and war crimes.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: He also published several books on this subject. Already in his first book published in 1975, entitled "Defining International Aggression-The Search for World Peace", he argued for the establishment of such an international court. From 1985 to 1996, Ferencz also worked as an adjunct professor of international law at Pace University at White Plains, New York.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: An International Criminal Court was indeed established on July 1, 2002, when the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court came into force. Under the Bush administration, the U.S. signed the treaty, but didn't ratify it. The administration of George W. Bush concluded a large number of bilateral agreements with other states that would exclude U.S. citizens from being brought before the ICC.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: Ferencz has repeatedly argued against this procedure and suggested that the U.S. join the ICC without reservations, as it was a long-established rule of law that "law must apply equally to everyone", also in an international context. In this vein, he has suggested in an interview given on August 25, 2006, that not only Saddam Hussein should be tried, but also George W. Bush because the Iraq War had been begun by the U.S. without permission by the UN Security Council. He also suggested that Bush should be tried in the International Criminal Court for '269 war crime charges' related to the Iraq War.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: In 2013, Ferencz stated once more that the "use of armed force to obtain a political goal should be condemned as an international and a national crime."


title: Ben Ferencz

text: Ferencz wrote in 2018, in a preface to a book on the future of international justice, that "war-making itself is the supreme international crime against humanity and that it should be deterred by punishment universally, wherever and whenever offenders are apprehended".


title: Ben Ferencz

text: In 2009, Ferencz was awarded the Erasmus Prize, together with Antonio Cassese; the award is given to individuals or institutions that have made notable contributions to European culture, society, or social science.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: On May 3, 2011, two days after the death of Osama bin Laden was reported, "The New York Times" published a Ferencz letter which argued that "illegal and unwarranted execution – even of suspected mass murderers – undermines democracy". Also that year he presented a closing statement in the trial of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo in Uganda.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: On March 16, 2012, in another letter to the editor of "The New York Times", Ferencz hailed the International Criminal Court's conviction of Thomas Lubanga as "a milestone in the evolution of international criminal law".


title: Ben Ferencz

text: In April 2017, the municipality of The Hague announced the naming of the footpath next to the Peace Palace the Benjamin Ferenczpad ("Benjamin Ferencz Path"), calling him "one of the figureheads of international justice". The city's Deputy Mayor Saskia Bruines (International Affairs) traveled to Washington to symbolically present the street sign to Ferencz.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: In 2018, Ferencz was the subject of a documentary on his life, "Prosecuting Evil", by director Barry Avrich, which was made available on Netflix. In the same year, Ferencz was interviewed for the 2018 Michael Moore documentary, "Fahrenheit 11/9".


title: Ben Ferencz

text: On June 20, 2019, artist and sculptor Yaacov Heller honored Ferencz—presenting him with a bust he created—commemorating his extraordinary life dedicated to genocide prevention.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: On January 16, 2020, "The New York Times" printed Ferencz's letter denouncing the assassination of the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, unnamed in the letter, as an "immoral action [and] a clear violation of national and international law". He became a centenarian two months later. Six months later on September 7, the documentary "Two Heads Are Better Than One: Making of the Ben Ferencz Bust", starring Ferencz and sculptor Yaacov Heller, had a world premiere, produced by Eric Kline Productions and directed by Eric Kline.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: In March 2022, an audio clip of Ben Ferencz was played during the Eleventh emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly and he later gave an interview to BBC Radio 4's "The World Tonight" on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He also says that Vladimir Putin should be 'behind bars' for his war crimes, and says he is "heartbroken" over atrocities in Ukraine.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: On April 7, 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis awarded Ferencz the Governor’s Medal of Freedom at a ceremony held at Florida Atlantic University.


title: Ben Ferencz

text: Ferencz married his teenage sweetheart Gertrude Fried, in New York in 1946. They were married for more than 70 years, “without a quarrel”, until her death in 2019. They had four children.


title: Landslide victory

text: A landslide victory is an election result in which the victorious candidate or party wins by an overwhelming margin. The term became popular in the 1800s to describe a victory in which the opposition is "buried", similar to the way in which a geological landslide buries whatever is in its path. What constitutes a landslide varies by the type of electoral system. Even within an electoral system, there is no consensus on what sized margin makes for a landslide.


title: Landslide victory

text: In Barbadian general elections, a landslide victory involves a large swing from one party to another as well as one party winning a large majority in parliament. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood.


title: Landslide victory

text: In a Canadian federal election, a landslide victory occurs when a political party gains a significant majority of the House of Commons of Canada.


title: Landslide victory

text: Landslide victories may also occur during provincial elections, and territorial elections in Yukon. Landslide victories are not possible for territorial elections in the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, as its members are elected without reference to political parties, operating as a consensus government.


title: Landslide victory

text: In Grenadian general elections, a landslide victory involves a large swing from one party to another as well as one party winning a large majority in parliament. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood.


title: Landslide victory

text: In Jamaican elections, a landslide victory involves a large swing from one party to another as well as one party winning a large majority in parliament. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood.


title: Landslide victory

text: Until 1993, New Zealand used the traditional first-past-the-post system as in the U.K. to determine representation in its Parliament. Thus, landslide elections at that time were defined in an identical fashion, i.e. where one party got an overwhelming majority of the seats. Since 1996, New Zealand has used the mixed member proportional system as in Germany, making landslides much less likely.


title: Landslide victory

text: In 1941, the Nacionalista Party won the presidency, vice presidency, all seats in the Senate, and all but 3 seats in the House of Representatives. This was the biggest landslide in Philippine history. The legislators won't serve until 1945 though, due to World War II.


title: Landslide victory

text: Starting in 1987, the Philippines evolved into a multi-party system, and coupled with the introduction of party-list elections in 1998, no party was able to win a landslide, much less a majority of seats, in the House of Representatives since then. This has also meant that no presidential and vice presidential election winner won a majority of votes, although, in 1998, the winners were described as having landslide victories, despite winning less than a majority of votes, due to large winning margins. Senatorial landslides are more possible though in midterm elections, as voters are usually presented with two distinct choices. The 2022 presidential election was the first landslide since 1987.


title: Landslide victory

text: In the Philippines, while there are presidential tickets, the positions of president and vice president are elected separately.


title: Landslide victory

text: Alberto João Jardim, member of the Social Democratic Party was the president of the Madeira region from 1978 to 2015. During this period of time, landslide victories for the Social Democrats were the norm.


title: Landslide victory

text: A landslide victory in the elections of St. Vincent and the Grenadines involves a large swing from one party to another as well as one party winning a large majority in parliament. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood.


title: Landslide victory

text: In Trinidad and Tobago's elections, a landslide victory involves a large swing from one party to another as well as one party winning a large majority in parliament. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood. Party politics and the political structure in Trinidad and Tobago has generally run along ethic lines with most Afro-Trinidadians supporting the People's National Movement (PNM) and most Indo-Trinidadians supporting various Indian-majority parties, such as the current United National Congress (UNC) or its predecessors.


title: Landslide victory

text: In UK General Elections, a landslide victory involves winning a large majority in parliament and often goes with a large swing from one party to another as well. Landslide victories have usually occurred after a long period of government from one particular party and a change in the popular mood. In the past a majority of over 100 was regarded as the technical hurdle to be defined as a landslide, as that allows the government freedom to easily enact its policies in parliament. In more recent times, the label 'landslide' has been applied in numerous press articles to victories which would not previously have been regarded as such, for example the Conservative Party majority of 80 in 2019. Its current usage is more as political commentary rather than technical definition and is a reflection of the strength of the party's ability to put its programme through parliament.


title: Landslide victory

text: The largest landslide by any single party in the UK parliament, since universal suffrage was introduced, was the majority of 179 won by Tony Blair's Labour Party in 1997.


title: Landslide victory

text: A landslide victory in U.S. Presidential elections occurs when a candidate has an overwhelming majority in the Electoral College.


title: Einstein notation

text: In mathematics, especially the usage of linear algebra in Mathematical physics, Einstein notation (also known as the Einstein summation convention or Einstein summation notation) is a notational convention that implies summation over a set of indexed terms in a formula, thus achieving brevity. As part of mathematics it is a notational subset of Ricci calculus; however, it is often used in physics applications that do not distinguish between tangent and cotangent spaces. It was introduced to physics by Albert Einstein in 1916.


title: Einstein notation

text: According to this convention, when an index variable appears twice in a single term and is not otherwise defined (see Free and bound variables), it implies summation of that term over all the values of the index. So where the indices can range over the set ,


title: Einstein notation

text: The upper indices are not exponents but are indices of coordinates, coefficients or basis vectors. That is, in this context should be understood as the second component of rather than the square of (this can occasionally lead to ambiguity). The upper index position in is because, typically, an index occurs once in an upper (superscript) and once in a lower (subscript) position in a term (see "" below). Typically, would be equivalent to the traditional .


title: Einstein notation

text: In general, indices can range over any indexing set, including an infinite set. This should not be confused with a typographically similar convention used to distinguish between tensor index notation and the closely related but distinct basis-independent abstract index notation.


title: Einstein notation

text: An index that is summed over is a "summation index", in this case "". It is also called a dummy index since any symbol can replace "" without changing the meaning of the expression (provided that it does not collide with other index symbols in the same term).


title: Einstein notation

text: An index that is not summed over is a "free index" and should appear only once per term. If such an index does appear, it usually also appears in every other term in an equation. An example of a free index is the "" in the equation formula_3, which is equivalent to the equation formula_4.


title: Einstein notation

text: Einstein notation can be applied in slightly different ways. Typically, each index occurs once in an upper (superscript) and once in a lower (subscript) position in a term; however, the convention can be applied more generally to any repeated indices within a term. When dealing with covariant and contravariant vectors, where the position of an index also indicates the type of vector, the first case usually applies; a covariant vector can only be contracted with a contravariant vector, corresponding to summation of the products of coefficients. On the other hand, when there is a fixed coordinate basis (or when not considering coordinate vectors), one may choose to use only subscripts; see "" below.


title: Einstein notation

text: In recognition of this fact, the following notation uses the same symbol both for a vector or covector and its "components", as in:


title: Einstein notation

text: where is the vector and are its components (not the th covector ), is the covector and are its components. The basis vector elements formula_6 are each column vectors, and the covector basis elements formula_7 are each row covectors. (See also #Abstract description; duality, below and the examples)


title: Einstein notation

text: In the presence of a non-degenerate form (an isomorphism , for instance a Riemannian metric or Minkowski metric), one can raise and lower indices.


title: Einstein notation

text: A basis gives such a form (via the dual basis), hence when working on with a Euclidean metric and a fixed orthonormal basis, one has the option to work with only subscripts.


title: Einstein notation

text: However, if one changes coordinates, the way that coefficients change depends on the variance of the object, and one cannot ignore the distinction; see Covariance and contravariance of vectors.


title: Einstein notation

text: In the above example, vectors are represented as matrices (column vectors), while covectors are represented as matrices (row covectors).


title: Einstein notation

text: The virtue of Einstein notation is that it represents the invariant quantities with a simple notation.


title: Einstein notation

text: In physics, a scalar is invariant under transformations of basis. In particular, a Lorentz scalar is invariant under a Lorentz transformation. The individual terms in the sum are not. When the basis is changed, the "components" of a vector change by a linear transformation described by a matrix. This led Einstein to propose the convention that repeated indices imply the summation is to be done.


title: Einstein notation

text: As for covectors, they change by the inverse matrix. This is designed to guarantee that the linear function associated with the covector, the sum above, is the same no matter what the basis is.


title: Einstein notation

text: The value of the Einstein convention is that it applies to other vector spaces built from using the tensor product and duality. For example, , the tensor product of with itself, has a basis consisting of tensors of the form . Any tensor in can be written as:


title: Einstein notation

text: In Einstein notation, the usual element reference formula_13 for the formula_14th row and formula_15th column of matrix formula_16 becomes formula_17. We can then write the following operations in Einstein notation as follows.


title: Einstein notation

text: Using an orthogonal basis, the inner product is the sum of corresponding components multiplied together:


title: Einstein notation

text: Again using an orthogonal basis (in 3 dimensions) the cross product intrinsically involves summations over permutations of components:


title: Einstein notation

text: For a square matrix , the trace is the sum of the diagonal elements, hence the sum over a common index .


title: Einstein notation

text: Since and represent two "different" indices, there is no summation and the indices are not eliminated by the multiplication.


title: Einstein notation

text: Given a tensor, one can raise an index or lower an index by contracting the tensor with the metric tensor, . For example, take the tensor , one can raise an index:


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The use of firearms by police forces varies widely across the world, in part due to differences in gun use policy, civilian firearm laws, and recording of police activity. Police may require that officers use warning shots before aiming on-target, officers may need to make verbal warnings before using their firearms, and officers may be prohibited from carrying weapons while performing tasks such as highway patrol where gun use is not expected.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: In nineteen countries or territories, the police do not carry firearms unless the situation is expected to merit it: Bhutan, Botswana, Cook Islands, Fiji, Iceland, Ireland, Kiribati, Malawi, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Norway, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, South Korea, the United Kingdom (except for Northern Ireland), the U.S. Virgin Islands and Vanuatu. These countries exhibit gun-homicide rates markedly lower on average than countries with armed police forces. Their police forces commonly adopt a philosophy of policing by consent.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: A survey conducted in Great Britain in 2004 found that 47% of citizens supported arming all police while 48% were opposed to the idea.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The Australian police forces are monitored by the Australian Institute of Criminology, which has recorded police shooting deaths since 1989. Police in Australia routinely wear firearms which are personally issued to them. All fatal police shootings are subject to a mandatory coronial inquest. A 2013 review by the Australian Institute of Criminology found that 42% of victims of fatal police shootings had a mental illness. A more recent history of deaths by police shootings is tabulated below.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Police in Austria are monitored by the Austrian Interior Ministry. Since 2006 the records of police firearm use have been expanded to show whether or not a round was targeted at people.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: All uniformed police officers belonging to the Police of the Czech Republic (PČR) and all Municipal police departments carry a firearm. Most officers are equipped with CZ 75D Compact pistols. The use of firearms by police officers belonging to the PČR is regulated by the Act no. 273/2008 Sb. (Act on the Police of the Czech Republic), which defines the ways an officer can use his service weapon and states that a police officer of the PČR is not a subject to the Act no. 119/2002 Sb. (Act on Firearms and ammunition) and as such doesn't have to possess a weapons licence.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The use by officers belonging to a municipal police department is regulated by the Act no. 119/2002 Sb. therefore they need to possess the appropriate weapons licence. The use is further regulated by the Act no. 553/1991 Sb. (Act on the Municipal Police), which gives officers more rights regarding the use of a firearm, such as the right to open carry.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The regulation for the Municipal Police is generally more strict than the regulation for PČR and doesn't give municipal police officers the same rights as PČR officers.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Table below only includes the statistics for PČR officers and doesn't include municipal police departments.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Since 1965 all Danish police officers have carried a police pistol when performing their duties. Danish police used Walther PPK 7.65 mm as the standard pistol until 2000, and then the Heckler & Koch USP 9 mm was introduced. In 2008 police began to carry pepper spray in addition to their firearm. Further, all officers are trained in the use of Heckler & Koch MP5, which is issued on special assignments or severe incidents.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Additionally, every police district have specially trained "Reaktionspatruljer" deployed round the clock, carrying the 5.56 × 45 mm NATO .


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The appropriate use of firearms is described in the "Act on Police Activities" regulations, section 16 and 17 is translated into English in.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: In Denmark the police use of weapons is recorded by the police department. The police department classifies tear gas as the use of a firearm. In 2006 the death of four people by police shootings prompted an investigation into the use of firearms by the Danish police force from 1996 to 2006. The investigation found no significant trends of increased firearms use by the police.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Police in Finland have access to weapons including a Glock 17, Heckler & Koch MP5, Taser and pepper spray. The use of firearms is recorded by the Police College and the Finnish ministry of the Interior.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: In France the police are regularly armed, however, there is no official record of how frequently firearms are used. An independent group "A Toutes Les Victimes" has tracked the number of deaths and injuries by police which have been published in the media since 2005.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: German police forces routinely carry weapons. Police firearm statistics dating back to 1996 are available, a summary of recent years is tabulated below.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Icelandic police do not regularly carry firearms. In 2013 the first fatal police shooting took place where one man was killed. As of October 2019 this remains the only fatal police shooting since Iceland became an independent republic in 1944.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The strength of the Garda Síochána (national police) is approximately 15,000 officers, of which approximately 4,000 are licensed to carry firearms. The rest are unarmed.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The majority of armed Gardai (officers) consist of ordinary detectives (routinely armed with handguns for personal protection) or belong to specialist regional Armed Support Units. An elite national Emergency Response Unit exists that is trained in hostage rescue tactics.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The Jamaica Constabulary Force's (JCF) use of lethal force has been monitored by Amnesty International. From 1983 to 2000 the Jamaican police force has been reported to kill between 121 and 355 people each year with an average of 171 deaths. A subsequent report by Amnesty USA shows that from 1998 to 2015 between 101 and 307 people were killed each year with an average of 192 deaths. In 2010, the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) was established as an independent oversight body to tackle the frequent use of lethal force by members of the Security Forces, which has made progress towards reducing the problem. A summary of recent years is tabulated below:


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Uniformed officers carry sidearms, typically the New Nambu M60 revolver while on duty only. Security Police and Special Assault Team carry semi-automatic pistols and heavier submachine guns and rifles depending on the situation.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Law enforcement in the Netherlands regularly carry firearms. In every incident where a firearm round is shot and/or hits a person there is an investigation conducted to determine if the use of a firearm was justified. The results of the investigations are made publicly available; the cases for each year are tabulated.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The New Zealand Police do not routinely carry sidearms. Under normal circumstances, police in New Zealand carry pepper spray, batons, and Tasers, though all are trained with the Glock 17 pistol and Bushmaster M4 semi-automatic rifle. These firearms are carried in all frontline police vehicles and are available for use should a situation require it. There are times when due to a credible threat, New Zealand's 12 district police commanders have the authority to arm all of their frontline officers. After the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings all frontline police officers throughout the country were instructed by the Police Commissioner to carry guns while on duty.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: In October 2019, New Zealand's Police Commissioner announced a six-month trial of Armed Response Teams (ARTs) in three Police districts. The ARTs are specialist armed police personnel who are part of the Armed Offenders Squad. The teams are a minimum of three, in specialised vehicles equipped with tactical options and operate seven days a week.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: When force is used (excluding handcuffs) a tactical operations report is filed. Use of tactical options is published by the police force.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: A summary of tactical options used in 2010–2014 was published in 2015. In 33,198 events over the four-year period, firearms were drawn 1,422 times, resulting in 5 injuries. Tactical operations resulting in fatalities are not recorded in the database.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: In 2020 seven firearm discharges occurred in five incidents, three resulted in fatal injuries, one in non-fatal injuries, and one missed the subject.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The Norwegian Police Service (NPS) only carry firearms in response to specific situations, keeping their Heckler & Koch MP5s and Heckler & Koch P30s locked in the patrol cars. The use of firearms is recorded by the police station which publishes detailed statistics on the annual use of firearms. The information presented in the 2014 report is detailed in the table below.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Generally, all law enforcement officers in the Russian Federation are armed with pistols at a minimum. There is no consistent recording of firearms use across the country. The Russian police forces routinely carry weapons.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Use of firearms can only be lawful where it is necessary to confront an imminent threat of death or serious injury or a grave and proximate threat to life. Since 2011 the Investigative Committee is responsible for the investigation of alleged unlawful use of police force.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The South African Police Service is monitored by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) which releases an annual report on the performance indicators of police activity. The IPID publishes deaths as a results of police action and deaths in police custody. Use of firearms forms the majority of the killings by police; shootings by police are all classified under "deaths as a result of police action".


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The Swedish Police Authority always carry firearms when on public duty. The standard weapon issued to officers is the SIG Sauer P226. The police authority report that normally police will threaten to use their weapon but do not discharge it; this happens about 200 times per year. In a typical year the police shoot 20 warning shots aimed at people or vehicles. An investigation reviewing the use of weapons by police details the firearm use from 2003 to 2014.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Only the most serious use of violence is counted, if an incident involves both warning shots and shots for effect it is only counted in the shots for effect section.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Police forces in the United Kingdom are managed by different bodies and thus have different standards for firearms usage. Police in Northern Ireland regularly carry firearms whereas the police in Great Britain do not.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The police force in England and Wales do not routinely carry firearms. A 2006 poll of 47,328 members of the Police Federation of England and Wales found that 82% do not want officers to be routinely armed while on duty. The UK Home Office reports annual statistics on the use of firearms by police forces. The use of firearms is recorded by the police department which publishes detailed statistics on the annual use of firearms dating back to 2003. One report published figures for 2003–2013; later years are published individually. While the Home Office monitors the use of police equipment, the Independent Police Complaints Commission monitored the fatalities of people due to police contact up to 2016.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: In 2017 the Independent Police Complaints Commission was replaced with the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). The IOPC publishes the use of firearms in a different format. Reported figures on fatal shootings by police are tabled below.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The Police Service of Northern Ireland publish an annual report on the police use of force which lists the frequency that firearms were drawn and fired. However, this report does not list the injuries or deaths resulting from firearms use.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: The Police Investigation & Review Commissioner publishes an annual report on assessments of complaints and investigations carried out.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: Generally, all law enforcement officers in the United States are armed with semi-automatic pistols at a minimum. There is no consistent recording of firearms use across all states; some bodies, such as the New York Police Department (NYPD), report on firearms discharge. In 2015 NYPD reported a record low of eight deaths as well as fifteen injuries caused by police firearms discharge.


title: Police firearm use by country

text: In response to the lack of published data, the organization "Campaign Zero" launched Mapping Police Violence to collect comprehensive data on people killed by police in the United States. Similarly, the British newspaper "The Guardian" launched "The Counted" – a program to record the number of fatal police shootings throughout the United States. "The Guardian" reports that 1,146 people were killed in 2015 and 1,093 people in 2016.


title: Dagashi Kashi

text: An anime television series adaptation by Feel aired in Japan from January to March 2016. A second season by Tezuka Productions aired from January to March 2018.


title: Dagashi Kashi

text: Shikada Dagashi, a countryside shop selling cheap candy and snacks (""dagashi"") has been run by the Shikada family for nine generations, but Kokonotsu does not want to take over the shop from his father, Yō, instead aiming to become a manga artist. Hotaru Shidare visits the shop one day hoping to recruit Yō to her family's company, the sweets manufacturer Shidare Corporation, but Yō refuses unless Hotaru first can convince Kokonotsu to take over Shikada Dagashi.


title: Dagashi Kashi

text: "Dagashi Kashi", written and illustrated by Kotoyama, was serialized in Shogakukan's "shōnen" manga magazine "Weekly Shōnen Sunday" from June 25, 2014 to April 11, 2018. The series was collected into eleven "tankōbon" volumes published by Shogakukan from September 18, 2014 to May 18, 2018.


title: Dagashi Kashi

text: A light novel adaptation titled "Dagashi Kashi: Mō Hitotsu no Natsu Yasumi", written and illustrated by Manta Aisora, was published in a single volume by Shogakukan on December 18, 2015 under their Gagaga Bunko imprint.


title: Dagashi Kashi

text: A 12-episode anime adaptation aired from January 7 to March 31, 2016. It was produced by Feel, and was directed by Shigehito Takayanagi, who also handled the series composition together with Yasuko Kamo. Kanetoshi Kamimoto was in charge of character design, and Satoshi Motoyama was the series' sound director. The series' opening theme is "Checkmate!?" by Michi, while the ending theme is "Hey Caloric Queen" by Ayana Taketatsu.


title: Dagashi Kashi

text: A second season, "Dagashi Kashi 2", aired from January 12 to March 30, 2018, on TBS, and aired on Sun TV and BS-TBS. For "Dagashi Kashi 2", Tezuka Productions took over the series production, with Feel instead being credited for setting cooperation. While Motoyama returned as sound director, several other duties were taken over by new staff: Satoshi Kuwabara directed the season, Mayumi Morita handled the series composition, Nana Miura designed the characters, and Michiko Yokote wrote the script. The voice cast from the first season reprised their roles, and was joined by Chinatsu Akasaki, who voiced the new character Hajime Owari, and Tomokazu Sugita, who voiced Yutaka Beni. The second season's opening theme is by Taketatsu, while the ending theme is by Hachimitsu Rocket. "Dagashi Kashi 2" aired in a shared half-hour time slot together with "Takunomi.", both of which consist of fifteen-minute episodes. Like its first season, "Dagashi Kashi 2" lasted for 12 episodes.


title: Dagashi Kashi

text: "Dagashi Kashi" ranked #5 on the "Nationwide Bookstore Employees' Recommended Comics" by the Honya Club website in 2016. The series was nominated for the 41st Kodansha Manga Awards in 2017, in the "best shōnen manga" category.


title: Dagashi Kashi

text: In September 2015, when the anime adaptation was announced, the two manga volumes that were released at the time had sold a 450,000 copies combined; when the fourth volume came out in December 2015, sales had risen to a total of 1.2 million copies. By the time the anime premiered in January 2016, the manga has 1.6 million copies in print, doubling the average number of copies sold per volumes compared to before the anime announcement, to 400,000 copies per volume. The manga had over 3 million copies in print as of April, 2018.


title: Alpha Flight

text: Alpha Flight is a fictional team of Canadian superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The characters premiered in "The Uncanny X-Men" #120 (April 1979), and were created to serve as part of the X-Men member Wolverine's backstory. Marvel published an "Alpha Flight" comic book series from 1983 to 1994. The team serves as Canada's premier superhero team akin to America's Avengers.


title: Alpha Flight

text: Created by Canadian writer and artist John Byrne, the team first appeared in a two-part story in "The Uncanny X-Men" #120 and 121. Byrne never intended the team to be an ongoing title. He created them "merely to survive a fight with the X-Men" for the purposes of that story. Marvel convinced Byrne to feature them in their own series as a way to capitalize on Byrne's soaring popularity with comics fans at the time, but he never found them to have compelling stories or backgrounds and left the title after writing and pencilling the first 28 issues. The series continued until 1994, lasting 130 issues as well as annuals and miniseries. There have been three short-lived revivals since then, most recently an eight-issue limited series in 2011–12, after the resurrection of the team in the one shot comic "Chaos War: Alpha Flight" during the "Chaos War" event.


title: Alpha Flight

text: Most team members have distinctly Canadian attributes, such as having Inuit/First Nations or French heritage. Throughout most of its history, the team has worked for Department H, a fictional branch of Canada's Department of National Defence that deals with super-powered villains.


title: Alpha Flight

text: Alpha Flight was preceded by a team called "The Flight". This team first appeared in "Alpha Flight Special" vol. 2 #1 (1992).


title: Alpha Flight

text: Inspired by the debut of the Fantastic Four, James Hudson refined the purpose of Department H to find and/or develop Canada's superheroes. New recruit Groundhog joins Snowbird, St. Elmo, Stitch, Wolverine (as Weapon X) and Smart Alec in training. Within a week, the Flight is pressed into their first battle with Egghead's incarnation of the Emissaries of Evil (consisting of Rhino, Solarr, Eel, Porcupine, Power Man and Swordsman). Egghead threatens the United States from Canadian soil with a nuclear missile. Smart Alec disables the missile's guidance system, but Egghead triggers the detonation sequence. Smart Alec panics leading to St. Elmo transforming the missile and the bomb into light. St. Elmo succeeds, but loses himself in the process. Groundhog and Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen scold Hudson for sending the team into battle while so inexperienced, with a near psychotic leader (Weapon X) and someone who folds under pressure. Hudson thus makes plans for a tiered team system, leading to the formation of Alpha, Beta and Gamma Flight.


title: Alpha Flight

text: Alpha Flight first appeared in "The Uncanny X-Men" #120 (April 1979), in which they are sent to follow up on Vindicator's first mission to retrieve Wolverine from the X-Men.


title: Alpha Flight

text: According to Byrne, both Guardian and Snowbird were "fan characters", created before he became professionally involved in comics, and he created all the remaining members while working on "X-Men" #120, specifically designing them to be balanced with the X-Men in power.


title: Alpha Flight

text: Heather MacNeil is married to James Hudson. After Guardian's apparent death in "Alpha Flight" #12, she becomes the leader of the team. Later, she takes a replication of his costume and takes the codename of Vindicator then Guardian.


title: Alpha Flight

text: "Alpha Flight" continued for 130 issues, and introduced dozens of characters and villains (the most prominent of which were Talisman, Madison Jeffries, Box, Diamond Lil, Wild Child, Persuasion, and Witchfire).


title: Alpha Flight

text: In 1997, Marvel relaunched the series with different characters. The new additions to the roster included:


title: Alpha Flight

text: Returning members were Vindicator (Heather Hudson, with a new costume and new geothermal powers), a de-aged Guardian (who turned out to be a clone of the original James Hudson, set at age 19), and Puck. Sunfire was also briefly a member while looking for a cure to a crippling illness.


title: Alpha Flight

text: The focus of this series was on Department H's consistently hidden agenda and Alpha Flight's reluctance to comply thereto. The conspiracy plotline saw Weapon X allowing an incarnation of the Zodiac Cartel to kidnap Madison Jeffries, who was subsequently brainwashed into becoming the group's "Gemini". To keep the group from interfering with their "deal", Department H brainwashed the team into forgetting Jeffries' kidnapping. Also, Department H employed an actual sasquatch as the new team's version of Sasquatch, without telling the team that it was not Walter Langkowski. Department H also arranged the kidnapping of Diamond Lil, another former Alpha Flight member and Madison Jeffries' wife, when she began to enquire about the location of her husband, with the intent of using her as a test subject for illegal medical experiments.


title: Alpha Flight

text: The series ended with issue #20 with most of the major storylines, such as the identity of the younger version of Guardian, unresolved, until "Wolverine" vol. 2 #142-143, when the plotline was resolved with the return of the real Guardian and the heroic sacrifice of the clone version.


title: Alpha Flight

text: "Waxing Poetic", the second six-issue story arc, sees the return of some original team members as both the original versions visited in the past, and temporal copies brought to the present. These members were Guardian, Vindicator, Puck, and Shaman.


title: Alpha Flight

text: Sasquatch, Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman, Major Mapleleaf II, and both Pucks are attacked by a new villain, the Collective (inhabiting the body of U.S. postal worker Michael Pointer), in "New Avengers" #16. Pointer continues on to the United States, leaving their bodies in the Yukon Territory.


title: Alpha Flight

text: The "Alpha Flight" title was relaunched as "Omega Flight" in April, 2007 as a five-issue mini-series. The new series was written by Michael Avon Oeming and drawn by Scott Kolins. The current roster includes Beta Ray Bill, U.S. Agent, Arachne, Talisman, and Michael Pointer in a suit that looks like Guardian's uniform. Sasquatch appears as the group's recruiter and leader. Since the mini-series, the team disbanded. Beta Ray Bill exited; U.S. Agent joined Hank Pym's new Avengers team; Pointer, now calling himself Omega, joined Norman Osborn's Dark X-Men; and Julia Carpenter became the new Madame Web.


title: Alpha Flight

text: In the 2010 storyline the "Chaos War", the four mainstay surviving members of Alpha Flight (Snowbird, Aurora, Northstar and Sasquatch) are reunited with Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman and Marrina Smallwood returning from the grave after Amatsu-Mikaboshi's victory in the death realms. The group bands together to fight the Great Beasts. Amatsu-Mikaboshi impales the Great Beasts. The resurrected members of Alpha Flight remain among the living after the defeat of Amatsu-Mikaboshi. At the same time, Puck appears in the "Wolverine Goes to Hell" storyline in "Wolverine" (2010), beginning in issue #2.


title: Alpha Flight

text: In 2011, the team appeared in a series tied to the crossover storyline "Fear Itself", with the newly alive team to be joined by Puck. Alpha Flight provides rescue efforts for the victims of a tsunami unleashed by Attuma in the form of Nerkodd: Breaker of Oceans. As Sasquatch, Shaman, and Vindicator help save victims of the water itself, Guardian saves a news crew when their helicopter is shot down by Nerkodd. As Marrina Smallwood and Aurora also arrive to help fight Nerkodd, the female reporter that Guardian saved comments to the television viewers on why Northstar isn't with the team.


title: Alpha Flight

text: After providing rescue efforts for victims of the disaster, Guardian ejects Nerkodd from the country by dumping him off the coast of Cape Race. Once Nerkodd is defeated and repelled, Alpha Flight returns to their headquarters and are betrayed by Gary Cody and his newly elected Unity Party. To make things worse, Vindicator has sided with him. It is shown that six weeks ago, Guardian and Vindicator were unable to regain custody of their child Claire. In the present, Marrina is dehydrated, Sasquatch's gamma energy is drained enough for him to revert to his human form of Walter Langkowski, and Aurora and Snowbird are taken down as well. While bringing Guardian to the Box Units for imprisonment, Vindicator is ambushed by Puck. After knocking out Vindicator, Puck tells Guardian that he had just returned to life after his fight with Ba'al.


title: Alpha Flight

text: At Parliament Hill, Walter is informed by Agent Jeff Brown that the concussions he had when he played football will cause him to act less human when he changes back into Sasquatch. Jeff also tells Walter that he will soon achieve Unity. Meanwhile, Marrina pretends to give in to the Unity treatment so that she can break free. Shaman manages to knock out Jeff and frees Walter, while Guardian frees Snowbird. Northstar and Puck manage to find Marrina, who has knocked out the guards and scientists present. After Alpha Flight escaped, they learned that Gary Cody and his Unity Party are a group of fascists. Northstar abducts a Department H operative and uses aerial torture in order to learn where Department H took Kyle Jinadu.


title: Alpha Flight

text: After reclaiming her daughter Claire from her cousin, Vindicator assembles Alpha Strike (consisting of Persuasion, Ranark, a Wendigo, and a brainwashed Citadel) in order to spread the Unity program and take down Alpha Flight. It is soon discovered that Master of the World is behind the Unity Party, the formation of Alpha Strike and what has happened to Department H as he introduces himself to Kyle Jinadu. Alpha Flight ends up robbing a treasury in order to fund a special tactical training from Taskmaster in an isolated Yukon Territory.


title: Alpha Flight

text: While overseeing the formation of a revolution against the Unity Party, Guardian, Sasquatch, and Shaman hatch a desperate and dangerous plan that involves the bad personality of Aurora. Aurora's personality begins to cause her to become unstable to herself and Alpha Flight. Meanwhile, Master of the World explains his history involving the Plodex to Claire. Alpha Flight manages to rescue Kyle Jinadu and encounter Wolverine.


title: Alpha Flight

text: At a beach in Ontario with Claire, Vindicator is visited by Wolverine who states that the people in the United States are becoming concerned about the Unity Party's actions. When Wolverine notices that Vindicator calls the rest of Alpha Flight traitors, Wolverine decides to investigate. Wolverine finds Alpha Flight and learns of their revolution against the Unity Party. He agrees to help them take back Canada just as Alpha Strike attacks.