title: Aayutha Ezhuthu

text: The director initially opted against using songs in the film but wanted to create an album with A. R. Rahman for the project. However, after the songs were recorded, Mani Ratnam had a change of heart and chose to include them. For the art direction in the film, Sabu Cyril studied each character in-depth, giving them a distinct colour, mood, and background to suit their temperament. For Michael's house in the film, Cyril followed the arrangement in his own house and used some of his own photographs for decorations. He also expressed that he had great difficulty in re-creating the streets of Kolkata for the Hindi version of the film in Chennai. G. Ramesh was selected to be the hairdresser for the three lead actors in the film.


title: Aayutha Ezhuthu

text: The scene filmed at Napier Bridge in Chennai was canned in early December 2003, causing severe traffic and congestion in the area. Mani Ratnam began the Tamil version after Vivek Oberoi suffered an injury during the making of "Yuva", giving him time to extract more out his actors in the Tamil version. Production work for the film began in September 2003, with the technical crew who were mostly from the Tamil film industry including the production house were part of the Hindi version and were retained for the Tamil scenes. The Tamil version finished subsequently much earlier than the Hindi version. Some scenes featuring Suriya were also shot at the University of Madras, Mani Ratnam's alma mater.


title: Aayutha Ezhuthu

text: The satellite rights of the film's Tamil version were sold to Kalaignar TV. The film was also dubbed in Telugu under the title "Yuva".


title: Aayutha Ezhuthu

text: "Aayutha Ezuthu" received positive reviews. Indiaglitz wrote: "Worth watching". Nowrunning rated the film 4 out of 5. Sify wrote: "Aayitha Ezhuthu is a bold and daring move by Mani Ratnam to change the staid style of our commercial cinema". The Hindu wrote: "Every frame of Madras Talkies' "Aayudha Ezhuthu" bears the Mani Ratnam stamp and that's what matters. If silence and secrecy can stoke up interest, it has. And again, if the stature of a director can hype up a project, it has". It was reported that the movie had the narrative style of the 2000 Mexican movie "Amores Perros".


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Nadia Nadim (, born 2 January 1988) is a professional footballer and physician who plays as a striker for NWSL club Racing Louisville FC. Born in Afghanistan, she represents the Denmark national team at international level.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Nadim is considered the most influential and greatest Afghan female footballer of all time, particularly because she won the French league title in the 2020–21 season with Paris Saint-Germain.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Nadia was born in Herat and raised in Afghanistan until her father, an Afghan National Army (ANA) general, was executed by the Taliban in 2000. Her family then fled to Denmark, where she began her football career, playing for B52 Aalborg and Team Viborg.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Nadim played for B52 Aalborg, Team Viborg from 2005 to 2006 and IK Skovbakken from 2006 to 2012, before moving to Fortuna Hjørring in 2012. She made her Champions League debut in September the same year, scoring both goals in a 2–1 win over Scottish Champions Glasgow City.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Nadim joined NWSL club Sky Blue FC near the end of the 2014 NWSL season. Playing in six games, she scored seven goals and registered three assists. She was named player of the week on 19 August and player of the month for the NWSL on 14 August. On 16 February 2015, Sky Blue announced that Nadim had been signed to play for Sky Blue in the 2015 season as well.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: On 14 January 2016, Nadim was traded to Portland Thorns FC. Playing as a striker, she finished the 2016 season as the team's top scorer with nine goals in 20 games as the team won the 2016 NWSL Shield. In the 2017 season, she helped the team to a second-place finish in the league and victory in the NWSL Championship game.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: On 28 September 2017, Nadim signed for FA Women's Super League side Manchester City for the 2018 season. She joined the club in January 2018, and made her debut with Manchester City on 7 January 2018 in a 5–2 win over Reading. After six minutes on the ground she scored her first goal for the team, and 26 minutes later she made an assist when Manchester City scored their second goal in the match. In her second match for the team she scored the winning goal in a 1–0 victory over Chelsea in the semi-final of the Continental Tyres Cup.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: On 26 July 2018, while on the US tour with Manchester City, the BBC reported that Nadim had requested a transfer out of the club, stating that she had never felt at home there and wanted to leave. On 19 December 2018, Manchester City announced that Nadim would be departing the club and her contract would be terminated on 1 January 2019, allowing her to sign with another club.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: On 9 July 2019, Nadim extended her contract for Paris Saint-Germain after a successful first season. She was later rewarded with the captain's armband and named the team's vice captain for the 2019–20 season. She scored 13 goals and made 13 assists in 16 league and cup games.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: On 9 June 2021, Nadim signed with Racing Louisville FC, returning to the NWSL four years after leaving Portland Thorns FC for Manchester City.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: In September 2021, with the NWSL reeling from abuse scandals, she accused NJ/NY Gotham FC management of forging her signature on a contract extension so they could trade her rights to Portland in January 2016. She also accused league staffers of pressuring her to have a surgery for her season-ending ACL injury in the United States rather than abroad, threatening that "if something went wrong with the surgery outside of US they could consider taking actions against me."


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Under Danish nationality law Nadim could not apply for citizenship until turning 18 years old in 2006. When citizenship was eventually granted in 2008, FIFA eligibility rules blocked Nadim from playing for Denmark, because she had not yet been resident for the requisite five years after turning 18. A subsequent challenge from the Danish Football Association (DBU) led to FIFA's legal department making an exception to the rules in Nadim's case.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Nadim immediately became a member of the Denmark national team, making her debut in the 2009 Algarve Cup in a 2–0 defeat by the United States. In doing so, she became the first naturalised Dane to represent a Denmark senior national football team. She participated in all three of Denmark's games at UEFA Women's Euro 2009 in Finland.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: She was named in national coach Kenneth Heiner-Møller's Denmark squad for UEFA Women's Euro 2013. In Denmark's opening group match against hosts Sweden Nadim featured as a substitute in an eventful 1–1 draw.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: In the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 tournament, she was instrumental in Denmark's advancement, scoring the tying goal in Denmark's eventual 2–1 win over favorites Germany in the knockout stages, and scoring a go-ahead goal in the final, which Denmark ultimately lost to host Netherlands 4–2.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: On 27 October 2020, Denmark had to win away against Italy to qualify for the UEFA Women's Euro 2022, and Nadim was crowned player of the match after scoring two crucial goals in Denmark's 3–1 win over Italy in Florence. The two goals secured Denmark's spot in the upcoming Euros.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Nadim is recognized for her energetic and determined style of play. She is successful from the penalty spot, having converted all but one of her penalties in the NWSL (and with the one miss being a save by the goalkeeper and immediately scored by Nadim on the rebound) and both of her attempts at Euro 2017.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: In December 2021, Nadim received criticism in the media for describing Qatar as a nation that helps people in need. Her positive description of the desert state is conflicting with the general consensus in the Danish population and the opinion formulated by the Danish FA on the oppression of human rights and poor conditions for migrant workers in Qatar. Subsequently, Nadim denied having received money for her performance in Qatar, which turned out not to be true when Danish newspaper "B.T." found out that she had received payment for attending the education summit in the country.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: As a consequence of her role as an ambassador for World Cup in Qatar, Danish Refugee Council removed Nadim from her role as a goodwill ambassador. Nadim stated on her Twitter that her collaboration with the Danish Refugee Council had been inactive since the beginning of 2019. However, "B.T." proved this statement inaccurate.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Nadim attended medical school at Aarhus University (remotely during the football season) with the aim of becoming a surgeon when her playing days are over. In 2020, she was assisting in surgery. She qualified as a doctor in January 2022.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Her mother, Hadima Nadim, was killed by a truck on 23 November 2022, aged 57. When Nadia learned that her mother had died, she departed during her work as a pundit for British broadcaster ITV at the Denmark–Tunisia match in the men's World Cup.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: Nadia signed a representation contract with Nike in 2017, making her the first ever Danish female football player to be represented by Nike. Nike has used Nadia in many of their branches on top of doing work for the football department. She has also done commercials for Air Jordan as well as Nike's collaborations with Martine Rose. Besides her work with Nike, Nadia is also known for her work with Visa and Hugo Boss.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: In 2016, Danish TV station DR released a four-episode long documentary about Nadia that followed her from Denmark to the United States, documenting her player development with the Portland Thorns.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: In 2018, Danish publisher JP/Politiken published Nadia Nadim's autobiography called "Min Historie" which translates to "My Story". The book got nominated for Sports book of the year. The book was released in French on 26 May 2021, through the French publisher Hachette Book Group.


title: Nadia Nadim

text: In July 2019, Nadia Nadim was named UNESCO Champion for Girls and Women's Education. She received this recognition for her role in promoting sport and gender equality, her contribution to the Organization's educational action prioritizing young people and advocacy for girls and women's education at an international scale, among others.


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: Gone is a 2012 American thriller film written by Allison Burnett, directed by Heitor Dhalia, and starring Amanda Seyfried. The film earned negative reviews from critics and was a box office disappointment.


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: Jillian "Jill" Conway lives in Portland, Oregon with her sister, Molly. One year earlier, Jill was kidnapped by a brutal serial killer who held her captive in a deep vertical hole containing the remains of his other victims somewhere in Portland's 5,100-acre Forest Park. Jill used one of the bones to stab her abductor when he arrived in the hole to kill her, and escaped using his rope ladder. When the Portland police were unable to find the hole and discovered that Jill had been committed to a psychiatric institution after her parents' death, they believed the abduction only happened in Jill's head and sent her back to a psychiatric facility.


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: Jill now works as a waitress in a local diner on the graveyard shift. She and her friend, Sharon Ames, are generously tipped by a regular customer. Returning home one day after work, Jill discovers Molly is missing and not even her sister's boyfriend, Billy, knows her whereabouts. Knowing her sister wouldn't run off since she had an exam the next day, Jill is then convinced the serial killer who took her has now taken Molly. However, Police Lt. Ray Bozeman, Sergeant Powers, and Detective Erica Lonsdale dismiss her claims, believing that it's all in Jill's head. Only the department's newest Homicide detective, Peter Hood, believes Jill, giving her his card in case she needs any help about the case.


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: Jill interrogates her neighbors and learns that a van with a locksmith company's name was parked in front of her house in the middle of the night. She talks to the company's owner, Henry Massey, and his son, Nick. When Nick denies any knowledge, Jill breaks into the van, where she finds a receipt from a hardware store for items the killer would use. She holds Nick at gunpoint and forces him to reveal that he allowed a stranger named "Digger" to rent the van during the night.


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: Jill goes to the hardware store and learns "Digger"'s real name, Jim LaPointe, and address. She breaks into LaPointe's room and finds duct tape, pet food like that which she was given by her kidnapper, and matches from the diner where she works. Meanwhile, Nick reports Jill's gun-waving to the police, who begin to search for her, as Jill's time in a psychiatric institution means she cannot legally possess a firearm.


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: Jill visits Sharon and learns that LaPointe is the generous tipper from the diner. Sharon gives her his phone number and lets Jill use her car. Jill leaves and calls LaPointe, who gives her directions to a spot in Forest Park. There, she locates a small campsite and finds pictures of LaPointe's prior victims. At the same time, Molly breaks out of her restraints and escapes, only to discover she has been concealed under her house all along. Powers and Lonsdale are shocked when they hear Molly's story, finally believing Jill. They also learn Jill is to meet the kidnapper, but they don't know where that is to happen.


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: Jill finds the hole where LaPointe held her captive. LaPointe ambushes Jill and pulls her into the hole, intending to kill her with the same piece of bone that she stabbed him with in her initial escape. However, Jill shoots him and starts climbing up the rope ladder. When LaPointe grabs her and attempts to pull her back down, Jill desperately kicks LaPointe to break his hold and shoots him again. She then manages to climb out and extract the rope ladder, trapping LaPointe in the hole. After shooting LaPointe a third time in the leg so that he cannot stand, Jill demands he tell her where Molly is, on a promise of not shooting him again. LaPointe admits that Molly was under their house the whole time, and he only used her to lure Jill into the trap. Jill pours a can of kerosene into the hole. As LaPointe begs for his life, Jill simply responds, "I lied." She then drops a lantern in the hole, burning LaPointe to death.


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: Jill disposes of the revolver and returns home, finding Molly terrified but unharmed with Powers, Lonsdale, and Hood. As the sisters reunite, Jill whispers to Molly that LaPointe is dead. When Powers asks about the man Jill was to meet, she sarcastically tells the police, "It was all in my head."


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: Sometime later, Bozeman receives an anonymous package containing pictures LaPointe had taken of each of his victims bound and gagged, including Jill herself, and a map that indicates the spot in Forest Park where the police can find the hole. Realizing how wrong he was about Jill, Bozeman calls Powers into his office to investigate the new leads.


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: In February 2011. it was announced Amanda Seyfried had been selected to topline the thriller "Gone" directed by Heitor Dhalia from a script penned by Allison Burnett


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: The rated PG-13 film was not screened for critics and was panned. "Gone" currently holds a 12% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 69 reviews from critics, with an average score of 3.49/10. On Metacritic, which uses an average of critics' reviews, "Gone" has a 36/100 rating, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: Writing in DVDTalk, critic Adam Tyner described the film as "just another room temperature thriller lacking much in the way of, y'know, thrills. It's just ticking off check boxes," and noted that "the direction is as aggressively anonymous as the writing." A review in "Variety" described the film as "a low-pulse thriller that evaporates from memory with the last credit." Critic R. Kurt Oselund wrote in "Slant" that "the script by Allison Burnett [...] is a layer cake of easy plot propellers, iced with rib-tickling garbage like a wooded crime scene," and that "Seyfried does indeed look a touch silly running from point to belabored point with her goldilocks a-flowing [but she is] as unerring as anyone could hope for from someone tasked to spit out lines like, 'I’ll sleep when he’s dead!'"


title: Gone (2012 film)

text: "Gone" grossed a domestic amount of $11,682,205 and $6,417,984 internationally for a worldwide total of $18,100,189.


title: Depth perception

text: Depth perception is the ability to perceive distance to objects in the world using the visual system and visual perception. It is a major factor in perceiving the world in three dimensions. Depth perception happens primarily due to stereopsis and accommodation of the eye.


title: Depth perception

text: Depth sensation is the corresponding term for non-human animals, since although it is known that they can sense the distance of an object, it is not known whether they perceive it in the same way that humans do.


title: Depth perception

text: Depth perception arises from a variety of depth cues. These are typically classified into binocular cues and monocular cues. Binocular cues are based on the receipt of sensory information in three dimensions from both eyes and monocular cues can be observed with just one eye. Binocular cues include retinal disparity, which exploits parallax and vergence. Stereopsis is made possible with binocular vision. Monocular cues include relative size (distant objects subtend smaller visual angles than near objects), texture gradient, occlusion, linear perspective, contrast differences, and motion parallax.


title: Depth perception

text: When an observer moves, the apparent relative motion of several stationary objects against a background gives hints about their relative distance. If information about the direction and velocity of movement is known, motion parallax can provide absolute depth information. This effect can be seen clearly when driving in a car. Nearby things pass quickly, while far off objects appear stationary. Some animals that lack binocular vision due to their eyes having little common field-of-view employ motion parallax more explicitly than humans for depth cueing (for example, some types of birds, which bob their heads to achieve motion parallax, and squirrels, which move in lines orthogonal to an object of interest to do the same).


title: Depth perception

text: When an object moves toward the observer, the retinal projection of an object expands over a period of time, which leads to the perception of movement in a line toward the observer. Another name for this phenomenon is "depth from optical expansion". The dynamic stimulus change enables the observer not only to see the object as moving, but to perceive the distance of the moving object. Thus, in this context, the changing size serves as a distance cue. A related phenomenon is the visual system's capacity to calculate time-to-contact (TTC) of an approaching object from the rate of optical expansiona useful ability in contexts ranging from driving a car to playing a ball game. However, calculation of TTC is, strictly speaking, perception of velocity rather than depth.


title: Depth perception

text: If a stationary rigid figure (for example, a wire cube) is placed in front of a point source of light so that its shadow falls on a translucent screen, an observer on the other side of the screen will see a two-dimensional pattern of lines. But if the cube rotates, the visual system will extract the necessary information for perception of the third dimension from the movements of the lines, and a cube is seen. This is an example of the "kinetic depth effect". The effect also occurs when the rotating object is solid (rather than an outline figure), provided that the projected shadow consists of lines which have definite corners or end points, and that these lines change in both length and orientation during the rotation.


title: Depth perception

text: The property of parallel lines converging in the distance, at infinity, allows us to reconstruct the relative distance of two parts of an object, or of landscape features. An example would be standing on a straight road, looking down the road, and noticing the road narrows as it goes off in the distance. Visual perception of perspective in real space, for instance in rooms, in settlements and in nature, is a result of several optical impressions and the interpretation by the visual system. The angle of vision is important for the apparent size. A nearby object is imaged on a larger area on the retina, the same object or an object of the same size further away on a smaller area. The perception of perspective is possible when looking with one eye only, but stereoscopic vision enhances the impression of the spatial. Regardless of whether the light rays entering the eye come from a three-dimensional space or from a two-dimensional image, they hit the inside of the eye on the retina as a surface. What a person sees, is based on the reconstruction by their visual system, in which one and the same image on the retina can be interpreted both two-dimensionally and three-dimensionally. If a three-dimensional interpretation has been recognised, it receives preference and determines the perception.


title: Depth perception

text: In spatial vision, the horizontal line of sight can play a role. In the picture taken from the window of a house, the horizontal line of sight is at the level of the second floor (yellow line). Below this line, the further away objects are, the higher up in the visual field they appear. Above the horizontal line of sight, objects that are further away appear lower than those that are closer. To represent spatial impressions in graphical perspective, one can use a vanishing point. When looking at long geographical distances, perspective effects also partially result by the angle of vision, but not only by this. In picture 5 of the series, in the background is Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps. It appears lower than the mountain in front in the center of the picture. Measurements and calculations can be used to determine the proportion of the curvature of Earth in the subjectively perceived proportions.


title: Depth perception

text: If two objects are known to be the same size (for example, two trees) but their absolute size is unknown, relative size cues can provide information about the relative depth of the two objects. If one subtends a larger visual angle on the retina than the other, the object which subtends the larger visual angle appears closer.


title: Depth perception

text: Since the visual angle of an object projected onto the retina decreases with distance, this information can be combined with previous knowledge of the object's size to determine the absolute depth of the object. For example, people are generally familiar with the size of an average automobile. This prior knowledge can be combined with information about the angle it subtends on the retina to determine the absolute depth of an automobile in a scene.


title: Depth perception

text: Even if the actual size of the object is unknown and there is only one object visible, a smaller object seems further away than a large object that is presented at the same location.


title: Depth perception

text: Due to light scattering by the atmosphere, objects that are a great distance away have lower luminance contrast and lower color saturation. Due to this, images seem hazy the farther they are away from a person's point of view. In computer graphics, this is often called "distance fog". The foreground has high contrast; the background has low contrast. Objects differing only in their contrast with a background appear to be at different depths. The color of distant objects are also shifted toward the blue end of the spectrum (for example, distant mountains). Some painters, notably Cézanne, employ "warm" pigments (red, yellow and orange) to bring features forward towards the viewer, and "cool" ones (blue, violet, and blue-green) to indicate the part of a form that curves away from the picture plane.


title: Depth perception

text: This is an oculomotor cue for depth perception. When humans try to focus on distant objects, the ciliary muscles stretch the eye lens, making it thinner, and hence changing the focal length. The kinesthetic sensations of the contracting and relaxing ciliary muscles (intraocular muscles) is sent to the visual cortex where it is used for interpreting distance and depth. Accommodation is only effective for distances greater than 2 meters.


title: Depth perception

text: Occultation (also referred to as "interposition") happens when near surfaces overlap far surfaces. If one object partially blocks the view of another object, humans perceive it as closer. However, this information only allows the observer to make a "ranking" of relative nearness. The presence of monocular ambient occlusions consist of the object's texture and geometry. These phenomena are able to reduce the depth perception latency both in natural and artificial stimuli.


title: Depth perception

text: At the outer extremes of the visual field, parallel lines become curved, as in a photo taken through a fisheye lens. This effect, although it is usually eliminated from both art and photos by the cropping or framing of a picture, greatly enhances the viewer's sense of being positioned within a real, three-dimensional space. (Classical perspective has no use for this so-called "distortion", although in fact the "distortions" strictly obey optical laws and provide perfectly valid visual information, just as classical perspective does for the part of the field of vision that falls within its frame.)


title: Depth perception

text: Fine details on nearby objects can be seen clearly, whereas such details are not visible on faraway objects. Texture gradients are grains of an item. For example, on a long gravel road, the gravel near the observer can be clearly seen of shape, size and colour. In the distance, the road's texture cannot be clearly differentiated.


title: Depth perception

text: The way that light falls on an object and reflects off its surfaces, and the shadows that are cast by objects provide an effective cue for the brain to determine the shape of objects and their position in space.


title: Depth perception

text: Selective image blurring is very commonly used in photographic and video for establishing the impression of depth. This can act as a monocular cue even when all other cues are removed. It may contribute to the depth perception in natural retinal images, because the depth of focus of the human eye is limited. In addition, there are several depth estimation algorithms based on defocus and blurring. Some jumping spiders are known to use image defocus to judge depth.


title: Depth perception

text: When an object is visible relative to the horizon, humans tend to perceive objects which are closer to the horizon as being farther away from them, and objects which are farther from the horizon as being closer to them. In addition, if an object moves from a position close the horizon to a position higher or lower than the horizon, it will appear to move closer to the viewer.


title: Depth perception

text: Animals that have their eyes placed frontally can also use information derived from the different projection of objects onto each retina to judge depth. By using two images of the same scene obtained from slightly different angles, it is possible to triangulate the distance to an object with a high degree of accuracy. Each eye views a slightly different angle of an object seen by the left and right eyes. This happens because of the horizontal separation parallax of the eyes. If an object is far away, the disparity of that image falling on both retinas will be small. If the object is close or near, the disparity will be large. It is stereopsis that tricks people into thinking they perceive depth when viewing Magic Eyes, Autostereograms, 3-D movies, and stereoscopic photos.


title: Depth perception

text: This is a binocular oculomotor cue for distance and depth perception. Because of stereopsis, the two eyeballs focus on the same object; in doing so they converge. The convergence will stretch the extraocular musclesthe receptors for this are muscle spindles. As happens with the monocular accommodation cue, kinesthetic sensations from these extraocular muscles also help in distance and depth perception. The angle of convergence is smaller when the eye is fixating on objects which are far away. Convergence is effective for distances less than 10 meters.


title: Depth perception

text: Antonio Medina Puerta demonstrated that retinal images with no parallax disparity but with different shadows are fused stereoscopically, imparting depth perception to the imaged scene. He named the phenomenon "shadow stereopsis". Shadows are therefore an important, stereoscopic cue for depth perception.


title: Depth perception

text: Of these various cues, only convergence, accommodation and familiar size provide absolute distance information. All other cues are relative (as in, they can only be used to tell which objects are closer relative to others). Stereopsis is merely relative because a greater or lesser disparity for nearby objects could either mean that those objects differ more or less substantially in relative depth or that the foveated object is nearer or further away (the further away a scene is, the smaller is the retinal disparity indicating the same depth difference).


title: Depth perception

text: Isaac Newton proposed that the optic nerve of humans and other primates has a specific architecture on its way from the eye to the brain. Nearly half of the fibres from the human retina project to the brain hemisphere on the same side as the eye from which they originate. That architecture is labelled hemi-decussation or ipsilateral (same sided) visual projections (IVP). In most other animals these nerve fibres cross to the opposite side of the brain.


title: Depth perception

text: Bernhard von Gudden showed that the OC contains both crossed and uncrossed retinal fibers, and Ramon y Cajal observed that the grade of hemidecussation differs between species. Walls formalized a commonly accepted notion into the law of Newton–Müller–Gudden (NGM) saying: that the degree of optic fibre decussation in the optic chiasm is contrariwise related to the degree of frontal orientation of the optical axes of the eyes. In other words, that the number of fibers that do not cross the midline is proportional to the size of the binocular visual field. However, an issue of the Newton–Müller–Gudden law is the considerable interspecific variation in IVP seen in non-mammalian species. That variation is unrelated to mode of life, taxonomic situation, and the overlap of visual fields.


title: Depth perception

text: Thus, the general hypothesis was for long that the arrangement of nerve fibres in the optic chiasm in primates and humans has developed primarily to create accurate depth perception, stereopsis, or explicitly that the eyes observe an object from somewhat dissimilar angles and that this difference in angle assists the brain to evaluate the distance.


title: Depth perception

text: The EF hypothesis suggests that the need of accurate eye–hand control was key in the evolution of stereopsis. According to the EF hypothesis, stereopsis is evolutionary spinoff from a more vital process: that the construction of the optic chiasm and the position of eyes (the degree of lateral or frontal direction) is shaped by evolution to help the animal to coordinate the limbs (hands, claws, wings or fins).


title: Depth perception

text: The EF hypothesis postulates that it has selective value to have short neural pathways between areas of the brain that receive visual information about the hand and the motor nuclei that control the coordination of the hand. The essence of the EF hypothesis is that evolutionary transformation in OC will affect the length and thereby speed of these neural pathways.


title: Depth perception

text: Having the primate type of OC means that motor neurons controlling/executing let us say right hand movement, neurons receiving sensory e.g. tactile information about the right hand, and neurons obtaining visual information about the right hand, all will be situated in the same (left) brain hemisphere. The reverse is true for the left hand, the processing of visual, tactile information, and motor commandall of that takes place in the right hemisphere. Cats and arboreal (tree-climbing) marsupials have analogous arrangements (between 30 and 45% of IVP and forward directed eyes). The result will be that visual info of their forelimbs reaches the proper (executing) hemisphere.


title: Depth perception

text: The evolution has resulted in small, and gradual fluctuations to the direction of the nerve pathways in the OC. This transformation can go in either direction.


title: Depth perception

text: Snakes, cyclostomes and other animals that lack extremities have relatively many IVP. Notably these animals have no limbs (hands, paws, fins or wings) to direct. Besides, left and right body parts of snakelike animals cannot move independently of each other. For example, if a snake coils clockwise, its left eye only sees the left body-part and in anti-clock-wise position the same eye will see just the right body-part. For that reason, it is functional for snakes to have some IVP in the OC (Naked). Cyclostome descendants (in other words most vertebrates) that due to evolution ceased to curl and, instead developed forelimbs would be favored by achieving completely crossed pathways as long as forelimbs were primarily occupied in lateral direction. Reptiles such as snakes that lost their limbs, would gain by recollect a cluster of uncrossed fibres in their evolution. That seems to have happened, providing further support for the EF hypothesis.


title: Depth perception

text: Mice' paws are usually busy only in the lateral visual fields. So, it is in accordance with the EF hypothesis that mice have laterally situated eyes and very few crossings in the OC. The list from the animal kingdom supporting the EF hypothesis is long (BBE). The EF hypothesis applies to essentially all vertebrates while the NGM law and stereopsis hypothesis largely applies just in mammals. Even some mammals display important exceptions, e.g. dolphins have only uncrossed pathways although they are predators.


title: Depth perception

text: It is a common suggestion that predatory animals generally have frontally-placed eyes since that permit them to evaluate the distance to prey, whereas preyed-upon animals have eyes in a lateral position, since that permit them to scan and detect the enemy in time. However, many predatory animals may also become prey, and several predators, for instance the crocodile, have laterally situated eyes and no IVP at all. That OC architecture will provide short nerve connections and optimal eye control of the crocodile's front foot.


title: Depth perception

text: Birds, usually have laterally situated eyes, in spite of that they manage to fly through e.g. a dense wood.


title: Depth perception

text: In conclusion, the EF hypothesis does not reject a significant role of stereopsis, but proposes that primates' superb depth perception (stereopsis) evolved to be in service of the hand; that the particular architecture of the primate visual system largely evolved to establish rapid neural pathways between neurons involved in hand coordination, assisting the hand in gripping the correct branch


title: Depth perception

text: Most open-plains herbivores, especially hoofed grazers, lack binocular vision because they have their eyes on the sides of the head, providing a panoramic, almost 360°, view of the horizonenabling them to notice the approach of predators from almost any direction. However, most predators have both eyes looking forwards, allowing binocular depth perception and helping them to judge distances when they pounce or swoop down onto their prey. Animals that spend a lot of time in trees take advantage of binocular vision in order to accurately judge distances when rapidly moving from branch to branch.


title: Depth perception

text: Matt Cartmill, a physical anthropologist & anatomist at Boston University, has criticized this theory, citing other arboreal species which lack binocular vision, such as squirrels and certain birds. Instead, he proposes a "Visual Predation Hypothesis," which argues that ancestral primates were insectivorous predators resembling tarsiers, subject to the same selection pressure for frontal vision as other predatory species. He also uses this hypothesis to account for the specialization of primate hands, which he suggests became adapted for grasping prey, somewhat like the way raptors employ their talons.


title: Depth perception

text: Photographs capturing perspective are two-dimensional images that often illustrate the illusion of depth. Photography utilizes size, environmental context, lighting, textural gradience, and other effects to capture the illusion of depth. Stereoscopes and Viewmasters, as well as 3D films, employ binocular vision by forcing the viewer to see two images created from slightly different positions (points of view). Charles Wheatstone was the first to discuss depth perception being a cue of binocular disparity. He invented the stereoscope, which is an instrument with two eyepieces that displays two photographs of the same location/scene taken at relatively different angles. When observed, separately by each eye, the pairs of images induced a clear sense of depth. By contrast, a telephoto lens—used in televised sports, for example, to zero in on members of a stadium audience—has the opposite effect. The viewer sees the size and detail of the scene as if it were close enough to touch, but the camera's perspective is still derived from its actual position a hundred meters away, so background faces and objects appear about the same size as those in the foreground.


title: Depth perception

text: Trained artists are keenly aware of the various methods for indicating spatial depth (color shading, distance fog, perspective and relative size), and take advantage of them to make their works appear "real". The viewer feels it would be possible to reach in and grab the nose of a Rembrandt portrait or an apple in a Cézanne still life—or step inside a landscape and walk around among its trees and rocks.


title: Depth perception

text: Cubism was based on the idea of incorporating multiple points of view in a painted image, as if to simulate the visual experience of being physically in the presence of the subject, and seeing it from different angles. The radical experiments of Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Jean Metzinger's "Nu à la cheminée", Albert Gleizes's "La Femme aux Phlox", or Robert Delaunay's views of the Eiffel Tower, employ the explosive angularity of Cubism to exaggerate the traditional illusion of three-dimensional space. The subtle use of multiple points of view can be found in the pioneering late work of Cézanne, which both anticipated and inspired the first actual Cubists. Cézanne's landscapes and still lives powerfully suggest the artist's own highly developed depth perception. At the same time, like the other Post-Impressionists, Cézanne had learned from Japanese art the significance of respecting the flat (two-dimensional) rectangle of the picture itself; Hokusai and Hiroshige ignored or even reversed linear perspective and thereby remind the viewer that a picture can only be "true" when it acknowledges the truth of its own flat surface. By contrast, European "academic" painting was devoted to a sort of Big Lie that the surface of the canvas is "only" an enchanted doorway to a "real" scene unfolding beyond, and that the artist's main task is to distract the viewer from any disenchanting awareness of the presence of the painted canvas. Cubism, and indeed most of modern art is an attempt to confront, if not resolve, the paradox of suggesting spatial depth on a flat surface, and explore that inherent contradiction through innovative ways of seeing, as well as new methods of drawing and painting.


title: Depth perception

text: In robotics and computer vision, depth perception is often achieved using sensors such as RGBD cameras.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: Carl "CJ" Johnson is a fictional character and the playable protagonist of the 2004 video game "", the fifth main installment in Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto" series. He is voiced by Young Maylay, who also served as the likeness for the character.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: In the game's storyline, Carl is depicted as the underboss of the Grove Street Families, a fictional street gang based in his home city of Los Santos (a fictional parody of Los Angeles, California). The gang is led by his older brother, "Sweet" Johnson, with whom Carl became estranged after the death of their younger brother, Brian, in a gang-related attack prior to the events of the game. Feeling his life in Los Santos is unpromising, Carl eventually decides to move to Liberty City, only to return home five years later after his mother, Beverly, is similarly killed. While seeking to make amends with friends and family for abandoning them, Carl returns to his previous gangster lifestyle as he embarks on an eventful journey across the entire state of San Andreas, which sees him making new allies and clashing with several powerful criminal organisations and corrupt authorities. Although initially portrayed as somewhat naïve, clumsy, and selfish, Carl develops over the course of "San Andreas"' storyline, both on a professional level, becoming a successful criminal and businessman, and on an emotional level, as he learns to appreciate his roots and those around him.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: Carl received critical acclaim, with praise going to his complexity, lack of stereotype and his sense of conscience, and is regarded as one of the greatest video game characters of all time.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: Carl's physical appearance is modeled after Los Angeles-based rapper and actor Young Maylay, who also provided the character's voice and motion-capture work. When asked about the character model for Carl, Young Maylay stated that the development team took "very professional" photographs of him to model Carl.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: Maylay stated that he was influenced by his own life when portraying Carl. "[The development team] wanted authentic L.A., that's where I'm from and they knew that, so that's what I gave 'em," he added. "I put Maylay on CJ. I make him as much me as I can, without too much changing of the script."


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: Unlike the principal characters of previous "Grand Theft Auto" games, Carl's appearance is highly customisable, as the player can purchase a wide variety of different haircuts, tattoos, and clothing for him. Certain clothes, tattoos, and hairstyles improve or worsen Carl's standing with his fellow gang members as well as his sex appeal to his selective girlfriends, and the opinions of wandering pedestrians.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: The game implements a tracking system for various skills and abilities, each of which gradually improves as it is used or practiced and slowly diminishes if it is neglected. As Carl rides bikes, drives cars and motorcycles, and flies aircraft, his skill improves in each. The same is true for the weapons that he uses. The player can choose to exercise as well, which improves skills such as stamina, (which allows Carl to sprint for longer durations) and muscle (which visibly increases Carl's muscle tone, size and affects his hand-to-hand combat damage, physical endurance and respect status), but if he becomes too muscular, he will have less mobility. Visiting fast food restaurants and regularly consuming their meals will increase Carl's size over time, and if Carl eats too much without cardio exercise, he will become overweight which results in a heavy loss of mobility. Carl can lose this weight by regularly running, or by using certain exercise machines.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: Carl was born to Beverly Johnson and an unnamed father, in his family home, located on Grove Street in the Ganton district of Los Santos. Growing up, he got along well with his mother and siblings Sean (nicknamed "Sweet"), Kendl, and Brian, though not with his father, whom he barely remembers; as he states at one point, "[He] never really had a father." At a young age, Carl, Sweet, and Brian befriended Melvin "Big Smoke" Harris and Lance "Ryder" Wilson, who lived on the same street, and all five got involved in small-time criminal activities. After Sweet joined the Grove Street Families, one of the oldest and most powerful street gangs in Los Santos, he eventually became its leader and inducted Carl, Brian, Big Smoke, and Ryder into the gang.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: By 1987, with the drug trade business expanding, most gangs in Los Santos began selling drugs in an effort to increase their power. However, Sweet's principles against drug-use prevented him from doing the same, causing the Families to slowly lose most of their influence and territories to their rivals. Around the same time, Brian was killed under unknown circumstances, most likely an attack by a rival gang, which Carl is implied to have witnessed, but did nothing to try and save his brother. This soured his relationships with his friends and family, especially with Sweet, who blamed him for the tragedy. After deciding that his life in Los Santos was unpromising, Carl cut his ties with everyone and moved to Liberty City, where he found work in stealing cars for Joey Leone.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: The game's main storyline begins with Carl flying back to Los Santos following the death of his mother in a drive-by shooting in 1992. Upon his arrival, Carl is confronted by LSPD Officers Frank Tenpenny, Edward "Eddie" Pulaski, and Jimmy Hernandez, three highly corrupt members of the city's community policing unit, C.R.A.S.H. Tenpenny and his associates warn Carl early on that they intend to frame him for the murder of police officer Ralph Pendlebury, whom C.R.A.S.H. had killed to prevent him from exposing their illegal activities. They also force Carl to do work for them in exchange for his and his family's safety.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: After reuniting with Sweet, Kendl, Big Smoke, and Ryder, Carl learns that the Families have lost almost all of their territories to their main rivals, the Ballas, during his absence, and agrees to stay in Los Santos and help solve the gang's problems. While doing so, he befriends Kendl's boyfriend and Varrios Los Aztecas leader Cesar Vialpando, despite Sweet's initial objections, and helps his friend Jeffrey "OG Loc" Cross jumpstart his career as a rapper despite his lack of talent.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: The Families' resurgence is short-lived, as Carl discovers that Big Smoke and Ryder have betrayed the gang by forming alliances with C.R.A.S.H. and the Ballas, and planned the attack that killed his mother, which was actually meant for Sweet, in an effort to eliminate the Families. While Carl uncovers this, Sweet is ambushed by a group of Ballas and wounded. Carl arrives to rescue him, but both brothers end up arrested by the police. While Sweet goes to prison awaiting trial, Carl is kidnapped by C.R.A.S.H., who take him to the countryside near Los Santos so that he can continue working for them. Tenpenny threatens to have Sweet killed if Carl attempts to return to Los Santos or intervene in C.R.A.S.H.'s dealings with Big Smoke, Ryder, and the Ballas, who have effectively taken over the city and flooded it with drugs.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: During his time in the countryside, Carl befriends a hippie weed grower known as "The Truth", and performs several robberies alongside Cesar's aggressively psychotic cousin Catalina, with whom he enters a short-lived relationship. He also engages in a few illegal street races hosted by blind Triad leader Wu Zi Mu/"Woozie", in which he wins a defunct garage from Catalina's new boyfriend. Carl and his associates later travel to San Fierro, where they transform the garage into a vehicle chop shop with the help of several new allies, and purchase a car dealership and an RC shop. Carl later works for the local Triads, strengthening his ties with Woozie in the process, and infiltrates and destroys San Andreas' largest drug cartel, the Loco Syndicate, who supplied the Ballas with crack cocaine. In the process, he also exacts revenge on Ryder for his betrayal, killing him during a meeting with the syndicate's leaders.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: After eliminating the Loco Syndicate, Carl is contacted by its former leader, Mike Toreno, who reveals himself to be an undercover government agent, and enlists his help with several operations in exchange for Sweet's early release from prison. While working for Toreno, Carl purchases an abandoned airstrip in the desert, acquires a pilot's license, and steals a $60 million jetpack from a military base. He later travels to Las Venturas to help Woozie open a casino by robbing the rival Mafia-run casino, Caligula's Palace, after earning the mob's trust by working for Don Salvatore Leone. In the process, he befriends former Caligula's manager Ken Rosenberg, and helps him and his associates escape from Salvatore's clutches. During his stay in Las Venturas, Carl also rescues famous former rapper Madd Dogg, whose career he inadvertently ruined while helping OG Loc, from a suicide attempt, and continues to work for C.R.A.S.H., until they betray and try to kill him. Carl is saved by Officer Hernandez, who secretly betrayed his partners by reporting them to the internal affairs, and kills Pulaski after the latter murders Hernandez. Carl is later called by Sweet, who has been sentenced to life in prison, effectively removing Tenpenny's bargaining chip.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: As Carl and his associates make plans to return to Los Santos, Madd Dogg asks Carl to become his manager and help him rebuild his career. Carl regains ownership of Madd Dogg's mansion in Los Santos, which the latter had sold to the Vagos gang for drugs, and restarts his career with the help of Rosenberg and his friends.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: Shortly after his return to Los Santos, Carl is contacted by Toreno for one final job. Upon completion, the latter honors their agreement and has Sweet released from prison. Although delighted to have his brother back, Sweet is not impressed with Carl's business ventures and chastises him for forgetting about their gang, before talking him into helping to rebuild the Families' strength once again.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: During this time, Tenpenny is tried for several charges, but is acquitted in his trial, causing all gang-occupied districts of Los Santos to riot. In the midst of the chaos, Carl reclaims the Families' lost turf from their rivals, and tracks down Big Smoke to his crack palace penthouse, where he kills him for his betrayal. Tenpenny then arrives to claim his share of Smoke's money and kill Carl, but the latter survives and pursues Tenpenny, who is driving a fire truck, with Sweet's help. The brothers' pursuit eventually causes Tenpenny to crash the fire truck outside Carl's family home, whereupon he dies from his injuries. With Tenpenny dead, the riots come to an abrupt end and all loose ends in Carl's life are resolved.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: At the conclusion of the game, Carl and his allies are seen discussing what their future holds in the former's home, when Madd Dogg visits them to announce that he has won a gold record for his new album. As everyone celebrates, Carl leaves the house to check things out around the neighborhood.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: The character of Carl Johnson received critical acclaim after the release of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas", and has been included in many lists of the best characters in video games. Jesse Schedeen of IGN included CJ in his list of "Grand Theft Auto" Favorite Badasses, stating, "Of all the protagonists in all the "GTA" games, few are as compelling or flat out badass as Carl "CJ" Johnson," and also went on to praise the character customisation and available assets. Crave Online's Paul Tamburro placed Carl eighth in his Top 10 Most Memorable "GTA" Characters, stating that "it was refreshing to take control of a character who was considerate about when and when not to commit wanton mass-slaughtering." Matthew Cooper of "Sabotage Times" placed the character in his list of the top 10 characters in the "Grand Theft Auto" series, stating that Carl Johnson "was the first to appear with a conscience, the first that didn't seem to enjoy killing copious numbers of people."


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: "GameDaily" listed Carl among their list of the best black characters in video games, refusing the idea that he reinforces negative stereotypes since he is "more ghetto-born James Bond than straight-up gangsta". Similarly, Larry Hester of "Complex Gaming" placed Carl second on his list of the 10 Best Black Characters in Video Games, naming him the "gangbanger with a good heart." In 2012, GamesRadar placed Carl 77th on their list of the 100 Best Heroes in Video Games, saying that "few ["Grand Theft Auto"] heroes have been as charismatic as him, and few likely will in the future." UGO Networks have placed Carl as the second character who most deserves his own live-action film.


title: Carl Johnson (Grand Theft Auto)

text: In 2008, "The Age" ranked Carl as the 33rd greatest Xbox character of all time, noting him as "the most humble" of "Grand Theft Auto" anti-heroes, and as "one of the first strong African-American lead characters in any major videogame." Although Carl ultimately did not make the cut, "Game Informer" staff considered his inclusion in their "30 characters that defined a decade" collection, with Matt Helgeson saying, "He could have easily been another gangster stereotype, but by the end of San Andreas we see CJ as a flawed, but ultimately good man who did the best he could in the worst of circumstances." In 2011, readers of "Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition" voted Carl "CJ" Johnson as the 22nd top video game character of all time.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh (born 25 May 1965) is a Gambian politician and former military officer who was the leader of The Gambia from 1994 to 2017, firstly as chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) from 1994 to 1996 and then as President of the Gambia from 1996 to 2017.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh was born in Kanilai, in The Gambia, and is a Muslim of the Jola ethnic group. He attended Gambia High School in Banjul from 1978 to 1983 and served in the Gambian National Gendarmerie from 1984 to 1989. He was then commissioned as an officer of the Gambian National Army, commanding the Military Police from 1992 to 1994. In July 1994, he led a bloodless coup d'etat that overthrew the government of Sir Dawda Jawara and installed himself as chairman of AFPRC, a military junta, and ruled by decree until his election as president in 1996.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh was re-elected as president in 2001, 2006 and 2011, but lost to Adama Barrow in 2016. His time in office saw the authoritarian oppression of anti-government journalists, LGBT people and opposition parties. His foreign policy led to a constantly strained relationship with the sole neighbouring country of Senegal. In 2013, Jammeh withdrew the Gambia from the Commonwealth of Nations (The Gambia later rejoined on 8 February 2018 under President Adama Barrow), and in 2016 he began the process of withdrawing it from the International Criminal Court (later rescinded by the Barrow government).


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh is accused of having stolen millions of dollars from the country's coffers to fund a life of luxury, which he denies. After leaving office, his assets were frozen by many countries and he went into exile in Equatorial Guinea. In addition to charges of corruption and human rights violations, he is also accused of having raped a number of young women, which he denies as well.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh was born on 25 May 1965 in Kanilai, a village in the Foni Kansala district of the Western Division of The Gambia. He is the son of Aja Fatou Ashombi Bojang, a housewife and trader, and Abdul Aziz James Junkung Jammeh, a career wrestler. Jammeh's grandparents migrated to the Gambia from the Casamance region of Senegal. He had a rural upbringing as part of a Muslim Jola family, primarily focused in Kanilai. One of his closest childhood friends was reportedly Mustapha James Kujabi. He attended Kanilai primary school, Saint Edwards primary school in Bwiam, from 1972 to 1978. Due to his result in the common entrance (CE) exam, he was awarded a government scholarship to Gambia High School in Banjul, in 1978. His formal education ended after he received his O Levels in 1983.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: In April 1984, Jammeh joined what was then the Gambian National Gendarmerie as a private. He was part of the Special Intervention Unit from 1984 to 1986 and was an escort training instructor at the Gendarmerie Training School from 1986 to 1989. He was promoted to sergeant in April 1986, and to cadet officer in December 1987. A former Gendarmerie officer, Binneh S. Minteh, later claimed that Jammeh "had always singled out Mandinka’s as bad people" during his time as a Gendarme. In particular, Minteh recalled Jammeh's "ruthless and disrespectful encounter" with sergeant major Kebba Dibba, and when he "brandished a pistol and threatened to shoot" A captain named Ebrima Camara simply on the basis of their ethnicity.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: He joined the Gambian National Army and was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 29 September 1989, serving as the officer in charge (OIC) of the Presidential Escort, part of the Presidential Guards, from 1989 to 1990. In 1991, he served as the officer commanding (OC) the Mobile Gendarmerie, and from 1992 to 1994 was the OC of the Gambia National Army Military Police. On 1 February 1992, he had been promoted to lieutenant. Jammeh was the head of security detail attached to Pope John Paul II during his visit to the Gambia in February 1992. He attended the Military Police Officers Basic Course (MPOBC) at Fort McClellan in the United States from September 1993 to January 1994.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh was one of the four junior Army officers who organised the 1994 coup d'etat against Sir Dawda Jawara's government. The other three were Sana Sabally, Sadibou Hydara and Edward Singhateh. The coup, which took place on 22 July 1994, was successful and bloodless, leading to Jawara fleeing into exile. Four days later, on 26 July, the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) was formed with Jammeh as its chairman. Jammeh promised that it would be a "coup with a difference", and that the country would be returned to civilian rule "as soon as we have set things right". One result of the coup was that the European Union and the United States, the major donors of foreign aid to the Gambia, suspended their aid programmes until the country was returned to civil rule. Jammeh claimed the suspension of aid programmes amounted to "neocolonialism". A Western diplomat who spoke to "The New York Times" said, "This is exactly the same phenomenon we have seen elsewhere, with the only difference being that so far there has been no violence." In particular, the coup was compared with Samuel Doe's in the Liberia, which led to the First Liberian Civil War.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: The 1994 coup d'etat in the Gambia, overthrowing the government of Sir Dawda Jawara, represented a buck in the post-1989 sub-Saharan Africa trend away from authoritarianism and towards multiparty politics. The Gambia had represented an anomaly in Africa as one of the few countries that had a functioning democracy prior to 1989.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: In the aftermath of the coup, Jammeh governed by decree alongside four other junior officers and several civilians. He banned all political activity, arrested two socialist journalists, and detained several of his Army superiors. He also confined ministers of Jawara's government to house arrest. On 17 October, Jammeh announced that there would be a four-year transition to civilian government. In November 1994, the same month when Jammeh was formally promoted to the rank of captain, there was an unsuccessful coup attempt by several disaffected young officers leading in numerous deaths, but Jammeh remained in power. The National Consultative Committee (NCC) was appointed on 7 December to review the transition process, and when they reported on 27 January 1995, they recommended a two-year transition period. The same day as the NCC's report, two of the original coup leaders, Sabally and Hydara, launched an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow Jammeh as chairman. Subsequently, Singhateh was appointed as vice-chairman of the AFPRC, and Hydara died in prison on 3 June.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: The Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) was appointed in April 1995 and reported to the government in November 1995. Its report was published in March 1996 was put to a national referendum on 8 August 1996. The new constitution, which provided for multiparty elections, an unlimited number of five-year presidential terms, and a lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18, was approved by a majority of 70%. According to Saine, Jammeh would "[enjoy] unrivalled political and economic power as a consequence of the new constitution. In contrast, opposition political parties [would be] sidelined and allowed little political space in a one-sided electoral contest in which Jammeh was the assured ‘winner’." Decree no. 89, issued on 14 August, reiterated the ban on the PPP, the NCP and the GPP, but lifted the ban on the PDOIS and the PDP. In 1996, on 28 August, Jammeh was formally promoted to the rank of colonel and then retired from the army on 6 September, one month before the 1996 presidential election. His retirement was marked by a ceremony that was described as "actually a political event made palatable by a patina of military pomp."


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh won the 1996 presidential election as the APRC candidate, winning 56% of the vote and beating Ousainou Darboe, Hamat Bah and Sidia Jatta. Darboe was forced to seek refuge in the Senegalese embassy in Banjul, fearing an assassination plot. In the 1997 parliamentary election, the first to the new National Assembly put in place by the 1996 constitution, the APRC won a majority of seats. However, these two elections, the first following the transition from military to civil rule, were "marred by provisions of the new, doctored constitution, an electoral commission appointed by Jammeh alone in 1995 and a political network that included the Green Boys – a now-disbanded vigilante group that was mobilised to intimidate the electorate to ensure Jammeh’s ‘victory’." Saine argues that this combination of intimidation and harassment of the opposition, an inherent bias provided by the 1996 constitution, as well as a distinct financial advantage, meant that "the presidential and national assembly elections were lost long before the first ballot was cast."


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh founded the Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction as his political party. He was elected as president in September 1996. Foreign observers did not deem these elections free and fair. He was re-elected on 18 October 2001 with about 53% of the vote; this election was generally deemed free and fair by observers, despite some very serious shortcomings ranging from overt government intimidation of voters to technical innovations (such as raising the required deposit to stand for election by a factor of 25) to distort the process in favour of the incumbent regime.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: A coup attempt against Jammeh was reported to have been thwarted on 21 March 2006; Jammeh, who was in Mauritania at the time, quickly returned home. Army chief of staff Col. Ndure Cham, the alleged leader of the plot, reportedly fled to neighbouring Senegal, while other alleged conspirators were arrested and were put on trial for treason. In April 2007, ten former officers accused of involvement were convicted and given prison sentences; four of them were sentenced to life in prison.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh ran for a third term in the presidential election held on 22 September 2006; the election was initially planned for October but was moved forward because of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He was re-elected with 67.3% of the vote and was declared the winner of the election; the opposition candidate Ousainou Darboe finished second, as in 2001.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: In November 2011, Jammeh was again re-elected as president for a fourth term in office, reportedly having received 72% of the popular vote.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: One of Jammeh's consistent targets throughout his time as President was the press and the media, as a whole as well as individual journalists. In 1998, the independent Citizen FM radio station was forced to close after a number of its staff were arrested and its equipment was confiscated. After its American proprietor sold it to a businessman with close ties to Jammeh in 1999, "The Daily Observer" became notably pro-Jammeh. In August 2000, the anti-government Radio 1 FM suffered an arson attack. Gambian American author Abdoulaye Saine states that Jammeh was able to use Gambia Radio & Television Service as his personal propaganda outlet whenever he required.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh had made a number of public statements against the press. In July 2000, he said that "anybody bent on disturbing the peace and stability of the nation [should] be buried six feet deep." In April 2004, Jammeh told journalists to obey his government "or go to hell". In June 2005, he said that he had allowed "too much freedom of expression" in the Gambia.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: In response to his suppression of the press and media in the Gambia, various online newspapers and radio stations were established by self-exiled Gambian journalists to publicise alleged government atrocities. These include "Freedom Newspaper", "The Gambia Echo" and "Gainako".


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh also saw through legislation to restrict the activities of the press. The Newspaper Act 1994 imposed criminal penalties on private publications that failed to pay a yearly registration fee. The National Media Communication Act 2000 forced journalists to reveal confidential sources to police and the judiciary on demand. In December 2004, the Criminal Code (Amendment) Bill 2004 allowed prison terms for defamation and sedition. The same month, the Newspaper (Amendment) Bill 2004 required newspaper proprietors to purchase expensive operating licenses and forcing them to register their homes as security.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: A number of individual journalists were also targeted. In December 2004, Deyda Hydara, then editor of "The Point", announced his intention to publicly challenge newly-introduced legislation restricting press freedoms. He was shot and killed when driving home in Banjul on 16 December, leading to thousands protesting on the streets. Some pointed at the government, led by Jammeh, as the murderers, but it has remained unsolved. Furthermore, in July 2006, Ebrima Manneh of "The Daily Observer" was arrested by state security after attempting to publish a BBC report critical of Jammeh. His arrest was witnessed by his coworkers, and, despite being ordered to release Manneh by an ECOWAS court, the government denied that Manneh was still imprisoned. An unnamed police source said that he believed Manneh "is no longer alive". Both Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists have called for his release.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: In December 2015, Jammeh banned female genital mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia, labelling the practice of FGM as having "no place in Islam or in modern society"; anyone that ignored the ban would face a prison sentence of up to three years. After the end of Ramadan and Eid ul-Fitr in July 2016, Jammeh further announced a ban on child marriages. In 2016, some 30% of women were married while under the age of 18. Yahya Jammeh's response was that anyone caught marrying a girl under 18 years of age would be jailed for up to twenty years.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: As President, Jammeh had significant influence over the judiciary in the Gambia, particularly because Section 98 of the 1996 constitution permits the President to appoint judges directly. Saine argues that Jammeh's employment of judges mainly from other Commonwealth countries allowed him to effectively issue tough sentences to reduce dissent and to imprison both real and perceived threats to the president's power.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: On 15 May 2008, Jammeh announced that his government would introduce legislation that would set laws against homosexuals that would be "stricter than those in Iran", and that he would "cut off the head" of any gay or lesbian person discovered in the country. News reports indicated his government intended to execute all homosexuals in the country. In a speech given in Tallinding, Jammeh gave a "final ultimatum" to any gays or lesbians in the Gambia, warning them to leave the country. In a speech to the United Nations on 27 September 2013, Jammeh said "[h]omosexuality in all its forms and manifestations which, though very evil, antihuman as well as anti-Allah, is being promoted as a human right by some powers," who "want to put an end to human existence." On 18 February 2014, Jammeh called homosexuals "vermins" by saying that: "We will fight these vermins ["sic"] called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively". He also went on to disparage the LGBT by saying that "As far as I am concerned, LGBT can only stand for Leprosy, Gonorrhoea, Bacteria and Tuberculosis, all of which are detrimental to human existence".


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: In May 2015, in defiance of western criticism Jammeh intensified his anti-gay rhetoric, telling a crowd during an agricultural tour: "If you do it [in the Gambia] I will slit your throat – if you are a man and want to marry another man in this country and we catch you, no one will ever set eyes on you again, and no white person can do anything about it."


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: This prompted a fresh round of condemnation from international human rights leaders. US National Security Advisor Susan Rice released a statement of condemnation on 16 May 2015: "We condemn his comments, and note these threats come amid an alarming deterioration of the broader human rights situation in The Gambia," said Rice. "We are deeply concerned about credible reports of torture, suspicious disappearances – including of two American citizens – and arbitrary detention at the government's hands."


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: In January 2007, Jammeh claimed he could cure HIV/AIDS and asthma with natural herbs. His claimed treatment program includes instructing patients to cease taking their anti-retroviral drugs. His claims have been criticised for promoting unscientific treatment that could have dangerous results, including the infection of others by those who thought they had been cured by the method. In December 2011, he restated during an interview that the alleged cure for HIV/AIDS was "going very well".


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Fadzai Gwaradzimba, the country representative of the United Nations Development Programme in the Gambia, was told to leave the country after she expressed doubts about the claims and said the remedy might encourage risky behaviour. In August 2007, Jammeh claimed to have developed a single dose herbal infusion that could treat high blood pressure. Jammeh has also claimed to develop a treatment for infertility in women as part of what is called the President's Alternative Treatment Program (PATP).


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: August and October 2005 saw a border feud with Senegal over increased ferry prices for crossings over the Gambia River. Jammeh has a close relationship with Jolas in the Casamance region of Senegal, who allowed him to "rule with impunity". In turn, Jammeh supported the rebels in the Casamance conflict, by engaging in the trade of illegal drugs, small arms, and also money-laundering with the rebel groups.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Shortly after the outbreak of the Guinea-Bissau Civil War in June 1998, Jammeh sought a peaceful resolution to the conflict. He personally canvassed regional opinion on the war in Cape Verde, Mauritania, Guinea and Senegal, and sent Momodou Lamin Sedat Jobe, his foreign minister, to meet with rebel leader Ansumane Mané to fruitlessly attempt to arrange peace talks in Banjul.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: According to "The Daily Observer", on 10 December 2012, Jammeh secured the release of Senegalese soldiers who had been held as hostages by rebels in Senegal. He sent a delegation to meet with Senegalese President Macky Sall in early December 2012. The delegation's goal was to discuss a resolution to the ongoing civil unrest in Senegal's southern region of Cassamance. Members of the delegation included the Minister of Presidential Affairs, the US Ambassador to the Gambia, and members from the Red Cross and Red Crescent.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: The Jammeh Foundation for Peace (JFP) was created by Jammeh to help eradicate poverty among Gambians, improve agricultural production, and sponsor educational opportunities for needy students. The foundation has a hospital that is sponsored by the president and provides medical services to the general public.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Donations in 2012 included $2,563,138 to the National Youths Conference and Festival (NAYCONF), and "two truckloads of turkey" to the Gambia Christian Council for delivery to the Christian community. Jammeh also bankrolled the university of education for less privileged Gambians and non-Gambians alike both home and abroad.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Taiwan was formerly the "financial lifeline" for the regime, as part of its campaign for international support at the United Nations. However, Jammeh cut ties with Taiwan during his presidency, despite then President Ma Ying-jeou having visited The Gambia.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Human Rights Watch found that the Gambian security services most frequently implicated in abuses were the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the paramilitary “Jungulers,” and the Serious Crimes Unit and the Police Intervention Unit of the Gambian Police Force. The Jungulers, an unofficial unit of up to 40 personnel largely drawn from the Presidential Guard, was most frequently implicated in serious abuses, carrying out the most egregious crimes, notable among them was ordering the killing of about 50 West African migrants in 2005. The victims included 44 Ghanaians, 10 Nigerians, two Senegalese, three Ivoirians and one Togolese, who were killed because the security forces feared they were mercenaries coming to try to oust Jammeh.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: On 10 and 11 April 2000, the government was accused of the killing of 14 students and a journalist during a student demonstration to protest the death of a student in The Gambia. Jammeh was accused of ordering the shooting of the students, but the government denied the allegations. A government commission of inquiry reportedly concluded that the Police Intervention Unit (PIU) officers were "largely responsible" for many of the deaths and other injuries. The commission also said that five soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Battalion were responsible for the deaths of two students at Brikama. The government stated that the report implicated several PIU officers in the students' deaths and injuries, but those responsible were not prosecuted.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Newspaper reports list dozens of individuals who have disappeared after being picked up by men in plain-clothes, and others who have languished under indefinite detention for months or years without charge or trial. The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court ordered the Gambian government to produce one journalist who had disappeared. In April 2016, at least 50 people were arrested during a demonstration, and there were fears that Solo Sandeng, an opposition politician, died alongside two others while being held in detention. In July 2016, a Gambian opposition leader and another 18 people were sentenced to three years in jail for participation in the April demonstration. A Gambian diplomat publicly denied that Solo Sandeng had died in custody.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: In March 2009 Amnesty International reported that up to 1,000 Gambians had been abducted by government-sponsored "witch doctors" on charges of witchcraft, and taken to government detention centres where they were forced to drink dirty water with poisonous herbs; this left several captives with sequelae. On 21 May 2009, "The New York Times" reported that the alleged witch-hunting campaign had been sparked by the President Yahya Jammeh, who believed that the death of his aunt earlier that year could be attributed to witchcraft. These crimes were influenced by Bissauguinean president João Bernardo Vieira's brutal murder in March 2, 2009.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Ahead of the 2016 presidential election a number of opposition members, including United Democratic Party leader Ousainou Darboe, were sentenced to three years in jail for staging pro-democracy protests. In a public address, Jammeh called members of the opposition "opportunistic people supported by the West," adding that "I will bow to only Allah and my mother. I will never tolerate opposition to destabilize this country." The election itself took place on 1 December 2016 and, in a surprise result, Jammeh was defeated by Adama Barrow leading a coalition of opposition parties. At first, Jammeh stated that he would not contest the result.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Although Jammeh initially conceded defeat, on 9 December 2016 he rejected the result citing "unacceptable abnormalities". He subsequently announced that he had annulled the result, pending a new vote. He then filed a petition with the Supreme Court of the Gambia to contest the result. The court began hearing the case on 21 December. ECOWAS warned on 23 December that it would militarily intervene to uphold the results of the election if Jammeh didn't resign by 19 January. Jammeh appointed six new judges to the Supreme Court, having sacked all but one in 2015. The hearing was to be heard on 10 January, but was delayed until May. Jammeh stated that he would only relinquish the presidency if the court upheld the election result.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: The African Union additionally stated that it would stop recognising Jammeh as president as of 19 January 2017. He attempted to have Barrow's inauguration blocked, but the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court refused to rule on the matter. On Tuesday 17 January, he declared a 90-day state of emergency, prohibiting "acts of disobedience" and "acts intended to disturb public order". Various ministers resigned, and about 46,000 civilians (about 75% of whom were children) fled the country. Senegal, which was selected by ECOWAS to lead the operation to remove Jammeh from his post, moved its troops closer to the border with The Gambia on 18 January. Jammeh was warned to step down by midnight. Jammeh refused to step down and the deadline passed. On 18 January, parliament voted to extend Jammeh's term by three months, while in parallel, Adama Barrow was internationally recognised as president. On 19 January, Senegalese troops entered The Gambia. The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution backing Barrow while calling on Jammeh to step down. It backed ECOWAS' efforts to ensure that the results of the 2016 presidential election were respected by using political means first. Senegal halted its offensive, to allow mediation of the crisis one final time, with the invasion to proceed at noon on 20 January if Jammeh were to refuse to relinquish power. Jammeh again refused to step down and missed two deadlines on 20 January while regional leaders tried to persuade him to step down.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: During the early hours of 21 January, Jammeh announced on state television that he was stepping down from the post of president, and left the country later on the same day, travelling to Guinea and then Equatorial Guinea.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Three women from Gambia accused the former president, Yahya Jammeh, of raping and sexually abusing them while still in office, as per rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch and TRIAL International. According to ex-Gambian officials, women were pressured by presidential aides regularly to visit and work for Jammeh. One of the women is a Gambian pageant winner who has accused the ex-president of raping her. The victim, Fatou "Toufah" Jallow said she met Jammeh when she was 18 years old after winning a beauty pageant in 2014.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: As per Jallow, in the months that followed, Jammeh asked her to marry him at a dinner organized by one of his aides. Later, Fatou was invited by the former president via his aide to attend a religious ceremony at the State House. However, on her arrival the victim claims to have been taken to the president's private residence, where she was injected with a needle and “sodomized”. In October 2019, Jallow testified before Gambia’s public Truth and Reconciliation Commission about the rape charges.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: As Jammeh left The Gambia on 21 January 2017, Barrow stated that a "truth and reconciliation commission" would be appointed to investigate any possible crimes committed by Jammeh. Barrow cautioned that the commission wouldn't prosecute Jammeh, only investigate the alleged crimes. West African leaders did not guarantee any form of immunity to Jammeh. The United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS declared that any country offering refuge to him or his family would not be punished and he should be free to return to the country in the future. The statement added that it would work with the government of The Gambia to make sure that assets and properties legally belonging to him or his family, cabinet members, government officials or party supporters would not be seized. Jammeh later left The Gambia for Equatorial Guinea, where he allegedly lives in a mansion in the village of Mongomo.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: After Jammeh went into exile, Adama Barrow's special adviser Mai Ahmad Fatty alleged that in late January 2017, Jammeh had stolen million from the state's treasury and used a cargo plane to ship out his luxury vehicles during his last week in power. He added that the state's treasury was virtually empty, which was confirmed by technicians in the Ministry of Finance as well as the Central Bank of the Gambia. About a month later, two senior ministers alleged that he had siphoned at least $50 million from social security, ports, and the national telecoms company. They also alleged that his private jet, which cost $4.5 million, was bought using the state's pension fund. The government stated that his actions had left the country with a debt of more than $1 billion. Reuters released a report regarding Jammeh's charity on 24 February 2017 in which it stated that funds from the Jammeh Foundation for Peace went to Jammeh himself, not to the foundation's projects. The Minister of Justice announced on 10 March that the government would launch an investigation into his finances including his personal use of a charity bank account.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: A Gambian court froze Jammeh's known remaining assets in The Gambia in May 2017 after it emerged he had siphoned off $50 million of public money through the state-owned telecommunications company Gamtel to his own bank accounts during his presidency.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Effective December 21, 2017, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order under the Magnitsky Act that specifically named Yahya Jammeh among the persons whose US-based assets are to be blocked.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: There also been some controversy in the Gambia over the revelation that Jammeh during his time in office allowed a Franco-Polish arms dealer Pierre Dadak to use jetliners belonging to the Gambian state to fly around Europe and Africa to conduct his business. Jammeh's private secretary Njogu Bah, who was present at the Jammeh-Dadak meetings, has refused interview requests from the Gambian media to explain why Dadak was allowed to use Gambian jets. In June 2018, the Gambian government decided to auction off his fleet of luxury cars and aircraft to raise money for health and education projects. On July 27, 2018, Jammeh's mother died in exile.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: He was photographed in May 2019 accompanied by Teodoro Obiang Nguema himself, Jammeh had grown his beard, the matches of the Equatoguinean opposition denounced the presence of this "annoying guest" claiming that "they do not want another dictator in the country".


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: On 12 January 2020, Jammeh was warned by Gambian officials not to return to The Gambia without permission, as his safety couldn't be guaranteed.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: In August 2021, Adama Barrow sold one of Yahya Jammeh's presidential aircraft to a company in Belarus.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: In May 2022, the Government of Gambia has accepted the recommendation to prosecute the exiled former president for its killings and other crimes committed during his office tenure. His $3.5m mansion in Potomac, Maryland was seized by The US Justice Department.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh is an ethnic Jola. Jammeh briefly dated Tuti Faal, of Mauritanian descent, in 1994 before marrying her. She worked for the Gambia Telecommunication Company (GAMTEL) until the coup in July 1994. They had difficulty conceiving a child, and in 1998 Jammeh sent her to Saudi Arabia for a gynaecological exam, and during her time abroad, divorced her. Jammeh married his second wife Zeinab (Zineb) Suma Jammeh, on 26 March 1999. They have two children as of 2007, a daughter, Mariam Jammeh, and a son, Muhammed Yahya Jammeh. The latter was born in late 2007, when his daughter was eight years old.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: On 30 September 2010, Jammeh announced his marriage to a 21-year-old (or possibly 18-year-old) additional wife by the name Alima Sallah, daughter of Omar Gibril Sallah, Gambia's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and Zahra Sallah. It was announced that his new wife would officially be referred to as Lady Alima Yahya Jammeh, and would not be referred to as a "first lady", since Zeinab Suma Jammeh is the official "first lady".


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: According to at least one source, his marriage to Sallah was a shock to his other wife Zeinab Suma Jammeh, and the additional marriage led to strains in their relationship and even plans for their divorce. Zeinab Jammeh had reportedly already been living in the US separately from her husband for some time. Sallah reportedly also left Gambia for the US in June 2010. According to the same publication, he then divorced Sallah in early 2011.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh, like the majority of Gambians, practices Islam. In July 2010, Jammeh stressed that people should believe in God: "If you don't believe in God, you can never be grateful to humanity and you are even below a pig." In 2011 he told the BBC, "I will deliver to the Gambian people and if I have to rule this country for one billion years, I will, if Allah says so." On 12 December 2015, Jammeh declared the Muslim-majority country to be an Islamic republic, saying the move marked a break with the Gambia's colonial past. Jammeh told state TV that the proclamation was in line with Gambia's "religious identity and values". He added that no dress code would be imposed and citizens of other faiths would be allowed to practise freely.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: The official title used was His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Aziz Awal Jemus Junkung Jammeh Naasiru Deen Babili Mansa. He was Commander in Chief of The Armed Forces and Chief Custodian of the Sacred Constitution of the Gambia.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: On 16 June 2015, a statement from the State House stated that President Jammeh should be addressed as "His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh Babili Mansa". The title "Babili Mansa", which the President decided to drop in December 2014, is a phrase in the Mandinka language that could be translated as either "Chief Bridge Builder" or "Conqueror of Rivers". Two months before, he had already removed the title "Nasirul Deen" ("Defender of the Faith"), which had been conferred to him by the Gambia Supreme Islamic Council.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Jammeh has received honorary doctorates from Saint Mary's University of Halifax in 1999 for providing his citizens "freedom to pursue their well-being, and to live in peace and harmony", St. Mary's College of Maryland in 2004, Universidad Empresarial de Costa Rica, Norman Academy, and National Taipei University of Technology. The honorary degree from Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was revoked by the University's Board of Governors in April, 2022.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: He has also received dubious awards through the International Parliament for Safety and Peace, an unrecognised higher education accreditation organisation. Among these was a Nebraska Admiral certificate; however, Rae Hein, a spokeswoman for the Governor of Nebraska, stated "We regret that this individual has attempted to embellish a certificate for a Nebraska admiralship, claiming that it was a high honour bestowed upon him by the governor, when to the best of our knowledge, this person has no relationship with or ties to Nebraska." IPSP representatives also gave Jammeh two awards and a letter from Barack Obama that were later described as inauthentic or non-existent. Jammeh also received "Russian" and "German" honorary degrees from members of the IPSP.


title: Yahya Jammeh

text: Yahya Jammeh's portrait is depicted on some of the Gambian dalasi banknotes; 2014 polymer 20 Dalasis banknote commemorating 20 Years of his regime. The N.D. (2015) issue banknotes - 5 Dalasis up to 200 Dalasis.


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: Jón Páll Sigmarsson (28 April 1960 – 16 January 1993) was an Icelandic strongman, powerlifter and bodybuilder who was the first man to win the World's Strongest Man four times and the first and only man to win the World Muscle Power Classic five times. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest strongmen of all time, and is credited with developing Iceland's national identity. He was named Icelandic Sportsperson of the Year in 1981, and was one of the best-known Icelandic athletes. In 2012, Jón Páll was inducted into the World's Strongest Man Hall of Fame.


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: Jón Páll was born in Hafnarfjörður on 28 April 1960, weighing and measuring . He was the first child of Dóra Jónsdóttir and Sigmar Jónsson. He was raised by his mother and foster father Sveinn Guðmundsson. The family moved to Stykkishólmur when he was two. He remained there until the age of nine, when the family relocated to Reykjavík. Growing up, he spent his summers on Skáleyjar and was active as a farmhand. He worked from dawn until dusk, carrying pails of water and assisting his foster father on seal hunts. He took up Glima, a traditional Icelandic form of wrestling, at the age of five and later played football and handball, as well as competing in swimming, middle-distance running, and karate.


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: In 1984 he won the Icelandic bodybuilding title in the +90 kg. class. His achievements in powerlifting also include Icelandic records in the bench press (with , , and ) and the squat (with , , and ), but his best performances were usually in the deadlift event, in which he set the European record many times (with , , , and ) and multiple world records in strongman competition deadlift variations, such as the rectangular handled wheel and one handed deadlift.


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: Jón Páll was invited to the World's Strongest Man competition for the first time in 1983, in which he came in second only to Geoff Capes. The following year, at age 24, he defeated Capes and secured the title. During the final armwrestling event, in which Jón Páll was up against him, Capes appeared to be winning, pulling Jón Páll's arm down convincingly, but sustained a muscle tear in his forearm as Jón Páll started to thrust his arm back. Right after winning the bout, Jón Páll shouted "The King has lost his crown!" and won his first World's Strongest Man title in 1984. Although Jón Páll was closely defeated by Capes at the 1985 World's Strongest Man, he managed to regain the title in 1986. During the deadlift event at the 1985 World's Strongest Man competition, someone in the audience called him an Eskimo. Jón Páll shouted back: "I am not an Eskimo. I am a Viking!" and successfully lifted the cart.


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: In 1986, Jón Páll first wrestled English author and Guinness World Record Holder Brian Sterling-Vete in a demonstration match for the TV news and print media held at Finnur Karlsson's gymnasium in Reykjavík, Iceland. Halfway through the match Jón and Sterling had plotted to surprise the audience with a supposed angry outburst leading to the two of them demonstrating their skills as martial artists. This showmanship became synonymous with both Jón Páll and Sterling.


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: In 1987, Jón Páll clashed with his arguably greatest rival - 3 times World's Strongest Man winner Bill Kazmaier of Burlington, Wisconsin, USA, who had not been invited to compete at World's Strongest Man again after winning the competition 3 times in a row from 1980 to 1982. Kazmaier boasted some of the heaviest powerlifting lifts of that time including world records in the bench press with , deadlift with and total and had made his reputation in the 1980s as "the strongest man who ever lived" by breaking numerous strongman world records.


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: At Pure Strength 1987, a competition held in place of the absent World's Strongest Man competition of that year on the grounds of Huntly Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Geoff Capes, Bill Kazmaier and Jón Páll matched up to crown the strongest man on the planet. Jón Páll, being in the shape of his life, won the contest convincingly by winning 8 out of 10 events and even managed to beat Kazmaier, who was making his comeback into the strongman sport after having worked and travelled as a professional wrestler. A famous quote, "There is no reason to be alive if you can't do deadlift." was shouted by Jón Páll when he won the deadlift event at this contest with a strongman world record lift of off a rectangular handled bar from knee height.


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: At the 1988 World's Strongest Man the two rivals clashed again. As expected Kazmaier dominated the static events while Jón Páll, who had shed body-weight to cater for all the dynamic tests of strength of World's Strongest Man instead of the latter statically orientated events of Pure Strength 1987, was often victorious in the more athletic, speed- and endurance-oriented events. Although Jón Páll was beaten by Kazmaier in the deadlift, log lift and sack race, he managed to win the "weight over the bar event" and the McGlashen Stones in the end to secure the overall victory and to become the World's Strongest Man for the third time, equaling Kazmaier's record. After his victory Jón Páll said: "I may be the fastest strongman in the world, but I think Bill [Kazmaier] is the strongest on his feet."


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: After a disappointing third place at the 1989 World's Strongest Man, Jón Páll was able to win the competition, while injured, for a record breaking fourth time in 1990. O.D. Wilson, who was leading the competition with a comfortable 5½ points before the last event (a 200 m race with a 100 kg weight on the back), weighed and lacked the endurance and running speed to complete the course quickly enough and ended up losing by half a point to the much lighter and faster Jón Páll.


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: After battling with the injuries sustained during 1988, 1989, and 1990, which had affected his athleticism, his strength became progressively more static in his later years. Jón Páll was often challenged by fellow competitor Bill Kazmaier in feats of statically oriented events between contests because he believed the events were biased in Jón Páll's favour. This included Kaz challenging Jón Páll to a sledgehammer hold during Pure Strength 1987 where Jón Páll beat Kazmaier. Kazmaier had travelled to Nigeria for a strength exhibition with Douglas Edmunds to break the deadlift world record by deadlifting with straps, Jón Páll then re-broke the record with a lift of in his gym in Iceland in front of spectators in 1987 at his heaviest bodyweight in preparation for Pure Strength 1987.


title: Jón Páll Sigmarsson

text: The 1990 World's Strongest Man proved to be Jón Páll's last appearance on the World's Strongest Man stage, as he was surpassed as the Icelandic number one by fellow countryman Magnús Ver Magnússon, who won the Iceland's Strongest Man title in 1988 and 1989 and continued Sigmarsson's legacy by emulating his 4 World's Strongest Man title wins during the 90's.