title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The pipeline begins at Almetyevsk in Tatarstan, the Russian heartland, where it collects oil from western Siberia, the Urals, and the Caspian Sea. It runs to Mazyr in southern Belarus, where it splits into a northern and southern branch. The northern branch crosses the remainder of Belarus across Poland to Schwedt in Germany. It supplies refineries in Płock and in Schwedt. The northern branch is also connected by the Płock–Gdańsk pipeline with the Naftoport terminal in Gdańsk, which is used for oil re-exports. In Schwedt, the Druzhba pipeline is connected with the MVL pipeline to Rostock and Spergau.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The southern branch runs south through Ukraine. In Brody, the Druzhba pipeline is connected with the Odessa-Brody pipeline, which is currently used to ship oil from the Druzhba pipeline to the Black Sea. In Uzhgorod, the pipeline splits into lines to Slovakia (Druzhba-1 — original Druzhba route) and to Hungary (Druzhba-2). The line through Slovakia is divided once again near Bratislava: one branch leading in a northwest direction to the Czech Republic and the other going southward to Hungary. The Druzhba-1 pipeline branches off toward Hungary in Banská Bystrica Region (Slovakia) near the river of Ipeľ, crosses the Hungarian border at Drégelypalánk and leads to Százhalombatta (not depicted on the map at the beginning of the page). In Hungary, the Druzhba-1 pipeline supplies the Duna refinery while Druzhba-2 supplies Duna and Tisza refineries.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The ORLEN Lietuva in Lithuania and Ventspils oil terminal in Latvia are connected to the main pipeline by the branch pipeline from the Unecha junction in Bryansk Oblast (not shown on the map). This branch has ceased operation in 2006 and is not likely to become operational again any time soon.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The part of the Druzhba pipeline system which runs via Belarus is long. The length of the pipeline in Ukraine is , in Poland , in Hungary , in Lithuania , in Latvia , and in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic together around . The pipeline crosses 45 major rivers as well as 200 railways and highways.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The pipes for the project were manufactured in the Soviet Union and Poland, while fittings were manufactured in Czechoslovakia. The GDR was responsible for pumps, and Hungary for automation and communication equipment. The construction cost nearly 400 million rubles and nearly 730,000 tons of pipe was laid throughout the path of the pipeline. The Druzhba pipeline currently has a capacity of . Work is currently underway to increase this in the section between Belarus and Poland. The pipe diameter of the pipeline varies from . It uses 20 pumping stations.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The Russian part of the pipeline is operated by the oil company Transneft through its subsidiary OAO MN Druzhba. The operator in Belarus is Gomeltransneft Druzhba, in Ukraine UkrTransNafta, in Poland PERN Przyjazn SA, in Slovakia Transpetrol AS, in the Czech Republic Mero, and in Hungary MOL.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The Baltic Pipeline System-2 (BPS-2) is a pipeline from the Unecha junction of the Druzhba pipeline near the Russia–Belarus border to the Ust-Luga oil terminal at the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland with a long branch line to Kirishi oil refinery. The throughput capacity of BPS-2 is 50 million tonnes of oil annually. The construction of the BPS-2 started on 10 June 2009. The BPS-2 was completed in 2011 and began to function in late March 2012.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: There have been proposals to the extend northern branch of the Druzhba pipeline towards the German North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven, which would reduce oil tanker traffic in the Baltic Sea and make it easier to transport Russian oil to the United States. In 2007, German Oil Trading GmbH (GOT) proposed to build a connection from Unecha to Wilhelmshaven with a possible branch to Polish and German oil refineries. The proposed connection would be long and would have a capacity of 25 million tonnes of oil a year, which could be increased to 50 million tonnes.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The Druzhba–Adria Pipeline Integration Project was a proposal that was considered in the 2000s to extend the pipeline to pass through Hungary and Croatia to reach the Adriatic Sea at the deep-water port of Omišalj. In the first phase, the Croatian portion of the Adria pipeline would be reconstructed from the Sisak pumping station to Omišalj harbour. The Croatian company JANAF was responsible for the design of the initial project phase, to reverse the phases of the Adria pipeline (which currently carries oil from the port inland) on the Sisak-Omišalj portion.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The proposal was touted by the Croatian president Stipe Mesić, but it also garnered a lot of negative press due to complaints from the environmentalist groups such as Eko Kvarner, and was eventually abandoned.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The Schwechat–Bratislava two-way oil pipeline project was proposed in 2003. It would allow to supply the OMV owned Schwechat Refinery from the Druzhba pipeline.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: For the last several years, Russia and Ukraine have been tied up in transit fee disputes as the major pipelines supplying Europe with Russian oil and gas run through Ukraine. The continuous disputes were primarily based on transit of natural gas.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: On December 28, 2009, referring to Russia's announcement, Slovakian government said Russia issued warnings that it would stop oil supplies to Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic over a transit fees dispute with Ukraine. However, the next day, Ukraine's Naftogas issued a statement confirming that Russia agreed to a 30 percent increase in the transit fees through Ukraine. The alleged rise in the tariff will be from $7.8 to $9.50 (or €6.6) per tonne of oil for transiting Ukraine in 2010, and this was implemented due to the decision from Russia to raise prices of the energy resources. Additionally, unlike previous payments, new payments will be made in Euros, as this was one of Ukraine's demands. Also, Ukraine needs substantial investments to update the network on its territory as the pipeline has aged. Russia and Ukraine also agreed on the volume of oil to be transported through Ukraine in 2010. The overall amount of oil to be transported to Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary through Ukraine in 2010 will be 15 million tonnes, a decrease from 17.1 million tonnes in 2008.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The delivery of oil was halted on 20 April 2019 due to high concentrations of organic chloride found in the pipeline. These chemical compounds contaminated the pipeline and equipment in Russia and Europe causing an economic impact of billions of dollars. Investigation into the scandal is ongoing with individuals being detained in Russia suspected of having stolen oil and pouring in organochloride to the pipeline to cover up the theft.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: By late May, a month after the contamination was discovered, Russia agreed to take back some of the 8-9m tons of contaminated oil remaining in the pipeline.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: Estimates of overall contaminated stock, including that still in the pipeline and other stock pumped to tankers or to storage range from 20-40m tons as of end May. This stock will all require dilution before it can be refined.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: In mid-September 2019, almost five months after the contamination was noticed, the Polish pipeline operator confirmed their section of the pipeline had been cleared of contamination and was operating normally. 450,000 tons of contaminated oil had been moved to storage.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: Also in September 2019, oil companies BP and Total were trying to sell 2.3m barrels (over 300,000 tons) of tainted oil that they had received earlier from the pipeline.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: In February 2020, Belarus threatened to take oil from the Druzhba pipeline if Russia did not supply it with the required volumes of crude oil. As of February 2022, Russian oil supplies to Belarus had not been agreed to for 2020 and shipments had dwindled to 500,000 tonnes, down from a previously planned 2 million tonnes. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Moscow hinted at an energy supply deal in exchange for Belarus merging with Russia, which caused talks to collapse.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Ernest Dale Tubb (February 9, 1914 – September 6, 1984), nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" (1941), marked the rise of the honky tonk style of music.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: In 1948, he was the first singer to record a hit version of Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson's "Blue Christmas", a song more commonly associated with Elvis Presley and his late-1950s version. Another well-known Tubb hit was "Waltz Across Texas" (1965) (written by his nephew Quanah Talmadge Tubb, known professionally as Billy Talmadge), which became one of his most requested songs and is often used in dance halls throughout Texas during waltz lessons. Tubb recorded duets with the then up-and-coming Loretta Lynn in the early 1960s, including their hit "Sweet Thang". Tubb is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: The youngest of five children, Tubb was born on a cotton farm near Crisp, in Ellis County, Texas, United States. His father was a sharecropper and Tubb spent his youth working on farms throughout the state. Tubb's earliest immigrant ancestor was Edward Tubb, who arrived in Virginia from Northamptonshire, England in 1701.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: He was inspired by Jimmie Rodgers and spent his spare time learning to sing, yodel, and play the guitar. At age 19, he took a job as a singer on San Antonio radio station KONO-AM. The pay was low and Tubb also dug ditches for the Works Progress Administration. He went on to be a clerk at a drug store.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: In 1939, he moved to San Angelo, Texas and was hired to do a 15-minute afternoon live show on radio station KGKL-AM. He drove a beer delivery truck to support himself during this time, and during World War II he wrote and recorded a song titled "Swell San Angelo".


title: Ernest Tubb

text: In 1936, Tubb contacted Jimmie Rodgers' widow (Rodgers died in 1933) to ask for an autographed photo. A friendship developed and she was instrumental in getting Tubb a recording contract with RCA. His first two records were unsuccessful. A tonsillectomy in 1939 affected his singing style, so he turned to songwriting. In 1940, he switched to Decca Records to try singing again, and his sixth Decca release with the single "Walking the Floor Over You" brought Tubb to stardom. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc in 1965 by the Recording Industry Association of America.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Tubb joined the Grand Ole Opry in February 1943 and put together his band, the Texas Troubadours. Tubb's first band members were from Gadsden, Alabama. They were: Vernon "Toby" Reese, Chester Studdard, and Ray "Kemo" Head. He remained a regular on the radio show for four decades, and hosted his own "Midnite Jamboree" radio show each Saturday night after the Opry. Tubb headlined the first Grand Ole Opry show presented in Carnegie Hall in New York City in September 1947.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Tubb always surrounded himself with several of Nashville's best musicians. Jimmy Short, his first guitarist in the Troubadours, is credited with the Tubb sound of single-string guitar picking. From about 1943 to 1948, Short was featured in clean, clear riffs throughout Tubb's songs. Other well-known musicians to either travel with Tubb as band members or record on his records were steel guitarist Jerry Byrd and Tommy "Butterball" Paige, who replaced Short as Tubb's lead guitarist in 1947. Billy Byrd joined the Troubadours in 1949 and brought jazzy riffs to the instrumental interludes, especially the four-note riff at the end of his guitar solos that would become synonymous with Tubb's songs. A jazz musician, Byrd— no relation to Jerry— remained with Tubb until 1959.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Another Tubb musician was actually his producer, Owen Bradley. Bradley played piano on many of Tubb's recordings from the 1950s, but Tubb wanted him to sound like Moon Mullican, the honky-tonk piano great of that era. The classically trained Bradley tried, but could not quite match the sound, so Tubb said Bradley was "half as good" as Moon. When Tubb called out Bradley's name at the start of one of the piano interludes, the singer always referred to him as "Half-Moon".


title: Ernest Tubb

text: In 1949, Tubb helped the famed boogie-woogie Andrews Sisters crossover to the country charts when they teamed on Decca Records to record a cover of Eddy Arnold's "Don't Rob Another Man's Castle" and the Western swing-flavored "I'm Bitin' My Fingernails and Thinking of You". Tubb was impressed by the enormous success of Patty, Maxene, and LaVerne Andrews, and he remembered that their 1947 recording of "The Blue Tail Fly (Jimmy Crack Corn)" with folk legend Burl Ives produced a top-10 "Billboard" hit, and he was then eager to repeat that success. He brought the upbeat "Fingernails" tune to the session, hoping that the trio would like it, and they did. Not realizing how tall the Texas Troubadour was, the recording technicians at Decca had the sisters stand on a wooden box on one side of the one microphone they shared with Tubb so the audio would balance. The rhythm trio also was not used to Tubb's vocal style, as Maxene once remembered, "He sang different than anybody I've ever heard. He sang the melody of the song, but the timing was different. It wasn't like we were used to...you sing eight bars, and then you sing eight bars, and then you sing eight bars. Not with him. He just sang eight bars, ten bars, eleven bars, and then stopped, whatever it was. So, we'd just start to follow him, and then got paid on 750,000 records sold that never came above the Mason-Dixon Line!"


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Tubb was not known to possess the most adept voice: he always sang flat and actually mocked his own singing. He told an interviewer that 95% of the men in bars would hear his music on the juke box and say to their girlfriends, "I can sing better than him," and Tubb added they would be right. In fact he noticeably missed some notes on some recordings. When Tubb was recording "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry" in 1949 and tried to hit a low note, Red Foley, his duet partner at the time was sitting in the booth when somebody said, "I bet you wish you could hit that low note." Foley replied, "I bet Ernest wishes "he" could hit that note." The two, who released seven albums together, maintained a friendly on-air "feud" over the years, and Tubb appeared on Foley's "Ozark Jubilee" on ABC-TV.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: In 1957, he walked into the lobby of the National Life Building in Nashville in the early morning hours and fired a .357 magnum, intending to shoot music producer Jim Denny. Instead, Tubb mistakenly shot at WSM news director, Bill Williams, as he was walking in to work. Luckily, Tubb barely missed (twice) before realizing he had shot at the wrong man. He was arrested and charged with public drunkenness.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: In the 1960s, Tubb was well known for having one of the best bands in country music history. The band included lightning-fingered Leon Rhodes (1932–2017), who later appeared on TV's "Hee Haw" as the guitarist in the show's band. Buddy Emmons, another pedal-steel guitar virtuoso, began with Tubb in fall of 1957 and lasted through the early 1960s. Emmons went on to create a steel-guitar manufacturing company that bears his name. Buddy Charleton, one of the most accomplished pedal-steel guitarists known, joined Ernest in spring 1962 and continued to fall of 1973. Buddy Charleton and Leon Rhodes formed a nucleus for the Texas Troubadours that would be unsurpassed.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Beginning in the fall of 1965, he hosted a half-hour TV program, "The Ernest Tubb Show", which aired in first-run syndication for three years. That same year, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and in 1970, Tubb was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Tubb inspired some of the most devoted fans of any country artist — and his fans followed him throughout his career, long after the chart hits dried up. He remained, as did most of his peers, a fixture at the Grand Ole Opry, where he continued to appear. He continued to host his "Midnite Jamboree" radio program a few blocks away from the Opry at his record shop.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: A notable release in 1979, "The Legend and the Legacy", paired Tubb with a who's who of country singers on the Cachet Records label, to which Tubb was connected financially. This long out-of-print duets album was re-released in 1999 as a CD on the First Generations label, on the 20th anniversary of its release, and it quickly went out of print again.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: In 1980, he appeared as himself in Loretta Lynn's autobiographical film, "Coal Miner's Daughter" with Roy Acuff and Minnie Pearl. His singing voice remained intact until late in life, when he fell ill with emphysema. Even so, he continued to make over 200 personal appearances a year, carrying an oxygen tank on his bus. After each performance, he would shake hands and sign autographs with every fan who wanted to stay. Health problems finally halted his performances in 1982.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: On August 15, 1982, he made his final appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. He died on September 6, 1984, at the Baptist Hospital in Nashville from emphysema. He is buried in Nashville's Hermitage Memorial Gardens.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Tubb was inducted into the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, and he ranked number 21 in CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: One of his sons, Justin, was a popular country singer and songwriter in the mid-1950s through the early 1960s; Justin's sons, Carey and Zachary Tubb, also became musicians. Tubb's nephew, Billy Lee Tubb, was his lead guitarist briefly (fall 1959 – April 1960). He also had solo careers under several pseudonyms (Ronny Wade, X. Lincoln) and played with John Anderson, writing several songs with him. Tubb's great nephew, Lucky Tubb, has toured with Hank Williams III.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Cal Smith, who played guitar for the Texas Troubadours during the 1960s, went on to a successful country music career of his own in the 1970s, recording hits such as "Country Bumpkin".


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Jack Greene, who played drums for the Texas Troubadours, went on to become a successful country music star following his departure from Tubb's band, recording the hits "There Goes My Everything" and "Statue of a Fool".


title: Ernest Tubb

text: Ernest Tubb's nephew, Glenn Douglas Tubb, wrote his first hit song for his uncle in 1952. He went on to write more than 50 hit songs for more than two dozen country and rock music superstars, including Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, BJ Thomas, George Jones, Kentucky Headhunters, Charlie Pride, Ann Murray, and Kitty Wells. Glenn Tubb won a Grammy Award for "Skip a Rope", which was made a hit by Henson Cargill. Glenn Douglas Tubb died in 2021.


title: Ernest Tubb

text: The "Midnite Jamboree" Tubb founded in 1947 continues to air, recorded each weekend from a stage at his record shop and airing after each episode of the "Grand Ole Opry".


title: Ernest Tubb

text: The song "Set 'Em Up Joe", recorded and made famous by Vern Gosdin, was a tribute to Tubb's music, particularly the song "Walking the Floor Over You". The Ernest Tubb Record Store, founded in 1947, is still in operation in Nashville and is now owned by Robert's Western World. On March 11, 2022, the store owners announced on their Facebook page that the business and its real estate had been sold, and the store would close at an unspecified time.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: Éverton Augusto de Barros Ribeiro (born 10 April 1989) is a Brazilian footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Brazilian Serie A club Flamengo and the Brazil national team.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: Formed at Corinthians, after a loan at São Caetano he was sold to Coritiba in 2011, winning the Campeonato Paranaense in both of his seasons. He also won Série A twice at Cruzeiro, being voted the best player of each season. He joined Al-Ahli Dubai for €15 million in 2014, winning several items of silverware in the United Arab Emirates before returning to Brazil with Flamengo in 2017.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: Born in Arujá but raised in Santa Isabel, both in the state of São Paulo, Ribeiro joined Corinthians' youth setup in 2001, aged ten, as a left back. Promoted to the main squad in 2007 by manager Paulo César Carpegiani, he only appeared in four matches during that year, being relegated with the side.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: On 21 July 2008, after the arrival of Wellington Saci, Ribeiro was loaned to São Caetano, being successfully converted to an attacking midfielder during his two-year spell at the side.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: Ribeiro returned to "Timão" in January 2011, but was sold to Coritiba for a R$1.5 million fee on 21 February. He made eight appearances as the team won the year's Campeonato Paranaense, scoring in the third minute on 17 April to open a 4–1 win at Roma Esporte Apucarana.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: The following season, Ribeiro scored five times in 15 games as the team defended their title. On 6 May 2012, in the first leg of the final away to rivals Clube Atlético Paranaense, he opened a 2–2 draw. A week later, he struck the decisive effort as his team won in a penalty shootout at the Estadio Major Antonio do Couto Pereira.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: Ribeiro finished the 2012 campaign for "Coxa" as the club's topscorer in Série A along with teammate Deivid, with eight goals. On 26 August 2012, Ribeiro was sent off in a 3–1 loss at Figueirense for a foul on Fernandes.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: On 8 January 2013, Cruzeiro reached an agreement with Coritiba for Ribeiro, and he signed a four-year deal three days later.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: Ribeiro was a key attacking unit for "Raposa" during his two-year spell, along with Ricardo Goulart. He was also elected Série A's best player of the year twice in a row, as his side was crowned champions twice.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: After being linked to Manchester United, Milan, Monaco and Real Madrid during the 2015 winter transfer window, Ribeiro moved to Al-Ahli Dubai on 2 February 2015 for a reported €15 million transfer fee.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: Two days later, he made his debut in the seasons's UAE Arabian Gulf League, opening a 2–0 home win over Al-Sharjah from Luis Jiménez's assist, a minute after replacing Habib Fardan. He won his first silverware with the club on 27 March, coming on as a substitute at the end of the Super Cup 1–0 win over Al Ain at the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. He finished the campaign with 3 goals in 12 league games. In the year's AFC Champions League, he struck 4 goals in 14 matches, including one in the semi-final second leg 4–3 aggregate victory over Al-Hilal; the team lost the continental final by one goal to Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: On 19 August 2015, in the first game of the new national season, Ribeiro scored twice – including a penalty kick – in an 8–1 home win over Al-Fujairah, and assisted compatriot Lima for two more. His team won the league, and Ribeiro told the media that the victory justified his surprise transfer to the team.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: On 5 June 2017, an associate of Ribeiro said that he had rescinded his contract with Al Ahli in order to return to Brazilian football. Later that day he signed with Flamengo, who paid €6 million for 100% of his economic rights, under a contract that runs until 2021.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: After representing Brazil in the under-20 level, Ribeiro was called up to the main for two matches against Colombia and Ecuador by new manager Dunga on 19 August 2014. He made his debut for Brazil in a friendly against Colombia on 5 September, coming on as a substitute for Willian in a 1–0 win at Sun Life Stadium, Miami.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: On 5 May 2015, Ribeiro was called up for the year's Copa América, held in Chile. In the quarter-final against Paraguay, he replaced goalscorer Robinho for the final three minutes of a 1–1 draw, and then missed in the penalty shootout which eliminated Brazil.


title: Éverton Ribeiro

text: On 17 June 2021, he scored the third goal in a 4–0 win over Peru in Brazil's second group match of the 2021 Copa América on home soil.


title: Box braids

text: Box braids are a type of hair-braiding style that is predominantly popular among African people and the African diaspora. This type of hairstyle is a "protective style" (a style which can be worn for a long period of time to let natural hair grow and protect the ends of the hair) and is "boxy", consisting of square-shaped hair divisions. Box braids are generally installed by using synthetic hair which helps to add thickness as well as helping the natural hair that is in the braid. Because they are not attached to the scalp like other similar styles such as cornrows, box braids can be styled in a number of different ways. The installation process of box braids can be lengthy, but once installed they can last for six to eight weeks. They are known for being easy to maintain.


title: Box braids

text: Hair-braiding styles were used to help differentiate tribes, locations, and also possibly a symbol of wealth and power due to the amount of effort that went into styling braids. Box braids were not given a specific name until the 1990s when popularized by R&B musician Janet Jackson, but have been used for years. This style of braiding comes from the Eembuvi braids of Namibia or the chin-length bob braids of the women of the Nile Valley from over 3,000 years ago. In the Mbalantu tribe of Namibia, braiding was an important social practice. Older women would gather with their girls and teach them how to braid. Box braids are also commonly worn by the Khoisan people of South Africa and the Afar people in the horn of Africa. In Africa, braid styles and patterns have been used to distinguish tribal membership, marital status, age, wealth, religion and social ranking. In some countries of Africa, the braids were used for communication. In some Caribbean islands, braid patterns were used to map routes to escape slavery. Layers of finely chopped tree bark and oils can be used to support the hairstyle. Human hair was at one point wefted into fiber wig caps made of durable materials like wool and felt for reuse in traditional clothing as well as different rituals. Cowry shells, jewels, beads and other material items adorned box braids of older women alluding to their readiness to have daughters, emulation of wealth, high priesthood and any other classifications.


title: Box braids

text: Hair was and is a very important and symbolic part of different African communities. Africans believed that hair could help with divine communication as it was the elevated part of one's body. Hair styling was entrusted only to close relatives, as it was explained that if a strand fell into the hands of an enemy, harm could come to the hair's owner. Members of royalty would often wear elaborate hairstyles as a symbol of their stature, and those in mourning, usually women, would pay some attention to their hair during the period of grieving. Hair was seen as a symbol of fertility, as thick, long tresses and neat, clean hair symbolised ability to bear healthy daughters. Elaborate patterns were done for special occasions like weddings, social ceremonies or war preparations. People belonging to a tribe could easily be identified by another tribe member with the help of a braid pattern or style.


title: Box braids

text: The U.S. Army has strong regulations and restrictions on hairstyles for both men and women. In 2014, the army reviewed its policies and made changes to it. There were concerns and comments that these regulations were too restrictive for African American women. It originally considered their natural hair "not neat" and the protective styles "unprofessional". According to an official Army military article, "Twists, cornrows and braids can be up to in diameter. The previous maximum was a diameter of approximately ". This gives more opportunity to wear protective styles. Box braids can be worn but no more than of the scalp can be showing. The parting must be square or rectangular shape. The ends of the braids must be secured. Once the newly grown natural hair outside of the braid, also known as new growth, reaches , the style must be redone. All of these regulations are the same for similar styles like dreadlocks, flat twists, and braids with natural hair. These hairstyles must not interfere with the wear of uniform or covers. The synthetic hair for box braids can come in any color but in the military, they must be natural hair colors without any additional jewelry like hairclips or beads.


title: District line

text: The District line is a London Underground line running from in the east and Edgware Road in the west to in west London, where it splits into multiple branches. One branch runs to in south-west London and a short branch, with a limited service, only runs for one stop to . The main route continues west from Earl's Court to after which it divides again into two western branches, to Richmond and .


title: District line

text: Printed in green on the Tube map, the line serves 60 stations (more than any other Underground line) over . It is the only Underground line to use a bridge to traverse the River Thames, crossing on both the Wimbledon and Richmond branches. The track and stations between and are shared with the Hammersmith & City line, and between and and on the Edgware Road branch they are shared with the Circle line. Some of the stations between and are shared with the Piccadilly line. Unlike London's deep-level lines, the railway tunnels are just below the surface, and the trains are of a similar size to those on British main lines.


title: District line

text: The District line is the busiest of the sub-surface lines and the fifth-busiest line overall on the Underground, with over 208 million passenger journeys recorded in 2017/18.


title: District line

text: The original Metropolitan District Railway (as it was then called) opened in December 1868 from South Kensington to as part of a plan for a below-ground "inner circle" connecting London's main line termini. At first, services were operated using wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. Electrification was financed by the American Charles Yerkes, and electric services began in 1905. The railway was absorbed by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933. In the first half of the 1930s, the Piccadilly line took over the Uxbridge and Hounslow branches, although a peak-hour District line service ran on the Hounslow branch until 1964. Kensington (Olympia) has been served by the District line since 1946, and a short branch to closed in 1959. The trains carried guards until one-person operation was introduced in 1985.


title: District line

text: The signalling system is being upgraded (as part of the Four Lines Modernisation project) as of September 2019 and the previous D Stock trains were fully replaced by seven-car S Stock trains in April 2017.


title: District line

text: The Metropolitan District Railway (commonly known as the District Railway) was formed to build and operate part of an underground 'inner circle' connecting London's railway termini. The first line opened in December 1868, with services from South Kensington to Westminster; these were operated by the Metropolitan Railway using wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives. By 1871, when the District began operating its own trains, the railway had extended to West Brompton and a terminus at Mansion House. A curve from Earl's Court onto the West London Railway was used by the London & North Western Railway (L&NWR) for a service to and the Great Western Railway for a service to Moorgate via Paddington. Between 1 March 1883 and 30 September 1885, the District Railway ran trains between Mansion House and Windsor, via Paddington. Stations after Ealing Broadway (the current terminus) were West Ealing, Hanwell, Southall, Hayes & Harlington, West Drayton, Langley, Slough, and Windsor. The service was discontinued because it was uneconomic.


title: District line

text: Hammersmith was reached from Earl's Court, services were extended to Richmond over the tracks of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR), and branches reached Ealing Broadway, Hounslow and Wimbledon. As part of the project that completed the Circle line in October 1884, the District began to serve Whitechapel. Services began running to Upminster in 1902, after a link to the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway (LT&SR) had been built.


title: District line

text: At the start of the 20th century, the District was seeing increased competition from the new electric underground tube lines and trams, and the use of steam locomotives underground led to unpopular smoke-filled stations and carriages. The American Charles Yerkes, who was later to form the Underground Electric Railways of London, financed the needed electrification of the railway and the first electric services ran from Ealing to South Harrow in 1903. Electric multiple-units were introduced on other services in 1905, and East Ham became the eastern terminus. Electric locomotives were used on the L&NWR services from Mansion House to Earl's Court, and in later years exchanged for a steam locomotive on LT&SR services from Southend to Ealing Broadway at Barking.


title: District line

text: Hounslow and Uxbridge were served by 2 or 3-car shuttles from Mill Hill Park (now Acton Town); some trains also served South Acton and central London in the peaks. Services were extended again to Barking in 1908 and Upminster in 1932. In 1932 Piccadilly line trains were extended from Hammersmith to South Harrow, taking over the District service from Acton Town to South Harrow, although the District continued to provide a shuttle from South Harrow to Uxbridge. In 1933, Piccadilly trains reached to Hounslow West, the District continuing to run services with an off-peak shuttle from South Acton to Hounslow.


title: District line

text: On 1 July 1933, the District Railway amalgamated with other Underground railways, tramway companies and bus operators to form the London Passenger Transport Board, and from 23 October 1933 Piccadilly line trains ran through to Uxbridge and the District line shuttle was withdrawn. Most of the trailer cars on the District line were the 1904–1905 B Stock type with wooden bodies, but motor cars were less than fifteen years old. The 1935–1940 New Works Programme saw the Q Stock formed from these motor cars, upgraded with electro-pneumatic brakes and guard controlled air-operated doors, and the trailers replaced with new vehicles. The off-peak District line services on the Hounslow branch were withdrawn on 29 April 1935 and South Acton served by a shuttle to Acton Town.


title: District line

text: The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) had taken over the L&NWR railway's service from Earl's Court and by the Second World War this had been cut back to an electric Earl's Court to Willesden Junction shuttle. Following bombing of the West London Line in 1940, the LMS and the Metropolitan line services over the West London Line were both suspended. This left the Olympia exhibition centre without a railway service, so after the war the Kensington Addison Road station was renamed Kensington (Olympia) and served by a District line shuttle from Earl's Court. R Stock, composed of new cars and the Q Stock trailers that had been built in 1938, replaced the trains with hand-operated sliding doors that remained. The new trains were built between 1949 and 1959, and after 1952 trains were constructed from aluminium, saving weight. One train was left unpainted as an experiment and considered a success, so between 1963 and 1968 trains were left unpainted or painted white or grey to match. The transfer of CO/CP Stock from the Metropolitan line in the early 1960s allowed some of the Q stock to be scrapped. The slow tracks on the former LT&SR line to Upminster were shared with steam locomotive hauled goods and passenger services, until 1961 when the District took over exclusive use of the DC electrified lines.


title: District line

text: The South Acton shuttle was withdrawn on 28 February 1959, followed by the peak hour District line through service to Hounslow on 9 October 1964. The whole District line service could not run through Aldgate East as this station was also served by Hammersmith & City trains, so some trains terminated at a bay platform at Mansion House, leaving the line east to Tower Hill overcrowded. Tower Hill station was also cramped, so the station was rebuilt with three platforms on a new site. This opened in 1967 and a year later trains reversed at the new station.


title: District line

text: Services were operated with 6 cars off-peak and 8 cars during peak hours until 1971, when trains were reformed as fixed 7-car trains, and some 6-car trains for the Edgware Road branch. The CO/CP and R Stock were replaced in the late 1970s by new trains with unpainted aluminium bodies. A shorter train was needed on the Edgware Road branch due to the platform lengths so more of the C stock units, then already in use on the Circle and Hammersmith and City lines, were built. The rest of the District line could use longer trains and new D Stock trains were introduced between 1979 and 1983. One person operation of the trains was proposed in 1972, but due to conflict with the trade unions was not introduced on the District line until 1985. In 2003, the infrastructure of the District line was partly privatised in a public–private partnership, managed by the Metronet consortium. Metronet went into administration in 2007 and the local government body Transport for London took over responsibilities.


title: District line

text: The District line is long and serves 60 stations. The line is electrified with a four-rail DC system: from Upminster to Putney Bridge, Olympia, Barons Court, and Edgware Road a central conductor rail is now energised at and a rail outside the running rail at , giving a potential difference of . The section from Barons Court to Ealing Broadway remains at with a rail outside the running rail at , giving a potential difference of . The two sections over which main line trains run, from East Putney to Wimbledon, and from Gunnersbury to Richmond, have the centre rail bonded to the running rails. West of Earl's Court, there are four branches. At Ealing Broadway station, the District line has platforms north of the Central line and the Great Western Main Line out of Paddington. After about , the line meets the Piccadilly line Uxbridge branch at Hanger Lane junction, and the tracks are then shared through Ealing Common station until Acton Town station, where the Piccadilly line Heathrow branch joins. From Acton Town to Barons Court, the line has four tracks, paired by use: the District line uses the outer pair and the non-stopping Piccadilly line trains use the inner pair. At Richmond station, the London Overground and District line platforms are north of the Waterloo to Reading line through platforms. The two tracks which cross the Thames at Kew Railway Bridge are shared with the London Overground trains until Gunnersbury junction, after which the District line tracks join the four-track District and Piccadilly lines just before Turnham Green station.


title: District line

text: On the main line, there are cross-platform interchanges at Acton Town, Hammersmith and Barons Court stations, after which the Piccadilly line tracks descend into tunnels, while the District line becomes two tracks through West Kensington station. Before the line enters Earl's Court station, the short Kensington (Olympia) branch joins at a flat junction and the Wimbledon branch at a grade-separated junction. On the Wimbledon branch, the District line at Wimbledon station is west of the South West Main Line platforms, then the two-track line has a junction at East Putney station with the Hounslow Loop Line, before passing over the River Thames on Fulham Railway Bridge; the line continues by passing under the West London Railway and coming alongside it at West Brompton station before the junction with the main line and the four-platform Earl's Court station.


title: District line

text: East of Earl's Court there is a grade-separated junction off the main line to the Edgware Road branch. This follows the Circle line after High Street Kensington station where there are also two bay platforms for the District line. After Paddington station this branch joins the Hammersmith & City line at Praed Street junction, before terminating at the four-platform Edgware Road. The main line joins the Circle line at Gloucester Road and the line and stations are in cut-and-cover tunnels, meeting the Thames at Westminster station, after which the railway is in the Victoria Embankment on the north bank of the river. At Tower Hill station, there is a bay platform.


title: District line

text: After Tower Hill, the Circle line diverges, the District line joining the Hammersmith & City line just before Aldgate East station. The line passes over the London Overground at Whitechapel station before continuing on the Whitechapel & Bow Railway to Bow Road, where the line surfaces, and Bromley-by-Bow, where the line runs alongside the London, Tilbury and Southend line from Fenchurch Street station. There is an interchange with this line at the next station, West Ham, as well as with the Jubilee line and the Docklands Light Railway. There is a bay platform at the next station, Plaistow, and the Hammersmith & City line terminates at Barking station. The District line follows the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway for another eight stations, before terminating at Upminster station.


title: District line

text: The line mainly runs in cut and cover tunnels between West Kensington and Bromley-by-Bow, including the Edgware Road branch. However, due to the nature of sub-surface lines, the cutting is occasionally left open both at and between stations for ventilation. West of Earls Court, the line is entirely surface level, with the exception of the Hammersmith and Fulham Broadway stations, which are in cuttings built over by recent developments. There is also a small section of tunnel between Southfields and East Putney.


title: District line

text: This gives a service of 18 trains per hour (a train every 3–4 minutes) between Earl's Court and Tower Hill. Together with the Circle line, there are 24 trains per hour (a train every 2.5 minutes) between Gloucester Road and Tower Hill. 208 million passenger journeys were made on the District line in 2011/12.


title: District line

text: There are additional trains during peak hours. The central section from Earl's Court to Aldgate East is in Zone 1 and to the west Ealing Broadway and Wimbledon are in Zone 3 and Richmond in Zone 4. To the east the line runs to Upminster in Zone 6.


title: District line

text: The current 7-car S Stock trains began to enter service on the line in 2013, beginning with services between Olympia and West Ham, gradually replacing the C and D Stock. Like the 8-car variants now in use on the Metropolitan line, these trains are part of Bombardier's Movia family, with air-conditioning, as the sub-surface tunnels (unlike those on the deep-level tube lines) are able to disperse the exhausted hot air.


title: District line

text: With a top speed of , a 7-car S Stock train has a capacity of 865 passengers compared to 739 for a 6-car C Stock train and 827 for a 6-car D Stock train. With a length of , the S Stock trains are longer than the long C stock trains, and station platforms have been lengthened. The trains have regenerative brakes, allowing them to return around 20 per cent of their energy to the network. Traction voltage was increased in 2017 from nominal 630 V to 750 V to give better performance and allow the trains to return more energy to the network through their regenerative brakes. 630 V section remains Barons Court-Ealing Broadway. The service was run by D78 Stock until April 2017.


title: District line

text: The S Stock trains are maintained at Ealing Common Depot and Upminster Depot. Ealing Common Depot was built by the District Railway when it was electrified in the early 1900s. Upminster depot was built 1956–1958 when the District line tracks were segregated. Trains may also be stabled in the sidings east of Barking alongside Hammersmith & City Line trains.


title: District line

text: It was planned that a new signalling system would be used first on the sub-surface lines from the end of 2016, but signalling contractor Bombardier was released from its contract by agreement in December 2013 amid heavy criticism of the procurement process and London Underground subsequently awarded the contract for the project to Thales in August 2015.


title: District line

text: With the introduction of S7 Stock, the track, electrical supply, and signalling systems are being upgraded in a programme planned to increase peak-hour capacity on the line by 27 per cent by the end of 2023. A single control room for the sub-surface railway opened at Hammersmith on 6 May 2018, and Communications Based Control (CBTC) provided by Thales will progressively replace 'fixed block' signalling equipment dating back to the 1940s.


title: District line

text: The rollout of CBTC has been split into sections, each known as a Signal Migration Area (SMA), and are located on the line as follows:


title: District line

text: Now served by the Piccadilly line, the Hounslow branch opened to the now closed Hounslow Town on 1 May 1883 and was extended on a separate route to Hounslow West on 21 July 1884. The District line served the present Piccadilly line stations between Acton Town and Hounslow West as well as the former station of Osterley & Spring Grove (closed 1934) until District line


title: District line

text: services were withdrawn on 9 October 1964. From 13 June 1905 until 28 February 1959, the District line ran a one-stop shuttle between Acton Town and South Acton.


title: District line

text: Also now served by the Piccadilly line, the South Harrow branch opened from north of Ealing Common on 28 June 1903 and extended over Metropolitan Railway tracks to Uxbridge on 1 March 1910. The District line served the present Piccadilly line stations between North Ealing and South Harrow until 4 July 1932 and the stations between Rayners Lane and Uxbridge until 25 October 1933. The District Railway also served the now closed Park Royal & Twyford Abbey until its replacement by Park Royal on 6 July 1931.


title: District line

text: Between 1 March 1883 and 30 September 1885, the District Railway provided a service to Windsor, serving: West Ealing, Hanwell, Southall, Hayes & Harlington, West Drayton, Langley, Slough, and Windsor.


title: District line

text: From 1910 to 1939, the District line's eastbound service ran as far as Southend-on-Sea and Shoeburyness.


title: District line

text: Currently part of the East London line, the District Railway branched away from the main line west of Whitechapel and served stations between Shadwell and New Cross from 1 October 1884 until 31 July 1905.


title: District line

text: Between Whitechapel and Aldgate East, the District line served St. Mary's (Whitechapel Road) from 1 October 1884 to 30 April 1938, closing when Aldgate East station moved.


title: District line

text: From 25 September 1882 until its closure on 12 October 1884, Tower of London station was served by the District Railway.


title: District line

text: In 1911, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London agreed to finance the construction of the Wimbledon and Sutton Railway and extend District Railway trains over its route to Sutton with eight intermediate stations. Construction of the line was delayed by World War I and, as part of a deal with the Southern Railway (SR) to agree to the extension of the City and South London Railway to Morden, construction of the line was taken over by the SR.


title: District line

text: Walford East is a fictional District line station in the BBC television soap opera "EastEnders", and since February 2010 episodes have used Computer-generated imagery (CGI) of District line trains running into the station. The production tube map situates this station in place of Bromley-by-Bow.


title: District line

text: In the "Sherlock" episode "The Empty Hearse", a fictional unopened terminus station called Sumatra Road (situated underneath the Houses of Parliament as a disused branch line from Westminster Station) was created for the episode's story of a terrorism plot. The station was actually filmed at Aldwych with ex-Northern line 1972 stock which caused continuity errors as deep-level trains and tunnels were used when the District line is sub-surface.


title: District line

text: West Ashfield tube station, despite its name, is a mock-up District line station in the third floor of a building used for training of TfL staff in a simulated environment; the "station" is slated to be closed by 2024. Maps within the facility show West Ashfield as a station on the District line between West Kensington and Earl's Court.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: The Indian Ocean slave trade, sometimes known as the East African slave trade or Arab slave trade, was multi-directional slave trade and has changed over time. Africans were sent as slaves to the Middle East, to Indian Ocean islands (including Madagascar), to the Indian subcontinent, and later to the Americas.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: Slave trading in the Indian Ocean goes back to 2500 BCE. Ancient Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, various Indian groups and Persians all traded slaves on small scale across the Indian Ocean (and sometimes the Red Sea). Slave trading in the Red Sea around the time of Alexander the Great is described by Agatharchides. Strabo's "Geographica" (completed after 23 CE) mentions Greeks from Egypt trading slaves at the port of Adulis and other ports on the Horn African coast. Pliny the Elder's "Natural History" (published in 77 CE) also describes Indian Ocean slave trading. In the 1st century CE, "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea" advised of slave trading opportunities in the region, particularly in the trading of "beautiful girls for concubinage." According to this manual, slaves were exported from Omana (likely near modern-day Oman) and Kanê to the west coast of India. The ancient Indian Ocean slave trade was enabled by building boats capable of carrying large numbers of human beings in the Persian Gulf using wood imported from India. These shipbuilding activities go back to Babylonian and Achaemenid times.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: Gujarati merchants evolved into the first explorers of the Indian Ocean as they traded slaves as well as African goods such as ivory and tortoise shells. The Gujaratis were participants in the slavery business in Mombasa, Zanzibar and to some extent in the Southern African region. Indonesians were also participants, and brought spices to Africa's shores. They would have returned via India and Sri Lanka with ivory, iron, skins, and slaves.After the involvement of the Byzantine Empire and Sassanian Empire in slave trading in the 6th century AD, it became a major enterprise. Cosmas Indicopleustes wrote in his "Christian Topography" (550 CE) that Somali port cities were exporting slaves captured in the interior to Byzantine Egypt via the Red Sea. He also mentioned the import of eunuchs by the Byzantines from Mesopotamia and India. After the 1st century, the export of black Africans from Tanzania, Mozambique and other Bantu groups became a "constant factor". Under the Sassanians, Indian Ocean trade was used not just to transport slaves, but also scholars and merchants.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: Exports of slaves to the Muslim world from the Indian Ocean began after Muslim Arab and Swahili traders won control of the Swahili Coast and sea routes during the 9th century (see Sultanate of Zanzibar). These traders captured Bantu peoples (Zanj) from the interior in the present-day lands of Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania and brought them to the coast. There, the slaves gradually assimilated in the rural areas, particularly on the Unguja and Pemba islands. Muslim merchants traded an estimated 1000 African slaves annually between 800 and 1700, a number that grew to during the 18th century, and 3700 during the period 1800–1870.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: William Gervase Clarence-Smith writes that estimating the number of slaves traded has been controversial in the academic world, especially when it comes to the slave trade in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. When estimating the number of people enslaved from East Africa, author N'Diaye and French historian Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau estimate 8 million as the total number of people transported from the 7th century until 1920, amounting to an average of 5,700 people per year. Many of these slaves were transported by the Indian Ocean and Red Sea via Zanzibar. This compares with their estimate of 9 million people enslaved and transported via the Sahara. The captives were sold throughout the Middle East and East Africa. This trade accelerated as superior ships led to more trade and greater demand for labour on plantations in the region. Eventually, tens of thousands of captives were being taken every year.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: Slave labor in East Africa was drawn from the "Zanj", Bantu peoples that lived along the East African coast. The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Muslim traders to all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as 696, there were revolts of Zanj slave soldiers in Iraq. A 7th-century Chinese text mentions ambassadors from Java presenting the Chinese emperor with two "Seng Chi" (Zanj) slaves as gifts in 614, and 8th- and 9th-century chronicles mention Seng Chi slaves reaching China from the Hindu kingdom of Sri Vijaya in Java. The 12th century Arab geographer al-Idrisi recorded that the ruler of the Persian island of Kish "raids the Zanj country with his ships and takes many captives." According to the 14th century Berber explorer Ibn Battuta, the sultans of the Kilwa Sultanate would frequently raid the areas around what is today Tanzania for slaves.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: The Zanj Rebellion, a series of uprisings that took place between 869 and 883 AD near the city of Basra (also known as Basara), situated in present-day Iraq, is believed to have involved enslaved Zanj that had originally been captured from the African Great Lakes region and areas further south in East Africa. It grew to involve over 500,000 slaves and free men who were imported from across the Muslim empire and claimed over "tens of thousands of lives in lower Iraq". The Zanj who were taken as slaves to the Middle East were often used in strenuous agricultural work. As the plantation economy boomed and the Arabs became richer, agriculture and other manual labor work was thought to be demeaning. The resulting labor shortage led to an increased slave market.It is certain that large numbers of slaves were exported from eastern Africa; the best evidence for this is the magnitude of the Zanj revolt in Iraq in the 9th century, though not all of the slaves involved were Zanj. There is little evidence of what part of eastern Africa the Zanj came from, for the name is here evidently used in its general sense, rather than to designate the particular stretch of the coast, from about 3°N. to 5°S., to which the name was also applied.The Zanj were needed to take care of:the Tigris-Euphrates delta, which had become abandoned marshland as a result of peasant migration and repeated flooding, could be reclaimed through intensive labor. Wealthy proprietors "had received extensive grants of tidal land on the condition that they would make it arable." Sugar cane was prominent among the products of their plantations, particularly in Khūzestān Province. Zanj also worked the salt mines of Mesopotamia, especially around Basra.Their jobs were to clear away the nitrous topsoil that made the land arable. The working conditions were also considered to be extremely harsh and miserable. Many other people were imported into the region, besides Zanj.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: Historian M. A. Shaban has argued that rebellion was not a slave revolt, but a revolt of blacks ("zanj"). In his opinion, although a few runaway slaves did join the revolt, the majority of the participants were Arabs and free Zanj. If the revolt had been led by slaves, they would have lacked the necessary resources to combat the Abbasid government for as long as they did.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: In Somalia, the Bantu minorities are descended from Bantu groups that had settled in Southeast Africa after the initial expansion from Nigeria/Cameroon. To meet the demand for menial labor, Bantus from southeastern Africa captured by Somali slave traders were sold in cumulatively large numbers over the centuries to customers in Somalia and other areas in Northeast Africa and Asia. People captured locally during wars and raids were also sometimes enslaved by Somalis mostly of Oromo and Nilotic origin. However, the perception, capture, treatment and duties of both groups of slaves differed markedly. From 1800 to 1890, between 25,000 and 50,000 Bantu slaves are thought to have been sold from the slave market of Zanzibar to the Somali coast. Most of the slaves were from the Majindo, Makua, Nyasa, Yao, Zalama, Zaramo and Zigua ethnic groups of Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. Collectively, these Bantu groups are known as "Mushunguli", which is a term taken from "Mzigula", the Zigua tribe's word for "people" (the word holds multiple implied meanings including "worker", "foreigner", and "slave").


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: During the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century, slaves shipped from Ethiopia had a high demand in the markets of the Arabian peninsula and elsewhere in the Middle East. They were mostly domestic servants, though some served as agricultural labourers, or as water carriers, herdsmen, seamen, camel drivers, porters, washerwomen, masons, shop assistants and cooks. The most fortunate of the men worked as the officials or bodyguards of the ruler and emirs, or as business managers for rich merchants. They enjoyed significant personal freedom and occasionally held slaves of their own. Besides European, Caucasian, Javanese and Chinese girls brought in from the Far East, "red" (non-black) Ethiopian young females were among the most valued concubines. The most beautiful ones often enjoyed a wealthy lifestyle, and became mistresses of the elite or even mothers to rulers. The principal sources of these slaves, all of whom passed through Matamma, Massawa and Tadjoura on the Red Sea, were the southwestern parts of Ethiopia, in the Oromo and Sidama country. Both non-Muslims and Muslims in Southeast Asia during the end of the 19th century bought Japanese girls as slaves who were imported to the region by sea. However, the buying of Chinese girls in Singapore was forbidden for Muslims by a Batavia (Jakarta) based Arab Muslim Mufti, Usman bin Yahya in a fatwa because he ruled that in Islam it was illegal to buy free non-Muslims or marry non-Muslim slave girls during peace time from slave dealers and non-Muslims could only be enslaved and purchased during holy war (jihad).


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: A Chinese non-Muslim man had a female concubine who was of Muslim Arab Hadhrami Sayyid origin in Solo, the Dutch East Indies, in 1913 which was scandalous in the eyes of Ahmad Surkati and his Al-Irshad Al-Islamiya.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: In Jeddah, Kingdom of Hejaz on the Arabian peninsula, the Arab king Ali bin Hussein, King of Hejaz had in his palace 20 Javanese girls from Java (modern day Indonesia).


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: Slave trade also occurred in the eastern Indian Ocean before the Dutch settled there around 1600 but the volume of this trade is unknown. European slave trade in the Indian Ocean began when Portugal established Estado da Índia in the early 16th century. From then until the 1830s, c. 200 slaves were exported from Mozambique annually and similar figures has been estimated for slaves brought from Asia to the Philippines during the Iberian Union (1580–1640).


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: Japanese slave girls were still owned by India based Portuguese (Lusitanian) families according to Francisco De Sousa, a Jesuit who wrote about it in 1698, long after the 1636 edict by Tokguawa Japan had expelled Portuguese people.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: The establishment of the Dutch East India Company in the early 17th century lead to a quick increase in volume of the slave trade in the region; there were perhaps up to slaves in various Dutch colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries in the Indian Ocean. For example, some 4000 African slaves were used to build the Colombo fortress in Dutch Ceylon. Bali and neighbouring islands supplied regional networks with slaves 1620–1830. Indian and Chinese slave traders supplied Dutch Indonesia with perhaps slaves during 17th and 18th centuries.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: The East India Company (EIC) was established during the same period and in 1622 one of its ships carried slaves from the Coromandel Coast to Dutch East Indies. The EIC mostly traded in African slaves but also some Asian slaves purchased from Indian, Indonesian and Chinese slave traders. The French established colonies on the islands of Réunion and Mauritius in 1721; by 1735 some 7,200 slaves populated the Mascarene Islands, a number which had reached in 1807. The British captured the islands in 1810, however, and because the British had prohibited the slave trade in 1807 a system of clandestine slave trade developed to bring slaves to French planters on the islands; in all – slaves were exported to the Mascarane Islands from 1670 until 1848.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: In all, Europeans traders exported – slaves within the Indian Ocean between 1500 and 1850 and almost that same amount were exported from the Indian Ocean to the Americas during the same period. The slave trade in the Indian Ocean was, nevertheless, very limited compared to slaves exported across the Atlantic. Some 200,000 slaves were sent in the 19th century to European plantations in the Western Indian Ocean.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: The East African slave trade flourished greatly from the second half of the nineteenth century when Said bin Sultan, an Oman Sultan, made Zanzibar his capital and expanded international commercial activities and plantation economy in cloves and coconuts. During this period demands for slaves grew drastically. The slaves were needed for local use mainly to work in plantations in Zanzibar and for export. Sultan Seyyid (seyyid is an Arabic title for Lord) Said made deliberate efforts to "revive old Arab-caravan trade" with mainland Africa which became major source of slaves. Said bin Sultan took six main initiatives which facilitated growth and expansion of his commercial empire. He firstly introduced a new currency “Maria Theresa Dollar” to supplement the exiting “Spanish Crown” which simplified commercial activities. Secondly, he introduced a harmonized 5% import duty for any merchandises entering into his empire. He nevertheless abolished export duties. Thirdly, he took advantage of Zanzibar and Pemba fertile soil to establish plantation of coconut and cloves. Fourthly, he revitalised and extended the "old Arab-caravan trade" with mainland East Africa in search of slaves and ivory. In addition, he signed “commercial treaties with western capitalist countries such as the United States of America in 1833, with Great Britain in 1839 and France in 1844. Finally, he invited Asian communities which dealt with financial matters.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: From the evidence of illustrated documents, and travellers' tales, it seems that people travelled on dhows or "jalbas", Arab ships which were used as transport in the Red Sea. Crossing the Indian Ocean required better organisation and more resources than overland transport. Ships coming from Zanzibar made stops on Socotra or at Aden before heading to the Persian Gulf or to India. Slaves were sold as far away as India, or even China: there was a colony of Arab merchants in Canton. Serge Bilé cites a 12th-century text which tells us that most well-to-do families in Canton, China had black slaves. Although Chinese slave traders bought slaves ("Seng Chi" i.e. the "Zanj") from Arab intermediaries and "stocked up" directly in coastal areas of present-day Somalia, the local Somalis—referred to as "Baribah" and "Barbaroi" (Berbers) by medieval Arab and ancient Greek geographers, respectively (see "Periplus of the Erythraean Sea"), and no strangers to capturing, owning and trading slaves themselves—were not among them.


title: Indian Ocean slave trade

text: One important commodity being transported by dhows to Somalia was slaves from other parts of East Africa. During the nineteenth century, the East African slave trade grew enormously due to demands by Arabs, Portuguese, and French. Slave traders and raiders moved throughout eastern and central Africa to meet this rising demand. The Bantus inhabiting Somalia are descended from Bantu groups that had settled in Southeast Africa after the initial expansion from Nigeria/Cameroon, and whose members were later captured and sold by traders. The Bantus are ethnically, physically, and culturally distinct from Somalis, and they have remained marginalized ever since their arrival in Somalia.


title: 1967–1970

text: 1967–1970, also known as the Blue Album, is a compilation album of songs by the English rock band the Beatles, spanning the years indicated in the title. A double LP, it was released with "1962–1966" (the "Red Album") in April 1973. "1967–1970" topped the "Billboard" albums chart in the United States and peaked at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart. It was re-released in September 1993 on CD, charting at number 4 in the United Kingdom.


title: 1967–1970

text: The album was instigated by Apple Records manager Allen Klein during his final months before being dismissed from that position. As with "1962–1966", the compilation was created by Apple and EMI/Capitol Records in response to a bootleg collection titled "Alpha Omega", which had been sold on television the previous year. Print advertising for the two records made a point of declaring them "the only collection of the Beatles". The success of the two official double LP compilations inspired Capitol's repackaging of the Beach Boys' 1960s hits, starting with the 1974 album "Endless Summer".


title: 1967–1970

text: For the group's 1963 debut LP "Please Please Me", photographer Angus McBean took the distinctive colour photograph of the group looking down over the stairwell inside EMI House (EMI's London headquarters in Manchester Square, demolished in 1995).


title: 1967–1970

text: In 1969, the Beatles asked McBean to recreate this shot. Although a photograph from the 1969 photo shoot was originally intended for the then-planned "Get Back" album, it was not used when that project saw eventual release in 1970 as "Let It Be". Instead, another photograph from the 1969 shoot, along with an unused photograph from the 1963 photo shoot, was used for both this LP and "1962–1966".


title: 1967–1970

text: The inner gatefold photo for both LPs is by Don McCullin from the "Mad Day Out" photo session in London on Sunday 28 July 1968.


title: 1967–1970

text: Unlike the "1962–1966" collection, the Blue Album was largely the same in the US and UK, although there were some variations.


title: 1967–1970

text: The US edition had "Strawberry Fields Forever" in its original 1967 stereo mix while both "Penny Lane" and "Hello, Goodbye" were presented in fake stereo, and "I Am the Walrus" with a four-beat electric piano introduction; the UK version had the more common six-beat beginning.


title: 1967–1970

text: The albums had several other variants and anomalies. "Get Back" was described as the album version in the US liner notes, although it was in fact the single version. In both countries, "Hey Jude" was around nine seconds shorter than it had been on the original single, although the full length was restored for the 1993 compact disc edition.


title: 1967–1970

text: The original vinyl version faded in during the crowd noise at the beginning of "A Day in the Life". The fade in was different on both the UK and US versions. The original compact disc edition, meanwhile, featured a clean version previously heard on the "" soundtrack album in 1988.


title: 1967–1970

text: In the Spanish edition "One After 909" replaced "The Ballad of John and Yoko", a song that had been banned from the airwaves shortly after being released as a single in 1969, for its allusions to "Christ" and "Gibraltar" in the lyrics.


title: 1967–1970

text: In the US, the album sold 1,294,896 LPs by 31 December 1973 and 5,850,026 LPs by the end of the decade.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: The Hiroshima Toyo Carp drafted Suzuki in the second round of the 2012 NPB draft. He was mainly a pitcher during his high school career and was drafted as such, but switched to an infielder upon joining the team. Suzuki was given #51 as his uniform number.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Suzuki made his NPB debut on September 14, 2013, at the age of 19 and appeared in 11 games, spending most of the season in the farm system.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Suzuki continued to spend most of the 2014 season in the farm system, playing 36 games with a batting average of .344, an on-base percentage of .382, and a slugging percentage of .500.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Prior to the 2015 season, the Carp changed Suzuki's position designation from an infielder to an outfielder. Suzuki started the season with a spot on the opening day starting lineup, and eventually played in 97 games, hitting 5 home runs with a batting average of .275, an on-base percentage of .329, and a slugging percentage of .403.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Suzuki couldn't make the 2016 opening day roster due to a hamstring strain he suffered during spring training, and returned to the team on April 5. Suzuki made his first NPB All-Star Series appearance this year, recording his first hit on the 1st game of the series, and his first RBI on the 2nd. Suzuki led the team in batting average (.335), home runs (29) and OPS (1.016), winning the Gold Glove Award and the Best Nine Award. He had also helped drive the Carp to their first pennant in twenty five years.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Suzuki made his second consecutive All-Star appearance, receiving the most votes among Central League outfielders. On August 23, Suzuki left the game due to an ankle injury. Six days later, the Carp announced that he underwent surgery to treat a malleolar fracture on his right tibia and a deltoid ligament injury, ending his 2017 season. He finished the season batting .300/.389/.547 with 26 home runs, 90 RBIs and 16 stolen bases, and led the Central League with a .936 OPS.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: End of the season awards for Suzuki included his second consecutive Gold Glove Award and Best Nine Award.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: On April 4, 2018, Suzuki was removed from the roster after experiencing muscle stiffness in his lower body. He was reactivated on the 18th. Suzuki was named for his third consecutive NPB All-Star Series, and marked his first All-Star game home run off of Yusei Kikuchi.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Suzuki finished the season batting .320/.438/.618, with 30 home runs and 94 RBIs. The Carp won their third consecutive Central League pennant that year, and went on to face the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks in the Japan Series. While his team lost the series, Suzuki hit 10-for-22 (.455) with 3 home runs and 6 RBIs during the Japan Series.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Suzuki won his third consecutive Best Nine Award. On November 19, the team announced that Suzuki's uniform number would be changed to #1.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Suzuki was named for his fourth consecutive NPB All-Star Series after receiving the most votes among all Central League players. On July 13, he won the 2019 NPB Home Run Derby, defeating Orix Buffaloes outfielder Masataka Yoshida 4-3 in the final round.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: For the season, Suzuki appeared in a career-high 140 games, leading the NPB in batting average (.335), OBP (.453), OPS (1.018) with 112 runs scored (1st in the Central League), 28 home runs (9th), 87 RBIs (9th), 25 stolen bases (4th). After the season, Suzuki was awarded his fourth consecutive Best Nine Award and his third Gold Glove.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: In the COVID-19-affected 2020 season, Suzuki played in 118 games for Hiroshima, slashing .300/.409/.544 with 25 home runs and 75 RBI. Following the season, Suzuki was awarded his fourth career Central League Golden Glove Award and his fifth career Best Nine Award.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: In 2021, Suzuki played in 132 games for the Carp, setting a career-high in home runs, with 38, to go along with 88 RBI and a .317/.433/.636 slash line. Suzuki was the Central League batting champion and on-base percentage leader, and was named a NPB All-Star for the fifth time in his career. He was also awarded his fifth career Central League Golden Glove Award and sixth career, and sixth straight Best Nine Award.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Following the 2021 season, on November 22, 2021, Suzuki was posted by Hiroshima and made available to all 30 Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, opening a 30-day period to negotiate a contract. However, due to the 2021–22 MLB lockout, Suzuki's 30-day posting window was paused. On March 18, 2022, Suzuki officially agreed to a five-year contract worth $85 million. He went .235/ .350 / .558 with 2 home runs, 4 hits, and 10 total bases during the 2022 Spring Training. Suzuki made his Cubs debut on April 7, 2022, working a full-count walk against Corbin Burnes in his first MLB plate appearance. He was the first Cub to make their MLB debut as an Opening Day starter since Kosuke Fukudome in 2008. Suzuki collected his first major league hit in the 5th inning of that game, a line drive single to shallow left field off of Burnes. On April 10, he hit his first major league home run, a three-run shot off of Milwaukee starter Freddy Peralta. Suzuki was awarded the National League Player of the Week award for April 11-17, a span in which he batted .412 (7-17) with 5 runs, 3 home runs, 5 RBI, and an OPS of 1.604. Suzuki was also named the NL Rookie of the Month for April. He injured his left ring finger while stealing second base on May 26 against the Cincinnati Reds and was placed on the 10-day injured list (IL). After three injury rehabilitation games with Iowa, he returned for the first time in 39 days on July 4 against the Milwaukee Brewers.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Suzuki represented the Japan national baseball team in the 2017 World Baseball Classic and 2019 WBSC Premier12.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: On October 1, 2019, he was selected at the 2019 WBSC Premier12. He was named the tournament MVP, after leading the tournament with a .478 batting average, .567 OBP, 1.130 slugging percentage, two triples, 9 runs, and 12 RBIs and tying for the lead with 11 hits and three home runs.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Suzuki is a 5 ft 11 in, 182 lb (1.80 m, 82 kg) outfielder that is considered a five-tool player due to his high batting averages, home run totals, baserunning, fielding abilities, and throwing abilities. He posted a career .315 batting average in NPB and won the league's batting title in 2019 with a .335 average. In his final five seasons with Hiroshima, Suzuki hit at least 25 home runs, including a career-high 38 in 2021. A month into his rookie season with Chicago, Suzuki averaged a 28.6 feet per second sprint speed, ranking 12th in the major leagues at the time and first among right fielders. Suzuki also pitched while in high school, reaching 92 miles per hour (148 km/h) on his fastball.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: Suzuki has received player comparisons to A. J. Pollock as well as Mike Trout, the latter of which he chose his jersey number 27 in honor of.


title: Seiya Suzuki

text: He went to the same middle school as Japanese actress Seika Furuhata, and knew each other through a mutual friend.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Vassilis "Billy" Spanoulis (; born 7 August 1982) is a Greek former professional basketball player and current basketball coach for Peristeri of the Greek Basket League and the Basketball Champions League. Spanoulis spent the majority of his playing career in the Greek Basket League, winning four titles as a member of Panathinaikos and three titles as a member of Olympiacos. He also won three EuroLeague titles, one with the former club (2009) and two consecutive (2012 & 2013) with the latter.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: A tall combo guard, he is nicknamed Kill Bill, V-Span, and MVP ("Most Vassilis Player"). Spanoulis was named the Balkan Athlete of the Year in 2009, the in 2012 and 2013, the Vatican's World Athlete of the Year (Giuseppe Sciacca Award) in 2013 and the EuroLeague MVP the same year. He has earned a record eight All-EuroLeague Team selections and was voted the EuroLeague's 2010–2020 Player of the Decade. He is also the EuroLeague's all-time career leader in total points scored.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis first played pro club basketball with Gymnastikos S. Larissas, and enjoyed a highly successful career start. His skill-set earned him a transfer to Athens and Maroussi, where he won the Greek Basket League's Best Young Player award in 2003. Following an impressive 2004–05 season, during which he helped lead Maroussi to the Greek Basket League's finals and the EuroCup quarterfinals, he moved to Panathinaikos, where he became one of European basketball's major stars. In the 2005–06 EuroLeague season, Spanoulis made his debut in impressive fashion, earning his first All-EuroLeague Team selection as a rookie in the competition. After a stint in the NBA with the Houston Rockets during the 2006–07 season, he returned to Panathinaikos and helped lead them to a EuroLeague title in 2009, being voted the EuroLeague Final Four MVP in the process.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis' transfer to Olympiacos from Panathinaikos in the summer of 2010 marked a new step in his career, given Olympiacos' feisty rivalry with Panathinaikos. Within a young and rebuilding Olympiacos team, Spanoulis not only led the club to a EuroLeague title run in 2012, but he also went on to lead the team to a historical EuroLeague championship repeat in 2013. In the process, he gained another two EuroLeague Final Four MVP awards, thus joining Toni Kukoč as the only players in the history of European basketball to achieve that distinction on three occasions. Under his leadership, Olympiacos reached another two EuroLeague Finals, in 2015 and 2017.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In 2017, European basketball historian Vladimir Stanković, named Spanoulis the "Most Clutch Player in EuroLeague History". In 2020, Spanoulis was named the "Best EuroLeague Player of The 2010s Decade" by the readers of the website Eurohoops.net.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis played an instrumental role on the gold medal win of the Greece men's national basketball team at 2005 EuroBasket. He was one of the main stars of Greece's 2006 FIBA World Cup silver medal team, scoring 22 points in the memorable victory over Team USA (101–95), in the tournament's semifinals. It was however, Greece's bronze medal at the 2009 EuroBasket, that emphasized Spanoulis' leadership within an injury-plagued Greece national team, and consequently earned him an All-EuroBasket Team honor.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis was born in Larissa, Greece, on 7 August 1982. His father Thanasis Spanoulis, was the owner of a drug store, and his mother Georgia Spanouli, was a bank clerk. Spanoulis was the couple's second and last child, being born three years after his older brother Dimitris.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: At the age of 7, Spanoulis began training in the sports of football, swimming, and basketball. As a youth, Spanoulis idolized the basketball players Michael Jordan and Nikos Galis. In 1994, at the age of 12, Spanoulis joined the youth basketball program of the multi-sports club Gymnastikos S. Larissas. Spanoulis' father Thanasis, died of cancer, on 4 November 1997, when Spanoulis was 15 years old.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In 1999, at the age of 16, Spanoulis won the 1998–99 season's national under-18 club championship of Greece. He led Keravnos Larissa, the youth basketball subsidiary of Gymnastikos S. Larissas, to the title of the . He was the championship's leading scorer, and Most Valuable Player. In the competition's semifinals, he scored 40 points against the youth team of Aris Thessaloniki. In the competition's final, he led his team to a 64–61 victory over the youth team of Olympiacos Piraeus.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis played with the youth teams of Gymnastikos and its subsidiary Keravnos, in Larissa, in the Greek junior levels, from 1994 to 1999. He made his professional debut in the year 1999, at the age of 17, with the senior club of Gymnastikos S. Larissas. In the two seasons of 1999–00 and 2000–01, he played in the 2nd-tier level Greek 2nd Division, with Gymnastikos.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: After playing with Gymnastikos S. Larissas, in the Greek 2nd Division, Spanoulis signed a four-year contract with Maroussi of the top-tier level Greek Basket League, the European-wide 3rd-tier level FIBA Korać Cup, and later, the European-wide 2nd-tier level EuroCup. He played with Maroussi until 2005.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: During the 2001–02 season, Spanoulis helped to lead Maroussi to the Greek Cup Final. This was the first time the team had ever made it to the Greek Cup title game. Maroussi also competed in the European-wide 3rd-tier level FIBA Korać Cup 2001–02 season.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In the 2003–04 season, Spanoulis helped to lead Maroussi to the Greek Basket League Finals. He also helped lead Maroussi to the 2003–04 season's FIBA Europe League (later called FIBA EuroChallenge) Final. In the FIBA Europe League, Spanoulis averaged 10.8 points per game, and 6.4 assists per game, off the bench for Maroussi. He also shot 40% from three-point range. He was also named the Greek League Most Improved Player that same season.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis was then drafted in the 2nd round, of the 2004 NBA draft, by the Dallas Mavericks, following this sudden emergence. He also made it onto the Greece men's national basketball team, at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In the Greek Basket League 2004–05 season, his last season with Maroussi, Spanoulis averaged 15.9 points per game, and shot 37.8% from 3-point range, in 35 games played in the Greek Basket League competition. He then averaged 15.2 points per game, and shot 40.0% from 3-point range, in 12 games of play, in the European-wide 2nd-tier level EuroCup's 2004–05 season. For the year in total, Spanoulis averaged 15.7 points per game, and shot 38.3% from 3-point range, in 47 games played with Maroussi. He played in the 2005 Greek League All-Star Game, and was named to the Greek Basket League's Best Five Team. This was a breakthrough year for Vassilis, as he had averaged 11.1 points per game the previous season. He was considered to be one of the most improved players in Europe for the year. He helped to lead Maroussi to the 2nd place of the Greek Basket League, for the regular season. At the end of the year, Spanoulis was voted the European 6th Man of the Year, and Rookie of the Year in the EuroCup.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Following his outstanding season in 2004–05 with Maroussi, Spanoulis signed a 3-year contract worth €1.6 million net income, with EuroLeague powerhouse Panathinaikos Athens. Spanoulis and his agent, Miško Ražnatović, set the contract terms so that Spanoulis would have a buyout clause after just one year, and set the buyout amount at US $400,000. This was Spanoulis' first season playing at the highest European-wide professional club level.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: With Panathinaikos, in the Greek Basket League 2005–06 season, he won both the Greek Basket League championship and the Greek Cup. His team went 24–2 during the Greek Basket League regular season, and 8–0 during the Greek League playoffs, for an overall record of 32–2 in the national domestic league championship, and also went undefeated in the Greek Cup, at 5–0, for an overall record of 37–2 in Greek competitions. He played in the 2006 Greek League All-Star Game, and was named to the Greek Basket League's Best Five Team.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In 28.8 minutes per game of play, during the 2005–06 EuroLeague competition, Spanoulis averaged 14.6 points, 3.1 assists, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.4 steals, in 23 games of EuroLeague play, with Panathinaikos Athens for the season. He also shot 61.8% in 2-point shooting, and 36.8% from 3-point range; 53.4% overall.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: He was the team's leading scorer, even though he often came off the bench. He won the EuroLeague MVP of the Round award twice during the season. In 2005–06, his team finished the EuroLeague with a record of 16–7. Spanoulis was also voted as the 7th best worldwide European player of the year (including NBA players) in 2006, by FIBA Europe, in their FIBA Europe Player of the Year award voting.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Many fans in Europe began calling him, "Euro Kobe", after such a dominant rookie season of EuroLeague.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: On July 19, 2006, Spanoulis opted out of the final two years of his contract with Panathinaikos Athens, and signed a three-year deal (2 years guaranteed) with the NBA's Houston Rockets, who paid for his contract buyout from Panathinaikos. The contract was worth $5.832 million. His buyout from Panathinaikos was $400,000.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: The contract amount was for an average of $1.944 million per season. The Rockets had acquired the rights to Spanoulis on draft night (June 24, 2004), when Houston swapped draft pick #55 Luis Flores, and cash considerations of $300,000 with the Dallas Mavericks, for Spanoulis (pick #50).


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: "He's a very versatile ball handler," Rockets [then] general manager, Carroll Dawson, said. "He's a good finisher and a very good prospect. He wants to be a great player. Everybody is going to like this young man because he is a very hard-nosed player. We have watched his progress very closely," Dawson said. "It's a big adjustment to come to the NBA from Europe, but he is a hard worker."


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Rockets [then] Director of Player Personnel, Dennis Lindsey, stated the following about Spanoulis prior to the team signing him. "We're very, very happy with his progress," said Lindsey. "He changed clubs this year from Maroussi to the bigger club this year, Panathinaikos. For those not familiar with European basketball, they are like the New York Yankees of Greece and one of the two or three better organizations in Europe. They are an NBA level club. From our standpoint, we really like what Vassilis has done. He is their leading scorer. They are 9–1 in the EuroLeague and they have already qualified for the top sixteen."


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Lindsey praised Spanoulis' offensive ability. "He's got a couple of characteristics that we like," added Lindsey. "He can really drive and get the ball in the paint, and he's relentless with it. He kind of plays basketball like a fullback a little bit, where he just kind of breaks through the line and there's contact on a lot of plays."


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: "The owner and Jeff and Carroll really like what they've seen so far and we've made a couple of trips over and hopefully in the near future we can have him as a Rocket because we think he can help us."


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis saw limited playing time with the Houston Rockets during his rookie NBA year in 2006–07, averaging 2.7 points and 0.9 assists in 8.8 minutes per game, on 31.9% field goal shooting (17.2% from behind the 3-point line), in 31 games played off the bench.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: During Spanoulis' first NBA season there was a dispute between him and Rockets head coach, Jeff Van Gundy, over playing time. There was an issue between the team's management, Spanoulis, and the coach as well, over the contract that Spanoulis had signed. In order to sign with the Rockets, and fulfill his dreams of playing in the NBA, Spanoulis took a considerably smaller contract than the one that was being offered to him by his Greek team, Panathinaikos Athens. He still had two years under his contract with Panathinaikos, but his buyout was small, and could be paid by the Rockets.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis agreed to play for Houston at a price of $1.944 million gross income per season, for 3 years, passing up on his former team Panathinaikos's much larger offer of €1.6 million net income per season, over 3 years, just for a chance of playing in the NBA. Spanoulis made the Rockets' rotation, but there was a falling out between him and Rockets coach Van Gundy, after Van Gundy benched Spanoulis, after the coach claimed that he had played poorly, citing that rookie players are dangerous for coaches that are in contract years, and that Spanoulis was too turnover prone and lacking in outside shooting touch to be a good fit in Van Gundy's offensive system design. Said Van Gundy about the situation: "(Spanoulis) says, 'I was [Tracy] McGrady back home.' Great. McGrady is McGrady here," .. "I feel badly for him. He feels he was misled. Frankly, he's been his own worst enemy in many ways. Some of it is excuses. His turnovers have been high; his fouls have been high; his shooting percentage has been low. I would rather anybody start out with self-evaluation—what can I do better?—versus lash out and blame. Because I'm not playing him now doesn't mean he won't play in the future or we don't feel he could be a good player. I think he's allowed his disappointment to go to discouragement, which has, at times, stunted his improvement. We'll see. We'll see."


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis was traded by the Rockets to the San Antonio Spurs, on July 12, 2007, along with a 2009 second-round draft pick, in exchange for center Jackie Butler, and the rights to Argentinian power forward Luis Scola. On August 19, 2007, the Spurs released Spanoulis, giving him the chance to return to Greece to play for Panathinaikos as he had requested. This was officially announced on August 23, 2007.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Reportedly due to "family reasons," Spanoulis decided that he would not remain in the NBA, with his agent going as far as comparing the Rockets' reluctance to break his contract to slavery. Spanoulis, instead opted to return to Panathinaikos, to once again play in the Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In June 2013, Spanoulis claimed that Van Gundy told him on the first day he arrived at Houston that since he was a rookie, and unfamiliar to Van Gundy, he would be benched for the season. Spanoulis also claimed that the Rockets' next head coach, Rick Adelman, wanted to keep him, and also that both Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs were interested in having him on their team.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In November 2015, the General Manager of the San Antonio Spurs, R.C. Buford, confirmed to the Greek press that the Spurs made the trade for Spanoulis with the intention of keeping him and having him play on their team. Buford also confirmed that it was Spanoulis' choice to not play with the Spurs, and to return to play in Greece.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: On August 19, 2007, Spanoulis was released by the San Antonio Spurs, after deciding he wanted to play in Greece during the 2007–08 season. This was due to the fact that his mother was in poor health, and that Spanoulis wanted to be near her. Spanoulis signed a 3-year contract with Panathinaikos, the then defending EuroLeague champions. He was signed to play both point guard and shooting guard, along with fellow Greece men's national basketball team star, Dimitris Diamantidis. Former NBA player, Šarūnas Jasikevičius, would later join them in the team's guard rotation.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: The contract Spanoulis signed was for 3-years, at €5.5 million net income salary, plus a $1,166,400 contract buyout from his NBA San Antonio Spurs contract (Panathinaikos paid the buyout, so it did not count against the Spurs' salary cap). Spanoulis' agent set up the contract so that Spanoulis could opt out of it after one year. Spanoulis originally stated that, after the first year of his contract, he might opt out of it and return to San Antonio to play in the NBA again.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: During the 2007–08 season, Spanoulis led his team, Panathinaikos, in both points scored (661) and assists (215), over 36 games played in the Greek Basket League 2007–08 season, and 20 games played in the EuroLeague 2007–08 season. He averaged 11.8 points per game and 3.8 assists per game for the season, in 56 games total. Spanoulis was the Greek Basket League assists leader. He was voted as a starter to the Greek League All-Star Game, and to the Greek Basket League's Best Five Team.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis helped Panathinaikos win the Greek basketball double, as the club won both the Greek Basket League championship, and the Greek Cup title in 2008. In the Greek Cup Final, against Panathinaikos' arch-rival Olympiacos, Spanoulis helped to lead his team to the championship cup victory, by scoring 20 points and dishing out 7 assists.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In 2009, Spanoulis led Panathinaikos to the coveted Triple Crown title, as they won the 2008–09 EuroLeague championship, the Greek League 2008–09 season championship, and the Greek Cup title, all in the same season. Spanoulis was named the 2009 EuroLeague Final Four MVP, and also the 2009 Greek League MVP. Following this season, Spanoulis was named the Balkan Athlete of the Year in 2009, an award given to the best athlete of the Balkans region.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In July 2010, after much speculation concerning his free agency and his next contract, Spanoulis signed a three-year contract with the Greek Basket League club Olympiacos Piraeus, worth gross income, or net income (€2.4 million net income per season), plus team performance bonuses. In his first year with Olympiacos, Spanoulis won the Greek Cup, was named to the EuroLeague's All Second Team, and was the Greek Basket League assists leader.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In 2012, Spanoulis won both the 2012 EuroLeague and Greek Basket League championships. He was also named to the All-EuroLeague First Team, and won the EuroLeague Final Four MVP, for the second time in his career. He became the fourth player to win the award multiple times. Furthermore, he once again led the Greek League in assists. He was also named the Greek Basket League MVP, and the Greek Basket League Finals MVP. Finally, Spanoulis was named the in 2012.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis was named the EuroLeague MVP in 2013. He was also the EuroLeague Finals Top Scorer, and was named the EuroLeague Final Four MVP, after leading Olympiacos to the 2013 EuroLeague championship. He became just the second player to win both the EuroLeague MVP and the EuroLeague Final Four MVP in the same season, along with Dimitris Diamantidis; and he also became just the second player to win the EuroLeague Final Four MVP award 3 times, along with Toni Kukoč.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis also won the Giuseppe Sciacca International Award for Sport, an award given by the Vatican to the World's Best Athlete of the Year, between the ages of 18 to 35, in 2013. He was also named the , for the second time, in 2013.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis signed a 3-year contract extension, worth net income (€2 million net income per season), plus team performance bonuses, with Olympiacos in July 2013. With Olympiacos, he won the 2013 edition of the FIBA Intercontinental Cup, being named the MVP of the tournament. In May 2014, he was named to the All-EuroLeague Team, for the sixth time in his career.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: In May 2015, Spanoulis was chosen to the All-EuroLeague First Team, for his performance during the season, his seventh All-EuroLeague Team honour. He led Olympiacos to the 2015 EuroLeague Final, and he also won the 2014–15 season's Greek League championship with Olympiacos, and was voted the MVP of the league's finals.


title: Vassilis Spanoulis

text: Spanoulis won the 2015–16 season's Greek League championship. In game 2 of the 2015–16 Greek League Finals, against Olympiacos' arch-rivals, Panathinaikos, Spanoulis hit a game-winning buzzer-beating 3 pointer. In game 3 of the Greek League Finals, he scored 11 points in the last 3 minutes and 1 second of the 4th quarter, to seal the victory for his team. In game 4 of the Greek League Finals, held at Nikos Galis Olympic Indoor Hall, Olympiacos won in the game's second overtime period, after Spanoulis hit another game-winning 3 point field goal, with 1.9 seconds remaining in the game. He was subsequently named the 2016 Greek League MVP, and the 2016 Greek League Finals MVP.