title: Shot (pellet)

text: Hunting restrictions have also banned the use of lead shot while hunting migratory waterfowl in at least 29 countries across by international agreement, for example the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds. Depending on hunting laws, alternatives to lead shot are mandated for use by hunters in some locations when hunting migratory birds, notably waterfowl. In the US, the restrictions are limited to migratory waterfowl, while Canadian restrictions are wider and apply (with some exceptions) to all migratory birds. The hunting of upland migratory birds such as mourning doves was specifically excluded from the 1991 US restrictions as scientific evidence did not support their contribution to the poisoning of bald eagles. In 1985, Denmark banned the use of lead in wetlands covered by the Ramsar Convention, later expanding this restriction to the whole country. The use of lead has been banned for all hunting activities in the Netherlands as of 1992.


title: Shot (pellet)

text: The Missouri Department of Conservation introduced regulations in 2007 in some hunting areas requiring the use of non-toxic shot to protect upland birds. Some clay pigeon ranges in the US have banned the use of lead after elevated levels of lead were found in waterfowl, small birds, mammals and frogs in their vicinity.


title: Shot (pellet)

text: Approved alternatives while hunting migratory waterfowl include pellets manufactured from steel, tungsten-iron, tungsten-polymer, tungsten-nickel-iron, and bismuth-tin in place of lead shot. In the United States, UK, Canada, and many western European countries (France as of 2006), all shot used for hunting migratory waterfowl must now be non-toxic, and therefore may not contain any lead.


title: Shot (pellet)

text: Steel was one of the first widely used lead alternatives that the ammunition industry turned to. But steel is one hundred times harder than lead, with only two-thirds its density, resulting in undesirable ballistic properties compared to lead. Steel shot can be as hard as some barrels, and may therefore damage chokes on older firearms that were designed only for use with softer lead shot. The higher pressures required to compensate for the lower density of steel may exceed the design limits of a barrel.


title: Shot (pellet)

text: Within recent years, several companies have created non-toxic shot out of bismuth, tungsten, or other elements or alloys with a density similar to or greater than lead, and with a shot softness that results in ballistic properties that are comparable to lead. These shells provide more consistent patterns and greater range than steel shot. They are also generally safe to use in older shotguns with barrels and chokes not rated for use with steel shot, such as for bismuth and tungsten-polymer (although not tungsten-iron) shot. (Unfortunately, all non-lead shot other than steel is far more expensive than lead, which has diminished in its acceptance by hunters.)


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: The second season of "Dexter" premiered on September 30, 2007, and ended on December 16, 2007. Starting with this season, the show no longer adapts the Dexter novels. The season premiere "It's Alive!" attracted 1.01 million viewers in the United States, making "Dexter" the first Showtime series to attract more than a million viewers with a season premiere. The season finale, "The British Invasion", attracted 1.4 million viewers, making it the program's most-watched episode until the airing of the season three finale, "Do You Take Dexter Morgan?". Including digital video recorder (DVR) usage, season two was watched by an average of 2.4 million viewers on a weekly basis through 11 full weeks, outperforming season one by 21%.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: In the season, the bodies of Dexter's victims are uncovered and an investigation is launched in Dexter's own department to find the killer, dubbed the "Bay Harbor Butcher". During this time, Debra struggles to recover after surviving the Ice Truck Killer's attempt to murder her, and Rita sends Dexter to Narcotics Anonymous meetings when he tells her that he has an "addiction". Sergeant James Doakes (Erik King) stalks Dexter, suspecting that he is connected with the Ice Truck Killer murders. Three new characters are introduced: Keith Carradine appears as Special Agent Frank Lundy, an FBI agent who heads the Bay Harbor Butcher investigation; JoBeth Williams as Rita's mother Gail; and Jaime Murray as Lila Tournay, Dexter's Narcotics Anonymous sponsor.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: The season received universal acclaim from critics, and was praised as "one of the best shows on TV this decade" by the "Chicago Sun-Times", while "Variety" considers Hall's portrayal of the title character as a "towering achievement, one that eclipses the show's other shortcomings and rough patches"; the aggregate site Metacritic scored the season at 85 out of 100 based on 11 reviews.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: Taking place a month after the first-season finale, Dexter has been unable to kill anyone due to Sgt. James Doakes monitoring his activities and his sister Debra now living with him as she recovers from her traumatic experiences concerning Brian, the Ice Truck Killer. Dexter also realizes that he's having trouble killing even when he has the opportunity, due to feelings of guilt over killing his brother Brian.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: Rita doubts Dexter's reliability and honesty after finding evidence that he set up her husband Paul to be returned to prison. After her husband dies in a prison fight, Rita confronts Dexter with her suspicions. He admits to setting up Paul but after claiming it was a spontaneous act, cannot explain why he happened to be carrying heroin. Rita incorrectly concludes that Dexter is, like Paul, a drug addict and that this explains his occasional absences and odd behavior. Dexter admits that he does indeed have an addiction (without specifying what that addiction is) and promises to seek help by joining Narcotics Anonymous. There, he meets Lila Tournay, who offers to be his sponsor. Sgt. James Doakes remains suspicious of Dexter's true motives, and constantly monitors Dexter's whereabouts.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: Divers accidentally stumble upon Dexter's underwater burial ground, discovering the many bags containing the body parts of his victims. Realizing this dumping ground is the work of a serial killer, the media dubs these bodies the work of the "Bay Harbor Butcher." When it's revealed that each victim was a criminal and killer, some members of the public openly support the Bay Harbor Butcher; the case even inspires the creation of a knife-wielding comic book superhero "The Dark Defender." To oversee the investigation of the Butcher's crimes, an FBI special team is assigned to Miami, led by FBI Special Agent Lundy. Working with Miami Metro PD, Lundy brings in several of the Miami detectives, including Debra, to join his team. Over time, Debra and Lundy become romantically involved.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: To ensure he's not identified as the Bay Harbor Butcher, Dexter finds a new dumping area with current that leads to the Atlantic Ocean. He also falsifies records, destroys evidence, and contaminates refrigerated remains to throw the investigators off his trail. Despite this, Lundy narrows down his suspect search to people in Miami with police training. Dexter puts his guilt over Brian behind him and returns to killing. Dexter later learns that his biological mother died because she was a criminal working as a confidential informant for Harry and had an affair with him. Dexter wonders if he was adopted because Harry felt guilty for his mother's death and he also learns that Harry didn't die of natural causes but purposefully overdosed to cause his own death. He doesn't understand why until later in the season.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: Doakes becomes confident of Dexter's guilt and confronts him. Dexter then tricks Doakes into assaulting him in the police station, in front of other officers, leading others to side with Dexter that the Sergeant is out of control and causing him to be placed on suspension. Becoming more desperate, Doakes breaks into Dexter's apartment and finds the box of blood samples collected from his victims. However, the investigative team mistakenly concluded that Doakes is the Butcher after finding the box in his car, and Doakes goes into hiding while still tracking Dexter's movements. Lieutenant LaGuerta attempts to vouch for the innocence of her former partner, but Lundy refuses to consider her evidence after he learns that she didn't report previous contact with Doakes during the period he was a fugitive, because of their personal relationship.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: Meanwhile, Dexter's relationship with Lila becomes closer as she shows him how to accept who he is. When Rita discovers Dexter spent an evening in a hotel with Lila, she breaks up with him and Dexter ends up sleeping with Lila for the first time. Dexter learns that Lila is a pyromaniac, at one point purposely setting fire to her apartment and feigning innocence to draw Dexter back to her. When she starts to follow him obsessively, he takes measures to distance himself from her, eventually forgoing their relationship. Realizing he is developing genuine connection to Rita and her children Astor and Cody, Dexter returns to them. Lila is furious and begins to track Dexter's movements, while also dating Detective Angel Batista. Dexter warns Batista that Lila is not to be trusted but he dismisses the concern. Later, Lila brings rape charges against Batista and tells Dexter she'll drop them if he returns to her. Debra investigates Lila and finds that her real name is Lila West, she is in the country illegally, and she has a criminal history, threatening her with deportation if she doesn't leave Miami.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: Dexter tracks down the men responsible for his mother's death. One is dead, one is in jail and one, a drug dealer named Jimenez, is alive. Dexter targets Jimenez and tracks down the dealer's secluded cabin in the nearby swamps, where Dexter kills him. Dexter is called away before he can dispose of the body, but feels confident that the cabin is remote. When he finally goes back, he is unaware that Doakes is following him. Dexter subdues Doakes and locks him in a makeshift cell within the cabin, admitting to the sergeant that he is indeed the Bay Harbor Butcher. Dexter decides that he'll escape the law by convincing others that Doakes is the butcher. He kills a drug lord in the cabin in front of Doakes, shocking the police sergeant. Seeing Doakes' reaction to his actions reminds Dexter of something Harry said days before he died. Dexter suddenly realizes that his father committed suicide because he was ashamed of training Dexter to be a serial killer. Horrified, Dexter tells Doakes, "I killed my father."


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: While Dexter considers that he must be held responsible for his crimes, Lila takes the GPS device from Dexter's car and uses it to locate the cabin. She finds Doakes, who explains that he is a prisoner of Dexter Morgan, the Bay Harbor Butcher, and needs help. Deciding she now understands Dexter and must help him, Lila leaves Doakes imprisoned and then lights the cabin's gas stove and opens a propane tank. She leaves and Doakes fails to escape, dying in the explosion. Finding Doakes' body and the other evidence Dexter left behind, the FBI concludes that Sgt. Doakes was indeed the Bay Harbor Butcher.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: Lila admits her actions to Dexter and reaches out to him. Although he is glad not to be going to jail, Dexter did not intend to kill Doakes since he didn't fit the requirements of "Harry's Code." However, since Lila is a murderer, he plans to kill her since she is too dangerous to his personal life. He pretends that he wants to run away with Lila, but she realizes the truth and kidnaps Rita's children Astor and Cody. At the same time, Debra is on her way to leaving Miami with Lundy rather than letting their relationship end, but then misses the flight when she learns that the children are in danger and Dexter needs her. Lila lures Dexter to her apartment and then sets it on fire with him and the kids still inside. She leaves, sure that they will all die, but Dexter and the children escape. Debra arrives just as Dexter has gotten to safety and decides to remain in Miami after all.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: The season concludes with Dexter tracking down Lila to Paris and killing her, avenging Doakes and ensuring that no one alive knows his secret life as a serial killer.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: Series developer James Manos, Jr. left his first season role as executive producer. First season executive producers John Goldwyn, Sara Colleton and Clyde Phillips all returned for the second season. First season co-executive producer Daniel Cerone was promoted to executive producer for the second season. First season consulting producer Melissa Rosenberg took a staff position as co-executive producer for the second season. Scott Buck joined the crew as a co-executive producer and writer. Robert Lloyd Lewis returned as the on set producer.


title: Dexter (season 2)

text: First season Story Editor Timothy Schlattmann was promoted to Executive Story Editor for the second season and continued to write episodes. Lauren Gussis was promoted from staff writer to Story Editor and continued to write for the show. Chad Tomasoski, who had not worked on the show since the pilot episode, rejoined the crew as an associate producer.


title: Belsize Park

text: Belsize Park is an affluent residential area of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden (the inner north-west of London), England.


title: Belsize Park

text: The residential streets are lined with mews houses and Georgian and Victorian villas. Some nearby localities are Hampstead village to the north and west, Camden Town to the south-east and Primrose Hill to the south.


title: Belsize Park

text: There are restaurants, pubs, cafés, and independent boutiques in Belsize Village, and on Haverstock Hill and England's Lane. Hampstead Heath is close by, and Primrose Hill park is a five-minute walk from England's Lane.


title: Belsize Park

text: The headquarters of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts organisation is in Belsize Park.


title: Belsize Park

text: The name is derived from French "bel assis" meaning 'well situated'. The area has many thoroughfares bearing its name: Belsize Avenue, Belsize Court, Belsize Crescent, Belsize Gardens, Belsize Grove, Belsize Lane, Belsize Mews, Belsize Park (the road), Belsize Park Gardens, Belsize Place, Belsize Square, and Belsize Terrace.


title: Belsize Park

text: The Manor of Belsize dates back to 1317, when as a subdivision to the Manor of Hampstead it was left to the Roman Catholic monks of Westminster Abbey. The original manor consisted of a number of subdivided farms, which were rented out for income. Hence after the reformation, King Henry VIII returned the estate to the newly constituted Anglican Dean of Westminster Abbey. By 1600, including the manor house there were at least three other properties on the estate, with diplomat and courtier Sir Isaac Wake (1581 – 1632) having a substantial property built on the west side of the main London to Hampstead road. Inherited by his daughter and her husband, Charles West (1626–1687), the fifth Baron de la Warr, by 1714 it had passed through various hands into the ownership of William Paget, the 6th Baron Paget, who had a substantial formal garden constructed.


title: Belsize Park

text: The name Belsize Park comes from the 17th-century manor house and parkland (built by Daniel O'Neill for his wife, the Countess of Chesterfield) which once stood on the site. Rebuilt in 1663, it was sublet by 1721, when the parklands opened as pleasure gardens for those looking to escape the dirt and grime of the City of London, with concerts, singing, dancing and country sports such as fishing and racing. In 1722 magistrates were instructed to act to stop riotous behaviour, although the parkland remained open until 1745. Belsize House was rebuilt in 1746, after which additional large country houses had been built on the surrounding farmlands for wealthy lawyers and merchants.


title: Belsize Park

text: Between 1679 and 1714, the number of houses on the estate had increased from 8 to 14, and by 1808 there were still only 22 recorded. However, the formal division of the state in 1808 into eight separate lands - based on the structure of the underleases pertaining to the estates formal houses - allowed the church to maximise its income, and hence to allow additional substantial houses to be built on the lands. This income allowed the church to have Belsize House rebuilt in 1812 for additional letting income. The wealthy leaseholders soon enabled themselves to purchase the freehold from the church, allowing the accelerated development of Belsize as a Victorian country urban suburb of London. One of the new land owners George Todd redeveloped what was known as the White House in 1815 as a substantial Georgian stucco-villa with portico, and two lodges. Known as Belsize House, it was later sold to Matthew Forster (1786 – 1869) the Whig MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed as Belsize Lodge - it was demolished in 1937.


title: Belsize Park

text: Victorian development started along the main London to Hampstead road from 1815 through the works of Edward Bliss, a self-made man who had leased and then bought the southeastern-located Newman's House lands, on the west side of Haverstock Hill north of England's Lane. Bliss not only built properties to lease out, but also allowed construction subleases. In 1829 Eton College advertised villa-sized plots on Haverstock Hill. The college then started developing an axis road to Finchley Road, naming it after Queen Adelaide. Development halted in the 1830s due to the proposal for the lines of the London and Birmingham Railway (L&BR) to be built through Belsize Park, but Eton College successfully argued via parliamentary lobbying for the railway to be tunnelled underground via Primrose Hill, which was then designed and engineered by Robert Stephenson. All the 38 houses on the Newman's House lands had been built by 1830.


title: Belsize Park

text: The passing of the Ecclesiastical Leases Act 1842 allowed all church lands to be let on long term construction leases, which unlocked the accelerated urban development of Belsize Park. The opening in 1851 of Hampstead Road railway station on the L&BR prompted William Lund in 1852 to agree a 99-year construction sublease on the former Forsyth estate. He proposed developments to the west of Haverstock Hill, although his plans were curtailed by construction issues associated with building over both the Pond Street sewer and the L&BR tunnel. In 1852 Charles James Palmer, a Bloomsbury-based solicitor bought the lease of Belsize House. In 1853 he proposed demolition of the main house, with Daniel Tiley taking the lead role in constructing Belsize Square and associated properties. Palmer commissioned architect James Piers St Aubyn to design St Peter's Church. In 1864 the church bought-back the lease on the undeveloped backlot of the Bliss lands. Tiley gained agreement from Palmer and Eton College to buy the construction lease from the church, and hence extend development south of Belsize Square to connect with the college's estate. Mimicking the then fashionable styles of Kensington and Bayswater, between 1851 and the late 1860s he built over 250 8-10 bedroom semi-detached stucco houses with large porticos, aimed at the middle classes. The church undertook a similar agreement in 1857, reacquiring full control over the portion of Todd's lease north of Belsize Lane in 1865, and again selling it to Tiley. With construction almost complete, fashion changed and Tiley went bankrupt in 1870.


title: Belsize Park

text: Of the original eight lands defined by the church in 1808, the three leased to Thomas Roberts remained substantially undeveloped throughout much of the Victoria era. South End Farm continued as a farmhouse, whilst although Rosslyn House was sold in 1816 to the undertenant, it remained in place with its formal gardens until the house was demolished between 1896 and 1909. In 1855 Henry Davidson exchanged his lease for life of the Rosslyn House lands for a 99-year building lease. Due to issues associated with construction over the L&BR tunnels, in 1859 he sold Rosslyn House and its extended formal gardens to Charles Henry Lardner Woodd. Woodd decided to sublease the house out for income, with its occupiers until 1893 including Sir Francis Freeling (1764 – 1836) who was Secretary of HM General Post Office, and General Sir Moore Disney. Davidson developed his part of the Rosslyn lands, undertaking a mixed development of large semi-detached properties similar to Belsize Park, slowed by a lack of labour through both the substantial development of the neighbouring Maryon Wilson land and the 1860s housing rush. Woodd endeavored to keep the ever-encroaching tide of housing from coming too close to Rosslyn House, permitting development only on the fringes of the formal garden, such as the housing by the local architect Horace Field on the south side of Wedderburn Road. It was only after Woodd's death in 1895, and the sale of the House to developers by his widow the following year, that development took place on the north side of Wedderburn Road and elsewhere on the garden and site of the House. At 19-21 Lyndhurst Road (1898) the development incorporated the gatehouse of Rosslyn House, designed for Woodd by Teulon, the architect of St Stephen's Church, Rosslyn Hill.


title: Belsize Park

text: Developing housing resulted in the need for facilities, including the Metropolitan Railway from 1860 (Hampstead Heath and Finchley Road), and the L&BR form 1868 (Swiss Cottage and Finchley Road). From 1873 William Willett - the father of William Willett the tireless promoter of British Summer Time, who helped his father from 1881 onwards - took over the church's leases after the bankruptcy of Daniel Tiley. Willett redeveloped much of the former Eton College estate with newer, smaller but still substantial properties inspired by Queen Anne style architecture. By 1900, most of the residual country mansions and their gardens had been demolished, now to make way for smaller terraced houses.


title: Belsize Park

text: After World War I, the construction of blocks of flats began, and now a great many of the larger houses are also converted into flats. In World War II, a large underground air-raid shelter was built here and its entrance can still be seen near the tube station at Downside Crescent. The area on Haverstock Hill north of Belsize Park Underground station up to Hampstead Town Hall and including part of a primary school near the Royal Free Hospital was heavily bombed. When the area was rebuilt, the opportunity was taken to widen the pavement and build further back from the road.


title: Belsize Park

text: Belsize Park is conveniently located in North London with several Tube and Overground stations nearby including:


title: Belsize Park

text: It is only three stops away from Bond Street via Swiss Cottage tube station and five stops away from Kings Cross, London via Belsize Park tube station.


title: Belsize Park

text: The lyrics of the international chart hit "Kayleigh" by rock band Marillion in 1985 include the line "loving on the floor in "Belsize Park"". It is also in the short film "Les Bicyclettes de Belsize" (although mainly filmed in Hampstead Village), of which the title song was covered by Mireille Mathieu, Engelbert Humperdinck, and others. Belsize Park is also referenced on Sleeper's 1995 debut album "Smart" in the song "Lady Love Your Countryside" with the lyrics "And we could spend our lives puking in Belsize Park". Cozy Powell's 1974 single "Na Na Na" suggests that "You're a wizard of Wembley Central, You're the J. S. Bach of Belsize park". The Belsize Park London Underground station features in the song "Paradise" by Coldplay, where in the video, the elephant can be seen taking a train from the station.


title: Belsize Park

text: The Camden Town Group artist Robert Polhill Bevan and his wife Stanislawa de Karlowska lived at 14 Adamson Road from 1900 to 1925.


title: Belsize Park

text: Kirsty MacColl's 2000 song "England 2 Colombia 0" features the line, "we went to a pub in Belsize Park and cheered on England as the skies grew dark..."


title: Belsize Park

text: It is also the place of residence for the Jewish community targeted by Hitler during the Second World War in the novel "The Morning Gift".


title: Belsize Park

text: Novelist Peter Straub entitled his 1983 poetry collection "Leeson Square and Belsize Park" in part after his time in residence in the Belsize Park region of London. Belsize Park and the surrounding quarters were the setting for a long-running radio drama, "Waggoner's Walk". This daily serial ran from April 1969 to May 1980 each weekday on Radio 2. Belsize Park is mentioned in the Hitchcock thriller, "Dial M for Murder" (1954) by the lead character Tony Wallace played by Ray Milland when coercing his accomplice, C.A. Swann into murdering his wife. Belsize Village was recently (2014) the setting for a Direct Line Insurance advert featuring Harvey Keitel.


title: Belsize Park

text: There are records of a Belsize Park Rugby Club in North-West London since the 1860s. In 1871, Belsize was one of the clubs at the inaugural meeting of the Rugby Football Union, and therefore pioneers of the game of Rugby Union. In 1878, Belsize moved to form Rosslyn Park RFC, becoming one of England's leading clubs. In 1971, Belsize Park RFC was re-established by a group of local players. The club is now one of the most central of all London Rugby Clubs, playing and training in Regent's Park. There are five regular teams playing every Saturday during the season as well as a touch rugby squad in the summer time.


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: The Cloud of Unknowing (Middle English: "The Cloude of Unknowyng") is an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the latter half of the 14th century. The text is a spiritual guide on contemplative prayer in the late Middle Ages. The underlying message of this work suggests that the way to know God is to abandon consideration of God's particular activities and attributes, and be courageous enough to surrender one's mind and ego to the realm of "unknowing", at which point one may begin to glimpse the nature of God.


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: "The Cloud of Unknowing" draws on the mystical tradition of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Christian Neoplatonism, which focuses on the via negativa road to discovering God as a pure entity, beyond any capacity of mental conception and so without any definitive image or form. This tradition has reputedly inspired generations of mystics, from John Scotus Eriugena, Nicholas of Cusa, and John of the Cross. Prior to this, the theme of "The Cloud" had appeared in the "Confessions of St. Augustine" (IX, 10) written in AD 398. Concerning the placement of "The Cloud of Unknowing" in the trends of the Catholic Church at the approximate time of its writing, the work joins a broader medieval movement within Christianity toward a religious experience of a more individual and passionate view of relationship with God.


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: The author is unknown. The English Augustinian mystic Walter Hilton has at times been suggested, but this is generally doubted. It is possible the author was a Carthusian priest, though this is not certain.


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: A second major work by the same author, "The Book of Privy Counseling" (originally titled "Prive Counselling"), continues the themes discussed in the "Cloud". It is less than half the length of the "Cloud", appears to be the author's final work, and clarifies and deepens some of its teachings. In this work, the author characterizes the practice of contemplative unknowing as worshiping God with one's "substance," coming to rest in a "naked blind feeling of being," and ultimately finding thereby that God is one's being. Experience, in keeping with the mystical tradition, is considered the ultimate means by which a Christian can and should relate to God, and the practice of contemplation in "The Cloud" is thus focused on the experience of God by the contemplative. This relationship between God and the contemplative takes place within continual conflict between the spirit and the physical. God is spirit in the purest sense; therefore, no matter how intense one's desire or how fervent one's love, the movement toward God by body-bound contemplatives will ever be halted by the cloud of unknowing that hides God from our understanding and prevents the fullest and truest experience of God's being. The object of the contemplative experience is to know God, as much as possible, from within this cloud of unknowing.


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: "The Cloud of Unknowing" is written specifically to a student, and the author strongly commands the student in the Prologue, "do not willingly and deliberately read it, copy it, speak of it, or allow it to be read, copied, or spoken of, by anyone or to anyone, except by or to a person who, in your opinion, has undertaken truly and without reservation to be a perfect follower of Christ."


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: The book counsels the young student to seek God, not through knowledge and intellect (faculty of the human mind), but through intense contemplation, motivated by love, and stripped of all thought. Experience of a "cloud of unknowing" is introduced Chapter 3:


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: This is brought about by putting all thoughts and desires under a "cloud of forgetting," and thereby piercing God's cloud of unknowing with a "dart of longing love" from the heart. This form of contemplation is not directed by the intellect, but involves spiritual union with God through the heart:


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: As one pursues the beating of the cloud of unknowing as compelled by spiritual stirrings of love in the heart, the intellect and sinful stirrings will often pull the contemplative's focus away from God and back to the things of physical world and of the self. The author thus enjoins the contemplative to "vigorously trample on [any new thoughts or sinful stirrings] with a fervent stirring of love, and tread them down beneath your feet. And try to cover them with a thick cloud of forgetting, as if they had never been done by you or anyone else on earth. [...] Push them down as often as they rise."


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: The author draws a strong distinction in Chapters 16-22 between the active and contemplative Christian life. He illustrates the distinction by drawing heavily from the account of Mary and Martha in the Gospel of Luke, writing that "[By] Mary all contemplatives are understood, so that they should model their way of life on hers; and similarly by Martha, all actives, with the same consequent resemblance." While the author holds Mary as the superior example in the passage as a "model for all of us [who seek to be contemplatives]," he clarifies that Martha's activity in service to God was nonetheless "good and beneficial for her salvation" but not the best thing.


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: While the author presents many methods of his own for effective contemplation of God, he often leaves the teaching of method to God himself. In Chapter 40, for example, he advises a contemplative who is struggling with sin to "[...] feel sin as a lump, you do not know what, but nothing other than yourself. And then shout continuously in spirit, 'Sin, sin, sin! out, out, out!' This spiritual shout is better learned from God by experience than from any human being by word."


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: While the practice of contemplation in "The Cloud" is focused upon the experience of spiritual reality by the soul, the author also makes some provision for the needs of the body, going so far as to say that care for the body is an important element of spiritual contemplation if only to prevent hindrance of its practice. He writes in Chapter 41:


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: In addition to "The Cloud of Unknowing" and "The Book of Privy Counseling", the "Cloud" author is believed to be responsible for a few other spiritual treatises and translations, including:


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: "The Cloud of Unknowing" has 17 known manuscripts. The two best known are British Library Harley MS 2373 and Cambridge University Library Kk.vi.26. These contain all seven of the works attributed to the "Cloud" author, the former extensively glossed in Latin. Another important manuscript is British Library Harleian 2373, which contains all but "Deonise Hid Divinity".


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: Given its survival in only seventeen manuscripts, "The Cloud of Unknowing" was not as popular in late medieval England as the works of Richard Rolle or Walter Hilton, perhaps because the "Cloud" is addressed to solitaries and concentrates on the advanced levels of the mystical path. Two Latin translations of the "Cloud" were made in the late fifteenth century. One was made by Richard Methley, a Carthusian of the Charterhouse of Mount Grace in Yorkshire, and finished in 1491. The other is anonymous. Neither, however, enjoyed wide dissemination.


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: This work became known to English Catholics in the mid-17th century, when the Benedictine monk Augustine Baker (1575–1641) wrote an exposition on its doctrine based on a manuscript copy in the library of the monastery of Cambrai in Flanders. The original work itself, however, was not published until 1877. English mystic Evelyn Underhill edited an important version of the work in 1922.


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: The work has become increasingly popular over the course of the twentieth century, with nine English translations or modernisations produced in this period. In particular, "The Cloud" has influenced recent contemplative prayer practices. The practical prayer advice contained in "The Cloud of Unknowing" forms a primary basis for the contemporary practice of Centering Prayer, a form of Christian meditation developed by Trappist monks William Meninger, Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating in the 1970s. It also informed the meditation techniques of the English Benedictine John Main.


title: The Cloud of Unknowing

text: The contemplation method urged in "The Cloud" is similar to Buddhist meditation and modern transcendental meditation. For example, the last paragraph of chapter 7 says: If you want to gather all your desire into one simple word that the mind can easily retain, choose a short word rather than a long one. A one-syllable word such as "God" or "love" is best. But choose one that is meaningful to you. Then fix it in your mind so that it will remain there come what may. This word will be your defence in conflict and in peace. Use it to beat upon the cloud of darkness above you and to subdue all distractions, consigning them to the "cloud of forgetting" beneath you.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: The 2011–12 UEFA Europa League was the third season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 41st edition overall including its predecessor, the UEFA Cup. It began on 30 June 2011 with the first legs of the first qualifying round, and ended on 9 May 2012 with the final held at Arena Națională in Bucharest, Romania. As part of a trial that started in the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League, two extra officials – one on each goal line – were used in all matches of the competition from the group stage.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: Atlético Madrid won the title, defeating Athletic Bilbao 3–0 in an all-Spanish final. Porto were the defending champions, but they were beaten by Manchester City in the Round of 32.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: A total of 194 teams from 53 UEFA associations participated in the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League. Associations are allocated places according to their 2010 UEFA country coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2005–06 to 2009–10.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: Since the winners of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League, Porto, qualified for the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League through domestic performance, the title holder spot reserved for them in the group stage was vacated. As a result, the following changes to the default allocation system were made to compensate for the vacant title holder spot in the group stage:


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: A Europa League place is vacated when a team qualifies for both the Champions League and the Europa League, or qualifies for the Europa League by more than one method. When a place is vacated, it is redistributed within the national association by the following rules:


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: Matches in the qualifying, play-off, and knockout rounds may also be played on Tuesdays or Wednesdays instead of the regular Thursdays due to scheduling conflicts.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: In the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, teams were divided into seeded and unseeded teams based on their 2011 UEFA club coefficients, and then drawn into two-legged home-and-away ties. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: The draw for the first and second qualifying rounds was held on 20 June 2011. The first legs were played on 30 June, and the second legs were played on 7 July 2011.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 15 July 2011. The first legs were played on 26 and 28 July, and the second legs were played on 4 August 2011.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: The draw for the play-off round was held on 5 August 2011. The first legs were played on 18 August, and the second legs were played on 25 August 2011.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: The group stage features 48 teams, which were allocated into pots based on their 2011 UEFA club coefficients, and then drawn into twelve groups of four. Teams from the same association cannot be drawn against each other. The draw was held on 26 August 2011 in Monaco.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays are 15 September, 29 September, 20 October, 3 November, 30 November – 1 December, and 14–15 December 2011. The group winners and runners-up advanced to the round of 32, where they were joined by the 8 third-placed teams from the group stage of the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings (in descending order):


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: A total of 24 national associations are represented in this group stage (including Scotland after Celtic were reinstated into the Europa League over Sion), with England having the most teams, with four. This was also the first time Irish side were represented in the group stage.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final. The draw for the round of 32 and round of 16 was held on 16 December 2011. The draws for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final (to determine the "home" team) were held on 16 March 2012. Both draws were assisted by Romanian footballer Miodrag Belodedici, the ambassador for the 2012 final.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: In the draw for the round of 32, the twelve group winners and the four better third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage (based on their match record in the group stage) are seeded, and the twelve group runners-up and the other four third-placed teams from the Champions League group stage are unseeded. A seeded team is drawn against an unseeded team, with the seeded team hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association cannot be drawn against each other. In the draws for the round of 16 onwards, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association may be drawn with each other.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: The first legs were played on 14 and 16 February, and the second legs were played on 22 and 23 February 2012.


title: 2011–12 UEFA Europa League

text: The 2012 UEFA Europa League Final was played on 9 May 2012 at the Arena Națională in Bucharest, Romania.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: George Demetrios Papadopoulos (; born August 19, 1987) is an author and former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to a felony charge of making false statements to FBI agents about the timing and the possible significance of his contacts in 2016 relating to U.S.–Russia relations and the Donald Trump presidential campaign. He served twelve days in federal prison, then was placed on a 12-month supervised release. During his supervised release from prison, he participated in the filming of a still-unreleased docuseries. In March 2019, Papadopoulos released his book, "Deep State Target: How I Got Caught in the Crosshairs of the Plot to Bring Down President Trump". He was pardoned by Trump in December 2020.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: He ran in the March 2020 primary for the November general election to replace Rep. Katie Hill in California's 25th congressional district, after Hill resigned, but lost receiving 2.3% of the vote.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: George Papadopoulos was born August 19, 1987, at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, to Greek immigrants originally from Thessaloniki. His father, Antonis, was heavily involved in the local politics of the Greek-American community and is the former president of the Pan-Macedonian Union of the United States. His mother, Kate (Kiki), was born in Greece, but later moved to Worcester, Massachusetts. He grew up in Lincolnwood, Illinois. He attended Niles West High School in Skokie, Illinois, graduating in 2005; the only activity listed in his senior yearbook is the Hellenic Club. He then attended DePaul University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2009. He earned a Master of Science in Security Studies in 2010 at University College London writing his thesis about "deleterious effects of low governance and state capacity levels in the Middle East" in November 2010. He speaks Arabic, English, French and Greek. He lived in Europe until March 2016 when he moved back to Chicago.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Papadopoulos was an unpaid intern at the Hudson Institute from 2011 to 2015 specializing in the eastern Mediterranean and later worked as a contract research assistant to a senior fellow at the institute. Richard Weitz, a Wikistrat Expert, managed George Papadopoulos while he was at the Hudson Institute.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: He described himself as an "oil, gas, and policy consultant" on his LinkedIn page. In 2010 following the rupture in relations between Turkey and Israel due to the Mavi Marmara incident, Papadopoulos became involved in eastern Mediterranean energy development projects and policy focusing upon the relations of Israel, Cyprus, and Greece and the Energy Triangle. In 2014, Papadopoulos authored op-ed pieces in Israeli publications. In one, published in the "Arutz Sheva", Papadopoulos argued that the U.S. should focus on its "stalwart allies" Israel, Greece, and Cyprus to "contain the newly emergent Russian fleet"; in another, published in "Ha'aretz", he contended that Israel should exploit its natural gas resources in partnership with Cyprus and Greece rather than Turkey. However, on 19 October 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to allow major concessions for Gazprom to develop the Leviathan reserves with Putin telling Netanyahu "We will make sure there will be no provocation against the gas fields by Hezbollah or Hamas. Nobody messes with us." Analysis conducted by "Ha'aretz" in 2017 showed that Papadopoulos also co-authored an expert opinion that was delivered to the Israeli Energy Ministry on June 20, 2015, on a proposed plan to develop the offshore gas fields, named Leviathan, found in Israel's territorial waters on behalf of the Hudson Institute. Money was donated to Hudson by the CEO of Noble Energy and other staffers of the company. Houston-based Noble Energy is heavily invested in Israeli gas together with the Israeli energy group Delek. Together they have a monopoly over Israeli gas. The opinion written by Hudson supported the interests of this gas monopoly. Noble Energy was given permission on December 17, 2015, to develop the Leviathan gas field worth up to $120 billion.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: In September 2015, Papadopoulos left the Hudson Institute and joined Energy Stream, a London energy consultancy, as an oil and gas consultant for four months before joining Ben Carson's presidential campaign.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Beginning in December 2015 while he was living in London, Papadopoulos served on the National Security and Foreign Policy Advisory Committee for Ben Carson's campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. He left the Carson campaign in mid-February 2016 and moved from London to Chicago in March 2016.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: In February 2016 he began work as a director in an international energy center at the London Centre of International Law Practice.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Following his indictment, he was described by "HuffPost" as "a little-known, little-qualified 30-year-old."


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo stated that George Papadopoulos’ role in the Trump's 2016 election campaign, was as a volunteer “coffee boy”.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: In 2019, Papadopoulos announced he had joined the board of advisors for the medical cannabis company C3, which manufactures the marijuana pill Idrasil.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: While living in London, Papadopoulos first reached out to the Trump campaign on August 4, 2015, expressing interest in “an advisory role to Mr. Trump on matters of energy security and U.S. policy in the Eastern Mediterranean." Further unsuccessful emails in an effort to obtain a position in the Trump campaign followed, but in December 2015, with the Ben Carson campaign on the verge of suspending, Papadopoulos believed that parts of the Carson campaign would be assumed by the Trump campaign, and decided to pursue this route.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Papadopoulos sent his résumé to the Ben Carson presidential campaign, which hired him as a foreign policy adviser for two-and-a-half months, December 2015 through mid-February 2016. Sam Clovis, who at the time was national co-chairman of Donald Trump's campaign team, approved him as an unpaid adviser. In his campaign job interview via Skype from London on March 6, Clovis allegedly told Papadopoulos that one of the campaign's foreign policy priorities was to improve U.S.–Russia relations, though Clovis later denied saying that.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Employed at that time with the London Centre of International Law Practice (LCILP), on March 12, 2016, Papadopoulos was part of an LCILP visiting delegation to the Link Campus University in Rome. There he met Joseph Mifsud, a Maltese academic with alleged ties to Russian intelligence who was at the time a teacher at the University of Stirling in Scotland.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: On March 21, 2016, in an interview with the editorial board of "The Washington Post" Donald Trump announced Papadopoulos as one of his campaign's foreign policy advisers. Trump, reading from a list, said: "He's an oil and energy consultant, excellent guy".


title: George Papadopoulos

text: On March 31, 2016, Papadopoulos joined candidate Trump as well as Senator Jeff Sessions and other campaign officials for a National Security Meeting at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. Papadopoulos averred that he could facilitate a foreign policy meeting between candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: On March 24, Papadopoulos met with Mifsud in London. Papadopoulos said that Mifsud brought along with him a Russian woman, Olga Polonskaya, whom Mifsud falsely identified as the niece of the Russian President. On the same day, Papadopoulos performed 9 internet searches of various combinations attempting to find Olga Polonskaya as a niece of President Putin or former President Medvedev. Mifsud, in a later interview, denied he said this.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: At a breakfast meeting at the Andaz London Liverpool Street hotel on April 26, 2016, Mifsud told Papadopoulos that he had information that the Russians have "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, namely,


title: George Papadopoulos

text: From March to August 2016, Papadopoulos "was identified as having contacts with senior members of the Trump campaign on at least a dozen occasions." Papadopoulos's wife, then his fiancée, said in 2017 that his job in the campaign was to set up meetings with foreign leaders and that he had been in regular contact with high-ranking campaign officials. Papadopoulos sent emails concerning meeting with Putin to at least seven campaign officials.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: On May 10, 2016, at London's Kensington Wine Rooms, Papadopoulos allegedly told the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Alexander Downer, who was accompanied by Australian diplomat Erika Thompson, that:


title: George Papadopoulos

text: On May 21, campaign chairman Paul Manafort forwarded an email from Papadopoulos to his deputy Rick Gates requesting to arrange trips to Greece and to Russia for Donald Trump, saying "We need someone to communicate that [Donald Trump] is not doing these trips. It should be someone low-level in the campaign so as not to send any signal." Gates delegated the task to the campaign's correspondence coordinator, referring to him as "the person responding to all mail of non-importance."


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Papadopoulos later said that he had told the Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Kotzias, during a meeting on May 26, 2016, that the Russians had Clinton-related emails. He said his "biggest regret" was not immediately reporting Mifsud's comment to U.S. intelligence, and the "stupidest thing I did was actually gossiping about it with foreign diplomats".


title: George Papadopoulos

text: On June 19, 2016, Sam Clovis, as Trump national campaign co-chairman,encouraged Papadopoulos to fly to Russia to meet with agents of the Russian Foreign Ministry. This occurred after Papadopoulos had been told by Joseph Mifsud that Russia had "dirt" on Clinton in the form of thousands of emails that Russian wanted to share them with Trump's campaign, but before there was public knowledge of the hack of Democratic National Committee and of John Podesta's emails, the latter two of which U.S. intelligence agencies believe were carried out by Russia.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: On July 26, after the hacking of the DNC server had become known, Australian officials told the FBI about Papadopoulos's comment, leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation to open a counterintelligence investigation into the Donald Trump presidential campaign on July 31, 2016.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: On August 10, 2016, the FBI opened a FARA case on Papadopoulos based largely upon information it received on July 26, 2016, from the Australian government originating from an Australian diplomat meeting with Papadopoulos in early May in London. The FBI counterintelligence expert Bill Priestap informed Congress in June 2018 that as there was a predicated counterintelligence operation in effect, the FBI did not spy on the Trump campaign but did investigate possible ties to Russia. British intelligence was informed of the FBI FARA case on Papadopoulos and did not halt the FBI's operation from being conducted on the soil of the United Kingdom where GCHQ could assist with the FBI in the FARA case involving Papadopoulos but the GCHQ gave no comment about its role according to a May 2, 2019, "New York Times" article.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Between March and September 2016, Papadopoulos made at least six requests for Trump or representatives of his campaign to meet in Russia with Russian politicians.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: After arriving September 15, 2016, in London, Papadopoulos met in a private London club with a United States citizen and FBI informer Stefan Halper, who was a Cambridge professor, and a female posing as Halper's female research assistant who had invited Papadopoulos for drinks. The research assistant was an FBI investigator with the pseudonym "Azra Turk" but Papadopoulos stated that he believed that she "was CIA" with ties to "Turkish intel" and was tasked to learn about his work in the "Energy Triangle" which involves Cyprus-Greece-Israel, and competes with the interests of Northern Cyprus and Turkey.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Beginning in the spring of 2016, Papadopoulos met several times with Panos Kammenos who had numerous close ties to Russian intelligence, Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin group tasked with interfering in the 2016 United States elections. Kammenos formed the Athens-based "Institute of Geopolitical Studies" which in November 2014 signed a "memorandum of understanding" with the former SVR officer Leonid Reshetnikov headed "Russian Institute for Strategic Studies" (RISI). In 2009, RISI, which had been an SVR operation, was placed under control of the Russian president with Reshetnikov regularly meeting with Putin and participated in Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections by developing plans of action: for example, with Russian intelligence assets and using a large disinformation campaign, Putin would support Republicans and the Trump campaign and disrupt Democrats and the Clinton campaign, and, if Trump were likely to lose the 2016 election, then Russia would shift its efforts to focus upon voter fraud in the United States in order to undermine the legitimacy of the United States electoral system and the elections. Kammenos' positions followed closely with the Kremlin's talking points.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: In an interview about Russia–United States relations with Interfax in September 2016, Papadopoulos said that Barack Obama had failed to follow through on his promises to cooperate with Russia, and asserted that the U.S. had made insufficient joint efforts with Russia against terrorism. As foreign policy adviser during Trump's campaign, Papadopoulos helped set up a September 23, 2016 New York meeting between Trump and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian president.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: On January 20, 2017, just hours before Trump was going to be inaugurated, Papadopoulos and incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus met with Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos. Two days later, Papadopoulos met with the head of Israel's Shomron Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, in Washington, D.C. Papadopoulos was reported to have communicated to Dagan the Trump administration's desire to work closely with Israel on the question of Israel's West Bank settlements.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Senator Richard Burr, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which investigated Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, said in October 2017 that the panel was interested in Papadopoulos because he had sent e-mails attempting to set up meetings between Trump and Putin. The recipients of emails about outreach to the Russian government reportedly were Clovis, Corey Lewandowski, Manafort, Gates, representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ivan Timofeev, and others.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: In 2018 his wife predicted that Papadopoulos's role in the Russia investigation would be similar to that of John Dean of the Watergate scandal. Democrats on the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence later arranged for her to testify before the committee, but the plans fell through when the Republican majority refused to reimburse her for travel expenses from Chicago.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Despite his communications with members of the Trump campaign regarding Russia, the Mueller Report found no evidence that Papadopoulos ever shared information with the Trump campaign regarding Russia having "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of her emails or that Russia could assist the campaign through the anonymous release of information about Clinton.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Papadopoulos was interviewed by FBI agents on January 27, 2017, regarding any Trump campaign connections with Russia. After the interrogation, on the advice of his counsel, Papadopoulos deactivated his Facebook account, which contained correspondences with Russians, and created a new account. On July 27, 2017, Papadopoulos was arrested upon landing at Washington-Dulles International Airport, placed in handcuffs and leg shackles, and put in a prison cell overnight for his arraignment the following day. He was released without bail and subsequently cooperated with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his investigation.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to making false statements to FBI agents relating to contacts he had with agents of the Russian government while working for the Trump campaign. The guilty plea was part of a plea bargain reflecting his cooperation with the Mueller investigation. Papadopoulos's arrest and guilty plea became public on October 30, 2017, when court documents showing the guilty plea were unsealed. Following his guilty plea, Trump described Papadopoulos as a "young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar" and said few people in his campaign had heard about Papadopoulos. FactCheck.org and PolitiFact, among others, noted that during the campaign, Trump, reading from a script, named Papadopoulos as one of his five foreign policy advisers—alongside Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, Walid Phares and Joseph Schmitz—and described Papadopoulos as an "excellent guy".


title: George Papadopoulos

text: In a sentencing memorandum released on August 17, 2018, prosecutors stated that a sentence of zero to six months was "appropriate and warranted," noting that Papadopoulos had repeatedly lied to investigators and did not provide "substantial assistance" to the investigation, and that his lies had interfered with the investigators' ability in their February 11, 2017 interview of Joseph Mifsud to question and if necessary detain him. Mifsud left the United States about two weeks after Papadopoulos's January 27 interview with the FBI. On September 7, 2018, Papadopoulos was sentenced to 14 days in prison, 12 months of supervised release, and 200 hours of community service; he was also fined $9,500. He began serving his 14-day sentence on November 26, 2018, at FCI Oxford in Oxford, Wisconsin, and was released 12 days later on December 7, 2018.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Papadopoulos has consistently stated his belief that he was entrapped by people in various government intelligence agencies in order to justify FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign. He fleshed out this belief in his 2019 book "Deep State Target". Papadopoulos's theory is that the plan was for Mifsud, whom he characterized as a Western intelligence operative, to give Papadopoulos information about Russian hacking of Hillary Clinton's emails, and then for Downer to get Papadopoulos to repeat those same allegations to Downer, in order to establish that the Trump campaign was secretly working with the Russians and begin surveillance. Papadopoulos believes that Downer was recording the conversation with his phone in an obvious manner. Downer has denied all of these charges. In an August 2017 interview, Mifsud denied telling Papadopoulos about his Russian connections, saying that he had "absolutely no contact with the Russian government."


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Papadopoulos has claimed that this alleged entrapment was indirectly coordinated via the London Centre for International Law Practice, an organization that hired him and were among the first to find out, in 2016, that he was planning to join the Trump campaign. A 2017 investigation by reporters for "The Washington Post" found that no one was there at the supposed address for the LCILP during regular business hours, and that some of the people listed on the LCILP website as being members of the organization had no knowledge of it.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Papadopoulos has also pointed to another 2016 meeting, with Stefan Halper, a Cambridge University professor with ties to the FBI and CIA, that he believes was designed to elicit incriminating statements from him. Papadopoulos has said that Halper brought with him an attractive, flirtatious woman, who introduced herself as "Azra Turk", who Papadopoulos believes was meant to serve as a honeypot to elicit information. A 2019 article in "The New York Times" described Turk as an FBI informant, but the FBI has refused to comment on the matter.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Donald Trump initially dismissed Papadopoulos's statements, referring to him in October 2017 on Twitter as "the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar". However, by May 2018, Trump came to agree with Papadopoulos's assessment, and coined the term "Spygate" to refer to the entire alleged enterprise.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Much of the discussion about the veracity of Papadopoulos's claims has centered around Joseph Mifsud, the Maltese professor who first met Papadopoulos about a week after Papadopoulos joined the Trump campaign. Papadopoulos has described him as working for Western intelligence, while others have called this a conspiracy theory and some have even called Mifsud an asset of Russian intelligence. Mifsud has not made any public statements since October 2017. In September 2018, a court filing said that Mifsud was missing, had not been heard from in months, and "may be deceased". He officially remains missing, although in April 2019 the Italian newspaper "Il Foglio" stated that he was still alive and hiding out in an apartment in Rome.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Stephan Roh, Mifsud's lawyer, has repeatedly stated that Mifsud was working for Western intelligence, and that he is hiding out for his own protection as a result. Roh co-wrote, with Thierry Pastor, the book "The Faking of Russia-Gate: The Papadopoulos Case: An Investigative Analysis", which argued this case; the book was self-published in June 2018.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: In a May 2019 opinion piece in "The Washington Post", former FBI chief James Comey called Mifsud a "Russian agent".


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Some critics of the Russia investigation have embraced Papadopoulos's view of Mifsud. During Robert Mueller's testimony to two congressional committees on July 24, 2019, Republicans Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes sought to portray Mifsud as a central figure in what they asserted was an investigation based on false and politically motivated premises, while Democrats characterized their assertion as a diversion and conspiracy theory.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: Papadopoulos's view has been echoed by Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Lindsey Graham. In October 2019, Senator Graham, as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to the leaders of Britain, Australia and Italy, asserting as fact that both Mifsud and Downer had been directed to contact Papadopoulos, and asking for their help in continuing the investigation. Joe Hockey, the Australian ambassador to the United States, sharply rejected Graham's characterization of Downer. A former Italian government official told "The Washington Post" in October 2019 that during a meeting the previous month, Italian intelligence services told Barr they had "no connections, no activities, no interference" in the matter; Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte later affirmed this.


title: George Papadopoulos

text: A December 2019 report on the FBI's Russia investigation, headed by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, found no evidence that Mifsud had ever worked for the FBI. In response, Papadopoulos wrote on Twitter that this finding "Leaves only one other option: CIA".


title: George Papadopoulos

text: As of October 2017, Papadopoulos had lived for the past few years with his mother and brother in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. He married Simona Mangiante, an Italian lawyer who used to work for the European Parliament, in March 2018. He had met her through Mifsud. During the months between his guilty plea and his sentencing, she became his public spokeswoman. In a September 9 interview on "This Week," she said her previous work as a diplomat at the European Parliament could have raised a "red flag" with Mueller's investigation. She commented, "I always said I respect Mueller's interest in my profile because clearly it's quite alarming, the fact that I marry George Papadopoulos in the middle of this storm." George Papadopoulos said that even his family had been concerned that she might be a Russian spy and that "everyone was a little paranoid throughout this past year".


title: Kiersten Warren

text: Kiersten Nicolla Dale Warren is an American actress. Her best known roles include Alex Tabor on "" and Nora Huntington on "Desperate Housewives".


title: Kiersten Warren

text: Warren is the mother of actress Misti Traya, who has a daughter. Warren is now married to actor Kirk Acevedo. In 2009, she appeared in an episode of "Fringe" ("Unleashed") as the wife of Charlie Francis, Acevedo's character. In 2003, she appeared in an episode of "The West Wing" titled "Life on Mars", and in 2009, appeared in an episode of "Nip/Tuck" titled "Jenny Juggs" as Jenny Juggs.


title: Kiersten Warren

text: She has appeared in numerous films, including "13 Going on 30", "Intolerable Cruelty", "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood", "Bicentennial Man" and "Independence Day".


title: Recognition of same-sex unions in Europe

text: Debate has occurred throughout Europe over proposals to legalise same-sex marriage as well as same-sex civil unions. Currently 33 of the 50 countries and the 8 dependent territories in Europe recognise some type of same-sex union, among them most members of the European Union (24/27).


text: As of July 2022, eighteen European countries legally recognise and perform same-sex marriages: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Same-sex marriages will soon be legal in Andorra. An additional twelve European countries legally recognise some form of civil union, namely Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Montenegro, and San Marino.


text: Poland and Slovakia recognise private contractual cohabitation of two persons (regardless of sexual orientation or relationship type - including non-sexual non-intimate relationships) for limited purposes. Although they do not recognise same-sex unions themselves, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania, are bound by a ruling by the European Court of Justice to recognise same-sex marriages performed within the EU and including an EU citizen for the purposes of granting legal residence, though this ruling is not always respected in practice, as in the case of Romania which has not implemented the ruling.


text: Of the countries that perform same-sex marriages, some still allow civil unions, e.g. Benelux countries, France and the United Kingdom, whereas Germany, Ireland and Nordic countries have ended their pre-marriage civil union legislation so that existing unions remain but new ones are not possible.


text: Several European countries do not recognise any same-sex unions. Marriage is defined as a union solely between a man and a woman in the constitutions of Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine. Of these, however, Croatia, Hungary, and Montenegro allow civil unions for same-sex couples, while Armenia recognises same-sex marriages performed abroad.


text: Over the years, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has handled cases that challenged the lack of legal recognition of same-sex couples in certain member states. The Court has held that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) requires member states to provide legal recognition, but does not require marriage to be opened to same-sex couples.


text: In "Schalk and Kopf v Austria" (24 June 2010), the European Court of Human Rights decided that the European Convention on Human Rights does not oblige member states to legislate for or legally recognise same-sex marriages. However, the Court, for the first time, accepted same-sex relationships as a form of "family life".


text: In "Vallianatos and Others v Greece" (7 November 2013), the Court held that exclusion of same-sex couples from registering a civil union, a legal form of partnership available to opposite-sex couples, violates the convention. Greece had enacted a law in 2008 that established civil unions for opposite-sex couples only. A 2015 law extended partnership rights to same-sex couples.


text: "Oliari and Others v Italy" (21 July 2015) went further and established a positive obligation upon member states to provide legal recognition for same-sex couples. Italy thus breached the convention; it eventually implemented civil unions in 2016. The decision set a precedent for potential future cases regarding the 23 member states, certain British and Dutch territories, and the states with limited recognition (excluding Kosovo), that currently do not recognise same-sex couples' right to family life.


text: "Chapin and Charpentier v France" (9 June 2016) largely confirmed "Schalk and Kopf v. Austria", holding that denying a same-sex couple access to marriage does not violate the convention. At the time of the judgment, France did allow same-sex marriage, however, the case originated from 2004, when only pacte civil de solidarité (PACS) was available to same-sex couples in France.


text: Some debate occurred within the European Union about how to require member states to recognise same-sex marriages conducted in other member states, as well as any European citizens' civil unions or registered partnerships, so as to ensure the right of freedom of movement for citizens' family members.


text: In 2010, Romanian LGBT activist Adrian Coman and his American partner, Robert Claibourn Hamilton, married in Belgium, and subsequently attempted to relocate to Romania. Romanian authorities refused to recognise their marriage and the case progressed to the European Court of Justice. On 11 January 2018, the ECJ's advocate general, Melchior Wathelet, issued an official legal opinion stating that an EU member country cannot refuse residency rights to the same-sex spouse of an EU citizen on the grounds that it does not recognise same-sex marriage.


text: On 5 June 2018, the ECJ ruled in Coman's favour, stating the term "spouse" was gender-neutral, and member states are therefore obliged to recognise EU residency rights for partners of EU citizens. However, the court confirmed that it will still be up to member states whether to authorise same-sex marriage.


text: According to research from the European Parliament, some EU states still do not in practice grant residency to same-sex spouses, as required by "Coman v. Romania". As of September 2021, Hamilton himself has not been granted residency by the Romanian government, despite the ruling. In September 2021, the European Parliament passed a resolution condemning some states failure to implement the ruling, and calling on the European Commission to ensure rights of same-sex spouses are upheld.


text: Liechtenstein: On 11 March 2022, the government introduced a bill to allow same-sex couples in registered partnerships to adopt each other's step children in accordance with a 2021 court ruling, and said future bills for full marriage equality and joint adoption would have to come from individual MPs. On 21 September 2022, a motion calling on the government to introduce a bill legalizing same-sex marriage was submitted to the Landtag by 15 out of the 25 sitting members. The motion was discussed in the plenary session on 2 November 2022, and was passed by a 23–2 vote.


text: Czech Republic: A bill amending the Civil Code to allow same-sex marriage was introduced in the Chamber of Deputies on 7 June 2022. The draft was signed by one representative each from five parliamentary groups: Mayors and Independents (STAN), TOP 09, the Pirate Party, the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and ANO.


text: Lithuania: In May 2022, a group of MPs drafted a civil union bill which would provide limited protections for registered same-sex couples. The proposal is a compromise after a more expansive civil partnership bill was defeated in 2021. On 26 May 2022 the bill passed its first reading in the Seimas with 70 votes in favour, 49 votes against and 6 abstentions. The final vote is expected at the end of June.


text: Public support for same-sex marriage from EU member states as measured from a 2015 poll is the greatest in the Netherlands (91%), Sweden (90%), Denmark (87%), Spain (84%), Ireland (80%), Belgium (77%), Luxembourg (75%), the United Kingdom (71%) and France (71%). In recent years, support has risen most significantly in Malta, from 18% in 2006 to 65% in 2015 and in Ireland from 41% in 2006 to 80% in 2015.


text: After the approval of same-sex marriage in Portugal in January 2010, 52% of the Portuguese population stated that they were in favor of the legislation. In 2008, 58% of the Norwegian voters supported same-sex marriage, which was introduced in the same year, and 31 percent were against it. In January 2013, 54.1% of Italians respondents supported same-sex marriage. In a late January 2013 survey, 77.2% of Italians respondents supported the recognition of same-sex unions. According to an Ipsos poll published in 2021, 83% of Italians were in favour of legal recognition for same-sex couples, 10% stated they were against and 7% didn't have a specific position on the issue. 59% of surveyed Italians stated they were in favour of same-sex couples jointly adopting children, while 36% were opposed.


text: In Greece, support more than tripled between 2006 and 2017. In 2006, 15% of Greeks said that they agreed with same-sex marriage being allowed throughout Europe, rising to 50.04% by 2017. A survey in 2020 indicated that 56% of the Greek population accept same-sex marriage.


text: In Ireland, a 2008 survey revealed 84% of people supported civil unions for same-sex couples (and 58% for same-sex marriage), while a 2010 survey showed 67% supported same-sex marriage by 2012 this figure had risen to 73% in support. On 22 May 2015, 62.1% of the electorate voted to enshrine same-sex marriage in the Irish constitution as equal to heterosexual marriage.


text: In Croatia, a poll conducted in November 2013 revealed that 59% of Croats think that marriage should be constitutionally defined as a union between a man and a woman, while 31% do not agree with the idea. In Poland, support for same sex marriages has increased from 17% in 2006 to 45% in 2019, according to Eurobarometer; other polls show a majority supporting registered partnerships.


text: In the European Union, support tends to be the lowest in Bulgaria, Latvia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Lithuania. The average percentage of support for same-sex marriage in the European Union as of 2006 when it had 25 members was 44%, which had descended from a previous percentage of 53%. The change was caused by more socially conservative nations joining the EU. In 2015, with 28 members, average support was at 61%.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The Australian Federal Police (AFP) is the national and principal federal law enforcement agency of the Australian Government with the unique role of investigating crime and protecting the national security of the Commonwealth of Australia. The AFP is an independent agency of the Attorney-General's Department and is responsible to the Attorney-General and accountable to the Parliament of Australia. the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police is Reece Kershaw, formerly the Northern Territory Police Commissioner.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The AFP has a focus on preventing, investigating and disrupting transnational, serious, complex and organised crime including terrorism and violent extremism, cybercrime, child exploitation, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. The AFP is also responsible for delivering community policing in the Australian Capital Territory through ACT Policing and to other dependent territories, providing protective security in major airports and close protection for dignitaries including the prime minister of Australia and foreign diplomatic missions, delivering law enforcement training for Asia-Pacific partner agencies, acting as Australia's international law enforcement and policing representative, and contributing to United Nations peacekeeping around the world. The AFP is also a member of the National Intelligence Community and works closely with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the Australian Border Force, and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The Australian Federal Police was formed on 19 October 1979 under the Australian Federal Police Act 1979 after the merging of the former Commonwealth Police and the Australian Capital Territory Police. This followed a review of Australia's anti-terrorism capacity by Sir Robert Mark, former commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in the UK, which was commissioned by the Fraser Government following the 1978 Hilton bombing. In November 1979, the Federal Narcotics Bureau was transferred to the new agency. In 1984 the protective service component of the AFP was separated forming the Australian Protective Service under the administrative service and later governed by Attorney-General's Department; that agency was transferred back to the AFP in 2004 and is now known as Australian Federal Police Specialist Protective Command or as ‘Uniform Protection’ internally.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement, a joint committee of members of the Australian House and Senate, has responsibility for oversight of the AFP and the Australian Crime Commission.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: Separately, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) and the Office of the Integrity Commissioner are charged with investigating issues related to law enforcement corruption in Australia, in the AFP and other agencies.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The AFP's role is to enforce Australian criminal law, contribute to combating complex, transnational, serious and organised crime impacting Australia's national security and to protect Commonwealth interests from criminal activity in Australia and overseas.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The AFP is responsible to the Minister for Home Affairs. Key priorities of the AFP are set by the Minister for Home Affairs, through a "ministerial direction" issued under the Australian Federal Police Act 1979. Areas of operational emphasis include:


title: Australian Federal Police

text: Federal agents are based in each Australian state and territory capital city, internationally and form the largest component of the AFP staff, federal agents chiefly perform criminal investigative duties.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The AFP hosts a National Missing Persons Coordination Unit, the Australian Interpol National Central Bureau, and the Australian Bomb Data Centre.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: Members of the AFP outside the ACT and other federal territory do not exercise the powers, obligations and liabilities of a constable at common law. Consequently, they are identified by each state as federal agents; that is, a member of a law enforcement agency, not a police service.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: Assault rifle-armed AFP officers are situated in both chambers of the Australian Parliament as of 2015. It is the first time in Australian history that parliament has been guarded by armed personnel.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: In addition to its federal role, the AFP provides policing services to the Australian Capital Territory and the external territories, including Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Norfolk Island, and Jervis Bay Territory.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The AFP Specialist Protective Command provides physical protection for the Australian government at key locations throughout Australia and internationally. Uniform protection officers (identified as Protective Service Officers or PSOs) are firearms and defensive tactics trained, and perform duties which include armed escorts, bomb appraisals, bomb detection canines, visitor control, static guarding, alarm monitoring and response, mobile, foot and bicycle patrols, maintain civil order, security consultancy services, counter-terrorism first response at many Commonwealth establishments. Protective Service Officers have powers under Section 14 of the AFP Act 1979 to arrest, stop, search, and request identification within their jurisdiction. Uniform protection officers undertake an essential role in protecting Australia's critical infrastructure and assist in providing protection for Australian high office holders, diplomatic, consular personnel and other foreign nationals.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: Specialist Protective Command officers providing an armed uniform capability are located at federal establishments including Parliament House in Canberra; the residences of the prime minister and governor-general; foreign embassies and consulates in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth; the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Joint defence facilities such as the Australian Defence Force Headquarters in Canberra, Holsworthy Barracks, Garden Island Naval Base, Victoria Barracks, the Pine Gap US defence installation, and sensitive covert locations in Australia and internationally.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: Aviation Uniform Police (AUP) are the primary law enforcement agency responsible for aviation security at the nine major Australian airports; Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Cairns, Gold Coast and Perth. On 6 December 2019 the AFP announced that the Protective Operations Response Team (PORT) members located at the nine designated Australian airports will carry the Daniel Defense Mk.18 Short Barreled Rifle. The increase in AFP aviation protection capability was part of the Aviation Security Enhancement Program (ASEP), the short barreled firearms specifically for the purpose of delivering a Counter Terrorist First Response (CTFR) role.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: Since its inception, the AFP has had a long tradition of involvement in international peacekeeping, policing and capacity development. International Deployment Group (IDG) is an AFP portfolio that has increased rapidly in a short time since its inception in 2004. Since 1964, Australia has contributed police officers to the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. AFP officers have also previously served with the United Nations in East Timor (Timor-Leste) and South Sudan.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: In recent years, Australian government efforts to assist neighbouring and remote countries with institutional capacity building has led to AFP deployments to Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands (Under the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands), Timor-Leste (Under the Timor-Leste Police Development Program TLPDP), Nauru, Tonga, Vanuatu, Afghanistan, Samoa and Vanuatu. Previous peacekeeping missions have included Haiti, Mozambique, Thailand, Namibia, and Somalia.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: IDG uses the Specialist Response Group for particular medium and high risk planned operations or emergency incidents in addition to assisting with capacity building and force protection operations.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The AFP Ceremonial Team conducts and participates in a variety of police and community functions and ceremonies.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: Ceremonial events include the annual National Police Remembrance Day Service at the National Police Memorial in Canberra on 29 September, medal presentations, parades, police funerals, memorial services, official opening of police stations and policing facilities, AFP pipes and drums concerts, inauguration events and public relations events


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The Ceremonial Team coordinates the AFP Ceremonial and Protocol Officer (CAPO) Network and the AFP Pipes and Drums to perform ceremonial duties at these functions and ceremonies.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: Formerly the Ceremonial team also included the AFP Ceremonial Mounted Cadre. The AFP Ceremonial Mounted Cadre was raised on 29 September 2006 at the dedication of the National Police Memorial. The ceremonial uniform comprises linkages to former mounted policing units of the AFP's predecessor organisations, namely the Commonwealth Police and the Peace Officer guard, as well as mounted policing units from the NSW Police Force which patrolled the geographic area of the ACT. The Mounted Cadre was disbanded shortly after their final appearance at the opening of the AFP's new Headquarters in Barton on 7 April 2011.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The AFP Ceremonial and Protocol team currently provide drill instructor accreditation for both the AFP and the NSW Police Force, and ceremonial and protocol officer accreditation for all of Australia's policing jurisdictions.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The AFP has an international network to assist with inquiries and liaison with police agencies around the world. The AFP represents Australian state/territory police agencies internationally. AFP's International Liaison Officer Network has 85 AFP appointees in 30 countries around the world. AFP International Liaison Officers are the Australian Government's law enforcement representatives overseas.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The Joint Counter Terrorism Teams (JCTTs) in each state and territory jurisdiction consist of AFP, state and territory police, and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officers. JCTTs conduct investigations to prevent and disrupt terrorism and violent extremism. The JCTT model can be seen as the Australian version of the United States' Joint Terrorism Task Force, Canada's Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams and the United Kingdom's National Counter Terrorism Policing Network.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The National Disruption Group (NDG) is an AFP-led interagency team which consolidates the capabilities of participating agencies to prevent, disrupt and prosecute Australian nationals who travel or intend to travel offshore to engage in hostilities and/or undertake terrorism training and support to terrorist entities. The NDG brings together the AFP and its partner agencies to coordinate operational disruption activities nationally and internationally with the aim of countering the enduring threat posed by foreign fighters.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The Australian Bomb Data Centre (ABDC) is Australia's primary source of information and intelligence relating to the unlawful use of explosives. The ABDC officially began operations on 1 July 1978, and it is therefore one of the oldest bomb data centres in the world. The ABDC provides statistical reporting on all explosive incidents reported to the centre by Australian policing and military agencies. This includes any minor incidents or acts of vandalism reported by the relevant agency. The ABDC is concerned both with criminals who use explosives for their own benefit and with those who use explosives and bombs for terrorism. It maintains records of all bomb-related incidents reported to it, regardless of design, target or motive. The ABDC is staffed by members of the AFP as well as members of the Australian Defence Force.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The Australian High Tech Crime Centre (AHTCC) is a national cybercrime and cybersecurity initiative located within the AFP with staff also from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) The primary role of the AHTCC is to coordinate the efforts of Australian law enforcement in combating serious, complex and multi-jurisdictional high tech crimes, especially those beyond the capability of single policing jurisdictions in Australia. Secondary roles include protecting the information infrastructure of Australia, and providing information to other law enforcement to help combat online crime.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The Australian Federal Police College in Barton, A.C.T. is the training facility for the force. The college's residential area was home to then Prime Minister Tony Abbott when he was in Canberra as the Lodge was undergoing renovations.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The senior AFP officer is the commissioner, appointed under Section 17 of the "Australian Federal Police Act 1979".


title: Australian Federal Police

text: AFP members performing duties in ACT Policing, External Territories, Aviation, International Deployment Group (mission component) use uniform and community policing ranks. All other members use the title Federal Agent. Where applicable qualified members are also entitled to use Detective designation.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: AFP Commissioner's Order 1 (Administration) states that every AFP Member holds a rank (as detailed below), with the corresponding title and role adopted.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: First Class Constable is a reflection of four years of service. Senior Constable is a minimum of six years service. Leading Senior Constable is a reflection of at least 12–15 years of service. From there, promotion to Sergeant etc. is by application/merit and so on.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: On 2 July 2007, Muhamed Haneef was arrested and held by the AFP and Border officers for terror-related incidents, as he was leaving the country. It was the longest detention without charge under recent anti-terror laws and was found to be unjustified. He received an apology and compensation after this.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: In October 2006 a Cairns jury convicted pilot Frederic Arthur Martens under sex tourism laws of having intercourse with a 14-year-old girl in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. However, Martens was not in Port Moresby at the time, and flight records could prove this. The AFP refused to retrieve those records despite numerous requests, and Martins could not retrieve them as he was in jail. When the records were eventually retrieved by Martens' partner the convictions were quashed, with strong criticism of the AFP by Justice Chesterman. The AFP also froze all of Marten's funds while he was in custody, which prevented treatment for his daughter in Port Moresby, who died as a result.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The AFP were contacted by a member of the Bali Nine drug courier gang's father, and they said they would keep a watch on him. They could not stop them travelling to Indonesia to smuggle drugs. Instead, they contacted the Indonesian police which led to their arrest in Indonesia rather than when returning to Australia. The leaders of the gang, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed on 29 April 2015. The others are still serving prison sentences.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: Over 200 heavily armed police conducted raids at 3:00 am at various houses in Victoria on 19 April 2015, and then held Harun Causevic on a Preventative Detention Order (PDO), before charging him with terrorist offences. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said this was the first time a PDO had been used, and validated their importance.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: However, after Causevic spent three months in jail awaiting trial the federal police decided to drop the terrorism charges. Causevic's defence lawyer, Rob Stary, said there was never any real evidence against Causevic, and that this eroded confidence in the authorities. He was also critical of the earlier "grandstanding" of Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Premier Daniel Andrews.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: On 4 June 2019 the AFP conducted a raid on the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst, looking for information connected to a story she had written a few years earlier about new laws that would give the security forces new powers for surveillance over Australian citizens. Radio host Ben Fordham also claimed that he was under investigation for some of his reporting.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The next day the police raided the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) over a story about alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. The search warrant allowed the police to "add, copy, delete or alter" any files they found on the computers.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: The incidents caused an outcry of condemnation from international media outlets, including the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and "The New York Times". However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that "it never troubles me that our laws are being upheld". The AFP have not ruled out the possibility that reporters may also be charged in relation to the alleged offences being investigated.


title: Australian Federal Police

text: On 15 April 2020, the High Court of Australia ruled that the warrant used in the Smethurst raid was invalid.


title: Valente Rodriguez

text: Valente Rodriguez (born February 14, 1964) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Ernie Cardenas on the sitcom "George Lopez". He also starred as Cesar in the TV Land sitcom "Happily Divorced" and he guest starred on TV shows like "Yes, Dear", "Mad About You", and "ER", and had film roles as Chuey in "Salsa", Frankie in 1993's "Blood In Blood Out" and as Marco in "Suckers" (2001).


title: Valente Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez was born and raised in Edcouch, Texas, of Mexican descent. He attended the University of Texas-Pan American.


title: Valente Rodriguez

text: In 1988, Rodriguez moved to Los Angeles, California. He later landed his first leading role in the film "Salsa". Other film credits include "Impulse", "Twenty Bucks", "Ed", "Volcano", "Blood In Blood Out (Bound by Honor)", "Suckers, Erin Brockovich",


title: Valente Rodriguez

text: "Roosters", "The Ugly Truth", "The New Guy" and the critically acclaimed "Mi Familia" or "My Family".


title: Valente Rodriguez

text: He has also made television appearances as a regular on the Fox's comedy show "Culture Clash", as well as "Mad About You", "The Golden Girls", "Growing Pains", "Falcon Crest", "Beverly Hills, 90210", "Dharma and Greg", "Yes, Dear", "Gotta Kick It Up!", "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", and he also makes quick appearances in the films "The House Bunny" and "(500) Days of Summer".


title: Valente Rodriguez

text: Rodriguez is most known for his role as Ernesto "Ernie" Cardenas on "George Lopez" as George's best friend and his co-worker throughout the series for 6 years and appeared in 120 episodes.


title: Valente Rodriguez

text: He can be found on Comcast On Demand's "English For All" under the Learn English category. He plays the character Abro Cadabro, the brother of a woman with whom The Wizard is going on a date.


title: Non-celiac gluten sensitivity

text: Non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) or gluten sensitivity is "a clinical entity induced by the ingestion of gluten leading to intestinal and/or extraintestinal symptoms that improve once the gluten-containing foodstuff is removed from the diet, and celiac disease and wheat allergy have been excluded".


title: Non-celiac gluten sensitivity

text: NCGS is included in the spectrum of gluten-related disorders. The definition and diagnostic criteria of non-celiac gluten sensitivity were debated and established by three consensus conferences. However, as of 2019, there remained much debate in the scientific community as to whether or not NCGS was a distinct clinical disorder.


title: Non-celiac gluten sensitivity

text: The pathogenesis of NCGS is not well understood, but the activation of the innate immune system, the direct cytotoxic effects of gluten and probably other wheat components, are implicated. There is evidence that not only gliadin (the main cytotoxic antigen of gluten), but also other proteins named ATIs which are present in gluten-containing cereals (wheat, rye, barley, and their derivatives) may have a role in the development of symptoms. ATIs are potent activators of the innate immune system. FODMAPs, especially fructans, are present in small amounts in gluten-containing grains and have been identified as a possible cause of some gastrointestinal symptoms in NCGS patients. As of 2019, reviews have concluded that although FODMAPs may play a role in NCGS, they explain only certain gastrointestinal symptoms, such as bloating, but not the extra-digestive symptoms that people with NCGS may develop, such as neurological disorders, fibromyalgia, psychological disturbances, and dermatitis.


title: Non-celiac gluten sensitivity

text: For these reasons, NCGS is a controversial clinical condition and some authors still question it. It has been suggested that "non-celiac wheat sensitivity" is a more appropriate term, without forgetting that other gluten-containing cereals are implicated in the development of symptoms.