title: My Favorite Year

text: Cameron Mitchell recalled that he met Mel Brooks when both were having lunch at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer commissary. Brooks told him that "Gorilla at Large" (which starred Mitchell and Brooks' wife Anne Bancroft) was his favorite film and asked him if he wanted to play a Jimmy Hoffa-type character in a film that he was producing at MGM. Mitchell accepted and was cast in "My Favorite Year" as Karl "Boss" Rojeck.


title: My Favorite Year

text: "My Favorite Year" opened in theaters on October 1, 1982, to $2,400,696 (#3, behind "An Officer and a Gentlemen"s 11th weekend and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"s 18th).


title: My Favorite Year

text: In a contemporary review for "The New York Times", critic Janet Maslin called "My Favorite Year" "a funny and good-natured comedy" and wrote that director Richard Benjamin "works in a steady, affable style that is occasionally inspired, always snappy and never less than amusing."


title: My Favorite Year

text: The film holds a 96% "fresh" rating with review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 28 reviews with the consensus: ""My Favorite Year" is a joyful ode to the early days of television, carried with a deft touch and Peter O'Toole's uproariously funny performance."


title: My Favorite Year

text: Lainie Kazan was the only member of the cast to reprise her film role for the 1992 Broadway musical version of "My Favorite Year", in which Alan Swann was portrayed by Tim Curry. Both were nominated for Tony Awards for their performances.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: The phonology of Vietnamese features 19 consonant phonemes, with 5 additional consonant phonemes used in Vietnamese's Southern dialect, and 4 exclusive to the Northern dialect. Vietnamese also has 14 vowel nuclei, and 6 tones that are integral to the interpretation of the language. Older interpretations of Vietnamese tones differentiated between "sharp" and "heavy" entering and departing tones. This article is a technical description of the sound system of the Vietnamese language, including phonetics and phonology. Two main varieties of Vietnamese, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, which are slightly different to each other, are described below.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: Initial consonants which exist only in the Northern dialect are in red, while those that exist only in the Southern dialect are in blue.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: The IPA chart of vowel nuclei above is based on the sounds in Hanoi Vietnamese; other regions may have slightly different inventories. Vowel nuclei consist of monophthongs (simple vowels) and three centering diphthongs.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: In Vietnamese, vowel nuclei are able to combine with offglides or to form closing diphthongs and triphthongs. Below is a chart listing the closing sequences of general northern speech.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: When the velar consonants are after , they are articulated with a simultaneous bilabial closure (i.e. doubly articulated) or are strongly labialized .


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: The pronunciation of syllable-final "ch" and "nh" in Hanoi Vietnamese has had different analyses. One analysis, that of has them as being phonemes , where contrasts with both syllable-final "t" and "c" and contrasts with syllable-final "n" and "ng" . Final is, then, identified with syllable-initial .


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: Another analysis has final and as representing different spellings of the velar phonemes and that occur after upper front vowels (orthographic ) and (orthographic ). This analysis interprets orthographic ⟨ach⟩ and ⟨anh⟩ as an underlying , which becomes phonetically open and diphthongized: → , → . This diphthongization also affects ⟨êch⟩ and ⟨ênh⟩: → , → .


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: Arguments for the second analysis include the limited distribution of final and , the gap in the distribution of and which do not occur after and , the pronunciation of ⟨ach⟩ and ⟨anh⟩ as and in certain conservative central dialects, and the patterning of ~ and ~ in certain reduplicated words. Additionally, final is not articulated as far forward as the initial : and are pre-velar with no alveolar contact.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: The first analysis closely follows the surface pronunciation of a slightly different Hanoi dialect than the second. In this dialect, the in and is not diphthongized but is actually articulated more forward, approaching a front vowel . This results in a three-way contrast between the rimes "ăn" vs. "anh" vs. "ăng" . For this reason, a separate phonemic is posited.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: The following rimes ending with velar consonants have been diphthongized in the Hanoi dialect, but , and are more open:


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: While the variety of Vietnamese spoken in Hanoi has retained finals faithfully from Middle Vietnamese, the variety spoken in Ho Chi Minh City has drastically changed its finals. Rimes ending in merged with those ending in , respectively, so they are always pronounced , respectively, after the short front vowels (only when is before "nh"). However, they are always pronounced after the other vowels . After rounded vowels , many speakers close their lips, i.e. they pronounce as . Subsequently, vowels of rimes ending in labiovelars have been diphthongized, while vowels of rimes ending in alveolar have been centralized. Otherwise, some Southern speakers distinguish and after in formal speech, but there are no Southern speakers who pronounce "ch" and "nh" at the end of syllables as .


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: The short back vowels in the rimes have been diphthongized and centralized, meanwhile, the consonants have been labialized. Similarly, the short front vowels have been centralized which are realized as central vowels and the "unspecified" consonants have been affected by coronal spreading from the preceding front vowels which are surfaced as coronals (alveolar) .


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: The other closed dialects (Hue, Quang Nam, Binh Dinh) which have also been merged in codas, but some vowels are pronounced differently in some dialects:


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: The "ông", "ôc" rimes are merged into "ong", "oc" as , in many Southern speakers, but not with "ôn", "ôt" as pronounced , . The "oong", "ooc" and "eng", "ec" rimes are few and are mostly loanwords or onomatopoeia. The "ôông", "ôôc" ("oong", "ooc, eng", "ec, êng, êc" as well")" rimes are the "archaic" form before become "ông", "ôc" by diphthongization and still exist in North Central dialect in many placenames. The articulation of these rimes in North Central dialect are , without a simultaneous bilabial closure or labialization.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: With the above phonemic analyses, the following is a table of rimes ending in in the Ho Chi Minh City dialect:


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: Unlike many Native American, African, and Chinese languages, Vietnamese tones do not rely solely on pitch contour. Vietnamese often uses instead a register complex (which is a combination of phonation type, pitch, length, vowel quality, etc.). So perhaps a better description would be that Vietnamese is a register language and not a "pure" tonal language.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: There is much variation among speakers concerning how tone is realized phonetically. There are differences between varieties of Vietnamese spoken in the major geographic areas (northern, central, southern) and smaller differences within the major areas (e.g. Hanoi vs. other northern varieties). In addition, there seems to be variation among individuals. More research is needed to determine the remaining details of tone realization and the variation among speakers.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: In Southern varieties, tones "ngang", "sắc", "huyền" have similar contours to Northern tones; however, these tones are produced with normal voice instead of breathy voice.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: The "nặng" tone is pronounced as low rising tone (12) [˩˨] in fast speech or low falling-rising tone (212) [˨˩˨] in more careful utterance.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: The "ngã" and "hỏi" tone are merged into a mid falling-rising (214) [˨˩˦] which is somewhat similar "hỏi" tone of non-Hanoi Northern accent mentioned above.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: North-central and Central Vietnamese varieties are fairly similar with respect to tone although within the North-central dialect region there is considerable internal variation.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: It is sometimes said (by people from other provinces) that people from Nghệ An pronounce every tone as a nặng tone.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: An older analysis assumes eight tones rather than six. This follows the lead of traditional Chinese phonology. In Middle Chinese, syllables ending in a vowel or nasal allowed for three tonal distinctions, but syllables ending with , or had no tonal distinctions. Rather, they were consistently pronounced with a short high tone, which was called the entering tone and considered a fourth tone. Similar considerations lead to the identification of two additional tones in Vietnamese for syllables ending in , , and . These are not phonemically distinct from the "sắc" and "nặng" tones, however, and hence not considered as separate tones by modern linguists and are not distinguished in the orthography.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: According to , there are 4,500 to 4,800 possible spoken syllables (depending on dialect), and the standard national orthography ("Quốc Ngữ") can represent 6,200 syllables ("Quốc Ngữ" orthography represents more phonemic distinctions than are made by any one dialect). A description of syllable structure and exploration of its patterning according to the Prosodic Analysis approach of J.R. Firth is given in Henderson (1966).


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: In other words, a syllable has an obligatory nucleus and tone, and can have an optional consonant onset, an optional on-glide , and an optional coda or off-glide.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: G: The offglide may be or . Together, V and G must form one of the diphthongs or triphthongs listed in the section on Vowels.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: C: The optional coda C is restricted to labial, coronal, and velar stops and nasals , which cannot cooccur with the offglides .


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: Below is a table comparing four linguists' different transcriptions of Vietnamese vowels as well as the orthographic representation. Notice that this article mostly follows , with the exception of marking short vowels short.


title: Vietnamese phonology

text: Another thing to mention about Han's studies is that she uses a rather small number of participants and, additionally, although her participants are native speakers of the Hanoi variety, they all have lived outside of Hanoi for a significant period of their lives (e.g. in France or Ho Chi Minh City).


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The Treaty of London () or the Pact of London () was a secret agreement concluded on 26 April 1915 by the United Kingdom, France, and Russia on the one part, and Italy on the other, in order to entice the latter to enter World War I on the side of the Triple Entente. The agreement involved promises of Italian territorial expansion against Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and in Africa where it was promised enlargement of its colonies. The Entente countries hoped to force the Central Powers – particularly Germany and Austria-Hungary – to divert some of their forces away from existing battlefields. The Entente also hoped that Romania and Bulgaria would be encouraged to join them after Italy did the same.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: In May 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary but waited a year before declaring war on Germany – leading France and the UK to resent the delay. At the Paris Peace Conference after the war, the United States of America applied pressure to void the treaty as contrary to the principle of self-determination. A new agreement produced at the conference reduced the territorial gains promised by the treaty: Italy received Trentino and the Julian March in addition to occupation of the city of Vlorë and the Dodecanese Islands. Italy was compelled to settle its eastern border with the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes through the bilateral Treaty of Rapallo. Italy thus received Istria and the city of Zadar as an enclave in Dalmatia, along with several islands along the eastern Adriatic Sea shore. The Entente went back on its promises to provide Italy with expanded colonies and a part of Asia Minor.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The results of the Paris Peace Conference transformed wartime national fervour in Italy into nationalistic resentment championed by Gabriele D'Annunzio by declaring that the outcome of Italy's war was a mutilated victory. He led a successful march of veterans and disgruntled soldiers to capture the port of Rijeka – claimed by Italy and denied by the Entente powers. The move became known as the "Impresa di Fiume", and D'Annunzio proclaimed the short-lived Italian Regency of Carnaro in the city – before being forced out by the Italian military so that the Free State of Fiume could be established instead. The Regency of Carnaro was significant in the development of Italian Fascism.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Soon after the outbreak of World War I, the Triple Entente powers – the United Kingdom, France, and Russia – sought to attract more allies to their side. The first attempt to bring in Italy (a part of the Triple Alliance) as an ally of the Entente was in August–September 1914. The matter became closely related to contemporary efforts to obtain an alliance with Bulgaria, or at least secure its neutrality, in return for territorial gains against Entente-allied Serbia. As compensation, Serbia was promised territories which were parts of the Austria-Hungary at the time – specifically Bosnia and Herzegovina and an outlet to the Adriatic Sea in Dalmatia.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The August–September 1914 negotiations between the Entente and Italy were conducted on Russian initiative. On 4 August, only a day after Italy declared neutrality, its ambassador to Russia said that Italy might join the Entente in return for Trentino, Vlorë, and a dominant position in the Adriatic. Believing that such a move by Italy would prompt Romania to join the Entente as well against Austria-Hungary, Russian foreign minister Sergey Sazonov pursued the matter. British Foreign Minister Edward Grey supported the idea; he said that Trieste should be added to the claim as potentially important to win over Italian public opinion on joining the war.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The Italian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Guglielmo Imperiali, presented Grey with Italy's conditions, but Grey did not consider the talks could produce any practical results. He told Imperiali that Britain would not consider the matter any further until Italy committed itself to joining the Entente. On Grey's instructions, Rennell Rodd, British ambassador to Italy, asked Italian Prime Minister Antonio Salandra if Italy could enter the war. Salandra informed Rodd that this was impossible at the time and that any premature attempt to abandon neutrality would jeopardise any prospect of a future alliance. Sazonov was informed accordingly, and Russia abandoned the matter.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The motives for the Entente's overture to Italy and Italian consideration of entering the war were entirely opportunistic. The Entente saw Germany as the principal enemy and wanted to force it to divert some of its forces away from the existing battlefields. Italy had basically different interests from the Entente powers. It saw opportunities to fulfil Italian irredentist objectives in Austria-Hungary, to gain a dominant position in the Adriatic basin and to expand its colonial empire. Initially, the majority of the Italian public favoured neutrality, but groups favouring an expansionist war against Austria-Hungary formed in every part of the political spectrum. The most ardent supporters of war became irredentist groups such as "Trento e Trieste" (Trento and Trieste) led by Giovanni Giuriati or Alfredo Rocco who saw the war as an opportunity for ethnic struggle against neighbouring South Slavic populations.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Salandra and his foreign minister Antonino Paternò Castello did not break off the negotiations completely. They used the subsequent months to wait for a chance to increase Italian demands to the maximum at an opportune time. There was an attempt to relaunch the negotiations in London on 16 September when Castello told Rodd that British and Italian shared interests in preventing westward spread of Slavic domains under Russian influence – specifically by preventing Slavic influence in the Adriatic, where irredentists claimed Dalmatia. While Castello instructed Imperiali to tell the British that Italy would not decide to abandon its neutrality before the Entente accepted their conditions, Grey insisted on Italy first committing to joining the Entente and the talks collapsed again.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Particular opposition to the Italian claim against Dalmatia came from the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Arthur Nicolson who remarked that Sazonov was right to claim that Dalmatia wished to unite with Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. He added that if Dalmatia were annexed by Italy, it would inherit a problem from Austria-Hungary – that of having a large South Slavic population looking for greater independence.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Nonetheless, Castello managed to obtain British endorsement for Italian occupation of Vlorë. The move was made as a preparation for Italian intervention and designed to lend some prestige to the Italian government. Expecting opposition from Sazonov, Castello asked Grey to get the Russians to let him have this without making any concessions in return as a necessary evil to attract Italy to join the Entente.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: In late October, there was an attempt to get Italy to intervene against an expected Turkish attack against the Suez Canal. Sazonov warned Grey not to offer Dalmatia in exchange and the latter replied that no such offer was made as the canal remaining open was in Italian interests too.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The matter of an Italian alliance was taken up by Castello's successor Sidney Sonnino and Rodd in November. Sonnino proposed a non-binding agreement which could be turned into a binding one at an opportune time. Even though similar proposals by his predecessor were turned down, Rodd was informed through his contacts in the Italian government that the Italian Armed Forces were prepared to intervene by February 1915 – prompting Rodd to urge Grey to consider the proposal. However, Grey declined the idea as a hypothetical bargain as he appeared indifferent to an Italian alliance at this point.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Following this, Salandra and Sonnino conducted negotiations with the Central Powers in an apparent attempt to keep the Central Powers at bay until further negotiations were possible with the Entente. These talks collapsed on 15 February 1915. The following day, Sonnino sent Imperiali a specific list of conditions set out in sixteen points necessary for Italy to enter the war.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: While the Entente Powers were negotiating with Italy, they led a concurrent diplomatic effort aimed at obtaining Bulgarian alliance (or at least friendly neutrality). This situation led to a conflict of territorial claims staked by Italy and Serbia. Namely, awarding Italy Dalmatia would largely block the Adriatic outlet offered to Serbia (in addition to Bosnia and Herzegovina) as compensation to Serbia's cession of much of Vardar Macedonia to Bulgaria requested by the Entente as enticement to Bulgaria. Sazonov wanted to strengthen his offer to Serbia and indirectly to Bulgaria by guaranteeing such an outlet to Serbia, but Grey blocked the initiative – arguing that an Italian alliance was more important.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: In mid-February, following the start of the Gallipoli campaign, the British were convinced that Bulgaria would enter the war on the side of the Entente within weeks, certain of its victory. Even though it worked to bring Bulgaria on board, Russia was anxious that Bulgarian and Greek forces might occupy Constantinople to push Russia out of the region despite being promised control of the city by the Entente. Sonnino saw the combined Bulgarian and Greek entry into the war likely to assure Entente victory in the Balkans. On 4 March, Imperiali informed Grey that Italy would enter the war and presented him with the 16 conditions insisting on curtailing Slavic westward advance.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Grey noted that the Italian claims were excessive, but also that they did not conflict with British interests. He also thought that recent Russian stubborn objections against Greek attack to capture Constantinople could be overcome by addition of Italian troops, and that Italian participation in the war would expedite a decision from Bulgaria and Romania – still waiting to commit to the war.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Sazonov objected to any Italian role regarding Constantinople – seeing it as a threat to Russian control of the city promised by the allies in return for Russian losses in the war. This led Grey to obtain formal recognition of the Russian claim to the city by the Committee of Imperial Defence and by France – leading Sazonov to acquiesce to an agreement with Italy, except he would not consent to Italy taking the Adriatic coast south of the city of Split and as long as the Italian troops did not participate in the capture of the Turkish Straits.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The request concerning the Turkish Straits was found acceptable by Grey since the British never anticipated Italy would take part in the campaign against the Constantinople. The bulk of the Italian claim, concerning acquisition of Trentino, Trieste, and Istria was likely to attract protests against handing predominantly Slav-populated territories to Italy from Frano Supilo – a dominant figure in the nascent Yugoslav Committee advocating interests of South Slavs living in Austria-Hungary. On the other hand, the Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić and Sazonov found it acceptable. Even though Serbian Niš Declaration of war objectives called for the struggle to liberate and unify "unliberated brothers", referring to "three tribes of one people" meaning the Serbs, the Croats, and the Slovenes, as means to attract support from South Slavs living in Austria-Hungary, Pašić was primarily concerned with achieving a Greater Serbia. Sazonov acquiesced, adding that he has nothing to say on behalf of the Croats and the Slovenes and would not approve Russian forces to fight "half a day" for liberty of the Slovenes.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Nonetheless, negotiations extended for six weeks over disagreements as the extent of Italian territorial gains in Dalmatia was still objected to by Sazonov. The Italian claim of Dalmatia to the Neretva River, including the Pelješac Peninsula and all Adriatic islands was not based on self-determination, but on security concerns in a future war – as the Italian negotiators alleged that Russia might occupy the Austrian-controlled coast while Italy had no defensible port on the western shore of the Adriatic. The Committee of Imperial Defence was concerned about rising Russian naval power in the Mediterranean and it is possible, although there is no direct evidence, that this influenced the British support for the Italian claims in the Adriatic – as means to deny it to Russia.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Hoping to achieve the diplomatic breakthrough in securing alliances with Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece, Grey turned Sonnino's 16 points into a draft agreement and forwarded it to Russia against protests by the Yugoslav Committee. Sazonov objected to the draft agreement and dismissed an Italian offer of Dubrovnik as a port for South Slavs as it lacked inland transport routes. Sazonov demanded Split in addition as a better port and objected to the requested demilitarisation of the coast belonging to the Kingdom of Montenegro. Grey drew up a document taking into consideration the Russian objections and forwarded it to Imperiali, but Sonnino threatened to end the negotiations over the differences.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The deadlock was broken by French Foreign Minister Théophile Delcassé who was ready to pay any price to obtain an alliance with Italy believing it would bring about alliances with Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania as well. Delcassé proposed a reduction in the Italian claim in Dalmatia to favour Serbia in exchange for unrestricted possession of the Dodecanese Islands. The initiative succeeded because the Russian Imperial Army lost initiative in the Carpathians and its commander in chief, Grand Duke Nicholas, informed Sazonov that Italian and Romanian support would be needed urgently to regain the initiative. In response, Sazonov accepted the proposal put forward by Delcassé, insisting that Italy enter the war by the end of April and leaving all treaty-related demilitarisation matters to the British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith to decide. Asquith produced a draft agreement on 9 April and it was accepted by Sonnino with minor amendments five days later. The agreement was signed on 26 April by Grey and ambassadors Paul Cambon, Imperiali, and Alexander von Benckendorff, behalf of the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Russia.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Article 1 of the treaty determined that a military agreement shall be concluded to guarantee the number of troops committed by Russia against Austria-Hungary to prevent it from concentrating all its forces against Italy. Article 2 required Italy to enter the war against all enemies of the United Kingdom, Russia, and France, and Article 3 obliged the French and British navies from supporting the Italian war effort by destroying Austro-Hungarian fleet.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Article 4 of the treaty determined that Italy shall receive Trentino, and the South Tyrol by defining a new Italian–Austrian frontier line between the Piz Umbrail and Toblach, and a new eastern Italian frontier running from Tarvisio in the north to the coast in the Kvarner Gulf leaving Rijeka just outside the Italian territory.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Article 5 awarded Dalmatia to Italy – specifically the part north of a line running northeast from Cape Planka – including cities of Zadar and Šibenik, as well as the basin of the Krka River and its tributaries in the Italian territory. The article also awarded Italy all Austro-Hungarian Adriatic islands except Brač, Šolta, Čiovo, Drvenik Mali, Drvenik Veli, Krk, Rab, Prvić, Sveti Grgur, Goli Otok, Jakljan, and Koločep. The article specified that the remaining coast between Rijeka and the Drin River is awarded to Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Furthermore, Article 5 required demilitarisation of the coast between the Cape Planka and the Aoös River with exception of the strip between Pelješac and a point southeast of Dubrovnik and in Montenegrin territory where military bases were allowed through prewar arrangements. The demilitarisation was meant to assure Italy of military dominance in the region. The coast between the point 10 kilometres southeast of Dubrovnik and the Drin River was to be divided between Serbia and Montenegro. Articles 4 and 5 thus added to Italy's population 200,000 speakers of German, and 600,000 South Slavs.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Articles 6 and 7 gave Italy full sovereignty over Vlorë, the Sazan Island, and surrounding territory necessary for defence – requiring it to leave a strip of land west of the Lake Ohrid to allow a border between Serbia and Greece. Italy was to represent Albania in foreign relations, but it was also required to acquiesce to its partition between Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece if the United Kingdom, France, and Russia decided so. Article 8 gave Italy full sovereignty over the Dodecanese Islands.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Provisions detailing territorial gains beyond Europe were comparably vaguely written. Article 9 promised Italy territory in the area of Antalya in a potential Partition of the Ottoman Empire, while Article 10 gave it rights belonging to the Sultan in Libya under the Treaty of Ouchy. Article 13 promised Italy compensation if the French or British colonial empires made territorial gains against the German colonial empire in Africa. In Article 12, Italy upheld the Entente powers in support of future control of Mecca and Medina by an independent Muslim state.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Articles 11 and 14 promised a share in any war indemnity and a loan to Italy in the amount of 50 million pounds sterling respectively. Article 15 promised Entente support to Italian opposition to inclusion of the Holy See in any settlement of questions raised by the war, and Article 16 stipulated that the treaty was to be kept secret.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Even though the treaty was meant to be secret, an outline of its provisions became known to the Yugoslav Committee and its supporters in London in late April 1915. Serbia and the Yugoslav Committee protested it in strong terms in Entente capitals. Pašić condemned the disregard for the self-determination principle on which the Niš Declaration rested and the lack of consultations with Serbia. He demanded the Entente refrain from treaties with Hungary or Romania on borders of interest to Croatia without conferring with Serbia first, as well as requesting assurances of future political union of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Pašić telegraphed his proposal to Grey from the provisional wartime capital of Niš through British ambassador Charles Louis des Graz. However, Grey declined both requests. The Yugoslav Committee president Ante Trumbić met with Grey’s deputy Robert Crewe-Milnes demanding support for unification of Croatia, Istria, and Dalmatia and then for a political union with Serbia. News of the treaty also compelled the Yugoslav Committee to adopt a less critical view of Serbian demands concerning the method of political unification of the South Slavs as it became clear that the unity of the Croats and the unity of the Slovenes would depend on success of Serbia. Full text of the treaty text was published by the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution. In 1917, Pašić and Trumbić negotiated and agreed upon the Corfu Declaration setting out a plan for post-war unification of South Slavs to counter the Italian territorial claims outlined in the Treaty of London.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Grey's policy and the treaty were criticised in British press. An early example of such critique was "The National Union of South Slavs and the Adriatic Question" written by Arthur Evans and published in April 1915. Evans described the treaty as a manifestation of Italian chauvinistic ambitions against Dalmatia causing a crisis. Evans expanded on his criticism in article "Italy and Dalmatia" published by "The Times" on 27 April. Evans was joined by historians Robert Seton-Watson and Wickham Steed by describing the Italian claims as absurd and Grey's policies as unjust. Grey responded by reiterating that in the event of victory in the war, Serbia would receive territories from Austria-Hungary allowing its enlargement.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: In the final weeks before entering the war, internal struggle took place in Italy. National fervour was whipped up by speeches of Gabrielle D'Annunzio – calling for war as a measure of national worth and inciting violence against neutralists and the former Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti who favoured neutrality. This period became known as the "radiant days".


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: On 22 May 1915, the Italian government decided to launch the Alpine Front by declaring war against Austria-Hungary alone. This ignored the requirement set out in Article 2 to wage war against all the Central Powers. France accused Italy of violating the Treaty of London, and Russia speculated on the potential existence of a non-aggression agreement between Italy and Germany. Lack of preparation of the army was cited as the decision for the non-compliance with the treaty. Failure to declare war on other Central Powers, especially Germany, led to isolation of Italy among the Entente powers. Following pressure from the Entente and internal political struggle, war was declared on the Ottoman Empire on 20 August. Italy did not declare war on Germany until 27 August 1916. Italy was nearly militarily defeated by the Central Powers in 1917, at the Battle of Caporetto. Following a major retreat, the Italian forces managed to recover and mount a comeback a year later in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto at the cost of 600,000 dead, social unrest in the country and a badly damaged economy. Under the provisions of the Armistice of Villa Giusti, Italy was allowed to occupy Austro-Hungarian territory promised to her under the Treaty of London – parts of which were also claimed by the diplomatically unrecognised State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Italian troops began to move into those areas on 3 November 1918, entered Rijeka on 17 November and were stopped before Ljubljana by city-organised defence including a battalion of Serbian prisoners of war.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The entry of Italy into the war did not entice Bulgaria to join the Entente as it became more cautious regarding further developments after early British and French setbacks at Gallipoli. Following the German capture of Kaunas in Lithuania in late June during the Russian retreat, Bulgaria became convinced the Entente would lose the war. In August, the Entente powers sent a note to Pašić, promising territorial gains in exchange for territorial concessions in Vardar Macedonia to Bulgaria. The note promised Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syrmia, Bačka, the Adriatic Coast from Cape Planka to the point 10 kilometres southeast from Dubrovnik, Dalmatian islands not assigned to Italy, and Slavonia if it was captured by the Entente militarily. On Sonnino's request, Pašić was not offered Central Croatia. Pašić agreed, offering to cede to Bulgaria a part of Vardar Macedonia largely along the lines agreed in 1912 at the end of the First Balkan War but asked for further territorial gains – by addition of Central Croatia and Banat. The Slovene Lands not promised to Italy appeared to be meant to remain in Austria-Hungary. On 6 October, Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and attacked Serbia five days later.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Partition of the Ottoman Empire was discussed by the Entente powers at two conferences in London in January and February 1917, and in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in April 1917. While it was apparent that the Italian interests were clashing with the British and the French, Italian representatives insisted on fulfilment of the promise given under the 1915 Treaty of London in the region of Antalya. To reinforce proportionality of Italian gains to those of their allies, the Italians added Konya and Adana vilayets to the claim. Most of the Italian demands were accepted in the Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. The French required that the Russia confirm the agreement though – which proved impossible following the Russian Revolution.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Provisions of the Treaty of London were a major point of dispute between Italy and the remaining Entente powers at the Paris Peace Conference. The chief Italian representatives, Prime Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and Sonnino demanded enforcement of the Treaty of London relying on application of the security principle, and annexation of Rijeka on the basis of self-determination. The British and the French would not publicly endorse any claims exceeding those afforded by the treaty while privately holding Italy deserved little because of its reserved attitude towards Germany in early stages of the war.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The French and the British let the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, hold Italian ambitions in check in the Adriatic by advocating self-determination of the area in accordance with point nine of his Fourteen Points. Wilson deemed the Treaty of London a symbol of perfidy of European diplomacy. He held the treaty invalid by application of the legal doctrine of clausula rebus sic stantibus on account of fundamental changes of circumstances following the breakup of Austria-Hungary. While the British and the French representatives remained passive on the issue, Wilson published a manifesto explaining his principles and appealing for sense of justice among Italians on 24 April 1919. Orlando and Sonnino left Paris in protest and were celebrated in Italy as champions of national honour. Even after their return on 7 May, they refused to take any initiative expecting a conciliatory offer from the Allies. In absence of the Italian delegation, the French and the British decided to annul the Agreement of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne for lack of Russian consent and not to honour any Italian claims in Asia Minor or Africa.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Orlando and Sonnino held different positions regarding the eastern Adriatic shore claims. Orlando was prepared to give up on Dalmatia except Zadar and Šibenik while insisting on annexing Rijeka. Sonnino held the opposite view. This led to adoption of a widely publicised slogan of "Pact of London plus Fiume" – and demanding the London Treaty promises and Rijeka becoming the matter of Italian national honour. Ultimately, Italian gains on the eastern Adriatic shore were limited to the Julian March, Istria, and several islands. Rijeka was assigned the status of an independent city – following negotiations between Orlando and Trumbić. Italian gains included corrections of the Treaty of London borders around Tarvisio to give Italy a direct rail link with Austria. In Dalmatia, the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George only supported a free-city status for Zadar and Šibenik, while French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau only supported such a status for Zadar. In the secret Venizelos–Tittoni agreement, Italy renounced its claims over the Dodecanese Islands except for Rhodes in favour of Greece while the two countries agreed to support each other's claims in partition of Albania.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Orlando's and Sonnino's inability to secure the territory promised by the Treaty of London or the city of Rijeka produced a sense that Italy was losing the peace. Patriotic fervour gave way to nationalistic grievance and the government was seen as incapable of defending national interests. Orlando's successor as Prime Minister, Francesco Saverio Nitti, decided to pull out occupying Italian troops from Rijeka and hand the city over to the inter-Allied military command. That prompted D'Annunzio to lead a force consisting of veterans and rebelling soldiers (with the support of regular troops deployed in the border area) in what became known as the "Impresa di Fiume" to the successful capture of Rijeka. D'Annunzio declared the Italian Regency of Carnaro in the city; its system of government influenced the development of Fascism. It became a model for an alternative parliamentary order sought by the Fascists.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: The "Impresa di Fiume" brought about the fall of the Nitti government under pressure from the Italian Socialist Party, D'Annunzio, and Benito Mussolini. Nitti's successor Giolitti and "democratic renouncers" of Dalmatian heritage were next criticised by the nationalists. D'Annunzio formulated the charge in the slogan "Victory of ours, you shall not be mutilated", referencing the promise of Dalmatia given in the Treaty of London, failure to annex the "utterly Italian" city of Rijeka, and elusive Adriatic domination as rendering Italian participation in the war meaningless. His position thus gave rise to the myth of the mutilated victory.


title: Treaty of London (1915)

text: Following the , Albanian forces compelled evacuation of the garrison deployed to Vlorë in the course of the 1920 Vlora War. Only Sazan Island was kept by Italy. On 22 July, Italy renounced the Venizelos–Tittoni agreement and guaranteed Albanian independence within its 1913 borders instead. Italy directly contacted the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes regarding a compromise on their borders on the eastern Adriatic shores. The border was settled by the Treaty of Rapallo, assigning Italy Istria and the Julian March as well as the city of Zadar as an Italian enclave in Dalmatia, along with a number of islands. Giolitti had the Italian Navy drive D'Annunzio from Rijeka, and the city became the Free State of Fiume under provisions of the Treaty of Rapallo. It comprised settlement of the border awarding Italy territory on the Snežnik Plateau north of Rijeka and a strip of land between the city and Italian-controlled Istria. The Treaty of Rapallo nonetheless added 350,000 Slovenes and Croats to the population of Italy.


title: Star network

text: A star network is an implementation of a spoke–hub distribution paradigm in computer networks. In a star network, every host is connected to a central hub. In its simplest form, one central hub acts as a conduit to transmit messages. The star network is one of the most common computer network topologies.


title: Star network

text: The hub and hosts, and the transmission lines between them, form a graph with the topology of a star. Data on a star network passes through the hub before continuing to its destination. The hub manages and controls all functions of the network. It also acts as a repeater for the data flow.


title: Star network

text: The star topology reduces the impact of a transmission line failure by independently connecting each host to the hub. Each host may thus communicate with all others by transmitting to, and receiving from, the hub. The failure of a transmission line linking any host to the hub will result in the isolation of that host from all others, but the rest of the network will be unaffected.


title: Star network

text: The star configuration is commonly used with twisted pair cable and optical fiber cable. However, it can also be used with coaxial cable as in, for example, a video router.


title: Padmarajan

text: P. Padmarajan (23 May 1945 – 23 January 1991) was an Indian film maker, screenwriter and author who was known for his works in Malayalam literature and Malayalam cinema. He was the founder of a new school of film making in Malayalam cinema, along with Bharathan and K. G. George, in the 1980s.


title: Padmarajan

text: Padmarajan was known for his detailed screenwriting and expressive direction style and made some of the landmark motion pictures in Malayalam cinema. He won the Kerala Sahithya Academy Award in 1972 for his novel "Nakshathrangale Kaval". He made his directorial debut in 1979 with "Peruvazhiyambalam" which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam. He won his second National Award in 1986 with "Thinkalaazhcha Nalla Divasam". Padmarajan had won six Kerala State Film Awards which includes two awards for Best Story in 1978, 1979 and two awards for Best Screenplay in 1984 and 1986. He has written screenplay for thirty seven movies among which eighteen he directed. The screenplay for all the movies he directed were written by Padmarajan himself. "Njan Gandharvan" was his last movie and within a week of its release, he died at Kozhikode due to sudden cardiac arrest.


title: Padmarajan

text: Padmarajan was born on 23 May 1945 in Muthukulam near Haripad in Alappuzha, which was then under the princely state of Travancore. He was the sixth son of Thundathil Anantha Padmanabha Pillai and Njavarakkal Devaki Amma. After early schooling at Muthukulam, he studied at Mahatma Gandhi College, Thiruvananthapuram and University College, Thiruvananthapuram, graduating with a B.Sc. in chemistry (1963). Subsequently, he learned Sanskrit from the scholar Cheppad Achyutha Warrier at Muthukulam. He then joined All India Radio, Trichur (1965), starting as a programme announcer, and later settled at Poojappura, Trivandrum(1968); he would remain at All India Radio until 1986 when his involvement in films prompted him to retire voluntarily.


title: Padmarajan

text: Padmarajan's stories mainly deal with deceit, murder, romance, mystery, passion, jealousy, libertinism, anarchism, individualism, social structure, human psychology and life of peripheral elements of society. Some of them are considered among the best in Malayalam literature. The screenplay for all the movies he directed were written by Padmarajan himself. His first novel published in 1971 titled "Nakshathrangale Kaaval" (The Stars Alone Guard Me) won the Kerala Sahithya Academy award (1972).


title: Padmarajan

text: He entered the world of Malayalam cinema by writing the screenplay for Prayanam (1975) which was Bharathan's directorial debut and had the cinematography by Balu Mahendra. Rappadikalude Gatha (1978) was his third movie as a screenwriter which won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Story in 1978. His next work as a screenwriter was the classic erotic film Rathinirvedam (1978) which is regarded as a landmark in Indian film history.


title: Padmarajan

text: After writing screenplay for three more films, Padmarajan made his directional debut in 1979 with "Peruvazhiyambalam" ("The Halfway House"). It won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam and was included in IBN Live's list of 100 greatest Indian films of all time. His next directed Oridathoru Phayalvaan ("There Lived a Wrestler") in 1981. Padmarajan also did the editing of this movie. It won the award for best script at the Kuala Lumpur International Film Festival and a gold medal at the Asian Film Festival. In 1982 he directed Novemberinte Nashtam which was critically acclaimed. Padmarajan's Koodevide? (1983) won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Film with Popular Appeal and Aesthetic Value. In 1984, he wrote the screenplay for I. V Sasi's Kanamarayathu, which won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Screenplay. In 1986 he directed Desatanakkili Karayarilla, which is one of the first Indian films that explored womance on screen. He won the second National Award with Thinkalazhcha Nalla Divasam in 1985. Padmarajan's Kariyilakkattu Pole (1986) is considered one of the classic investigative thrillers in Malayalam. The same year he directed Arappatta Kettiya Gramathil which was a failure at box office. The plot of the movie which revolves around a brothel and the sex workers in it eventually developed a cult following.


title: Padmarajan

text: With Mohanlal and Mammootty in the lead role, Padmarajan directed some of the classic cult movies in Malayalam such as "Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal" (1986), "Arappatta Kettiya Gramathil" (1986)", Kariyilakkattu Pole" (1986), "Thoovanathumbikal" (1987) and "Season" (1989). Thoovanathumbikal was ranked eighth by IBN Live in its list of greatest Indian films of all time and is considered one of the best romantic movies ever made in Malayalam. "Aparan" (1988) is his another classic mystery psychological thriller which also marked the acting debut of Jayaram. It won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Screenplay in 1988. Moonnam Pakkam (1988) is the another classic Padmarajan movie which was critically acclaimed. His 1990 movie Innale is mainly noted for the performance of Suresh Gopi. Padmarajan's last movie Njan Gandharvan (1991) was a failure at box office. But the film later developed a cult following because of its aesthetics and storytelling. Within a week of its release, Padmarajan died at a hotel in Kozhikode. In total Padmarajan has written screenplay for 37 films among 18 of which he directed.


title: Padmarajan

text: Together with Bharathan and K. G. George, he successfully laid the foundation for a school of Malayalam cinema that strove to tread a middle ground by striking a fine balance. The term "Parallel film" is usually used to describe Padmarajan's style of film making. Along with Bharathan, he displayed mastery in handling sexuality on the screen, hitherto less known in Malayalam cinema.


title: Padmarajan

text: He was quite adept in spotting talent, and introduced many fresh faces who would later make their mark in Indian cinema, including Jayaram("Aparan"), Ashokan ("Peruvazhiyambalam"), "Rasheed" ("Oridathoru Phayalvaan"), Rahman ("Koodevide"), Ramachandran ("Novemberinte Nashtam"), Ajayan ("Moonnam Pakkam"). Also artists like Nitish Bharadwaj ("Njan Gandharvan"), Suhasini ("Koodevide"); Shari ("Namukku Parkkan Munthirithoppukal") were introduced to Malayalam screen by him.


title: Padmarajan

text: He coaxed sparkling and inspired performances from many actors, such as Bharath Gopi, Mammootty, Mohanlal, Jayaram, Shobana, Sumalatha, Karamana Janardanan Nair, Rahman, Jagathy Sreekumar, Suresh Gopi, Thilakan, Nedumudi Venu and Ashokan; indeed, Thilakan's rendition in "Moonnam Pakkam" is considered one of the best performance in his career. His association with Mohanlal and Mammootty was well noted especially because their films broke the conventional concepts prevailing during that time. He also aided in establishing, to a fair degree, the fame of other directors such as Bharathan, I. V. Sasi, and Mohan, through his association with them. His collaboration with Bharathan as a scriptwriter is considered to have produced remarkable works in Malayalam cinema. His assistants who went on to direct films independently include "Thoppil Ajayan" ("Perumthachan"), Suresh Unnithan's ("Jaathakam", "Raadhaamaadhavam"), and Blessy's ("Kaazhcha", "Thanmaathra", the latter adapted from Padmarajan's short story "Orma".


title: Padmarajan

text: Padmarajan is celebrated for his unparalleled attention to detail in his screenplays. Most of his films portrayed human relationships and emotions. Many of his films have haunting climaxes, most of them not commonly portrayed in Malayalam movies. His characters are portrayed with sensitivity and intensity on the screen. The landscape is also the major part of the Padmarajan's craft in film making. His thesis were well crafted in his films. Padmarajan’s films explore the features of the landscape naturally.


title: Padmarajan

text: Padmarajan's screenplays had such hitherto-unheard of features and subjects – such as casting rain as a character in "Thoovanathumbikal" ("Dragonflies in the drizzle"), homosexual love in "Desatanakkili Karayarilla" ("Migratory Birds Don't Cry"), unusual climax (by traditional standards) in "Namukku Parkkan Munthiri Thoppukal" ("Vineyards for us to dwell") and "Oridathoru Phayalvaan" ("There Lived a Wrestler"). Forbidden love and characters that strive to rise above the limitations of middle-class Malayali society of the seventies and eighties is a recurring theme in many of his works. Many of his films bear the mark of his romanticism.


title: Padmarajan

text: Padmarajan's wife Radhalakshmi is from Chittur in Palakkad. Radhalakshmi was his colleague at AIR before their marriage in 1970. Radhalakshmi has written her reminiscences about him in her book "Padmarajan Entaey Gandharvan" ("Padmarajan, my celestial lover"). Their son, P. Ananthapadmanabhan, is a writer.


title: Padmarajan

text: Padmarajan died suddenly at Hotel Paramount Towers in Calicut in the early hours of 24 January 1991, while he was visiting a cinema playing his last film "Njan Gandharvan". The cause of death was a massive cardiac arrest.


title: Padmarajan

text: Padmarajan Puraskaram or Padmarajan Award is an annual film/literary award instituted by the Padmarajan Memorial Trust. It carries a plaque and a cash award of 10,000. The award is given in two categories:


title: The Family Chantel

text: The Family Chantel is an American reality television show that airs on TLC and follows the adventures of African-American Chantel Everett, her Dominican husband Pedro Jimeno, and their immediate families as they navigate an intercultural marriage. It is the first spin-off series of "90 Day Fiancé" that follows an individual couple.


title: The Family Chantel

text: Season one premiered on July 22, 2019. The series was renewed for a second season, which premiered on October 12, 2020. Season three premiered on October 11, 2021. Season four premiered on June 6, 2022.


title: The Family Chantel

text: After Chantel and Pedro fell in love on Chantel's trip to the Dominican Republic and secretly got engaged, Pedro then went to Atlanta, Georgia on a K-1 visa, where he and Chantel now live. Their story is documented on season four of "90 Day Fiancé". The couple later starred on "". "The Family Chantel" follows Chantel and Pedro as they work through family drama.


title: The Family Chantel

text: The show stars Pedro Jimeno, Chantel Everett, Karen Everett, Thomas Everett, Riverknight Everett, and Winter Everett. Pedro's mother and sister, Lydia Morel and Nicole Jimeno, also appear on the show.


title: Next Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election

text: The Next Maharashtra Legislative assembly election is scheduled to be held in or before October 2024 to elect all 288 members of the state's Legislative Assembly.


text: The previous Assembly elections were held in October 2019. The Bharatiya Janata Party led alliance NDA got a clear majority to form government but due to internal conflict, Shiv Sena left the alliance (NDA) and form a new alliance with Nationalist Congress Party and Indian National Congress called MVA and form the state government, with Uddhav Thackeray becoming chief minister. After 2022 Maharashtra political crisis, Eknath Shinde along with 40 MLAs formed government with BJP. Eknath Shinde became the new chief minister.


title: Rosanna Davison

text: Rosanna Diane Davison (born 17 April 1984) is an Irish actress, singer, writer, model and beauty queen who was crowned Miss World 2003. She is the daughter of musician Chris de Burgh, and the song "For Rosanna" was written by her father for his 1986 album, "Into the Light" in her honour.


title: Rosanna Davison

text: Born in County Dublin, Ireland, Davison's primary school education was at Aravon School, in County Wicklow. She then attended Rathdown School in Glenageary, County Dublin. She was class prefect before graduating and completing her leaving certificate examinations in 2002.


title: Rosanna Davison

text: In August 2003, she entered the Miss Ireland finals in Dublin, and winning the competition, found herself competing for the title of Miss World. December 2003 saw Davison, along with 106 other contestants, compete in the Miss World competition in Sanya, China. Rosanna went on to win the crown and is the first Irish entrant to win the Miss World title since it started in 1951. During Davison's reign, she visited the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, China, and Sri Lanka.


title: Rosanna Davison

text: From October 2013, she started presenting slots on LFC TV, the dedicated television channel for Liverpool F.C.


title: Rosanna Davison

text: Davison has been in a relationship with Wesley Quirke since 2006. They were engaged in 2013 and wed in the summer of 2014. They had their honeymoon in the Seychelles. They have one daughter, and twin sons.


title: Rosanna Davison

text: Rosanna followed a vegetarian diet for more than a decade but recently transitioned to a vegan diet to propel training for the Galway Ironman, an event that consists of a half-marathon, 90-kilometre bike ride and 1.9-kilometre swim. In 2013, she posed naked in a PETA ad campaign promoting a vegan diet.


title: Rosanna Davison

text: In February 2015 she signed a publishing deal with Gill Books for her first cookbook, "Eat Yourself Beautiful", which was released in August 2015 and went on to be a best-seller.


title: Adaptations of The Most Dangerous Game

text: "The Most Dangerous Game" is a highly influential 1924 short story by Richard Connell. It tells the story of big-game hunter Sanger Rainsford becoming the hunted when trapped on a jungle island owned by General Zaroff, a Russian aristocrat who has turned to hunting man after growing bored of hunting animals. This story has been adapted into many works across many forms of media, including film, radio, television, and others.


title: Adaptations of The Most Dangerous Game

text: The story has also served as an inspiration for books and films like "Seventh Victim", "Battle Royale", "Predator", "Predators", "The Running Man", "The Pest" and "The Hunger Games".


title: Gabe Saporta

text: Gabriel Eduardo Saporta (born October 11, 1979) is an Uruguayan-American musician and entrepreneur. From the years 2005 until 2015, he was the lead vocalist and founder of the electropop band Cobra Starship. On November 10, 2015, after nearly ten years and two "Billboard" Hot 100 top 10 hits, Saporta announced that the band would stop its work, and that he would be focusing on helping other musicians through his new venture, The Artist Group. Prior to Cobra Starship, Saporta had been the lead singer, bassist, and lyricist for the punk band Midtown.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: Gabe Saporta was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. His family is Jewish; his grandparents and great-grandparents escaped Europe during World War II and settled in Uruguay. When he was four years old, he moved with his parents to New York City. At an early age, Saporta developed a passion for music, which became his escape and salvation from a tumultuous upbringing. Saporta fell in love with music because of its ability to deliver messages and connect people. His first love was hip hop, but soon after he discovered punk rock and started going to shows to see bands such as Gorilla Biscuits, Fugazi, and Pavement, it was not long before Saporta, along with his brother Ricky, started to put on his own shows and put out his own records.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: When he was 16 years old, Saporta "joined his first band-- the appropriately titled Humble Beginnings" as a bass player. While in college at Rutgers University, he started the pop punk band Midtown. As the vocalist, lyricist, and bassist in Midtown, Saporta attracted widespread attention. The group released one EP and three LP albums: "The Sacrifice of Life", "Save the World, Lose the Girl", "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" and "Forget What You Know", respectively.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: Midtown encountered legal troubles with its first label after releasing its second album. It was during this time that Saporta who "was quite the businessman" decided he wanted to understand the music business from the other side and started managing a band named Armor For Sleep. As Armor For Sleep became successful, Saporta made a deal to merge his fledgling company into Crush Management, who would also manage Midtown. Crush later went on to launch Cobra Starship with Saporta.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: After disbanding, Midtown developed a cult-like following. In response to this renewed interest, Midtown reunited for a secret show in Brooklyn and to headline the Skate & Surf Festival in Asbury Park, NJ in 2014. In 2022, Midtown announced several dates in support of My Chemical Romance in the fall of that year, alongside two headlining shows at the Starland Ballroom.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: After Midtown, Gabe Saporta wanted to start a project that was more light-hearted and whose music could incorporate diverse electronic influences. The idea for Cobra Starship came to him during a trip in the Arizona desert in 2005. Saporta produced and recorded the first Cobra album by himself with S*A*M & Sluggo. An early helpful development for Cobra Starship was when Midtown's management company set Saporta up with an opportunity to record a song for the soundtrack to the 2006 action film "Snakes on a Plane", which became a minor hit.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: By 2007, Cobra Starship was a full band and started touring the country. Cobra's eclectic sound allowed them to tour with acts as diverse as 30 Seconds to Mars, Fall Out Boy, and Travie McCoy. They also performed with many electronic acts such as Girl Talk and Kaskade.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: From 2006 to 2014, Cobra Starship released four full-length albums, and scored two double-platinum Top 10 hits ("Good Girls Go Bad" and "You Make Me Feel"), as well as one gold record for "Hot Mess". Their single "Good Girls Go Bad" features guest vocals by Leighton Meester. Coincidentally, Saporta made his acting debut a few years later in the season 5 finale of "Gossip Girl".


title: Gabe Saporta

text: In 2012, Cobra Starship was the main support for Justin Bieber on his entire South American stadium tour.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: On his Beats1 Radio show in November 2015, Gabe Saporta announced that he would no longer be performing or putting out new music. Saporta and business associate Mike Carden have announced the formation of a talent management firm, T∆G // The Artist Group, which is expected to commence operations in the first quarter of 2016. Saporta has explained that now he wants to work behind the scenes and help younger artists see their dreams come true.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: In 2022, Gabe Saporta joined beatBread's Artist Advocacy Council, which provides "critical advice" to the independent music funding platform. Saporta joins Mike Caren (Artist Partner Group), Dave Dederer (founding member of The Presidents of the United States of America), Diana Rodriguez (Criteria Entertainment), Kei Henderson (Third & Hayden), Ray Daniels (Raydar, LLC), and Nick Jarjour (Hipgnosis).


title: Gabe Saporta

text: On June 5, 2010, MTV aired an episode of "When I Was 17", which focused on Gabe Saporta and discussed his life as a teenager. Saporta has hosted and been a correspondent for various music-related TV shows including being a presenter at the VMAs, a US correspondent for The EMAs and BBC1, and hosting several countdown shows on Fuse.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: In March 2013, Gabe Saporta was featured on "Make It Out This Town", the first single by American rapper Eve's fourth album "Lip Lock". In 2015, Saporta started working with Beats1 Radio as on-air talent and show host.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: Saporta's father, Diego Saporta, studied medicine and became a physician in Montevideo. Disenchanted with the then-ineffective and somewhat corrupt health care system in Uruguay, among other reasons, the elder Saporta elected to leave the country with his family in the early 1980s. As a result, he undertook his medical training for a second time in the United States. Gabe Saporta has described his father's perseverance as an inspiration.


title: Gabe Saporta

text: In May 2013, Saporta and Erin Fetherston got married. In March 2016, the couple welcomed their first child, a son.


title: Amanat (2021 TV series)

text: Amanat is a 2021 Pakistani television series produced by Samina Humayun Saeed and Sana Shahnawaz under banner of Next Level Entertainment in collaboration with Six Sigma Plus. It features Imran Abbas, Urwa Hocane, Saboor Aly in lead roles and Haroon Shahid, Srha Asghar and Gohar Rasheed in supporting roles. It airs weekly on ARY Digital starting from its premier on 21 September 2021.


title: Amanat (2021 TV series)

text: Zaraar and Zunaira are in love and about to be married. Zaraar's sister Samra and Zunaira's brother Raheel are married and awaiting rukhsati. Zunaira is a spoilt brat and a pampered child. She is spoiled by her family and does not care about anyone but herself. Only Zaraar can handle Zooni's mood swings. Firdous worries about Samra hence keeps Zooni happy.


title: Amanat (2021 TV series)

text: Mehar is in college and only 2 exams are left. But her uncle doesn't let her go to give exam as he says that being his niece is enough for her. Her auntie insists her uncle but he doesn't oblige in fact arranges his mentally retarded son Qaisar's marriage with Mehar. Her auntie gets Mehar married to her nephew Fawad and make them run. Fawad turns to his college friend Zaraar for help.


title: Amanat (2021 TV series)

text: Years ago on the way to give their exam, Zaraar hits a kid by mistake with Fawad sitting on the back seat. They take the kid to the hospital. While waiting for the parents of the kid to arrive Fawad asks Zaraar to leave saying he will handle everything. Zaraar feels indebted to him as he saved his career.


title: Amanat (2021 TV series)

text: Fawad turns up at Zaraar's place which his company allotted to him in Islamabad. Fawad goes to the market to buy credit for his phone number. There some mobile snatchers see him, take his phone and murder him.


title: Amanat (2021 TV series)

text: Zaraar looks for him but couldn't find him. Next day is his mehendi so he takes Mehar with him to Karachi as he considers her his responsibility now. Zuneira and her family doubts Mehar and his relationship. Meanwhile Zaraar gets to know that Fawad has died. Zaraar's brother Junaid also creates misunderstanding between Zaraar and Meher. On the day of the wedding, Meher's uncle arrives at the venue and tries to take her with him. Zaraar tells him that he is married to Meher. Malik shoots at Meher. Zaraar takes her to the hospital. The guests leave. Zuneira's family says they will not take Samra with them. Junaid comes forward to marry Zuneira. Zuneira agrees to marry Junaid with ulterior motives.


title: Amanat (2021 TV series)

text: Safdar hears Zaraar and Mehar talk and finally everyone gets to know that they are not married and do not have an affair. Safdar gets them married anyhow. Zuneira keeps on insulting Samra, Mehar, Junaid and Firdous. She manipulates her family and Junaid. Samra is pregnant. She falsely blames Junaid of beating her in front of the entire family. Junaid gets to know her truth. Mehar and Zaraar starts to love each other. Mehar is pregnant. Zuneira befriends her and takes her to her doctor friend and gives her wrong medicines. Junaid gets to know about the wrong medicines and confronts her. Junaid also changes Mehar's medicines. Zuniera creates misunderstanding in the family regarding Junaid and Mehar. She tricks Mehar into going to Junaid's room when everyone including Samr and Raheel are present. Then she creates a scene. Zaraar doesn't trust Mehar. Junaid runs out of the house when no one listens to him. Firdous throws Mehar out of the house. Mehar runs into the doctor and calls her aunt and goes home. Zuneira tries to get Zaraar's sympathy. Junaid stays in a hotel overnight. He runs into a female friend outside and she decides to help him get settled in UK and get a job. Zuneira keeps portraying herself as helpless to gain Zaraar's sympathy. Mehar faints and gets to know about her pregnancy. Raheel asks Junaid to divorce Zuneira, fearing for herself and the baby, Samra faints is taken to the hospital. Saeeda takes Mehar to Zaraar to talk to him but Zuneira doesn't let her meet him and tells her that the baby will be proof that she is characterless. Zuneira finds UK visa and creates a scene.


title: Amanat (2021 TV series)

text: In October 2020, producers Samina Humayun Saeed and Sana Shahnawaz revealed the cast and other details of their upcoming project. The serial is directed by Shahid Shafat and written by Rukhsana Nigar, made their second collaboration after "Lamha Lamha Zindagi" (2010).


title: History of Moldova

text: The history of Moldova can be traced to the 1350s, when the Principality of Moldavia, the medieval precursor of modern Moldova and Romania, was founded. The principality was a vassal of the Ottoman Empire from 1538 until the 19th century. In 1812, following one of several Russian-Turkish wars, the eastern half of the principality, Bessarabia, was annexed by the Russian Empire. In 1918, Bessarabia briefly became independent as the Moldavian Democratic Republic and, following the decision of the Parliament (Sfatul Țării), united with Romania. During the Second World War it was occupied by the Soviet Union which reclaimed it from Romania. It joined the Union as the Moldavian ASSR, until the dissolution of the USSR. In 1991 the country declared independence as the Republic of Moldova.


title: History of Moldova

text: In 2010 Oldowan flint tools were discovered at Dubasari on the lower Dniester that are 800,000–1.2 million years old demonstrating that early humans were present in Moldova during the early paleolithic. During prehistoric times there was a succession of cultures that flourished in the land of present-day Moldova from the end of the ice age up through the Neolithic Age, the Copper Age, the Bronze Age, and the beginning of the Iron Age, when historical records begin to be made about the people who lived in these lands. These cultures included the Linear Pottery culture (ca. 5500–4500 BC), the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture (ca. 5500–2750 BC), and the Yamna culture (ca. 3600–2300 BC). During this period of time many innovations and advancements were made, including the practice of agriculture, animal husbandry, kiln-fired pottery, weaving, and the formation of large settlements and towns. Indeed, during the Cucuteni-Trypillian Culture, some of the settlements in this area were larger than anywhere on Earth at the time, and they predate even the earliest towns of Sumer in the Mesopotamia. The area, stretching from the Dnieper River in the east to the Iron Gate of the Danube in the west (which included the land now in Moldova), had a civilization as highly advanced as anywhere else on Earth during the Neolithic period.


title: History of Moldova

text: The question as to why this area did not remain at the forefront of technological and social development lies in the subsequent history of its geographical location. At the end of the mostly peaceful Neolithic period, this area became a highway for invaders from the east moving into Europe. By the time the historical written record begins to cover this area, it has already seen a number of invasions sweep over it, leaving social and political upheaval in their wake. This trend was to continue on a fairly regular basis up until the 20th century. With so much destruction, it was difficult for the residents of this area to recover from each successive invasion before encountering the next.


title: History of Moldova

text: In recorded antiquity Moldova's territory was inhabited by several tribes, mainly by Akatziroi, and at different periods also by Bastarnae, Scythians and Sarmatians. Between the 1st and 7th centuries AD, the south was intermittently under the Roman, then Byzantine Empires. Due to its strategic location on a route between Asia and Europe, Moldova was repeatedly invaded by, among others, the Goths, Huns, Avars, Magyars, Pechenegs, Cumans, and the Mongols. The First Bulgarian Empire ruled the area or parts of it from the late 7th century/early 8th century until the late 10th century, the Principality of Halych in the 12th century and the Second Bulgarian Empire from the early 13th century with interruptions until the early 14th century. The colonists of the Genoa Republic also left a trace in this region. The Hypatian Chronicle mentioned the name of the Bolokhoveni (the 13th century) a purportedly Romanian population connected to Voloch, the East Slavic exonym of the Romanians. Alexandru V. Boldur identified the Bolohoveni as Romanians.


title: History of Moldova

text: The medieval Principality of Moldavia was established in 1359 and covered the so-called Carpathian–Danube–Dniester area, stretching from Transylvania in the west to the Dniester River in the east. Its territory comprised the present-day territory of the Republic of Moldova, the eastern 8 of the 41 counties of Romania (a region still called "Moldova" by the local population), the Chernivtsi oblast and Budjak region of Ukraine. Its nucleus was in the northwestern part, the "Țara de Sus" ("Upper Land"), part of which later became known as Bukovina. The name of the principality originates from the Moldova River.


title: History of Moldova

text: The foundation of Moldavia is attributed to the Vlach (an old exonym for Romanian) noblemen Dragoş of Bedeu, from the Voivodeship of Maramureș, who had been ordered in 1343 (1285 after other sources) by the Hungarian king to establish a defense for the historic Kingdom of Hungary against the Tatars, and Bogdan I of Cuhea, another Romanian from Maramureș, who became the first independent prince of Moldavia, when he rejected Hungarian authority in 1359. Bogdan I left his lands from Maramureș with his army and part of the Romanian population, by crossing the mountains to the east, after entering in conflict with the Hungarian rulers.


title: History of Moldova

text: Moldova also had rich political relations with Poland. In 1387, the great hospodar of Moldova, Peter I, paid a feudal tribute to the Polish king. For the next one hundred and fifty years, relations between Moldova and Poland were periodically friendly, and occasionally conflict.


title: History of Moldova

text: The greatest Moldavian personality was prince Stephen the Great, who ruled from 1457 to 1504. He fought the Hungarian Kingdom, the Polish Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire, with success, for the most part of his rule.


title: History of Moldova

text: Stephen III was succeeded by increasingly weaker princes, and in 1538 Moldavia became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, to which it owed a percentage of the internal revenue, that in time rose to 10%. Moldavia was forbidden to have foreign relations to the detriment of the Ottoman Empire (although at times the country managed to circumvent this interdiction), but was allowed internal autonomy, including sole authority over foreign trade. Turks were legally forbidden to own land or build religious establishments in Moldavia. Prince Vasile Lupu had secured the Moldavian throne in 1634 after a series of complicated intrigues, and managed to hold it for twenty years. Lupu was a capable administrator and a brilliant financier, and soon was the richest man in the Christian East. Judiciously placed gifts kept him on good terms with the Ottoman authorities.


title: History of Moldova

text: In the 18th century, the territory of Moldavia often became a transit or war zone during conflicts between the Ottomans, Austrians, and Russians. In 1774, following a victory in a war against the Ottomans, Russia occupied Christian Moldavia, still a vassal of the Ottoman Empire at the time. In 1775, the Habsburg monarchy annexed ca 11% of the territory of Moldavia, which became known as Bukovina. By the Treaty of Bucharest following the Russo-Turkish War (1806–1812), Russia had annexed further 50% of its territory, which became known as Bessarabia.


title: History of Moldova

text: With the notable exception of Transnistria, the territory of today's Republic of Moldova covers most of the historical region of Bessarabia. Until 1812, the term "Bessarabia" referred to the region between the Danube, Dniester, the Black Sea shores, and the Upper Trajan Wall, slightly larger than what today is called Budjak. By the Treaty of Bucharest of May 28, 1812 between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire — concluding the Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812 — the latter annexed the eastern half of the Principality of Moldavia. That region was then called "Bessarabia".


title: History of Moldova

text: Initially, after being annexed by the Russian Empire, Bessarabia enjoyed a period of local autonomy until 1828. Organized as an imperial district ("oblast"), it was governed by a "provisional government" with two departments: a civil administration and a religious administration, the former led by the aged Moldavian boyar Scarlat Sturdza, the latter – by the archbishop Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni. On top of these was the Russian military administration of Governor General Harting. However, already in 1813, the civil administration was handed to the Governor General. In 1818, reform-minded Russian tsar Alexander I passed a "Settlement of the establishment of the region of Bessarabia" which divided the legal power between the tsar-appointed Governor General (Bakhmetiev) and a 10-member "High Council of the Region" with 4 members appointed by the tsar and 6 elected by the local nobility. In lieu of the older 12 "lands", the region was divided into 6, later 9 counties. In 1828 however, the conservative tsar Nikolai I abrogated the "Settlement" and passed a new regulation which endowed the Governor General with supreme power, with the regional council having only advisory functions and meeting twice a year. Article 63 of the regulation stated that all administrative personnel must know and perform their duties in Russian. Nevertheless, Romanian language would occasionally appear in documents up to 1854.


title: History of Moldova

text: At the end of the Crimean War, in 1856, by the Treaty of Paris, the southern parts of Bessarabia (including a part of Budjak) were returned to Moldavia, which organized the territory into the districts of Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail. Consequently, Russia lost access to the Danube river. In 1859, the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia united and formed the Romanian United Principalities, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire.


title: History of Moldova

text: In 1870, the institution of zemstva was instated in the Bessarabian oblast. Cities, communes, counties, and the entire region would elect each a local council representing noblemen, merchants and peasants. They had substantial authority in economic and sanitary areas, including roads, posts, food, public safety and education. On the other hand, political (including justice courts of all levels) and cultural matters remained an exclusive domain of the Governor General and were used as a vehicle of Russification. With the accomplishment of these introductions, in 1871, Bessarabia was transformed into a governorate.


title: History of Moldova

text: The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War 1877–1878 and the subsequent signing of the Treaty of Berlin granted independence to Romania. Although the treaty of alliance between Romania and Russia specified that Russia would defend the territorial integrity of Romania and not claim any part of Romania at the end of the war, the southern part of Bessarabia was re-annexed to Russia. In exchange, Romania was given Dobruja, which was at the time part of the Ottoman Empire.


title: History of Moldova

text: Public education was entrusted to the religious establishment of the region, which since 1821 had only Russian archbishops, and later also to the zemstvos. Dimitrie Sulima (Archbishop in 1821–1855), and Antonie Shokotov (1855–1871) allowed the parallel usage of both Romanian and Russian in church, and did not take any measures to infringe upon the linguistic specifics of the region. With the appointment of Pavel Lebedev (1871–1882), the situation changed radically, and the language of the locals was soon purged from the church. To prevent the printing of religious literature in Romanian, Lebedev closed down the printing press in Chișinău, collected from the region and burned the already printed books in Romanian (in the Cyrillic alphabet). The following archbishops Sergey Lapidevsky, Isakyi Polozensky, Neofit Novodchikov eased some of Lebedev's measures to help quell the serious dissatisfaction of the population. The next Archbishop Iakov Pyatnitsky (1898–1904) discovered that his desire to popularize a Christian culture and a moral education faced a language barrier, and in 1900 convinced the Russian High Synod to allow the publication of religious pamphlets in Romanian, while his follower Archbishop Vladimir allowed the printing of books, and from 1908 even of a regular religious journal "Luminătorul" by Constantin Popovici and Gurie Grosu. The last Russian Archbishops, Serafim Chichyagov (1908–1914), Platon (1914–1915) and Anastasius (1915–1918) tried to preserve the privileged status of the Russian language in the church in Bessarabia, but did not introduce any new anti-Romanian measures. In 1918, after the installation of the Romanian administration in Bessarabia, Archbishop Anastasius refused to subordinate his eparchy to the Romanian Orthodox Church, and was forced into exile. The new authorities entrusted the archbishopric to the Bishop Nicodem de Huși from Romania, who appointed a local Archbishop Dionisie Erhan. Then the Clerical Congress on February 21, 1920 elected Gurie Botoșăneanu as the highest church official in Bessarabia, which afterwards was raised from Archbishop to Metropolitan.


title: History of Moldova

text: Under the protection of Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni and Dimitrie Sulima a theological school and a seminary were opened in Chișinău, and public schools throughout the region: in the cities of Chișinău, Hotin, Cetatea Albă, Briceni, Bender, Bălți, Cahul, Soroca, Orhei, at the monasteries of Dobrușa and Hârjauca, and even in several villages (Rezeni, Mereni, Volcineț, Nisporeni, Hârtop). In 1835, the tsarist authorities declared a 7-year deadline to transfer the education from Romanian to Russian. Although the measure was implemented more gradually, since 1867, Romanian was purged entirely from the education. This had the effect of keeping the peasant population of Bessarabia backward, as witnessed by the fact that in 1912 Moldavians had a literacy rate of only 10.5%, lowest among all ethnic groups of the region (63% for Bessarabian Germans, 50% for Bessarabian Jews, 40% for Russians, 31% for Bessarabian Bulgarians), with a record low 1.7% literacy rate for Moldavian women. Of the 1709 primary schools in Bessarabia in 1912, none was in the language of the main ethnic group.


title: History of Moldova

text: After 1812, the newly installed Russian authorities expelled the large Nogai Tatar population of Budjak (Little Tartary), and encouraged the settlement of Moldavians, Wallachians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians and others through various fiscal facilities and exemption from military service. The colonization was generated by the need to better exploit the resources of the land, and by the absence of serfdom in Bessarabia. German colonists from Switzerland (canton Lausanne), France, and Germany (Württemberg) settled in 27 localities (most newly settled) in Budjak, and by 1856 Bessarabian Germans were 42,216. Russian veterans of the 1828–1829 war with the Ottomans were settled in 10 localities in Budjak, and three other localities were settled by Cossacks from Dobrudja (which got there from the Dniepr region some 50 years earlier). Bessarabian Bulgarians and Gagauz arrived from modern eastern Bulgaria as early as the second half of the 18th century. In 1817, they numbered 482 families in 12 localities, in 1856 – 115,000 people in 43 localities. Ukrainians had arrived Bessarabia since before 1812, and already in the 1820s they made up one third of the population of the most northern Hotin county. In the following decades more Ukrainians settled throughout the northern part of Bessarabia from Galicia and Podolia. Jews from Galicia, Podolia and Poland also settled in Bessarabia in the 19th century, but mostly in the cities and fairs; in some of these they eventually became a plurality. In 1856, there were 78,751 Bessarabian Jews and according to the Imperial Russian census of 1897, the capital Kishinev had a Jewish population of 50,000, or 46%, out of a total of approximately 110,000. There was even an attempt by the Russian authorities to create 16 Jewish agricultural colonies, where 10,589 people would settle. However within less than 2 generations, most of them sold the land to the local Moldavians and moved to the cities and fairs. The various population movements saw an increase of the Slavic population to more than a fifth of the total population by 1920, while the proportion of the Moldovan population steadily decreased. In absence of any official records on ethnic distribution until the late 19th century, various figures for the ethnic proportions of the region have been advanced. Thus, in the 1920s Romanian historian Ion Nistor alleged that, at the beginning of the Russian administration, Moldavians represented 86% of the population. While according to official statistics speakers of Moldovan and Romanian accounted for 47.8% in 1897, some authors proposed figures as high as 70% for the beginning of the 20th century.


title: History of Moldova

text: After the Russian Revolution of 1905, a Romanian nationalist movement started to develop in Bessarabia. While it received a setback in 1906–1907, the movement re-emerged even stronger in 1917.


title: History of Moldova

text: To quell the chaos brought about by the Russian revolutions of February and October 1917, a national council, Sfatul Țării, was established in Bessarabia, with 120 members elected in county meetings of peasants, and by political and professional organizations from Bessarabia. On December 15, 1917, the Council proclaimed the Moldavian Democratic Republic, as part of the Russian Republic, then formed the government of Moldavia. With the approval of the Allies and the Russian White general Dmitry Shcherbachev, commander-in-chief of the Russian forces on the Romanian Front, on January 26, 1918, Romanian troops entered Bessarabia, ostensibly as a temporary measure to maintain security, which had deteriorated due to large numbers of deserters from the Russian Army. While Romanian historiography generally asserts the intervention was done on the request of Sfatul Țării, the presence of the Romanian army in Bessarabia was protested by some of the republic's leaders, notably Ion Inculeț, president of "Sfatul Țării" and Pantelimon Erhan, head of the provisional Moldavian executive protesting against it. In particular they feared that big land owners-dominated Romanian Government could use the troops to prevent the envisaged Agrarian reform, a cornerstone priority of the Bessarabian government.


title: History of Moldova

text: After this, the Council declared the independence of the Moldavian Democratic Republic on . Under pressure from the Romanian army, on , Sfatul Țării, by a vote of 86 to 3, with 36 abstentions, approved a conditional Union of Bessarabia with Romania. Conditions included territorial autonomy of Bessarabia, an agrarian reform, respect for human freedoms and general amnesty. Nevertheless, as early as the summer of 1918 the Romanian government began encroaching on the existing forms of local autonomy. Thus, the members of the zemstvos were appointed by royal decree, rather than being elected, as had been the case during the Russian rule. The province was subordinated to a royal-appointed General Commissar, and "Sfatul Țării" was relegated to a consultative position. Furthermore, the state of siege was declared throughout Bessarabia and censorship was instated. Under the pressure of the Romanian central government, worried about the growing dissatisfaction with its administration of the region and the strengthening of the autonomist current, the conditions were nominally dropped by the "Sfatul Țării" in December 1918. The vote was taken in the presence of only 44 of the 125 members, or, according to other sources, 48 of 160; lacking a quorum, the vote was judged to be illegitimate by some.


title: History of Moldova

text: The union was recognized by Britain, France and Italy, but not by the Soviet government, which claimed the area as the Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic, and argued the union was made under conditions of Romanian military occupation by a Council that had not been elected by the people of Bessarabia in elections.


title: History of Moldova

text: After 1918 Bessarabia was under Romanian jurisdiction for the next 22 years. This fact was recognized in the 1920 Treaty of Paris which, however, has never come into force since it was not ratified by Japan. The newly communist Russia did not recognize the Romanian rule over Bessarabia. The Bessarabian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed on May 5, 1919 in Odessa as a "Provisional Workers' and Peasants' Government in exile" and established on May 11, 1919 in Tiraspol as an autonomous part of Russian SFSR. Furthermore, Russia and later, the Soviet Union, considered the region to be Soviet territory under foreign occupation and conducted numerous diplomatic attempts to reclaim it. No diplomatic relations existed between the two states until 1934. During that time, both countries subscribed to the principle of non-violent resolution of territorial disputes in the Kellogg-Briand Treaty of 1928 and the Treaty of London of July 1933. Meanwhile, the neighboring region of Transnistria, part of the Ukrainian SSR at the time, was formed into the Moldavian ASSR after the failure of the Tatarbunary Uprising in 1924.


title: History of Moldova

text: The land reform, implemented by "Sfatul Țării" in 1918–1919, resulted in a rise of a middle class, as 87% of the region's population lived in rural areas. The reform was however marred by the small size of the awarded plots, as well as by preferential allotment of land to politicians and administrative personnel who had supported the political goals of the Romanian government. Generally, urban development and industry were insignificant, and the region remained primarily an agrarian rural region throughout the interwar period. Certain improvements were achieved in the area of education, the literacy rate rising from 15.6% in 1897 to 37% by 1930; however, Bessarabia continued to lag behind the rest of the country, the national literacy rate being 60%. During the inter-war period, Romanian authorities also conducted a program of Romanianization that sought to assimilate ethnic minorities throughout the country. The enforcement of this policy was especially pervasive in Bessarabia due to its highly diverse population, and resulted in the closure of minority educational and cultural institutions.


title: History of Moldova

text: On 1 January 1919 the Municipal Conservatory (the Academy of Music) was created in Chişinău, in 1927 – the Faculty of Theology, in 1934 the subsidiary of the Romanian Institute of social sciences, in 1939 – municipal picture gallery. The Agricultural State University of Moldova was founded in 1933 in Chișinău. The Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1939 by the sculptor Alexandru Plămădeală. Gurie Grosu was the first Metropolitan of Bessarabia.


title: History of Moldova

text: The first scheduled flights to Chișinău started on 24 June 1926, on the route Bucharest – Galați – Iași – Chișinău. The flights were operated by Compagnie Franco-Roumaine de Navigation Aérienne – CFRNA, later LARES.


title: History of Moldova

text: The first society of the Romanian writers in Chișinău was formed in 1920, among the members were Mihail Sadoveanu, Ștefan Ciobanu, Tudor Pamfile, Nicolae Dunăreanu, N.N.Beldiceanu, Apostol D.Culea. "Writer and Journalist Bessarabian Society" took an institutionalized form in 1940. The First Congress of the Society elected as president Pan Halippa as Vice President Nicolae Spătaru, and as secretary general Nicolae Costenco.


title: History of Moldova

text: Viața Basarabiei was founded in 1932 by Pan Halippa. Radio Basarabia was launched on 8 October 1939, as the second radio station of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company. The Capitoline Wolf was opened in 1926 and in 1928 the Stephen the Great Monument, by the sculptor Alexandru Plămădeală, was opened.


title: History of Moldova

text: After the establishment of the Soviet Union in December 1922, the Soviet government moved in 1924 to establish the Moldavian Autonomous Oblast on the lands to the east of the Dniester River in the Ukrainian SSR. The capital of the oblast was Balta, situated in present-day Ukraine. Seven months later, the oblast was upgraded to the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian ASSR or MASSR), even though its population was only 30% ethnic Romanian. The capital remained at Balta until 1929, when it was moved to Tiraspol.


title: History of Moldova

text: In the secret protocol attached to the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact defining the division of the spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, Nazi Germany declared it had no political interest in Bessarabia, in response to the Soviet Union's expression of interest, thereby consigning Bessarabia to the Soviet "sphere". On June 26, 1940 the Soviet government issued an ultimatum to the Romanian minister in Moscow, demanding Romania immediately cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Italy and Germany, which needed a stable Romania and access to its oil fields, urged King Carol II to do so. On June 28, Soviet troops crossed the Dniester and occupied Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region.


title: History of Moldova

text: The Soviet republic created following annexation did not follow Bessarabia's traditional border. The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR), established on August 2, 1940, consisted of six and a half counties of Bessarabia joined with the westernmost part of the already extant MASSR (an autonomous entity within the Ukrainian SSR). Various changes were made to its borders, which were finally settled by November 1940. Territories where ethnic Ukrainians formed a large portion of the population (parts of Northern Bukovina and parts of Hotin, Akkerman, and Izmail) went to Ukraine, while a small strip of Transnistria east of the Dniester with a significant (49% of inhabitants) Moldovan population was joined to the MSSR. The transfer of Bessarabia's Black Sea and Danube frontage to Ukraine insured its control by a stable Soviet republic. This transfer, along with the division of Bessarabia, was also designed to discourage future Romanian claims and irredentism.


title: History of Moldova

text: Under early Soviet rule, deportations of locals to the northern Urals, to Siberia, and Kazakhstan occurred regularly throughout the Stalinist period, with the largest ones on 12–13 June 1941, and 5–6 July 1949, accounting for 19,000 and 35,000 deportees respectively (from MSSR alone). In 1940–1941, ca. 90,000 inhabitants of the annexed territories were subject to political persecutions, such as arrests, deportations, or executions.


title: History of Moldova

text: By participating in the 1941 Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, pro-German Romania seized the lost territories of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, as well as those of the former MASSR, and established its administration there. In occupied Transnistria, Romanian forces, working with the Germans, deported ca. 147,000 Jews from the territories of Bessarabia and Bukovina, of whom over 90,000 perished in ghettoes and concentration camps.


title: History of Moldova

text: By April 1944, successful offensives of the Soviet Army occupied northern Moldavia and Transnistria, and by the end of August 1944 the entire territory was under Soviet control, with Soviet Army units entering Kishinev on 24 August 1944. The Paris peace treaty signed in February 1947 fixed the Romanian-Soviet border to the one established in June 1940.


title: History of Moldova

text: The territory remained part of the Soviet Union after World War II as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Soviet Union created the universal educational system, brought high-tech industry and science. Most of these industries were built in Transnistria and around large cities, while in the rest of the republic agriculture was developed. By the late Soviet period, the urban intelligentsia and government officials were dominated mostly by ethnic Moldovans, while Russians and Ukrainians made up most of the technical and engineering specialists.


title: History of Moldova

text: The conditions imposed during the reestablishment of Soviet rule became the basis of deep resentment toward Soviet authorities, manifested in numerous resistance movements to Soviet rule. In 1946, as a result of a severe drought and excessive delivery quota obligations and requisitions imposed by the Soviet government, the southwestern part of the USSR suffered from a major famine resulting in a minimum of 115,000 deaths among the peasants. During Leonid Brezhnev's 1950–1952 tenure as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Moldavia (CPM), he was ruthless comparing to his predecessor Nicolae Coval in putting down numerous resistance groups, and issuing harsh sentences. During the Operation North, 723 families (2,617 persons) were deported from the Moldavian SSR, on the night of March 31 to April 1, 1951, members of Neoprotestant sects, mostly Jehovah's Witnesses, qualified as religious elements considered a potential danger for the communist regime.


title: History of Moldova

text: Most political and academic positions were given to members of non-Romanian ethnic groups (only 17.5% of the Moldavian SSR's political leaders were ethnic Romanians in 1940).


title: History of Moldova

text: Although Brezhnev and other CPM first secretaries were largely successful in suppressing Romanian irredentism in the 1950s–1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev's administration facilitated the revival of the movement in the region. His policies of glasnost and perestroika created conditions in which nationalistic feelings could be openly expressed and in which the Soviet republics could consider reforms.


title: History of Moldova

text: In the 1970s and 1980s Moldova received substantial investment from the budget of the USSR to develop industrial, scientific facilities, as well as housing. In 1971 the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a decision "About the measures for further development of Kishinev city" that secured more than one billion roubles of funds for Chisinau alone from the USSR budget. Subsequent decisions directed large amounts of funds and brought qualified specialists from all over the USSR to further develop the Moldavian SSR. Such an allocation of USSR assets was influenced by the fact that the-then leader of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev, was the First Secretary of the local Communist Party in the 1950s. These investments stopped in 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, when Moldova became independent.


title: History of Moldova

text: In the climate of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika and glasnost, national sentiment escalated in the Moldavian SSR in 1988. In 1989, the Popular Front of Moldova was formed as an association of independent cultural and political groups and gained official recognition. The Popular Front organized a number of large demonstrations, which led to the designation of Moldovan as the official language of the MSSR on August 31, 1989 and a return to the Latin alphabet.