title: Udaari

text: "Udaari" received global recognition due to its tackling the taboo themes with authenticity and sensitivity, which got it huge viewership and global acclaim. Following the success of "Udaari", the producers invested in making series on taboo subjects for television such as "Khuda Mera Bhi Hai" (2016, deals with the status of intersex individuals in the society), "Sammi" (2017, deals with the evil practice of Vani) which was previously dominated by domestic stories.


title: Border reivers

text: Border reivers were raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. They included both Scottish and English people, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality. Their heyday was in the last hundred years of their existence, during the time of the House of Stuart in the Kingdom of Scotland and the House of Tudor in the Kingdom of England.


title: Border reivers

text: Scotland and England were frequently at war during the late Middle Ages. During these wars, the livelihood of the people on the Borders was devastated by the contending armies. Even when the countries were not formally at war, tension remained high, and royal authority in either or both kingdoms was often weak, particularly in remote locations. The difficulty and uncertainties of basic human survival meant that communities and/or people kindred to each other would seek security through group strength and cunning. They would attempt to improve their livelihoods at their nominal enemies' expense, enemies who were frequently also just trying to survive. Loyalty to a feeble or distant monarch and reliance on the effectiveness of the law usually made people a target for depredations rather than conferring any security.


title: Border reivers

text: There were other factors which may have promoted a predatory mode of living in parts of the Borders. A system of partible inheritance is evident in some parts of the English side of the Borders in the sixteenth century. By contrast to primogeniture, this meant that land was divided equally among all sons following a father's death; it could mean that the inheriting generation held insufficient land on which to survive. Also, much of the Border region is mountainous or open moorland, unsuitable for arable farming but good for grazing. Livestock was easily rustled and driven by mounted reivers who knew the country well. The raiders might also remove easily portable household goods or valuables, and take prisoners for ransom.


title: Border reivers

text: The attitudes of the English and Scottish governments towards the border families alternated from indulgence and even encouragement, as these fierce families served as the first line of defence against invasion across the border, to draconian and indiscriminate punishment when their lawlessness became intolerable to the authorities.


title: Border reivers

text: "Reive", a noun meaning raid, comes from the Middle English (Scots) "reifen." The verb "reave" meaning "plunder, rob", a closely related word, comes from the Middle English "reven". There also exists a Northumbrian and Scots verb "reifen". All three derive from Old English "rēafian" which means "to rob, plunder, pillage". Variants of these words were used in the Borders in the later Middle Ages. The corresponding verb in Dutch is "(be)roven", and "(be)rauben" in German.


title: Border reivers

text: The earliest use of the combined term 'border reiver' appears to be by Sir Walter Scott in his anthology "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border". George Ridpath (1716?–1772), the author of posthumously-published "The Border-History of England and Scotland, deduced from the earliest times to the union of the two crowns" (London, 1776), referred not to 'border reivers' but only to "banditti".


title: Border reivers

text: The reivers were both English and Scottish and raided both sides of the border impartially, so long as the people they raided had no powerful protectors and no connection to their own kin. Their activities, although usually within a day's ride of the border, extended both north and south of their main haunts. English raiders were reported to have hit the outskirts of Edinburgh, and Scottish raids were reported to have reached as far south as Lancashire and Yorkshire. The main raiding season ran through the early winter months, when the nights were longest and the cattle and horses fat from having spent the summer grazing. The numbers involved in a raid might range from a few dozen to organised campaigns involving up to three thousand riders.


title: Border reivers

text: When raiding, or riding, as it was termed, the reivers rode light on hardy nags or ponies renowned for the ability to pick their way over the boggy moss lands (see: Galloway pony, Hobelar). The original dress of a shepherd's plaid was later replaced by light armour such as brigandines or jacks of plate (a type of sleeveless doublet into which small plates of steel were stitched), and metal helmets such as burgonets or morions; hence their nickname of the "steel bonnets". They were armed with light lances and small shields, and sometimes also with longbows, or light crossbows, known as "latches", or later on in their history with one or more pistols. They invariably also carried swords and dirks.


title: Border reivers

text: Border reivers were sometimes in demand as mercenary soldiers, owing to their recognised skills as light cavalry. Reivers sometimes served in English or Scottish armies in the Low Countries and in Ireland, often to avoid having harsher penalties enacted upon themselves and their families. Reivers fighting as levied soldiers played important roles in the battles at Flodden and Solway Moss. After meeting one reiver (the "Bold Buccleugh"), Queen Elizabeth I is quoted as having said that "with ten thousand such men, James VI could shake any throne in Europe."


title: Border reivers

text: These borderers proved difficult to control, however, within larger national armies. They were already in the habit of claiming any nationality or none, depending on who was asking and where they perceived the individual advantage to be. Many had relatives on both sides of Scottish-English conflicts despite prevailing laws against international marriage. They could be badly behaved in camp, seeing fellow soldiers as sources of plunder. As warriors more loyal to clans than to nations, their commitment to the work was always in doubt. At battles such as Ancrum Moor in Scotland in 1545, borderers changed sides in mid-combat to curry favour with the likely victors. At the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh in 1547, an observer (William Patten) noticed Scottish and English borderers chatting with each other, then putting on a spirited show of combat once they knew they had been spotted.


title: Border reivers

text: The inhabitants of the Borders had to live in a state of constant alert, and for self-protection, they built fortified tower houses.


title: Border reivers

text: In the very worst periods of warfare, people were unable to construct more than crude turf cabins, the destruction of which would be little loss. When times allowed, however, they built houses designed as much for defence as shelter. The bastle house was a stout two-storeyed building. The lower floor was used to keep the most valuable livestock and horses. The upper storey housed the people, and often could be reached only by an external ladder which was pulled up at night or if danger threatened. The stone walls were up to thick, and the roof was of slate or stone tiles. Only narrow arrow slits provided light and ventilation. Such dwellings could not be set on fire, and while they could be captured, for example by smoking out the defenders with fires of damp straw or using scaling ladders to reach the roof, they were usually not worth the time and effort.


title: Border reivers

text: Peel towers (also spelled pele towers) were usually three-storeyed buildings, constructed specifically for defensive purposes by the authorities, or for prestigious individuals such as the heads of clans. Smailholm Tower is one of many surviving peel towers. Like bastle houses, they were very strongly constructed for defence. If necessary, they could be temporarily abandoned and stuffed full of smouldering turf to prevent an enemy (such as a government army) destroying them with gunpowder.


title: Border reivers

text: Peel towers and bastle houses were often surrounded by a stone wall known as a barmkin, inside which cattle and other livestock were kept overnight.


title: Border reivers

text: A special body of law, known as March law or Border law, developed in the region. Under border law, a person who had been raided had the right to mount a counter-raid within six days, even across the border, to recover his goods. This "hot trod" had to proceed with "hound and horne, hew and cry", making a racket and carrying a piece of burning turf on a spear point to openly announce their purpose, to distinguish themselves from unlawful raiders proceeding covertly. They might use a sleuth hound (also known as a "slew dogge") to follow raiders' tracks. These dogs were valuable, and part of the established forces (on the English side of the border, at least). Any person meeting this counter-raid was required to ride along and offer such help as he could, on pain of being considered complicit with the raiders. The "cold trod" mounted after six days required official sanction. Officers such as the Deputy Warden of the English West March had the specific duty of "following the trod".


title: Border reivers

text: Both sides of the border were divided into Marches, each under a march warden. The march wardens' various duties included the maintenance of patrols, watches and garrisons to deter raiding from the other kingdom. On occasion, march wardens could make "warden roades" to recover loot, and to make a point to raiders and officials.


title: Border reivers

text: The march wardens also had the duty of maintaining such justice and equity as was possible. The respective kingdoms' march wardens would meet at appointed times along the border itself to settle claims against people on their side of the border by people from the other kingdom. These occasions, known as "Days of Truce", were much like fairs, with entertainment and much socialising. For reivers it was an opportunity to meet (lawfully) with relatives or friends normally separated by the border. It was not unknown for violence to break out even at such truce days.


title: Border reivers

text: March wardens (and the lesser officers such as keepers of fortified places) were rarely effective at maintaining the law. The Scottish wardens were usually borderers themselves, and were complicit in raiding. They almost invariably showed favour to their own kindred, which caused jealousy and even hatred among other Scottish border families. Many English officers were from southern counties in England and often could not command the loyalty or respect of their locally recruited subordinates or the local population. Local officers such as Sir John Forster, who was Warden of the Middle March for almost 35 years, became quite as well known for venality as his most notorious Scottish counterparts.


title: Border reivers

text: By the death of Elizabeth I of England, things had come to such a pitch along the border that the English government considered re-fortifying and rebuilding Hadrian's Wall. When Elizabeth died, there was an especially violent outbreak of raiding known as "Ill Week", resulting from the convenient belief that the laws of a kingdom were suspended between the death of a sovereign and the proclamation of the successor. Upon his accession to the English throne, James VI of Scotland (who became James I of England) moved hard against the reivers, abolishing border law and the very term "Borders" in favour of "Middle Shires", and dealing out stern justice to reivers.


title: Border reivers

text: In 1606 an act (4 Jas. 1. c. 1) to assist the recent Union of the Crowns was enacted; it was long titled "An act for the utter abolition of all memory of hostility, and the dependence thereof, between England and Scotland, and for repressing of occasions of disorders, and disorders in time to come". The act repealed nine English laws enacted over the previous centuries and considered hostile to Scotland; the repeal became effective when 13 Scottish laws considered hostile to England had been repealed. Three years later an act (7 Jas. 1 c. 1) dealing with criminal law in the border region was enacted; it was long titled "An act for the better execution of justice, and suppressing of criminal offenders, in the north parts of the kingdom of England." To deal with cross-border flight, the act allowed the trial of an Englishman in Scotland if the felony was committed there, and he was later arrested in England; it became effective after a similar act had been passed in Scotland.


title: Border reivers

text: Following the Restoration and long-running lawlessness by Moss troopers nearly six decades later, parliament passed the Moss Troopers Act 1662 (13 & 14 Cha. 2. c. 22) for the border area; it was long titled "An Act for preventing of Theft and Rapine upon the Northern Borders of England." Section seven of the act revives both previous acts passed under James I. With the 1662 act about to expire, the sixth session of Cavalier Parliament passed the Moss Troopers Act 1666 (18 Cha. 2 c. 3), long titled "An Act to continue a former Act for preventing of Thefte and Rapine upon the Northerne Borders of England." Under section two of the act, the benefit of clergy was taken away from those convicted (generally meaning a death sentence), or otherwise, the notorious thieves and spoil-takers in Northumberland or Cumberland were to be transported to America, "there to remaine and not to returne".


title: Border reivers

text: Generally associated with several historic events of the period, as well as continuing lawlessness, or the consideration of insufficient government control to prevent "theft and rapine upon the northern borders of England", these acts were repeatedly continued over the next 80 years. The initial acts include the Moss Trooper Acts of 1677 (29 & 30 Cha. 2 c. 2), 1685 (1 Jas. 2 c. 14), 1695 (7 & 8 Will. 3 c. 17), 1700 (12 & 13 Will. 3 c. 6), and 1712 (12 Ann. c. 10). Starting in 1732, although the 'Moss trooper' short title was dropped, the enforcement acts were continued by other variously named acts, most of which continued the established descriptive phrase "for preventing theft and rapine upon the northern borders of England", as the first item included. These later acts include the Perpetuation of Various Laws Act 1732 (6 Geo. 2 c. 37), the Universities (Wine Licences) Act 1743 (17 Geo. 2 c. 40), and the Continuance of Acts, 1750 (24 Geo. 2 c. 57), which continued previous acts until 1 September 1757 "and from thence to the end of the then next session of parliament".


title: Border reivers

text: A variety of terms describe the Border families, such as the "Riding Surnames" and the "Graynes" thereof. This can be equated to the system of the Highland Clans and their septs. e.g. Clan Donald and Clan MacDonald of Sleat, can be compared with the Scotts of Buccleuch and the Scotts of Harden and elsewhere. Both Border Graynes and Highland septs, however, had the essential feature of patriarchal leadership by the chief of the name, and had territories in which most of their kindred lived. Border families did practice customs similar to those of the Gaels, such as tutorship when an heir who was a minor succeeded to the chiefship, and giving bonds of manrent.


title: Border reivers

text: In an Act of the Scottish Parliament of 1587 there is the description of the "" – thus using the words 'clan' and 'chief' to describe both Highland and Lowland families. The act goes on to list the various Border clans. Later, Sir George MacKenzie of Rosehaugh, the Lord Advocate (Attorney General), writing in 1680 said "By the term 'chief' we call the representative of the family from the word chef or head and in the Irish (Gaelic) with us the chief of the family is called the head of the clan". Thus, the words chief or head, and clan or family, are interchangeable. It is therefore possible to talk of the MacDonald family or the Maxwell clan. The idea that Highlanders should be listed as clans while the Lowlanders are listed as families originated as a 19th-century convention.


title: Border reivers

text: In 1587 the Parliament of Scotland passed a statute: "For the quieting and keping in obiedince of the disorderit subjectis inhabitantis of the borders hielands and Ilis." Attached to the statute was a Roll of surnames from both the Borders and Highlands. The Borders portion listed 17 " with a Chief and their associated Marches:


title: Border reivers

text: Of the Border Clans or Graynes listed on this roll, Elliot, Carruthers, Scott, Irvine, Graham, Johnstone, Jardine and Moffat are registered with the Court of Lord Lyon in Edinburgh as Scottish Clans (with a Chief), others such as Armstrong, Little and Bell are armigerous clans with no Chief, while such as Clan Blackadder, also an armigerous clan in the Middle Ages, later died out or lost their lands, and are unregistered with the Lyon Court.


title: Border reivers

text: The historic riding surnames recorded by George MacDonald Fraser in The Steel Bonnets (London: Harvill, 1989) are:


title: Border reivers

text: Relationships between the Border clans varied from uneasy alliance to open, deadly feud. It took little to start a feud; a chance quarrel or misuse of office was sufficient. Feuds might continue for years until patched up in the face of invasion from the other kingdoms or when the outbreak of other feuds caused alliances to shift. The border was easily destabilised if Graynes from opposite sides of the border were at feud. Feuds also provided ready excuse for particularly murderous raids or pursuits.


title: Border reivers

text: Riders did not wear identifying tartans. The tradition of family tartans dates from the Victorian era and was inspired by the novels of Sir Walter Scott. The typical dress of reivers included Jack of plate, steel bonnets (helmets), and riding boots.


title: Border reivers

text: The reivers were romanticised by writers such as Sir Walter Scott ("Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border"), although he also used the term Moss-trooper, which refers to seventeenth-century borderland brigands. Scott was himself a native of the borders, writing down histories which had been passed on in folk tradition or ballad.


title: Border reivers

text: English poet William Wordsworth's verse play "The Borderers" features border reivers (but does not use this term).


title: Border reivers

text: The stories of legendary border reivers like Kinmont Willie Armstrong were often retold in folk-song as Border ballads. There are also local legends, such as the "Dish of Spurs" which would be served to a border chieftain of the Charltons to remind him that the larder was empty and it was time to raid again. Scottish author Nigel Tranter revisited these themes in his historical and contemporary novels. Scottish Border poet, and Australian bush balladeer, Will H. Ogilvie (1869–1963) wrote several poems about the reivers, including "The reiver's heart" (1903), "The raiders" (1904), "Whaup o' the rede: a ballad of the border raiders" (1909), "Kirkhope Tower" (1913), and "Ho! for the blades of Harden". "The Steel Bonnets" (1971) by George MacDonald Fraser (1925-2008) describes life in the Anglo-Scottish border marches in the heyday of the border reivers.


title: Border reivers

text: The names of the Reiver families are still very much apparent amongst the inhabitants of the Scottish Borders, Northumbria and Cumbria today. Reiving families (particularly those large or brutal enough to carry significant influence) have left the local population passionate about their territory on both sides of the Border. Newspapers have described the local cross-border rugby fixtures as 'annual re-runs of the bloody Battle of Otterburn'. Despite this there has been much cross-border migration since the Pacification of the Borders, and families that were once Scots now identify themselves as English and vice versa.


title: Border reivers

text: Hawick in Scotland holds an annual Reivers' festival as do the Schomberg Society in Kilkeel, Northern Ireland (the two often co-operate). The summer festival in the Borders town of Duns is headed by the "Reiver" and "Reiver's Lass", a young man and young woman elected from the inhabitants of the town and surrounding area. The Ulster-Scots Agency's first two leaflets from the 'Scots Legacy' series feature the story of the historic Ulster tartan and the origins of the kilt and the Border Reivers.


title: Border reivers

text: Borderers (particularly those banished by James VI of Scotland) took part in the plantation of Ulster becoming the people known as Ulster-Scots (Scotch-Irish in America). Reiver descendants can be found throughout Ulster with names such as Elliot, Armstrong, Beattie, Bell, Carruthers, Hume and Heron, Rutledge, and Turnbulls amongst others.


title: Border reivers

text: Border surnames can also be found throughout the major areas of Scotch-Irish settlement in the United States, and particularly in the Appalachian region. The historian David Hackett Fischer (1989) has shown in detail how the Anglo-Scottish border culture became rooted in parts of the United States, especially the Upland South. Author George MacDonald Fraser wryly observed or imagined Border traits and names among controversial people in modern American history: Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon, among others. It is also noted that, in 1969, a descendant of the Borderers, Neil Armstrong, was the first person to set foot on the moon. In 1972 Armstrong was made a freeman of the town of Langholm in Scotland, the home of his ancestors.


title: Border reivers

text: The artist Gordon Young created a public art work in Carlisle: "Cursing Stone and Reiver Pavement", a nod to Gavin Dunbar, the Archbishop of Glasgow's 1525 "Monition of Cursing". Names of Reiver families are set into the paving of a walkway which connects Tullie House Museum to Carlisle Castle under a main road, and part of the bishop's curse is displayed on a 14-ton granite boulder.


title: Awami National Party

text: The Awami National Party (ANP; , ; "People's National Party") is a Pashtun nationalist, secular and leftist political party in Pakistan. The party was founded by Abdul Wali Khan in 1986 and its current president is Asfandyar Wali Khan, grandson of Bacha Khan, with Mian Iftikhar Hussain serving as the Secretary-General. Part of the PPP-led cabinet of the Pakistani government during 2008−13, ANP's political position is considered left-wing, advocating for secularism, public sector government, and social egalitarianism.


title: Awami National Party

text: ANP was the largest Pashtun nationalist party in Pakistan between 2008−2013 with influence lying in the Pashtun dominated areas in and around Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. They governed the province from 2008–2013 but lost to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in the assembly election of 2013.


title: Awami National Party

text: Abdul Wali Khan's political career had been built on the tradition of intense Pashtun nationalism inherited from his father, Abdul Ghaffar Khan (Bacha Khan). Although it was formed after the partition of India, most of its leaders had favoured a united India, and had opposed the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan. Most of the leaders were Indian National Congress right hands before the partition of India. Both men were opposed to the creation of Pakistan, and after the creation of Pakistan in 1947, they were imprisoned. In 1956 Wali Khan joined the National Awami Party (NAP), led by a charismatic Bengali socialist, Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani. In 1965 the NAP split into two factions, with Wali Khan becoming president of the pro-Moscow faction. The party's members participated in 1970 parliamentary elections through the Pakistan Peoples Party's platform and the National Awami Party, forming a largest socialist alliance with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1970. However, the alliance fell apart and its members joined the Pakistan National Alliance.


title: Awami National Party

text: In 1972 the party was strong enough to form coalition provincial governments, with its partner the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. These governments were short lived. Wali Khan was again jailed, and his party was barred from politics when the Supreme Court upheld the finding of President Bhutto that the NAP was conspiring against the state of Pakistan. General Zia-ul-Haq subsequently withdrew the charges against the NAP. Wali Khan was released, joined the National Democratic Party, and ultimately formed the Awami National Party. In the meantime, Prime Minister Bhutto was imprisoned and executed in April 1979.


title: Awami National Party

text: The Awami National Party (awami means "people's"), which depends on ethnic Pashtuns (Pukhtuns) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly NWFP) and northern Balochistan as its political base, was formed in 1986 by the merger of several left-leaning parties including the Awami Tehrik and the National Democratic Party.


title: Awami National Party

text: The National Democratic Party merged with several other progressive political and nationalist groups to form the Awami National Party. Wali Khan, the influential Pashtun and Soviet-backed leader, was elected as its first president and Sindhi socialist Rasul Bux Palejo was appointed its first secretary general. From 1986 to 1988, the ANP party was a member of the Movement for Restoration of Democracy.


title: Awami National Party

text: Since its inception, the ANP has been an important ally of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). The party formed a coalition government with the PPP in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and in Sindh province and Islamabad for central government after the Pakistani parliamentary elections in 1988. This alliance, however, collapsed in April 1989 after differences cropped up between the two parties, after Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ordered a military action that brutally failed. The Awami National Party later formed an alliance with the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) in early June 1989 which led to a formal split in the party with many activists allying with the PPP.


title: Awami National Party

text: After the election of Nawaz Sharif in 1990, the ANP again formed a coalition with former rivals PML. This alliance proved longer lasting, surviving till 1998 when it collapsed over differences over the building of Kalabagh Dam and renaming the province NWFP to Pakhtunkhwa. It won six seats in the National Assembly in the 1990 elections. In the 1993 national elections, the party won three seats in the National Assembly. It then joined the Grand Democratic Alliance, campaigning against the Sharif government's policies. After Nawaz Sharif's overthrow by Pervez Musharraf, the party stayed an active member of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, until the 2001 September 11 attacks in the United States, when it left the alliance over supporting NATO's ouster of the Taliban government. The party's reputation was damaged in this period following the arrest of former Federal Minister and senior party leader Azam Khan Hoti.


title: Awami National Party

text: In the 2002 elections the party struck up an alliance with the PPP. However, both parties were electorally routed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by the religion-political alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) riding on a wave of anti-American sentiment in Pakistan.


title: Awami National Party

text: In the 2008 parliamentary elections, the ANP dominated the far-right wing coalition, the MMA, a party formed by coalition of Islamic movements in 2002. The ANP has also won provincial seats in Balochistan and in Sindh for the first time in 15 years. It formed a coalition government with the Pakistan People's Party in all three provinces. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the ANP has its first chief minister since 1948.


title: Awami National Party

text: The strongholds of the ANP are in the Pashtun dominated areas of Pakistan, particularly in the Valley of Peshawar area in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and it has traditionally dominated Charsadda, Mardan, Nowshera, Peshawar, and Swabi areas of central KPK. On the other hand, the city of Karachi in Sindh province hosts one of the largest Pashtun populations in the world, but the ANP only had 2 seats in 2011, whereas the number of Pashtuns present would predict them having "up to 25 seats".


title: Awami National Party

text: In May 2008, Asfandyar Wali Khan made an unannounced visit to the United States in which he and his delegate held high-level meetings with top U.S. officials. A source explained that "the delegation is here as part of a visitors programme that brings important people from other nations for meeting US civil and military officials and members of the civic society." This was Wali Khan's second such visit to the United States, a country where he has several relatives.


title: Awami National Party

text: In the last decade, hundreds of members of the ANP have been assassinated or became victims of target killings. Most of the attacks occurred in the Karachi and Peshawar areas. An ANP rally in Quetta was subject to a bomb blast on 13 July 2012. The blast killed six people and injured 12 others. It was speculated that a cycle parked behind the stage was the probable cause. The dead included two children as well.


title: Awami National Party

text: The party has also accused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan and of being complicit in the Taliban attacks.


title: Awami National Party

text: On 10 July 2018, during the 2018 Pakistani general election there was a suicide bombing attack on political rally of Awami National Party (ANP) in YakaToot neighborhood of Peshawar in which fourteen people were killed and sixty-five injured. Among the killed was ANP's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly candidate, Haroon Bilour. Bilour was son of Bashir Ahmad Bilour who was also killed in a suicide bombing attack in December 2012. Elections for Constituency PK-78 were postponed to an disclosed date by the Election Commission.


title: Awami National Party

text: The party espouses a nonviolent approach to tackling extremism. It promotes democratic socialism, secularism, economic egalitarianism, and Pashtun nationalism. The party has dense support among the Pashtun population in the country. Since 2000, its liberal socialism and pro-Pashtun philosophy has become the integral part of the party, advocating for the regional autonomy and increased Pashtun cultural expression. A frequent coalition partner in provincial politics, it was routed in the 2002 elections because of its opposition to the Taliban and support for the NATO-backed Karzai administration in neighboring Afghanistan.


title: Awami National Party

text: It joined the opposition All Parties Democratic Movement, and along with other parties except the Pakistan Peoples Party resigned from Parliament in October 2007 in protest against the military regime of Pervez Musharraf. It was targeted in 2007 and 2008 by presumed supporters of the Taliban. Despite the attacks, the party has advocated dialogue with moderate tribal elements to end the violence in the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Federally Administered Tribal Areas.


title: Awami National Party

text: The Awami National Party is one of the few parties in Pakistan to hold a system of regular internal general elections every four-year period.


title: Santa Baby

text: "Santa Baby" is a song performed by American singer Eartha Kitt with Henri René and His Orchestra and originally released in 1953. The song was written by Joan Javits and Philip Springer, who also used the pseudonym Tony Springer in an attempt to speed up the song's publishing process. Lyrically, the song is a tongue-in-cheek look at a Christmas list addressed to Santa Claus by a woman who wants extravagant gifts such as sables, yachts, and decorations from Tiffany's.


title: Santa Baby

text: The lyrical content of "Santa Baby" proved controversial, resulting in temporary bans of the song in the Southern United States. Music critics gave mixed reviews to the single, with some calling it too suggestive for a holiday-themed song. Springer was initially dissatisfied with "Santa Baby" and called it one of his weakest works. It has since been included on lists of both the best and worst Christmas songs ever written.


title: Santa Baby

text: In the United States, "Santa Baby" became the best-selling Christmas song of 1953 and found more success, retrospectively, when it entered various component charts by "Billboard" in the 2000s and 2010s. Elsewhere, it peaked on the record charts in Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. , Kitt's version had sold more than 620,000 copies, having appeared on her self-titled and first extended play in 1954.


title: Santa Baby

text: "Santa Baby" has been parodied, referenced, and featured in various films and television series. It has also been covered by many artists, such as Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Taylor Swift and Trisha Yearwood. Other musicians, including Ariana Grande and Gwen Stefani, released covers of the song as singles. Many of the cover versions experienced major commercial success, with Minogue's version reaching the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart and selling over 600,000 copies. Madonna's cover has sold 270,000 copies in the United States and was subject to discussion by many music critics, who believed her version revived the popularity of the song. However, Kitt disliked Madonna's association with the track. Grande's cover was released as a duet with Elizabeth Gillies and managed positions on charts in several countries such as Australia, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Michael Bublé's version has been named multiple times as one of the worst Christmas songs ever.


title: Santa Baby

text: In August 1953, songwriters Philip Springer and Joan Javits were commissioned to write a Christmas song for Eartha Kitt for the upcoming holiday season. The writers had first met in 1950 during Springer's trip to Massachusetts where Javits had sought advice about beginning a career as a songwriter, which he advised against. Their professional relationship resumed three years later when Springer was searching for a new writing partner, he recalled:


title: Santa Baby

text: I was looking for a new lyric writer, so I asked someone who had a lot of contacts and they suggested Joan Javits, the exact person who I suggested stay out of the industry! She said she was too busy. I asked her if she had ever written a hit and she said hadn’t, so I said, ‘l have. Are you going to tell me that you refuse to write songs with a songwriter who’s done more than you in the business?'


title: Santa Baby

text: In a 2008 interview, Springer told the interviewer that "Philip and Joan (both ASCAP writers) checked into the song title with the publishers from a company called Trinity Music, owned by BMI. At the time, BMI and ASCAP were entrenched in a 'war,' as Philip described it, so in order to get the song published and settle their differences, they had to create a fictional BMI songwriter who they named Tony Springer."


title: Santa Baby

text: Kitt recorded the single live with René and his orchestra on October 5, 1953, at a recording studio in New York City. The song was released later that month by RCA Victor in the United States and Canada. To promote the single, the record label purchased page advertisements in "Billboard" as "1953's Big Christmas Record!" It was pressed as a 7-inch single for wide release, while a promotional 10-inch single was created for airplay. The RCA Victor 7-inch release featured Kitt and René's version of "Under the Bridges of Paris" as the B-side. In the United Kingdom and Denmark, "Santa Baby" was released in 1954 under the label His Master's Voice. On this version, the B-side was Kitt's cover of "Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)". Kitt also performed the song in the 1954 film "New Faces", after which it was used as the closing track of the extended play "Eartha Kitt".


title: Santa Baby

text: The single received numerous reissues, including in Italy in 1957 when RCA Italiana released a 7-inch single that was paired with B-side "Thursday's Child". The same label also distributed a four track promotional extended play titled "White Christmas" that same year, featuring Kitt's version of "Santa Baby" as the second A-side. In 1987, Collectables Records released a limited edition 7 inch single of Kitt's "C'est si bon" (1953) paired with "Santa Baby" on the flip side.


title: Santa Baby

text: In 1960, Kitt recorded a new studio version of "Santa Baby" for her Kapp album "Revisited" with Maurice Levine as musical director. The album featured new versions of songs she had recorded earlier with RCA Victor. The Kapp version is faster and shorter by about a minute, with more emphasis on orchestration and no vocal accompaniment.


title: Santa Baby

text: According to the official sheet music for the song at Musicnotes.com, "Santa Baby" is set in common time with a moderately slow tempo of 84 beats per minute. The key of the song is in D-flat major with Kitt maintaining a relatively consistent vocal range that spans from A♭ to A♭ in scientific pitch notation. The song contains chord progressions that follow a D♭-B♭m-E♭-A♭ pattern in the verses and whenever she sings "Santa baby, so hurry down the chimney tonight".


title: Santa Baby

text: Upon completing the lyrical component of "Santa Baby", Philip Springer expressed his dissatisfaction with its content. During a meeting with a group of music publishers in 1953, Springer warned them: "Gentlemen, this is not really the kind of music that I like to write. I hope it's OK. It's the best I could do."


title: Santa Baby

text: Following the first release of "Santa Baby" in 1953, areas of the Southern United States implemented a ban on the song that prevented rotation on radio stations and distribution of the physical single releases.


title: Santa Baby

text: In a 2019 poll created by "Evening Standard", Kitt's version of "Santa Baby" was voted the ninth "most annoying festive song" by British listeners.


title: Santa Baby

text: According to "Billboard", "Santa Baby" was the best-selling Christmas song of 1953, mostly due to the controversy surrounding it. RCA Victor, Kitt's label at the time, referred to the single as "far more than a seasonal success [...] but a further tribute to Eartha's art – for, as each of us desires, she can make every day of the year seem like Christmas". On the US "Billboard" Best Selling Singles chart, "Santa Baby" debuted at number 16 before rising to number ten the following week, ultimately peaking at number 4. On November 21, 1953, "Billboard" reported that the single had sold 200,000 copies, which the magazine called surprising: "Unlike many other Christmas tunes it has broken the deejays' 'We won't play Christmas records in November' sound barrier, and has been getting loads of airtime."


title: Santa Baby

text: "Santa Baby" entered several of the "Billboard" charts in the twenty-first century. In 2005, the song had its best week on the Digital Songs chart, reaching number 28 in the month of December. It returned to the chart in December 2007, when it re-entered at number 59. During the week of December 21, 2012, "Santa Baby" peaked at number 11 on "Billboard"s seasonal Holiday Digital Song Sales chart in the United States. In total, the single has spent 101 weeks ranking on the chart. It also reached the similar Holiday Streaming Songs chart where it peaked at number 6. On December 9, 2008, the mastertone recording of "Santa Baby" received a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting shipments of 500,000 copies or more. Sony BMG reported that "Santa Baby" is one of the holiday season's most popular ringtones, and that it in addition to six other holiday songs have sold an accumulated 2.3 million units in one year later. The "Billboard"-published Ringtones chart later listed Kitt's version of the song peaking at number 6 in December 2010. According to the German database "Statista", Kitt's version of "Santa Baby" has sold 620,000 copies in the United States as of 2014.


title: Santa Baby

text: In later years, the track found more success and entered the record charts in several countries other than the United States. According to Springer, the retrospective success of "Santa Baby" was completely unexpected. In an interview with the "Los Angeles Times", he said: "I ask myself, ‘How come?' I've written so many songs that, to me, musically are much better than 'Santa Baby', and they're not popular. The answer has to be that 'Santa Baby' has a magic that goes beyond a composer's plans." In Canada, the single reached number 43 on the Digital Song Sales chart in 2007 and peaked at number 42 in 2008. In the United Kingdom, Kitt's version of "Santa Baby" debuted on the UK Singles Chart in 2007, when it hit number 85. It had previously reached number 30 on the accompanying UK Singles Downloads Chart in 2006. The single had its best-performing period during the last week of 2019 when it re-entered the main chart at number 55, its highest peak to date. The British Phonographic Industry later awarded "Santa Baby" a gold certification, signifying certified units of 400,000 copies. In France, the single debuted with a peak of number 92 on December 28, 2013; it dropped to 113 the following week but rose to 96 the week after that, marking its last appearance overall. "Santa Baby" also charted in Germany and Switzerland and positions 73 in 2018 and 94 in 2019, respectively.


title: Santa Baby

text: Following the mixed reception that music critics gave to "Santa Baby" in 1953, Springer and Javits reworked the song completely for the upcoming year. In 1954, Kitt recorded a new holiday song titled "This Year's Santa Baby", featuring new lyrics but identical songwriter credits. The publishing company who handled the song's legal matters promoted the new release by distributing "Santa Baby"-themed apparel, in addition to releasing country pop and children-specific versions of the song.


title: Santa Baby

text: Rob LeDonne from "Billboard" called "Santa Baby" one of the "most recognizable non-traditional yuletide recordings" in a piece commemorating its 65th anniversary. In 2019, Kelly O'Sullivan of "Country Living" ranked "Santa Baby" at number 56 on her list of the "60 Best Christmas Songs".


title: Santa Baby

text: On August 4, 1989, "Billboard" released "Christmas Greatest Hits 1935-1954", a collection of 10 popular Christmas tracks in the United States, in which "Santa Baby" was included in the track listing. Kitt has since featured "Santa Baby" on several of her compilation albums in her discography. She also reprised the tune for her seventh studio album, "Revisited" (1960), and her first live album, "Eartha Kitt at Tivoli" (1962). In later years, it appeared on catalog albums such as "Eartha Kitt" (1979), "At Her Very Best" (1981), "The Best of Eartha Kitt" (1982), "Mink Shmink" (1989), "Eartha-Quake" (1993), "After Dark" (1995), "That Seductive Eartha" (1996), "The Ultimate Collection" (1996), "Purr-Fect: Greatest Hits" (1999), "Greatest Hits" (2000), "Legendary" (2001), and "Heavenly Eartha" (2002).


title: Santa Baby

text: Madonna recorded a cover of "Santa Baby" for the 1987 charity album "A Very Special Christmas". It was released on November 12, 1987, by A&M Records.


title: Santa Baby

text: Caroline Framke from "the A.V. Club" argued that Madonna's version increased the popularity of the song, initiating an "explosion of covers and parodies [to] follow". When asked about his thoughts on Madonna's cover, Phil Springer said he was happy she covered the original Kitt rendition instead of the revised "This Year's Santa Baby" from 1954. Randall Norberts from the "Los Angeles Times" insisted that "Madonna was the perfect adapter for the song when she recorded it in 1987", comparing the lyrical messages between "Santa Baby" and her 1985 single "Material Girl". After the release of Madonna's "Santa Baby" in 1987, the song became licensed and was used in various theatrical releases and television series, such as "Driving Miss Daisy" (1989), "The Sopranos" (1999), and "Elf" (2003).


title: Santa Baby

text: In Madonna's version of "Santa Baby", the singer heightened her range by half of an octave in order to "reach the aggressively cutesy 'baby voice' that the song has come to be associated with".


title: Santa Baby

text: Madonna's cover of "Santa Baby" was met with divided opinions from music critics. The staff at "BlackBook" gave a positive review, finding Madonna's version to contain "a sense of humor she's long since replaced". According to Framke from "the A.V. Club" wrote of the song: "There is no Christmas song more polarizing than 'Santa Baby'". She stated that part of the song's commercial appeal stems from its sexual implications and claimed that although Kitt's version contained sensual vocals, Madonna's version is what "cranked the sex appeal up to 11". It was also reported by Framke that Kitt was displeased with Madonna's cover of her single. During a live performance of "Santa Baby" years after Madonna's version was released, Kitt was quoted saying: "I used to have a lot of fun with this song, and then Madonna sang it". In his review for "Kansas Pitch", David Cantwell said "Madonna's recording of 'Santa Boy' is so lame that it actually succeeds in making the phrase 'merry Christmas' seem like a contradiction in terms".


title: Santa Baby

text: Xavier Piedra from "Billboard" included Madonna's version in an unranked list of the top ten best covers of "Santa Baby". His review stated: "This cover from the legendary pop singer is guaranteed to be stuck in your head, and on your holiday playlist, for days." Paris Close, also a writer for "Billboard", included the cover in her list of "15 Songs For an LGBTQ Holiday Kiki" and claimed its sex appeal would be enough to "spice up any occasion".


title: Santa Baby

text: Many years after its initial release, Madonna's version of "Santa Baby" entered various holiday-centric charts in the United States. On the main Holiday 100 chart, it peaked at number 44 in December 2011 during its fourth and final week. On the Holiday Airplay chart compiled by "Billboard", it peaked at number 24 during the week ending December 13, 2003, marking Madonna's first entry on that chart. It spent a total of 11 non-consecutive weeks among the Holiday Airplay chart. In the United States, "Santa Baby" did not enter "Billboard"s Digital Songs chart, but rather the Holiday Digital Song Sales component chart. In 2010, the song peaked at number 46; in total, her cover spent three weeks tallied on the chart. "Statista" reported in 2014 that Madonna's cover of "Santa Baby" has sold 270,000 copies in the United States.


title: Santa Baby

text: Kylie Minogue originally recorded a cover of "Santa Baby" in 2000. It was used as the B-side to her single "Please Stay", from her seventh studio album "Light Years" (2000), on select physical releases in 2000. A promotional CD single for "Santa Baby" was distributed by Parlophone in the United Kingdom in December 2000, with "Please Stay" as a bonus track. A different promotional CDR was released on August 21, 2003, by Parlophone, in preparation for the upcoming holiday season. Minogue's version of "Santa Baby" was produced by Chong Lim and credited Javits and Phillip Springer as the writers. In November 2010, the cover was included on Minogue's extended play "A Kylie Christmas", alongside a newly recorded cover of "Let It Snow". She released a different holiday-themed extended play in Europe titled "A Christmas Gift", which featured two tracks from her eleventh studio album "Aphrodite" (2010) and closed with "Santa Baby".


title: Santa Baby

text: On November 13, 2015, Minogue released her thirteenth studio album, and first Christmas album, titled "Kylie Christmas". Her cover of "Santa Baby" was included in the project's track listing with Steve Anderson, the album's executive producer, being attributed as an additional producer. "The A.V. Club"s Caroline Framke compared Minogue's cover to Madonna's, suggesting that they channel similar "inner pin-up girl[s]".


title: Santa Baby

text: In 2018, "Billboard"s Xavier Piedra listed Minogue's cover in a list of the ten best covers of "Santa Baby", writing: "Kylie Minogue's 'Santa Baby' cover remains very true to the original track. [...] This cover truly is an updated version of the classic that will not disappoint." Piedra also praised Minogue's vocal delivery for embodying the "cheekiness" of Kitt's original version. The "Herald Sun"s Cameron Adams described Minogue's version as an "old school, feel-good festive fave".


title: Santa Baby

text: With the inclusion of streaming data in chart tabulations in the late 2010s, Minogue's version of "Santa Baby" attained most of its commercial success nearly two decades after its initial release. It charted in Australia and various European countries. In the former region, Minogue's cover spent one week on the ARIA Singles Chart. After the release of "A Kylie Christmas", "Santa Baby" debuted at number 85 for the week of December 27, 2010; her cover of "Let It Snow", the other track on "A Kylie Christmas", charted closely to "Santa Baby" at number 89. In Germany, "Santa Baby" reached number 60 on the German Singles Chart. It also appeared on the Dutch Single Top 100 chart in the Netherlands, where it peaked at number 68. In Denmark, Minogue's cover did not reach the country's top 40 singles chart, but was issued a Gold certification from International Federation of the Phonographic Industry for shipments of 45,000 copies in that country. On the streaming component chart in Hungary, Minogue's cover of "Santa Baby" hit number 27. In Switzerland and on Sweden's Heatseeker chart, the song peaked at numbers 57 and 10, respectively.


title: Santa Baby

text: Her cover achieved its highest-peaking position in the United Kingdom during the 2020–2021 holiday season. On their singles chart, it debuted on the list dated December 16, 2007, at number 93, the same week that Kitt's original version entered at number 85. Minogue's cover later reached number 38 during the week of December 29, 2017, becoming Minogue's fiftieth top 40 entry, collectively. It reached a new peak at number 31 on the chart dated January 1, 2021. Her cover made a second appearance on the chart in 2010 when it was paired as a double A-side single with "Let It Snow"; the dual single charted at number 188 on Christmas Day. As of December 2019, her cover had sold 330,000 copies in the United Kingdom. It went on to receive a Platinum certification from the British Phonographic Industry in December 2021, denoting combined sales and shipments figures of 600,000 copies. In Ireland, her cover charted at number 52 in 2017 on the country's official single chart. It reappeared at number 56 the following year, which led Jack White from the Official Charts Company to predict that it would reach the top 50 in Ireland during 2019. It also entered the Ö3 Austria singles chart, peaking at number 67 during the chart dated January 4, 2019. As of 2021, Minogue's version of "Santa Baby" has earned in excess of £417,000 in streaming revenue.


title: Santa Baby

text: In 2007, American singer Kellie Pickler recorded a cover of "Santa Baby" for the country-themed compilation album, "Hear Something Country Christmas". The song was released for digital download and streaming in North and South America on September 18, 2007, through 19 Recordings. Following the album's release, the song was distributed as a promotional CD single in the United States by BNA Records and Sony BMG Nashville in 2007. The CD featured three different radio edit versions of the song, including one with a cold ending. Pickler's cover of "Santa Baby" was produced by Blake Chancey and mastered by Joseph M. Palmaccio at The Place... For Mastering studios in Nashville.


title: Santa Baby

text: Pickler's version of "Santa Baby" was described as a sultry Christmas song with a "classic arrangement [of] horns". According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com, her cover is set in the time signature of common time and has a moderately slow tempo of 86 beats per minute. The key of the song is in G major and Pickler's vocal range advances in the chord progression of G–Em–Am–D. Her voice spans one octave, from D to D.


title: Santa Baby

text: Pickler's cover also made an appearance on the compilation "Now That's What I Call a Country Christmas" (2009) and the charity album, "A Very Special Christmas 7" (2009). Proceeds from the latter album's sales benefitted Special Olympics. In 2010, Pickler was invited to appear as a guest musical act on the inaugural "CMA Country Christmas" television special. For the appearance, she performed her cover of "Santa Baby" while dressed in a red dress "and matching gloves". A contributor to the "Country Music Family" website lauded Pickler's performance, calling it enjoyable and fun to watch. They also enjoyed her vocals, writing that she "used the song to display her talents as a vocalist". David Drew from WUBE-FM referred to this performance of "Santa Baby" by Pickler as the song's official music video. On December 15, 2013, Pickler uploaded a promotional audio clip of the song to her Vevo YouTube channel.


title: Santa Baby

text: Pickler's cover of "Santa Baby" was frequently labeled a standout by critics. Lea Weatherby from Mic included her version in a playlist of the best country Christmas songs. After listing several other covers of the song, she wrote: "Though Pickler had some pretty big boots to fill, this rendition gives the song the wholesome, southern charm it needed." Eric Cornish from WKDQ liked her cover, calling it hot. Drew also liked the song, finding it to be cute and including it on his annual list of "12 Days of Christmas Music". In 2012, Sterling Whitaker from "Taste of Country" named Pickler's version as one of the "Top 50 Country Christmas Songs" of all time. He called the song sexy, and sultry, and appreciated the classic-style arrangements.


title: Santa Baby

text: Pickler's cover of "Santa Baby" reached two "Billboard" charts in the US. On December 8, 2007, the song debuted at number 49 on the Hot Country Songs chart, becoming the week's second-highest new entry after Taylor Swift's cover of "Last Christmas" (2007), which debuted at number 48. After rising for five weeks, it peaked at number 33 on the issue dated January 5, 2008. The song's performance was replicated exactly on the Country Airplay chart. On both charts, the song spent a total of six weeks appearing. As of December 2014, her version has sold approximately 140,000 digital downloads in the US.


title: Santa Baby

text: Taylor Swift recorded a cover of "Santa Baby" for her first extended play, "The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection" (2007).


title: Santa Baby

text: Michael Bublé recorded a cover of "Santa Baby" for his seventh studio album, "Christmas" (2011). Bublé's version made extensive changes to the lyrics, including saying "Santa Buddy", "Santa Pally" and "Santa Poppy" instead of "Santa Baby". Richard Evans from "Best Life" included Bublé's version of "Santa Baby" in his list of "The Most Hated Christmas Songs of All Time", primarily for the changes in lyrics to ensure "everyone knows he is not attracted to Santa". Steve Eighinger listed Bublé's cover as number 6 on his list of the worst Christmas songs ever made.


title: Santa Baby

text: According to Musicnotes.com, Bublé's version has a time signature with a 12/8 feel and has a moderately slow tempo of 96 beats per minute. The key of the song is in F major, with Bublé's vocal range spanning from A to C in scientific pitch notation. The song progresses in the chord progressions of F–F/A–C in the first verses, followed by F-F/A-G-C.


title: Santa Baby

text: On November 6, 2013, Ariana Grande announced via Twitter she would be releasing new music each week leading up to Christmas. On the fourth and final week she released a cover of "Santa Baby", which features Grande's former "Victorious" co-star Elizabeth Gillies. It was distributed to digital retailers such as Amazon Music on December 10, 2013. It was then placed as the fourth and closing track to her first extended play, "Christmas Kisses", which was released the same week.


title: Santa Baby

text: Grande's version of "Santa Baby" received largely positive reviews from music critics. Jocelyn Vena from MTV enjoyed Grande's take on "Santa Baby", comparing it with Kitt's original version. Carolyn Menyes from "Music Times" ranked it as the best song on "Christmas Kisses", awarding particular praise to its production and Grande and Gillies's chemistry. However, Menyes felt the mix of their vocals together could have been improved. "Billboard"s Piedra described the collaboration as a "fun duet" and an "experience like no other".


title: Santa Baby

text: Grande's collaboration with Gillies enjoyed commercial success in several countries, reaching number 36 on the Holiday 100 in the United States.


title: Santa Baby

text: Trisha Yearwood recorded a cover of "Santa Baby" for her collaborative album with husband Garth Brooks, "Christmas Together" (2016). The project was first unveiled in mid-October 2016 and was billed as the couple's first collaborative album, consisting of a combination of duets and solo works from both Yearwood and Brooks. "Santa Baby" does not feature a guest performance from Brooks but Yearwood is joined by Tania Hancheroff, Jon Mark Ivey, Shane McConnell, Lisa Silver, and Kira Small who provide backing vocals. Her cover, along with the rest of "Christmas Together" was released on November 11, 2016, by Gwendolyn Records and Brook's personal label, Pearl Records.


title: Santa Baby

text: Brooks' long-time collaborator Mark Miller produced the track. Yearwood performed the track along with a cover of "Hard Candy Christmas" for the 2017 Christmas television special "CMA Country Christmas".


title: Santa Baby

text: "Entertainment Tonight"s Raphael Chestang wrote that "Yearwood shines on 'Santa Baby'", while a staff member at the Associated Press was glad that Yearwood had fun while recording the track. A writer for KNCI provided a positive review of Yearwood's cover, calling it "fun and flirty". MacIntosh from "Country Standard Time" agreed, lauding her vocals: "Yearwood sounds like a truly sexy hotty". Christopher Bohlsen from "Renowned for Sound", on the other hand, panned the track, claiming that "Yearwood makes the mistake of trying to make Christmas sexy". He also compared it unfavorably to her cover of "Hard Candy Christmas" on "Christmas Together", calling "Santa Baby" the weaker of the two songs.


title: Santa Baby

text: In the United States, Yearwood's version of "Santa Baby" was released to adult contemporary radio stations. It reached "Billboard"s weekly Adult Contemporary chart, peaking at number 18 on January 6, 2017. It became her third entry on the chart and second-highest-charting effort after her cover of "Broken" peaked at number 17 in 2016. It also charted on "Billboard"s Country Airplay chart at number 60 during that same week.


title: Santa Baby

text: Following the release of her third studio album "This Is What the Truth Feels Like" (2016), Gwen Stefani announced in July 2017 that she had plans to release new music by the end of the year. She did not provide further details, but several publications speculated in August 2017 that Stefani's new material would be Christmas-related due to song titles such as "Christmas Eve", "Under the Christmas Lights", and "You Make It Feel Like Christmas" becoming registered on the two music databases, BMI and GEMA. On September 18, 2017, she took to her social media accounts and claimed that she "had something big planned for the holidays", and that more information would follow. The next day, Stefani announced her next studio album, "You Make It Feel Like Christmas", as well as the track listing, which revealed a cover of "Santa Baby" as the album's ninth track.


title: Santa Baby

text: One week prior to the release of "You Make It Feel Like Christmas", Stefani's cover of "Santa Baby" was released as a promotional single. In the United States, Interscope Records released it for digital download and streaming on September 29, 2017. In Italy, it was released to radio stations on December 8, 2017, as the album's first single in that country. Stefani's version was produced by busbee and Eric Valentine, with Javits, Philip Springer, and Tony Springer (credited as Anthony Fred Springer in the album's liner notes) were listed as the songwriters. Her cover was engineered by Valentine, mixed by Dave Clauss, and Jonathan Sterling served as assistant engineer. Laura Mace, Monet Owens, and Dolly Sparks provided background vocals for the track with arrangements from Grace Potter. Sal Cinquemani from "Slant Magazine" described the style of Stefani's version as a hybrid of Kitt's original slow rendition and the revised uptempo one. Regarding her decision to cover "Santa Baby" for "You Make It Feel Like Christmas", Stefani explained: "I haven't done many covers in my career, but this song feels like a perfect fit. What an extraordinary talent Phil Springer is. Eartha Kitt is so full of personality. This song must have been unbelievably edgy when it came out, and it still is."


title: Santa Baby

text: "Santa Baby" was performed twice by Stefani during the 2017 holiday season. As part of a promotional campaign for "You Make It Feel Like Christmas", Stefani appeared as a guest or performed on various television series in the US. On the November 20, 2017, episode of NBC's "Today", Stefani was featured as a guest and performed "Santa Baby", "When I Was a Little Girl", and "Christmas Eve" to the studio audience. For the appearance, she wore a sleeveless white gown adorned by a dangly feather boa and sparkly jewelry. The same day, the taping of her mini concert was posted to Stefani's official YouTube channel and her separate Vevo account. The second time Stefani sang "Christmas Eve", she performed it on her Christmas television special "Gwen Stefani's You Make It Feel Like Christmas", which was broadcast to NBC on December 12, 2017. She performed the song ahead of "Christmas Eve" and wore a sparkly Santa Claus-inspired outfit. Stefani was later joined by a Claus lookalike at the end of the performance. Emily Krauser from "Entertainment Tonight" enjoyed the outfit, saying that she "absolutely slay-belled the fashion game" during the special. The full video of "Santa Baby" from Stefani's televised special was uploaded to her YouTube channel on December 30, 2017.


title: Santa Baby

text: Piedra from "Billboard" lauded Stefani's cover, stating that it "works perfectly with her incredibly unique voice". He also placed it within an unranked list of the ten best covers of "Santa Baby". David Smyth, a writer for London's "Evening Standard", enjoyed Stefani's version "Santa Baby" and highlighted it as one of the stronger offerings on "You Make It Feel Like Christmas". Roberts from the "Los Angeles Times" also approved of this version, calling it a "thoroughly modern take" and containing elements of both Kitt's version and Madonna's cover.


title: Santa Baby

text: Following its promotional release in the United States, "Santa Baby" entered the Holiday Digital Song Sales chart in the US. On the edition for the week ending October 20, 2017, the song debuted and peaked at number 7, becoming the second-highest new entry from Stefani on that particular chart. Overall, it was her third highest-peaking song and one of sixteen consecutive top 40 hits on the chart. In Canada, Stefani's cover was sent to holiday radio playlists, allowing it to enter the country's Adult Contemporary chart in January 2018. It peaked at number 38, the same week that three other Stefani songs ("You Make It Feel Like Christmas" and her covers of "Jingle Bells" and "White Christmas") were ranked on the chart.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Wade Hampton III (March 28, 1818April 11, 1902) was an American military officer who served the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War and later a politician from South Carolina. He came from a wealthy planter family, and shortly before the war he was one of the largest slaveholders in the Southeast as well as a state legislator. During the American Civil War, he served in the Confederate cavalry, where he reached the rank of lieutenant general.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: At the end of Reconstruction, with the withdrawal of federal troops from the state, Hampton was leader of the Redeemers who restored white rule. His campaign for governor was marked by extensive violence by the Red Shirts, a paramilitary group that served the Democratic Party by disrupting elections and suppressing black and Republican voting in the state. He was elected Governor, serving 1876 to 1879. After that, he served two terms as U.S. Senator, from 1879 to 1891.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Wade Hampton III was born in 1818 at 54 Hasell St. in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest son of "Colonel" Wade Hampton II (1791–1858) and Ann (née Fitzsimmons) Hampton. His mother was from a wealthy family in Charleston. After the War of 1812, his father had built his own fortune on land speculation in the Southeast.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: The senior Hampton was an officer of dragoons in the War of 1812, and an aide to General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. The boy was the grandson of Wade Hampton (1754–1835), lieutenant colonel of cavalry in the American War of Independence, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and brigadier general in the War of 1812. Wade III's uncle by marriage, James Henry Hammond, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, Governor of South Carolina and, in the late 1850s, elected to the United States Senate.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Wade Hampton III grew up in a wealthy planter family, receiving private instruction. He had four younger sisters. His was an active outdoor life; he rode horses and hunted, especially at his family's North Carolina summer retreat, High Hampton. The youth was known for taking hunting trips alone into the woods, hunting American black bears with only a knife. Some accounts credit him with killing as many as 80 bears.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: In 1836 Hampton graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina), and was trained for the law, although he never practiced. His father assigned certain plantations to him to manage in South Carolina and Mississippi. The younger man also became active in Democratic state politics.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: He was elected to the South Carolina General Assembly in 1852 and served as a state Senator from 1858 to 1861. After Hampton's father died in 1858, the son inherited his vast fortune, his plantations, and his slaves.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: During the Civil War, Hampton served in the Confederate army, resigning from the South Carolina Senate to enlist as a private in the South Carolina Militia. The governor of South Carolina insisted that Hampton accept a colonel's commission.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Although he had no military experience, his years of managing plantations and serving in state government were considered signs of leadership. As was also the case in northern regiments, the elite were commissioned based on their social standing and were also expected to finance military units. Hampton organized and partially financed the unit known as "Hampton's Legion," which consisted of six companies of infantry, four companies of cavalry, and one battery of artillery. He personally paid for all the weapons for the Legion.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Hampton was a natural cavalryman—brave, audacious, and already a superb horseman. Of officers without previous military experience, he was one of three to achieve the rank of lieutenant general, the others being Nathan Bedford Forrest and Richard Taylor.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Hampton's first combat came at the First Battle of Manassas, where he deployed his Legion at a decisive moment, reinforcing a Confederate line that was retreating from Buck Hill, giving the brigade of Thomas J. Jackson time to reach the field and make a defensive stand. A bullet creased Hampton's forehead when he led a charge against a Union artillery position. It was the first of five wounds he would receive during the war.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: During the winter of 1861–62, Hampton's Legion was assigned to the command of Gustavus W. Smith. Smith's division accompanied the rest of Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Northern Virginia down the Virginia Peninsula to aid in the Siege of Yorktown (1862) before Johnston withdrew to Richmond. On May 23, 1862, Hampton was promoted to brigadier general. At the Battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862, he was severely wounded in the foot, but while still under fire, remained on his horse while the foot was treated. Hampton returned to duty in time to fill in as leader of an infantry brigade for Stonewall Jackson at the end of the Seven Days Battles, although the brigade was not significantly engaged.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: After the Peninsula Campaign, General Robert E. Lee reorganized his cavalry forces as a division under the command of J.E.B. Stuart, who selected Hampton as his senior subordinate, to command one of two cavalry brigades. Hampton's brigade was left in Richmond to keep eyes on McClellan's withdrawal from the Peninsula, while the rest of the army participated in the Northern Virginia Campaign. Thus, Hampton and his men missed the Second Battle of Manassas, re-joining the army shortly thereafter; but were present on the extreme left of the Confederate line at Sharpsburg. His brigade was selected to participate in Stuart's Chambersburg Raid in October 1862, in which Hampton was briefly appointed "military governor" of the town following its surrender to the Confederate cavalry. During the winter of 1862, Hampton led a series of cavalry raids behind enemy lines and captured numerous prisoners and supplies without suffering any casualties, earning a commendation from General Lee. In November 1862, he captured 137 men of the 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry at Hartwood Presbyterian Church.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Hampton was not present at Fredericksburg, or Chancellorsville due to being detached for raids elsewhere.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: At the Battle of Brandy Station, the war's largest predominantly cavalry battle, Hampton was slightly wounded and his younger brother Frank, was killed. Immediately thereafter, Hampton's brigade participated in Stuart's raid in Pennsylvania, swinging around the Union army and losing contact with Lee. Stuart and Hampton reached the vicinity of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, late on July 2, 1863. While just outside town, Hampton was confronted by a Union cavalryman pointing a rifle at him from 200 yards. Hampton charged the trooper before he could fire his rifle, but another trooper blindsided Hampton with a saber cut to the back of his head. On July 3, Hampton led the cavalry attack to the east of Gettysburg, attempting to disrupt the Union rear areas, but colliding with Union cavalry. He received two more saber cuts to the front of his head, but continued fighting until he was wounded again with a piece of shrapnel to the hip. Some Colonel Laurence S. Baker assumed command of Hampton's Brigade after the injury. He was carried back to Virginia in the same ambulance as General John Bell Hood. On August 3, 1863, Hampton was promoted to major general and received command of a cavalry division. As his wounds from Gettysburg were slow to heal, he could not return to duty until November.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: During the Overland Campaign of 1864, Hampton's cavalry fought at Todd's Tavern during The Wilderness, and patrolled the left flank of the Confederate position at Spotsylvania Court House, during which time J.E.B. Stuart was killed at the Yellow Tavern. Hampton escorted Lee's withdrawal to Richmond, fighting at North Anna and Haw's Shop before being detached from Lee's army to deal with Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's cavalry destroying railroad in central Virginia. He distinguished himself further with a successful strategic victory at the bloody Battle of Trevilian Station, the war's largest all cavalry battle. After his return to Richmond, he fought at Nance's Shop, and was given command of the Cavalry Corps on August 11, 1864. For the rest of the war, Hampton lost no cavalry battles. In September, Hampton conducted what became known as the "Beefsteak Raid", where his troopers captured over 2400 head of cattle and more than 300 prisoners behind enemy lines.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: In October 1864, near Petersburg, Virginia, Hampton sent his son, T. Preston Hampton, a lieutenant serving as one of his aides, to deliver a message. Shortly afterward, Hampton and his other son, Wade IV, rode in the same direction. Before traveling 200 yards, they came across Preston lying on the ground; he was fatally wounded and soon died. As young Wade dismounted, he was also shot but survived.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: While Lee's army was bottled up in the Siege of Petersburg, in January 1865, Hampton returned to South Carolina to recruit soldiers. He was promoted to lieutenant general on February 14, 1865, but eventually surrendered to the Union along with General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee at Bennett Place in Durham, North Carolina. Hampton was reluctant to surrender, and nearly got into a personal fight with Union Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick (often called "Kill-Cavalry") at the Bennett Farm.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Together with Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early, Hampton became a proponent of the Lost Cause movement. He worked to explain the Confederacy's loss of the war and deeply regretted the loss of the secure life he had before the war. He believed the official line that slavery as practiced in the American South was benign and that blacks were racially inferior to whites. He strongly resented the use of black troops as part of the Federal government's occupying force in South Carolina.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Hampton was offered the nomination for governor in 1865, but refused because he believed Northerners would be suspicious of a former Confederate general seeking political office only months after the end of the Civil War. Hampton campaigned to ask supporters "not" to vote for him in the gubernatorial election. In 1868, he became the chairman of the state Democratic Party central committee. That year, the Radical Republicans took the election.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: He essentially ceased most overt political activity until 1876. He helped raise money for legal defense funds after the Federal government started to enforce anti-Klan legislation of 1870 and 1871 to suppress the violence of its members against freedmen and white Republicans. He was not known to have active involvement within the organization. Hampton supported Matthew Calbraith Butler in the Union Reform campaign of 1870.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Other insurgent groups rapidly formed to replace the KKK. In South Carolina and other states, groups of men calling themselves "rifle clubs" formed to act as vigilantes in the years after the war. In 1876, an estimated 20,000 men in South Carolina were members of rifle clubs in the state. Political campaigns were increasingly violent as whites tried to suppress black voting.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Beginning in the mid-1870s, the Democratic paramilitary group known as the Red Shirts developed chapters in most South Carolina counties (they had originated in Mississippi), and were similar to rifle clubs. These groups acted as "the military arm of the Democratic Party." They marched in parades during campaigns, openly disrupted Republican meetings, and worked to suppress black voting in the state by violence and intimidation.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Hampton opposed the Radical Republicans' Reconstruction policies in the South, primarily African Americans being allowed to vote and participate in politics. He re-entered South Carolina politics in 1876, running in opposition to those policies. Hampton, a Democrat, ran against Republican incumbent governor Daniel Henry Chamberlain. The 1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election is thought to be the bloodiest in the history of the state. The Red Shirts had used violence in every county to suppress black Republican voting. "An anti-Reconstruction historian later estimated that 150 Negroes were murdered in South Carolina during the campaign." Though it seems clear that supporters of Hampton included Red Shirts, prominent Hampton biographer Rod Andrew states there is “no evidence that Hampton himself supported or encouraged that violence.” Indeed, Benjamin Tillman, undisputed leader of the Red Shirts, would be instrumental in removing Hampton from his Senate seat in 1890.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Both parties claimed victory. For more than six months, there were two legislatures in the state, both claiming to be authentic. Eventually, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that Hampton was the winner of the election, the first Democratic governor in South Carolina since the end of the Civil War. The national election of Rutherford B. Hayes as President was settled by a compromise among Democrats, by which the national party agreed to end formally the Reconstruction era. In 1877 Hayes ordered the withdrawal of federal troops from the South, essentially leaving freedmen to deal with whites on their own.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: After the election, Hampton became known as the "Savior of South Carolina"; he was one of those Democrats elected who were called "Redeemers." He was re-elected in 1878; the Red Shirts gave support but less violence was required. Two days later, he was thrown from a mule while deer hunting and broke his right leg. Several weeks later, his right leg was amputated due to complications arising from this injury.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Despite refusing to announce his candidacy for the Senate, Hampton was elected to the United States Senate by the General Assembly on the same day his leg was amputated. He resigned from the governorship to serve two terms in the Senate, until 1891. He was a Bourbon Democrat who appealed to some freedmen in support of his win. John L. M. Irby won the seat in the state elections of 1890.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: From 1893 to 1897, Hampton served as United States Railroad Commissioner, appointed by President Grover Cleveland.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: In 1838, Hampton married Margaret Preston (1818–1852). Their children were: Wade Hampton IV (1840–1879), Thomas Preston Hampton (1843–1864, killed in the war), Sarah Buchanan Hampton (1845–1886), John Preston Hampton (1846–1847), and Harriet Flud Hampton (1848–1853).


title: Wade Hampton III

text: In 1858, Hampton III married Mary Singleton McDuffie (1830–1874). Their children were: George McDuffie Hampton (1859–1917), Mary Singleton "Daisy" Hampton (1861–1934), Alfred Hampton (1863–1942), and Catherine Fisher Hampton (born and died 1867)


title: Wade Hampton III

text: In 1890, Hampton's niece Caroline, an operating room nurse, married William Halsted, later known as the "father of American surgery" for his contributions. He had developed the surgical glove to try to protect Caroline's skin from the harsh surgical sterilization chemicals.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Statues of him were erected in the South Carolina State House building and in the United States Capitol. An equestrian statue by Frederick W. Ruckstull was erected on the grounds of the S.C. state capitol in Columbia, in 1906.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: In the wake of the June 17, 2015, massacre at the Charleston Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church by white supremacist Dylann Roof, there was a push to remove Confederate symbols in the United States Capitol, including the Hampton statue. Congressional representatives voted to retain the statues.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: To honor Hampton for his leadership in the Civil War and the "redemption" of the state from Reconstruction-era reforms, the General Assembly created Hampton County from Beaufort County in 1878. The town of Hampton Courthouse, later shortened to Hampton, was incorporated on December 23, 1879, to serve as the county seat of Hampton County.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Across South Carolina, many towns and cities renamed streets for him. At least eight municipalities in South Carolina have a street named "Wade Hampton" (Beaufort, Charleston, Duncan, Greenville, Greer, Hampton, Taylors, and Walterboro) and approximately 47 towns in the state have streets named "Hampton". Two high schools in South Carolina are named Wade Hampton High School: in Greenville and in Varnville. A residence hall at Hampton's alma mater, the University of South Carolina, was named for him. In July 2021, the university's Presidential Commission on University History recommended removing his name from the building.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: A Hampton Park was dedicated in Charleston and another in Columbia in his honor. The historic Hampton Heights neighborhood in Spartanburg is named after him. In 1964, Wade Hampton Academy was started in Orangeburg, considered a segregation academy. The school merged with Willington Academy in 1986 to become Orangeburg Preparatory Schools, Inc.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: In 1913, Judge John Randolph Tucker named the Wade Hampton Census Area in Alaska to commemorate his father-in-law (it was renamed Kusilvak Census Area in 2015 to remove the blemish of having a place named for a slave-holding Confederate general).


title: Wade Hampton III

text: An artillery battery was named after Wade Hampton at Fort Crockett, built on Galveston Island, Texas. The Wade Hampton Battery was one of four coastal artillery batteries and contained two 10-inch guns. During World War II, the SS "Wade Hampton", a Liberty ship named in honor of the general, was sunk off the coast of Greenland by a German U-boat.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: In Greenville County, South Carolina, the section of U.S. Route 29 that connects the city of Greenville to Spartanburg is called Wade Hampton Boulevard. There is also a fire district (Wade Hampton Fire Department) named in his honor placed on the east side of Greenville, adjoining the Greenville city limits, which include Wade Hampton High School.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: The Sons of Confederate Veterans awarded Hampton with its Confederate Medal of Honor, created in 1977.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: In Margaret Mitchell's novel "Gone with the Wind", Scarlett O'Hara's first husband, Charles Hamilton, serves in Hampton's regiment. As it was fashionable (according to Mitchell) to name baby boys after their fathers' commanding officers, Scarlett's son by Charles is named Wade Hampton Hamilton. In the film version of "Gone With The Wind," the letter sent to Scarlett advising her of Charles' death is shown to be signed by Hampton.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: In the "North and South" trilogy by John Jakes, the character Charles Main serves with Hampton's cavalry throughout the Civil War.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Hampton appears in a small role in "How Few Remain", the first novel in Harry Turtledove's "Southern Victory Series," an alternate history in which the South wins the American Civil War. Later in the series, in the novel "," Hampton's fictional grandson Wade Hampton V appears as President of the Confederate States, assassinated in the first few months of his term by a Freedom Party stalwart.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: Hampton is mentioned in Chapter 14, Section V of "Go Set a Watchman" by Harper Lee, when Jean Louise's Uncle Jack is trying to get her to understand her father Atticus's actions regarding the citizens' committee after the Brown v Board of Education 1954 Supreme Court decision.


title: Wade Hampton III

text: The 2021 independent film Hampton's Legion presents details of Hampton's military activity during the American Civil War.


title: South Cotabato

text: South Cotabato, officially the Province of South Cotabato and also known as Timog Kutabato (; ; Maguindanaon: "Pagabagatan Kutawatu", Jawi: ڤاڬابڬتن كوتاواتو; ), is a province in the Philippines located in the Soccsksargen region in Mindanao. Its capital is Koronadal, and it borders Sultan Kudarat to the north and west, Sarangani to the south and northeast, and Davao del Sur to the far northeast. To the southeast lies Sarangani Bay.


title: South Cotabato

text: General Santos, located on the shores of Sarangani Bay, is the most populous city in both the province and the region, but is governed independently from the province. The province of Sarangani used to be part of South Cotabato until it was made an independent province in 1992.


title: South Cotabato

text: Centuries ago, the area that would be the South Cotabato was sparsely inhabited by Maguindanaon pioneers and Lumads which are under Sultanate of Maguindanao's influence. The Spaniards launched expeditions to subdue the area throughout the colonial era but they never gained control of the region until the middle of the 19th century after the Spaniards established a military post at what is now Barangay Tamontaka, one of the earliest Christian settlements founded south of the Philippines, in present-day Cotabato City. Spaniards already took with them Chavacano-speaking Christians and Muslims from Zamboanga and Basilan, as well as the Visayans, especially the Hiligaynons and Cebuanos.


title: South Cotabato

text: The area of what is now South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces used to be part of Davao province until 1914, when the reorganization of the districts in Mindanao took place, thus it became part of the then-undivided Cotabato province. Settlers, who would lay the foundation of what would become a progressive province, started trooping down 1914.


title: South Cotabato

text: The significant thrust occurred during the term of President Quezon in late 1930s. General Paulino Santos led the first of wave of settlers that time. After World War II, the final exodus of settlers from Luzon and Visayas poured into the area's virgin land.


title: South Cotabato

text: In the early 1960s as population, trade and industries grew in southern part of Cotabato, a clamor of local self-governance arose. Thus, on July 18, 1966, South Cotabato was separated from Cotabato as an independent province. At that time, the province consisted of 11 municipalities, namely: Banga, South Cotabato, General Santos (now a city), Glan, Kiamba, Koronadal, Maitum, Norala, Polomolok, Surallah, Tantangan, and Tupi. These municipalities were established long before the creation of the province. Other component municipalities were formed after it fully functioned as a province.


title: South Cotabato

text: With the creation of regions under Pres. Ferdinand Marcos, South Cotabato was grouped with Region XI, also known as "Southern Mindanao", in 1975.


title: South Cotabato

text: In 1992, the province of Sarangani was formed out of South Cotabato. Seven towns in southern and coastal section of the province (Malungon, Alabel, Malapatan, Glan, Maasim, Kiamba and Maitum) became part of the new province, leaving South Cotabato with 11 remaining municipalities.


title: South Cotabato

text: Regional offices were relocated to South Cotabato in accordance with "EO 429" dated October 12, 1990, issued by President Corazon C. Aquino during the expansion of the newly created Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and "EO No. 36" dated September 19, 2001, issued by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo which says South Cotabato is to be transferred from Southern Mindanao region to Region XII and having the city of Koronadal as the regional center of Region XII.


title: South Cotabato

text: On August 16, 2000, "Republic Act No. 8803" was approved, that converted the municipality of Koronadal into a component city of South Cotabato.


title: South Cotabato

text: In 2015, the "National Competitiveness Council" declared the province as the 4th most competitive province in the country.


title: South Cotabato

text: South Cotabato covers a total land area of . When General Santos City is included for geographical purposes, the province's land area is . The province is situated on the southern section of central Mindanao, bounded by the provinces of Sultan Kudarat to the north and west, Sarangani to the south and northeast, Davao del Sur to the far northeast, and the Sarangani Bay to the southeast.


title: South Cotabato

text: South Cotabato belongs to the fourth type of climate, that is rainfall is more or less evenly distributed throughout the year. The average number of rainy days for the year 2004 is recorded between 122 and 180 days with the months of May, June, July, August and October having the most occurrence.


title: South Cotabato

text: Air humidity generally follows closely the rainfall pattern. Humidity is highest during the period of June to October with 88% being recorded at the Tupi seed farm. The months of February and April have the lowest air humidity recorded at about 72%.


title: South Cotabato

text: Maximum daytime temperature throughout the province is in the range of , falling to during the night depending on the elevation. The hottest period is January to April while July to December being the coolest.


title: South Cotabato

text: South Cotabato enjoys a mild, pleasant climate with no pronounced dry or wet season, and is practically typhoon-free.


title: South Cotabato

text: South Cotabato comprises 10 municipalities and 1 component city. The highly urbanized city of General Santos is traditionally grouped with, but administered independently from the province.


title: South Cotabato

text: The population of South Cotabato (excluding General Santos) was 975,476 in the 2020 census, making it one of the country's most populous province. The population density is .


title: South Cotabato

text: When General Santos is included for geographical purposes, the province's population is 1,509,735 people, with a density of .


title: South Cotabato

text: The people of South Cotabato have diverse heritages. Ethnic Hiligaynons, descendants of migrants from Panay and Negros in the Visayas who settled in the municipalities/towns of Norala, Banga, Surallah, Santo Niño and the province's capital city, Koronadal, are the majority in the province. The province's major media of communication are Hiligaynon, Tagalog, and English. On the other hand, Ilocano-speaking peoples of Luzon settled in Tampakan, Tantangan and Tupi, and the Ilocano language may still be heard in these towns. The Cebuanos are the main ethnic group of the municipality of Polomolok, and are one of the main ethnic groups of Tupi (along with the Hiligaynons and Kapampangans). Both towns are near to General Santos, which speaks both Hiligaynon and Cebuano. Chavacano speakers are even found scattered in some areas of the province, as well as Maguindanaons because of the province's history of being part of Sultanate of Maguindanao. Tbolis mainly reside around the Lake Sebu area, while Blaans reside within General Santos and its outskirts.


title: South Cotabato

text: Roman Catholics predominate the province with 65% adherence, while Islam is a minority religion which is 6% of the population. Other minorities are various Christian Churches such as Prostestants which form about 22% and consist of mostly evangelicals of the province's population which can be mostly found in some urban parts of the province. Iglesia ni Cristo forms about 3-4% population. The remainder are divided among Buddhist and animism.


title: South Cotabato

text: The Maguindanao tribe is the major Muslim Filipino tribe in the province. Other indigenous Filipino tribes are the T'boli and B'laan tribes in Lake Sebu and T'boli municipalities, famous for their brassworks, beadwork and t'nalak weave. The people of these tribes wear colorful embroidered native costumes and beadwork accessories. The women of these tribes, particularly, wear heavy brass belts with brass 'tassels' ending in tiny brass bells that herald their approach even when they are a long way off.


title: South Cotabato

text: The people of South Cotabato retain many of the practices and traditions of their particular tribal heritages, although infused with a flavor that is distinctly Mindanaoan and the product of cultural interaction between the immigrants and the indigenous peoples of the area. One vivid example of this is the predominant use of the native "malong", the colorful, tubelike garment used as a skirt by the indigenous tribes, in place of a blanket or sleeping bag.


title: South Cotabato

text: Hiligaynon is the most widely spoken language in the province, it is the main language in the capital city of Koronadal and the municipalities of the Upper Valley region namely, Surallah, Banga, Norala, Sto. Niño and Tantangan followed by Cebuano, which is the majority language of General Santos which is the main language in the Municipalities of Polomolok, Tampakan and Tupi. Tagalog and English are widely understood and often used for administrative functions by the local government and in education, with the former serving as dominant language in local media and of everyday communication of speakers of different languages. Other languages spoken in the province are Tboli, Blaan, Maguindanaon, and Ilocano.


title: South Cotabato

text: The Local Provincial Government holds its official functions in the City of Koronadal. The Provincial Capitol, Provincial Hospital, and all related offices are found in the city.


title: South Cotabato

text: House Bill No. 4678, filed on December 13, 2016, by First District Rep. Pedro B. Acharon, Jr., seeks to segregate the highly urbanized city of General Santos from the said district to form its own congressional district, separate from the representation of South Cotabato. This bill was signed by the president last March 11, 2019.


title: South Cotabato

text: The native Maguindanaon of South Cotabato have a culture that revolves around kulintang music, a specific type of gong music, found among both Muslim and non-Muslim groups of the Southern Philippines.


title: Silbervogel

text: Silbervogel (German for "silver bird") was a design for a liquid-propellant rocket-powered sub-orbital bomber produced by Eugen Sänger and Irene Bredt in the late 1930s for The Third Reich/Nazi Germany. It is also known as the RaBo ( – "rocket bomber"). It was one of a number of designs considered for the "Amerika Bomber" mission, which started in the spring of 1942, being focused solely on trans-Atlantic-range piston-engined strategic bombers, like the Messerschmitt Me 264 and Junkers Ju 390, the only two airframe types actually built and flown for the competition. When Walter Dornberger attempted to create interest in military spaceplanes in the United States after World War II, he chose the more diplomatic term "antipodal bomber".


title: Silbervogel

text: The design was a significant one, as it incorporated new rocket technology and the principle of the lifting body, foreshadowing future development of winged spacecraft such as the X-20 Dyna-Soar of the 1960s and the Space Shuttle of the 1970s. In the end, it was considered too complex and expensive to produce. The design never went beyond mock-up test.


title: Silbervogel

text: The Silbervogel was intended to fly long distances in a series of short hops. The aircraft was to have begun its mission propelled along a long rail track by a large rocket-powered sled to about . Once airborne, it was to fire its own rocket engine and continue to climb to an altitude of , at which point it would be travelling at about . It would then gradually descend into the stratosphere, where the increasing air density would generate lift against the flat underside of the aircraft, eventually causing it to "bounce" and gain altitude again, where this pattern would be repeated. Because of aerodynamic drag, each bounce would be shallower than the preceding one, but it was still calculated that the Silbervogel would be able to cross the Atlantic, deliver a bomb to the continental United States, and then continue its flight to a landing site somewhere in the Empire of Japan–held Pacific, a total journey of .


title: Silbervogel

text: Postwar analysis of the Silbervogel design involving a mathematical control analysis unearthed a computational error. It turned out that the heat flow during the initial atmospheric re-entry would have been much greater than the original one calculated by Sänger and Bredt. Hence, if the design had been actually constructed, it would have been destroyed by the heat, which would have exceeded design limits and melted the craft. The problem could have been solved by augmenting the heat shield, but this would have reduced the craft's payload capacity significantly, reducing its use for the intended mission of bombing distant areas.


title: Silbervogel

text: On 3 December 1941 Sänger sent his initial proposal for a suborbital glider to the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM) as "Geheime Kommandosache Nr. 4268/LXXX5". The 900-page proposal was regarded with disfavor at the RLM due to its size and complexity and was filed away. Then Sänger went to work on more modest projects such as the Skoda-Kauba Sk P.14 ramjet fighter.


title: Silbervogel

text: Professor Walter Gregorii had Sänger rework his report, and a greatly reduced version was submitted to the RLM in September 1944, as UM 3538. It was the first serious proposal for a vehicle which could carry a pilot and payload to the lower edge of space.


title: Silbervogel

text: Two manned and one unmanned version were proposed: the (antipodal long-range glider) and the (intercontinental long-range glider). Both were to be launched from a rocket-powered sled. The two manned versions were identical, except in payload. The was to be launched at a very steep angle (which would shorten the range) and after dropping its bomb load on New York City was to land at a Japanese base in the Pacific.