The Israel lobby, also known as the Zionist lobby, is a term sometimes used to describe individuals and groups seeking to influence the foreign policy of the United Kingdom in favour of bilateral ties with Israel, Zionism, Israel, or the policies of the Israeli government. Such individuals and groups may seek to influence politicians and political parties, the media, the general public or specific groups or sectors.

Lobbying activities in relation to Israel, as with other issues, tend to be less formalised and on a smaller scale in the UK than such lobbying in the United States. The foreign policy of the United Kingdom is of much less importance to Israel than that of the United States, both because of the latter's much greater economic and military strength and because of the substantial and persistent military aid it supplies to Israel. However, Britain retains some ability to influence international affairs through its membership of the UN Security Council, its period of membership of the European Community and its historic role in the Middle East.

Some have suggested that the concept of the "Israel lobby" may be inspired by, or give rise to, prejudice against Jews, by possible parallels to antisemitic canards such as world domination, controlling the media and dual loyalty. Others have ascribed what they see as an exaggerated focus on the subject as driven by hostility to Israel for various reasons, including as a new form of antisemitism.

History

What came to be known as "Christian Zionism" emerged in England in the early 19th century when Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land and futuristic interpretation of apocalyptic texts merged. In 1839, the evangelical Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury called on the Westminster Parliament to support the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. During the 1840s Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston supported a "Jewish entity" allied to the Ottoman Empire as a counterweight to Egypt.

British journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft writes that perhaps the "first lobbyist on behalf of the land of Israel" was Theodor Herzl who, after publishing his book The Jewish State in 1896, and organizing the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897, met Cabinet ministers and other European officials. Russian Zionist Chaim Weizmann began the process of convincing Earl Balfour that Palestine should be the Jewish national home and, according to the website zionism-israel.com, the "British Zionist movement began actively lobbying the British government." The British Palestine Committee in Manchester also, according to zionism-israel.com, "lobbied for the mandate and Jewish rights in Palestine."

Some groups like the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association were the "institutional stronghold of the anti-Zionist camp" and formed a Conjoint Foreign Committee to lobby the government on behalf of persecuted Jewish communities abroad and to oppose the efforts of Weizmann and his allies.  In 1917 Weizmann and a small group of Zionists in what Ahron Bregman called "a brilliant exercise of sustained persuasion, lobbying, and influence", persuaded the British government to publish the Balfour Declaration which supported "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." (Weizmann later became the first President of the State of Israel.)  Leaders of Board of Deputies of British Jews and of the Anglo-Jewish Association (who at the time were anti-Zionist) considered the Balfour Declaration a "veritable calamity" that would stamp "the Jews as strangers in their native lands."

According to the author Ritchie Ovendale, Britain, which held the British Mandate of Palestine ratified by the League of Nations after World War I, abandoned its Zionist sympathies, "which had been secured by the Zionist lobby", because of fears of coming war with Nazi Germany. In 1939, Britain limited Jewish immigration to Palestine, thereby, he argues, becoming to Zionists "the principal enemy." In 1942, he writes, Zionists shifted their focus to influencing the United States through use of the "Zionist vote."

Organizations and activities

Generalists
The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council are the leading bodies of the Jewish community in Britain. Consequently, their remit is wide and lobbying is a minor part of their role. Within lobbying, they are distinctive from smaller groups in lobbying, at least on occasion, a wide range of audiences.

Board of Deputies of British Jews
The Board of Deputies of British Jews is a forum for the views of most organisations within the British Jewish community, liaising with the British government on that basis. The Board states that the community "has a very strong attachment to the State of Israel" and articulates the community's concerns and positions on Israel to parliamentarians, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, media and other faith groups. Its programme of engagement with embassies also encompasses ties between other countries and the State of Israel.

Jewish Leadership Council
The Jewish Leadership Council aims to forward the interests of the organised Jewish community in Britain. Its mission is to work, through its members, to ensure the continuity in the UK, in this and future generations, of a mainstream Jewish Community (that) is, inter alia: confident in its support for Israel.

According to sociologists Tom Mills, Hilary Aked, Tom Griffin and David Miller, writing in OpenDemocracy, "Pro-Israel lobbying has always been an important part of its work. In December 2006 it established a non-charitable company, the Jewish Activities Committee, as a vehicle to handle political operations.  The company's founding directors were Trevor Chinn, Henry Grunwald, BICOM's then vice chair Brian Kerner and BICOM's chairman and main funder, the Finnish billionaire Poju Zabludowicz. That same month the JLC co-founded the Fair Play Campaign Group with the Board of Deputies, aiming 'to coordinate activity against boycotts of Israel and other anti-Zionist campaigns'. According to the JLC's website, the Fair Play Campaign Group 'acts as a coordinating hub' and 'keeps an eye out for hostile activity so it can be an early-warning system for pro-Israel organisations in the UK'. Fair Play later launched the Stop the Boycott campaign with BICOM, with the Jewish Activities Committee acting as a vehicle for donations."

The Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland
The Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, founded in 1899, describes itself as "the UK's leading Israel advocacy and grassroots organisation" which "celebrates Israel and challenges our enemies." It describes itself as an umbrella organisation for the Zionist movement in the United Kingdom, representing more than 30 organisations and over 50,000 affiliated members. http://www.thejlc.org/zionist_federation Its activities include: training, campaigning, media engagement, lobbying, combatting the BDS movement, working with students and cultural events.

Politics

A number of groups lobby the government, politicians and political parties on behalf of Israel. Many politicians are happy to express their support through, for example, the national political party 'Friends of Israel' groups.

Former Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Tam Dalyell in 2003 stated that former prime minister and party leader Tony Blair was unduly influenced by a "cabal of Jewish advisers" in forming his Middle East policy towards Iraq, Syria and Iran. Dalyell initially named several influential British advisors of Jewish heritage, but later focused on Middle East envoy, Lord Levy and mostly Jewish advisors to US President George W. Bush.  Eric Moonman, president of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland and a former Labour MP, said he was seeking advice on whether there was a case for referral of Dalyell to the Commons' commission for racial equality. He was also criticised by Dave Rich, who rejects the claim there are UK "AIPAC-style" lobbies.

The former Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament, Baroness Jenny Tonge said in 2006: "The pro-Israeli lobby has got its grips on the western world, its financial grips. I think they've probably got a grip on our party." An all-party group of Lords led by the former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, said her "irresponsible and inappropriate" comments "evoked a classic anti-Jewish conspiracy theory." Defending her comments, Tonge said that Walt and Mearsheimer's article "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" that appeared in the 23 March 2006 issue of The London Review of Books provided evidence supporting her assertion that the "'Israel lobby' had a disproportionate voice in Anglo-American foreign policy." Tonge was reprimanded by the Liberal Party leader Menzies Campbell, who commented "I defend absolutely your right to express your views on the Middle East, including legitimate criticism of the state of Israel. But I do not believe that the remarks you used fell within that category." He added that the remarks had "clear anti-Semitic connotations" Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, was quoted as saying: "If someone makes comments that are so at odds with what the party feels, and hopefully at odds with common decency, then one would hope that they are no longer made welcome in the party itself."

In 2006 Chris Davies, a Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for the northwest of England wrote to a pro-Israel constituent that she "enjoyed wallowing in her own filth". In a later message to her he complained about Israel's "racist policies of apartheid" and stated "I shall tell them that I intend to speak out against this oppression at every opportunity, and I shall denounce the influence of the Jewish lobby that seems to have far too great a say over the political decision-making process in many countries". As a consequence of the outcry raised by the attack on the constituent, Davies resigned soon after as leader of the Liberal Democrats group in the European Parliament.

In a December 2007 column, after the 2007 Labour party donation scandal ("Donorgate") broke, Assaf Uni of Haaretz wrote that there was concern in the Jewish community about "conspiracy theories regarding a 'Jewish plot' in the United Kingdom, and the role of the pro-Israel lobby there". In late 2007, it was revealed that David Abrahams, deputy chair of Labour Friends of Israel until 2002, had made secret and illegal donations through junior employees of 600,000 pounds sterling (approximately $1.2 million) to the Labour Party. Abrahams, "a Jewish millionaire", admitted in The Jewish Chronicle that he concealed his activity because "I didn't want Jewish money and the Labour Party being put together." The Daily Telegraph ran a photograph of Abrahams with Israeli former ambassador to Britain, Zvi Heifetz, and "insinuated that Israel was the source of the illegal campaign contributions." According to an article in Haaretz, several in the media have maintained there was a connection between money donated by Zionist Jews and the pro-Israel policy of British prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told The Forward, "Clearly there is a potential for it to turn against us." Writing about the scandal, journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown asked in The Independent about the roles of the Labour and Conservative Friends of Israel groups, given that former Labour Friends leader David Abrahams was involved. She questioned the role in Labour victories of Jon Mendelsohn, noting that Mendelsohn is "a passionate Zionist and infamous lobbyist, described by The Jewish Chronicle as "one of the best-connected power brokers"." She stated her assumption that Labour Friends of Israel plays a part in shaping British foreign policies in the Middle East. She also questioned the donations and "back-room influence" of Labour Friends of India and Muslim Friends of Labour.

In 2009, a documentary, Inside Britain's Israel Lobby, by the journalist Peter Oborne was shown in the Channel 4 Dispatches series which aimed to expose the influence of the Israel lobby within British politics and alongside James Jones wrote a pamphlet investigating which groups make up the pro-Israel lobby, how they operate, and how they exert influence. The Guardians Middle East editor, Ian Black, said the lobby was "bankrolling Tories." Ofcom received 50 complaints about the programme but cleared it of breaching broadcasting rules.

In 2010, Labour MP Martin Linton said, in reference to the Israel lobby in the UK, "There are long tentacles of Israel in this country who are funding election campaigns and putting money into the British political system for their own ends," while his Jewish fellow Labour MP Gerald Kaufman said that right-wing Jewish millionaires had large stakes in the Conservative Party.Community Security Trust spokesman Mark Gardner responded: "Anybody who understands antisemitism will recognise just how ugly and objectionable these quotes are, with their imagery of Jewish control and money power." In 2015, Kaufman said that "Jewish money, Jewish donations to the Conservative Party ... [and] support from the Jewish Chronicle" had led to "a big group of Conservative MPs who are pro-Israel whatever (its) government does", referring to the Conservative Friends of Israel.

In 2012, Peter Oborne wrote that "Some 80 per cent of all Tory MPs are members (of Conservative Friends of Israel), including most Cabinet ministers.... while its sponsors play an important role in financing both the Tories nationally, and MPs at the local level. There is no doubt that the CFI has exercised a powerful influence over policy." Conservative MP Sir Alan Duncan in 2014 stated that despite UK rules forbidding political funding from  abroad, in his view an exception was made for Israel, and later added that "the United States is in hock to a very powerful financial lobby which dominates its politics."

In 2017, Al Jazeera broadcast a four part series, The Lobby, on the Israel lobby in the UK.

All-Party Britain-Israel Parliamentary Group

All-Party Groups are defined by the House of Commons as "relatively informal" groups whose members include "backbench Members of the House of Commons and Lords" and sometimes ministers and non-parliamentarians. They are classified as subject or country groups. Being cross-party, All-Party Groups are more talking-shops than lobbies trying to influence government policies. They are registered only "to control the extent to which groups use the House's facilities and status"

The "All-Party Britain-Israel Parliamentary Group" is an All-Party Group registered with the UK Parliament.  Its stated purpose is "To create a better understanding of Israel, and to foster and promote links between Britain and Israel".  The chair in the parliament dissolved on 30 March 2015 was Louise Ellman MP.

Friends of Israel (party political)
Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) is affiliated with the Conservative Party and states that it is "one of the fastest growing political lobby groups."  It lists its objectives as supporting Israel, promoting conservatism, fighting terrorism, combating antisemitism and peaceful co-existence in the Middle East. Iain Dale and Brian Brivati in The Daily Telegraph have described it as "a highly effective lobby group," writing that its Director, Stuart Polak, has "done more than most to promote Israel's case to the right of British politics."

Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), founded in 1957, is a group within the Labour Party which in 2003 described itself as a "lobby group working within the Labour Party to promote the State of Israel". It describes itself as seeking "to promote a strong bilateral relationship between Britain and Israel." It organizes visits of British politicians to Israel to meet with Israeli politicians and advocates on Israel's behalf among Labour Party members. Labour Party Prime Ministers Tony Blair (1997–2007) and Gordon Brown (2007-2010) have been members of Labour Friends of Israel, and the subsequent leader of the Labour Party (Ed Miliband) described himself as a "friend of Israel".

Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel (LDFI) was the first such group formed. Its first objective is "to maximise support for the State of Israel within the Liberal Democrats and Parliament."

The Israel Britain Alliance
The Israel Britain Alliance was founded in 2016 in order to "increase support for Israel in Parliament". It was launched by the Zionist Federation and led by former Labour MP for East Kilbride Michael McCann to build relationships between politicians and grassroots Israel supporters and strengthen ties between the House of Commons and the Knesset. McCann  was a member of Trade Union Friends of Israel (TUFI) and a vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel.

Media
BICOM is the principal group seeking to influence UK media coverage in favour of Israel. Influencing can be directed at media owners, executives and frontline employees. Some commentators are known for their expressions of support for Israel.

In a September 2001 column in The Observer about the September 11 attacks in the United States, Richard Ingrams noted "the reluctance throughout the media to contemplate the Israeli factor" and, commenting on Britain, cited "pressure from the Israeli lobby in this country that many, even normally outspoken journalists, are reluctant even to refer to such matters." He also noted their reluctance to address issues he had mentioned in past columns related to Lord Levy, the Labour Party and to the "close business links with Israel" of press magnates Rupert Murdoch and Conrad Black. Earlier in August, Times journalist, Sam Kiley, resigned from the newspaper as he claimed his work was severely censored by senior executives due to the Zionist sympathies of Rupert Murdoch.

In 2002, Palestine Is Still the Issue, made by the documentary film maker John Pilger, was shown on ITV. The Board of Deputies of British Jews, Conservative Friends of Israel and the Israeli Embassy expressed "outrage" and, according to Pilger, demanded a "pro-Israel" film. Pilger said the BBC would not have "dared to incur the wrath of one of the most influential lobbies in this country" by showing the film, citing comments written by Tim Llewellyn, the BBC's former Middle East correspondent, that the BBC continues to "duck" the issue. Pilger stated this was "one example of pressure exerted on British journalists from Zionists and the Israeli embassy."

BICOM
Founded in 2000, the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) seeks to present Israel's case to journalists. The Observer has described it as "Britain's most active pro-Israeli lobbying organisation" and as an "influential Jewish lobby group".

The London-based Jewish Chronicle reported that Brian Kerner, former chair of Joint Israel Appeal, argued that there was "the need for a body able to orchestrate British Jewry's political and public relations" after the year 2000 outbreak of the Second Intifada. The day after it began, fifty Jewish leaders met with the Israeli ambassador and "raised an initial £250,000 fund for pro-Israel lobbying and public relations."  BICOM was founded as a consequence. The article also noted that "a debate goes on in the community's upper echelons over whether BICOM should remain a mainly-behind-the-scenes player focussing on media or a more upfront pro-Israel lobby similar to the American Aipac..."

According to a 2002 article in The Guardian, BICOM and the Board of Deputies of British Jews had "adopted aggressive media strategies to defend Israel and attack its critics in Britain." That year, leaders of the British Jewish community called in two high-level American strategists "to conduct research into the extent of hostility to Israel in Britain with a view to the British Jewish community launching a big public relations drive." In particular, focus groups were "said to have found particular hostility among professional and academic groups." The American paper The Forward reported that in 2005 Steve J. Rosen, then American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy director, led an ambitious and "semisecret" effort to start similar pro-Israel lobbying organizations in the United Kingdom due to rising antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment. In early 2008, The Jewish Chronicle reported that a new, yet unnamed London-based organisation would examine whether Israel received fair media coverage, but that it would not compete with BICOM.

In autumn 2008, a senior Israeli government official shared his opinions on competition between BICOM, which he said wants to maintain its primary role in the UK, and the US-based Israel Project. He stated that BICOM charged that the Israel Project doesn't understand how to work with British journalists and said "We don't want to get into this. We work with both organisations." The Israel Project denied there was competition and BICOM declined to comment saying "We don't respond to speculation."

Society
Society, encompassing academia, local government and other fields, has taken on greater importance as Israel and its supporters have sought to counter pro-Palestinian sentiment and activities, such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

In October 2007 all speakers withdrew in protest from an Oxford Union debate on the one-state solution.  One of the speakers, Ghada Karmi, a Palestinian research fellow at the University of Exeter and vice-chair of CAABU (the Council for Arab-British Understanding), wrote on The Guardian'''s blog that "the newest and least attractive import from America, following on behind Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Friends, is the pro-Israel lobby." She states the Oxford Union withdrew its invitation to speak to American Jewish scholar and Israel critic Norman Finkelstein, asserting it was "apparently intimidated by threats from various pro-Israel groups".

In October 2007 Amjad Barham, head of the Council of the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees, wrote that the "Israel lobby in the UK" was behind the decision of the University and College Union (UCU) to cancel the UK speaking tour of some Palestinian academics. He asserted Palestinian academic unions could "detect the not-so-hidden hand of the lobby in this latest episode of stifling debate on issues pertaining to Israeli policies and the complicity of the Israeli academy in perpetuating them."

A 2017 paper, Advocating Occupation:Outsourcing Zionist Propaganda in the UK, was published in eSharp, a student-run postgraduate journal of University of Glasgow, referred to "an Israeli state-sponsored strategy focused on controlling public opinion in the UK" that seek to "discredit and neutralise pro-Palestinian discourses". The university added a disclaimer to the article in 2020, apologising for subpar research and describing its content as "antisemitic". This was followed, in October 2021, by a petition signed by 500 scholars, calling on the university to retract the disclaimer. In August 2021, the university republished the article removing the apology and claim of antisemitism, but maintained a preface that said that the article has caused offence, and "employs some discursive strategies, including a biased selection of sources as well as the misrepresentation of data, which promote what some would regard as an unfounded theory regarding the State of Israel and its activity in the United Kingdom."

Britain Israel Trade Union Dialogue
The Britain Israel Trade Union Dialogue, previously Trade Union Friends of Israel, operates in the trade union movement.

Friends of Israel (geographical)
Sussex Friends of Israel, based in Brighton, was established in 2013.

North London Friends of Israel was established in 2014.

There is an Essex Friends of Israel.

North West Friends of Israel was established in 2014 and organises activities in Manchester.

There is a North-East Friends of Israel group.

The Yorkshire Friends of Israel is based in Leeds.

The Confederation of Friends of Israel Scotland are active in Scotland.

There is also a Northern Ireland Friends of Israel group.

Israel Advocacy Movement
The aim of the Israel Advocacy Movement is to establish a mass movement of Israeli advocates in the UK. It provides training and promotional materials and advocates the use of social media and a network of street level advocacy teams. In June 2019, it hosted a debate entitled 'should Zionists support a white ethno state?' with far-right activist Mark Collett.

Israel Coalition
In July 2020, the Israel Advocacy Movement, David Collier, Sussex Friends of Israel and North West Friends of Israel announced their joint founding of the Israel Coalition to "resource, unify and amplify the most successful online pro-Israel initiatives".

UK Lawyers for Israel
UK Lawyers for Israel was founded in 2011 by Jonathan Turner. It has been described as "instrumental in a number of significant victories for pro-Israel campaigns and against antisemitism in the UK." It has been represented on the Board of Deputies of British Jews since 2016. Caroline Kendal, its director of operations, in 2016 said "...what we're about is actually standing for Israel, and doing that as effectively as we possibly can." In that year it claimed about 1400 members and associates, of whom about half were lawyers. Much of its activity is in relation to universities. It played a key role in the prevention of a second "Gaza flotilla" setting sail from Greece in 2011, by invoking international maritime law. In 2019, in the face of planned protests, the group abandoned plans to host a speaker from Regavim, a pro-settler organisation labelled extremist by the Jewish Labour Movement and Yachad, which campaigns against the building of Arab and Bedouin settlements in the West Bank.

Union of Jewish Students
The Union of Jewish Students supports Jewish societies on 60 campuses across the UK. Its core values include "Engagement with Israel:...offering opportunities to strengthen, celebrate and explore a personal relationship with Israel as part of an evolving expression of Jewish identity".

In 2018-19, UJS supported over 11,000 students on 'Israel programmes'. UJS declared "We wanted to portray Israel in a positive way on campus through Israeli culture, society and politics."
In spring 2020, the UJS launched Spring into Israel'', "a campaign to ensure we have as many Israel related events on campus during this month." The organisational partners were BICOM, We Believe in Israel and the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. Previous campaigns have included Bridges not Boycotts, Dialogue not Division and Exploring Zionism.

We Believe in Israel
Founded in 2011, We Believe in Israel facilitates and supports a grassroots network of supporters of Israel in the UK. Its launch followed two pro-Israel conferences held in the UK in 2011 and 2015. Its founding director is PR consultant and Labour Party activist Luke Akehurst. In May 2019, the organisation announced the recruitment of its 20,000th activist.

StandWithUs
The US-based StandWithUs operates in the UK. It describes itself as equipping students to be effective Israel educators. In September 2019, it organised a three-day conference and announced record numbers of students on its programmes.

Faith
The number and scale of faith organisations which promote Israel actively are limited. This is distinct from the expression of viewpoints by faith organisations on the issue.

Christian Zionist groups
Christian Zionist groups in Britain continue the tradition of supporting Israel as part of the fulfillment of prophecy.  Such groups often are criticized for their beliefs (per the Book of Ezekiel and the Book of Zechariah) that only those Jews who convert to Christianity will be spared a fiery death when Jesus returns. Christian Friends of Israel, UK explicitly rejects such a view in its "Foundation Principles." Other such groups include the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People (The Israel Trust of the Anglican Church), Bridges for Peace, Christian Zionists for Israel UK and International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, UK.

Community
Several groups seek to strengthen associations and empathy between Jews in the United Kingdom, particularly young people, and Israel. Their activities can take a range of forms, including those relating to culture, education, faith, leisure and philanthropy.

Habonim Dror
Habonim Dror is a Jewish Socialist-Zionist cultural youth movement. Its mission includes "to build a socialist, culturally Jewish future in the State of Israel". Habonim Dror United Kingdom (HDUK) has six kenim (branches). When chanichimot are 16 they go on Israel Tour, a month trip around Israel, where they are immersed in the culture and history of Israel. After returning from Israel Tour, participants become Madrichimot (leaders) and will spend the year doing Hadracha (leadership) training in preparation for them to take on roles in the summer across a variety of Machanot. Every year chanichimot who have just finished high school travel to Israel for a year on Shnat Hachshara, commonly referred to as Shnat, where they go on an extensive experiential and educational process and actively carry out movement aims and engage with Israeli society.

Jewish National Fund
The Jewish National Fund says "JNF UK is Britain's oldest Israel charity and has supported the Zionist pioneers since the days of the Second Aliyah. Today we are working to ensure that the people of Israel who live in the underdeveloped south of the country can also share in the Jewish State's success story.is active in every area of Israeli life."

UJIA
The UJIA (United Jewish International Appeal) seeks to enhance young British Jews' sense of Jewish identity and their connection with Israel. UJIA's remit includes overseeing and sponsoring Israel group tours that are organised by Jewish religious and ideological organisations for young people in the Jewish community. In 2017 UJIA launched a £300,000 fund to invest in Israeli start-up businesses that are concerned with improving education, employment and community development. The British Prime Minister, Theresa May, was the guest speaker at a dinner, hosted by UJIA on 17 September 2018, that was held to mark the 70th anniversary of the foundation of Israel.

See also
European Friends of Israel
British–Zionist conflict
Israel–United Kingdom relations
Jewish lobby
Lobbying in the United Kingdom
The Lobby (TV series)
Israel lobby in the United States

References

External links
 All-Party Britain-Israel Parliamentary Group
 The Israel Britain Alliance
 UK Lawyers for Israel
 We Believe in Israel

Israel–United Kingdom relations
Lobbying in the United Kingdom
Jewish lobbying
Political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom
Zionism in the United Kingdom
Zionist organizations

hu:Izrael-lobbi az Egyesült Államokban
no:Israel-lobbyen


Inductive Automation is a supplier of web-based industrial automation software based in Folsom, California, US. The Ignition SCADA platform is the company's main product line.

Inductive Automation has customers in a variety of industries including oil and gas, wastewater, food and beverage, utilities, energy, research, transportation, chemical processing, mining, aerospace, transportation, broadcasting, printing, plastics, construction, discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing in over 90 countries with over 1,200 independent automation integration companies.

Inductive Automation introduced the server-centric architecture for SCADA systems with FactorySQL and FactoryPMI in 2003. The company is a pioneer of supporting interoperability standards among SCADA vendors, and is a supporter of Open Source software and the OPC Foundation. The company was the first to implement a native Java OPC-UA stack in January 2010, making its products 100% cross platform, which is rare for commercial SCADA vendors.

Licensing
Inductive Automation promotes an unlimited licensing structure, favoring a per server model that avoids charging for clients, PLC or SQL database connections, tags or visualization screens.

Inductive Automation offers "Limited" versions of the SQL Bridge and Vision modules that are restricted by functionality and concurrent clients, respectively.

Ignition platform

Ignition is an Integrated Software Platform for SCADA systems used to achieve cross-platform web-based deployment through the Java Web Start Technology for both runtime clients and the integrated development environment. In 2018, Oracle released a statement that future versions of Java will no longer support Java Web Start. To achieve the same cross-platform web-based deployment for runtime clients in Ignition, Inductive Automation introduced custom Java-based launchers in November 2018."

MES Module Layer
MES Modules are provided through a third-party strategic partnership with Sepasoft, Inc. and are designed to be built on the Ignition platform. Sepasoft MES Modules generally provide higher-level functionality with less user development. MES Modules are designed to provide specific functionality and can be industry specific. The MES modules are designed to save integrators and end-users substantial amounts of time with out-of-the-box functionality and unlimited flexibility via custom scripting. The current core MES Modules available are "OEE Downtime", "Statistical Process Control" (SPC), "Track and Trace]" and "Recipe/Changeover". Sepasoft also offers "Utility Modules": "Instrument Interface", "Web Services" and a "Barcode Scanner". Newly released in 2019 is the Sepasoft Business Connector Suite featuring the Sepasoft Business Connector and Interface for SAP ERP modules, and Platform 3.0 MES Enterprise functionality.

HMI/SCADA Module Layer
The HMI/SCADA Module Layer contains mainstay products of the Ignition Platform. "Vision" is the main visualization module, "SQL Bridge" is a bidirectional OPC-to-SQL database historian and transaction manager, "Reporting" generates dynamic Pdf reports and "Mobile" allows access to HTML 5 compatible devices such as iPads, iPods, Android, smartphone and tablets.

Other HMI/SCADA modules available are: "OPC-COM", "OPC-UA", "Vision", "Alarm Notification", "SMS Notification", "Voice Notification" and "SFC modules". The following modules were announced for 2014-2015: "Enterprise Administration Module", "Upgraded Reporting Module" and "DNP3 Driver Module".

Platform Layer
The Platform Layer includes the following core functionality to all modules: OPC-UA Client, Database, Web Server, System Logging, Licensing, Unified Development Environment, Auditing, Authentication, Module API, Alerting Core Functionality, Database Connectivity, Scripting Engine, Realtime Tag Database, Store & Forward and Redundancy.

Security
Inductive Automation promotes IT departments supporting security using standard methodology. The Ignition Platform supports the following security features:

 SSL/TLS All network traffic is encrypted with SSL/TLS technology.
 Active Directory Authentication Supports Microsoft Windows Active Directory authentication.
 Auditing allows administrators to review logs of activity.

The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) released advisory 11-231-01 that allowed malicious unauthenticated users to download sensitive information regarding project configuration. Inductive Automation responded by resolving the issue in version 7.2.8.178 and greater.

Linux
Inductive Automation promotes cross-platform operating system choices for SCADA, citing that Windows has been a requirement due to the reliance of DCOM within OPC-DA, but organizations desire Linux for "security", "stability" and "reliability". Inductive Automation introduced Linux support in Ignition with the OPC-UA module in January 2010.

Legacy products

FactorySQL is an OPC based Middleware product that bridges the gap between industrial PLCs and SQL Databases. FactorySQL is a drag and drop .NET application that runs as a Windows service. FactorySQL version 1.0 was released in 2003 and deprecated at version 4 in 2010 with the release of Ignition.

FactoryPMI is a Java based SCADA product containing three main components: the runtime, gateway, and designer. FactoryPMI version 1.0 was released in 2003 and deprecated at version 3 in 2010 with the release of Ignition.

History
Version 1.0 of FactorySQL and FactoryPMI were released in 2003.

In January 2010, Inductive Automation consolidated FactorySQL and FactoryPMI under the modular Ignition platform. Ignition became the platform name, and FactorySQL and FactoryPMI became the SQL Bridge Module and Vision Module, respectively. The Reporting Module and OPC-UA Module were included in the initial release. This was considered "the first time a featured industrial software package offered the same benefits on Windows and Linux".

The first Ignition Community Conference was held on September 16–18, 2013, in Folsom, California. Conferences were also held in September in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Inductive University was announced and launched on September 25, 2014.

The latest version of Ignition, Ignition v8.0, was released in spring 2019.

OPC-UA

Current drivers include A-B suite, ModbusTCP, Siemens S7 and Simple TCP/UDP, allowing users to connect to a multitude of devices such as PLCs, solar cells, lights, generators, flow meters and bar code scanners.

The Ignition OPC-UA server implemented the first native Java OPC UA stack. Inductive Automation offers the OPC-UA module for free.

SQLTags
SQLTags is a proprietary technology that uses any SQL database as a tag database. Tags can be derived from the following sources: OPC, expression or constant and support various configuration options such as alerting, scaling, and historical storage. SQLTags are stored in "Tag Providers", which are automatically configured tables in an SQL database.

SQLTags Historian is a proprietary data logging technology that manages historical data in any supported SQL database. It is configured by defining an Ignition "SQL database connection", then enabling the feature on a per tag basis. The system automatically creates and manages the tables without any user SQL input. "Historical Scan Classes" support different logging intervals by sets of tags as well as altering the logging rate dynamically. This allows the system to store high resolution history when needed, but lower resolution data for other periods. The system automatically partitions data into multiple database tables. This accomplishes two functions: ensures consistent performance over the long term, and provides a consistent mechanism for data archival and pruning.

Open source
Inductive Automation is a promoter and contributor to the Open source community. FactoryPMI utilizes a number of such projects including MySQL, Apache, JFreeChart, Jython, Hsqldb, jTDS and Bean Builder.

Awards
Inductive Automation received the 2011 Duke's Choice award at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco, California, on October 4, 2011, for Ignition. Oracle recognized the impact of Ignition as a significant Java-based product in Industrial Automation since the platform implemented the first native Java OPC UA stack.

In 2015, Inductive Automation received the Partner of the Year Award from the Control System Integrators Association.

Automation World named Inductive Automation as the recipient of seven awards at the 2020 Leadership in Automation Awards.

References

External links
Inductive Automation
Sepasoft, Inc.

Companies established in 2003
Companies based in Sacramento, California
Privately held companies based in California
Industrial software


Canadian naming conventions vary based on whether one is Indigenous, English Canadian, or French Canadian.

English Canadian names

In English Canada, names follow much the same convention as they do in the United States and United Kingdom. Usually the "first name" (as described in e.g. birth certificates) is what a child goes by, although a middle name (if any) may be preferred—both also known as "given names." The "last name" is usually taken from a child's parents, which may be from either or both (joined by hyphenation). Outside Quebec (with distinct civil law system), either spouse has the right to assume the other's last name, as long as it is not intended for the purposes of fraud. Getting married does not result in a legal change of name nor automatically change identification records.

It is not uncommon to see names that follow patterns differing from the English and French naming conventions.

French Canadian names

Given names in Quebec

In French Canada, up until the late 1960s, children of Roman Catholic religion were given three names at birth (usually not hyphenated): the first, Marie or Joseph, usually indicated the gender of the child. The second was usually the name of the godfather or godmother, while the third and last given name was the name used in everyday situations. Thus, a child prenamed Joseph Bruno Jean on his birth or baptismal certificate would indicate the baby was a boy, the godfather's first name was Bruno and that the child would be called Jean (and not Joseph) for all intents and purposes of everyday life. A real-life example of this naming convention was that of Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien, who was born Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien.

Although it is still permitted to list multiple names on a birth certificate, it is uncommon for people to even be aware of their other given names, and the practice of using religious names became increasingly rarer after the Quiet Revolution as baptism ceremonies gradually became less common. The Quebec government officially recommends not using more than four given names.

Surnames in Quebec

Currently, most couples give the child the surname of the father, though the Quebec civil code allows a couple to combine at most two of their surnames, with or without hyphens. Thus a couple named Joseph Bouchard-Tremblay and Marie Dion-Roy could give to their children the surnames Bouchard, Tremblay, Dion, Roy, Bouchard-Tremblay, Dion-Roy, Bouchard-Dion, Bouchard-Roy, and so on.

Following traditional French custom, Quebec women did not change their legal names upon marriage, but were referred to by their husband's surname in common speech. This latter practice fell out of favour following the Quiet Revolution, and spouses now retain their surnames after marriage in all contexts. A name change for marriage is difficult or impossible to do if desired, as requests to adopt a husband's name after marriage are typically denied.

The "nom-dit" tradition

Until the late 19th century, several families also had a nom-dit tradition.  This was a family nickname (literally a 'said name'). The origins of the noms-dits were various.  Some noms-dits were the war-name of the first settler, while he was a soldier: Hébert dit Jolicœur (Pretty Heart, cf. Braveheart), Thomas dit Tranchemontagne (mountain chopper).  Some denoted the place of origin of the first settler: Langevin (Anjou), Barbeau dit Poitevin (Poitou).  Others denoted a characteristic of the person or of his dwelling: Lacourse, Lépine, Larivière.

Indigenous Canadian names
Many, if not most, Indigenous Canadians (primarily in this First Nations and Métis people, but also Inuit to an extent) carry European surnames, and most of those are French names, either because of intermarriage with French Canadian and Métis men and indigenous women or because a surname was assigned to an indigenous person by a French-speaking Christian missionary.  The most notable example is the Cardinal family, which started with a few French Canadians moving to the West and now includes thousands of Cree and Métis people in Alberta, Saskatchewan and beyond.  Other examples would include Belcourt.  Other European groups have contributed notably to indigenous, and especially Métis names, such as Isbister (Scottish), Hardisty (English) and so on.

On the Great Plains, many First Nations people have surnames that are direct English translations of an ancestor's given name. Often these are multiple words long; examples would be Born with a Tooth (Blackfoot), Chief-Moon (Blood), or Whiteknife (Cree).

For others, a name in their ancestral language is rendered in English or French spelling such as Tootoosis (Plains Cree), Newashish (Atikamekw), or Yahgulanaas (Haida).

Some people have a legal or baptismal name in English or French and separate name in their ancestral language, for example Oronhyatekha (Mohawk), who was also called Peter Martin.

For an overview of common Inuit names in Canada see List of Canadian Inuit.

Use of titles in Canadian English

Courtesy titles may be used on official documents in Canada, and are frequently used in formal situations such as business correspondence or meetings.

As in other English-speaking countries, the following courtesy titles are used by default or can be chosen by the bearer when completing a form or application:
 Mr. (Mister) (referencing any man)
 Mrs. (Missus) (referencing a married, widowed, or divorced woman)
 Miss (Miss) (referencing a single young woman)
 Ms. (Miz) (referencing a woman of any age without specifying her marital status).

When referring to a woman whose marital status that one does not know, it is common to write Ms., but no specific rules apply. Using a courtesy title in a non-formal situation may be construed as wrong and awkward.

Although each person has one of the above titles in their name, other titles may be acquired through various ways, including education and employment. The titles of Dr. (doctor) and Prof. (Professor) are common examples. When referring to such individuals in a professional context (such as a medical doctor's practice), these titles are often used instead of their given name. For instance, a doctor named Mark Roberts could be referred to as "Dr. Roberts". While an individual might be fine with being referred to without their title, it is generally frowned upon to do so without asking.

The parliamentary titles Hon. (honourable) or Rt. Hon. (right honourable) are given to the justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, serving cabinet ministers, either federal or provincial/territorial and in some cases are retained for life; for example in the case of retired prime ministers and those who were appointed to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada (federal cabinet ministers and others appointed to the Council from time to time). Senators are designated with the prenominal title Sen. (Senator) while in office.

Foreign titles, such as Sir and Count, are not used; the acceptance of foreign honours by Canadian citizens is not permitted under the Nickle resolution and subsequent Acts of Parliament.

Suffixes
Suffixes always come after the family name, and are also acquired for various reasons.
Suffixes are only used in oral communication when necessary, and are also rarely written on the wish of the individual bearing the suffix.

The most common suffixes are Sr. (Senior) and Jr. (Junior). When an individual names their child after themselves or another family member (not necessarily immediate), that individual then bears the suffix Sr. and the offspring bears the suffix Jr., which may also be replaced with II (the second). The suffix "III" is used after either Jr or II and like subsequent numeric suffixes, does not need to happen in one family line. For example, if John and Bob Gruber are brothers and if Bob has a son before John, he will call his son John, II. If John now has a son, his son is John, Jr. As time passes, the III suffix goes to the first born of either John Jr or John II. This is how it is possible and correct for a Jr. to father a IV. Such suffixes are rare amongst French-Canadians due to the strongly generational nature of most French given names.

Other completely accepted suffixes include:
M.D. (Medical Doctor)
Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy)
MP (Member of Parliament), for federal elected politicians
Abbreviations for provincially elected politicians:
MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly)
MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament, Ontario only)
MNA (Member of the National Assembly, Quebec only)
MHA (Member of the House of Assembly, Newfoundland and Labrador only)
MP and its provincial or territorial equivalents may be followed by the name of the constituency in which that member was elected. For example: Buddy Johnson, M.P. London North-Centre. However, the constituency name or similar designations are not shown of official documents outside of parliament and is never used in casual communication.

Postnominals granted under the Canadian honour system include PC (Privy Councillor, granted to federal cabinet ministers and some other senior politicians including leaders of opposition parties); CM (Member of the Order of Canada); OC (Officer of the Order of Canada); and CC (Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest rank of that order). For a list of other postnominals, including professional titles and orders, provincial honours, and honours in gift of the Crown, see List of post-nominal letters in Canada.

See also
List of most common Canadian surnames

Notes

References

Canadian culture
French Canadian culture
Names by culture


World Rally Championship (also known as WRC and WRC 2001) is a rally driving game for the PlayStation 2. It is the first rallying game to be officially licensed by the FIA World Rally Championship and is based on the 2001 WRC season.

Features
WRC features 21 drivers representing 7 teams and all 14 venues from the season. Game modes feature quick rally, single rally, championship and time trial. Each car is made from around 8000 polygons. There are also cheats that will make the game funnier (Helium Co-Driver, Psychedelic effects, Underwater view, No chassis and Low Gravity).

Reception

World Rally Championship received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. In Japan, where the game was ported and published by Spike on 14 March 2002, Famitsu gave it a score of 35 out of 40. GameSpot named it the second-best video game of April 2002.

See also
List of World Rally Championship video games

References

External links

2001 video games
BAM! Entertainment games
Evolution Studios games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
PlayStation 2 games
PlayStation 2-only games
Sony Interactive Entertainment games
Video games developed in the United Kingdom
Video games set in Argentina
Video games set in Australia
Video games set in Cyprus
Video games set in Finland
Sports video games set in France
Video games set in Greece
Sports video games set in Italy
Video games set in Kenya
Video games set in Monaco
Video games set in New Zealand
Video games set in Portugal
Video games set in Spain
Video games set in Sweden
Video games set in the United Kingdom
World Rally Championship video games


Harrison Afful (born 24 July 1986) is a Ghanaian footballer who plays as a fullback for the Ghana national team. A free agent, he most recently played for Major League Soccer club Charlotte FC. He appeared previously for Feyenoord Academy, Espérance de Tunis, and Columbus Crew and spent time on loan at Asante Kotoko.

Afful came through the youth setup at the Feyenoord Academy, spending his first two professional seasons with the academy's senior team. He then moved on loan to Asante Kotoko, spending two seasons with the Porcupines and winning the Ghana Premier League in 2007–08. After four years of professional football, Afful left Ghana for the first time to join Espérance de Tunis of the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1. He played the next six seasons with Tunis, appearing for the club more than 180 times. Tunis won four league titles during Afful's time there, appeared in three CAF Champions League finals, and won the 2011 CAF Champions League Final; Afful scored the only goal over the two legs. In the summer of 2015, Afful moved to the United States and signed for Columbus, helping the club reach MLS Cup 2015 in his first season.

At the international level, Afful made his Ghanaian debut at the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, helping Ghana to a third-place finish at that tournament. He appeared for the Black Stars at four more AFCON tournaments, finishing as runners-up in 2010 and 2015. He was called up to Ghana's squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, appearing twice during the tournament. Afful captained his nation for the first time in a friendly against Congo on 1 September 2015.

Early life
Born in Tema, Ghana, Afful grew up  away in Nungua. He used to watch the Ghana national team on television before becoming a professional footballer.

Club career

Feyenoord Academy
Afful joined the Feyenoord Academy after being discovered as a youth by Sam Arday. He rose through the youth ranks to the first team, appearing 148 times and scoring 11 goals in all competitions for the academy. Afful underwent a trial with Feyenoord, the parent club of the academy, in 2008. However, after four weeks, he was released without a contract and was informed that he was deemed too small. He also spent time training with Stabæk, Helsingborgs IF, and Mamelodi Sundowns but returned to Ghana after failing to land a contract.

Loan to Asante Kotoko
Following the Feyenoord Academy's relegation to the Division One League, Afful returned to the Ghana Premier League with a loan to Asante Kotoko. The move was made possible through a clause in Jordan Opoku's contract. He had been bought by Kotoko the year before, and his contract allowed Asante Kotoko to choose one player to bring in on loan from the academy. They exercised it by choosing Afful.

Afful impressed Kotoko head coach Bashir Hayford with his performance during a 10-minute cameo in a friendly match, allowing him to break into the first team after initially appearing to be outside Hayford's plans. He made his league debut for the club and scored in a 3–0 victory against All Blacks on 2 December 2007. Afful was named as the league's Player of the Year as Asante Kotoko won the Ghana Premier League title in 2007–08. Upon the expiration of his initial one-year loan, he returned to the Feyenoord Academy and undertook multiple trials in Europe and elsewhere in Africa. Those trials proved unsuccessful, and Afful returned to Asante Kotoko on loan for the second half of the 2008–09 season. He finished his time on loan with five goals from 68 appearances in all competitions. Upon the expiration of his loan deal, Kotoko reportedly opened talks for a permanent transfer, but were unable to reach a deal with the academy.

Espérance de Tunis

2009–2010: Early career in Tunisia
On 25 August 2009, Afful officially signed a three-year contract with Tunisian club Espérance de Tunis (EST). He had trained with the club prior to the announcement and had scored a goal in a friendly match, helping convince Tunis to complete the signing. He made his debut for EST on 12 September, playing the full 90 minutes in a 4–0 victory over CS Sfaxien. Afful scored his first two goals for the club in a three-match span in the spring of 2010, tallying against CA Bizertin on 28 April and ES Hammam-Sousse on 15 May. He finished the season with two goals from 23 appearances in all competitions as Tunis claimed their second consecutive Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 (CLP-1) title.

2010–2013: Champions League success
In his second season at Espérance de Tunis, Afful did not play a large role in league play. He appeared 17 times without a goal as the Blood and Gold claimed their third consecutive league title, but did start in the Tunisian Cup final as Tunis defeated Étoile du Sahel. Instead, he became a fixture in the Tunis squad in 2010 CAF Champions League play. Afful made his debut in the tournament on 16 July 2010, appearing in Group A play against ES Sétif. He went on to appear in every game of the tournament from the group stage on, helping lead EST to the 2010 CAF Champions League Final against TP Mazembe. Afful played 90 minutes in the first leg in a 5–0 defeat for Tunis. He scored in the 24th minute of the second leg, his first-ever goal in the competition, but Tunis could only manage a 1–1 draw and were defeated on aggregate. On the season, Afful appeared 31 times in all competitions and scored once.

Just as in the prior season, Afful played sparingly in the CLP-1: he appeared in 16 league matches without scoring as Tunis rolled to a fourth consecutive league crown. In 2011 CAF Champions League play, Afful again played a headlining role as Tunis advanced to the continental final for the second consecutive year. He came off the bench in the first leg of the 2011 CAF Champions League Final, replacing Wajdi Bouazzi in the 90th minute of a draw with Wydad Casablanca. Afful started in the second leg, playing at right back at the Stade 7 November. In the 22nd minute, he placed a left-footed, curling shot into the upper corner, a goal that gave Tunis a 1–0 victory and the second Champions League title in club history. By virtue of winning the Champions League, Tunis qualified for the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup. Afful appeared off the bench in the quarterfinals against Al Sadd and started the fifth place match against Monterrey. He played 31 times in all competitions, scoring once, during the course of the season.

Although Afful's contract with Espérance de Tunis expired at the end of June, he signed a three-year contract extension on 2 July 2012. With his contract situation resolved, he found his scoring boots in CLP-1 play, scoring goals against ES Zarzis on 21 November, JS Kairouan on 8 December, and Club Africain on 31 March 2013. Afful again played a vital role for EST in the Champions League, helping the Blood and Gold advance to their third consecutive final to take on Al Ahly. He played 73 minutes in the first leg of the 2012 CAF Champions League Final, helping Tunis earn a 1–1 draw but was suspended for the second leg due to yellow card accumulation. With Afful watching from the stands, Tunis lost the second leg by a 2–1 scoreline. He appeared 28 times in all competitions on the campaign, scoring three goals.

2013–2015: Final seasons at EST
2013–14 was the busiest season of Afful's career to date: he appeared in a career-high 38 matches in all competitions and scored six goals. In CLP-1 play, he scored twice before the turn of the year, tallying against Stade Tunisien on 3 November and LPS Tozeur on 25 December. He continued his form after new head coach Ruud Krol was hired, scoring in the return fixture against Tunisien on 15 February. Afful then tallied the game-winning goal against Sfaxien on 2 April, helping Tunis claim their fourth league title in his five seasons at the club. He added ten more appearances in the 2013 CAF Champions League, but EST were defeated by Orlando Pirates in the semifinals and denied a fourth consecutive trip to the final. Afful then began the 2014 CAF Champions League by scoring in both the first and second qualifying rounds, helping Tunis advance over Gor Mahia and Real Bamako, respectively.

In April 2014, Afful was the subject of transfer interest, with reports from his native Ghana claiming that he was the subject of an offer from Olympique de Marseille. The French club were reportedly looking to sign Afful before the 2014 FIFA World Cup began, in an effort to keep his price down. Following the domestic season, however, ES Tunis announced that Afful would not leave the club until after the World Cup at the earliest. He continued to attract interest after the World Cup, with a reported 13 European clubs battling for his signature; however, it was Al Wahda, of the United Arab Emirates, who reportedly won the race for his services. He underwent a medical, but the club canceled the deal after ES Tunis broke off communication and he thus returned to Tunisia.

After any potential move in the summer fell through, Afful returned to Tunis to begin the 2014–15 season. On 31 August, in a match away to Bizertin, he scored two goals to help EST claim a 3–1 victory. Afful would not score again for the remainder of the league season as Espérance placed third in the CLP-1, their lowest league finish during Afful's time at the club. With his contract set to expire at the end of June 2015, he was rumored to be re-signing a two-year deal with the Blood and Gold. In the final month of his contract, he appeared twice in the 2015 CAF Confederation Cup. However, Afful and the club could not agree on a new contract, and he departed after six seasons, 183 appearances, and 17 goals with Tunis.

FIFA case
Following his departure from Tunis at the end of June 2015, Afful was reportedly not paid the remaining salaries and bonuses owed to him by the club. He filed a case with FIFA over the issue, and in May 2016 the organization sided with Afful in the case. FIFA ordered Espérance to pay the remaining monies within one month of the ruling date; if they failed to do so, they would be docked six points in league play. FIFA also ruled that if the debts persisted, Tunis would be relegated to the Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 2. The club also paid a fine in the tens of thousands of Swiss francs to FIFA".

Columbus Crew

2015–2016: Initial years in Columbus
After his contract with Tunis expired at the end of June, Afful joined Major League Soccer (MLS) club Columbus Crew SC as a Discovery Signing. He was recommended to the club by ex-Ghanaian international Joe Addo, who had played alongside Crew head coach Gregg Berhalter in the 1990s. Although the transfer was announced on 30 July 2015, Afful was only added to the roster after securing his visa and thus had to wait to make his club debut until 19 August. He started a 2–2 draw with New York City FC, playing 60 minutes before being replaced by Hector Jiménez. Afful missed several matches while on international duty but returned to start every game in Crew SC's run to MLS Cup 2015. Against Portland Timbers in the final, he played the full 90 minutes and picked up a yellow card as Columbus was defeated 2–1. Afful made 14 appearances in his first season in Columbus and had his contract option picked up by the club on 7 December.

Afful was rumored to be leaving Columbus ahead of the 2016 season, with reports from his native Ghana claiming that he would be joining Mersin İdman Yurdu when his contract expired at the end of 2015. No transfer came to pass, however, and he returned to Columbus for his first full season with the Black and Gold. Although Afful again missed time while appearing with Ghana, he did find the time to score his first MLS goal: a 54th-minute strike against Toronto FC on 13 July. He added two more goals in the final month of the season, scoring in a victory over Chicago Fire on 1 October and a defeat against New York Red Bulls in the season finale on 16 October. He did pick up a red card in a 1–1 draw with D.C. United on 16 July, but the card was rescinded by the league two days later. Afful finished the season with three goals and three assists from 30 appearances.

2017–2019: Injuries and club struggles
Afful's 2017 season was marred by injuries: a knee laceration in March, a sliced nerve in his hand in April, a thigh strain in late summer, and a sprained foot in October. Although he did not score during the regular season, he found the back of the net in the 2017 MLS Cup Playoffs. In the first leg of the conference semifinals against New York City FC, Afful scored three minutes into stoppage time to give Columbus a 4–1 victory; that goal would end up being the difference as the club advanced by a 4–3 aggregate scoreline. He finished the season with one goal from 29 appearances and again had his contract option picked up by Crew SC.

Afful bounced back in 2018 with two goals and six assists from 35 total appearances. In one three-game span in July and August, he provided an assist in each match and helped Columbus claim three consecutive victories. Afful tallied the third-most shots on the team, behind only Gyasi Zardes and Pedro Santos but tallied just two goals: against San Jose Earthquakes in April and New York City FC in September. He added an assist in the knockout round of the 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs, helping Columbus to advance on penalties over D.C. United.

After an injury-free 2018, Afful was limited to just 24 appearances in all competitions over the course of the 2019 season. In a home match against Atlanta United on 30 March, he collided with countryman Jonathan Mensah and suffered a fractured jaw. Afful missed eleven matches due to the injury, returning on 11 June and making his U.S. Open Cup debut in a victory over Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. Although he did not score on the year, Afful provided two assists over a three-match span in August. His contract expired following the season, but the Crew announced that the sides were still in negotiations; nine days later, they agreed a deal for Afful to return to the club on a new contract.

2020–2021: Trophies with the Crew
In the first season of his new contract, Afful appeared in both games for the Crew before the 2020 season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon the resumption of the season, he made three appearances at the MLS is Back Tournament as Columbus was eliminated in the round of 16 by Minnesota United. Afful then played all but one game during the remainder of the regular season, scoring a goal in a 2–1 loss against Orlando City on 4 November. In the 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs, he started every game as the Crew advanced to MLS Cup 2020, the second time that Afful appeared in the league's championship match. Against Seattle Sounders FC in the final, he provided an assist to Lucas Zelarayán on the game-winning goal as the Crew claimed a 3–0 victory. Afful scored one goal in 26 total appearances on the season and won his first trophy since arriving in Columbus in 2015. Following the season, the Crew picked up the option on his contract, ensuring his return for a seventh season in Columbus.

In what turned out to be his final season with the Crew, Afful made 30 appearances in all competitions in 2021. He missed the opening match of the season, a CONCACAF Champions League fixture against Real Estelí, after what was reported to be a stint in COVID-19 protocol, but returned to play against the same team a week later. Afful was a fixture in the lineup into the fall, providing two assists but also seeing a red card in a Hell is Real Derby draw with FC Cincinnati in July. He came off the bench in the 2021 Campeones Cup, helping the Crew to defeat Cruz Azul and claim their second trophy during his time at the club. However, the Crew had purchased Afful's intended successor during the summer transfer window, and after suffering a knee sprain in early October, Steven Moreira took over Afful's spot in the starting lineup. At the end of the season, Afful's contract expired and his time in Columbus came to a close. He made 188 appearances and scored seven goals across all competitions during his seven seasons with the Crew.

Charlotte FC
After leaving Columbus, Afful signed with MLS expansion club Charlotte FC on 17 December 2021. He inked a one-year deal with a club option for a further season. He re-signed with Charlotte ahead of the 2023 season.

On October 30, 2023, Charlotte FC announced that it had declined Afful's contract option for 2024.

International career
Afful debuted in the Ghanaian international setup at the under-20 level, appearing six times and scoring a goal for the side. He struggled to lock down a place on the team outside 2006, however, and later said that "my unsuccessful attempts at the junior national teams [were] not as a result of poor performance".

Early career and AFCON tournaments

Afful made his debut for the senior national team at the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations. He had not been named in the 40-man preliminary squad but was called up to the final squad by coach Claude Le Roy. Afful earned his first cap on 9 February in the third place match, entering as an 89th-minute substitute in the 4–2 victory over Ivory Coast. Although Le Roy resigned in May 2008, Afful continued to earn playing time under caretaker Sellas Tetteh and new manager Milovan Rajevac: he appeared 10 times in qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, helping the Black Stars qualify for the final tournament with games to spare. He was then called up to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, and although Ghana made a run to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations Final he did not make an appearance at the tournament. Afful was left off Ghana's squad for the 2010 World Cup, failing to even crack the Black Stars' preliminary roster. After appearing against South Africa in a friendly in August, Afful did not earn another cap for nearly two years.

Buildup to and the 2014 World Cup
Afful was recalled to the Black Stars in June 2012, as James Kwesi Appiah brought him in for 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Zambia. After appearing just twice in qualifying for the tournament, Afful was called up to the Ghanaian squad for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, alongside his club teammate Emmanuel Clottey. Afful appeared five times at the tournament and played 90 minutes in the third place playoff as the Black Stars were defeated 3–1 by Mali.

On 12 May 2014, Afful was named in Ghana's 30-man preliminary squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Head coach James Kwesi Appiah then named him to the final squad on 2 June. Afful appeared twice as Ghana were eliminated in the group stage, providing an assist in a draw against eventual world champions Germany on 21 June.

AFCON success and World Cup qualifying failure
After appearing in all six matches in Ghana's 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualification run, Afful was named to the squad for the final tournament on 7 January 2015. He appeared in every match at the tournament, helping the Black Stars reach the final against Ivory Coast. Afful scored his attempt in the penalty shootout as the eighth taker, but Ghana were defeated 9–8 on spot kicks; for the second time, he finished as an AFCON runner-up. Later that year, Afful captained Ghana for the first time, leading the team to a 3–2 victory over Congo on 1 September. He was back in an AFCON squad two years later, earning a place in the Ghanaian team for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. Afful played every minute in the tournament, helping the Black Stars to a fourth-place finish after falling to Burkina Faso in the third place match.

Although Ghana had appeared in three consecutive World Cups, the Black Stars failed in their bid to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Afful appeared six times in qualifying, including four matches in the third round as Ghana placed third in their group and missed out on the World Cup for the first time since 2002. In the fall of 2018, he returned to the Ghana team for the first time since the qualifying failure and made two appearances in 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying as the Black Stars finalized a spot at the final tournament. Afful was not named to Ghana's roster for the tournament as he was dealing with an injury suffered at the club level.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours
Asante Kotoko
 Ghana Premier League: 2007–08
 SWAG Cup: 2008
 GHALCA President's Cup: 2008

Espérance de Tunis
 Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1: 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12, 2013–14
 Tunisian Cup: 2010–11
 CAF Champions League: 2011

Columbus Crew
 MLS Cup: 2020
 Campeones Cup: 2021

Individual
 African Nations Championship Best XI: 2009
CAF Team of the Year: 2011
 Ghana Player of the Year: 2014
 Africa Cup of Nations Team of the Tournament: 2015

References

External links

 Charlotte profile

1986 births
Living people
Ghanaian men's footballers
Footballers from Tema
Men's association football fullbacks
West African Football Academy players
Asante Kotoko S.C. players
Espérance Sportive de Tunis players
Columbus Crew players
Charlotte FC players
Ghana Premier League players
Tunisian Ligue Professionnelle 1 players
Major League Soccer players
Ghana men's under-20 international footballers
Ghana men's A' international footballers
Ghana men's international footballers
2008 Africa Cup of Nations players
2009 African Nations Championship players
2010 Africa Cup of Nations players
2013 Africa Cup of Nations players
2014 FIFA World Cup players
2015 Africa Cup of Nations players
2017 Africa Cup of Nations players
Ghanaian expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in Tunisia
Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in Tunisia
Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States
Ghanaian expatriate sportspeople in the United States


Nicholas Heath (born 1959) is a British opera director.

Heath was born in London. His father, cellist Kenneth Heath, helped found the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields chamber orchestra. His grandfather was the Welsh composer and physician John Rippiner Heath.

Having trained as a potter at Middlesex Polytechnic, Nicholas Heath embarked on a career in singing. What started at the Montepulciano Arts Festival in Italy led eventually to a full-time contract at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in 1993.

He formed Opera a la Carte in 1993 and started directing for the company in 1995. He has directed music theatre to grand opera. In 2002 he was awarded 5 stars for his Tango Barber of Seville by The Times and in 2004 directed the première of Call Me Ishmael based on Melville’s Moby Dick in Amsterdam.

Since 2004 he has regularly lectured in Opera Studies at Birkbeck, University of London and since 2018 at the City Literary Institute. He left the Royal Opera House in 2006 to work with homeless people in a project run by Streetwise Opera, to participate in the Clore Cultural Leadership Programme and to devote more time to Opera a la Carte.

Since 2007 he has designed and run masterclasses at many festivals including the Bermuda Festival, the Ealing Festival and the Harwich Festival.

He formed Regents Opera in 2012, which merged with Fulham Opera in 2020. He now sits on its board as Founder of the company.

In 2022 he directed the production of Dido & Aeneas in the Keble Early Music Festival.

References

http://www.bermudanetworknews.com/index.php/Articles/detail/opera_for_all
http://www.ishmaelopera.com/index2.html
https://www.dropbox.com/s/24dt124eajgpc20/Press%20Release.pdf?dl=0

Sources
Call Me Ishmael

External links
 http://www.operaalacarte.com
 https://www.regentsopera.com

1959 births
Living people
British opera directors
Academics of Birkbeck, University of London


Since Belgium has three national languages — Dutch, French and German — Belgian names are similar to those in the neighbouring countries: the Netherlands, France and Germany. Place names (regions, towns, villages, hamlets) with a particle meaning "from" (de in French, del in Walloon, or van in Dutch) are the most numerous. An uncapitalised particle sometimes indicates nobility.

Here is for example the chronological list of minister-presidents of Wallonia :

For French family names among the Walloons and other francophones of Belgium, see French name.

The twenty most common French surnames in Belgium are respectively Dubois, Lambert, Dupont, Martin, Dumont, Leroy, Leclercq, Simon, Laurent, François, Denis, Renard, Thomas, Lejeune, Gérard, Petit, Mathieu, Lemaire, Charlier, and Bertrand. Sources

Some surnames have an unclear origin, like Berger, meaning shepherd in French, and mountaineer in Dutch and German. The particle De also means From or From the in French and means The in Dutch, which does not help finding the origin.

Flemish surnames are also common, due to Flemish economic immigration from 1850 to 1950. See Flanders name.

There are also a lot of typical Walloon surnames, like Monami (fr: Mon ami, en: My friend), Dehasse (fr: de Hasselt, en: from Hasselt), Delcroix (fr: de la Croix, en: from the Cross), Delhaize or Donnay (some famous tennis equipment in the 1980s).

Even crossed etymologies can be found like Deflandre (meaning in French from Flanders) or Dehasse (fr: de Hasselt, en: from Hasselt, in Flemish Region).

Notes

Wallonia


The Sydney Live Steam Locomotive Society was formed in 1948 and built a miniature railway along a drainage channel behind houses on Anthony Road, West Ryde, Sydney, Australia. The site has been transformed by the addition of fill from excavation work during widening of the local railway line and the society has grown and now operates a miniature railway on the site with a 400m long elevated track of 2 inch, 3 inch and 5 inch gauge, and two 300m long ground level 5 inch railways.

The Society operates miniature steam locomotives which represent prototype engines of the New South Wales Government Railways and other states. One can also see a variety of other prototype locomotives. The locomotives work hard hauling 6 car trains with up to 30 persons. A 10 lever mechanical ex New South Wales Government Railways ground frame operates elevated swing stub points and lower quadrant signals on the elevated railway and a  48 miniature (Westinghouse style) lever frame operates the ground level railway's motor points and colour light signals. Members practice their model engineering in the creation of miniature steam locomotives, truly representative of the prototype.

A booklet detailing the history of the society was produced to celebrate the 50 years of their operation

The club owns the second oldest miniature steam locomotive in Australia, known as The Old Girl.

See also
List of ridable miniature railways

References

Northern District Times 1 September 2010 page 35. http://digitaledition.northerndistricttimes.com.au/

External links

Rail transport modelling associations
Miniature railways in Australia
Clubs and societies in Australia
Cooperatives in Australia
1948 establishments in Australia


Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II, also known as Piazza Vittorio, is a piazza in Rome, in the Esquilino rione.  It is served by the Vittorio Emanuele Metro station.

Description
Surrounded by palazzi with large porticoes in the 19th-century style, the piazza was built by Gaetano Koch shortly after the unification of Italy.  Umbertine in style, it is the largest piazza in Rome (316 x 174 metres).  In the centre of the piazza is a garden with the remains of a fountain built by Alexander Severus (so called Trophy of Marius), and the Porta Alchemica (Alchemist's Portal or also called Magic Gate or Porta Magica), the entrance to Villa Palombara, former residence of the alchemist Marquis Palombara.

Cultural References
In Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (Ladri di biciclette), it was in Piazza Vittorio that the protagonist Antonio Ricci and his young son Bruno seek desperately to recover his stolen bicycle, but realise the futility of their task as the vast square is filled with countless bicycles and bicycle parts that resemble his own.

The novel Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio takes place in the area.

Gallery

See also
List of city squares by size
 Piazza Venezia, in front of the Victor Emmanuel II Monument

References

Vittorio Emanuele II
Rome R. XV Esquilino


Bounder  is a 1985 action game published by Gremlin Graphics in which the player navigates a variety of courses as a bouncing tennis ball.

Gameplay
Courses are composed of numerous tiles, which are suspended high above ground. The ball must be bounced past walls and over enemies; coming into contact with either, or plummeting over the edge of the course, results in the loss of one of the player's seven lives. Courses feature power squares, which push the tennis ball forward and allow longer jumps. These must be utilized to complete the course. Power squares are also used to enable the tennis ball to reach mystery spaces, tiles with question marks, which contain extra lives and bonus jumps which are used on bonus screens. Mystery spaces can also destroy the tennis ball, resulting in the loss of a life, through instant destruction or by freezing the ball in place while a missile flies across the play area and explodes.

The bonus screen is accessed every time a course is completed, it consists of mystery spaces which increase the player's score when bounced on for the player to receive. 40 bounces are allowed on each bonus screen, though this figure can be increased by the player uncovering more from mystery squares during the preceding course. Once all bounces are used or all of the mystery spaces are bounced on, play moves to the next course. Bouncing on all mystery spaces awards the player 10,000 points as well as an extra life.

Reception

Bounder received a Gold Medal Award from Commodore 64 magazine Zzap!64 as well as a Your Sinclair Mega Game award.

References

External links

1985 video games
Action games
Amstrad CPC games
Commodore 16 and Plus/4 games
Commodore 64 games
MSX games
Amstrad PCW games
ZX Spectrum games
Gremlin Interactive games
Video games developed in the United Kingdom


Piazza Vittorio may refer to:
 Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II (Rome)
 Piazza Vittorio Veneto, Turin


Noch GmbH & Co. KG, from Wangen im Allgäu (written NOCH by the company) is a manufacturer and importer of accessories for model trains, especially for building landscapes. It makes products for all common sizes of model trains.

History
The company was founded in 1911 by Oswald Noch in Glauchau in Saxony, Germany. Because of the political reprisals and the nationalisation of the East German government at the time, the son of the company's founder, Erich Noch, saw no chance to expand his workshop. In 1957, he risked the move to the West. Leaving all of his assets and property behind, he began first in Munich and then in 1961 in Allgäu, to set up a new business.

Supported by his family, the company grew very quickly in the 1960s and 1970s. Soon, his son, Peter Noch, took over management of production and father and son together led the company to success. In 1978, the private company was converted to a GmbH & Co. KG (limited partnership company). After the death of the senior manager, Erich Noch, in October 1989, Peter Noch lead the company as the sole business manager. Dr. Rainer Noch, the son of Peter Noch and thus the fourth generation of the Noch family, has worked in the company since 1994. Father and son lead the company together until the death of Peter Noch in September 1997.

Product Range
Noch is the German distributor for Athearn and Kato products. Noch is well known for a large range of materials for building landscapes, ready-made terrain of synthetic materials. Many Noch products are designed for use with Märklin, Fleischmann (model railroads), Kato and Trix trains. Noch offers over 1000 products for the model railway hobby including landscaping materials and accessories.

ZITERDES is a Noch line that offers dedicated gamers the tools and terrain pieces to create their Wargaming miniature environments: hybrid scenery; urban ruins with war-torn buildings; gaming table formats for alien war games; gaming forests and catacombs for Dungeons & Dragons miniatures; or a pirate theme. ZITERDES modular gaming tables (MGTs) can be detailed with scenic elements and combined with additional MGTs to develop the battlefield for Warhammer 40,000 alien gaming or wargame miniatures battlefield, for Urban Mammoth example.

Another product Noch is known for is plastic model railway figures.

Model railroad manufacturers
Toy train manufacturers
Model manufacturers of Germany


Foinikounta (, before 1930: Ταβέρνα - Taverna), also known transliterated as Finikounda, Finikounta, or Finikous, is a seaside village and a community in the municipality of Pylos-Nestor, Messenia, Greece. It is situated in the southwestern tip of the Peloponnese peninsula, 9 km east of Methoni and 37 km southwest of Kalamata. It is most notable for its beautiful beaches which attract mostly Greek and other European visitors during the summer months. The community consists of the main village Foinikounta, the small villages Anemomylos, Chounakia, Grizokampos and Loutsa, and the island of Schiza.

Population

History

It is believed to have been founded by the Phoenicians. The ancient town Phoenicus (Φοινικούς) was mentioned by Pausanias as a port west of Cape Akritas. It is believed that it was a small commercial port where the fishers of murex trunculus (a sea snail from which a known indigo dye is produced) could trade their product and has vanished in our days.

The present village was founded in the 1840s by inhabitants of Lachanada, that had fled from Crete and Arcadians from Crisovitsi. It was initially called Taverna, after a tavern in the village. It received its present name in 1930. The main resources of the inhabitants are agriculture and tourism, which has flourished since the 1980s.  Each of the three long sandy beaches in Foinikounta has been rated a Red Flag beach.

See also

List of settlements in Messenia

References

Sources
http://www.methoni.gr/
http://www.finikunda.com/
Foinikounta at the GTP Travel Pages

Populated places in Messenia
Pylos-Nestor
Cities in ancient Greece
Ancient Messenia
Phoenician colonies in Greece


Eliza  was an American brig wrecked at Fiji in 1808. Eliza  had been constructed and registered at Providence, Rhode Island, United States.  She carried a crew of ten and was owned by Brown & Ives.

Eliza arrived at Port Jackson from Buenos Aires on 9 December 1807, and remained in Sydney until 22 April 1808 when she departed for Norfolk Island and Fiji. She carried at least one soldier of the NSW Corps to Norfolk Island. She is recorded touching at Tonga 14 June. It was some days later in June when she was wrecked south-southwest of Nairai Island, becoming a total loss. One European man, whom Eliza had rescued from the wrecked , drowned. While the rest of the crew waited, Elizas master, E. Hill Corri, and his two mates travelled in a whaleboat to Sandalwood Bay where on 29 June 1808 they found the brig Elizabeth and the American ship Jenny lying at anchor. Corri and a rescue crew from both these ships travelled the 60–70 miles back to the Eliza wreck, where they were promptly attacked by natives. The natives killed the cooper from Elizabeth, but the remaining sailors, led by Elizas second officer, Seth Barton, counterattacked and defeated them.

Corri and his crew then sailed on Jenny for China but Jenny was dismasted at Guam and so he and his crew left her there.

Eliza is also notable for being the ship that carried Charlie Savage from Tonga to Fiji.

Another vessel named Eliza, a carval built sloop of 22 tons was operating in NSW waters at the same time, built in the colony in 1808, owned by Edward Wills, and mentioned several times in the Sydney Gazette. She is recorded departing with passengers to quit the colony (9 October 1808 Sydney Gazette) and is clearly a different vessel to the brig.

Citations

Ships built in Providence, Rhode Island
Maritime history of Australia
History of New South Wales
Sailing ships
Individual sailing vessels
Maritime incidents in 1808
Shipwrecks of Fiji
Shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean


The BBC Polish Section () was one of the foreign-language services of the BBC World Service. It existed between 1939 and 2005.

History
A decision to establish the BBC Polish Section was made on 3 September 1939, after Great Britain declared war on Germany. First programme was broadcast on 7 September 1939.

Programmes consisted of news, press reviews, commentaries, reports and interviews, and were also used for transmitting coded messages and orders to the Polish Underground using prearranged selection of songs and code phrases.

After V-E Day, a decision was made to continue broadcasting in Polish. Like other broadcasts from behind the Iron Curtain, BBC Polish-language programmes were jammed and, in the 1950s, listeners on occasion would be persecuted as enemies of the people. Jamming stopped in the 1970s but was reintroduced in 1981 as the authorities clamped down on political freedom (see martial law in Poland). Jamming finally ended in 1988. During the post-war period, while still concentrating on impartial and uncensored news, programming was expanded to culture, technology, social matters, British life and daily English language lessons.

In 1996, the office in Warsaw was opened.

On 25 October 2005 it was announced that 10 foreign-language services, including Polish, will be closed to free resources needed to start a new Arabic-language television service. The last broadcast in Polish took place on 23 December 2005.

Key personnel

Heads of Polish Section
 Robin Campbell (1939–?)
 Michael Winch (?–1942)
 Gregory MacDonald (1942–1945)
 Evelyn Zasio (1945–1953)
 Józef Zarański (1953–1960)
 Stanisław Faecher (1960–1966)
 Zbigniew Błażyński (1966–1973)
 Jan Krok-Paszkowski (1973–1980)
 Krzysztof Pszenicki (1980–1988)
 Eugeniusz Smolar (1988–1998)
 Marek Cajzner (1998–2005)

Heads of Warsaw Office
 Robert Kozak
 Leszek Jarosz

External links
 History of the BBC Polish Section (Polish)
 50 years of the BBC Polish Section (Polish)
 This Is London: The Wartime Story of the BBC Polish Section

1939 establishments in the United Kingdom
2005 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
Polish Srction
Radio stations established in 1939
Radio stations disestablished in 2005
Poland–United Kingdom relations


Cyamiidae is a family of marine bivalve clams of the superfamily Cyamioidea.

Genera
Genera in the family Cyamiidae:
 Cyamium Philippi, 1845
 Gaimardia Gould, 1852
 Kidderia Dall, 1876
 Perrierina Bernard, 1897

References

 Powell A. W. B., New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979

Bivalve families


Ed Danvers is a fictional character played by Željko Ivanek in the television series Homicide: Life on the Street.

Character profile
A recurring character, Danvers is usually shown only in his professional capacity as an Assistant State's Attorney (criminal prosecutor), although the series did delve into his personal life somewhat when he engaged in a brief romance with Kay Howard. This relationship eventually ended amicably and Danvers later became engaged to an attorney for the public defender's office. A few days before the scheduled wedding, Danvers's fiancée is murdered during a botched robbery at the wedding dress shop.  Significantly, the Homicide unit makes the case personal, illustrating how the entire unit, and Al Giardello (Yaphet Kotto) in particular, has come to think of Danvers as a member of the Homicide "family." For the TV finale movie, Ivanek was promoted to the main cast.

Danvers is usually depicted as highly dedicated and skilled, with a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of practical trial law.  He is also flexible, as evidenced in the show's crossovers with Law & Order, in which his relationship with New York A.D.A. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) is depicted as alternately adversarial and cooperative, depending on the demands of the job.

It is revealed in "Sideshow", a Season 7 crossover with Law & Order, that, as a teenager, Danvers was a member of an all-white street gang. In 1972 Danvers participated in the racially motivated beating of an innocent African American man, but was the only one of the six gang members to show real remorse for the crime. This is brought up by an Independent Counsel looking to blackmail Danvers and threaten his nomination for becoming a judge. Even though Giardello and the other black officers in the Criminal Investigation Division publicly back Danvers, he loses his nomination as a result of the publicity.

A naturally quiet man, Danvers is sometimes upstaged in court by more theatrical defense attorneys.  He is also not above his own prejudices, which sometimes cause him to (inadvertently) overlook overwhelming evidence. Two such instances are when he falsely assumed that his fiancée's murder was targeted rather than random (despite all evidence to the contrary) and again later when he is too quick to believe a woman's unlikely self-defense explanation for murder simply because she too is a state prosecutor; in the latter case, he even goes so far as to conspire with the defense team to minimize the defendant's sentence, although he later reverses his position when he finally realizes she's been lying.  In his introductory appearance in the show's second episode, he is depicted as primarily interested in obtaining a high conviction rate so that he can move to a high-profile law firm "preferably in Los Angeles," even if that means accepting plea bargains in cases where convictions might be obtained. Danvers is also depicted as overworked, most notably in the series finale, "Forgive us our Trespasses", in which he accidentally allows serial killer Luke Ryland to go free on a technicality; the resulting tension between Danvers and homicide detective Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor) even comes to blows before the two are able to reconcile.

Despite the fact that Homicide and the Law & Order franchise share the same continuity, Ivanek has occasionally appeared as other characters in Law & Order and its spin-offs—even sharing screen time with fellow Homicide character John Munch—with no reference to Ivanek's role as Danvers.

References

Homicide: Life on the Street characters
Fictional lawyers


The Fiat 1 or Fiat 1 Fiacre was produced by Fiat from 1908 to 1910. It had an engine capacity of , which produced . The car had a top speed of .

The four cylinders were for the first time in a single block, taking a cue from the Italian car manufacturer Aquila.

Around 1600 copies of the Fiacre were produced, intended for use as taxis. The model was sold in Italy and abroad. It was used in New York City, London, Paris and other cities.

In 1908 the Fiat Automobile Co was founded in the United States.

References

1
Cars introduced in 1908
1910s cars
Brass Era vehicles


USS Oneida (APA-221) was a  in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946. She was scrapped in 1975.

History
ONeidae was of the VC2-S-AP5 Victory ship, built as SS Oneida Victory, design type and named after Oneida County, Idaho, Oneida County, New York and Oneida County, Wisconsin (the name "Oneida" itself originates from an Iroquoian Indian tribe living in New York state and its environs). The ship was approved for construction on 26 May 1944, laid down 30 September 1944, under a Maritime Commission (MARCOM) contract, MCV hull 569, by Permanente Metals Corporation, Yard No. 2, Richmond, California; and launched 31 October 1944. She was acquired by the Navy on a loan-charter basis, and accepted and commissioned on 4 December 1944.

World War II
After shakedown, Oneida embarked troops and sailed for Pearl Harbor on 30 January 1945, arriving 6 February. On 13 February, she was underway again, laden with troops en route to Eniwetok. From Eniwetok, she steamed to Ulithi and arrived on 28 February, joining the armada of ships at anchor there. As far as the eye could see, stretched the vast and growing Task Force 58 which was preparing for a drive into the Japanese home islands.

On 27 March, Oneida sailed for Guam carrying survivors of aircraft carrier . The next day, she discharged the Franklins Marine air groups and picked up casualties of the bloody fight on Iwo Jima and headed back to Pearl Harbor. Leaving the wounded in Pearl, she took on board a large contingent of the 10th Army bound for Okinawa.

Approaching Okinawa on 23 May, Oneida was ordered to stand off as the island came under attack from one of its frequent kamikaze raids. Within the first 24 hours of her arrival, Oneida witnessed 56 separate raids on the island. Finally on 3 June, Oneida was called in and discharged her passengers under continuing Japanese air raids.

Oneida departed Okinawa on 6 June, and returned on 24 June, with US Army replacements and 8th Air Corps personnel. Discharging these, she took on board 1,050 Japanese prisoners, and in company with attack transport , also loaded with prisoners, she sailed for Pearl Harbor. The prisoners were transferred to a camp in Pearl 13 July, and Oneida was again loaded with Army troops.

En route to Okinawa, she made a stop at Ulithi and while anchored there received word of Japan's acceptance of unconditional surrender. With the status of her passengers changed to that of "occupation troops", Oneida proceeded to Okinawa, arriving 22 August.

Operation Magic Carpet
From 5 September to 18 November, Oneida distributed occupation forces throughout the Far East, from Hollandia to Korea and China. From 18 November 1945 to 16 June 1946, Oneida participated in Operation Magic Carpet, returning veterans to the states and taking replacements overseas for occupation duty.

From 16 June to 27 December, Oneida performed services in local operations off the West Coast.

Decommissioning and fate
On 27 December 1946, she was placed out of commission, in reserve, and placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet, Long Beach. She was struck 1 October 1958, from the Naval Vessel Register. On 8 October 1958, Oneida was transferred to the Maritime Administration (MARAD) where she was laid up at in the  Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, Benicia, California. On 8 May 1975, Oneida was sold to General Metals of Tacoma, Inc., under a "non-transportation use" (NTU) or scrap contract, for $256,000. She was withdrawn from the fleet on 9 July 1975.

Awards
Oneida earned one battle stars for services in World War II.

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

Online resources

External links

Haskell-class attack transports
Oneida County, Idaho
Oneida County, New York
Oneida County, Wisconsin
World War II amphibious warfare vessels of the United States
Ships built in Richmond, California
1944 ships
Pacific Reserve Fleet, Long Beach Group
Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet
Troop ships of the United States


FLOW is a Belgian national health care network, meant for health care providers and patients. It is an acronym which stands for Facilities (services and related infrastructure), Legal implementation (the telex files), Organisations (locoregional teams) and Wisdom (coordination and supervision center). The system is built around the principle of a shared health patient record.

Regions
 FLOW Alfa: Wallonia
 FLOW Beta: Brussels
 FLOW Gamma: Flanders

See also
 Belgian Health Telematics Commission (BHTC)
 BeHealth
 KMEHR
 SumEHR

Sources
 FLOW
 Note de Politique Generale (3 Dec. 2004)

References

Health informatics
Medical and health organisations based in Belgium


Neoleptonidae is a family of marine bivalve clams of the order Venerida.

Genera in the family Neoleptonidae
 Arculus Monterosato, 1909
 Bernardina Dall, 1910
 Epilepton Dall, 1899
 Halodakra Olsson, 1961
 Neolepton Finley, 1926
 Pachykellya Bernard, 1897
 Puyseguria Powell, 1927

References

 Powell A. W. B., New Zealand Mollusca, William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1979

Bivalve families