The Institute for Learning (IfL) was a voluntary membership, UK professional body.  It ceased operating on 31 October 2014.  Although precise membership figures and statistical details had been removed from IfL's webpage prior to its closure, at the end of financial year 2013-2014 IfL were reported as having only 33,500 of their 200,000 members remaining.

According to its statutory Memorandum of Association, the reason for which the IfL was established (the "Object") was: "to promote education and training for the public benefit by the enhancement and maintenance of the quality, standards and practice of learning and teaching."

According to IfL's WebPage, IfL existed "to support its members, as their professional body, to achieve excellence in their individual practice, helping them to deliver life-changing opportunities for their learners."

IfL was first incorporated in 2002 as a not-for-profit Company Limited by Guarantee when it was a voluntary professional membership body for teachers and trainers in the Post Compulsory Education and Training Sector in England.

Membership became compulsory between 2007 and 2012 when the IfL was acting as the regulatory body for teachers working in English further education colleges and other providers in receipt of government further education funding.

Membership of IfL became no longer compulsory as a result of the regulations requiring membership of IfL being repealed through revocation with effect from 30 September 2012. Preceding this, "in light of the interim report of an independent review of professionalism", the IfL reverted to its original status as a voluntary professional membership body.

The IfL stated it aims to support the professional teaching and training practice of its members for the  benefit of learners in the UK.  It also stated its members worked across the further education and skills sector, including adult and community learning, emergency and public services, FE colleges, the armed services, sixth-form colleges, the voluntary sector, offender learning and work-based learning.

Closure
On 17 July 2014, the institute's Advisory Council, acting on the advice of its Non-Executive Board (NEB), voted that IfL should close with its assets passed to the Education and Training Foundation. This was due to concerns that its 33,500 members could not fund continued operation and decreasing membership numbers as a result of increased fees. Some members expressed concern that they were not consulted before a decision was made.

Membership

Grades of Membership
IfL has five distinct grades or categories of membership.  Those who are in initial teacher training, either pre-service or in service, may join IfL with an Affiliate grade of membership.  Those who are part-qualified or who hold full qualifications in teaching or assessment at level 3/4 may hold an Associate grade of membership.  Those with a full teaching qualification at level 5 or above (or at level 4 if qualified between September 2001 to September 2007 under the 2001 regulations) may progress to full Member grade of membership.  Following extensive experience in further education teaching and the achievement of a higher degree (at Masters or Doctoral level) members become eligible for Fellow grade of membership.

Associates (AIfL), Members (MIfL) and Fellows (FIfL) are entitled to use post-nominal letters in recognition of their professional status.

In addition to the four categories of membership available to further education teaching or training professionals, the Companion grade of membership is open to those with an active interest in teaching or training but who are not themselves teaching or training professionals, for example HR professionals; leaders and managers who do not have teaching or training backgrounds and those working in further education support roles.  Companion membership is not recognised through the conferral of post-nominal letters.

Conditions of IfL Membership
IfL publishes Conditions of Membership describing the individual relationship between members and the professional body.

Revised conditions of membership came into effect on 1 October 2012 for the membership period through to 31 March 2013 (1 year membership) or 31 March 2014 (2 year membership).  The conditions of membership make it clear that:

"Companions, Affiliates, Associates, Members and Fellows, referred to throughout the conditions of membership as ‘members’, are members of IfL, the professional body for teachers and trainers and not members as defined by the Companies Act unless otherwise elected to IfL's Advisory Council."

Work of the IfL

Professional formation (QTLS and ATLS)
IfL members are not required to achieve QTLS or ATLS, for which there is a charge of £485 (see below), but are encouraged to do so by IfL (who set, collect and administer payment as well as being the sole awarding body) as a demonstration of the currency of their teaching practice.

Professional formation Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) and Associate Teacher Learning & Skills (ATLS) is IfL's optional, post-qualification process by which a teacher demonstrates through professional practice;

 The ability to use effectively the skills and knowledge acquired whilst training to be a teacher.
 The capacity to meet the occupational standards required of a teacher.

From September 2012 this was no longer mandatory for college lecturers, following the BIS review of professionalism, however, with QTLS being referenced in school legislation, it remains the only reference point for parity of profession esteem between further education and school teaching.

The Final Report into Professionalism in Further Education states: "following the announcement by the Secretary of State for Education in July 2012 that teachers in academies will no longer be subject to mandatory teaching qualification, and in the light of the government's belief that most secondary schools will become academies by 2015, this formal interchangeability is likely to be of diminishing practical value. Academies will be free to employ any lecturer from the further education sector, if they so wish."

It was against this policy backdrop that in February 2013 IfL announced it would be charging member £485 to undertake professional formation, stating:

"The statutory requirement to obtain QTLS and ATLS was removed in September 2012, along with government funding of professional formation for individual teachers and trainers. IfL now needs to charge £485 for professional formation to cover the cost of the process.

Payment will be able to be made in two installments:

First installment of £100 upon completion of the expression of intent form
Final installment of £385 upon completion of the application and submission of completed webfolio

We have worked to keep the price down, and considering the value and recognition that QTLS brings we believe this offers good value to members."

Consultations
IfL consults its members on relevant government consultations to ensure their collective views are heard by those making the decisions that influence the FE and skills sector. These consultations have included the Spending Review Challenge and the Wolf Review.

QTLS and QTS
IfL worked for recognition of further education teachers with Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status as qualified able to teach in schools for as long as they maintain IfL membership. Previously this was not the case, although school teachers with Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) can teach in further education colleges.

IfL made the case for the professionalism of its members, gave evidence to the education select committee and to the Skills Commission inquiry into teacher training for vocational teachers, negotiated with government officials, and presented the case to partner organisations.

Following a consultation with members in October 2010, IfL drew on the input from more than 5,000 IfL members to present evidence to Professor Wolf's consultation. Professor Alison Wolf's subsequently recommended, in her independent review of vocational education,  that further education teachers with Qualified Teacher Learning and Skills (QTLS) status should be recognised to teach in schools. On 3 March 2011, a policy decision was taken by Michael Gove MP, secretary of state for education, to accept Professor Wolf's recommendation, with immediate effect.

The recommendations of the Wolf Report and the decisions of the Rt. Hon. Michael Gove MP, Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath and Secretary of State for Education, do not represent a direct interchangeability between QTLS and QTS and teachers trainers and lecturers with QTLS will not be allowed to start working as full-time teachers delivering ordinary lessons in schools other than Academies and Free Schools. They will be able to take on teaching in state schools under local authority control for vocational classes and other courses where they have the subject expertise. The wolf report also recommends that only 20% of the classes which students undertake at the 14-16 age group should be vocational qualifications, meaning that work for QTLS holders in schools would be limited to around one day a week. The number of students taking vocational qualifications at this level is around 15%, further limiting the number of job roles which this announcement actually covers.

This decision by the government was not accepted by all sections of the teaching community, with unions representing secondary school teachers identifying it as part of the race to the bottom, and an attempt to undercut the pay of teachers in secondary schools.

With regard to QTLS, the Professionalism in Further Education Final Report (October 2012) states:

Governance
IfL's current governance structure has been in place since January 2010. IfL is governed by an Advisory Council, consisting of up to sixty members, which meets three times a year and Non-Executive Board (NEB), consisting of up to nine members, which meets nine times a year.  Up to 45 members are elected to the Advisory Council, together with up to 15 representatives from stakeholder and partner organisations appointed by the Advisory Council. Advisory Council members are the ‘members of the Company’ as required by the Companies Act 2006.  The NEB of nine elected members and three stakeholder representatives is constituted following Advisory Council election.  The NEB members are the Directors of IfL (the 'company limited by guarantee') as required by Company law.  The NEB has the facility to appoint up to three co-opted Board members to provide expertise in areas where the Board feels it is lacking.

Joseph Lee, editor of the FE Focus supplement of the Times Educational Supplement commented: "Members cannot exert meaningful leverage on the leadership of the IfL as it stands. Yes, there is an elaborate apparatus of an advisory council and non-executive board. But a review of governance in 2009 merely resulted in adding more committee members, up to an unwieldy total of 60: that is a recipe for lip-service to special interests, not focused decision-making."  Lee's opinion was expressed in 2011, when IfL was a mandatory, regulatory body.  It is not a statement of fact regarding the current efficacy of governance.

After government repealed regulations requiring membership of IfL, Barry Lovejoy (UCU's National Head of Further Education) criticised IfL's governance process whilst commenting on its failures by saying: "Part of the reason for these failures was its governance processes which left real decision making to a small leadership group, often ignoring what its own Advisory Council suggested". Dan Taubman, a member of the Institute for Learning's Council since inception, criticised IfL's failures when he stated: "IfL purported to be the voice of profession but IfL members didn’t really have channels to tell IfL how they felt and what they wanted".  Dan Taubman (UCU Senior National Official) was a member of IfL's Transitional Council, the successor Advisory Council and a Director of IfL throughout this period through his position on IfL's Non-Executive Board (the 'small leadership group' referred to by Lovejoy).

The Professional Associations Research Network (PARN), a not-for-profit research and membership organisation, publishes governance research and benchmarking data based on its work with professional associations, including a governance strategic review of IfL in 2011.  The Chief Executive of PARN, Andrew Friedman, was a contributor to the BIS Review of Professionalism.  Friedman believes that in creating and refining governance structures "a balance must be struck between achieving strategic direction and democratic participation of members and stakeholders."  In May 2012 Friedman reported on his assessment of the effectiveness of IfL's governance structures, recommending that to be effective "the board should be smaller than the current NEB."  Bea Groves, President of IfL, responded by stating that "in the interests of democracy, stakeholders must not have undue influence, and their involvement must be at arm’s length".  At this time the stakeholders represented on IfL's NEB were the Association of Colleges (AoC), the University and College Union (UCU) and the Universities' Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET); the UCU and AoC maintaining their directorship of IfL throughout the dispute over membership fees.  Speaking about IfL's governance arrangements, Dan Taubman stated that he "would put his hand up and say that he was part of the working party that got it wrong".

Governance and diversity
In 2011 IfL's Advisory Council elected Bea Groves as its second president.  As a transgender woman, Groves is highly active in the area of diversity and is held up as an inspiration for others who are dealing with similar issues.  Groves is proud of both her identity and her professionalism, stating: "I think I am the first transgender person to become national president of a professional body in the UK, and believe strongly that the post-compulsory sector should recognise diversity in all its forms. I want to show minority groups, including the trans community, that there need not be barriers to success. I want to celebrate how IfL embraces diversity."

IfL patrons
IfL has the support of six patrons, the first four patrons: Baroness Sharp of Guildford, formerly a Liberal Democrat spokesperson for further and higher education; Barry Sheerman, member of parliament for Huddersfield and former chair of the education select committee; Tim Boswell, former member of the innovation, universities, science and skills select committee; and Stella Mbubaegbu CBE, principal and chief executive of Highbury College Portsmouth were announced on 30 March 2011.

On 28 June 2011 IfL announced two further patrons, Geoff Petty, a writer, staff trainer and consultant, who has worked with over 200 colleges and most national educational agencies and Professor Ann Hodgson, who works for the University of London's Institute of Education, researches and publishes in the areas of education policy; 14-19 education and training; lifelong learning; curriculum and qualifications reform; and institutional organisation and governance.

The IfL has described the purpose of its patrons as:

...support IfL and our quest to elevate the status of teachers and trainers throughout our diverse sector. Their association will help raise awareness of the important work that IfL is doing with our membership to influence policymaking, support continuing professional development (CPD) and facilitate communities of practice, for the benefit of teachers and trainers, and their learners.

2011 membership fees dispute

Dispute history
In February 2009 the IfL launched its 5-year plan for 2009–2014, this was reported in the TES where it was noted that the 2008 membership survey  indicated that 47% of members joined because they were required to do so by their employer.  Of these, some (not quantified) felt 'they had been forced to join against their will'. A typical comment from this group was: 'I feel bullied into being a member and totally resent the existence of this organisation'. Others (not quantified) voiced support for Ifl, one describing it as 'a great tool in order to advance our teachers, trainers and tutors into the next decade'.  It is against this backdrop that the membership fees dispute started.

In November 2009, government set out in Skills for Growth that IfL would need to become self-financed 'within three years', a position that was accepted by IfL's chief executive Toni Fazaeli. With the results of the UK general election in May 2010 returning no clear majority the subsequent formation of a coalition government introduced a number of uncertainties with respect to public policy. The coalition government confirmed in Skills for Sustainable Growth (November 2010) that the cost of funding IfL membership would move from government to the individual, a model prevalent in most forms of professional regulation. It wasn't until much later in 2010 (late December) that IfL was made aware of the transitional funding government would provide.

Publication of subscription arrangements
The subscription arrangements were subsequently disclosed, in an embargoed letter from IfL's Chief Executive Toni Fazaeli to employers on 4 February 2011, prior to informing members on 8 February 2011. Standard membership fees were originally due to rise from £30 per year (government paid) to £68 (for 18 months in the transitional period), as IfL membership would no longer be fully funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS). Previously membership had been at no cost to members required to join IfL by the Further Education Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development and Registration (England) Regulations 2007 or through requirements placed on learning providers by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

Initial objections raised
The scale of the increase and the transfer of payment from government to individual teachers and trainers caused some controversy to be reported in FE Focus, an insert to the Times Educational Supplement. UCU expressed surprise that IfL escaped David Cameron's 2010 UK quango reforms (AKA "Bonfire of The Quangos"), and opposed the increase including a petition open to the general public.  As a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee IfL is not a quango and can not be abolished by government or act of parliament.  Dan Taubman, the Senior National Education Officer of UCU (and formerly of NATFHE), represented the union's interests in the setting up of IfL as a member of its council and was an elected member of IfL's non-executive board at the time UCU questioned IfL's status as a quango.

IfL stated that if FE tutors did not pay then, according to the Further Education Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development and Registration (England) Regulations 2007 and the extension of these regulations to other learning providers through the terms of SFA contracts, they would no longer be permitted to teach:
Any individual resigning from membership or allowing membership to lapse by failing to pay a due subscription will lose the entitlement to hold QTLS or ATLS status and any other designation related to their membership grade and will not be able to be employed in a teaching or training role in a college covered by the regulations or learning provider in receipt of a Skills Funding Agency contract.

Fees amended
On 7 June 2011 IfL issued a joint statement with further education college trade unions and college employers, following discussions facilitated by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).  This detailed progress made across eight areas, including revised fees and concession for 2011/12 and 2012/13. The membership fee of £68 now provided extended membership from 18 months to two years, with an option of paying an annualised fee of £38 and a new concessionary fee for those earning below £16,000 a year.

Boycott over fees
UCU followed an internal referendum with an industrial action ballot to formalise the boycott of IfL fees.

Before the ballot was concluded however, IfL published guidelines which stated that IfL members who had not renewed their membership by 22 July would have their status changed to "lapsed".  An IfL spokeswoman said individual membership lapsing following non-payment by the due date is "standard practice in other regulated professions, such as medicine or law". As membership was then compulsory for FE teachers by law, this would have led to them being prevented from teaching, the IfL confirmed.

Michael Scott, UCU's national head of legal services and employment law, an expert in Employment Law but with no stated expertise in regulatory law (Law Society listing), said that in his opinion anyone failing to adhere to the IfL code of conduct – such as by withholding subs – has the right to "a fair and public hearing in keeping with the rights conferred on individuals by the Human Rights Act … reflecting …that no person may have their livelihood taken away from them without observing due process" and described the IfL's stance as "wholly unreasonable and irrational".  The code of conduct states: "The members shall at all times act in accordance with the Institute’s conditions of membership".  Mr Scott's opinion on the application of the Human Rights Act to membership of a professional regulatory body has never been tested in law.

In a letter to IfL chief Toni Fazaeli, Mr Scott warned that in his opinion "interfering in the trade dispute by placing pressure on union members" was "potentially unlawful". Mr Scott has since said that the union would take legal action unless the IfL softened its stance.  This despite the fact that, at that time, UCU had not declared a trade dispute with employers.  UCU Members were surveyed and 27% (90% of the 30% who took part) of the unions FE members voted for formal industrial action on 25 July 2011.  The turn out in the ballot was around 30% with 90% voting to boycott IfL.  UCU came under criticism for this survey which, it transpired, was open to the general public and could be completed by non-members without any membership validation.  Former deputy chief executive of the IfL, Lee Davies, called this 'slapdash' and 'undermined the union as a democratic voice, especially given a low response rate'

Scale of non-renewal
On the deadline for registration (July 2011) IfL management stated that more than 67,000 of its previous 200,000 members had renewed. IfL stated in their joint statement that there were a potential 144,800 members for 2011/12 and UCU has 34,505 members in the FE sector.  In September 2011 the IfL had a membership of over 75,000. In November 2013 IfL noted that "membership was likely to reach 35,000".

Independent review
In early September 2011 it was reported that "The government is to hold an independent review into workforce professionalisation, including the effectiveness of the Institute for Learning (IfL). John Hayes MP, minister for education, skills and lifelong learning, said the broad review would look at arrangements to achieve a professionalised workforce in further education, while also looking at the role of the IfL. However, it would only be commissioned once parties agree to refrain from seeking legal action in the aftermath of the dispute over memberships IfL fees."

On 7 September 2011, UCU suspended its threatened legal action against the IfL and welcomed the decision of the Minister for Further Education, John Hayes, to commission an independent review into professional development for college lecturers that would involve looking at the role and effectiveness of the Institute for Learning. Sally Hunt, general secretary of UCU stated: "Boycotting the IfL has not been a decision our members have taken lightly, but to be effective as a professional body it must enjoy the confidence of the majority of practitioners. This is something the IfL does not have. It is essential that the forthcoming review does not shy away from asking awkward questions and that it hears directly from staff.".

On 8 September 2011 an IfL press release stated that the IfL would "engage positively with the proposed review".

On 9 September 2011 the AoC took the step of calling on member colleges not to discipline staff for non-payment of IfL fees.

In March 2012, after more than a year of dispute surrounding compulsory membership of IfL, the review board led by Lord Lingfield published an interim report, stating: "We conclude that leaving matters as they are is not a practicable option … With the benefit of nearly five years of State funding and regulatory backing, the IfL has not won the confidence of those organisations which should be its partners. Regulatory compulsion increased the IfL’s membership from 4,000 to over 200,000 before it fell back to around 85,000 this year … The main response by the IfL to an end to government funding has been to seek to pass its costs on to FE staff, who are compelled to register with it … The IfL has made no other substantial changes, for example in the services it offers, which might have convinced lecturers that their subscription represented good value for money." The report called for the IfL be restored "to its original status as a private membership body, dependent on voluntary subscriptions in return for services."

In September 2012, following the review of professionalism in further education teaching undertaken by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the statutory requirement to register as a member if IfL was repealed.  This was welcomed by the University and College Union. Whilst UCU welcomed the news that "staff in further education colleges would no longer be forced to pay a fee to do their job". They also stated: "While the review leans (not surprisingly from this government) towards the need for less regulation, UCU does not support a deregulated sector. Employers in the sector – both colleges and private and voluntary institutions – have been found wanting in providing consistent and high quality support and resources for professional development."

Surplus funds
It was reported in March 2011, IfL had generated surplus funds in the region of £2m. This is in line with IfL's Reserves Policy (to maintain reserves at a level consistent with established good business practice and that is prudent). IfL maintains its status as an independent and self-regulating professional body and not-for-profit private company limited by guarantee and financial statements and policies are available from the IfL website.

Historical context
IfL is a private company limited by guarantee. The Prime Report (Further Education Development Agency (FEDA), 1995) was a key milestone in the creation of the institute, leading in 1996 to the establishment of the Staff Development Forum for Further Education (FESDF). The forum comprised a wide range of UK representatives including the Association of Colleges (AoC), the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), the Association of College Principals (ACP), the Further Education Funding Council for England (FEFC) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES); with staff from FEDA acting as the secretariat and project managing the development of national teaching standards for further education.

In 1997, Lucas and Betts (et al.) in "Policy and Management Issues for Incorporated Colleges" (Institute of Education) noted that although FEDA had established the Staff Development Forum for FE, it was a member-led professional body that was needed to develop a framework of professional development in the sector. In the event, the newly elected Labour government accepted the findings of the Dearing Report into Higher Education, leading to the creation of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (ILTHE) and indicated that the General Teaching Council (GTC) for England, which had been a manifesto commitment, would be established.

In 1999, within a backdrop of growing concern from teachers in further education about a sense of de-professionalising the sector, the FESDF became the Further Education National Training Organisation (FENTO). One of the FESDF's proposed objectives for FENTO was the need to give consideration to the role that a professional body for further education could play in the professionalisation agenda; this become one of FENTO's key strategic objectives. In 2000, three research studies were carried into the feasibility of creating a professional body for further education, two commissioned by FENTO and one a contemporary piece of academic research. Effectively, each was an exercise in market research and, based in sample sizes in the low thousands, the outcomes were consistent – two-thirds of staff surveyed were in support, 30% wanted to ‘wait and see’ and less than 10% were opposed.

In 2001 a business plan was established by the FENTO Council and a name was chosen, the Institute for Learning (FE) – to be comparable with the ILT (HE) as one of its important interfaces.   At this point the government amplified the focus on the professionalism of further education teachers with regulations requiring all new teachers to hold a recognised teaching qualification, based on the new FENTO standards, with a target of a fully qualified workforce by 2010.  Early 2002 the Institute for Learning was incorporated, the Memorandum and Articles of Association were signed by founder members Pauline Lovell and Derek Betts, a Transitional Council was formed and the process of attracting a "volunteer" paying membership began.

In November 2004 the Institute for Learning's prospects of becoming a fully established professional body were given a significant boost with the publication of the key DfES policy document, ‘Equipping our Teachers for the Future’.

For the Institute for Learning, with a growing membership in the low thousands, section 4.7 of the document came to represent a key turning-point:

With one critical modification; the extension of the registration and CPD elements to all teachers in the sector (and not just new entrants), "Equipping our Teachers" was introduced more-or-less as projected. The Institute for Learning was afforded responsibilities in the Further Education Teachers’ Qualifications (England) Regulations 2007
and the Further Education Teachers' Continuing Professional Development and Registration (England) Regulations 2007
governing the registration, professional formation and remaining in good standing through CPD of teachers in further education. The requirements of the regulations were extended to learning providers funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) through the terms of their 2007/08 locally negotiated contracts.

In 2010 an enlarged Advisory Council was elected consisting of 45 Member representatives, 15 partner organisation representatives and 5 observers. From that a Non-executive Board was elected consisting of 9 member representatives, 3 partner reps and potentially 3 Expert Directors. All communication with members of this governance board is directed via a single company secretary.

The first Chief executive Toni Fazaeli was appointed in June 2008. The first president of the Institute For Learning, John Chorley was elected in August 2010.

See also
 British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta)
 Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)
 Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS)
 Learning and Skills Council (LSC)
 Skills Funding Agency (SFA)

References

External links

Educational organisations based in the United Kingdom
Further education colleges in the United Kingdom
Organizations established in 2002
Organizations disestablished in 2014
Learning
2002 establishments in the United Kingdom
2014 disestablishments in the United Kingdom


Răzvan Petcu (born May 10, 1973) is a retired freestyle and butterfly swimmer from Romania, who represented his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He is best known for winning the bronze medal in the men's 4×100 m freestyle relay event at the 1995 FINA Short Course World Championships in Rio de Janeiro. He now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

References
 sports-reference

1973 births
Living people
Romanian male butterfly swimmers
Olympic swimmers for Romania
Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Romanian male freestyle swimmers
Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)
Place of birth missing (living people)


Avisenes Nyhetsbyrå (ANB) (English: "Newspapers' News Agency") is a Norwegian news agency that was established in 1912 as Socialdemokratisk Pressekontor. In 1919 this was changed to Arbeidernes Pressekontor ("The Workers' Press Office") and in 1984 it was changed again to A-pressens Oslo-redaksjon (APOR). In 1990 the agency was reorganized as a joint stock company, and on 1 September 2001 it got its current name.

The agency is owned by 31 Norwegian newspapers and in addition A-pressen. ANB's main task is to deliver current news to Norwegian media, primarily local and regional newspapers. In addition ANB delivers radio and television pages, football and harness racing tips, consumer news and news magazines.

On 1 January 2007 ANB went into partnership with Norsk Telegrambyrå (NTB). NTB took over the daily wire service which AND had delivered, whereas ANB concentrated on delivery and re-distribution of exclusive stories and services to the subscribers.

External links
Avisenes Nyhetsbyrå
Siste.no - News portal for Avisenes Nyhetsbyrå

News agencies based in Norway
Companies based in Oslo
Mass media companies established in 1912
1912 establishments in Norway
Amedia


Rómmel is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

 Juliusz Rómmel (1881–1967), Polish military general
 Karol Rómmel (1888–1967), Polish and Russian military officer, sportsman, and horse rider

See also
 Rommel (surname)

Polish-language surnames


Busch Properties, Inc.  (BPI), is a corporation, which operates resort, residential and commercial properties in the United States. It was established in 1969 as a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch, Inc. (AB), the largest brewing company in the United States, which is based in St. Louis, Missouri. BPI's four main functions include business park development, resort and residential development, corporate real estate and employee residential relocation for the parent company and other AB subsidiaries.

Busch Properties primarily develops and manages properties located on land near the parent company's brewery facilities, such as the  Busch Corporate Center adjacent to the company's St. Louis brewery.

Notable among BPI developments were the Kingsmill Resort, the Kingsmill planned community residential development, Busch Office Park at McLaws Circle, and Busch Commerce Park, all located near the company's brewery in James City County near Williamsburg, Virginia. Busch Entertainment, another AB subsidiary, operates the Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Water Country USA theme parks nearby the James City brewery as well.

In 2008, Dun and Bradstreet reported annual gross sales of BPI as US$61 million.

On June 24, 2010 it was announced by Robin Carson, Executive VP with BPI, that BPI has decided not to exercise the option to bid for or extend its agreement to provide management services to the Kingsmill Community Services Association after December 31, 2010. This coupled with the InBev sale in October, 2009 of Busch Gardens Williamsburg, Water Country USA and eight other theme park to Blackstone Group significantly reduces the amount of real estate BPI is managing.

The following month, in July 2010, it was announced that Busch Properties had entered into an agreement with Xanterra Parks and Resorts to purchase and operate the Kingsmill Resort. In 1968, Xanterra became the successor to the Fred Harvey Company initially established by entrepreneur Fred Harvey beginning in 1875. One of Xanterra's more famous locations is located at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Xanterra (owned by Anschutz since 2008) has traditionally operated in national and state parks across the United States, especially in the Western regions. Other high-profile operations include Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. Owned by Denver-based billionaire Philip Anschutz since, 2008, prior to the Kingsmill announcement, Xanterra was operating about three dozen hotels and lodges with more than 5,000 guest rooms combined, with over 8,000 employees.

References

Anheuser-Busch
Companies based in St. Louis


Lynda Jane Voltz (born 1965) is an Australian politician. She is a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Auburn since 2019.

Career
Voltz joined the Australian Army Reserve in 1984, and in 1987 she became one of the first women to the join the regular Australian Army as one of the second group of women to train alongside men at Army Recruit Training Centre at Kapooka. She joined the Royal Australian Corps of Military Police, as it was one of the few field force units women were allowed to join.

After leaving the army, she worked as a political staffer for state MP Sandra Nori, federal member for Sydney Peter Baldwin, and then as an electoral officer for Senator John Faulkner. At the 1995 New South Wales state election, she contested the district of North Shore but was defeated by the Liberal candidate, Jillian Skinner. Voltz was elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council in 2007 and re-elected in 2015. In 2016, Voltz replaced Guy Zangari as Shadow Minister for Sport and Veterans' Affairs in the shadow Ministry of Luke Foley, a position she retained in the shadow Ministry of Michael Daley.

Voltz resigned from the Legislative Council in February 2019 to contest the Legislative Assembly district of Auburn following the vacation of that seat by Luke Foley. Voltz was elected to the Assembly and appointed as Shadow Minister for Police and Counter Terrorism and Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation in the shadow Ministry of Jodi McKay She retained these positions until the constitution of the shadow Ministry of Chris Minns, to which she was not appointed.

Personal life
Voltz was born in Hornsby on Sydney's North Shore, and attended Birrong Girls High School. She has two daughters, Katerina and Anastasia.

References

External links
 Lynda Voltz - Member for Auburn (NSW Labor)

1965 births
Living people
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council
Politicians from Sydney
Australian Army soldiers
Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of New South Wales
Labor Left politicians
21st-century Australian politicians
21st-century Australian women politicians
Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly
Women members of the New South Wales Legislative Council


Castelnuovo is a  of the  of Assisi in the Province of Perugia, Umbria, central Italy.
Castelnuovo is situated about 9 km from Assisi and is located in the southwest of Santa Maria degli Angeli. Is surrounded also with the territories of other 2 fractions Assisi: Tordandrea to the west, and Rivotorto to the east. To the south is bordered by the  of Cannara.

It stands at an elevation of 195 metres above sea level. At the time of the Istat census of 2001 it had 754 inhabitants.

The most important watercourse is the river Ose, which basically it specify the frontier between Castelnuovo and Cannara.

References

Castles in Italy
Frazioni of Assisi


Alexandru Ioanovici (born March 30, 1974) is a retired freestyle swimmer from Romania, who represented his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He is best known for winning the bronze medal in the men's 4×100 m freestyle relay event at the 1995 FINA Short Course World Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

References
 sports-reference

1974 births
Living people
Romanian male freestyle swimmers
Olympic swimmers for Romania
Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Place of birth missing (living people)


for more in depth information about the magazine see Black Mask (magazine)
The Casey franchise was started in 1934 by George Harmon Coxe in Black Mask (magazine).   A total of 22 stories were published in the magazine, plus two serialized novels.
Note the company these stories keep within the pages of Black Mask such as Raymond Chandler & E. Stanley Gardner. This magazine was an important part of the pulp magazine genre.

In addition to these stories, the two earliest novels were serialized over three issues each.

Notes

External links
BlackMaskMagazine.com
History of Black Mask

Characters in pulp fiction
Defunct literary magazines published in the United States
Lists of stories
Works originally published in Black Mask (magazine)


Argumental (working title Whose Side Are You On?) is a British improvised comedy panel game hosted originally by John Sergeant and later Sean Lock, alongside two teams captained by Marcus Brigstocke and Rufus Hound, followed by Robert Webb and Seann Walsh, debating and arguing on various topics with help from various guests. It is made by independent production company Tiger Aspect Productions for Dave and made its debut on 27 October 2008. Series three was commissioned for Dave and four episodes from the second series aired on BBC Two, making it UKTV's most successful commission in terms of reach of audience.

Participants
The programme was originally chaired by journalist John Sergeant whose post-journalistic career at the time the series began was on the rise due in part to his appearance on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. He was joined by team captains Marcus Brigstocke, the host of The Late Edition, and comedian Rufus Hound. Each team captain was accompanied by a guest panellist who have included Jimmy Carr, Sue Perkins, Reginald D. Hunter, Phill Jupitus, Charlie Higson, Johnny Vegas, Lucy Porter, Dara Ó Briain, Sean Lock and Frankie Boyle. From the 2011 series, Sean Lock replaced John Sergeant as presenter, while Seann Walsh and Robert Webb took over as team captains. This coincided with a revamp of the show's set and graphics.

Format
Each episode comprises a series of rounds in which each team takes its turn debating a variety of topics, whilst also trying to be amusing. Topics have included: 'recycling is a waste of time' and 'the Royal Family serve no purpose'. After each round the team members often make humorous observations about what has just been said, before the studio audience votes for who they thought put forward the best case. Voting is done by holding up a red or blue paddle to vote for the red or blue team respectively. The votes are tallied before the winner of the round is decided.  The team that wins the most rounds wins the show.

Rounds
Each episode normally contains 5 rounds. Sometimes however some episodes contain 4 rounds with 1 round dropped altogether.

Classic debate
A representative from each team takes their turn to argue for or against a given motion, respectively. After the main arguments have been put forward the teams are invited to discuss the subject further to reinforce their team's argument or attack their opponent's.

Visual aids
Team members try to argue over a topic while incorporating pictures from a slideshow that they have never seen before into their case.

Flip-flop
Each team is given a different topic to argue about in this round. The team representative must argue for the motion until a buzzer sounds at which point they must argue against the motion. The contestant continues to alternate between for and against until the end of round buzzer is sounded. This round does not appear in every episode.

That's a Brilliant Idea
Introduced in series 3, representatives from each team take turns being given a typically nonsensical, illogical or outrageous statement, and have to argue a convincing case for that statement being a good thing, starting each argument with the words "That's a brilliant idea.".

Popular culture round
In series 1, this round was similar to the 'classic debate' round except the topic involves a famous person or celebrity. The person being debated was represented by a life sized cut-out placed in the centre of the performance stage. Past celebrities have included Piers Morgan, Victoria Beckham, Amy Winehouse, Wayne and Coleen Rooney, Simon Cowell and Jeremy Kyle.

Since series 2, this round has not always featured cardboard cut-outs; in some episodes, real-life people (e.g. a body builder) come on stage instead.

Final picture round
This round doesn't involve any arguing per person, alternatively contestants are shown pictures for which they must invent a motion to suit. Unlike the other rounds, both teams remain seated throughout. Like the flip-flop round, this round has not always been included.  The audience still votes red or blue.

Guest appearances
The following appeared on the show as a guest.

6 appearances
Jimmy Carr
Sean Lock
Mark Watson

4 appearances
Frankie Boyle
Phill Jupitus

3 appearances
Chris Addison
Stephen K. Amos
Katy Brand
Richard Herring
Andrew Maxwell
Dara Ó Briain
Lucy Porter
Jack Whitehall

2 appearances
Hugh Dennis
Charlie Higson
Sean Hughes
Stephen Mangan
Sarah Millican
Ardal O'Hanlon
Sue Perkins
Will Smith
Johnny Vegas

1 appearance
Jo Brand
Ed Byrne
Jason Byrne
Jo Caulfield
Jarred Christmas
Simon Day
Micky Flanagan
Reginald D. Hunter
Robin Ince
Dom Joly
Miles Jupp
Russell Kane
Patrick Kielty
Jason Manford
Rory McGrath
Ben Miller
Andy Parsons
Chris Ramsey
Daniel Sloss
Tim Vine

a.  Appearances made before becoming the host.

Transmissions

Original series

Specials

References

External links
Argumental at Dave

2008 British television series debuts
2012 British television series endings
2000s British game shows
2010s British game shows
2000s British satirical television series
2010s British satirical television series
British panel games
Dave (TV channel) original programming
English-language television shows
Television series by Banijay
Television series by Tiger Aspect Productions


Prescott-Brown was a Canadian country music trio composed of Tracey Brown, her brother Barry and her husband Randall Prescott. All three were members of Canadian country group, Family Brown, which parted ways in 1990. Signed to Columbia Records, the trio released two albums for the label in 1992 and 1994. The trio made appearances on shows such as The Tommy Hunter Show, The Dini Petty Show, Rita and Friends, Open Mike with Mike Bullard and Adrienne Clarkson Presents.

Biography
Tracey Brown, Barry Brown and Randall Prescott originally came together in 1991 as Tracey Prescott & Lonesome Daddy. The trio's eponymous debut album was released by Sony Music Canada in 1992. Five singles were released from the project, including the Top 10 song "When You're Not Loving Me." The following year, Tracey Prescott & Lonesome Daddy won a Juno Award for Best Country Group or Duo.

They changed their name to Prescott-Brown for the release of their second studio album, 1994's Already Restless. The album's first single, "There You Go," brought them back into the Top 10 of the Canadian country singles chart. Prescott-Brown was nominated for Best Country Group or Duo at the 1995 Juno Awards.

Since disbanding in 1996, Tracey launched a successful solo career.

Tracey Brown and Randall Prescott have two grown children Kelly Prescott and Kaylen Prescott. Following in their parents footsteps they are currently working on producing a full-length album under the band name "Prescott". They have performed at various venues local to their hometown rural of Ottawa. They have also performed at Ottawa's Bluesfest. Their style is reminiscent of the country influences of their parents, but have incorporated elements rock, blues and various instruments into their music.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Music videos

References

Canadian country music groups
Columbia Records artists
Juno Award winners
Musical groups established in 1991
Musical groups disestablished in 1996
1991 establishments in Ontario


Parole  is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Nadarzyn, within Pruszków County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately  south of Nadarzyn,  south of Pruszków, and  south-west of Warsaw.

References

Parole


Argumental is a Dave comedy panel game television show that was first broadcast between 2008 and 2011. It was created by Ricky Kelehar, and was hosted by John Sergeant until the end of Series 3 after which Sean Lock took over for the fourth series. In each episode two teams of two panelists, a blue team and a red team, debated and argued on various topics, with the studio audience voting for who they thought put forward the best case. For the first three series the blue team was captained by Rufus Hound while the red team was captained by Marcus Brigstocke, for the fourth series the captains were Robert Webb (blue) and Seann Walsh (red).

In total 49 episodes were broadcast, 44 regular editions and five clip shows. A Comic Relief special was broadcast as part of the 24 Hour Panel People marathon with David Walliams as host, but this does not count to the official number of episodes. All 49 official episodes were first broadcast on UKTV channel Dave, with four episodes from the second series additionally being shown on BBC Two.

Episode list
The coloured backgrounds denote the result of each of the shows:
 – indicates the blue team (Rufus/Robert) won
 – indicates the red team (Marcus/Seann) won
 – indicates the game ended in a draw

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Comic Relief special

Series 4

Scores

Notes

External links

Lists of British comedy television series episodes
Lists of British non-fiction television series episodes


Matthew Thomas or Matt Thomas may refer to:
 Matt Thomas (soccer) (born 1995), American soccer player
 Matt Thomas (basketball) (born 1994), American basketball player
 Matt Thomas (guitarist) (born 1986), American guitar player
 Matt Thomas (ice hockey) (born 1975), Canadian ice hockey coach
 Matthew Thomas (linebacker) (born 1995), American college football player
 Matt Thomas (rugby league) (born 1976), Welsh rugby league international
 Matt Thomas (Australian rules footballer) (born 1987)
 Matthew Thomas (musician) (born 1973), New Zealand rock bassist
 Matthew James Thomas (born 1988), British actor
 Matthew K. Thomas (born 1948), Indian Pentecostal
 Mathew T. Thomas (born 1961), Indian politician
 Matt Doll (real name Matthew Thomas, born 1969), Australian musician

See also

 Thomas Matthews (disambiguation)


Vladislav Matusovich Reznik (; born 17 May 1954) is a Russian businessman and politician. He is the chairman of the insurance company Rus, member of the general council of the United Russia political party, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Finances, former chairman of Rosgosstrakh.

Researcher
Vladislav Reznik graduated from the Biological Department of Leningrad State University in 1976. He holds a Kandidat degree in Biology. In 1979-1987 he worked as a researcher in the All Union Research and Development Technological Institute for Antibiotics and Medical Ferments in Leningrad.

Businessman
In 1987-1989 he became a Deputy Director General of Russkoye Video firm. In 1989-1990 he is a Deputy Chairman of Rossiya Bank (established by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Since 1990 Reznik is the head of the insurance company Rus. As the head of Rus, Reznik was an employer of the young lawyer Dmitri Medvedev, future President of Russia. In 2002, he sold his stake in Rus for $10 million. In 1995-1998 Reznik was the Chairman of main Russian state-owned insurance company Rosgosstrakh. Since 1995 he is a director of Obi-bank bank and since 1996 he is a director of Mosbiznesbank.

Politician
In 1999 Reznik was elected to the State Duma as a member of the Unity political party. He is a member of the United Russia since its formation by a merger of Unity and the Fatherland – All Russia. In 2001 he became the deputy chairman of the United Russia party. He was responsible for the economical program of the party.

In 2003 Reznik was re-elected to the State Duma. In Duma Reznik became the Chairman of the Committee on Finances. He was the main author of the 2006 law On preventing laundering of the income from criminal activities and financing of terrorism establishing stricter control over bank operations.

The Spanish Case
In 2008 a case was filed by Spanish Interpol against a group of Russians, which included a civil servant Vladislav Reznik. The investigation had lasted almost 11 years, the suspects were accused of “money laundering”. The Investigation Department of the MOI refused to institute criminal proceedings because the financial documents presented by the accused were clean, and the transaction that prompted the filing of the case was completely legal.

On February 19, 2018, a trial took place in a Spanish court, where Reznik was acquitted of all charges.

In October 2018, the National Court of Spain dropped the charges against all the Russians, involved in the case, including the deputy of the State Duma, Chairman of the Committee on Finances Vladislav Reznik. The acquittal was based on the fact that the evidence presented by the investigators did not confirm the accusations thus making them unfounded. Tax returns and other documents, which were presented to the court by Vladislav Reznik’s defense, confirmed that all of the politician’s income was completely legal and transparent.

Sanctions
In April 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on Reznik and 23 other Russian nationals. On 11 March 2022 the United Kingdom sanctioned Reznik in relation to Russia's actions in Ukraine.

References

1954 births
Living people
Politicians from Saint Petersburg
United Russia politicians
Third convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Fourth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Fifth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Sixth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Seventh convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)
Businesspeople from Saint Petersburg
Russian individuals subject to United Kingdom sanctions
Russian individuals subject to the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctions
Eighth convocation members of the State Duma (Russian Federation)


These are the late night schedules for the four United States broadcast networks that offer programming during this time period, from September 1994 to August 1995. All times are Eastern or Pacific. Affiliates will fill non-network schedule with local, syndicated, or paid programming. Affiliates also have the option to preempt or delay network programming at their discretion.

Legend

Schedule

Saturday

By network

ABC

Returning series
ABC in Concert
ABC World News Now
ABC World News This Morning
Nightline

Not returning from 1993-94:
ABC in Concert Country

CBS

Returning series
CBS Morning News
Crimetime After Primetime
Kids in the Hall
Late Show with David Letterman
Up to the Minute

New series
The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder

Fox

Returning series
Tales from the Crypt

Not returning from 1993-94:
Comic Strip Live
The Chevy Chase Show
Code 3
In Living Color

NBC

Returning series
Friday Night
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Later with Greg Kinnear
NBC News at Sunrise
NBC Nightside
Saturday Night Live
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

United States late night network television schedules
1994 in American television
1995 in American television


Paul Michel Gabriel, Baron Lévy (27 November 1910 – 16 August 2002) was a Belgian journalist and professor. He was born in Brussels and was a Holocaust survivor. He worked for many years as Director of Information at the Council of Europe, helping to create the Flag of Europe in the 1950s in collaboration with Arsène Heitz.

Early career
Before the war, Lévy directed the information services of the Belgian national broadcaster, the Institut National de Radiodiffusion (INR). Under the occupation, he refused to collaborate with the German-backed radio and was sacked and arrested. He was sent to Fort Breendonk, a German prison camp near Mechelen. Released in 1941, he was placed under surveillance by the German authorities in Brussels, but succeeded in escaping to Britain via the Zéro network in July 1942 where he joined Antoine Delfosse, minister and commander of the Armée de la Libération (AL) the principal resistance group. He served alongside Delfosse in the Ministry of Justice of the Belgian government in London. He also spoke on Radio Belgique, the French and Dutch language radio station of the BBC broadcast to occupied Belgium. His principal work, however, was in the Commission belge pour l'étude des problèmes d'après-guerre ("Belgian Commission of study of post-war problems"), in which he founded Mission Samoyède which planned to set up radio broadcasting in Belgium soon after the liberation. Following the invasion of Europe by the Allies, he returned to the continent working as an interpreter and press officer alongside General Henning Linden. His coverage included the liberation of Dachau concentration camp.

After the Liberation, and despite having Socialist leanings, he worked for the new Belgian Democratic Union (UDB-BDU) party. In 1946, he was elected deputy for the Nivelles region as the only successful candidate of the UDB-BDU. He resigned to return to radio work.

He is said to have invented the neologism Irénologie which is the French term for the study of Peace.

Later life

Council of Europe
Lévy had converted to Catholicism in July 1940. In 1950, he joined the staff of Winston Churchill's newly established Council of Europe and became the first Chief of its Department of Culture.

Flag

Lévy had to sort through the proposals flooding into his department and drew up the exact design of the finalist Arsène Heitz's proposal for a circle of stars.

According to an anecdote published in 1998 in Die Welt,
Lévy passed a statue of the Virgin Mary with a halo of stars and was struck by the way the stars, reflecting the sun, glowed against the blue of the sky. Lévy later visited Léon Marchal, the then Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and suggested that he should propose twelve golden stars on a blue ground as the motif for the flag of Europe.

On the other hand, a 2004 article in The Economist attributed a statement to Heitz, in which he claims to have been inspired by Revelations 12:1.
Lévy has stated that he was only informed of the connection to the Book of Revelation after it was chosen.

Honours
 Created Baron by RD of king Albert II; 2000.
 Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold.
 Grand Officer in the Order of the Crown.
 Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold II.
 Commander in the Pontifical Equestrian Order of Saint Sylvester Pope and Martyr

References

1910 births
2002 deaths
Breendonk prison camp survivors
Belgian Jews
Belgian radio journalists
Belgian Roman Catholics
Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism
Council of Europe people
History of the European Union
Belgian people in the United Kingdom during World War II
Belgian resistance members
Jewish resistance members during the Holocaust
Barons of Belgium
Flag designers


Astragalus agnicidus is a rare species of milkvetch known by the common name Humboldt County milkvetch. It is endemic to northern California, where it is known only from two populations in Humboldt County and one in Mendocino County.

The plant was undescribed until the 1950s. Until then it was known only from one  ranch in Humboldt County, where sheep ranchers blamed the unnamed species for the deaths of their animals, which may have eaten it. They eradicated the plant from their land, and by the time it was formally described and named in 1957 it was thought to be extinct. The species name given the plant, agnicidus, means "lamb-killer".

The plant was rediscovered in 1987. A few individuals were found growing in a recently bulldozed clearing, their long-buried seeds having been plowed into favorable conditions for germination. The plants were brought under the protection of the landowners, the same family that was responsible for its near-extinction and had changed their minds about its value. Two other populations of the plant have since been discovered in areas of the coastal mountains that had been recently logged; this is an early successional species which arises in disturbed areas. Too much disturbance of an area can be harmful, however, since it may cause the whole patch of buried seeds to sprout at once, making the population vulnerable to destruction as it lacks backup seed stores.

This milkvetch is a perennial herb which lives 5 to 10 years. The coarse reddish stem is slightly hairy toward the ends, growing 30 to 90 centimeters long. The widely spaced leaves are arranged oppositely along the stem. Each is up to 16 centimeters long and is made up of several pairs of oval-shaped leaflets up to about 2 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a dense cluster of 10 to 40 white pealike flowers. The plant is self-pollinating and the flowers are also pollinated by native bumblebees. The fruit is a bent legume capsule 1 to 1.5 centimeters long which dries to a papery texture.

References

External links
Jepson Manual Treatment
USDA Plants Profile
The Nature Conservancy
Photo gallery

agnicidus
Endemic flora of California
Plants described in 1957


Ardsollus () (historically also written as Ardsallis) is a townland in County Clare, in Ireland. The village is just outside the village of Quin and is to the south-east of Ennis.  Previously it was served by the Ardsollus and Quin railway station which functioned from 1859 until 1963.

The village lies in the civil parish of Tomfinlough.
In past times the area was famous for its horse racing and equestrian fairs.

See also
 List of towns and villages in Ireland

References

Notes

Towns and villages in County Clare


Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame, Inc. is a nonprofit corporation, recognized by the State of Minnesota as a means of honoring aviation pioneers (both living and deceased) within the state.

The Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame collects and maintains a biographical file on each significant Minnesota aviation figure. These files include interview tapes, photos and other memorabilia.

Replicas of the award plaques given to the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame inductees are on display in the Wings of the North aviation museum located near the Flying Cloud Airport control tower in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. More than 200 Hall of Fame Inductee plaques are displayed.

See also

 North American aviation halls of fame
National Aviation Hall of Fame
American Combat Airman Hall of Fame
Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame
Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame
Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame
Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum of New Jersey
Science Museum Oklahoma
Texas Aviation Hall of Fame
Utah Aviation Hall of Fame
Western Canada Aviation Museum
Cirrus Aircraft

External links
Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame
Wings of the North

Aviation history of the United States
Aviation halls of fame
Aviation pioneers
History organizations based in the United States
Halls of fame in Minnesota
State halls of fame in the United States
Aerospace museums in Minnesota
Museums in Duluth, Minnesota


José Carlos Souza Júnior (born July 13, 1971) is a former international swimmer from Brazil, who participated at the 1992 Summer Olympics for his native country. In 1987, he went to live in the United States. He studied Business Administration at the University of Tennessee.

At the 1991 World Aquatics Championships, he finished 25th in the 100-metre butterfly, and 30th in the 200-metre individual medley.

José Carlos was at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, where he finished 7th in the 200-metre individual medley, and 8th in the 50-metre freestyle.

At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, his best result was the sixth place in the men's 4×100-metre freestyle. He also finished 12th in the 100-metre butterfly, and 30th in the 200-metre individual medley.

In 1993 he broke two World Records on short course. On July 7, the Brazil team, composed of Fernando Scherer, Teofilo Ferreira, José Carlos Souza and Gustavo Borges broke the world record in 4×100-metre freestyle with a time of 3:13.97, which belonged to Sweden since March 19, 1989: 3:14.00. On December 5, Brazil again beat the record, with the same team, doing 3:12.11.
 This mark was achieved in the 1993 FINA World Swimming Championships, where he won gold in the 4×100-metre freestyle, and bronze in the 4×200-metre freestyle (breaking the South American record with a time of 7:09.38). He also finished 5th in the 4×100-metre medley, along with Maurício Menezes, Gustavo Borges and Rogério Romero, and 15th in the 100-metre butterfly.

In 1993, he was the South American record holder in the 50-metre and 100-metre butterfly, and in the 200-metre individual medley.

He won the Bronze medal in the 1992 NCAA Championships-1993 Indianapolis, in the 100-metre butterfly. Won the gold medal in the 1992 SEC Championships-1992 Fayetville, in the 100-metre butterfly. Brasil National Champion multiple times in 50-metre freestyle, 100-metre freestyle, 100-metre butterfly, 200-metre butterfly, 200-metre individual medley.

References

1971 births
Living people
Brazilian male freestyle swimmers
Brazilian male butterfly swimmers
Brazilian male medley swimmers
World record setters in swimming
Olympic swimmers for Brazil
Tennessee Volunteers men's swimmers
Swimmers at the 1991 Pan American Games
Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)
Pan American Games competitors for Brazil
Swimmers from São Paulo


Jedlinka  is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Chorzele, within Przasnysz County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately  north-west of Chorzele,  north of Przasnysz, and  north of Warsaw.

References

Jedlinka


Chandreyee Ghosh (sometimes spelled Chandreyee Ghosh or Chandrayee Ghosh) is an Indian actress, who appears in Bengali film and television series.

Career
Ghosh made her film debut in Sekhar Das's Mohulbanir Sereng, followed by Tista in 2005, Manush Bhut and Dosar in 2006 and Kaal in 2007. In 2008/09 she announced the beginning of her directorial venture with Sama. The film, which dwells on homosexuality, as per her it is based on her own story and the music will be composed by the actor Parambrata Chatterjee. She said, "I was mentally preparing myself to step into direction for a long time," and "I now have the confidence to go ahead with this independent project." She has also been in several television roles, such as Raat Bhor Brishti, Uttaron and Mohona. She will next be seen in a mega-serial, Dushaha Bash, based on Taslima Nasreen’s work and deals with the lives of three sisters. She also had a successful stint with comedy in the serial Labonor Sansar, which was telecast on Zee Bangla. She is currently active with a number of serials, among them the major ones include Behula as in Hindu Goddess Manasa, Ekhane Aakash Neel, Sindoorkhela, Kiranmala, Debipaksha, Bodhu Kon Alo Laaglo Chokhe, Ami Sirajer Begum and Jai Kali Kalkattawali all eight telecasted on Free-to-Air Channel Star Jalsa.

Filmography

Television

Web series

Awards
 2005: BFJA-Most Promising Actress Award : for Mahulbonir Sereng

References

External links

Indian film actresses
Indian television actresses
Living people
Actresses from Kolkata
Bengali actresses
Actresses in Bengali cinema
Bengal Film Journalists' Association Award winners
Bengali television actresses
21st-century Indian actresses
Year of birth missing (living people)


The Berne Convention (formally, the International Convention respecting the Prohibition of the Use of White (Yellow) Phosphorus in the Manufacture of Matches ()) of 1906 is a multilateral treaty negotiated in Berne, Switzerland, which prohibits the use of white phosphorus in the manufacture of matches. The treaty also prohibits the import and sale of such matches.

The background to the treaty was the extensive medical problems such as phossy jaw facing workers in match production. The treaty was concluded on 26 September 1906. It entered into force on 1 January 1912. The Convention remains in force for 48 states. Switzerland is the depositary for the treaty.

In 1925 Edward J. Phelan, future Director General of the International Labour Organization, stated that the establishment of the ILO "may in one sense be traced to the Berne Convention of 1906", partly as a result of lobbying by the International Association for Labour Legislation.

See also
 London matchgirls strike of 1888

Notes

References
 John Emsley, The Shocking History of Phosphorus: A Biography of the Devil's Element (2000) Macmillan Publishers, Ltd.: London, England

External links

 The Berne Convention of 1906
 Information page, official depositary
 Review of book about phosphorus

Chemical industry
Occupational safety and health treaties
Treaties concluded in 1906
Treaties entered into force in 1912
History of Bern
Health treaties
1906 in Switzerland
Treaties of Argentina
Treaties extended to Australia
Treaties of the First Austrian Republic
Treaties of Belgium
Treaties of the Kingdom of Bulgaria
Treaties extended to Canada
Treaties of Chile
Treaties of the Republic of China (1912–1949)
Treaties of Cyprus
Treaties of Ivory Coast
Treaties of Denmark
Treaties of the Kingdom of Egypt
Treaties of Spain under the Restoration
Treaties of Estonia
Treaties of Fiji
Treaties of Finland
Treaties of the French Third Republic
Treaties of the Gambia
Treaties of the German Empire
Treaties of the Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)
Treaties extended to British India
Treaties of Pahlavi Iran
Treaties of the Irish Free State
Treaties of Israel
Treaties of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
Treaties of the Empire of Japan
Treaties of Luxembourg
Treaties of Madagascar
Treaties of Mali
Treaties of Malta
Treaties of Mauritius
Treaties of Mauritania
Treaties of Morocco
Treaties of Montenegro
Treaties of the Netherlands
Treaties extended to New Zealand
Treaties of Niger
Treaties of Norway
Treaties of the Second Polish Republic
Treaties of the Kingdom of Romania
Treaties of Senegal
Treaties of Serbia and Montenegro
Treaties extended to the Union of South Africa
Treaties of Sweden
Treaties of Switzerland
Treaties of Turkey
Treaties of Uganda
Treaties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922)
Treaties of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
White phosphorus
Treaties extended to New Caledonia
Treaties extended to Réunion
Treaties extended to French Polynesia
Treaties extended to Wallis and Futuna
Treaties extended to Gibraltar
Treaties extended to Anguilla
Treaties extended to Montserrat
Treaties extended to the British Virgin Islands
Treaties extended to Greenland
Treaties extended to the Faroe Islands
Chemical safety


is a women's football team which plays in Japan's WE League.

History

The club was founded as named Yomiuri SC Ladies Beleza as women's club of Yomiuri SC (currently Tokyo Verdy) by Yomiuri Shimbun in 1981. Its team name, "Beleza", is Portuguese for "beauty". It was a founding member of the league in 1989 and is the only Japanese women's club to have never been relegated. In 1999, the club was transferred to Nippon TV and the club name was changed to NTV Beleza. In 2000, the team name was changed to Nippon TV Beleza. In September 2009, Nippon TV withdrew from management. However the club name remains Nippon TV Beleza, because the club signed a new contract of naming rights with Nippon TV.

Kits

Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors

Stadium
The Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza play their home matches at the Tama Athletic Stadium, Inagi Chuo Park, Ajinomoto Field Nishigaoka or Ajinomoto Stadium.

Youth teams
Nippon TV Menina is the nickname for Beleza's football academy. Players such as Aya Miyama and Karina Maruyama have been on its roster.

The Nippon TV Menina currently plays in the Kantō League Div.1 (Division 3).

Other sports
Verdy is a polideportivo and also fields teams in association football, volleyball, and triathlon. The Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza's men's football team is the Tokyo Verdy. The club plays in the J2 League, the second tier of football in the country.

Founded as Yomiuri FC in 1969, Tokyo Verdy is one of the most decorated clubs in the J.League, with honours including 2 J.League titles , 5 Emperor's Cups, 6 JSL Cup / J.League Cups and an Asian Club Championship title, and the most successful team in Japanese football history with 25 titles.

The club was an original member ("Original Ten") of the J.League in 1993.

Coaching staff

Managerial history

Players

Current squad

Notable players
DF
 Yukari Kinga (2003–2010)
 Risa Shimizu (2013–2022)
MF
 Akemi Noda (1989–2004)
 Homare Sawa (1991–1998, 2004–2010)
 Aya Miyama (1999–2000)
 Mami Yamaguchi (2003–2004, 2010)
 Mizuho Sakaguchi (2012–2020)
 Yui Hasegawa (2013–2021)
FW
 Shinobu Ohno (1999–2010)
 Yūki Nagasato (2001–2009)
 Mana Iwabuchi (2007–2012)

Honours

Continental
AFC Women's Club Championship
Champions (1): 2019

Regional
Japan and South Korea Women's League Championship
Champions (1): 2011

Domestic
NTV Beleza has attained the domestic treble (winning the Nadeshiko League, League Cup, and Empress's Cup) thrice: 2007, 2018 and 2019.

Nadeshiko League Division 1
Champions (17): 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 (record)
Runners-up (12): 1989, 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
Empress's Cup
Champions (16): 1987, 1988, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 (record)
Runners-up (6): 1986, 1991, 1992, 1996, 2002, 2003,
WE League Cup
Runners-up (1): 2022–23
Nadeshiko League Cup
Champions (8): 1996, 1999, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2016, 2018, 2019 (record)
Runners-up (1): 1997
Nadeshiko Super Cup
Champions (2): 2005, 2007 (record)
Runners-up (1): 2006

Season-by-season records

Record in AFC Women's Club Championship

All results list Tokyo Verdy Beleza's goal tally first.

Transition of team name

Yomiuri SC Ladies Beleza: 1981–1991
Yomiuri Nippon SC Ladies Beleza: 1992–1993
Yomiuri-Seiyu Beleza: 1994–1997
Yomiuri Beleza: 1998
NTV Beleza: 1999
Nippon TV Beleza: 2000–2019
Nippon TV Tokyo Verdy Beleza: 20 January 2020 – present

See also
Japan Football Association (JFA)
2022–23 in Japanese football
List of women's football clubs in Japan

Notes

References

External links
Official website

Nippon TV
Women's football clubs in Japan
1981 establishments in Japan
Nadeshiko League teams
Football clubs in Tokyo
Inagi, Tokyo
Association football clubs established in 1981
WE League clubs


, known for sponsorship reasons as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Urawa Reds Ladies, is a professional women's football club playing in Japan's football league, WE League. Its hometown is the city of Saitama in Saitama Prefecture.

Kits

Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors

Other teams
Men's: Urawa Red Diamonds plays in J1 League.
Youth: Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies Youth (Under-18) plays in Kantō League.
Junior Youth: Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies Junior Youth (Under-14) plays in Saitama League.

Player

Current squad

Notable players
GK
 Nozomi Yamago (2005–2012)
DF
 Kyoko Yano (2007–2012)
 Saki Kumagai (2009–2011)

Club officials

Honours

Domestic
WE League
Winners (1) : 2022–23
Runners-up (1): 2021–22
Nadeshiko League Division 1
Champions (4): 2004, 2009, 2014, 2020
Runners-up (3): 2006, 2010, 2019
Empress's Cup
Champions (1): 2021
Runners-up (5): 2004, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2019, 2020
WE League Cup
Champions (1): 2022–23
Nadeshiko League Cup
Runners-up (3): 2007, 2010, 2017
Nadeshiko Super Cup
Runners-up (1): 2005

International
Japan/Korea Women's League Championship
Champions (1): 2010

Season-by-season records

Transition of team name
Urawa Reinas FC: 1999–2001
Saitama  Reinas FC: 2002–2004
Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies: 2005–present

See also
Japan Football Association (JFA)
2022–23 in Japanese football
List of women's football clubs in Japan

References

External links
 Official website

Ladies
Women's football clubs in Japan
1998 establishments in Japan
Mitsubishi Motors
Nadeshiko League teams
Sports clubs and teams in Saitama (city)
WE League clubs


Albirex Niigata Ladies is a women's football club based in Niigata and affiliated with Albirex Niigata, founded in 2002. The team currently plays in the WE League, the highest division of women's football in Japan.

Kits

Kit suppliers and shirt sponsors

Staff

Managerial history

Players

Current squad

Honours

Domestic competitions
 Empress's Cup
 Runners-up (4): 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016
 WE League Cup
 Runners-up (1): 2023–24

Season-by-season record

See also
Japan Football Association (JFA)
List of women's football clubs in Japan
2022–23 in Japanese football

References

External links
 Official website

Women's football clubs in Japan
Association football clubs established in 2002
2002 establishments in Japan
Albirex Niigata
Nadeshiko League teams
Sports teams in Niigata Prefecture
WE League clubs


Astragalus agrestis is a species of milkvetch known by the common names purple milkvetch, purple loco, and field milkvetch. It is native to much of western and northern North America from most of Canada to the southwestern United States, as well as eastern Asia. It grows in vernally moist areas such as meadows, and is often found in sagebrush.

Description
This is a perennial herb growing a slender but sturdy stem from an underground caudex. It leans or grows upright to a maximum height near 30 centimeters. The stem is often roughly hairy. Alternately arranged leaves are up to 10 centimeters long and made up of several pairs of leaflets up to 2 centimeters long each. They are oval to lance-shaped and may have notched tips. The inflorescence is an oval-shaped cluster of up to 15 purple or pink-tinted to nearly white pealike flowers. Each flower is up to 2 centimeters long. Flowers bloom May to August.

The fruit is an oval-shaped legume pod up to a centimeter long. It is dark colored with white hairs and dries to a papery texture.

Cultivation
When grown in garden settings the network of roots spreads enthusiastically and must be confined if the landscaper does not want a large patch of purple milkvetch.

References

External links
Jepson Manual Treatment
USDA Plants Profile
Montana PlantLife Profile

agrestis
Flora of Kazakhstan
Flora of Xinjiang
Flora of Mongolia
Flora of Siberia
Flora of Canada
Flora of the Western United States
Plants described in 1832
Flora without expected TNC conservation status


Murroogh (), sometimes named Murrooghtoohy or Murroghtwohy, is a hamlet in County Clare, Ireland. It covers the townlands of Murrooghtoohy North and Murrooghtoohy South. It is within the civil parish of Gleninagh, in the Barony of Burren.  The area was officially classified as part of the West Clare Gaeltacht; an Irish-speaking community; until 1956.

See also
 List of towns and villages in Ireland

References

Towns and villages in County Clare


Tracey Brown is a Canadian country music artist. Brown, a former member of Family Brown, was nominated for a 1999 Juno Award for Best Country Female Vocalist. Her first solo studio album, Woman's Work, was released in 1998 and produced a Top 20 single with the title track.

Biography
Brown began performing at 10 years old as a member of Canada's most awarded country band, Family Brown. During the group's 22-year career, they recorded 17 albums and hosted a syndicated television show. Brown went on to form Juno Award winning group Prescott-Brown with her brother Barry and husband Randall Prescott.

Tracey Brown released her first solo CD in 1998. Three singles were released from the album, including the title track, which peaked at No. 12 on the RPM Canadian country singles chart. Brown was nominated for Best Country Female Vocalist at the 1999 Juno Awards and Independent Female Vocalist of the Year at the 1999 Canadian Country Music Association Awards.

In 2000, Brown was featured in the photo book Dare to Dream – A Celebration of Canadian Women. The following year, she performed at the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards and co-wrote and performed a song for the award-winning short film, Charlie Noir.

Brown completed work on her second solo studio album, Alone, which was released in 2008. Its first single, "If You Wanna Keep My Love," written by Jon Park-Wheeler, Tracey Brown, and Randall Prescott was sent to country radio in September.

In 2014, Brown toured on the Canadian Pacific Railway Holiday Trains in the United States and Canada.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Guest singles

Music videos

References

Canadian women country singers
Canadian country singer-songwriters
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century Canadian women singers
21st-century Canadian singer-songwriters


Royal Natal National Park is a  park in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa and forms part of the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park World Heritage Site. Notwithstanding the name, it is actually not a South African National Park managed by the SANParks, but rather a Provincial Park managed by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife. This park is now included in the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Conservation Area Peace Park.

The Drakensberg Mountains were once the hunting ground of the San people (bushmen). Though the San no longer live in the area, they recorded their exploits in the form of remarkable rock paintings.

The main features of the park are the Drakensberg Amphitheatre, a rock wall  long by up to  high, Mont-Aux-Sources peak where the Orange and Tugela rivers have their source, and the  Tugela Falls, the world's highest waterfall. A distinctive rock feature and popular hiking destination in the park is the so-called "Policeman's Helmet".

See also
 Tugela Falls Bergville
 Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife
 List of conservation areas of South Africa

References

External links

 Royal Natal National Park accommodation
 Royal Natal at KZN Wildlife
 uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park at UNESCO World heritage

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife Parks
Nature reserves in South Africa
National parks of South Africa
Tugela River


Aleen Isobel Cust (7 February 1868 – 29 January 1937) was an Anglo-Irish veterinary surgeon. She was born and began her career in Ireland. In 1922 she became the first female veterinary surgeon to be recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

Early life and education
Aleen Cust was born in 1868 in Cordangan Manor, County Tipperary.  Her father Sir Leopold Cust, 2nd Baronet was the grandson of Brownlow Cust, 1st Baron Brownlow, and worked as a land agent to the Smith-Barry family. Her mother Charlotte Sobieske Isabel (née Bridgeman) was the daughter of Vice-Admiral Charles Orlando Bridgeman, and granddaughter of Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Earl of Bradford and Sir Henry Chamberlain, 1st Baronet.

The fourth of six children, she enjoyed the outdoors as a child, and when asked about her future she claimed "a vet was my reply ever and always."

She began training as a nurse at London Hospital, but gave it up to become a veterinary surgeon.  Following the death of her father in 1878, Major Shallcross Fitzherbert Widdington, her guardian, encouraged her to pursue an education and funded her attendance at William Williams's New Veterinary College in Edinburgh. As her mother was acting as a Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, Cust enrolled under the name A.I. Custance to avoid any embarrassment for her family. She completed her veterinary studies in 1897, winning the gold medal for zoology, but was denied permission to sit the final examination and consequently was not admitted as a member of Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS).  She challenged this in the Court of Session, seeking to overturn the decision of the RCVS examination committee, but the court declined to rule on the basis that the RCVS was not domiciled in Scotland.  She refrained from legal action in London, perhaps due to the potential cost, or potential social embarrassment to her mother.

Career
Cust nevertheless went on to practise in County Roscommon with William Augustine Byrne MRCVS, having received a personal recommendation from William Williams, and lived at Castlestrange House (location of the Castlestrange stone, in the Suck Valley) near Athleague. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that there is reason to believe that Byrne and Cust "lived as man and wife and that she had two daughters, born in Scotland, who were later adopted". In 1904 she was briefly engaged to Bertram Widdington, the son of her former guardian, but following objections from his family regarding her career, the wedding did not go ahead.

Cust was later appointed as a veterinary inspector by Galway County Council under the Diseases of Animals Acts, an appointment that was denied by the RCVS due to her lack of professional recognition. The post was advertised again, and when Cust was again selected for the post an agreement was reached under which she carried out the duties of the position with an amended title. Upon the death of Byrne in 1910, Cust took over the veterinary practice.  She practised from Fort Lyster House near Athleague. (Both Castlestrange and Fort Lyster were later demolished.)

Upon the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Cust left Ireland to volunteer at the front and appears to have aided in the treatment and care of horses, working with the YMCA from a base near Abbeville. In 1917 she was appointed to an army bacteriology laboratory which was associated with a veterinary hospital. She is listed as a member of the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps from January to November 1918 and it has been suggested that it was her war time work that aided in her acceptance into the RCVS after the war.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London did not recognise Cust's right to practice in her own right in Britain until 1922, following the enactment of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919.  Given her years of experience, she was only asked to take the oral part of the final examination. On 21 December 1922, the president of the RCVS, Henry Sumner, personally presented Cust with her diploma, and she thus became the first woman to be awarded such a diploma.

Later life and recognition
Due to failing health, Cust only continued to practice as a veterinarian for another two years, retiring in 1924. Having sold her practice, she moved to the village of Plaitford, in the New Forest in Hampshire, England. She died of heart failure in Jamaica on 29 January 1937 whilst visiting friends.

Upon her death she left the RCVS a sum of money to found the Aleen Cust Research Scholarship. In 2007 a plaque was erected in honour of Cust at Castlestrange House, Athleague by Women in Technology and Science and the National Committee for Commemorative Plaques in Science and Technology, with support from Veterinary Ireland.

See also
Joan Morice - First female South African veterinary surgeon.
William Ivison Macadam - Encouragement of women

References

Further reading

 Ford, Connie M. (1990). "Aleen Cust, Veterinary Surgeon – Britain's First Woman Vet". Biopress.
 Ó hÓgartaigh, Margaret (2006). 'Female Veterinary Surgeons in Ireland, 1900-30', Irish Veterinary Journal, 59: pp. 388–389.

1868 births
1937 deaths
19th-century Irish women
19th-century Irish people
Health professionals from County Roscommon
Health professionals from County Tipperary
Irish veterinarians
Irish people of World War I
Women veterinarians
20th-century Irish people
20th-century Irish women
Aleen


Arno Esch (6 February 1928 – 24 July 1951) was a German liberal politician of the late 1940s in the Soviet Occupation Zone. He was executed at the Lubyanka prison in Moscow in 1951 at the age of 23.

Biography
Esch was born and brought up in Memel (Klaipėda). In late 1944 he was evacuated to Mecklenburg, where he was drafted into military service as a Navy–Flakhelfer. In 1946 Esch started to study law at the University of Rostock and became a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD). He opposed the leading role claimed by the communist Youth organisation Freie Deutsche Jugend and was elected into the LDPD committee in 1948 and the LDPD executive committee in 1949. He was a co-author of the Eisenacher program of the LDPD.

Esch wrote several editorials for the Norddeutsche Zeitung, the newspaper of the Liberal-Democrats in Mecklenburg, in which he applied for the Separation of powers, individual civil and political rights and the abolition of the death penalty. Esch caused a controversy with his dictum: "A Chinese liberal is more affiliated to me than a German communist".

Esch was imprisoned by the Soviet NKVD on 18 October  1949, together with 12 other young Liberals and sentenced to death by a Soviet Military tribunal for "counterrevolutionary activities" in July 1950, he was transferred to Moscow, where the sentence was approved and executed at the Lubyanka prison on 24 July 1951.

The judgement was voided in 1990 by the Soviet High Court.

Remembrance

The FDP-attached Arno-Esch-Foundation and the Arno-Esch-Award of the German Liberal Association of Academics are named after him. Streets in Rostock, Schwerin and Schönberg (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) as well as a memorial plaque at the University of Rostock remind of Esch.

References

Horst Köpke, Friedrich-Franz Wiese: Mein Vaterland ist die Freiheit: Das Schicksal des Studenten Arno Esch. Rostock, Hinstorff, 1990,
Hartwig Bernitt, Friedrich-Franz Wiese: Arno Esch: Eine Dokumentation. Verband Ehemaliger Rostocker Studenten (VERS), Danneberg/Elbe 1994
Thomas Ammer: Universität zwischen Demokratie und Diktatur: Ein Beitrag zur Nachkriegsgeschichte der Universität Rostock. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Köln 1969
Hermann Marx: Liberale Studenten im Widerstand. Liberaler Studentenbund Deutschlands, Bonn o.J.
Waldemar Krönig, Klaus-Dieter Müller: Anpassung, Widerstand, Verfolgung: Hochschule und Studenten in der SBZ und DDR 1945–1961. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Köln 1994,

External links
editorials and pictures of Esch at the Norddeutsche Zeitung

1928 births
1951 deaths
People from Klaipėda
Politicians from East Prussia
Liberal Democratic Party of Germany politicians
German people executed by the Soviet Union
Soviet rehabilitations
Executed East German people
University of Rostock alumni
Kriegsmarine personnel of World War II
Child soldiers in World War II


Sasha Kathrine Siem (born 1984, in London) is a British-Norwegian singer-songwriter and composer.

Early life
Sasha Siem was born in London, England, to Kristian Siem, a Norwegian businessman, and his South African wife Karen Ann, née Moross. Her brother is violinist Charlie Siem.

Career
Siem studied music and poetry at Cambridge University and Harvard University; by her early twenties, she had written music for the London Symphony Orchestra, The Royal Opera House, Rambert Dance Company, Opera North, The Aldeburgh Festival, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, The London Sinfonietta, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2010, she became one of the youngest people to win a British Composer Award. She has also been awarded the Arthur Bliss Prize and the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize.

Siem has performed at festivals and venues across Europe and the United States, including The Royal Opera House, London; HBC, Berlin; the Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival; (Le) Poisson Rouge, NYC; by:Larm, Joe's Pub, The Forum, London, Latitude Festival by:Larm, Barbican, Southbank Centre and Sadlers Wells.

While parallels have been drawn with pioneering singer-songwriters such as Tom Waits, Jacques Brel, Björk, and Joanna Newsom, the influence of art-song composers such as György Kurtág, Claude Vivier, and Salvatore Sciarrino is equally evident in her music.

The Guardian noted that Siem is "making waves in the music scene", while CBS has hailed her as a "woman of note" and a talent to watch.

Siem released her debut EP So Polite on 1 February 2013. Her debut album Most Of The Boys was produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson in Iceland and was released on 2 March 2015 on vinyl and CD. It was reviewed in Uncut by Jim Wirth, who described the album as "An uptown fusion of Bjork, The Raincoats and the Cosmopolitan letters page".

Talking about Siem's single, "My Friend", Tarynn Law from The 405 said, "gorgeous and emotive work, with lyrics that allow for self-reflection". Jamie Skey from Q said, "...if you were to construct a Venn Diagram between Bjork and Leonard Cohen, you’d find the tune somewhere in the shaded middle section. Robin Murray from Clash said, “sweeping, widescreen grandeur… both contagious and quite, quite affecting”.

In 2016, Siem released her second album Bird Burning to critical acclaim. Pip Williams at The Line of Best Fit wrote: "Bird Burning is a spectacular record on several levels, successfully tackling concepts other artists would rightly shy from. Scandinavia regularly yields musicians of extraordinary talent, but Sasha Siem’s startling ambition stands Bird Burning head and shoulders above the rest."

Siem’s songs have been remixed by Matthew Herbert, Susanne Sundfor, High as a Kite, East India Youth, and Rabit.

References

External links
Official website

1984 births
Living people
British women classical composers
Musicians from London
British women singer-songwriters
British people of Norwegian descent
British people of South African descent
Harvard University alumni
21st-century British women singers


Scott Eric Tucker (born February 18, 1976) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and former world record-holder.  Tucker represented the United States at two consecutive Summer Olympics.  He won a gold (1996) and a silver medal (2000) with the U.S. relay teams in the preliminary heats of the men's 4×100-meter freestyle.

See also
 List of Auburn University people
 List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
 List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (men)
 World record progression 4 × 200 metres freestyle relay

References

1976 births
Living people
American male freestyle swimmers
Auburn Tigers men's swimmers
World record setters in swimming
Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
Olympic silver medalists for the United States in swimming
Seminole High School (Pinellas County, Florida) alumni
Sportspeople from Birmingham, Alabama
Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Swimmers at the 1999 Pan American Games
Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics
World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics
Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States
Pan American Games medalists in swimming
Goodwill Games medalists in swimming
Universiade medalists in swimming
FISU World University Games gold medalists for the United States
Competitors at the 2001 Goodwill Games
Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games