Chain are an Australian blues band formed as The Chain in late 1968 with a line-up including guitarist and vocalist Phil Manning and lead vocalist Wendy Saddington. Saddington left in May 1969 and in September 1970 Matt Taylor joined on lead vocals and harmonica. During the 1990s they were referred to as Matt Taylor's Chain. Their single, "Black and Blue" (January 1971), is their only top twenty hit. It was written and recorded by the line-up of Manning, Taylor, Barry Harvey on drums and Barry Sullivan on bass guitar. The related album, Toward the Blues, followed in September and peaked in the top ten. Manfred Mann's Earth Band covered "Black and Blue" on their 1973 album Messin'.

Chain had various line-ups until July 1974 when they disbanded. They reformed in 1982 for a one-off concert and more permanently from 1983 to 1986. From 1998 Chain members are Harvey, Manning, Taylor and Dirk Du Bois on bass guitar. Both Manning and Taylor have also had separate solo careers. In 2005 Chain released an album, Sweet Honey, and continued touring irregularly. On 3 May 2009 they performed at the Cairns Blues Festival. Barry Sullivan died in October 2003. Wendy Saddington died in June 2013 after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer.

Career

1968–70: Formation to Live Chain

Chain's origins trace back to the Beat 'n Tracks (often incorrectly cited as the Beaten Tracks), a pop, blues and R&B band, which formed in Perth in 1965. They included Dave Cook on rhythm guitar and vocals, Dave Cross on rhythm guitar and vocals, Paul Frieze on bass guitar, Ross Partington on lead vocals and harmonica (ex-Majestics), Alan Power on lead guitar and vocals, and John Vanderhagh on drums. They played cover versions of the Beatles and Rolling Stones as well as work by Motown, blues and rock artists. Vanderhagh left in the next year and was replaced by Frank Capeling on drums. Cook left in early 1967 and was replaced by Warren Morgan on Farfisa organ and later on Hammond organ. Frieze left in that year and was replaced by John (the "Scotsman") Gray on bass guitar (ex-Ray Hoff and the Off Beats). Capeling also left in 1967 and was replaced by Ace Follington on drums (ex Yeoman). Later that year Cross left but was not replaced, Scott was replaced by Murray Wilkins on bass guitar and vocals (ex-West Coast Trio).

With the addition of Morgan on organ the Beat 'n Tracks incorporated material from Traffic, Vanilla Fudge, Young Rascals and the Band. In 1968 they entered the Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds and won the Perth heats. Power was replaced by Dave Hole on lead guitar and vocals who left whilst they were in Melbourne competing in the Hoadley's national finals and was replaced by Phil Manning on lead guitar and vocals (ex-Bay City Union, Bobby & Laurie, Laurie Allen Revue).
 The band returned to Perth but soon relocated to Melbourne. Partington departed in December 1968, returning to Perth to form the Tracks with Joey Anderson on drums (ex-Sari Brit), Pete Tindal on bass guitar and vocals (ex-Cherokees), Peter Waddell on Hammond organ and vocals (ex-Paul McKay Sound), and Lindsay Wells on lead guitar and vocals (also ex-Sari Brit). Partington was replaced by Wendy Saddington on lead vocals (ex-James Taylor Move), who provided the band's new name, the Chain, referencing Aretha Franklin's song, "Chain of Fools". The Chain's original line-up was Follington, Manning, Morgan, Wilkins and Saddington.

Garry Raffaele of The Canberra Times heard the Chain performing early in 1969 and said that "[Saddington] is by far the best female rhythm and blues singer in the country ... [they] gave me the finest night of live rhythm and blues I've heard from an Australian group." Saddington left in May of that year to write for the music newspaper Go-Set. She also joined the band Copperwine on lead vocals, with Harry Brus on bass guitar and Jeff St John on co-lead vocals. She later had a solo career. Saddington was replaced by New Zealand-born Glyn Mason (ex-Larry's Rebels). Wilkins left in August and was replaced by Tim Piper (ex-Electric Heap) on bass guitar. Morgan, who left to join Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, was replaced by Claude Papesch on organ (also ex-Electric Heap).

The Chain's first single, "Show Me Home", which was written by Manning, was released by Festival Records in October 1969. Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane said that "[it] was one of the first progressive blues records ever issued in Australia". Follington, Papesch and Piper had all left by the time it appeared. The rhythm section from Wild Cherries, Barry Harvey on drums and Barry Sullivan on bass guitar, joined and their name was shortened to "Chain" late in 1969. The band's first album, Live Chain, was recorded in June 1970 at Caesar's Palace discothèque, Sydney, with the line-up of Harvey, Manning, Mason, Morgan and Sullivan. It was released in October. Mason had already left to travel overseas. Early in 1975 he had returned to Australia and joined a progressive rock group, Ariel.

1970–1971: Classic line-up to Toward the Blues

In September 1970, Manning asked Matt Taylor to become their full-time front man. Taylor had moved to Melbourne from Brisbane with his band the Bay City Union (which had briefly included Manning), although that band had subsequently broken up. At this point, Chain were Manning, Taylor, Harvey (Little Goose, LG or Albert Goose) and Sullivan (Big Goose or BG), referred to by fans as the classic line-up. "Black and Blue" was released by this line-up as a single in March 1971 on Festival's Infinity label, which peaked at No. 12 on the national singles charts in May. The second single, "Judgement" released in July reached the top 40 nationally and was followed in September by their first studio album Toward the Blues, on the Infinity Records label (a subsidiary of Festival records). The album was produced by John L Sayers and recorded at TCS Studios. This included an extended version of their signature track, "Black and Blue", and continued to sell steadily, eventually going gold over twenty years after its original release. A further single "Gonna Miss you Babe" was recorded with this line-up at Festival Studios Sydney, also produced by Sayers. The classic line-up of Chain only lasted about eleven months (August 1970 to July 1971) at that time, when Harvey, Manning and Sullivan all left. Harvey joined King Harvest, Manning formed a duo Pilgrimage with ex-The Chain bandmate Morgan, and Sullivan joined Carson.

Other 1970s line-ups

In July 1971, Taylor briefly enlisted Kevin Murphy on drums (ex-Wild Cherries, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, King Harvest), Charlie Tumahai on bass guitar and Lindsay Wells on lead guitar (both ex-Healing Force). Murphy left in September and Taylor continued for another month with Laurie Pryor on drums (ex-Healing Force) but then Taylor commenced his solo career. Taylor's best known solo works are his singles, "I Remember when I Was Young" and "Fair Dinkum Aussie Blues" and his albums, Straight as a Die and Music. Chain reformed in November 1971 with Harvey, Manning, Mason, Morgan and Sullivan to record, Live Again, which was not released until October 1972. A three piece line-up of Morgan, Pryor and Sullivan performed at the inaugural 1972 Sunbury Pop Festival. In February 1973, Manning changed the name of his then group Mighty Mouse to Chain with: Mal Capewell on saxophone and flute (ex-Company Caine), Ian Clyne on organ (ex-The Loved Ones), Sullivan on bass guitar and Harvey on drums. Chain's band manager, Michael Gudinski had signed the band to his newly formed label, Mushroom Records which released two non-charting singles and then an album, Two of a Kind in December 1973 with contributions from James Madison on guitar and George Beauford on vocals and harmonica. Both were members of touring mate Muddy Waters' band. Forming in February 1974, the next Chain line-up were Manning, Sullivan and Mal Logan on keyboards (ex-Healing Force, Carson) and Tony Lunt on drums (ex-Carson); they broke up in July and Mushroom released the compilation album, History of Chain, in October.

Later line-ups to current

After breaking up completely for several years, Chain briefly reformed with the classic line up (Harvey, Manning, Sullivan and Taylor) in January 1982, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Mushroom Records. A couple of songs from their performance appeared on the triple album set Mushroom Evolution Concert. A more permanent reformation occurred from December 1983, which resulted in Child of the Street in October 1985 and two singles. Manning and Sullivan left again in late 1986, Taylor and Harvey continued Chain with John Meyer on guitar (ex-Saracen, Rose Tattoo) and Roy Daniel on bass guitar; they released, Australian Rhythm and Blues in April 1988. Meyer, Taylor and Bob Fortesque on bass guitar (ex-Blackfeather) and Michael Burn on drums released the next Chain album Blue Metal in May 1990. By late 1991, Taylor had formed another version of Chain now called, Matt Taylor's Chain with Dirk Du Bois on bass guitar, Jeff Lang on guitar, Bob Patient on piano and Gus Warburton on drums. This line-up recorded a new album Trouble in the Wind aka Walls 2 McGoo released in 1992. From 1992, varied line-ups of Chain or Matt Taylor's Chain toured Australia irregularly. In 1998, Chain as Matt Taylor, Phil Manning, Barry Harvey and Dirk Du Bois performed at Mushroom's 25th anniversary concert, Mushroom 25 Live and released their own live album, The First 30 Years. Chain toured into 1999 and released a new album, Mix up the Oils in July on Forever Records. In 2005 they released, Sweet Honey, and continued touring irregularly; on 3 May 2009, Chain performed at the Cairns Blues Festival.
This latest Chain line-up continued into 2014 with appearances at The Caravan Club in Oakleigh, Victoria.

Members

The Chain, Chain or Matt Taylor's Chain members.
Current Members

Phil Manning – guitars, backing and lead vocals (1968–1974, 1982, 1983–1986, 1991, 1995–current)
Barry Harvey – drums (1969–74, 1982, 1983–1986, 1988, 1995–current)
Matt Taylor – lead vocals, harmonica (1970–1971, 1982, 1983–1986, 1991–1992, 1995–current)
Dirk Du Bois – bass (1991–1992, 1995–current)

Past Members
Wendy Saddington – lead vocals (1968–1969)
Warren Morgan – keyboards, backing and lead vocals (1968–1972)
Murray Wilkins – bass (1968–1969)
Ace Follington – drums (1968–1969)
Glyn Mason – guitars, lead and backing vocals (1970–1972)
Tim Piper – bass (1969)
Claude Papesch – keyboards (1969)
Barry Sullivan – bass (1969–74, 1982, 1983–1986)
Kevin Murphy – drums (1971)
Charlie Tumahai – bass (1971)
Lindsay Wells – guitars (1971)
Laurie Pryor – drums (1971–1972)
Graham Morgan – drums (1972)
Mal Capewell – saxophone, flute (1973–1974)
Ian Clyne – keyboards (1973–1974)
George Beauford – lead vocals, harmonica (1973, session musician)
James Madison – guitars (1973, session musician)
Mal Logan – keyboards (1974)
Tony Lunt – drums (1974)
John Meyer – guitars (1986, 1988, 1991)
Roy Daniel – bass (1988)
Bob Fortesque – bass (1991)
Michael Burn – drums (1991)
Jeff Lang – guitars (1991–1992)
Bob Patient – keyboards (1991–1992)
Gus Warburton – drums (1991–1992)
Malcolm Eastick – guitars (1992)

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums
History of Chain – Mushroom (October 1974)
Best of Chain – Infinity (1978)
Trouble in the Wind – Aim (1992)
The First 30 Years – Forever (1998)
Towards the Blues (30th Anniversary Edition) – Festival Mushroom (September 2001)

Singles
"Show Me Home" – Festival (October 1969)
"Black and Blue" – Infinity (March 1971) (#12 AUS No. 10 Go-Set
"Judgement" – Infinity (July 1971) No. 30 AUS
"Sunny Day" – Infinity (October 1972) No. 92 AUS
"I Thought You Weren't My Friend" – Mushroom (August 1973) No. 89 AUS
"I'm Gonna Miss You, Babe" – Mushroom (November 1973) No. 65 AUS
"I'm Gonna Miss You Babe" – Infinity (1980)
"I Don't Want To Be Like Everyone Else" – EMI (1985)
"(Doin' The) Highway 31 Shuffle" – EMI (1986)
"Harmonica" – Wheatley 104802

Awards and nominations

Go-Set Pop Poll
The Go-Set Pop Poll was coordinated by teen-oriented pop music newspaper, Go-Set and was established in February 1966 and conducted an annual poll during 1966 to 1972 of its readers to determine the most popular personalities.

|-
| rowspan="2"| 1971
| themselves
| Best Group
| 4th
|-
| "Black & Blue"
| Best Australian Single
| 4th
|-

References

External links
Phil Manning Official website
Chain at Australian Blues
Chain discography @ MusicBrainz
Chain discography @ Discogs

Australian blues musical groups
Musical groups established in 1968
Victoria (state) musical groups
Mushroom Records artists
Bertelsmann Music Group artists


Mahadik is a surname mainly found in Maharashtra and surrounding states of India.

Notable people
People with the surname Mahadik include:
 Wamanrao Mahadik, Indian politician belonging to the Shiv Sena party
 Dhananjay Mahadik, Indian politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janta Party
 Sunil Mahadik, Indian art director
 Sardar Mahadik of Gwalior, a noble family from Gwalior, India

See also
 Maratha clan system

References

Surname


Thomas Burchell may refer to:
Thomas Burchell (cricketer) (1875–1951), cricketer
Thomas Burchell, Jamaican missionary

See also
Thomas Burchill, American Congressman


Stranahan may refer to:

Clara Harrison Stranahan (1831 – 1905), American author
Farrand Stewart Stranahan (1842–1904), American Civil War veteran, railroad executive, banker, and Republican U.S. politician
Frank Stranahan (1922–2013), amateur golf champion
James S. T. Stranahan (1808–1898), United States Representative from New York
Lee Stranahan, former reporter for Breitbart News, Radio Sputnik broadcaster
Nevada Stranahan (1861–1928), Collector of the Port of New York
R. A. Stranahan Arboretum,  in Toledo, Ohio, USA, containing 1500 trees from USA, China, Serbia, Japan, and Norway
Stranahan High School, high school located in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Stranahan House, historic home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States
Stranahan Theater, 2,424-seat concert hall located in Toledo, Ohio, USA
Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey, 94 proof, small-batch whiskey distilled in Denver, Colorado
David Stanley Stranahan (1954-current), all around nice guy, Grandview, Washington


The Canton of Coussey is a former French administrative and electoral grouping of communes in the Vosges département of eastern France and in the region of Lorraine. It was disbanded following the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015. It consisted of 21 communes, which joined the canton of Neufchâteau in 2015. It had 4,209 inhabitants (2012).

The Canton of Coussey had its administrative centre at Coussey and was one of seven cantons in the Arrondissement of Neufchâteau. The territory of the canton included Joan of Arc's birthplace Domrémy-la-Pucelle.

Composition
The Canton of Coussey comprises the following 21 communes: Coussey, Soulosse-sous-Saint-Élophe, Frebécourt, Maxey-sur-Meuse, Moncel-sur-Vair, Midrevaux, Harmonville, Domrémy-la-Pucelle, Autigny-la-Tour, Greux, Punerot, Ruppes, Martigny-les-Gerbonvaux, Autreville, Sionne, Chermisey, Tranqueville-Graux, Avranville, Jubainville, Clérey-la-Côte and Seraumont.

References

Coussey
2015 disestablishments in France
States and territories disestablished in 2015


Manfredi III Chiaramonte (died November 1391) was a Sicilian nobleman.

Of French origins, he was given the County of Modica, then one of the most powerful fiefs in the Kingdom of Sicily, in 1377. He was also made lord of Trapani, Agrigento, Bivona, Licata, Castronovo, Lentini, Palma di Montechiaro and Mussomeli, where he built a castle which still bears his name. Manfredi was governor of Messina, and, after having liberated the island of Jerba from Arab pirates, he was made also lord of it. He held court in the Palazzo Chiaramonte of Palermo.

Despite having obtained his lands by the Aragonese Kings of Sicily, he usually sided for the Angevines who held the rival Kingdom of Naples. In 1354 Manfredi was besieged in Lentini by the Aragonese troops of Artale I Alagona; the latter was able to capture it by treason only in 1360. Manfredi was captured and imprisoned in Catania; however he later escaped and regained his possessions.

His daughter Costanza (born 1377) married the future King Ladislaus of Naples in Gaeta in 1389. At the death of king Frederick III, Manfredi became one of four viceroys, ruling the kingdom for Maria, Queen of Sicily. Maria was kidnapped by the Aragonese and forced to marry Martin I the Younger. Manfredi fought against Aragonese power.

Manfredi Chiaramonte died in Palermo in 1391. His son, Andrea Chiaramonte, governor of Palermo, was beheaded in 1392 by Martin I of Aragon (Martin the Elder) after the fall of Palermo. With the fall of the family from power, his daughter Costanza was divorced by the King Ladislaus and forced to marry a local Neapolitan noble.

Manfredi
14th-century births
1391 deaths
Lords in Italy
14th-century Sicilian people
Counts of Malta


Folco Lulli (3 July 1912 – 23 May 1970) was an Italian partisan and film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1946 and 1970. He was the elder brother of actor Piero Lulli.

Selected filmography

 The Bandit (1946) - Andrea
 The White Primrose (1947)
 Flesh Will Surrender (1947) - Carlini
 Tragic Hunt (1947) - Un fattore
 The Captain's Daughter (1947) - Zulai (uncredited)
 Bullet for Stefano (1947) - Il monco
 How I Lost the War (1947) - Ufficiale americano sul ponte
 The White Devil (1947)
 Crossroads of Passion (1948) - Viù
 Without Pity (1948) - Giacomo
 Escape to France (1948) - Riccardo Torre
 L'eroe della strada (1948) - Operaio turbulento
 Vertigine d'amore (1949) - Luca / France: Romain Toucas
 A Night of Fame (1949) - Ramirez
 Toto Looks for a House (1949) - Turco
 How I Discovered America (1949) - Il signorotto
 Hawk of the Nile (1950) - Ibrahim
 No Peace Under the Olive Tree (1950) - Agostino Bonfiglio
 Variety Lights (1950) - Adelmo Conti
 Brief Rapture (1951) - Meccanico caposquadra della stazione
 Love and Blood (1951) - Pietro
 Shadows Over Naples (1951) - Pietro
 Tragic Serenade (1951) - Don Vincenzo Matturini
 Nobody's Children (1951) - Anselmo Vannini
 Lorenzaccio (1951) - Scoronconcalo
 In Olden Days (1952) - Secondo contadino toscano (segment "Questione d'interesse")
 Falsehood (1952) - Rocco
 La colpa di una madre (1952) - Enrico
 Prisoners of Darkness (1952) - Amedeo Pisani
 Infame accusa (1953) - Giovannino
 The Wages of Fear (1953) - Luigi
 Jeunes mariés (1953) - L'aubergiste
 Riscatto (1953) - Il Maremmano
 Noi cannibali (1953) - Tongo
 Island Sinner (1954) - Don Pietro Ingarsia
 Non vogliamo morire' (1954) - Carter
 Maddalena (1954) - Domenico, il bovaro
 Neapolitan Carousel (1954) - Don Raffaele
 Submarine Attack (1954) - Nostromo, First Mate
 The Air of Paris (1954) - Angelo Posi
 Acque amare (1954) - Nightclub Owner (uncredited)
 Orient Express (1954) - Filippo dal Pozzo
 The Count of Monte Cristo (1954, part 1, 2) - Jacopo
  (1955) - Hussein
 The Star of Rio (1955) - Mario
 Rice Girl (1956) - Pietro Guerrini
 We're All Necessary (1956) - Iniesta, un ladrón
  (1956) - Carlo Ferrelli
 Londra chiama Polo Nord (1956) - King Kong Kaarden
 Io, Caterina (1957) - Nobile Tolomei
  (1957) - Bortak
 The Italians They Are Crazy (1958) - Don Bernardo
 El hereje (1958)
 The Sky Burns (1958) - Tazzoli
  (1958) - Sciacciabratta
 Polikuschka (1958) - Polikuschka
 Sheba and the Gladiator (1959) - Zemanzius - Zenobia's Prime Minister
 Délit de fuite (1959) - Franco
 Wolves of the Deep (1959) - Nostromo
 The Great War (1959) - Bordin
 Marie of the Isles (1959) - Le capitaine Le Fort
 La nuit des traqués (1959) - Lino
 The Regattas of San Francisco (1960) - Luigi, le père de Lidia
 Under Ten Flags (1960) - Paco
 Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960) - Pachiderma
 The Huns (1960)  - Igor
 Esther and the King (1960) - Tobiah
 Vacanze in Argentina (1960) - Giovannino Fioravanti
 Spade senza bandiera (1961) - Diego Benvenuti di Pianora
 The Tartars (1961) - Togrul
 Rome 1585 (1961) - Fra Silenzio
 Oh Islam (1961) - Prince Aktai
 Romulus and the Sabines (1961) - King Titus Tazio
 Erik the Conqueror (1961) - Viking King Harald
 La Fayette (1962) - Le Boursier
 Venus Against the Son of Hercules (1962)
 Warriors Five (1962) - Marzi
 Dulcinea (1962) - Sancho Panza
 Un alibi per morire (1962)
 The Shortest Day (1963) - Ufficiale a teatro (uncredited)
 Duel at the Rio Grande (1963) - José
 The Organizer (1963) - Pautasso
 Revenge of the Musketeers (1963) - Cardinal Mazarini
 Les Parias de la gloire (1964) - Blosky
 Last Plane to Baalbek (1964) - John Volpi
 Oltraggio al pudore (1964) - Gabriele's Father
 Black Humor (1965) - Count Ripoli (segment 3 'La cornacchia')
 Marco the Magnificent (1965) - Spinello, Venetian Merchant
 L'armata Brancaleone (1966) - Pecoro
 Lightning Bolt (1966) - Mr. Rehte
 The Murderer with the Silk Scarf (1966) - Polizeirat Erwin Moll
 Le Grand Restaurant (1966) - Le président Novalès
 Blockhead (1966) - Testa Di Rapa
 The Viscount (1967) - Rico Barone
 Gente d'onore (1967) - Turi
 The Longest Hunt (1968) - Don Hernando Gutierrez
 Between God, the Devil and a Winchester (1968) - Colonel Bob Ford
 Mercanti di vergini (1969)
 Baltagul (1969) - oierul Bogza
 A Golden Widow (1969) - Le Sicilien - un tueur
 Trois hommes sur un cheval (1969) - Le patron d'Eric
 Raptus (1969) - Avv. Montani
 L'âne de Zigliara (1970)
 Tre nel mille'' (1971) - (final film role)

References

External links

1912 births
1970 deaths
Italian male film actors
Male actors from Florence
Nastro d'Argento winners
20th-century Italian male actors
Italian resistance movement members


Skendrowell Syiemlieh (died 2008) was a Khasi folk and Gospel singer. He was a master musician and an accomplished artist of the folk instrument known as the duitara. He was also the playback singer for the Khasi film U Manik Raitong.

Syiemlieh was the recipient of many awards, including a best vocalist award in 1975, and the U Tirot Sing Award for Arts and Literature in 1991. He was actively associated with the All India Radio Shillong since 1962. Syiemlieh was posthumously awarded the Padma Shri Award in Arts by the Government of India in 2009.

The Telegraph (Kolkata) reported on 5 January 2009:

A major lacuna in tribal societies is the absence of documentation of their cultural wealth and of recognizing personalities who have enriched their culture through songs, poetry, literature, and the performing arts. Khasi bard, singer, and radio artist Skendrowell Syiemlieh spent a good part of his adult life serving the society through songs for which he created his own lyrics and tune. Every singer is in some ways a historian who is either lamenting the current state of affairs, extolling the immediate past or inspiring hope for the future. The Khasis have a natural flair for singing. This is perhaps one reason why no one is celebrated as an outstanding singer. Syiemlieh died this year, unsung and unrecognised by his own people. It took a Guwahati-based trust, the Jeewan Ram Mungi Devi Goenka (JRMDG) Charitable Trust, to recognise this humble soul with a lifetime achievement award, posthumously, on December 6, 2008.

Music Style
Syiemlieh's music style was a mixture of Khasi folk music and Western country narrative style that blended both folk instruments such as the duitara and flute with guitar, violin, and drums. Almost all of his recordings employed backing vocal harmonies. He would often begin his songs with the words "Ha sngap ho para ngan iathuh khana” (Listen o my brothers and sisters, I will tell you a story)"

References

External links
 India Online Page on Profile of Singers

Year of birth missing
2008 deaths
Khasi people
Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts
20th-century Indian singers
21st-century Indian singers
20th-century Indian male singers
21st-century Indian male singers


Pallo may refer to:

People
 Alimamy Pallo Bangura, politician in Sierra Leone
 Jackie Pallo (1926–2006), English professional wrestler
 Jorge Pallo, American actor
 Pallo Jordan (born 1942), South African politician

Football clubs
 Aseman Pallo (AsPa), Finnish football club based in Aura; see Bertrand Okafor
 Käpylän Pallo (KäPa), Swedish football club from the Käpylä district of Helsinki
 Pallo-Iirot, Finnish football club based in Rauma
 Tampereen Pallo-Veikot (TPV), Finnish football club playing in Tampere


Konetirayala Swamy Temple (also known as Venkateswara Temple) is a Hindu temple of Lord Venkateswara in the town of Keelapatla, Palamaner, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Distance: from Bangalore: 141 km, from Tirupati:  120 km, from Hyderabad: 471 km, from Chennai: 203 km

Legend

It is believed that Lord Venkateswara first placed his Holy Foot here at Keelapatla and then reached Tirumala.
The Myth believes that Saint Brughu kicked Lord Vishnu's chest and to eradicate such a sin, the Lord sent him to Earth and had him establish the Lord's idol in 7 different places. Some of these places are:
1. Dwaraka Tirupathi, near Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh
2. Kalyana Venkateshwara Swamy, Srinivasa Mangapuram, Andhra Pradesh
3. Konetiraya Swamy, Keelapatla, Andhra Pradesh
4. Diguva Tirupathi, Mulbagal, Karnataka etc..,

These places were hidden and the saint himself who went into disappearance by his mystical powers, were established much before the Lord himself came to the Earth. After Lords arrival, Brughu came into existence with Agasthya Maharshi, the mystical powers which hid these places were removed and they came into visible light of the common man. The idols were all under trees.  The ruling kings then came forward to build temples around these idols.

History

History says, some of the rulers who ruled this place were, Sathavahans, Pallavas, Renuti Cholas, Rastrakootas, Banus, Chalukyas, Pandyas, Yadava Kings, Vijayanagar Emperors, Matli Kings, Moghul Kings, Arcot Nawabs, Tippu Sultan, Britishers and Palegars. The 15th-century Hindu saint, Andhra Pada kavitā Pitāmaha, Annamacharya mentions the name of Konetiraya in many of his sankeerthanas.
"In past the temple was developed by Punganuru 'Jamindars', They were coming to the temple by punganoru-kallupalli-malleru-melumoi-kothapalli-keelapatla wise road. We don’t follow this route as it is still a soil road and not moterable. In Melumoi which is nearby were found a lot of copper coins of Punganur Jamindar's. Even Muslims worship Lord Sri Venkateswara as their beloved and Punganuru Samasthanam Jamindars who were Muslims had improved this temple."

Deities in the Temple

Lord Venkateswara who is referred to as Konetirayudu is the primary presiding deity of the Temple. The Deity is believed to be Kalpatharu (A heavenly tree that gives boon), Chintamani (A celestial power) and Kamadhenu (the heavenly cow that gives all).  In the sanctum of the temple, Konetirayadu like in Tirumala, is in standing posture with his "Kati Varada Hastas", natural "Sankhu Chakras" and with the impressions of Sridevi and Bhudevi, on the chest.  Huge Jaya-Vijayas (watchmen at the gate of the Lord's Place), an ancient Chennakesava idol with his two wives, five Alwars, Bhoovaraha Moorthy, Garudalwar, Anjaneya Swamy statues, all can be seen in the temple.

Administration

The temple at present is being administered by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams board.

See also
 List of temples under Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams

Reference lists

Venkateswara temples
Hindu temples in Chittoor district
Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams


Skinker may refer to:

Alexander R. Skinker (1883–1918), Medal of Honor Recipient during World War I
Skinker/DeBaliviere, St. Louis, neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri
Skinker (St. Louis Metrolink), subway station at the intersection of Skinker Boulevard and Forest Park Parkway
Wydown/Skinker, St. Louis, neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri


Idrettslaget Sørfjell is a Norwegian sports club from Eydehavn. It has sections for association football, athletics, team handball, ice hockey, floorball and beach volleyball.

It was founded on 16 April 1916 as Eydehavn IF. In 1934 it merged with the club IL Fjell from Saltrød. In 1945 it merged with the workers' sports club Stokken AIL and took the name Fjell/Stokken. It was later changed to IL Sørfjell. In 1953 it had no sections for floorball, volleyball or hockey, but had sections for Nordic skiing and speed skating.

The men's football team currently plays in the Fifth Division, the sixth tier of Norwegian football. It played in the Fourth Division as late as in 2008, and in the Third Division as late as in 2005. Before that they had a Third Division streak from 1992 to 1999.

References

 Official site

Football clubs in Norway
Sport in Aust-Agder
Arendal
Association football clubs established in 1916
Athletics clubs in Norway
1916 establishments in Norway


Yueh Hua (; 14 July 1942 – 20 October 2018), also known professionally as Elliot Ngok Wah, was a Shanghai-born Hong Kong actor, later based in Canada, with Shaw Brothers Studio and TVB. Yueh was one of the most versatile and prolific leading actors of Shaw Brothers. Yueh starred in five to ten films per year in his heyday, playing roles ranging from foolish drunks to scholarly warriors. Yueh died of cancer in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, aged 76.

Biography
Yueh was born as Leung Lok-wah in Shanghai, with Cantonese ancestry. Yueh emigrated to Hong Kong in 1962 after graduating from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He joined Shaw Brothers Studio and started his acting career in 1963.

Yueh's breakout role was in the 1966 film Come Drink with Me. He was mainly cast in lead roles and is credited with over 130 films. Yueh was best known for his role in Looking Back in Anger, one of TVB's popular shows. After his last appearance on screen in 1989, he moved to Canada in the 1990s, where he hosted programs for the Vancouver Chinese radio station CHMB.

Yueh returned to the entertainment industry in Hong Kong from 2006 to 2015.

Filmography

Films
This is a partial list of films.

TV series

Personal life
In 1975, Yueh married , an actress. On October 20, 2018, Yueh died in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at the age of 76.

References

External links

 Yueh Hua at filmaffinity.com
 Yueh Hua at lovehkfilm.com
 Yueh Hua at hkmemory.hk
 Yueh Hua at thespinningimage.co.uk

Additional sources

Hong Kong Buddhists
Hong Kong male film actors
Hong Kong male television actors
TVB veteran actors
1942 births
2018 deaths
Male actors from Shanghai
20th-century Hong Kong male actors
21st-century Hong Kong male actors
Chinese male film actors
Chinese male television actors
20th-century Chinese male actors
21st-century Chinese male actors
Shanghai Conservatory of Music alumni
Canadian radio hosts


Tuscany ( ;  ) is a region in central Italy with an area of about  and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (Firenze).

Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its influence on high culture. It is regarded as the birthplace of the Italian Renaissance and of the foundations of the Italian language. The prestige established by the Tuscan dialect's use in literature by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini led to its subsequent elaboration as the language of culture throughout Italy. It has been home to many figures influential in the history of art and science, and contains well-known museums such as the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti. Tuscany is also known for its wines, including Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, Morellino di Scansano, Brunello di Montalcino and white Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Having a strong linguistic and cultural identity, it is sometimes considered "a nation within a nation".

Tuscany is the second-most-popular Italian region for travellers in Italy, after Veneto. The main tourist spots are Florence, Castiglione della Pescaia, Pisa, San Gimignano, Lucca, Grosseto and Siena. The town of Castiglione della Pescaia is the most visited seaside destination in the region, with seaside tourism accounting for approximately 40% of tourist arrivals. The Maremma region, Siena, Lucca, the Chianti region, Versilia and Val d'Orcia are also internationally renowned and particularly popular spots among travellers.

Eight Tuscan localities have been designated World Heritage Sites: the historic Centre of Florence (1982); the Cathedral square of Pisa (1987); the historical centre of San Gimignano (1990); the historical centre of Siena (1995); the historical centre of Pienza (1996); the Val d'Orcia (2004), the Medici Villas and Gardens (2013), and Montecatini Terme as part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe (2021). Tuscany has over 120 protected nature reserves, making Tuscany and its capital Florence popular tourist destinations. In 2018, Florence alone had over 5 million arrivals, making it the world's 51st most visited city.

Geography

Roughly triangular in shape, Tuscany borders the regions of Liguria to the northwest, Emilia-Romagna to the north, Marche and Umbria to the east, and Lazio to the south and southeast. The comune (municipality) of Badia Tedalda, in the Tuscan Province of Arezzo, has an exclave named Ca' Raffaello within Emilia-Romagna.

Tuscany has a western coastline on the Ligurian Sea and the Tyrrhenian Sea, among which is the Tuscan Archipelago, of which the most significant island is Elba. Tuscany has an area of approximately . Surrounded and crossed by major mountain chains and with few (but fertile) plains, the region has a relief that is dominated by hilly country used for agriculture. Hills make up nearly two-thirds (66.5%) of the region's total area, covering , and mountains (of which the highest are the Apennines), a further 25%, or . Plains occupy 8.4% of the total areamainly around the valley of the Arno. Many of Tuscany's most significant cities lie on the banks of the Arno, including the capital, Florence, Empoli, and Pisa.

The climate is fairly mild in the coastal areas, and is harsher and rainy in the interior, with considerable fluctuations in temperature between winter and summer, giving the region a soil-building active freeze-thaw cycle, in part accounting for the region once having served as a key breadbasket of ancient Rome.

History

Apennine, Proto-Villanovan and Villanovan culture

The pre-Etruscan history of the area in the middle and late Bronze parallels that of the archaic Greeks. The Tuscan area was inhabited by peoples of the so-called Apennine culture in the second millennium BC ( BC) who had trading relationships with the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations in the Aegean Sea, and, at the end of the Bronze Age, by peoples of the so-called Proto-Villanovan culture ( BC) part of the central European Urnfield culture system. Following this, at the beginning of the Iron Age, the Villanovan culture ( BC), regarded as the oldest phase of Etruscan civilization, saw Tuscany, and the rest of Etruria, taken over by chiefdoms. City-states developed in the late Villanovan (paralleling Greece and the Aegean) before "Orientalization" occurred.

Etruscans

The Etruscans (Latin: Tusci) created the first major civilization in this region, large enough to establish a transport infrastructure, to implement agriculture and mining and to produce vibrant art. The Etruscans lived in the area of Etruria well into prehistory. The civilization grew to fill the area between the Arno and Tiber from the tenth century BCE, reaching its peak during the seventh and sixth centuries B.C., finally succumbing to the Romans by the first century BCE. From the Etruscans, Tuscany took the name of Etruria, Tuscia for the Romans and subsequently Tuscania and Tuscany. While the areas of north-western Tuscany were inhabited by the ancient Ligures. In northwestern Tuscany, the area between the Arno and Magra rivers was culturally aligned with the Etruscans in the early Iron Age, and came under Ligurian control in the late Iron Age.

One reason for the eventual demise of this civilization was the increasing absorption by surrounding cultures, including the adoption of the Etruscan upper class by the Romans.

Romans
Soon after absorbing Etruria (to the north, northeast, east, and a strip to the south), Rome established the cities of Lucca, Pisa, Siena, and Florence, endowed the area with new technologies and development, and ensured peace. These developments included extensions of existing roads, the introduction of aqueducts and sewers, and the construction of many buildings, both public and private. However, many of these structures have been destroyed by erosion due to weather. The Roman civilization in the West of the Roman Republic and later Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century, and the region fell briefly to barbarians migrating through the Empire from Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Goths (Eastern - Ostrogoths and Western - Visigoths), then was re-conquered by the revived Eastern Roman Empire (later Byzantine Empire) under the Emperor Justinian. In the years following 572, the Lombards arrived and designated Lucca the capital of their subsequent Tuscia.

Medieval period

Pilgrims travelling along the Via Francigena between Rome and France brought wealth and development during the medieval period. The food and shelter required by these travellers fuelled the growth of communities around churches and taverns. The conflict between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, factions supporting the Papacy or the Holy Roman Empire in central and northern Italy during the 12th and 13th centuries, split the Tuscan people. The two factions gave rise to several powerful and rich medieval communes in Tuscany: Arezzo, Florence, Lucca, Pisa, and Siena. Balance between these communes was ensured by the assets they held: Pisa, a port; Siena, banking; and Lucca, banking and silk. But by the time of the Renaissance, Florence had become the cultural capital of Tuscany.

One family that benefitted from Florence's growing wealth and power was the ruling Medici family. Its scion Lorenzo de' Medici was one of the most famous of the Medici. The legacy of his influence is visible today in the prodigious expression of art and architecture in Florence. His famous descendant Catherine de' Medici married Prince Henry (later King Henry II) of France in 1533.

The Black Death epidemic hit Tuscany starting in 1348. It eventually killed 70% of the Tuscan population. According to Melissa Snell, "Florence lost a third of its population in the first six months of the plague, and from 45% to 75% of its population in the first year." In 1630, Florence and Tuscany were once again ravaged by the plague.

Renaissance

Tuscany, especially Florence, is regarded as the birthplace of the Renaissance. Though "Tuscany" remained a linguistic, cultural, and geographic conception rather than a political reality, in the 15th century, Florence extended its dominion in Tuscany through the annexation of Arezzo in 1384, the purchase of Pisa in 1405, and the suppression of a local resistance there (1406). Livorno was bought in 1421 and became the harbour of Florence.

From the leading city of Florence, the republic was from 1434 onward dominated by the increasingly monarchical Medici family. Initially, under Cosimo, Piero the Gouty, Lorenzo and Piero the Unfortunate, the forms of the republic were retained and the Medici ruled without a title, usually without even a formal office. These rulers presided over the Florentine Renaissance. There was a return to the republic from 1494 to 1512, when first Girolamo Savonarola then Piero Soderini oversaw the state. Cardinal Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici retook the city with Spanish forces in 1512, before going to Rome to become Pope Leo X. Florence was dominated by a series of papal proxies until 1527 when the citizens declared the republic again, only to have it taken from them again in 1530 after a siege by an Imperial and Spanish army. At this point Pope Clement VII and Charles V appointed Alessandro de' Medici as the first formal hereditary ruler.

The Sienese commune was not incorporated into Tuscany until 1555, and during the 15th century, Siena enjoyed a cultural 'Sienese Renaissance' with its own more conservative character. Lucca remained an independent republic until 1847 when it became part of Grand Duchy of Tuscany by the will of its people. Piombino and other strategic towns constituted the tiny State of the Presidi under Spanish control.

Modern era

In the 16th century, the Medicis, rulers of Florence, annexed the Republic of Siena, creating the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The Medici family became extinct in 1737 with the death of Gian Gastone, and Tuscany was transferred to Francis, Duke of Lorraine and husband of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, who let the country be ruled by his son. The dynasty of the Lorena ruled Tuscany until 1860, except during the Napoleonic period, when most of the country was annexed to the French Empire. After the Second Italian War of Independence, a revolution evicted the last Grand Duke, and after a plebiscite, Tuscany became part of the new Kingdom of Italy. From 1864 to 1870 Florence became the second capital of the kingdom.

Under Benito Mussolini, the area came under the dominance of local Fascist leaders such as Dino Perrone Compagni (from Florence), and Costanzo and Galeazzo Ciano (from Livorno). Following the fall of Mussolini and the armistice of 8 September 1943, Tuscany became part of the Nazi-controlled Italian Social Republic and was conquered almost totally by the Anglo-American forces during the summer of 1944.

Following the end of the Social Republic and the transition from the Kingdom to the modern Italian Republic, Tuscany once more flourished as a cultural centre of Italy. Since the establishment of the regional government in 1970, Tuscany has always been ruled by centre-left governments.

Culture

Tuscany has an immense cultural and artistic heritage, expressed in the region's churches, palaces, art galleries, museums, villages, and piazzas. Many of these artifacts are found in the main cities, such as Florence and Siena, but also in smaller villages scattered around the region, such as San Gimignano.

Art

Tuscany has a unique artistic legacy, and Florence is one of the world's most important water-colour centres, even so that it is often nicknamed the "art palace of Italy" (the region is also believed to have the largest concentration of Renaissance art and architecture in the world). Painters such as Cimabue and Giotto, the fathers of Italian painting, lived in Florence and Tuscany, as well as Arnolfo and Andrea Pisano, renewers of architecture and sculpture; Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, forefathers of the Renaissance; Ghiberti and the Della Robbias, Filippo Lippi and Angelico; Botticelli, Paolo Uccello, and the universal genius of Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

The region contains numerous museums and art galleries, many housing some of the world's most precious works of art. Such museums include the Uffizi, which keeps Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, the Palazzo Pitti, and the Bargello, to name a few. Most of the frescos, sculptures, and paintings in Tuscany are held in the region's abundant churches and cathedrals, such as Florence Cathedral, Siena Cathedral, Pisa Cathedral and the Collegiata di San Gimignano.

Art schools

In the medieval period and the Renaissance, four main Tuscan art schools competed against each other: the Florentine School, the Sienese School, the Pisan School, and the Lucchese School.
 The Florentine School refers to artists in, from, or influenced by the naturalistic style developed in the 14th century, largely through the efforts of Giotto di Bondone, and in the 15th century the leading school of the world. Some of the best known artists of the Florentine School are Brunelleschi, Donatello, Michelangelo, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Lippi, Masolino, and Masaccio.
 The Sienese School of painting flourished in Siena between the 13th and 15th centuries and for a time rivaled Florence, though it was more conservative, being inclined towards the decorative beauty and elegant grace of late Gothic art. Its most important representatives include Duccio, whose work shows Byzantine influence; his pupil Simone Martini; Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti; Domenico and Taddeo di Bartolo; and Sassetta and Matteo di Giovanni. Unlike the naturalistic Florentine art, there is a mystical streak in Sienese art, characterized by a common focus on miraculous events, distortions of time and place, and often dreamlike coloration, with less attention to proportions. In the 16th century, the Mannerists Beccafumi and Il Sodoma worked there. While Baldassare Peruzzi was born and trained in Siena, his major works and style reflect his long career in Rome. The economic and political decline of Siena by the 16th century, and its eventual subjugation by Florence, largely checked the development of Sienese painting, although it also meant that many Sienese works in churches and public buildings were not discarded or destroyed by new paintings or rebuilding. Siena remains a remarkably well-preserved Italian late-Medieval town.
 The Lucchese School, also known as the School of Lucca and as the Pisan-Lucchese School, was a school of painting and sculpture that flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries in the western and southern part of the region, with an important centre in Volterra. The art is mostly anonymous. Although not as elegant or delicate as the Florentine School, Lucchese works are remarkable for their monumentality.

Main artistic centres

In the province of Arezzo:
 Arezzo
 Castiglion Fiorentino
 Cortona
 Lucignano
 Poppi
 Sansepolcro
In the province of Florence:
 Florence
 Fiesole
 Certaldo
In the Province of Grosseto:
 Grosseto
 Massa Marittima
 Orbetello
 Pitigliano
 Roselle
 Sorano
 Sovana
In the province of Livorno:
 Campiglia Marittima
 Livorno
 Bibbona
 Bolgheri
 Piombino
 San Vincenzo
 Populonia
 Suvereto
In the province of Lucca:
 Barga
 Castelnuovo di Garfagnana
 Castiglione di Garfagnana
 Lucca
 Pietrasanta
 Villa Basilica
In the province of Massa and Carrara:
 Massa and Carrara
 Pontremoli
 Fivizzano
 Fosdinovo
In the province of Pisa:
 Pisa
 San Miniato
 Volterra
 Vicopisano
In the province of Pistoia:
 Pescia
 Pistoia
In the province of Prato:
 Carmignano
 Poggio a Caiano
 Prato
In the province of Siena:
 Colle di Val d'Elsa
 Pienza
 Montepulciano
 Montalcino
 San Gimignano
 Siena
 Monteriggioni

Language

Apart from standard Italian, the Tuscan dialect (dialetto toscano) is spoken in Tuscany. The Italian language is based historically on literary Tuscan, specifically the Florentine dialect. It became the language of culture for all the people of Italy, thanks to the prestige of the masterpieces of Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini. It would later become the official language of all the Italian states and of the Kingdom of Italy, when it was formed. Many Tuscan terms are also common in the dialects of Umbria and some parts of Emilia Romagna.

Music

Tuscany has a rich ancient and modern musical tradition, and has produced numerous composers and musicians, including Giacomo Puccini and Pietro Mascagni. Florence is the main musical centre of Tuscany. The city was at the heart of much of the Western musical tradition. It was there that the Florentine Camerata convened in the mid-16th century and experimented with setting tales of Greek mythology to music and staging, resulting in the first operas, fostering the further development of the operatic form, and the later developments of separate "classical" forms such as the symphony.

There are numerous musical centres in Tuscany. Arezzo is indelibly connected with the name of Guido d'Arezzo, the 11th-century monk who invented modern musical notation and the do-re-mi system of naming notes of the scale; Lucca hosted possibly the greatest Italian composer of Verismo, Giacomo Puccini together with Alfredo Catalani, while Pietro Mascagni was born in Livorno; and Siena is well known for the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, an organization that currently sponsors major musical activities such as the Siena Music Week and the Alfredo Casella International Composition Competition. Other important musical centres in Tuscany include Pisa and Grosseto.

Literature

Several famous writers and poets are from Tuscany, most notably Florentine author Dante Alighieri. Tuscany's literary scene particularly thrived in the 13th century and the Renaissance.

In Tuscany, especially in the Middle Ages, popular love poetry existed. A school of imitators of the Sicilians was led by Dante da Maiano, but its literary originality took another line – that of humorous and satirical poetry. The democratic form of government created a style of poetry that stood strongly against the medieval mystic and chivalrous style. Devout invocation of God or a lady came from the cloister and the castle; in the streets of the cities everything that had gone before was treated with ridicule or biting sarcasm. Folgóre da San Gimignano laughs when in his sonnets he tells a party of Sienese youths the occupations of every month in the year, or when he teaches a party of Florentine lads the pleasures of every day in the week. Cenne della Chitarra laughs when he parodies Folgore's sonnets. The sonnets of Rustico di Filippo are half-fun and half-satire, as is the work of Cecco Angiolieri of Siena, the oldest humorist we know, a far-off precursor of François Rabelais and Michel de Montaigne.

Another type of poetry also began in Tuscany. Guittone d'Arezzo made art abandon chivalry and Provençal forms for national motives and Latin forms. He attempted political poetry, and although his work is often obscure, he prepared the way for the Bolognese school. Bologna was the city of science, and philosophical poetry appeared there. Guido Guinizelli was the poet after the new fashion of the art. In his work, the ideas of chivalry are changed and enlarged. Only those whose heart is pure can be blessed with true love, regardless of class. He refuted the traditional credo of courtly love, for which love is a subtle philosophy only a few chosen knights and princesses could grasp. Love is blind to blasons but not to a good heart when it finds one: when it succeeds it is the result of the spiritual, not physical affinity between two souls. Guinizzelli's democratic view can be better understood in the light of the greater equality and freedom enjoyed by the city-states of the center-north and the rise of a middle class eager to legitimise itself in the eyes of the old nobility, still regarded with respect and admiration but dispossessed of its political power. Guinizelli's Canzoni make up the bible of Dolce Stil Novo, and one in particular, "Al cor gentil" ("To a Kind Heart") is considered the manifesto of the new movement which would bloom in Florence under Cavalcanti, Dante and their followers. His poetry has some of the faults of the school of d'Arezzo. Nevertheless, he marks a great development in the history of Italian art, especially because of his close connection with Dante's lyric poetry.

In the 13th century, there were several major allegorical poems. One of these is by Brunetto Latini, who was a close friend of Dante. His Tesoretto is a short poem, in seven-syllable verses, rhyming in couplets, in which the author professes to be lost in a wilderness and to meet with a lady, who represents Nature, from whom he receives much instruction. We see here the vision, the allegory, the instruction with a moral object, three elements which we shall find again in the Divine Comedy. Francesco da Barberino, a learned lawyer who was secretary to bishops, a judge, and a notary, wrote two little allegorical poems, the Documenti d'amore and Del reggimento e dei costumi delle donne. The poems today are generally studied not as literature, but for historical context. A fourth allegorical work was the Intelligenza, which is sometimes attributed to Compagni but is probably only a translation of French poems.

In the 15th century, humanist and publisher Aldus Manutius published the Tuscan poets Petrarch and Dante Alighieri (Divine Comedy), creating the model for what became a standard for modern Italian.

Cuisine

Simplicity is central to the Tuscan cuisine. Legumes, bread, cheese, vegetables, mushrooms, and fresh fruit are used. Olive oil is made up of Moraiolo, Leccino and Frantoiano olives. White truffles from San Miniato appear in October and November. Beef of the highest quality comes from the Chiana Valley, specifically, a breed known as Chianina used for Florentine steak. The indigenous Cinta Senese breed of pork is also produced.

Wine is a famous and common produce of Tuscany. Chianti is arguably the most well-known internationally. So many British tourists come to the area where Chianti wine is produced that this specific area has been nicknamed "Chiantishire".

Postage stamps

Between 1851 and 1860, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, an independent Italian state until 1859 when it joined the United Provinces of Central Italy, produced two postage stamp issues which are among the most prized classic stamp issues of the world, and include the most valuable Italian stamp. The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was an independent Italian state from 1569 to 1859 but was occupied by France from 1808 to 1814. The Duchy comprised most of the present area of Tuscany, and its capital was Florence. In December 1859, the Grand Duchy officially ceased to exist, being joined to the duchies of Modena and Parma to form the United Provinces of Central Italy, which was annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia a few months later in March 1860. In 1862 it became part of Italy and joined the Italian postal system.

Economy
The gross domestic product (GDP) of the region was 117.5 billion euros in 2018, accounting for 6.7% of Italy's economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was 31,400 euros or 104% of the EU27 average in the same year. The GDP per employee was 106% of the EU average.

Unemployment rate
The unemployment rate stood at 7.3% in 2018 and was slightly lower than the national average.

Agriculture

The subsoil in Tuscany is relatively rich in mineral resources, with iron ore, copper, mercury, and lignite mines, the famous soffioni (fumarole) at Larderello, and the vast marble mines in Versilia. Although its share is falling all the time, agriculture still contributes to the region's economy. In the region's inland areas cereals, potatoes, olives, and grapes are grown. The swamplands, which used to be marshy, now produce vegetables, rice, tobacco, beets, and sunflowers.

Industry
One of the traditional foundations of the industrial sector is mining, given the abundance of underground resources. Also of note are textiles and clothing, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, steel and metalworking, glass and ceramics, and printing and publishing. Smaller areas specialising in manufacturing and craft industries are found in the hinterland: the leather and footwear area in the south-west part of the province of Florence, the hot-house plant area in Pistoia, the ceramics and textile industries in the Prato area, scooters, and motorcycles in Pontedera, and the processing of timber for the manufacture of wooden furniture in the Cascina area. The heavy industries (mining, steel, and mechanical engineering) are concentrated along the coastal strip (Livorno and Pisa areas), where there are also important chemical industries. Also of note are the marble (Carrara area) and paper industries (Lucca area).

Tourism
In Tuscany 80% of tourism demand is concentrated in cities of art and seaside resorts, the rest is divided between the countryside, hills, and mountains. In 2019 the municipalities with the relatively higher percentage of presences, in descending order, are: Florence, Pisa, Montecatini Terme, Castiglione della Pescaia, San Vincenzo, Orbetello, Grosseto, Siena, Bibbona, Viareggio, Capoliveri. In the Tuscan tourist areas, together with the Florentine area, the Etruscan Coast holds the relatively largest share of presences, immediately followed by Maremma (Monte Argentario, Giglio Island, Talamone, Capalbio), Terre di Pisa and Elba.

Fashion

The fashion and textile industry are the pillars of the Florentine economy. In the 15th century, Florentines were working with luxury textiles such as wool and silk. Today the greatest designers in Europe utilize the textile industry in Tuscany, and especially Florence. A large plant of production is happening in the town of Prato.

Italy has one of the strongest textile industries in Europe, accounting for approximately one-quarter of European production. Its turnover is over 25 billion euros. It is the third largest supplier of clothing after China and Japan. The Italian fashion industry generates 60% of its turnover abroad.

Demographics

The population density of Tuscany, with  in 2008, is below the national average (). This is due to the low population density of the provinces of Arezzo, Siena, and especially Grosseto (). The highest density is found in the province of Prato (), followed by the provinces of Pistoia, Livorno, Florence and Lucca, peaking in the cities of Florence (more than ), Livorno, Prato, Viareggio, Forte dei Marmi and Montecatini Terme (all with a population density of more than ). The territorial distribution of the population is closely linked to the socio-cultural and, more recently, economic and industrial development of Tuscany.

Accordingly, the least densely populated areas are those where the main activity is agriculture, unlike the others where, despite the presence of several large industrial complexes, the main activities are connected with tourism and associated services, alongside many small firms in the leather, glass, paper and clothing sectors.

Italians make up 93% of the total population. Starting from the 1980s, the region has attracted a large flux of immigrants, particularly from China, Romania, Albania and Morocco. There is also a significant community of British and American residents. , the Italian national institute of statistics ISTAT estimated that 275,149 foreign-born immigrants live in Tuscany, equal to 7% of the total regional population.

Government and politics

The President of Tuscany is the head of government. Legislative power is vested in the Regional Council of Tuscany, while executive power is exercised by the Regional Government led by the President, who is directly elected by the people. The current Statute, which regulates the functioning of the regional institutions, has been in force since 2005.

Tuscany is a stronghold of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), forming with Emilia-Romagna, Umbria and Marche the so-called Italian political "Red Quadrilateral". Since 1970, Tuscany has been continuously governed by left-wing governments.

Administrative divisions
Tuscany is divided into nine provinces and one Metropolitan City:

See also
 Cities and towns in Tuscany
 List of municipalities of Tuscany
 Tuscan Archipelago
 People from Tuscany

References

Citations

Sources

External links

 Official website of the Tuscany Region (in Italian)
Tuscany official tourism website

NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union
Regions of Italy
Wine regions of Italy
Villanovan culture


Konstantin Budkevich, also known as Konstanty Romuald Budkiewicz; June 19, 1867, – March 31, 1923) was a Roman Catholic priest executed by the OGPU for organizing nonviolent resistance against the First Soviet anti-religious campaign. His beatification process has been opened, thus giving him the title Servant of God.

Early life
Budkevich was born June 19, 1867, to a large Polish family  of Szlachta descent in Zubry manor near the town of Krāslava in modern Latvia. He completed his studies at the Saint Petersburg Roman Catholic Theological Academy, where he earned a doctorate in theology.  He was ordained to the priesthood in 1893 and taught in Pskov and, from 1896, in Vilnius.

St. Petersburg
In 1903, he served the parish of St. Catherine on Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg, becoming pastor there in 1908. At the time, St. Petersburg was the center of the Empire's largest Polish community outside of Congress Poland and Budkiewicz desired to prevent the children of his parish from the anti-Polish and anti-Catholic propaganda of the State-run school system. Therefore, despite "manifold difficulties", he maintained a Polish language parochial school attached to St. Catherine's parish.

Following the February Revolution, then Archbishop Eduard von der Ropp, decreed that all his priests would take a role in organizing a Christian Democratic Party to participate in the planned Russian Constituent Assembly. In this, the Archbishop was opposed by Budkiewicz and by Auxiliary Bishop Jan Cieplak, who both opposed any politicization of the Catholic religion.

Red October and its aftermath
In 1918, he became vicar-general to Bishop Cieplak.

According to Francis MacCullagh,

According to princess Martha Edith Almedingen, "Sunday after Sunday at St. Catherine's he preached his simple unsophisticated sermons, and the keynote to all of them was, 'God is love, and it is given to us to be his true children.

The Cieplak Trial
He was arrested March 13, 1923, in connection with the case brought against the Catholic clergy, with Archbishop  Cieplak at their head. The GPU feared that Cieplak was planning to unite the Orthodox who followed Patriarch Tikhon with the Catholic Church. As Patriarch Tikhon was under house arrest on false charges of "anti-Soviet and counterrevolutionary activities", this "conspiracy" implicated Cieplak, Budkiewicz, (his Vicar General), and Byzantine Rite Exarch Leonid Feodorov in Anti-Soviet agitation.

According to Christopher Lawrence Zugger,

New York Herald correspondent Francis McCullagh, who was present at the trial, later described its fourth day as follows:

Also according to McCullagh,

On Palm Sunday, 1923, Cieplak and Budkiewicz were sentenced to death. The other fifteen defendants were sentenced to long terms in the GULAG. In the aftermath of sentencing, all were returned to their cells in Moscow's Butyrka prison.

Martyrdom
According to Christopher Lawrence Zugger,

According to the priest Francis Rutkowski, who was imprisoned with Budkiewicz,

Legacy
After the execution of Budkiewicz, his body was buried in a mass grave in the forests of the Sokolniki District.

According to Christopher Zugger,

News of Budkevich's execution caused turmoil in France, whose Catholic population deplored the incident and saw it as an example of the police state tactics of the new Soviet Union.

On 7 April 1923, a Roman Catholic requiem mass was offered for Budkiewicz at St. Catherine's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Several foreign diplomats were in attendance.

On 10 April 1923, Soviet Foreign Commissar Georgy Chicherin wrote a letter to fellow  Politburo member Joseph Stalin, in which he described the political fallout from the death of Budkiewicz. In America, France, and the United Kingdom, efforts to gain diplomatic recognition for the USSR had suffered a major setback. In Westminster, Labour MPs had been flooded by petitions "demanding the defense of Cieplak and Budkiewicz", by "worker's organizations", "dying socialists", and "professionalists". In the United States, Republican Senator William Borah had been about to discuss possible recognition of the USSR with U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes. Due to Budkevich's execution, the meeting had been cancelled and the senator had been forced to indefinitely postpone the founding of a committee to press for diplomatic negotiations. Chicherin explained that the outside world saw the continuing anti-religious campaign "as nothing other than naked religious persecution." Chicherin expressed fear that, if Russian Orthodox Patriarch Tikhon were also sentenced to death, the news would, "worsen much further our international position in all our relations." He concluded by proposing "the rejection in advance of the death sentence on Tikhon".

Constantine Budkiewicz's cause for sainthood was opened in 2003 and remains under investigation. His current title is Servant of God. At St. Catherine's Cathedral, his stole is preserved as a relic. A street in Warsaw, Poland, is also named for him.

In popular culture
 In 1924, McCullagh published the full text of the Cieplak show trial within a book entitled The Bolshevik Persecution of Christianity, which was swiftly translated into French, German and Spanish.
 Also in 1924, Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna, a highly important figure in Polish poetry, published a book of poems in honor of Budkiewicz's life and death. Modeled after the traditional oral poetry of the Polish peasantry, the collection was titled  ("The Story of the Moscow Martyr").

References

Further reading
 Father Joseph Ledit, S.J., Archbishop John Baptist Cieplak, Palm Publishers Limited, Montreal, 1963.
 Francis MacCullagh, The Bolshevik Persecution of Christianity, E. P. Dutton and Company, 1924.
 Father Christopher Lawrence Zugger, The Forgotten: Catholics in the Soviet Empire from Lenin through Stalin, Syracuse University Press, 2001.

External links

 Fr. Constantine Budkiewicz
  Servant of God Constantine (Romuald Julianovich) Budkiewicz
  Allocution of Pope Pius XI, March 22, 1923.

1867 births
1923 deaths
19th-century Polish Roman Catholic priests
Catholic people executed by the Soviet Union
Executed Polish people
Latvian people executed by the Soviet Union
Latvian Roman Catholics
People executed by the Soviet Union by firearm
People from Dvinsky Uyezd
People from Krāslava Municipality
19th-century Polish nobility
Polish people executed by the Soviet Union
Polish Servants of God
Soviet show trials
20th-century Polish nobility


Idrettsforeningen Trauma is a Norwegian sports club from Tromøya. It has sections for association football, team handball, orienteering and skiing.

The men's football team currently plays in the Third Division, the fourth tier of Norwegian football. Head coach is Morten Knutsen.

External links

Football clubs in Norway
Sport in Aust-Agder
Arendal


Against the Law () is a 1950 Italian crime film directed by Flavio Calzavara and starring Marcello Mastroianni, Fulvia Mammi and Renato Malavasi.

The film's sets were designed by the art director Virgilio Marchi.

Plot
Marcello Curti is a young man who is part of a middle-class family. In spite of his appearances, however, he conducts trafficking in dirty money by acting as an intermediary between the large foreign mafia clans and his fellow villagers.

During his usual bargaining, a fight breaks out between the two sides and the buyer of US dollars is fatally wounded by a gunshot. Immediately after the fight, the police are called and the killer manages to escape, leaving Curti alone with the body.

The young man is therefore accused of manslaughter, and therefore begins a long series of interrogations administered by the police inspector and the sergeant. Although the evidence seems overwhelming, the police inspector is convinced that the young Curti is not the perpetrator, so he leaves him on parole; later, however, he has him tailed to control all the boy's movements.

In the meantime, however, Marcello Curti begins his own investigation to search for the real killer, helped by his faithful girlfriend. Determined to take justice by himself, the young Curti arrives on the trail of the murderer, thanks to a detail found on the corpse previously analyzed.

In the end, a fight takes place between Marcello Curti and the murderer, named Alfredo; following a ferocious chase, Curti manages to kill the culprit. Meanwhile, the police station had followed the whole affair, intervening in the middle of the final confrontation. The young Curti therefore manages to prove his innocence before the court and can thus begin to live peacefully again, no longer having to deal with the trafficking that previously saw him as a protagonist.

Cast
 Marcello Mastroianni as Marcello Curti
 Fulvia Mammi as Maria
 Renato Malavasi as Peppino
 Tino Buazzelli as Inspector
 Manlio Busoni as Sergeant
 Miranda Campa as Miss Curti
  as Grigio
 Paolo Panelli as Tremolino
 Mario Terribile as Bird salesman
 Maria Teresa Albani
 Gianni Bonagura
 Orazio Costa
 Pia De Doses
 Angelo Dessy
 Attilio Dottesio

References

Bibliography

External links

1950 films
1950 crime films
1950s Italian-language films
Italian black-and-white films
Films directed by Flavio Calzavara
Italian crime films
1950s Italian films


The 2009 French motorcycle Grand Prix was the fourth round of the 2009 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season. It took place on the weekend of 15–17 May 2009 at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, France. Jorge Lorenzo moved one point clear at the top of world championship standings after winning the MotoGP race ahead of Marco Melandri and Dani Pedrosa.

MotoGP classification

250 cc classification

125 cc classification

Championship standings after the race (MotoGP)

Below are the standings for the top five riders and constructors after round four has concluded.

Riders' Championship standings

Constructors' Championship standings

 Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

References

French motorcycle Grand Prix
French
Motorcycle Grand Prix
Motorcycle Grand Prix


Michael O'Looney is head of communications for Elliott Management. Previously he was managing director and head of corporate communications for Barclays PLC in the Americas, and for Merrill Lynch. He is also the former Deputy Police Commissioner for the New York City Police Department and was a television reporter and anchor for CBS News, WCBS, and New York 1 News.

In January 2002, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly appointed O'Looney as the NYPD's deputy commissioner for public information. In that role he served as the department's chief spokesman and as a senior advisor to the police commissioner. Two weeks into his job, O'Looney was called on to help negotiate the peaceful end to a hostage stand-off at the 19th Police Precinct on Manhattan's Upper East Side. A gunman had taken a detective hostage inside the interrogation room and was demanding to speak to a reporter. O'Looney, a former reporter who still had his business cards from his previous employment, posed as a reporter and after four hours of negotiations, the gunman released the detective unharmed. A year later, O'Looney was involved in another high-profile incident when he spotted an armed ex-con wanted for a string of assaults. When the suspect tried to run, O'Looney, who was unarmed, and a uniformed police officer tackled the suspect on a subway platform and placed him under arrest. In 2003, O'Looney was inducted into the NYPD's Honor Legion.

Prior to the NYPD, O'Looney was an Emmy-nominated television reporter who worked for CBS News, WCBS TV, and New York 1 News. He also worked at CNBC and the Financial News Network. O'Looney began his broadcast career in at WIBX News in his native, Utica, New York. On September 11, 2001, O’Looney was part of the WCBS TV anchor team that broadcast news of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. In October 2001, he was the first reporter to gain entry to the apartment in Hamburg, Germany that terrorist Mohammed Atta used to plot the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In December 2001, O'Looney was the first Western reporter to get an exclusive interview with Yasser Arafat following the PLO Chairman's speech renouncing suicide bombings. The interview took place in the courtyard of Arafat's shelled headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

After leaving the NYPD in December 2003, O’Looney joined Merrill Lynch where he was a managing director and head of U.S. corporate communications.  He joined Barclays Capital in 2009.

O’Looney appeared as a reporter in both the HBO series The Sopranos, and 1996 movie City Hall starring Al Pacino.

O’Looney is married to television anchor Annika Pergament.

References

1965 births
Living people
American television journalists
American male journalists
Barclays people
CNBC people
New York City Police Department
People associated with the September 11 attacks


Against the Law may refer to:
 Against the Law (1934 film), a 1950 Italian film
 Against the Law (1950 film), a 1950 Italian film
 Against the Law (1997 film), a 1997 American film
 Against the Law (album), a 1990 album by Stryper
 Against the Law (EP), an EP by Defiance
 Against the Law (TV film), a 2017 British TV film
 Against the Law (TV series), an American TV series
 Against the Law, the memoirs of British writer and gay rights campaigner Peter Wildeblood


The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi, is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River.

The new glassy construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave, iceberg or quartz crystal resting on top of an old brick warehouse (Kaispeicher A, built in 1963) near the historical Speicherstadt. The project is the result of a private initiative by the architect and real estate developer Alexander Gérard and his wife Jana Marko, an art historian, who commissioned the original design by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, who developed and promoted the project (since 2003 in cooperation with the Hamburg-based real estate developer and investor Dieter Becken) for 3.5 years until the City of Hamburg decided to develop the project by itself. It is the key project of the new Hafencity development and the tallest inhabited building in Hamburg, with a final height of .

The Elbphilharmonie was officially inaugurated with concerts of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and a light show on 11 January 2017.

History
On 2 April 2007, the foundation stone was laid in the  warehouse, in the presence of then First Mayor of Hamburg Ole von Beust, Hochtief Construction AG CEO Henner Mahlstedt, the project coordinator for the City of Hamburg Hartmut Wegener (dismissed in 2008 for mismanagement of the project), Hamburg Minister of Culture Karin von Welck and architect Pierre de Meuron.

In 2007, the construction was scheduled to be finished by 2010 with an estimated cost of €241 million. In November 2008, after the original contract was amended, the costs for the project were estimated at €450 million. In August 2012, the costs were re-estimated to be over €500 million, which should also cover the increased cost for a strengthened roof. Construction work officially ended on 31 October 2016 at a cost of €866 million.

The first public test concert at the Elbphilharmonie was held on 25 November 2016. The official opening concert took place on 11 January 2017 with a performance by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra under direction of Thomas Hengelbrock. The first musical selection was "Pan" from Benjamin Britten's Six Metamorphoses after Ovid.

The project was criticized because of its cost and schedule overruns; construction was originally estimated to cost about €200 million, while the final cost was €870 million. However, upon completion, Der Spiegel in a comparative analysis suggested that the overrun was relatively "modest" compared to some other international mega-projects.

Building

The building is designed as a cultural and residential complex. The original 1966 brick façade of the Kaispeicher A, formerly a warehouse, was retained at the base of the building. On top of this a footprint-matching superstructure rests on its own foundation exhibiting a glassy exterior and a wavy roof line. About one thousand glass windows are curved. The building has 26 floors with the first eight floors within the brick façade. It reaches its highest point with  at the western side. The footprint of the building measures . A curved escalator from the main entrance at the east side connects the ground floor with an observation deck, the Plaza, at the 8th floor, the top of the brick section. The Plaza is accessible by the public. It offers a view of Hamburg and the Elbe. From the Plaza the foyer of the concert hall can be reached.

The Elbphilharmonie has three concert venues. The Great Concert Hall can accommodate 2,100 visitors whereby the performers are in the center of the hall surrounded by the audience in the vineyard style arrangement. The acoustics were designed by Yasuhisa Toyota who installed about 10,000 individually microshaped drywall plates to disperse sound waves. The Great Concert Hall contains a pipe organ with 69 registers built by Klais Orgelbau. The Recital Hall is intended for the performance of recitals, chamber music and jazz concerts; it can hold an audience of 550 people. In addition, there is the Kaistudio that allows for 170 visitors and is intended to serve educational activities. The consultant for the scenography of the concert hall was Ducks Scéno.

The easternmost part of the building is rented by Westin as the Westin Hamburg Hotel that opened on 4 November 2016. The hotel offers 244 rooms between the 9th and 20th floors. The lobby in the 8th floor can be accessed from the Plaza. The upper floors west of the concert hall accommodate 45 luxury apartments. The complex also houses conference rooms, restaurants, bars, and a spa. A parking garage for 433 cars is part of the building complex as well.

Reception
Time placed Elbphilharmonie on its "World's 100 Greatest Places of 2018" list, with Kate Rockwood writing that the acoustics "steal the show" and that the hall's panels provide "a richer, better sound", quoting Toyota who said that the more time performers spend in the hall, "the better their ensemble becomes since they can hear themselves and each other more."

Forbes contributor Jens F. Laurson noted during an initial performance that "Everything musical (and otherwise) going on up and around the hall is beautifully audible down where I sat and, as per other audience member’s accounts, most everywhere else as well", that "[t]he hall is bright, very dry, direct, unforgiving. You can hear everything and immediately, for better and worse" and that "a hall cannot be judged on one or even five hearings, after so little exposure. The orchestra, for one, will get to know their hall much better with time and start to hear not only what they hear ..., but also the audience when and how and where."

Philip Kennicott of The Washington Post wrote "The acoustics, designed by the renowned Japanese acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, are a marvel of clarity, precision and cool objectivity. ... Toyota doesn’t try to replicate the sumptuous warmth of 19th-century concert halls. Rather, he aims for a live-performance sound adapted to the digital age, which reinforces pleasures lost to an era of cheap headphones and limited-range MP3 files. There is no golden aura, but there is fantastic clarity and spatial presence."

Some complaints about poor acoustics in the hall have been aired. After the grand opening on 11 January 2017, some musicians as well as conductors called the acoustics in the hall "appalling" and "terrible". On the other hand, in a 2019 performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, audience members shouted, "can't hear you" at tenor Jonas Kaufmann, who himself later complained, "This hall does not help...".

Public transport
The nearest rail station is Baumwall on Hamburg Metro line 3, about  away. The nearest bus stop is Am Kaiserkai,  away.

Ferry services
Elbphilharmonie is the name of a ferry pier, reachable from Hamburg's St. Pauli Piers.

Gallery

References

External links

 Picture of the Elbe Philharmonic Hall
 Live Webcam showing the Elbphilharmonie
 Elbphilharmonie Sessions, a live concert of techno marching band MEUTE on the rooftop, with aerial views of the building, 2021 [39:27]

Buildings and structures in Hamburg-Mitte
Culture in Hamburg
Music in Hamburg
Concert halls in Germany
Deconstructivism
Herzog & de Meuron buildings
Tourist attractions in Hamburg
Skyscrapers in Hamburg
Residential skyscrapers in Germany
Skyscraper hotels in Germany
Music venues completed in 2017
2017 establishments in Germany


The Russo-Asiatic Bank (, , Traditional Chinese: 俄亞銀行) was a major Russian bank between 1910 and 1917. It was formed in 1910 through the merger of the Russo-Chinese Bank, with activities in Russia, China and Central Asia, and the Banque du Nord ("Northern Bank", ), a large domestic Russian bank. By 1914, it was the largest Russian bank by total assets. In late 1917, it was nationalized by the Soviet government. Its activities in Europe and China lingered for a while, but were eventually liquidated in 1926.

Banque du Nord

The Banque du Nord was created by France's Société Générale bank in 1901 as a fully-owned subsidiary to develop a retail and commercial banking activity in Russia in the context of increasingly close Franco-Russian Alliance. By 1909 it had about fifty branches in Russia, including particularly active ones in Kharkiv to finance the industrial concern known as the Omnium (), and Baku to finance the booming local oil industry.

By 1907, in addition to the head office in Saint Petersburg it had branches in Baku, Belgorod, Borisoglebsk, Buturlinovka, Gomel, Kazan, Kharkiv, Kozlov (now Michurinsk), Liepāja, Livny, Minsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod (during fair), Novocherkassk, Oryol, Petrovsk-Port (now Makhachkala), Riga, Rostov-on-Don, Rybinsk, Stary Oskol, Tver, Voronezh, Yefremov, Yekaterinburg, and Yelets.

Russo-Asiatic Bank

In 1910, the Russo-Chinese Bank and Banque du Nord merged to form the Russo-Asiatic Bank. Former French diplomat Maurice Verstraëte, who had managed the Banque du Nord since its creation, became the chief executive of the merged entity. By 1914 it was the largest Russian bank with 672 million rubles in total assets, well ahead of the  which held 488 million rubles.

By 1916 it had 105 branches:
 54 in the European and Caucasian part of the Russian Empire: Armavir, Astrakhan, Baku, Balashov, Batumi, Bezhetsk, Borisoglebsk, Buturlinovka, Chișinău, Derbent, Gomel, Kazan, Kharkiv, Kherson, Klintsy, Kozlov (now Michurinsk), Krasnoufimsk, Kronstadt, Kuznetsk, Liepāja, Mariupol, Minsk, Moscow, Nikolayevsk, Nizhny Novgorod (during fair), Novocherkassk, Novorossiysk, Novozybkov, Odessa, Oryol, Penza, Petrovsk-Port (now Makhachkala), Prokhladny Station, Pokrovskaya Sloboda (now Engels), Pryluky, Riga, Roslavl, Rostov-on-Don, Rybinsk, Samara, Saratov, Sochi, Stary Oskol, Tuapse, Tver, Vilnius, Vitebsk, Vladikavkaz, Voronezh, Yefremov, Yekaterinburg, Yekaterinodar (now Krasnodar), Yelets, and Yeysk;
 31 in Russian Turkestan, Siberia and the Russian Far East: Achinsk, Andijan, Ashgabat, Barnaul, Biysk, Blagoveshchensk, Bukhara, Chita, Irkutsk, Kerki, Khabarovsk, Kokand, Krasnoyarsk, Margilan, Mary, Minusinsk, Namangan, Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Novonikolayevsk (now Novosibirsk), Novy Urgench, Omsk, Samarkand, Semipalatinsk, Sretensk, Tashkent, Troitskosavsk (now Kyakhta), Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude), Ust-Charyshskaya Pristan, Verniy (now Almaty), Vladivostok, and Yakutsk;
 14 in China: Beijing, Chefoo (now Yantai), Chuguchak (now Tacheng), Dalian, Ghulja (now Yining), Hailar, Hankou (now part of Wuhan), Harbin, Hong Kong, Kashgar, Kuanchengtze (part of Changchun), Newchwang (now Yingkou), Shanghai, and Tianjin;
 and 6 in Bombay, Colombo, Karachi, London, Paris, and Yokohama.

In November 1917, the new Soviet government nationalized all Russian banks, including the Russo-Asiatic Bank. This generated considerable legal uncertainty. The bank was technically the sole owner of the strategically important Chinese Eastern Railway, but actually held the shares as a proxy for the Russian government which had provided the capital for the railway's construction. The share certificates of the railway were deposited at the Russo-Asiatic Bank in Saint Petersburg, and thus inaccessible following the Bolshevik takeover. As a consequence, various powers claimed rights to ownership of the railway, which was the bank's foremost non-Russian asset, and the resulting confusion lasted for a number of years. In early 1918, the Chinese government, then under dominant Japanese influence, was inclined to seize the China Eastern Railway and also to stop paying Russia's share of the Boxer Indemnity for which the Russo-Asiatic Bank was the collecting agent.

In terms of governance, the bank's board had always met in Paris but its management board () was located in Russia. French nationals initially held three-quarters of the bank's equity capital, but could not properly exercise their ownership rights as the bank was unable to hold a proper annual general meeting after 1917. The chairman of the management board, prominent Russian businessman Aleksei Putilov, fled Russia in November 1917, first to Manchuria, then to Shanghai and later on to Paris, where he intrigued to retain control of the bank's operations. The French government at times supported Putilov, and at other times encouraged his rivals for control of the bank's assets, with no legal clarity as to who ultimately had management rights over the bank's non-Russian operations, and also uncertainty on whether the bank might ultimately reclaim its Russian assets subject to the outcome of the Russian Civil War in which the bank kept financing various anti-Bolshevik factions. Putilov, in turn, negotiated with Japanese and American financiers to gain autonomy from his French supporters. Meanwhile, the bank had to issue new equity capital, in large part to exiled Russian subscribers, which added further confusion to its ownership and governance.

In 1919, France for a while supported plans by Russian financier Karol Jaroszyński to shore up the bank's capital in coordination with the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas (BPPB) and Société Générale, backing Alexander Kolchak's Russian State and its Russian Army's advance in the Urals and towards the Volga. The effort floundered after Kolchak's troops were beaten on the Red Army's Eastern Front in the summer of 1919. Another restructuring plan led by another Russian émigré financier, Procopy Petrovich Batolin, against Putilov and his French allies, similarly failed to gain traction in late 1919 and 1920 as the BPPB and Société Générale gradually lost interest.

In 1921 and 1922, Putilov ended up negotiating in secret with agents of the Soviet government including Leonid Krasin to recover at least some of its Russian property assets. By then, the French government was starting to consider resuming some relations with the Soviet government, though that remained a highly contentious matter of French domestic politics. In May 1924, the Chinese government reached an agreement with the Soviet government that provided for Chinese recognition of the latter and a provisional regime of management of the China Eastern Railway by the Soviet Union, putting a final end on the Russo-Asiatic Bank's claims to its ownership. On , following the Cartel des Gauches's electoral victory in May, France eventually recognized the Soviet Union as well, and Krasin became its ambassador in Paris. Continuous rivalry among Russian factions, including between Putilov and Batolin, led to the failure in April 1926 of a last-ditch effort to restructure what remained of the Russo-Asiatic Bank. It was eventually placed under insolvency protection in Paris on .

Buildings

The bank's headquarters building in Saint Petersburg, on Nevsky Prospect 62, was reconstructed in 1896-1898 for the  on a design by architect . The Banque du Nord acquired it from the ailing Azov Commercial Bank in 1901, and in 1910 it became the seat of the Russo-Asiatic Bank.

Its branch office in Paris was initially at 2, rue Le Peletier, where the Russo-Chinese was already established; it relocated around 1917 to the former seat of the Banque Française pour le Commerce et l'Industrie at 9, rue Boudreau.

Banknotes

Like other foreign banks in China at the time, the Russo-Asiatic Bank issued paper currency in the concessions where it had established branch offices, as well as in Chinese Turkestan under Yang Zengxin's rule. It also issued rubles for anti-Bolshevik forces during the Russian Civil War.

See also
 Banque de l'Indochine
 Yokohama Specie Bank
 Deutsch-Asiatische Bank
 International Banking Corporation

References

Companies based in Saint Petersburg
Defunct banks of Russia
Defunct banks of China
Defunct banks of Hong Kong
Banks disestablished in 1926
Banks established in 1910
China–Russia relations
1926 disestablishments in China


Flavio Calzavara (21 February 1900 – 10 March 1981) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. He directed 21 films between 1939 and 1956.

Filmography

 Canzone proibita (1956)
 Gli occhi senza luce (1956)
 Napoli piange e ride (1954)
 Rigoletto e la sua tragedia (1954)
 El curioso impertinente (1953)
 Dieci canzoni d'amore da salvare (1953)
 La pattuglia dell'Amba Alagi (1953)
 I due derelitti (1951) Adaptation of the novel by Pierre Decourcelle
 Contro la legge (1950)
 Red Seal (1950)
 Peccatori (1945)
 Resurrection (1944)
 Calafuria (1943)
 Dagli Appennini alle Ande (1943)
 Carmela (1942)
 The Countess of Castiglione (1942)
 Confessione (1941)
 Don Buonaparte (1941)
 Il signore a doppio petto (1941)
 Il ladro sono io (1940)
 Piccoli naufraghi (1939)

References

External links

1900 births
1981 deaths
Italian film directors
20th-century Italian screenwriters
Italian male screenwriters
20th-century Italian male writers


Red Bee Media, formerly Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services (EBMS), is an international broadcasting and media services company and the largest access provider in Europe. Red Bee has its headquarters in London, England, with branch offices in Glasgow, Cardiff, MediaCityUK in Salford and Newcastle upon Tyne, and international offices in Australia, France, Spain, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Canada, United States and Abu Dhabi. It has 2,500 employees worldwide across eight media hubs and distributes over 2.7 million hours of programming each year worldwide. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ericsson.

Clients include television broadcasters such as the BBC, Canal+, Channel 4, GB News, ITV, Sky, TV4, TV5Monde, and UKTV,
as well as brands such as Barclays, Bacardi and Hyundai. Red Bee Media transmits over 500 television streams on analogue, digital terrestrial, digital satellite, cable, web and mobile, among them all the domestic BBC channels (except for BBC Parliament, the production and playout of which is handled by Millbank Studios), along with international channels including BBC World News, BBC Worldwide and BBC Lifestyle and have a presence in over 180 countries and territories. It handles the majority of video on demand (VOD) services in the UK, including Channel 4 (All 4), Channel 5 (My5) and UKTV (UKTV Play).

History and locations
While Red Bee Media originates from BBC Broadcast in the United Kingdom, the company stems from Creative Broadcast Services, which was jointly owned by Australia-based Macquarie Capital Alliance Group and Macquarie Bank, and was set up specifically for the purchase of the former BBC operation.

In August 2011 Red Bee Media purchased TV Genius,  a software company that specialises in content discovery across the internet, TV and connected devices.

On 1 July 2013, Ericsson announced it would acquire Red Bee Media to complement the company's previous acquisitions in the broadcast and media industry: the broadcast services division of Technicolor, Tandberg Television, HyC Group, Fabrix Systems and Microsoft Mediaroom. On 30 September, the transaction was referred to the Competition Commission, amid fears the deal would reduce competition in the television channel playout sector. The deal was cleared by the commission on 27 February 2014, and Ericsson completed its acquisition of Red Bee Media on 12 May. The company rebranded under its parent's brand on 1 June 2015.

On 9 November 2017, it was announced that Ericsson Broadcast and Media Services would be renamed as Red Bee Media and become an independent business fully owned by Ericsson. The move was reported to be to clear the way for a sale of the division which has been retained by Ericsson.

United Kingdom
Red Bee's predecessor BBC Broadcast Limited was created by the BBC in 2002, by placing a range of BBC channel creation and channel management services under one roof.  It was part of an agreement with the British government to create a commercial division that could supplement the BBC's income from the television licence, thus keeping the licence fee increases down in the future. The other entities within the commercial division were BBC Worldwide, BBC Resources, BBC Ventures and BBC Technology.

On 1 August 2005, BBC Broadcast, together with its subsidiaries, was sold for £166 million to Creative Broadcast Services Limited, a company set up specifically for the purchase and jointly owned by Australia-based Macquarie Capital Alliance Group and Macquarie Bank Limited. The company was renamed Red Bee Media on 27 October 2005. Shortly before the sale, BBC Broadcast bought Broadcasting Dataservices ("BDS") from BBC Worldwide thus strengthening the EPG and programme metadata offering. Red Bee Creative is the creative agency that operates within Red Bee Media. Based in White City, Red Bee Creative was responsible for the creation of various entertainment brands including BBC Sport, UKTV's Dave and BT Sport. They have also produced creative campaigns for Nissan, Oasis, Netflix and Weston's Cider.

Australia
In 2006 the company purchased the commercial operations of the Australian Caption Centre (ACC) in 2006 for A$7.5 million (GBP3.2 million), rebranding them as Red Bee Media Australia in March 2007. The remaining part of the ACC became the not-for-profit Media Access Australia.

Germany
In March 2008 Red Bee Media acquired Titelbild Subtitling and Translation GmbH, a multilingual subtitling and translation service providers, enabling Red Bee Media to offer translation services into many languages as well as expanding Red Bee Media into the
German market.

Spain
In October 2008, Red Bee Media acquired Mundovisión, the largest independent subtitling and audio description company in Spain. Alongside the recent acquisition of Titelbild in Germany, the addition of Mundovisión consolidated Red Bee Media's position as Europe's largest supplier of subtitling, signing and audio description services to the media industry.

The Netherlands
Red Bee is active on the Videoland website: they create subtitles for the service.

United States
Red Bee Media acquired Technicolor’s broadcast services division in July 2012 and FYI Television in January 2016.

Operations and services

In addition to channel playout, media management, content discovery platform and electronic program guide services, Red Bee Media provides "creative services" such as creation of advertisements, promotions and trailers for radio, television and interactive television and "access services" such as subtitling, signing and audio description for the BBC, Channel 4 and Channel 5 programming. The company also provides compliance, media management, design and support services, like encoding and editing video for mobile phone operators and VOD and IPTV operators such as the BBC iPlayer, Orange and UK cable company Virgin Media.

Red Bee Media operates interactive television for the BBC, UKTV and others and provides webmaster services for BBC Online and other websites. It markets complex design systems for television such as its sports analysis tool called Piero, which is a 3D sport graphic system designed to analyse sports on TV.

Red Bee Media also opened a subtitling division in Paris, France in January 2007, which subtitles for the French TV channel M6.

2021 London Broadcast Centre incident
Red Bee Media's broadcast centre in London was evacuated on 25 September 2021 following a fire alarm. The fire extinguisher system caused damage to servers and storage devices that resulted in national television channels going off air during primetime. Channel 4, Channel 5, BT Sport, JSTV, More4, Film4, E4, 4Music, The Box, Box Hits, Kiss, Magic and Kerrang! were impacted. Live continuity announcements for BBC channels were also taken off air. Accessibilty services such as subtitles and audio description tracks were also severely disrupted, with some features not becoming available again until mid-November. This caused several people depending on these services to complain to the UK broadcasting industry regulator Ofcom.

References

External links

 Red Bee Media Broadcasting Dataservices

British companies established in 2005
Ericsson
Mass media companies established in 2005
Mass media companies of the United Kingdom
2014 mergers and acquisitions
British subsidiaries of foreign companies