Quantcast
Channel: Pakistan Affairs
Viewing all 6213 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

The Charminar

September 8, 2013, 6:22 am
$
0
0
English: A side view of charminar
  A side view of charminar
The Charminar, built in 1591 CE, is a monument and mosque located in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. The landmark has become a global icon of Hyderabad, listed among the most recognized structures of India.[1] The Charminar is on the east bank of Musi river.[2] To the northeast lies the Laad Bazaar and in the west end lies the granite-made richly ornamented Makkah Masjid.[3]
The English name is a transliteration and combination of the Urdu words Chār and Minar, translating to "Four Towers"; the eponymous towers are ornate minarets attached and supported by four grand arches.[3]Some of the popular myths that are recorded in accord with the monument's architectural appearance are as follows.
 
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the current undertaker of the structure, mentions in its records that: "There are various theories regarding the purpose for which Charminar was constructed. However, it is widely accepted that Charminar was built at the center of the city, to commemorate the eradication of plague",[4] as Qutb Shah had prayed for the end of a plague that was ravaging his city and vowed to build a Mosque at the very place where he prayed.[5] According to Jean de Thévenot (French traveller of the 17th century) whose narration was complemented through the available Persian texts, the Charminar was constructed in the year 1591 CE, to commemorate the beginning of the second Islamic millennium year (1000 AH), the event was celebrated in the far and width of the Islamic world, thus Qutb Shah founded the Hyderabad city in the year 1591 to celebrated the event of millennium year (1000 AH) with the construction of Charminar.[6][7]:17-19
 
"Masud Hussain Khan" an scholar of history mentions in one of his Urdu book; the construction of Charminar was completed in the year 1592, and it is the Hyderabad city which was actually founded in the year 1591.[8]:4 According to the book "Days of the Beloved"; Qutb shah constructed the charminar in the year 1589, on the very spot where he first glimpsed his future queen Bhagmati, and after her conversion to Islam, Qutb Shah renamed the city as "Hyderabad". Though the story was denied by the historians and scholars, but it became a popular Folk-lore among the locals.[9]:3,12
Qutb Shah (was also among the early poets of Dakhani Urdu), while laying the foundation of Charminar performed the prayers in Dakhini couplets, which are recorded as;[10][8]:4
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧
Search

The Sundarbans

September 8, 2013, 6:25 am
$
0
0
Indochinese Tiger at the Houston Zoo
 
The Sundarbans (Pron:/ˈsʊndəˌbʌnz/) (Bengali: সুন্দরবন, Shundorbôn) is the largest single block of tidal halophyticmangrove forest in the world.[2] The Sundarbans is a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering parts of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal.
More than two-third of the Sundarbans is in Bangladesh and the remainder is in West Bengal, India. The Sundarbans National Park is a National Park, Tiger Reserve, and a Biosphere Reserve located in the Sundarbans delta in the Indian state of West Bengal. Sundarbans South, East and West are three protected forests in Bangladesh. This region is densely covered by mangroveforests, and is one of the largest reserves for the Bengal tiger.

Geography

The Sundarban forest lies in the vast delta on the Bay of Bengal formed by the super confluence of the Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers across southern Bangladesh. The seasonally flooded Sundarbans freshwater swamp forests lie inland from the mangrove forests on the coastal fringe. The forest covers 10,000 km2. of which about 6,000 are in Bangladesh.[8] It became inscribed as a UNESCOworld heritage site in 1997. The Sundarbans is estimated to be about 4,110 km², of which about 1,700 km² is occupied by waterbodies in the forms of river, canals and creeks of width varying from a few meters to several kilometers.
The Sundarbans is intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests. The interconnected network of waterways makes almost every corner of the forest accessible by boat. The area is known for the eponymousRoyal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), as well as numerous fauna including species of birds, spotted deer, crocodiles and snakes. The fertile soils of the delta have been subject to intensive human use for centuries, and the ecoregion has been mostly converted to intensive agriculture, with few enclaves of forest remaining. The remaining forests, taken together with the Sundarbans mangroves, are important habitat for the endangered tiger. Additionally, the Sundarbans serves a crucial function as a protective barrier for the millions of inhabitants in and around Khulna and Mongla against the floods that result from the cyclones. The Sundarbans has also been enlisted among the finalists in the New7Wonders of Nature.

Regions

Sundarbans National Park (India)

Sundarbans West Wildlife Sanctuary

Sundarbans West Wildlife Sanctuary is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The region supports several mangroves, including: sparse stands of Gewa (Excoecaria agallocha) and dense stands of Goran (Ceriops tagal), with discontinuous patches of Hantal palm (Phoenix paludosa) on drier ground, river banks and levees. The fauna of the sanctuary is very diverse with some 40 species of mammals, 260 species of birds and 35 species of reptiles. The greatest of these being the Bengal Tiger of which an estimated 350 remain in the Bangladesh Sundarbans. Other large mammals are wild boar, Chital horin (spotted deer), Indian otter and macaque monkey. Five species of marine turtles frequent the coastal zone and two endangered reptiles are present – the estuarine crocodile and the Indian python.[9]

Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary

Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary extends over an area of 31,227 ha. Freshwater and Sundri (Heritiera fomes) dominate, interspersed with Gewa (Excoecaria agallocha) and Passur (Xylocarpus mekongensis) with Kankra (Bruguiera gymnorrhiza) occurring in areas subject to more frequent flooding. There is an understory of Shingra (Cynometra ramiflora) where, soils are drier and Amur (Aglaia cucullata) in wetter areas and Goran (Ceriops decandra) in more saline places. Nypa palm (Nypa fruticans) is widespread along drainage lines.

Sundarbans South Wildlife Sanctuary

Sundarbans South Wildlife Sanctuary extends over an area of 36,970 ha. There is evidently the greatest seasonal variation in salinity levels and possibly represents an area of relatively longer duration of moderate salinity where Gewa (Excoecaria agallocha) is the dominant woody species. It is often mixed with Sundri, which is able to displace in circumstances such as artificially opened canopies where Sundri does not regenerate as effectively. It is also frequently associated with a dense understory of Goran (Ceriops tagal) and sometimes Passur.
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧
↧

The Yamuna

September 8, 2013, 6:28 am
$
0
0
The Yamuna (Jamuna) River as it crosses Taj Ma...
The Yamuna (Jamuna) River as it crosses Taj Mahal at Agra. 
The Yamuna (Pron:ˈjʌmʊnə) (Sanskrit: यमुना), sometimes called Jamuna (Hindi: जमुना) or Jamuna, is the largest tributaryriver of the Ganges (Ganga) in northern India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a height of 6,387 metres on the south western slopes of Banderpooch peaks in the uppermost region of the Lower Himalayas in Uttarakhand, it travels a total length of 1,376 kilometers (855 mi) and has a drainage system of 366,223 square kilometres (141,399 sq mi), 40.2% of the entire Ganges Basin, before merging with the Ganges at Triveni Sangam, Allahabad, the site for the Kumbha Mela every twelve years.
 
It crosses several states, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, passing by Himachal Pradesh and later Delhi, and meets several of its tributaries on the way, including Tons, its largest and longest tributary in Uttarakhand, Chambal, which has its own large basin, followed by Sindh, the Betwa, and Ken. Most importantly it creates the highly fertile alluvial, Yamuna-Ganges Doab region between itself and the Ganges in the Indo-Gangetic plain. Nearly 57 million people depend on the Yamuna waters. With an annual flow of about 10,000 cubic billion metres (cbm) and usage of 4,400 cbm (of which irrigation constitutes 96 per cent), the river accounts for more than 70 per cent of Delhi’s water supplies. Just like the Ganges, the Yamuna too is highly venerated in Hinduism and worshipped as goddess Yamuna, throughout its course. In Hindu mythology, she is the daughter of Sun God, Surya, and sister of Yama, the God of Death, hence also known as Yami and according to popular legends, bathing in its sacred waters frees one from the torments of death.[1][2]
 
The water of Yamuna is of "reasonably good quality" through its length from Yamunotri in the Himalayas to Wazirabad in Delhi, about 375 km, where the discharge of waste water through 15 drains between Wazirabad barrage and Okhla barrage renders the river severely polluted after Wazirabad in Delhi. One official describes the river as a "sewage drain" with biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) values ranging from 14 to 28 mg/l and high coliform content.[3] There are three main sources of pollution in the river, namely households and municipal disposal sites, soil erosion resulting from deforestation occurring to make way for agriculture along with resulting chemical wash-off from fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides and run-off from commercial activity and industrial sites.
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧

The India Gate

September 8, 2013, 6:32 am
$
0
0
English: India Gate, Delhi
  India Gate, Delhi 
The India Gate is the national monument of India[citation needed]. Situated in the heart of New Delhi, it was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. Originally, a statue of George V, Emperor of India stood under the now vacant canopy in front of the India Gate, but it was removed to Coronation Park together with a number of other British Raj-era statues. Following India's independence, the India Gate became the site of the Indian Army's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, known as Amar Jawan Jyoti ("the flame of the immortal soldier").
 
Until the 1920s, the Old Delhi Railway Station served the entire city, and the Agra–Delhi railway line cut through what is today known as Lutyens' Delhi and the site of the India Gate on Kingsway (now Rajpath). Eventually the line was shifted to run along the Yamuna river, and when that route opened in 1924, the construction of the memorial site could begin. The New Delhi Railway Station was opened in 1926, ahead of the inauguration of the city of the same name in 1931.[1][2]The 42-metre tall India Gate is situated in such a way that many important roads spread out from it.
 
Traffic passing around India Gate used to be continuous until the roads were closed to the public. The lawns around Rajpath throng with people during the evening, when the monument is lit up. Amar Jawan Jyoti- Burning as a shrine under the arch of India Gate since 26 Jan 1971 is the Amar Jawan Jyoti (the flame of the immortal warrior), which marks the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in world war. It was unveiled on 26 January 1972 by the then Prime Minister smt. Indira Gandhi, in the wake of the 1971 Indo-Pak War.Now it is the pride of all Indians and a prime tourist site in New Delhi.
The India Gate hexagon complex, with a diameter of about 625 metres, covers approximately 306,000m² in area. The Republic Day Parade starts from Rashtrapati Bhavan and passes through India Gate.

Canopy

Standing behind the gate is an empty canopy made out of sandstone, also designed by Lutyens, and inspired by a sixth-century pavilion from Mahabalipuram. In recent years rumours of placing a statue of Mohandas Gandhi or another national hero have circulated, but as of September 2013 no plans have been made to do such a thing.[3] 
 
 

Enhanced by Zemanta
↧

Qutub Minar

September 8, 2013, 6:37 am
$
0
0
Qutab Minar in Delhi, India
Qutab Minar in Delhi, India 
Qutub Minar (English: The Qutub Tower; Urdu: قطب مینار‎), also known as Qutb Minar and Qutab Minar, is the tallest minar in India, originally an ancient Islamic Monument, inscribed with Arabic inscriptions, though the iron pillar has some Brahmi inscriptions,[1] and is a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site.[2] Located in Delhi, the Qutub Minar is made of red sandstone and marble. The tower has 379 stairs,[3] is 72.5 metres (237.8 ft) high, and has a base diameter of 14.3 metres, which narrows to 2.7 metres at the top storey. Construction was started in 1192 by Qutub-ud-din Aibak and was completed by Iltutmish. [4][5] It is surrounded by several other ancient and medieval structures and ruins, collectively known as the Qutub complex.[1][6]

Structure

The Qutab Minar is made of red sandstone covered with intricate carvings and verses from the Qur'an.It is built by Qutub-ud-din Aibak Numerous inscriptions in Parso-Arabic and Nagari characters in different sections of the Qutub Minar reveal the history of its construction. According to the inscriptions on its surface it was repaired by Firoz Shah Tughlaq (AD 1351-88) and Sikandar Lodi[7] (AD 1489-1517).[citation needed]
 
The Qubbat-ul-Islam Mosque, located at the northeast of Minar, was built by Qutub-ud-din-Aibak in AD 1198. It is the earliest mosque built by the Delhi Sultans.[8] Later, a coffee arched screen was erected and the mosque was enlarged by Shams ud Din Iltutmish (AD 1210-35) and Allaud - din Khilji. The Iron Pillar in the courtyard bears an inscription in Sanskrit in Brahmi script of the 4th century AD. According to this inscription, the pillar was set up as a Vishnudhvaja (standard of Lord Vishnu) on the hill known as Krishnapada in memory of a mighty king named Chandra. A deep socket on the top of the ornate capital indicates that an image of Garuda was probably affixed to it.
 
The Qutub Minar comprises several superposed flanged and cylindrical shafts, separated by balconies carried on Muqarnascorbels. The Qutub Minar is itself built on the ruins of the Lal Kot, the Red Citadel in the city of Dhillika, the capital of the Tomars and the Chauhans, the last Hindu rulers of Delhi.[9] One engraving on the Qutub Minar reads, "Shri Vishwakarma prasade rachita" (Conceived with the grace of Vishwakarma).
The Qutub Minar was used as a watch tower. The earliest extant mosque was built by the Delhi Sultans. Some historians believe that the Qutub Minar was named after the first Turkic sultan (whose descendant- Wajid Ali Shah-repaired it), Qutub-ud-din Aibak,[10] but others contend that it was named in honour of Qutubuddin Bakhtiar Kaki,[11] a saint from Transoxiana who came to live in India and was venerated by Iltutmish.[12]
The nearby Iron Pillar is a metallurgical curiosity, standing in the Qutub complex. According to the traditional belief, anyone who can encircle the entire column with their arms, while standing with their back against the pillar, can have their wish granted. Because of the corrosive qualities of sweat the government has built a fence around it for safety. The amalgamation of different metals with iron produces a high degree of smoothness.
 
The Qutub Minar has been damaged by earthquakes and lightning strikes on several occasions but has been repaired and renovated by various rulers. During the rule of Firoz Shah, the minar's two top floors were damaged due to lightning but were repaired by Firoz Shah. In 1505, an earthquake struck and it was repaired by Sikandar Lodi. Later in 1794, the minar suffered another earthquake and it was Major Smith, an engineer, who repaired the affected parts of the Qutub Minar. He replaced Firoz Shah's pavilion at the top of the tower with his own pavilion. This pavilion was removed in 1848 by Lord Hardinge and now stands between the Dak Bungalow and the Minar in the garden. The floors built by Firoz Shah can be distinguished easily as the pavilion was built of white marble and quite smooth compared to the others.
Qutub Minar tilts just over 60 cm from the vertical, which is considered to be within safe limits, although experts have stated that monitoring is needed in case rainwater seepage further weakens the foundation.[13]

Media Use

Bollywood actor and director Dev Anand wanted to shoot the song Dil Ka Bhanwar Kare Pukar from his movie Tere Ghar Ke Samne inside the Qutub Minar. However, the cameras in that era were too big to fit inside the tower's narrow passage, and the song was shot inside a replica of the tower instead.[14] The site served as the pitstop of the second leg of the second season of The Amazing Race Australia, the Australian version of the Emmy-winning series The Amazing Race. This is the first Indian monument to have an E-ticket facility. Qutub Minar is the closest station on the Delhi Metro. A picture of the minaret is featured on the Travel Cards issued by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.

Qutub Tragedy

Before 1981, the general public could climb to the top of Qutub Minar by climbing up the seven-storey, narrow staircase. However, on 4 December 1981 an accident occurred when an electricity cut plunged the tower's staircase into darkness. Around 45 people were killed in the stampede that followed the electricity failure. Most of the victims were children because, before 1981, school children were allowed free access to historical monuments on Fridays, and many school groups were taking advantage of this. Subsequently, public access has been forbidden.[15].
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧
↧

Wonderla

September 8, 2013, 6:40 am
$
0
0
English: rides

Wonderla is an amusement park located near Bidadi, 28 kilometres (17 mi) Bangalore, spanning 82 acres (33 ha) of land. It has been promoted by V-Guard Industries Ltd, based in Cochin, Kerala. It is the second theme park project from the group and has been operational since October 2005. It has been set up with a total investment of over Rs. 105 crores. Wonderla has 53 land and water based rides. The park features a wide variety of attractions including some rides, water rides, a Musical fountain and laser shows, a Virtual Reality Show. Wonderla has a full fledged Didance floor with a twist: electronically controlled rain showers. Wonderla also has attractions specially designed for children, and these are gentle yet unusual like a kiddies free fall ride. It uses solar heated water for all its pools during winter. Wonderla features conference facilities for up to a 1000 persons, and features 5 restaurants with a total seating capacity of 1150. It has locker rooms with over 2350 lockers and restrooms and showers. The park also features a first aid facility and a paging system.

Safety and hygiene systems

Wonderla is one of the only 2 amusement parks in India to implement OHSAS 18001:2007 safety standards. All attractions and components are maintained according to strict tolerances for performance. Wonderla has 5 water treatment plants to recycle process and filter all types of water. The park has a water quality control laboratory to monitor quality levels of water used for different purposes.

Controversies and Incidents

On 27th Feb 2012, a 12 year old girl died due to drowning in a play pool at WonderLa, Bangalore.[1] The girl was visiting the amusement park as a part of a school picnic. However, the girl is suspected to have had a prior illness, and that may have been the cause of death.

Environment friendliness

The company has planted more than 2000 trees in order to develop natural shade in the park. The park also has an extensive rainwater harvesting system that collects even roof rain water for drinking purposes. The rain water is collected in various tanks depending on the quality and intended usage, and has a combined capacity to collect over 2 crore liters. Wonderla also uses solar energy extensively to heat water in pools and kitchens.

R&D

Wonderla has two R&D and assembling units located in Bangalore and Cochin. Among the various rides manufactured by in-house R&D team, ‘Wonder splash’ is one of the most popular rides. R&D units have over 100 technicians who design and manufacture rides for in-house purpose and for the clients. Wonderla is also concentrating on the developing export markets in Asia and Africa. Wonderla is the manufacturers of India’s largest ferris wheel- The Sky Wheel.

Wonderla Kochi

Wonderla Holidays also owns and operates the popular Veegaland amusement park in Kochi which was re-branded as Wonderla Kochi from April 2011. This park is situated on the top of a hill at Pallikkara, 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from the city of Kochi. The park was set up in 2000 and was designed by architect Joseph John.

New Projects

Wonderla is in the process of setting up resorts in Bangalore and Kochi parks and is also planning to set up new greenfield amusement park projects in Chennai and Hyderabad.
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧

Baitul Mukarram Mosque Bangladesh

September 8, 2013, 6:47 am
$
0
0
Baitul Mukarram Nation Mosque in Dhaka was bui...
Baitul Mukarram Nation Mosque in Dhaka was built in 1962. The structure resembles the Kaaba in Mecca 
Baitul Mukarram (Arabic: بيت المكرّم‎; Bengali: বায়তুল মুকাররম; The Holy House) is the national mosque of Bangladesh.[1] Located at the center of Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, the mosque was completed in 1968.[2] The mosque has a capacity of 30,000, giving it the respectable position of being the 10th biggest mosque in the world. However the mosque is constantly getting overcrowded. This especially occurs during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which has resulted in the Bangladeshi government having to add extensions to the mosque, thus increasing the capacity to at least 40,000

Architecture

The mosque has several modern architectural features whilst at the same time it preserves the traditional principles of Mughal architecture which has for some time been dominant in the Indian sub-continant. Baitul Mukarram's large cube shape was modeled to that of the Ka'abah at Mecca making it a noticeable structure being unlike any other mosque in Bangladesh.

Exterior design

The mosque is on a very high platform. The Baitul Mukarram Mosque’s building is eight storied and 99 feet high from the ground level. According to the original plan, the main entrance of the mosque was to be on the eastern side. The 'shaan' on the east is 29,000 square feet with ablution space on its south and north sides. Ablution or Wu’du Place cached an important part when the Baitul Mukarram was begun. The absence of a dome on the main building is compensated by the two superficial domed entrance porticoes, one on the south, and the other on the north. The height of these porticoes consists of three rabbit's foot shaped arches, the middle of which is bigger than the rest.

Interior design

Two patios (roofless inner courtyard) ensure that enough light and air enter the prayer hall of Baitul Mukarram Mosque. The mehrab of the hall is rectangular instead of semi-circular. Excessive ornamentation is avoided throughout the mosque, since minimizing ornamentation is typical of modern architecture.

Garden

The garden is laid out in a style borrowed heavily from Mughal gardens, however unlike the traditional Mughal gardens which represent the Islamic Heaven, the garden does not have the Char-Bagh system most likely due to not having enough room for such a garden. The future of this garden is unknown, if the Bangladeshi government extends the mosque, it will most likely have to remove the garden.

History

The mosque complex was designed by architect, T Abdul Hussain Thariani. The construction of Baitul Mukarram Masjid began on 27 January 1960, and has been going on in periods. At first Abdul Latif Ibrahim Bawany came about with the proposal of building a grand mosque with a large capacity. The plan included shops, offices, libraries and parking areas within the complex. Though there has been a tradition of dome mosque for Muslim, this building did not maintain the rule of traditional mosque in that time. A Mosque without a dome over the roof of its main prayer hall must have been a unique experiment. The mosque was built when the country was the Part of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan..[3]
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧

Syria History and Facts

September 8, 2013, 7:05 am
$
0
0
Damascus, the capital city of Syrian Arab Repu...
Damascus, the capital city of Syrian Arab Republic, pictured from Jabal Qasioun (Mt. Qasioun). 
Syria   سوريا‎ / ALA-LC: Sūriyā, or سورية / Sūrīyah; Syriac: ܣܘܪܝܐ; Kurdish: سوریه‌, Sûrî), officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest. A country of fertile plains, high mountains and deserts, it is home to diverse ethnic and religious groups, including ArabAlawites, Arab Sunnis, Arab Christians, Armenians, Assyrians, Druze, Kurds and Turks. Arab Sunnis make up the majority of the population.
 
In English, the name "Syria" was formerly synonymous with the Levant (known in Arabic as al-Sham) while the modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization of the third millennium BC. In the Islamic era, its capital city, Damascus, among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world,[5] was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate, and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt.
 
The modern Syrian state was established after the First World War as a French mandate, and represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Arab Levant. It gained independence in April 1946, as a parliamentary republic. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a large number of military coups and coup attempts shook the country in the period 1949–1971. Between 1958 and 1961, Syria entered a brief union with Egypt, which was terminated by a military coup. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, and its system of government is considered to be non-democratic.[6]Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000.[7]
 
Syria is a member of one international organization other than the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement; it is currently suspended from the Arab League[8] and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation,[9] and self-suspended from the Union for the Mediterranean.[10]Since March 2011, Syria has been embroiled in civil war in the wake of uprisings (considered an extension of the Arab Spring, the mass movement of revolutions and protests in the Arab world) against Assad and the neo-Ba'athist government. An alternative government was formed by the opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition, in March 2012. Representatives of this government were subsequently invited to take up Syria's seat at the Arab League.[11] The opposition coalition has been recognised as the "sole representative of the Syrian people" by several nations including the United States, the United Kingdom and France

Etymology

Main article: Name of Syria
The name Syria is derived from the ancient Greek name for Syrians: Σύριοι, ‹See Tfd›Sýrioi, or Σύροι, ‹See Tfd›Sýroi, which the Greeks applied without distinction to the Assyrians.[15][16] A number of modern scholars argued that the Greek word related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, ‹See Tfd›Assyria, ultimately derived from the Akkadian‹See Tfd›Aššur.[17] Others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon.[18] However, the discovery of the Çineköy inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria.
 
The area designated by the word has changed over time. Classically, Syria lies at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, between Arabia to the south and Asia Minor to the north, stretching inland to include parts of Iraq, and having an uncertain border to the northeast that Pliny the Elder describes as including, from west to east, Commagene, Sophene, and Adiabene.[19]By Pliny's time, however, this larger Syria had been divided into a number of provinces under the Roman Empire (but politically independent from each other): Judaea, later renamed Palaestina in AD 135 (the region corresponding to modern-day Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Jordan) in the extreme southwest, Phoenicia corresponding to Lebanon, with Damascena to the inland side of Phoenicia, Coele-Syria (or "Hollow Syria") south of the Eleutheris river, and Iraq.[20]

History

Since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture (known as Pre-Pottery Neolithic A) where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period (PPNB) is represented by rectangular houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps and burnt lime (Vaiselles blanches). Finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age. Archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth.
Around the excavated city of Ebla which is near present day Idlib in northern Syria, a great Semitic empire spread from the Red Sea north to Anatolia and east to Iraq from 2500 to 2400 BC. Ebla appears to have been founded around 3000 BC, and gradually built its empire through trade with the cities of Sumer and Akkad, as well as with peoples to the northwest.[21] Gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Ebla's contact with Egypt. Scholars believe the language of Ebla to be among the oldest known written Semitic languages, designated as Paleo-Canaanite.[21]
However, more recent classifications of the Eblaite language have shown that it was an East Semitic language, closely related to the Akkadian language.[22] The Eblan civilization was likely conquered by Sargon of Akkad around 2260 BC; the city was restored, as the nation of the Amorites, a few centuries later, and flourished through the early second millennium BC until conquered by the Hittites.[23].[12][13][14]
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧
Search

Syria Military Power

September 8, 2013, 7:09 am
$
0
0
English: Syrian anti-tank teams successfully d...
  Syrian anti-tank teams successfully deployed French-made Milan ATGMs during the war in Lebanon in 1982 as well. Français : Les équipes antichars de l'armée syrienne ont utilisé le missile Milan durant la guerre du Liban contre, en autre, l'armée israélienne en 1982. 
The Syrian Armed Forces (Arabic: القوات المسلحة العربية السورية‎) are the military forces of Syria. They consist of the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Navy, Syrian Arab Air Force, Syrian Arab Air Defense Force, and several paramilitary forces. According to the Syrian Constitution, the President of Syria is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
The military is a conscripted force; males serve in the military upon reaching the age of 18.[5] Before the beginning of the Syrian civil war, the obligatory military service period was being decreased over time. In 2005, it was reduced from two and a half years to two years, in 2008 to 21 months and in 2011 to year and a half

Structure

With its headquarters in Damascus, the Syrian military consists of air, ground, and navy forces. Active personnel were estimated as 295,000 in 2011, with an additional 314,000 reserves. Paramilitary forces were estimated at 108,000 in 2011.[29]
The majority of the Syrian military are Sunni, but most of the military leadership are Alawites. Alawites make up 12 percent of the Syrian population but are estimated to make up 70 percent of the career soldiers in the Syrian Army.[11][30] Of the 200,000 or so career soldiers in the Syrian Army, 140,000 are Alawites.[31] A similar imbalance is seen in the officer corps where some 80 percent of the officers are Alawites. The military’s most elite divisions, the Republican Guard and the 4th Mechanized Division, which are commanded by Bashar's brother, are exclusively Alawite. Most of Syria’s 300,000 conscripts and air force pilots are, however, Sunni.[11][32] Because of the Alawite composition of the Syrian armed forces, its interests are closely aligned with those of President Bashar al-Assad and the Assad family.

Syrian Army

In 1987, Joshua Sinai of the Library of Congress wrote that the Syrian Arab Army was the dominant military service, and as such controlled the senior-most posts in the armed forces, and had the most manpower, approximately 80 percent of the combined services. In 1987, Sinai wrote that the major development in force organisation was the establishment of an additional divisional framework based on the special forces and the organisation of ground formations into two corps.[33] In 2010, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated army regulars at 220,000, with an additional 280,000 reserves. That figure was unchanged in the 2011 edition of the Military Balance,[29] but in the 2013 edition, in the midst of the war, the IISS estimated that army strength was 110,000.
The army's active manpower served in three all-arms army corps, eight armoured divisions (with one independent armoured brigade), three mechanized divisions, one armoured-special forces division, and ten independent airborne-special forces brigades.[3] The army had eleven divisional formations reported in 2011, with a fall in the number of armoured divisions reported from the 2010 edition from eight to seven.[29] The independent armoured brigade had been replaced by an independent tank regiment. However in addition to the 14th Special Forces Division, the 15th Special Forces Division has been identified by Arabic Wikipedia and Human Rights Watch in 2011.[34]
The former Defense companies were merged into the Syrian Army as the 4th Armoured Division and the Republican Guard. The 4th Armoured Division became one of the Assad government's most trusted security forces.

Syrian Navy

In 1950, the Syrian Navy was established following the procurement of a few naval craft from France. The initial personnel consisted of soldiers who had been sent to French academies of naval training.[35] In 1985, the navy consisted of approximately 4,000 regular and 2,500 reserve officers and men. The navy is under the army's Latakia regional command. The fleet was based in the ports of Latakia, Baniyas, Minat al Bayda, and Tartus. Among the 41 vessel fleet were 2 frigates, 22 missile attack craft (including 10 advanced Osa II missile boats), 2 submarine chasers, 4 mine warfare vessels, 8 gunboats, 6 patrol craft, 4 missile corvettes (on order), 3 landing craft (on order), 1 torpedo recovery vessel and, as part of its coastal defence system, Sepal shore-to-sea missiles with a range of 300 kilometers

Syrian Air Force

The Syrian Arab Air Force is the Aviation branch of the Syrian Armed Forces. It was established in 1948, and saw combat in 1948, 1967, 1973 and in 1982 against Israel. It has seen combat against militant groups on Syrian soil in 2011-2012 during the Syrian civil war. Presently, there are at least 15 Syrian Airforce bases throughout the country.

Syrian Air Defence Force

In 1987, according to the Library of Congress Country Studies, the Air Defence Command, within the Army Command, but also composed of Air Force personnel, numbered approximately 60,000.[33] In 1987, units included twenty air defence brigades (with approximately ninety-five SAM batteries) and two air defence regiments. The Air Defence Command had command access to interceptor aircraft and radar facilities. Air defences included SA-5 long-range SAM batteries around Damascus and Aleppo, with additional SA-6 and SA-8 mobile SAM units deployed along Syria's side of the Lebanese border and in eastern Lebanon.
At some later point in time, the Air Defence Command was upgraded into a separate Syrian Air Defense Force.

Paramilitary forces

  • As-Sa'iqa - a commando force
  • Defense Companies - since merged into the Syrian Arab Army as the 4th Armoured division and the Republican Guard as well as the 14th Airborne Division comprising 5 Special Forces regiments.
  • Palestine Liberation Army - a Palestinian Auxiliary, ostensibly returned to Palestine Authority control.
  • Republican Guard - since merged into the army.

Weapons and Uniforms

 Weapons

The breakup of the Soviet Union— long the principal source of training, material, and credit for the Syrian forces — may have slowed Syria's ability to acquire modern military equipment. It has an arsenal of surface-to-surface missiles. In the early 1990s, Scud-C missiles with a 500-kilometer range were procured from North Korea, and Scud-D, with a range of up to 700 kilometers, is allegedly being developed by Syria with the help of North Korea and Iran, according to Eyal Zisser.[36]
Syria received significant financial aid from Persian Gulf Arab states as a result of its participation in the Persian Gulf War, with a sizable portion of these funds earmarked for military spending. In 2005, Russia forgave Syria of three-fourths, or about $9.8 billion, of its $13.4 billion Soviet-era debt. Russia wrote off the debt in order to renew arms sales with Syria.[37] As of 2011, arms contracts with Russia, Syria's main arms supplier, were worth at least $4 billion.[38][39][40][41] Syria has conducted research and allegedly produced weapons of mass destruction.[42]

Uniforms (1987)

In 1987, according to the Library of Congress Country Study on Syria, service uniforms for Syrian officers generally followed the British Army style, although army combat clothing followed the older British model. Each uniform had two coats: a long one for dress and a short jacket for informal wear. Army officer uniforms were khaki in summer, olive in winter. Certain Army and Air Defense Force personnel (i.e., commandos and paratroops) may have worn camouflage uniforms. Air force officers had two uniforms for each season: a khaki and a light gray for summer and a dark blue and a light gray in winter. Naval officers wore white in summer and navy blue in winter while lower ranks wear the traditional bell bottoms and white blouse. The uniform for naval chief petty officers was a buttoned jacket, similar to that worn by United States chief petty officers. Officers had a variety of headgear, including a service cap, garrison cap, and beret (linen in summer and wool in winter). The color of the beret varied by season and according to the officer's unit.[43]
The Syrian military provides NBC uniforms to soldiers in order to remain effective in an environment effected by biological or chemical agents. This uniform consisted of a Russian-made Model ShMS-41 mask similar to those made in the Desert Storm conflict.[44] Previous models of the ShMS used a hose, while the improved "ShmS-41" used a canister-style Respirator.[45][46]

Rank Insignia (1987)

In 1987, according to the Library of Congress Country Study on Syria, commissioned officers' rank insignia were identical for the army and air force. These were gold on a bright green shoulder board for the army and gold on a bright blue board for the air force. Officer ranks were standard, although the highest is the equivalent of lieutenant general, a rank held in 1986 only by the commander in chief and the minister of defence. Navy officer rank insignia were gold stripes worn on the lower sleeve. The highest-ranking officer in Syria's navy is the equivalent of lieutenant general. Army and air force rank for warrant officers were indicated by gold stars on an olive green shield worn on the upper left arm. Lower noncommissioned ranks were indicated by upright and inverted chevrons worn on the upper left arm.[43]
Although some twenty-five orders and medals were authorized, generally only senior officers and warrant officers wear medal ribbons. The following were some important Syrian awards: Order of Umayyads, Medal of Military Honor, the War Medal, Medal for Courage, Yarmuk Medal, Wounded in Action Medal, and Medal of 8 March 1963.[43].[6]
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧
↧

Human rights violations during the Syrian civil war

September 8, 2013, 7:16 am
$
0
0


Human rights violations during the Syrian civil war have been numerous and serious. In June 2012 Amnesty International reported the majority had been committed by government forces,[1]:10 though the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has said that both sides appear to have committed war crimes, with UN investigations having concluded that the government's abuses are the greatest in both gravity and scale

Legal framework

Four of the international instruments ratified by Syria and which apply to the events described in the present report are particularly relevant: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the UN Convention Against Torture. Syria is not a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, although it is bound by the provisions of the ICCPR that also prohibit enforced disappearances.[4]:Four key security agencies have overseen the repression in Syria: the General Security Directorate, the Political Security Branch, the Military Intelligence Branch, and the Air Force Intelligence Branch. All three corps of the Syrian army have been deployed in a supporting role to the security forces; the civilian police have been involved in crowd control. The shabiha, led by the security forces, also participated in abuses.[4]:8–10 Since Hafez al-Assad's rule, individuals from the Alawite minority have controlled (although they not always formally headed) these four agencies, as well as several elite military units,[5]:72–3 and comprise the bulk of them.[6]

Syrian armed and security forces

According to the UN, Syrian armed and security forces have been responsible for: unlawful killing, including of children (mostly boys), medical personnel and hospital patients ("In some particularly grave instances, entire families were executed in their homes"); torture, including of children (mostly boys, sometimes to death) and hospital patients, and including sexual and psychological torture; arbitrary arrest "on a massive scale"; deployment of tanks and helicopter gunships in densely populated areas; heavy and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas; collective punishment; enforced disappearances; widescale and systematic destruction and looting of property; the systematic denial, in some areas, of food and water; and the prevention of medical treatment, including to children.[4]:20–4[7]:4–6[8]:2–4[9]:10–20 Amnesty International reported that medical personnel had also been tortured,[10] while the UN said that medical personnel in state hospitals were sometimes complicit in the killing and torture of patients.[9]:11
 
The execution and torture of children was also documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.[1]:30[11]:31–2[12][13] Most of the serious human rights violations documented by the UN have been committed by the Syrian army and security services as part of military or search operations.[7]:4[8]:1 The pattern of the killing, coupled with interviews with defectors, led the UN to conclude a shoot-to-kill policy was operative.[4]:20[9]:10 The UN mentioned several reports of security forces killing injured victims by putting them into refrigerated cells in hospital morgues.[4]:22Amnesty International decided to enter the country uninvited in spring 2012 and documented "gross violations of human rights on a massive scale" by the Syrian military and shabiha, "many of which amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes".
 
These were committed against the armed opposition, to punish and intimidate civilian individuals and strongholds perceived to be supporting the opposition, and indiscriminately against individuals who had nothing to do with the opposition. In addition to the crimes listed by the UN above, they noted cases of people being burnt alive; destruction of pharmacies and field hospitals (normal hospitals are out of bounds to those wounded by the military); and that the sometimes lethal torture ("broken bones, missing teeth, deep scars and open wounds from electric shocks, and from severe beatings and lashings with electric cables and other implements") was overwhelmingly directed at men and boys.[1]:7–10
 
The UN reported 10,000 persons arbitrarily detained between mid-March and the late June 2011;[7]:5 a year later that number had more than doubled, though the true number of detainees may have been far higher.[1]:11[11]:12 At the notorious Seidnaya jail, north of Damascus, 2,500 military officers and lesser ranks were being held after they disobeyed orders or attempted desertion.[14] Human Rights Watch documented more than 20 different methods of torture used against detainees, including: prolonged and severe beatings, often with objects such as batons and wires; painful stress positions; electrocution; burning with car battery acid; sexual assault; pulling out fingernails; mock execution; and sexual violence.[11]:18–19 Many were held in disgusting and cruelly overcrowded conditions; many who needed medical assistance were denied it, and some consequently died.[11]:14–17
 
Amnesty was also in the possession of 10,000 names, mainly men and boys, who had been killed since February 2011, though the organisation again conceded the true figure may be significantly higher.[1]:11 Some of the more prominent detainees have included Ali al-Abdallah,[15] blogger and student Tal al-Mallohi,[16] and prominent LGBT anti-government blogger Razan Ghazzawi, who was arrested twice by Syrian authorities. Human Rights Watch accused the government and Shabiha of using civilians as human shields when they advanced on opposition-held areas.[17] A UN report confirmed this, saying soldiers had used children as young as eight, detaining and killing children afterwards. The UN added the Syrian Government as one of the worst offenders on its annual "list of shame".[18]
 
In response to these violations, the UN Human Rights Council passed a condemnatory resolution. It also demanded that Syria cooperate with a UN investigation into the abuses, release all political prisoners, and allow independent monitors to visit detention facilities.[19]Not all reports have proved accurate: Zainab al-Hosni, who was purportedly beheaded by Syrian authorities, later turned out to be alive.[20]In May 2012, Al Arabiya aired leaked footage of a man being tortured in a government detention centre in Kafranbel.[21]
 
An increasing number of reports indicated that the Syrian government is attacking civilians at bread bakeries with artillery rounds and rockets in opposition-controlled cities and districts in Aleppo province and Aleppo city, with the reports indicating that the bakeries were shelled indiscriminately.[22][23] HRW said these are war crimes, as the only military targets in the areas were rebels manning the bakeries and that dozens of civilians were killed.[24]Upon retaking the capital Damascus after the Battle of Damascus (2012), the Syrian government began a campaign of collective punishment against Sunni suburbs in-and-around the capital which had supported FSA presence in their neighborhoods.[25][26]
The charity Save the Children conducted interviews in refugee camps with Syrian civilians who had fled the fighting, and released a report in September 2012 containing many accounts of detention, torture and summary execution, as well as other incidents such as the use of civilians as human shields, allegedly including tying children onto advancing tanks so that rebel forces would not fire upon them.[27]In a 23 October 2012 statement, Human Rights Watch said that Syrian military denials notwithstanding, HRW had "evidence of ongoing cluster bomb attacks" by Syria’s air force. HRW has confirmed reports "through interviews with victims, other residents and activists who filmed the cluster munitions", as well as "analysis of 64 videos and also photos showing weapon remnants" of cluster bomb strikes.[28] The use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of cluster munitions is porhibited by the 2008 international Convention on Cluster Munitions treaty. Use of cluster bombs have been considered a grave threat to civilian populations because of the bombs' ability to randomly scatter thousands of submunitions or "bomblets" over a vast area, many of which remain waiting to explode, taking civilian lives and limbs long after the conflict is over.[29]

Referral to the International Criminal Court

United Nations High Commissioner for Human RightsNavi Pillay and others have called for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court; however, it would be difficult for this to take place with within the foreseeable future because Syria is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, meaning the ICC has no jurisdiction there (referral could alternatively happen via the Security Council, but Russia and China would block).[30]Marc Lynch, who is in favour of a referral, noted a couple of other routes to the ICC were possible, and that overcoming Chinese and Russian opposition was not impossible.[31]
 
Richard Haass has argued that one way to encourage top-level defections is to "threaten war-crimes indictments by a certain date, say, August 15, for any senior official who remains a part of the government and is associated with its campaign against the Syrian people. Naming these individuals would concentrate minds in Damascus."[32] Nevertheless, it remains unlikely in the short term, and some would argue this is a blessing in disguise, since this precludes the ICC's involvement while the conflict is still raging, a development that would arguably only increase the Assad government's violent obstinacy.[33]

Armed opposition fighters

With regard to armed opposition groups, the UN accused them of: unlawful killing; torture and ill-treatment; kidnapping and hostage taking; and the use of children in dangerous non-combat roles.[8]:4–5 Amnesty confirmed that they were guilty of having tortured and executed captured soldiers and militiamen, as well as known or perceived civilian collaborators,[1]:10 and later condemned the opposition fighters responsible for an attack on a pro-Assad TV station in June 2012 in which media workers were killed.[34] According to the Institute for the Study of War, "[m]onthly instances of assassinations,executions, and kidnappings by rebels skyrocketed in February 2012 and doubled again between March and April. . . .
 
The Assad regime's sectarian shabiha paramilitaries have been responsible for a vast numbers of killings, which has made it more difficult for insurgents to resist the urge to act in reprisal."[35] Radhika Coomaraswamy, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, said in March 2012 that she had received claims that the Free Syrian Army was using children as fighters.[13] A UN report in April 2012 also mentioned "credible allegations" that rebels, including the FSA, were using child fighters, despite stated FSA policy of not recruiting any child under the age of 17,[36]:23 but a later one in June 2012 made no mention of this, only reporting that opposition fighters were using children in non-combat roles.[8]:5 Still, in an interview to AP, one rebel commander stated that his 16-year-old son had died in clashes with government troops as a rebel fighter. He also confirmed that his group had been releasing prisoners in bomb-rigged cars turning drivers into unwitting suicide bombers.[37]
 
In May 2013, a video was posted on the internet showing rebel commander Abu Sakkar cutting organs from the dead body of a Syrian soldier and putting one of them in his mouth, "as if he is taking a bite out of it". He says to the camera: "soldiers of Bashar [...] we will eat your heart and livers! [...] Oh my heroes of Baba Amr, you slaughter the Alawites and take their hearts out to eat them!" Human Rights Watch confirmed the authenticity of the footage, and said that Abu Sakkar appears to be a commander of the "Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade". Human Rights Watch said "It is not known whether the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade operates within the command structure of the Free Syrian Army".
 
The incident was condemned by the FSA's Chief of Staff and the Syrian National Coalition said that the commander would be put on trial.[38][39] The rebel Supreme Military Council called for Abu Sakkar's arrest, saying it wants him "dead or alive". Abu Sakkar said that his action was revenge, explaining that he had found a video on the soldier's cellphone in which the soldier sexually abuses a woman and her two daughters.[40] In earlier days before the escalation of violence he had taken part in marches and at that time voiced the need for a united front to cause the reforms that were denied by the regime.
 
His brigade was not among those calling for a medieval caliphate or allegiance to al-Qa'ida, and he had taken a stand against Islamist extremists in rebel ranks. Independent journalist Kim Sengupta, having observed that the brutality with which the regime responded to peaceful protests in Baba Amr and elsewhere in Syria was the catalyst for the armed uprising which followed, looked for further explanation for the viciousness that is expressed. Mr Nassr, another brigade member told him; "He (Abu Sakkar) should not have done what he did, doing that was haram (wrong in religion) and unwise. But it was a message to the Shabiha. They film young men and women being tortured to try and frighten the people and this was meant as a warning to them.” [41]

Sexual violence

Men and women have been subjected to sexual violence by government forces. Amnesty International has received reports of men being raped.[42] According to the UN, sexual violence in detention is directed principally against men and boys,[9]:17 rather than women and girls:
Several testimonies reported the practice of sexual torture used on male detainees. Men were routinely made to undress and remain naked. Several former detainees testified reported beatings of genitals, forced oral sex, electroshocks and cigarette burns to the anus in detention facilities . . . Several of the detainees were repeatedly threatened that they would be raped in front of their family and that their wives and daughters would also be raped. Testimonies were received from several men who stated they had been anally raped with batons and that they had witnessed the rape of boys. One man stated that he witnessed a 15-year-old boy being raped in front of his father. A 40-year-old man saw the rape of an 11-year-old boy by three security services officers.[9]:14
Human Rights Watch has also reported these sexual crimes being committed by Syrian government forces.[11]:26–8, 32–4Syrian activists claim women were abducted and raped in rebellious parts of the country, possibly using sexual violence as a means of quelling dissent. An opposition campaigner supplied The Globe and Mail with details about six previously unknown cases of violence against women, saying that more such incidents remain hidden as Damascus struggles to contain the uprising.[43] Syrian refugees fleeing to Turkey reported mass rape by Syrian soldiers, more than 400 women were raped and sexually abused.[44]
 
On 13 August 2012 a sergeant in the special forces who had defected claimed that Alawite officers ordered the rape of teenage girls in Homs, who would be shot afterwards. The defected sergeant further said that soldiers who refused were shot by the army[45]
A report released 14 January 2013 by the International Rescue Committee stated that a primary reason Syrian refugees flee is because of fear of rape.[46]

Attacks on journalists

This article is about Attacks on journalists. For others named under attacks on journalists in the Syrian civil war, see List of journalists killed during the Syrian civil war. Except for those hand-picked by the government, journalists have been banned from reporting in Syria. Those who have entered the country regardless have been targeted. Within a month of the protests taking off, at least seven local and international journalists were detained, and at least one of these was beaten.[47] Citizen journalist Mohammed Hairiri was arrested in April 2012, tortured in prison, and sentenced to death in May 2012 for giving an interview for Al Jazeera.[48] Jordanian Salameh Kaileh was tortured and detained in deplorable conditions before being deported.[49]
 
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 13 journalists were killed in work-related incidents during the first eighteen months of the uprising.[50] During the same period, Reporters Without Borders said a total of 33 journalists were killed.[51] Many, such as Marie Colvin, were killed by government forces,[52] but at least one, French journalist Gilles Jacquier, was killed by rebel fire.[53.[2][3]
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧

Pakistan Cricket Rare Pictures

September 8, 2013, 8:07 am
↧

Back to School

September 8, 2013, 12:27 pm
↧

Afghanistan War Images

September 8, 2013, 12:43 pm
↧
↧

Life Inside White House

September 8, 2013, 1:01 pm
↧

Face Book History and Facts

September 9, 2013, 12:21 am
$
0
0

Facebook is an online social networking service. Its name stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by some American university administrations to help students get to know each other.[7] Facebook was founded in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.[8] The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before opening to high school students, and eventually to anyone aged 13 and over. Facebook now allows any users who declare themselves to be at least 13 years old to become registered users of the site.[9]
 
Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, exchange messages, and receive automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common-interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics, and categorize their friends into lists such as "People From Work" or "Close Friends". As of September 2012, Facebook has over one billion active users,[10] of which 8.7% are fake.[11] According to a May 2011 Consumer Reports survey, there are 7.5 million children under 13 with accounts and 5 million under 10, violating the site's terms of service.[12] Facebook (as of 2012) has about 180 petabytes of data a year and grows by over half a petabyte every 24 hours.[13]
 
In May 2005, Accel partners invested $12.7 million in Facebook, and Jim Breyer[14] added $1 million of his own money to the pot. A January 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users.[15]Entertainment Weekly included the site on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "How on earth did we stalk our exes, remember our co-workers' birthdays, bug our friends, and play a rousing game of Scrabulous before Facebook?"[16] Facebook eventually filed for an initial public offering on February 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Menlo Park, California.[2] Facebook Inc. began selling stock to the public and trading on the NASDAQ on May 18, 2012.[17] Based on its 2012 income of USD 5.1 Billion, Facebook joined the Fortune 500 list for the first time, being placed at position of 462 on the list published in May 2013

History  

Mark Zuckerberg wrote Facemash, the predecessor to Facebook, on October 28, 2003, while attending Harvard as a sophomore. According to The Harvard Crimson, the site was comparable to Hot or Not, and "used photos compiled from the online facebooks of nine houses, placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the 'hotter' person"[19][20]To accomplish this, Zuckerberg hacked into the protected areas of Harvard's computer network and copied the houses' private dormitory ID images. Harvard at that time did not have a student "Facebook" (a directory with photos and basic information), though individual houses had been issuing their own paper facebooks since the mid-1980s. Facemash attracted 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online.[19][21]
 
The site was quickly forwarded to several campus group list-servers, but was shut down a few days later by the Harvard administration. Zuckerberg faced expulsion and was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy. Ultimately, the charges were dropped.[22] Zuckerberg expanded on this initial project that semester by creating a social study tool ahead of an art history final, by uploading 500 Augustan images to a website, with one image per page along with a comment section.[21] He opened the site up to his classmates, and people started sharing their notes.
 
The following semester, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website in January 2004. He was inspired, he said, by an editorial in The Harvard Crimson about the Facemash incident.[23] On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg launched "Thefacebook", originally located at thefacebook.com.[24]
Six days after the site launched, three Harvard seniors, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, accused Zuckerberg of intentionally misleading them into believing he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com, while he was instead using their ideas to build a competing product.[25] The three complained to the Harvard Crimson, and the newspaper began an investigation. The three later filed a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, subsequently settling.[26] The agreed settlement was for 1.2m shares which were worth $300m at Facebook's IPO.[27]
 
Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College, and within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard was registered on the service.[28]Eduardo Saverin (business aspects), Dustin Moskovitz (programmer), Andrew McCollum (graphic artist), and Chris Hughes soon joined Zuckerberg to help promote the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale.[29] It soon opened to the other Ivy League schools, Boston University, New York University, MIT, and gradually most universities in Canada and the United States.[30][31]
 
In mid-2004, entrepreneur Sean Parker, who had been informally advising Zuckerberg, became the company's president.[32] In June 2004, Facebook moved its base of operations to Palo Alto, California.[29] It received its first investment later that month from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.[33] The company dropped The from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com in 2005 for $200,000.[34]Facebook launched a high-school version in September 2005, which Zuckerberg called the next logical step.[35] At that time, high-school networks required an invitation to join.[36] Facebook later expanded membership eligibility to employees of several companies, including Apple Inc. and Microsoft.[37] Facebook was then opened on September 26, 2006, to everyone of age 13 and older with a valid email address.[38][39]
 
Late in 2007, Facebook had 100,000 business pages, allowing companies to attract potential customers and tell about themselves. These started as group pages, but a new concept called company pages was planned.[40]On October 24, 2007, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $240 million, giving Facebook a total implied value of around $15 billion.[41] Microsoft's purchase included rights to place international ads on Facebook.[42] In October 2008, Facebook announced that it would set up its international headquarters in Dublin, Ireland.[43] In September 2009, Facebook said that it had turned cash-flow positive for the first time.[44] In November 2010, based on SecondMarket Inc., an exchange for shares of privately held companies, Facebook's value was $41 billion (slightly surpassing eBay's) and it became the third largest U.S. Web company after Google and Amazon.[45]
 
Traffic to Facebook increased steadily after 2009. More people visited Facebook than Google for the week ending March 13, 2010.[46]In March 2011, it was reported that Facebook removes approximately 20,000 profiles from the site every day for various infractions, including spam, inappropriate content and underage use, as part of its efforts to boost cyber security.[47]In early 2011, Facebook announced plans to move to its new headquarters, the former Sun Microsystems campus in Menlo Park, California.[48][49]Release of statistics by DoubleClick showed that Facebook reached one trillion page views in the month of June 2011, making it the most visited website of those tracked by DoubleClick.[50]
 
According to the Nielsen Media Research study, released in December 2011, Facebook is the second most accessed website in the US (behind Google).[51]In March 2012, Facebook announced App Center, an online mobile store which sells applications that connect to Facebook. The store will be available to iPhone, Android and mobile web users.[52]Facebook, Inc. held an initial public offering on May 17, 2012, negotiating a share price of $38 apiece, valuing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly listed public company.[53]

Initial public offering

Main article: Facebook IPO
Facebook filed their S1 document with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on February 1, 2012. The company filed for a US$5 billion initial public offering (IPO), making it one of the biggest in tech history and the biggest in Internet history.[54] Facebook valued its stock at $38 a share, pricing the company at $104 billion, the largest valuation to date for a newly public company.[55][56] The IPO raised $16 billion, making it the third largest in U.S. history.[57][58] The shares began to be traded on May 18, and though the stock struggled to stay above the IPO price for most of the day, it set a new record for trading volume of an IPO, 460 million shares.[59] The first day of trading was marred by numerous technical glitches that prevented orders from going through.[60] Only the aforementioned technical glitches and artificial support from underwriters prevented the stock price from falling below the IPO price on the first day of trading.[61]
 
Later, it was revealed that Facebook's lead underwriters, Morgan Stanley (MS), JP Morgan (JPM), and Goldman Sachs (GS) all cut their earnings forecasts for the company in the middle of the IPO roadshow.[62] The stock continued its freefall in subsequent days, closing at 34.03 on May 21 and 31.00 on May 22. A 'circuit breaker' was used in an attempt to slow down the decline in the stock price.[63] Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Chairman Rick Ketchum called for a review of the circumstances surrounding its troubled initial public offering.[64]
 
Facebooks' IPO is now under investigation and has been compared to pump and dump schemes.[60][62][64][65] In the meantime, a class-action lawsuit is in the works due to the trading glitches, which led to botched orders.[66][67] Apparently, the glitches prevented a number of investors from selling the stock during the first day of trading while the stock price was falling - forcing them to incur bigger losses when their trades finally went through. Additional lawsuits have been filed due to allegations that an underwriter for Morgan Stanley selectively revealed adjusted earnings estimates to preferred clients.[68] The remaining underwriters (MS, JPM, GS) and Facebook's CEO and board are also facing litigation.[69] It is believed that adjustments to earnings estimates were communicated to the underwriters by a Facebook financial officer, who in turn used the information to cash out on their positions while leaving the general public with overpriced shares.[70]By the end of May 2012, the stock lost over a quarter of its starting value, which led to the Wall Street Journal calling the IPO a "fiasco."[71]

After IPO

In July 2012, Facebook added a gay marriage icon to its timeline feature.[72] On August 23, 2012, Facebook released an update to its iOS app, version 5.0. The app changed how data was collected and displayed to make the app faster. On January 15, 2013, Facebook announced its new product Graph Search, which provides users with a "precise answer" rather than a link to an answer by leveraging the data already present on its site.[73] Facebook emphasized that the feature would be "privacy-aware," returning only results from content already shared with the user.[74] The company is the subject of a lawsuit by Rembrandt Social Media for the use of patents involving the "Like" button.[75] On April 3, 2013, Facebook unveiled Home, a user-interface layer for Android devices offering greater integration with the service. HTC announced a smartphone with Home pre-loaded, the HTC First.[76] On April 15, 2013, Facebook announced an alliance with the National Association of Attorneys General to provide teens and parents with information on tools that to manage Facebook profiles. The partnership spanned 19 states.[77] On April 19, 2013, Facebook officially modified its logo to remove the faint blue line at the bottom of the "F" icon. The letter "F" moved closer to the edge of the box.[78]
Following a campaign uniting 100 advocacy groups, Facebook agreed to update its policy on hate speech. The campaign highlighted content promoting domestic and sexual violence against women, and used over 57,000 tweets and more than 4,900 emails to create outcomes such as the withdrawal of advertising from Facebook by 15 companies, including Nissan UK, House of Burlesque and Nationwide UK. The social media website initially responded by stating that "While it may be vulgar and offensive, distasteful content on its own does not violate our policies.",[79] but agreed on May 29, 2013 to take action after it had "become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate."[80]
On June 12, 2013, Facebook officially announced on its newsroom that it was introducing clickable hashtags to help users follow trending discussions or search what others are talking about on a particular topic.[81] A July 2013 Wall Street Journal article identified the Facebook IPO as the cause of a change in the U.S.' national economic statistics, as the company home, San Mateo County, California, became the top wage-earning county in the country after the fourth quarter of 2012. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the average weekly wage in the county was US$3,240, 107% higher than the previous year: "That's the equivalent of $168,000 a year, and more than more than 50% higher than the next highest county, New York County (better known as Manhattan), which came in at $2,107 a week, or roughly $110,000 a year."[82]
Russian internet firm Mail.Ru sold its remaining Facebook shares for US$525 million on September 5, 2013, following its initial US$200 million investment in 2009. Partly owned by Russia's richest man Alisher Usmanovhe, the firm owned a total of 14.2 million remaining shares prior to the sale.[83].[18]
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧
Search

Twitter History and Facts

September 9, 2013, 1:51 am
$
0
0
English: Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey, co-founder...
English: Biz Stone and Jack Dorsey, co-founders, accepting a 2007 Crunchie Award for Twitter, best mobile start-up, in San Francisco, California, USA in 2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets".
Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and by July, the social networking site was launched. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 500 million registered users as of 2012, generating over 340 million tweets daily and handling over 1.6 billionsearch queries per day.[10][11][12] Since its launch, Twitter has become one of the ten most visited websites on the Internet, and has been described as "the SMS of the Internet."[7][13] Unregistered users can read tweets, while registered users can post tweets through the website interface, SMS, or a range of apps for mobile devices.[14]
Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco, with additional servers and offices in New York City, Boston, and San Antonio.

History

Creation and initial reaction

 
Twitter's origins lie in a "daylong brainstorming session" held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Dorsey, then an undergraduate student at New York University, introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group.[15][16] The original project code name for the service was twttr, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass,[17] inspired by Flickr and the five-character length of American SMS short codes. The developers initially considered "10958" as a short code, but later changed it to "40404" for "ease of use and memorability."[18] Work on the project started on March 21, 2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST): "just setting up my twttr".[1]
"...we came across the word 'twitter', and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information,' and 'chirps from birds'. And that's exactly what the product was." – Jack Dorsey[19]
'The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as an internal service for Odeo employees[20] and the full version was introduced publicly on July 15, 2006.[9] In October 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey, and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo and all of its assets – including Odeo.com and Twitter.com – from the investors and shareholders.[21] Williams fired Glass, who was silent about his part in Twitter's startup until 2011.[22] Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007.[23]
 
The tipping point for Twitter's popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference. During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000.[24] "The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages," remarked Newsweek's Steven Levy. "Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it."[25]
 
Reaction at the conference was highly positive. Blogger Scott Beale said that Twitter "absolutely rul[ed]" SXSWi. Social software researcher danah boyd said Twitter "own[ed]" the conference.[26] Twitter staff received the festival's Web Award prize with the remark "we'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!" [27]The first unassisted off-Earth Twitter message was posted from the International Space Station by NASAastronautT. J. Creamer on January 22, 2010.[28] By late November 2010, an average of a dozen updates per day were posted on the astronauts' communal account, @NASA_Astronauts. NASA has also hosted over 25 "tweetups", events that provide guests with VIP access to NASA facilities and speakers with the goal of leveraging participants' social networks to further the outreach goals of NASA. In August 2010, the company appointed Adam Bain from News Corp.'s Fox Audience Network as president of revenue.[29]On September 14, 2010, Twitter launched a redesigned site[30] including a new logo.[citation needed]

Growth

The company experienced rapid growth. It had 400,000 tweets posted per quarter in 2007. This grew to 100 million tweets posted per quarter in 2008. In February 2010, Twitter users were sending 50 million tweets per day.[31] By March 2010, the company recorded over 70,000 registered applications.[32] As of June 2010, about 65 million tweets were posted each day, equaling about 750 tweets sent each second, according to Twitter.[33] As of March 2011, that was about 140 million tweets posted daily.[34] As noted on Compete.com, Twitter moved up to the third-highest-ranking social networking site in January 2009 from its previous rank of twenty-second.[35]
 
Twitter's usage spikes during prominent events. For example, a record was set during the 2010 FIFA World Cup when fans wrote 2,940 tweets per second in the thirty-second period after Japan scored against Cameroon on June 14, 2010. The record was broken again when 3,085 tweets per second were posted after the Los Angeles Lakers' victory in the 2010 NBA Finals on June 17, 2010,[36] and then again at the close of Japan's victory over Denmark in the World Cup when users published 3,283 tweets per second.[37] The record was set again during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Final between Japan and the United States, when 7,196 tweets per second were published.[38]
 
When American singer Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, Twitter servers crashed after users were updating their status to include the words "Michael Jackson" at a rate of 100,000 tweets per hour.[39] The current record as of January 1, 2013, was set by all citizens of the Japan Standard Time Zone as the new year began, reaching a record of 33,388 tweets per second (and hence beating the previous record of 25,088, also set by Japan after a television screening of the movie "Castle In The Sky").[40]
 
Twitter acquired application developer Atebits on April 11, 2010. Atebits had developed the Apple Design Award-winning Twitter client Tweetie for the Mac and iPhone. The application, now called "Twitter" and distributed free of charge, is the official Twitter client for the iPhone, iPad and Mac.[41]
From September through October 2010, the company began rolling out "New Twitter", an entirely revamped edition of twitter.com. Changes included the ability to see pictures and videos without leaving Twitter itself by clicking on individual tweets which contain links to images and clips from a variety of supported websites including YouTube and Flickr, and a complete overhaul of the interface, which shifted links such as '@mentions' and 'Retweets' above the Twitter stream, while 'Messages' and 'Log Out' became accessible via a black bar at the very top of twitter.com. As of November 1, 2010, the company confirmed that the "New Twitter experience" had been rolled out to all users.
 
On April 5, 2011, Twitter tested a new homepage and phased out the "Old Twitter." [42] However, a glitch came about after the page was launched, so the previous "retro" homepage was still in use until the issues were resolved; the new homepage was reintroduced on April 20.[43][44]On December 8, 2011, Twitter overhauled its website once more to feature the "Fly" design, which the service says is easier for new users to follow and promotes advertising. In addition to the Home tab, the Connect and Discover tabs were introduced along with a redesigned profile and timeline of Tweets. The site's layout has been compared to that of Facebook.[45][46]
 
On February 21, 2012, it was announced that Twitter and Yandex agreed to a partnership. Yandex, a Russian search engine, finds value within the partnership due to Twitter’s real time news feeds. Twitter’s director of business development explained that it is important to have Twitter content where Twitter users go.[47]On March 21, 2012, Twitter celebrated its sixth birthday while also announcing that it has 140 million users and sees 340 million tweets per day. The number of users is up 40% from their September 2011 number, which was said to have been at 100 million at the time.[48]
 
In April 2012, Twitter announced that it was opening an office in Detroit, with the aim of working with automotive brands and advertising agencies.[49] Twitter also expanded its office in Dublin.[50]
On June 5, 2012, a modified logo was unveiled through the company blog, removing the text to showcase the slightly redesigned bird as the sole symbol of Twitter.[51]On October 5, 2012, Twitter acquired a video clip company called Vine that launched in January 2013.[52][53] Twitter released Vine as a standalone app that allows users to create and share six-second looping video clips on January 24, 2013. Vine videos shared on Twitter are visible directly in users' Twitter feeds.[54] Due to an influx of inappropriate content, it is now rated 17+ in Apple's app store.[55]
 
On December 18, 2012, Twitter announced it had surpassed 200 million monthly active users. Twitter hit 100 million monthly active users in September 2011.[56]On April 18, 2013, Twitter launched a music app called Twitter Music for the iPhone.[57]On August 28, 2013, Twitter acquired Trendrr.[58]

Leadership

As chief executive officer, Dorsey saw the startup through two rounds of capital funding by the venture capitalists who backed the company.[59]On October 16, 2008,[60] Williams took over the role of CEO, and Dorsey became chairman of the board.[61]On October 4, 2010, Williams announced that he was stepping down as CEO. Dick Costolo, formerly Twitter's chief operating officer, became CEO. According to a Twitter blog, dated October 4, 2010, Williams was to stay[dated info] with the company and "be completely focused on product strategy."[dated info][62]
 
According to The New York Times, "Mr. Dorsey and Mr. Costolo forged a close relationship" when Williams was away.[63] According to PC Magazine, Williams was "no longer involved in the day-to-day goings on at the company". He is focused on developing a new startup, but he became a member of Twitter's board of directors, and promised to "help in any way I can". Stone is still with Twitter but is working with AOL as an "advisor on volunteer efforts and philanthropy".[64]Dorsey rejoined Twitter in March 2011, as executive chairman focusing on product development. His time is split with Square (where he is CEO), whose offices are within walking distance of Twitter's in San Francisco.[63]
 
In September 2011, board members and investors Fred Wilson and Bijan Sabet resigned from Twitter's Board of Directors.[65]In October 2012, Twitter announced it had hired former Google executive Matt Derella to become their new director of business agency development.[66]

Twitter has become internationally identifiable by its signature bird logo. The original logo was in use from its launch in March 2006 until September 2010. A slightly modified version succeeded the first style when the website underwent its first redesign. On February 27, 2012, a tweet from an employee that works on the company's platform and API discussed the evolution of the "Larry the Bird" logo with Twitter's creative director and it was revealed that it was named after Larry Bird of the NBA's Boston Celtics fame. This detail had previously been confirmed when the Boston Celtics' director of interactive media asked Twitter co-founder Biz Stone about it in August 2011.[67]On June 5, 2012, Twitter unveiled its third logo redesign, replacing Larry the Bird with an updated icon simply named as the "Twitter Bird." As of this logo revision, the word "Twitter" and the lowercase letter "t" are no longer used, with the bird becoming the sole symbol for the company's branding.[68] According to Douglas Bowman, designer of Twitter, the new logo resembles a Mountain Bluebird.[69]
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧

Dubai History and Facts

September 9, 2013, 4:08 am
$
0
0
Nightscape of the high-rise section of Dubai, ...
Nightscape of the high-rise section of Dubai, Unitd Arab Emirates.
Dubai (/duːˈbaɪ/doo-BY; Arabic: دبيّ‎‹See Tfd›Dubayy, IPA: [dʊ'bæj]) is a city in the United Arab Emirates, located within the emirate. The emirate of Dubai is located on the southeast coast of the Persian Gulf and is one of the seven emirates that make up the country. It has the largest population in the UAE (2,106,177) and the second-largest land territory by area (4,114 km2) after Abu Dhabi, the national capital.[4] Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the only two emirates to have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the country's legislature.[5] The city of Dubai is located on the emirate's northern coastline and heads up the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area. Dubai is nowadays often misperceived as a country or city-state and, in some cases, the UAE as a whole has been described as 'Dubai'.[6]
 
The earliest mention of Dubai is in 1095 AD, and the earliest recorded settlement in the region dates from 1799. The Sheikhdom of Dubai was formally established in 1833 by Sheikh Maktoum bin Butti Al-Maktoum when he persuaded around 800 members of his tribe of the Bani Yas, living in what was then the Second Saudi State and now part of Saudi Arabia, to follow him to the Dubai Creek by the Abu Falasa clan of the Bani Yas. It remained under the tribe's control when the United Kingdom agreed to protect the Sheikhdom in 1892[7] and joined the nascent United Arab Emirates upon independence in 1971 as the country's second emirate. Its strategic geographic location made the town an important trading hub and by the beginning of the 20th century, Dubai was already an important regional port.
 
Today, Dubai has emerged as a cosmopolitan metropolis that has grown steadily to become a global city and a business and cultural hub of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf region.[8] It is also a major transport hub for passengers and cargo. Although Dubai's economy was historically built on the oil industry, the emirate's Western-style model of business drives its economy with the main revenues now coming from tourism, aviation, real estate, and financial services.[9][10][11] Dubai has recently attracted world attention through many innovative large construction projects and sports events. The city has become symbolic for its skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, such as the world's tallest Burj Khalifa, in addition to ambitious development projects including man-made islands, hotels, and some of the largest shopping malls in the region and the world. This increased attention has also highlighted labor and human rights issues concerning the city's largely South Asian workforce.[12] Dubai's property market experienced a major deterioration in 2008–2009 as a result of the worldwide economic downturn following the financial crisis of 2007-2008.[13] However, a 2013 report by the Oxford Business Group said that Dubai was making a gradual recovery with help coming from neighboring emirates.[14]
 
As of 2012, Dubai is the 22nd most expensive city in the world, and the most expensive city in the Middle East.[15][16] Dubai has also been rated as one of the best places to live in the Middle East, including by American global consulting firm Mercer who rated the city as the best place to live in the Middle East in 2011.[17]In 2012, the Global City Competitiveness Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Dubai at No. 40 with a total score of 55.9. According to their 2013 research report on the future competitiveness of cities, in 2025 Dubai moves up to 23rd place overall in the Index.[18]Indians are top foreign investors in Dubai realty

Histor

Although stone tools have been found at many sites, little is known about the UAE's early inhabitants as only a few settlements have been found.[21] Many ancient towns in the area were trading centers between the Eastern and Western worlds. The remnants of an ancient mangrove swamp, dated at 7,000 BC, were discovered during the construction of sewer lines near Dubai Internet City. The area was covered with sand about 5,000 years ago as the coast retreated inland, becoming a part of the city's present coastline.[21][22] Pre Islamic ceramics have been found from the 3rd and 4th century.[23] Prior to Islam, the people in this region worshiped Bajir (or Bajar).[23] The Byzantine (Greek) and Sassanian (Persian) empires constituted the great powers of the period, with the Sassanians controlling much of the region. After the spread of Islam in the area, the UmayyadCaliph, of the eastern Islamic world, invaded south-east Arabia and drove out the Sassanians. Excavations by the Dubai Museum in the region of Al-Jumayra (Jumeirah) found several artifacts from the Umayyad period.[24]
 
The earliest recorded mention of Dubai is in 1095, in the "Book of Geography" by the Andalusian-Arab geographerAbu Abdullah al-Bakri. The Venetian pearl merchant Gaspero Balbi visited the area in 1580 and mentioned Dubai (Dibei) for its pearling industry.[24] Since 1799, there has been a settlement known as Dubai town.[25] In the early 19th century, the Al Abu Falasa clan (House of Al-Falasi) of Bani Yas clan established Dubai, which remained an important dependent of Abu Dhabi until 1833.[26] On 8 January 1820, the sheikh of Dubai and other sheikhs in the region signed the "General Maritime Peace Treaty" with the British government.[21] In 1833, following tribal feuding, the Al Maktoum dynasty (also descendants of the House of Al-Falasi) of the Bani Yas tribe left their ancestral home of the Liwa Oasis, South-west of the settlement of Abu Dhabi and quickly took over Dubai from the Abu Fasala clan without resistance.[26]
 
Dubai came under the protection of the United Kingdom by the "Exclusive Agreement" of 1892, in which the UK agreed to protect Dubai against the developing interests of France, Germany, and Russia in the Persian Gulf.[26] Two catastrophes struck the town during the 1800s. First, in 1841, a smallpox epidemic broke out in the Bur Dubai locality, forcing residents to relocate east to Deira. Then, in 1894, fire swept through Deira, burning down most homes.[27] However, the town's geographical location continued to attract traders and merchants from around the region. The emir of Dubai was keen to attract foreign traders and lowered trade tax brackets, which lured traders away from Sharjah and Bandar Lengeh, the region's main trade hubs at the time. Persian merchants naturally looked across to the Arab shore of the Persian Gulf finally making their homes in Dubai. They continued to trade with Lingah, however, as do many of the dhows in Dubai Creek today, and they named their district Bastakiya, after the Bastak region in southern Persia.[27][28]
 
Dubai's geographical proximity to Iran made it an important trade location. The town of Dubai was an important port of call for foreign tradesmen, chiefly those from Iran, many of whom eventually settled in the town. By the beginning of the 20th century, it was an important port.[25] Dubai was known for its pearl exports until the 1930s; the pearl trade was damaged irreparably by World War I, and later on by the Great Depression in the 1930s. With the collapse of the pearling industry, Dubai fell into a deep depression and many residents starved or migrated to other parts of the Persian Gulf.[21]
 
In the early days since its inception, Dubai was constantly at odds with Abu Dhabi. In 1947, a border dispute between Dubai and Abu Dhabi on the northern sector of their mutual border, escalated into war.[29] Arbitration by the British and the creation of a buffer frontier running south eastwards from the coast at Ras Hasian resulted in a temporary cessation of hostilities.[30] Electricity, telephone services, and an airport were established in Dubai in the 1950s, when the British moved their local administrative offices there from Sharjah.[31] After years of exploration following large finds in neighboring Abu Dhabi, oil was eventually discovered in Dubai in 1966, albeit in far smaller quantities. This led the emirate to grant concessions to international oil companies, thus igniting a massive influx of foreign workers, mainly Indians and Pakistanis. Between 1968 and 1975 the city's population grew by over 300%.[32]
 
On 2 December 1971 Dubai, together with Abu Dhabi and five other emirates, formed the United Arab Emirates after the former protector, Britain, left the Persian Gulf in 1971.[33] In 1973, Dubai joined the other emirates to adopt a uniform currency: the UAE dirham.[25]Qatar and Bahrain chose to remain independent nations. In 1973, the monetary union with Qatar was dissolved and the UAE Dirham was introduced throughout the Emirates.
 
During the 1970s, Dubai continued to grow from revenues generated from oil and trade, even as the city saw an influx of immigrants fleeing the Lebanese civil war.[34] Border disputes between the emirates continued even after the formation of the UAE; it was only in 1979 that a formal compromise was reached that ended hostilities.[35] The Jebel Ali port was established in 1979. Jafza (Jebel Ali Free Zone) was built around the port in 1985 to provide foreign companies unrestricted import of labor and export capital.[36]
 
The Gulf War of 1990 had a negative financial effect on the city, as depositors withdrew their money and traders withdrew their trade, but subsequently the city recovered in a changing political climate and thrived. Later in the 1990s, many foreign trading communities—first from Kuwait, during the Gulf War, and later from Bahrain, during the Shia unrest—moved their businesses to Dubai.[28] Dubai provided refueling bases to allied forces at the Jebel Ali Free Zone during the Gulf War, and again during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Large increases in oil prices after the Gulf War encouraged Dubai to continue to focus on free trade and tourism..[19]
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧
↧

YouTube History and Facts

September 9, 2013, 4:24 am
$
0
0
YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California.
YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California. 
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005 and owned by Google since late 2006, on which users can upload, view and share videos.[4] The company is based in San Bruno, California, and uses Adobe Flash Video and HTML5 technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips, and music videos, as well as amateur content such as video blogging, short original videos, and educational videos.
 
Most of the content on YouTube has been uploaded by individuals, although media corporations including CBS, the BBC, Vevo, Hulu, and other organizations offer some of their material via the site, as part of the YouTube partnership program.[5] Unregistered users can watch videos, while registered users can upload an unlimited number of videos. Videos considered to contain potentially offensive content are available only to registered users at least 18 years old. YouTube, LLC was bought by Google for US$1.65 billion in November 2006 and now operates as a Google subsidiary

Company history

YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, who were all early employees of PayPal.[7] Hurley had studied design at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, while Chen and Karim studied computer science together at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[8]
According to a story that has often been repeated in the media, Hurley and Chen developed the idea for YouTube during the early months of 2005, after they had experienced difficulty sharing videos that had been shot at a dinner party at Chen's apartment in San Francisco. Karim did not attend the party and denied that it had occurred, while Chen commented that the idea that YouTube was founded after a dinner party "was probably very strengthened by marketing ideas around creating a story that was very digestible".[9]
 
Karim said that the inspiration for YouTube came from Janet Jackson's role in the 2004 Super Bowl incident, when her breast was accidentally exposed during her performance. Karim could not easily find a video clip of the incident online, which led to the idea of a video sharing site.[10] Hurley and Chen said that the original idea for YouTube was a video version of an online dating service, and had been influenced by the website Hot or Not.[11][12]YouTube began as a venture-funded technology startup, primarily from a $11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital between November 2005 and April 2006.[13] YouTube's early headquarters were situated above a pizzeria and Japanese restaurant in San Mateo, California.[14] The domain namewww.youtube.com was activated on February 14, 2005, and the website was developed over the subsequent months.[15]
 
The first YouTube video was entitled Me at the zoo, and shows co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo.[16] The video was uploaded on April 23, 2005, and can still be viewed on the site.[17] 
YouTube offered the public a beta test of the site in May 2005, six months before the official launch in November 2005. The site grew rapidly, and in July 2006 the company announced that more than 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every day, and that the site was receiving 100 million video views per day.[19] According to data published by market research company comScore, YouTube is the dominant provider of online video in the United States, with a market share of around 43 percent and more than 14 billion videos viewed in May 2010.[20]
 
YouTube says that roughly 60 hours of new videos are uploaded to the site every minute, and that around three quarters of the material comes from outside the U.S.[21][22][23] The site has 800 million unique users a month.[24] It is estimated that in 2007 YouTube consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000.[25]Alexa ranks YouTube as the third most visited website on the Internet, behind Google and Facebook.[26]
The choice of the name www.youtube.com led to problems for a similarly named website, www.utube.com. The owner of the site, Universal Tube & Rollform Equipment, filed a lawsuit against YouTube in November 2006 after being overloaded on a regular basis by people looking for YouTube. Universal Tube has since changed the name of its website to www.utubeonline.com.[27][28] In October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion in Google stock, and the deal was finalized on November 13, 2006.[29]
Google does not provide detailed figures for YouTube's running costs, and YouTube's revenues in 2007 were noted as "not material" in a regulatory filing.[30] In June 2008, a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at $200 million, noting progress in advertising sales.[31] In January 2012, it was estimated that visitors to YouTube spent an average of 15 minutes a day on the site, in contrast to the four or five hours a day spent by a typical U.S. citizen watching television.[24]
YouTube entered into a marketing and advertising partnership with NBC in June 2006.[32] In November 2008, YouTube reached an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment, and CBS, allowing the companies to post full-length films and television episodes on the site, accompanied by advertisements in a section for US viewers called "Shows". The move was intended to create competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from NBC, Fox, and Disney.[33][34] In November 2009, YouTube launched a version of "Shows" available to UK viewers, offering around 4,000 full-length shows from more than 60 partners.[35] In January 2010, YouTube introduced an online film rentals service,[36] which is available only to users in the US, Canada and the UK as of 2010.[37][38] The service offers over 6,000 films.[39]
 
In March 2010, YouTube began free streaming of certain content, including 60 cricket matches of the Indian Premier League. According to YouTube, this was the first worldwide free online broadcast of a major sporting event.[40]
On March 31, 2010, the YouTube website launched a new design, with the aim of simplifying the interface and increasing the time users spend on the site. Google product manager Shiva Rajaraman commented: "We really felt like we needed to step back and remove the clutter."[41] In May 2010, it was reported that YouTube was serving more than two billion videos a day, which it described as "nearly double the prime-time audience of all three major US television networks combined".[42] In May 2011, YouTube reported in its company blog that the site was receiving more than three billion views per day.[22] In January 2012, YouTube stated that the figure had increased to four billion videos streamed per day.[21]
In October 2010, Hurley announced that he would be stepping down as chief executive officer of YouTube to take an advisory role, and that Salar Kamangar would take over as head of the company.[43]
In April 2011, James Zern, a YouTube software engineer, revealed that 30 percent of videos accounted for 99 percent of views on the site.[44]
In November 2011, the Google+ social networking site was integrated directly with YouTube and the Chrome web browser, allowing YouTube videos to be viewed from within the Google+ interface.[45] On December 1, 2011, YouTube launched a new version of the site interface, with the video channels displayed in a central column on the home page, similar to the news feeds of social networking sites.[46] At the same time, a new version of the YouTube logo was introduced with a darker shade of red, the first change in design since October 2006.[47]
In May 2013, YouTube launched a pilot program to began offering some content providers the ability to charge $0.99 per month or more for certain channels, but the vast majority of its videos would remain free to view.[48][49]

Features

Video technology

Playback

Viewing YouTube videos on a personal computer requires the Adobe Flash Playerplug-in to be installed on the browser. The Adobe Flash Player plug-in is one of the most common pieces of software installed on personal computers and accounts for almost 75% of online video material.[50]
In January 2010, YouTube launched an experimental version of the site that uses the built-in multimedia capabilities of web browsers supporting the HTML5 standard.[51] This allows videos to be viewed without requiring Adobe Flash Player or any other plug-in to be installed.[52][53] The YouTube site has a page that allows supported browsers to opt in to the HTML5 trial. Only browsers that support HTML5 Video using the H.264 or WebM formats can play the videos, and not all videos on the site are available.[54][55]
YouTube experimented with Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (MPEG-DASH), which is an adaptive bit-rate HTTP-based streaming solution optimizing the bitrate and quality for the available network.[56] Currently they are using Adobe Dynamic Streaming for Flash.[57]

Uploading

All YouTube users can upload videos up to 15 minutes each in duration. Users who have a good track record of complying with the site's Community Guidelines may be offered the ability to upload videos up to 12 hours in length, which requires verifying the account, normally through a mobile phone.[58] When YouTube was launched in 2005, it was possible to upload long videos, but a ten-minute limit was introduced in March 2006 after YouTube found that the majority of videos exceeding this length were unauthorized uploads of television shows and films.[59][60] The 10-minute limit was increased to 15 minutes in July 2010.[61] File size is limited to 2 GB for uploads from the YouTube web page, or 20 GB if up-to-date browser versions are used.[62]
YouTube accepts videos uploaded in most container formats, including .AVI, .MKV, .MOV, .MP4, DivX, .FLV, and .ogg and .ogv. These include video formats such as MPEG-4, MPEG, VOB, and .WMV. It also supports 3GP, allowing videos to be uploaded from mobile phones.[63] Videos with progressive scanning or interlaced scanning can be uploaded, but for the best video quality, YouTube suggests interlaced videos are deinterlaced prior to uploading. All the video formats on YouTube use progressive scanning.[64]

Quality and codecs

YouTube originally offered videos at only one quality level, displayed at a resolution of 320x240 pixels using the Sorenson Spark codec (a variant of H.263),[65][66] with mono MP3 audio.[67] In June 2007, YouTube added an option to watch videos in 3GP format on mobile phones.[68] In March 2008, a high quality mode was added, which increased the resolution to 480x360 pixels.[69]
In November 2008, 720pHD support was added. At the time of the 720p launch, the YouTube player was changed from a 4:3aspect ratio to a widescreen16:9.[70] With this new feature, YouTube began a switchover to H.264/MPEG-4 AVC as its default video compression format. In November 2009, 1080p HD support was added. In July 2010, YouTube announced that it had launched a range of videos in 4K format, which allows a resolution of up to 4096x3072 pixels.[71][72] However, it was lowered to 2048 x 1536 as of 2012.
YouTube videos are available in a range of quality levels. The former names of standard quality (SQ), high quality (HQ) and high definition (HD) have been replaced by numerical values representing the vertical resolution of the video. The default video stream is encoded in H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format, with stereo AAC audio.[73].[6]
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧

Samsung History and Facts

September 9, 2013, 4:31 am
$
0
0
Samsung_building in Seoul, South Korea
Samsung_building in Seoul, South Korea (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Samsung Group  is a South Korean multinationalconglomerate company headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul. It comprises numerous subsidiaries and affiliated businesses, most of them united under the Samsung brand, and is the largest South Korean chaebol (business conglomerate).
 
Samsung was founded by Lee Byung-chul in 1938 as a trading company. Over the next three decades the group diversified into areas including food processing, textiles, insurance, securities and retail. Samsung entered the electronics industry in the late 1960s and the construction and shipbuilding industries in the mid-1970s; these areas would drive its subsequent growth. Following Lee's death in 1987, Samsung was separated into four business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group. Since the 1990s Samsung has increasingly globalized its activities, and electronics, particularly mobile phones and semiconductors, have become its most important source of income.
Notable Samsung industrial subsidiaries include Samsung Electronics (the world's largest information technology company measured by 2012 revenues, and 4th in market value),[2]Samsung Heavy Industries (the world's second-largest shipbuilder measured by 2010 revenues),[3] and Samsung Engineering and Samsung C&T (respectively the world's 13th and 36rd-largest construction companies).[4] Other notable subsidiaries include Samsung Life Insurance (the world's 14th-largest life insurance company),[5]Samsung Everland (operator of Everland Resort, the oldest theme park in South Korea),[6]Samsung Techwin (an aerospace, surveillance and defence company) and Cheil Worldwide (the world's 16th-largest advertising agency measured by 2011 revenues).[7][8]
 
Samsung has a powerful influence on South Korea's economic development, politics, media and culture, and has been a major driving force behind the "Miracle on the Han River".[9][10] Its affiliate companies produce around a fifth of South Korea's total exports.[11] Samsung's revenue was equal to 17% of the South Korea's $1082 billion GDP.[12]
In 2013, Samsung began construction on building the world's largest mobile phone factory in the Thai Nguyen province of Vietnam

Name

According to the founder of Samsung Group, the meaning of the Koreanhanja word Samsung (三星) is "tristar" or "three stars". The word "three" represents something "big, numerous and powerful"; the "stars" mean eternity.[14]

History

1938 to 1970

 
In 1938,[15]Lee Byung-chull (1910–1987) of a large landowning family in the Uiryeong county came to the nearby Daegu city and founded Samsung Sanghoe (삼성상회, 三星商會), a small trading company with forty employees located in Su-dong (now Ingyo-dong). It dealt in groceries produced in and around the city and produced its own noodles. The company prospered and Lee moved its head office to Seoul in 1947. When the Korean War broke out, however, he was forced to leave Seoul and started a sugar refinery in Busan named Cheil Jedang. After the war, in 1954, Lee founded Cheil Mojik and built the plant in Chimsan-dong, Daegu. It was the largest woollen mill ever in the country and the company took on the aspect of a major company.
 
Samsung diversified into many areas and Lee sought to help establish Samsung as an industry leader in a wide range of enterprises, moving into businesses such as insurance, securities, and retail. Lee placed great importance on industrialization, and focused his economic development strategy on a handful of large domestic conglomerates, protecting them from competition and assisting them financially.[16]In 1948, Cho Hong-jai (the Hyosung group’s founder) jointly invested in a new company called Samsung Mulsan Gongsa (삼성물산공사), or the Samsung Trading Corporation, with the Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chull. The trading firm grew to become the present-day Samsung C&T Corporation. But after some years Cho and Lee separated due to differences in management between them. He wanted to get up to a 30% group share. After settlement, Samsung Group was separated into Samsung Group and Hyosung Group, Hankook Tire, and others.[17][18]
 
In the late 1960s, Samsung Group entered into the electronics industry. It formed several electronics-related divisions, such as Samsung Electronics Devices Co., Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Samsung Corning Co., and Samsung Semiconductor & Telecommunications Co., and made the facility in Suwon. Its first product was a black-and-white television set.

1970 to 1990

 
In 1980, Samsung acquired the Gumi-based Hanguk Jeonja Tongsin and entered the telecommunications hardware industry. Its early products were switchboards. The facility were developed into the telephone and fax manufacturing systems and became the centre of Samsung's mobile phone manufacturing. They have produced over 800 million mobile phones to date.[20] The company grouped them together under Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. in the 1980s.
 
After Lee, the founder's death in 1987, Samsung Group was separated into four business groups – Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group and Hansol Group.[21] Shinsegae (discount store, department store) was originally part of Samsung Group, separated in the 1990s from the Samsung Group along with CJ Group (Food/Chemicals/Entertainment/logistics) and the Hansol Group (Paper/Telecom). Today these separated groups are independent and they are not part of or connected to the Samsung Group.[22] One Hansol Group representative said, "Only people ignorant of the laws governing the business world could believe something so absurd," adding, "When Hansol separated from the Samsung Group in 1991, it severed all payment guarantees and share-holding ties with Samsung affiliates." One Hansol Group source asserted, "Hansol, Shinsegae, and CJ have been under independent management since their respective separations from the Samsung Group." One Shinsegae Department Store executive director said, "Shinsegae has no payment guarantees associated with the Samsung Group."[22]
 
In the 1980s, Samsung Electronics began to invest heavily in research and development, investments that were pivotal in pushing the company to the forefront of the global electronics industry. In 1982, it built a television assembly plant in Portugal; in 1984, a plant in New York; in 1985, a plant in Tokyo; in 1987, a facility in England; and another facility in Austin in 1996. As of 2012, Samsung has invested more than US$13 billion in the Austin facility, which operates under the name Samsung Austin Semiconductor LLC. This makes the Austin location the largest foreign investment in Texas and one of the largest single foreign investments in the United States.[23][24]

1990 to 2000

 
Samsung started to rise as an international corporation in the 1990s. Samsung's construction branch was awarded a contract to build one of the two Petronas Towers in Malaysia, Taipei 101 in Taiwan and the Burj Khalifa in United Arab Emirates.[25] In 1993, Lee Kun-hee sold off ten of Samsung Group's subsidiaries, downsized the company, and merged other operations to concentrate on three industries: electronics, engineering, and chemicals. In 1996, the Samsung Group reacquired the Sungkyunkwan University foundation.
 
Samsung became the largest producer of memory chips in the world in 1992, and is the world's second-largest chipmaker after Intel (see Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Market Share Ranking Year by Year).[26] In 1995, it created its first liquid-crystal display screen. Ten years later, Samsung grew to be the world's largest manufacturer of liquid-crystal display panels. Sony, which had not invested in large-size TFT-LCDs, contacted Samsung to cooperate, and, in 2006, S-LCD was established as a joint venture between Samsung and Sony in order to provide a stable supply of LCD panels for both manufacturers. S-LCD was owned by Samsung (50% plus 1 share) and Sony (50% minus 1 share) and operates its factories and facilities in Tangjung, South Korea. As on 26 December 2011 it was announced that Samsung had acquired the stake of Sony in this joint venture.[27]
 
Compared to other major Korean companies, Samsung survived the 1997 Asian financial crisis relatively unharmed. However, Samsung Motor was sold to Renault at a significant loss. As of 2010, Renault Samsung is 80.1 percent owned by Renault and 19.9 percent owned by Samsung. Additionally, Samsung manufactured a range of aircraft from the 1980s to 1990s. The company was founded in 1999 as Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the result of merger between then three domestic major aerospace divisions of Samsung Aerospace, Daewoo Heavy Industries, and Hyundai Space and Aircraft Company. However, Samsung still manufactures aircraft engines and gas turbines. [28]

2000 to 2013

 
In 2000, Samsung opened a computer programming laboratory in Warsaw, Poland. Its work began with set-top-box technology before moving into digital TV and smartphones. As of 2011, the Warsaw base is Samsung's most important R&D center in Europe, forecast to be recruiting 400 new-hires per year by the end of 2013.[29]In 2001 Samsung Techwin became the sole supplier of a combustor module for the Rolls-RoyceTrent 900 used by the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger airliner.[30] Samsung Techwin is also a revenue-sharing participant in the Boeing's 787 Dreamliner GEnx engine program.[31]
 
In 2010, Samsung announced a 10-year growth strategy centred around five businesses.[32] One of these businesses was to be focused on biopharmaceuticals, to which the Company has committed ₩2.1 trillion.[33]In December 2011, Samsung Electronics sold its hard disk drive (HDD) business to Seagate.[34]In the first quarter of 2012, Samsung Electronics became the world's largest mobile phone maker by unit sales, overtaking Nokia, which had been the market leader since 1998.[35][36] In the August 21st edition of the Austin American-Statesman, Samsung confirmed plans to spend 3 to 4 billion dollars converting half of its Austin chip manufacturing plant to a more profitable chip.[37] The conversion should start in early 2013 with production on line by the end of 2013. On March 14, 2013, Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S4.
 
On August 24, 2012, 9 U.S jurors ruled that Samsung had to pay Apple Inc. US$1.05 billion in damages for violating six of its patents on smartphone technology. The award was still less than the US$2.5 billion requested by Apple. The decision also ruled that Apple didn't violate 5 Samsung patents cited in the case.[38] Samsung decried the decision saying that the move could harm innovation in the sector.[39] It also followed a South Korean ruling stating that both companies were guilty of infringing on each other's intellectual property.[40] In the first trading after the ruling, Samsung shares on the Kospi index fell 7.7%, the largest fall since October 24, 2008, to 1,177,000 Korean won.[41] Apple then sought to ban the sales of eight Samsung phones (Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T, Galaxy S2 Skyrocket, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail) in the United States[42] which has been denied by the court.[43]
On September 4, 2012, Samsung announced that it plans to examine all of its Chinese suppliers for possible violations of labor policies. The company said it will carry out audits of 250 Chinese companies that are its exclusive suppliers to see if children under the age of 16 are being used in their factories.[44]In 2013 news outlets in Australia and New Zealand reported a number of Samsung washing machines spontaneously catching on fire.[45]

Acquisitions and attempted acquisitions

Samsung has made the following acquisitions and attempted acquisitions:[46]
Rollei– Swiss watch battle
Samsung Techwin acquired a German camera-maker Rollei in 1995. Samsung (Rollei) used its optic expertise on the crystals of a new line of 100% Swiss-made watches, designed by a team of watchmakers at Nouvelle Piquerez S.A. in Bassequort, Switzerland. Rolex's decision to fight Rollei on every front stemmed from the close resemblance between the two names and fears that its sales would suffer as a consequence. In the face of such a threat, the Geneva firm decided to confront. This was also a demonstration of the Swiss watch industry's determination to defend itself when an established brand is threatened. Rolex sees this front-line battle as vital for the entire Swiss watch industry. Rolex has succeeded in keeping Rollei out of the German market. On 11 March 1995 the Cologne District court prohibited the advertising and sale of Rollei watches on German territory.[47][48]
Fokker, a Dutch aircraft maker
Samsung lost a chance to revive its failed bid to take over Dutch aircraft maker Fokker when other airplane makers rejected its offer to form a consortium. The three proposed partners – Hyundai, Hanjin and Daewoo – have notified the South Korean government that they will not join Samsung Aerospace Industries Ltd.[49]
Samsung bought AST (1994) and tried to break into North America, but the effort floundered. Samsung was forced to close the California-based computer maker following mass defection of research staff and a string of losses.[50]
FUBU clothing and apparel
In 1992, Daymond John had started the company with a hat collection that was made in his house in the Queens area of New York City. To fund the company, John had to mortgage his house for $100,000. With his friends, namely J. Alexander Martin, Carl Brown and Keith Perrin, half of his house was turned into the first factory of FUBU, while the other half remained as the living quarters. Along with the expansion of FUBU, Samsung invested in FUBU in 1995.[51]
Lehman Brothers Holdings’ Asian operations
Samsung Securities was one of a handful of brokerages looking into Lehman Brothers Holdings. But Nomura Holdings has reportedly waved the biggest check to win its bid for Lehman Brothers Holdings’ Asian operations, beating out Samsung Securities, Standard Chartered, and Barclays.[52] Ironically, after few months Samsung Securities Co., Ltd. and City of London-based N M Rothschild & Sons (more commonly known simply as Rothschild) have agreed to form a strategic alliance in investment banking business. Two parties will jointly work on cross border mergers and acquisition deals.[53]
MEDISON Co.,Ltd.– Ultrasound Monitors
In December 2010, Samsung Electronics Co. bought MEDISON Co.,Ltd., a South Korean medical-equipment company, the first step in a long-discussed plan to diversify from consumer electronics.[54]
Grandis Inc. – memory developer
In July 2011, Samsung announced that it had acquired spin-transfer torque random access memory (MRAM) vendor Grandis Inc.[55] Grandis will become a part of Samsung's R&D operations and will focus on development of next generation random-access memory.[56]
Samsung and Sony joint venture – LCD display
On December 26, 2011 the board of Samsung Electronics approved a plan to buy Sony's entire stake in their 2004 joint liquid crystal display (LCD) venture for 1.08 trillion won ($938.97 million).[57]
mSpot, Inc – Music Service
On May 9, 2012, mSpot announced that it had been acquired by Samsung Electronics with the intention of a cloud based music service.[58] The succeeding service was Samsung Music Hub.
NVELO, Inc. – Cache Software Developer
In December 2012, Samsung announced that it had acquired the privately held storage software vendor NVELO, Inc., based in Santa Clara, California.[59] NVELO will become part of Samsung's R&D operations, and will focus on software for intelligently managing and optimizing next-generation Samsung SSD storage subsystems for consumer and enterprise computing platforms.
NeuroLogica – Portable CT scanner
In January 2013, Samsung announced that it has acquired medical imaging company NeuroLogica, part of the multinational conglomerate’s plans to build a leading medical technology business. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.[60]

Operations

Samsung comprises around 80 companies.[62] It is highly diversified, with activities in areas including construction, consumer electronics, financial services, shipbuilding, and medical services.[62]
In FY 2009, Samsung reported consolidated revenues of 220 trillion KRW ($172.5 billion). In FY 2010, Samsung reported consolidated revenues of 280 trillion KRW ($258 billion), and profits of 30 trillion KRW ($27.6 billion) (based upon a KRW-USD exchange rate of 1,084.5 KRW per USD, the spot rate as of 19 August 2011 (2011-08-19)).[63] However, it should be noted that these amounts do not include the revenues from all of Samsung's subsidiaries based outside South Korea.[64]

Subsidiaries and affiliates

As of April 2011 the Samsung Group comprised 59 unlisted companies and 19 listed companies, all of which had their primary listing on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange.[65]
Principal subsidiary and affiliate companies of Samsung include:

Ace Digitech

Ace Digitech is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 036550).

Cheil Industries

Cheil Industries is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 001300).

Cheil Worldwide

Cheil Worldwide is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 030000).

Credu

Credu is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 067280).

Imarket Korea

Imarket Korea is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 122900).

Samsung Card

Samsung Card is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 029780).

Samsung C&T Corporation

Samsung C&T Corporation is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (000830).

Samsung Electro-Mechanics

Samsung Electro-Mechanics, established in 1973 as a manufacturer of key electronic components, is headquartered in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. It is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 009150).[66]

Samsung Electronics

Main article: Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a multinational electronics and information technology company headquartered in Suwon and the flagship company of the Samsung Group.[67] Its products include air conditioners, computers, digital televisions, liquid crystal displays (including thin film transistors (TFTs) and active-matrix organic light-emitting diodes (AMOLEDs)), mobile phones, monitors, printers, refrigerators, semiconductors and telecoms networking equipment.[68] It is the world's largest mobile phone maker by unit sales in the first quarter of 2012, with a global market share of 25.4%.[69] It is also the world's second-largest semiconductor maker by 2011 revenues (after Intel).[70]
Samsung Electronics is listed on the Korea Exchange stock-exchange (number 005930)..[13]
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧

Mamnoon Hussain Life and History

September 9, 2013, 12:20 pm
$
0
0

Mamnoon Hussain (Urdu: ممنون حسین‎; born 2 March or 23 December 1940) is a Pakistani textile businessman and politician[5] who is the currentPresident of Pakistan, having been elected in 2013.

Hussain briefly served as Governor of Sindh in 1999; his stint as Governor was cut short by the October 1999 military coup d'état. He was elected as President of Pakistan on 30 July 2013, and holds office since 8 September 2013, succeeding Asif Ali Zardari, who did not seek re-election. Mamnoon Hussain, a Nawaz Sharif loyalist, won the presidential election with 432 votes, while his rival candidate Wajihuddin Ahmed received 77 votes. 

Personal life 

Mamnoon Hussain hails from an Urdu-speaking family[6] of shoe traders[7] and was born in Agra, British India.[8] He and his family migrated to Karachi in 1949 after the Partition of India in 1947.[9] He earned his degree from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi in the 1960s. Hussain was once president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.[10] He briefly served as Governor of Sindh in 1999.

Political career 

Azhar Haroon, current president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry is quoted to have said: "He had no political affiliation until 1999 but his polite discourse and professional ability impressed Nawaz Sharif, who made him governor of Sindh"[11] He is a relatively less known figure,[9][12] a Nawaz Sharif loyalist,[13] and was elected as 12th President of Pakistan as the official nominee of the PML-N in the July 2013 presidential election. Hussain secured 432 votes and his only rival Wajihuddin Ahmed received 77.[14] He took oath on 9 September 2013 in a prestigious ceremony held at Aiwan-i-Sadar, attended by main stream Political and Military leadership along with Foreign dignitaries, Media personals and his close relatives. [15]
Enhanced by Zemanta
↧
Viewing all 6213 articles
Browse latest View live
Search