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George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000. The eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush, he was born in New Haven, Connecticut.
Pearl Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. <br/><br/>

The U.S. government first obtained exclusive use of the inlet and the right to maintain a repair and coaling station for ships here in 1887. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941 was the immediate cause of the United States' entry into World War II.
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States, as well as the first African American to hold the office.<br/><br/>

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review.
The Madonna of Bruges is a marble sculpture by Michelangelo of Mary with the Child Jesus.<br/><br/> 

Considered a masterpiece, it was stolen by German forces as part of their 'Nazi Plunder' programme in 1944. It was recovered a year later by allied forces at the Altaussee salt mine in central Austria and returned safely to Bruges, where it remains today.
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States, as well as the first African American to hold the office.<br/><br/>

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review.
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States, as well as the first African American to hold the office.<br/><br/>

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review.
John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona and was the Republican presidential nominee for the 2008 United States presidential election.<br/><br/> 

McCain followed his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals, into the United States Navy, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973.<br/><br/> 

Despite spending five and a half years as a prisoner of war and suffering torture in the 'Hanoi Hilton' prison, McCain is known for his work in the 1990s to restore diplomatic relations with Vietnam.
William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891 – July 26, 1986) was an American Democratic politician, businessman, and diplomat. He was the son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman. He served as Secretary of Commerce under President Harry S. Truman and later as the 48th Governor of New York. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1952, and again in 1956 when he was endorsed by President Truman but lost to Adlai Stevenson both times.<br/><br/>

Harriman served President Franklin D. Roosevelt as special envoy to Europe and served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union and U.S. Ambassador to Britain. He served in numerous U.S. diplomatic assignments in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations. He was a core member of the group of foreign policy elders known as 'The Wise Men'.
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–81).<br/><br/>

He reported many events from 1937 to 1981, including bombings in World War II; the Nuremberg trials; combat in the Vietnam War; the Dawson's Field hijackings; Watergate; the Iran Hostage Crisis; and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King, Jr., and Beatles musician John Lennon.
The United Wa State Army, also known as the UWSP (United Wa State Party) or Red Wa is an ethnic minority army of an estimated 30,000 Wa soldiers of Myanmar's Special Region No. 2 led by Bao Youxiang.<br/><br/>The UWSA is the military wing of the United Wa State Party (UWSP), and was formed after the collapse of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB) in 1989.<br/><br/>The UWSA was founded and led by Chao Ngi Lai (1939-2009) and later Bao Youxiang.
Benjamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu ( born 21 October 1949) is the current Prime Minister of Israel. He also currently serves as a member of the Knesset and Chairman of the Likud party.<br/><br/>

Netanyahu has been elected Prime Minister of Israel four times, matching David Ben-Gurion's record. He is currently the second longest-serving Prime Minister in Israel's history after David Ben-Gurion, and upon the completion of his current term he will become the longest-serving Prime Minister in the history of Israel.
Wu was born to an intellectual family with her father a chemical engineer and mother a doctor. She enjoyed singing to radio tunes at an early age. She originally wanted to go to the Shanghai Academy of Music, but her parents opposed the idea and claimed that the music industry was for individuals with no real ambition. She later began singing for radio stations at night, particularly for the children's programs.<br/><br/>

Wu had a soft singing voice that made her a success. She continued to sing without her family knowing so and used the stage name 'Wu Yingyin'. In 1945 she became a nightclub singer and garnered acclaim for her performances. Most of her vocal techniques were self-taught. At the age of 24, she participated in a nightclub competition. Winning the crown, she was discovered and immediately signed to a contract with Pathé Records (China) record company. Her first record (我想忘了你 'I Want to Forget You) became a hit. In total, Pathé Records produced 30 albums for her. She was affectionately nicknamed 鼻音歌后 ('Queen of the Nasal Voice').<br/><br/>

She relocated to Hong Kong in 1957 where she continued her singing career. She returned to China for recordings in 1983 in Guangzhou. In July 1984, she moved from Hong Kong to Pasadena, California. At the age of 80, she was still singing in overseas Chinese neighborhood community events for charitable causes. At the time, she was regarded as one of the world's oldest active singers.<br/><br/>

She would also sing in Singapore, and on January 3, 2003 she was invited to perform at the Shanghai Grand Theatre. Wu died in Los Angeles on 17 December 2009.
The Second Indochina War, known in America as the Vietnam War, was a Cold War era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the U.S. and other anti-communist nations. The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and part of their wider strategy of containment.<br/><br/>

The North Vietnamese government viewed the war as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state. U.S. military advisors arrived beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with U.S. troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962. U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive.<br/><br/>

U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973. The capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese army in April 1975 marked the end of the US-Vietnam War.
The Second Indochina War, known in America as the Vietnam War, was a Cold War era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the U.S. and other anti-communist nations. The U.S. government viewed involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and part of their wider strategy of containment.<br/><br/>

The North Vietnamese government viewed the war as a colonial war, fought initially against France, backed by the U.S., and later against South Vietnam, which it regarded as a U.S. puppet state. U.S. military advisors arrived beginning in 1950. U.S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with U.S. troop levels tripling in 1961 and tripling again in 1962. U.S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965. Operations spanned borders, with Laos and Cambodia heavily bombed. Involvement peaked in 1968 at the time of the Tet Offensive.<br/><br/>

U.S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973. The capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese army in April 1975 marked the end of the US-Vietnam War.
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on 23 June, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers and other few rebel groups), a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island. After a 26 year long military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009.
The Sri Lankan Civil War was a conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Beginning on 23 June, 1983, there was an on-and-off insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers and other few rebel groups), a separatist militant organization which fought to create an independent Tamil state named Tamil Eelam in the north and the east of the island. After a 26 year long military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers in May 2009.
Sri Lanka: General Sarath Fonseka, politician, former Commander of the Sri Lanka Army and Chief of Defence Staff, at a war heroes felicitation ceremony held at Ananda College. Date 3 July 2009. Public domain image by Rajith Vidanaarachchi (Creative Commons).
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, is a separatist organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist campaign that sought to create Tamil Eelam, an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. This campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, which was one of the longest running armed conflicts in Asia until the LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in May 2009.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, is a separatist organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist campaign that sought to create Tamil Eelam, an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. This campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, which was one of the longest running armed conflicts in Asia until the LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in May 2009.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, commonly known as the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers, is a separatist organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist campaign that sought to create Tamil Eelam, an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. This campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, which was one of the longest running armed conflicts in Asia until the LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in May 2009.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, commonly known as the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers, is a separatist organization formerly based in northern Sri Lanka. Founded in May 1976 by Velupillai Prabhakaran, it waged a violent secessionist campaign that sought to create Tamil Eelam, an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. This campaign evolved into the Sri Lankan Civil War, which was one of the longest running armed conflicts in Asia until the LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in May 2009.
Kang Kek Iew or Kaing Kek Iev, also romanized as Kaing Guek Eav, nom de guerre Comrade Duch or Deuch; or Hang Pin, (born 17 November 1942) is a former leader in the Khmer Rouge communist movement, which ruled Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979. He is best known for heading the Khmer Rouge special branch and running the infamous Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp in Phnom Penh. The first Khmer Rouge leader to be tried by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the crimes of the regime, he was convicted of crimes against humanity, murder, and torture for his role in the Cambodian Holocaust and sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment.<br/><br/>

Photo by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed During the Period of Democratic Kampuchea, commonly known as the Cambodia Tribunal.
Kang Kek Iew or Kaing Kek Iev, also romanized as Kaing Guek Eav, nom de guerre Comrade Duch or Deuch; or Hang Pin, (born 17 November 1942) is a former leader in the Khmer Rouge communist movement, which ruled Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979. He is best known for heading the Khmer Rouge special branch and running the infamous Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp in Phnom Penh. The first Khmer Rouge leader to be tried by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the crimes of the regime, he was convicted of crimes against humanity, murder, and torture for his role in the Cambodian Holocaust and sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment.<br/><br/>

Photo by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed During the Period of Democratic Kampuchea, commonly known as the Cambodia Tribunal.
Kang Kek Iew or Kaing Kek Iev, also romanized as Kaing Guek Eav, nom de guerre Comrade Duch or Deuch; or Hang Pin, (born 17 November 1942) is a former leader in the Khmer Rouge communist movement, which ruled Democratic Kampuchea from 1975 to 1979. He is best known for heading the Khmer Rouge special branch and running the infamous Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison camp in Phnom Penh. The first Khmer Rouge leader to be tried by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the crimes of the regime, he was convicted of crimes against humanity, murder, and torture for his role in the Cambodian Holocaust and sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment.<br/><br/>

Photo by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia for the Prosecution of Crimes Committed During the Period of Democratic Kampuchea, commonly known as the Cambodia Tribunal.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( born 28 October 1956) is the sixth President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. An engineer and teacher from a poor background, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity after the Islamic Revolution. Appointed a provincial governor, he was removed after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching. Tehran's council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard-line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, and he became President on 3 August 2005.
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH (1923-) also Lee Kwan-Yew) is a Singaporean statesman. He was the first Prime Minister of the Republic of Singapore, from 1959 to 1990, and was one of the longest serving Prime Ministers in the world. As the co-founder and first secretary-general of the People's Action Party (PAP), he led the party to a landslide victory in 1959, oversaw the separation of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965 and its subsequent transformation from a relatively underdeveloped colonial outpost with no natural resources into a 'First World', Asian economic power.
Shimon Peres (born 2 August 1923) is a Polish-born Israeli statesman. He was the ninth President of Israel from 2007 to 2014. Peres served twice as the Prime Minister of Israel and twice as Interim Prime Minister, and he was a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years. Peres was elected to the Knesset in November 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, served continuously until 2007, when he became President.<br/><br/>

He held several diplomatic and military positions during and directly after Israel's War of Independence. His first high-level government position was as Deputy Director-General of Defense in 1952, and Director-General from 1953 until 1959. During his career, he has represented five political parties in the Knesset: Mapai, Rafi, the Alignment, Labor and Kadima, and has led Alignment and Labor. Peres won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize together with Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat for the peace talks that he participated in as Israeli Foreign Minister, producing the Oslo Accords.<br/><br/>

Peres was nominated in early 2007 by Kadima to run in that year's presidential election, and was elected by the Knesset to the presidency on 13 June 2007 and sworn into office on 15 July 2007 for a seven-year term.
Jalal Talabani (Kurdish: Celal Tallebani, born 12 November 1933) is a leading Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the sixth President of Iraq from 2005 to 2014.<br/><br/>

Talabani is the founder and has been secretary general of one of the main Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). He was a prominent member of the Interim Iraq Governing Council, which was established following the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime by the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Talabani has been an advocate for Kurdish rights and democracy in Iraq for more than 50 years.<br/><br/>

Apart from his native Kurdish, Talabani is fluent in Arabic, Persian, and English. Talabani is a member of the Socialist International.
The Spratly Islands are a group of more than 750 reefs, iislets, atolls, cays and islands in the South China Sea. The archipelago lies off the coasts of the Philippines and Malaysia (Sabah), about one third of the way to southern Vietnam. They comprise less than four square kilometers of land area spread over more than 425,000 square kilometers of sea. The Spratlys are one of three archipelagos of the South China Sea which comprise more than 30,000 islands and reefs and which complicate governance and economics in that region of Southeast Asia.<br/><br/>

Such small and remote islands have little economic value in themselves, but are important in establishing international boundaries. There are no native islanders but there are rich fishing grounds and initial surveys indicate the islands may contain significant reserves of oil and natural gas.<br/><br/>

About 45 islands are occupied by relatively small numbers of military forces from Vietnam, the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Malaysia and the Philippines. Brunei has also claimed an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the southeastern part of the Spratlys encompassing just one area of small islands above mean high water (on Louisa Reef.)
Hamid Karzai (24 December 1957 - ) is the 12th and current President of Afghanistan, taking office on 7 December 2004. He became a dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001.<br/><br/>

During the December 2001 International Conference on Afghanistan in Germany, Karzai was selected by prominent Afghan political figures to serve a six-month term as chairman of the Interim administration. He was then chosen for a two-year term as Interim President during the 2002 'loya jirga' (grand assembly) that was held in Kabul.<br/><br/>

After the 2004 presidential election, Karzai was declared winner and became President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. He controversially won a second five-year term in the disputed 2009 presidential election while admitting the elections were flawed.
For thousands of years, most seawater pearls were retrieved by divers working in the Indian Ocean, in areas like the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and in the Gulf of Mannar. In the 14th-century Arabian Sea, the traveller Ibn Battuta provided the earliest known description of pearl diving by means of attaching a cord to the diver's waist.<br/><br/>

Before the beginning of the 20th century, pearl hunting was the most common way of harvesting pearls. Divers manually pulled oysters from ocean floors and river bottoms and checked them individually for pearls. Not all mussels and oysters produce pearls. In a haul of three tons, only three or four oysters may produce perfect pearls.
Muammar Qaddafi, then Libyan chief of state, attends the 12th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Feb. 2, 2009. Qaddafi was elected chairman of the organisation. PD image by Jesse B. Awalt.
Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir (born 1 January 1944) is the current President of Sudan and the head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.<br/><br/>

In October 2004, al-Bashir's government negotiated an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War, one of the longest-running and deadliest wars of the 20th century, by granting limited autonomy to Southern Sudan dominated by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Since then, however, there has been a violent conflict in Darfur that has resulted in death tolls between 200,000 and 400,000.<br/><br/>

Al-Bashir is controversial figure both in Sudan and worldwide. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state ever indicted by the International Criminal Ccourt as well as the first to be charged with genocide.
Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir (born 1 January 1944) is the current President of Sudan and the head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.<br/><br/>

In October 2004, al-Bashir's government negotiated an end to the Second Sudanese Civil War, one of the longest-running and deadliest wars of the 20th century, by granting limited autonomy to Southern Sudan dominated by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). Since then, however, there has been a violent conflict in Darfur that has resulted in death tolls between 200,000 and 400,000.<br/><br/>

Al-Bashir is controversial figure both in Sudan and worldwide. Al-Bashir is the first sitting head of state ever indicted by the International Criminal Ccourt as well as the first to be charged with genocide.
Dato' Sri Haji Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak (born 23 July 1953) is the sixth and current Prime Minister of Malaysia. He was sworn in to the position on 3 April 2009 to succeed Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.<br/><br/>

He is the President of the United Malays National Organisation, the leading party in Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.
Samak Sundaravej (June 13, 1935 – November 24, 2009) was a Thai Chinese politician who briefly served as the Prime Minister of Thailand and Minister of Defense in 2008, as well as the leader of the People's Power Party in 2008.