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Vladimir Vasilyevich Lebedev (14 May 1891, Saint Petersburg – 21 November 1967) was a Soviet painter and graphic artist. He became famous for his exceptional illustrations of the poems of the prominent poet and translator Samuil Marshak, such as Circus, Ice Cream, Tale About a Foolish Mouse, Moustached and Striped, Book of Many Colours, Twelve Months and Luggage.<br/><br/> As a young boy, Lebedev started to paint postcards that were sold in a shop in Saint Petersburg. At the age of nineteen, he held his first exhibit at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1913, he began work as a cartoonist for several satirical journals, including the famed 'Satirikon'). From 1920-1922, Lebedev worked for The Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) and The Department of Agitation (Agitprop) designing propaganda posters.
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German Nazi official during World War II, and one of the main architects of the Holocaust. He was SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei (Senior Group Leader and Chief of Police) as well as chief of the Reich Main Security Office (including the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD).<br/><br/> He was also Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy/Acting Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. Heydrich chaired the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, which formalised plans for the Final Solution to the Jewish Question—the deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe.<br/><br/> Heydrich was attacked in Prague on 27 May 1942 by a British-trained team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to kill him in Operation Anthropoid. He died from his injuries a week later. Intelligence falsely linked the assassins to the villages of Lidice and Lezaky. Lidice was razed to the ground; all men and boys over the age of 16 were shot, and all but a handful of its women and children were deported and killed in Nazi concentration camps.
Kenji Doihara (8 August 1883 – 23 December 1948) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1932.<br/><br/> As a leading intelligence officer he played a key role in the Japanese machinations leading to the occupation of large parts of China, the destabilization of the country and the disintegration of the traditional structure of Chinese society. He also became the mastermind behind the Manchurian drug trade, and the real boss and sponsor of every kind of gang and underworld activity in China.<br/><br/> After the end of World War II, he was prosecuted for war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. He was found guilty, sentenced to death and was hanged in December 1948.
Yakuza, also known as Gokudo, are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them <i>boryokudan</i> ('violent groups'), while the yakuza call themselves<i>ninkyo danta</i> ('chivalrous organizations').<br/><br/> Although yakuza membership has declined following an anti-gang law aimed specifically at yakuza and passed by the Japanese government in 1992, there are thought to be more than 58,000 active yakuza members in Japan today.
Kenji Doihara (8 August 1883 – 23 December 1948) was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1932.<br/><br/> As a leading intelligence officer he played a key role in the Japanese machinations leading to the occupation of large parts of China, the destabilization of the country and the disintegration of the traditional structure of Chinese society. He also became the mastermind behind the Manchurian drug trade, and the real boss and sponsor of every kind of gang and underworld activity in China.<br/><br/> After the end of World War II, he was prosecuted for war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. He was found guilty, sentenced to death and was hanged in December 1948.
Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847 – April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, guerrilla, gang leader, bank robber, train robber, and murderer from the state of Missouri and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang.<br/><br/> Jesse and his brother Frank James were Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War. They were accused of participating in atrocities committed against Union soldiers, including the Centralia Massacre. After the war, as members of various gangs of outlaws, they robbed banks, stagecoaches, and trains.<br/><br/> On April 3, 1882, Jesse James was killed by Robert Ford, a member of his own gang who hoped to collect a reward on James' head. Already a celebrity when he was alive, James became a legendary figure of the Wild West after his death.
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich (7 March 1904 – 4 June 1942) was a high-ranking German Nazi official during World War II, and one of the main architects of the Holocaust. He was SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei (Senior Group Leader and Chief of Police) as well as chief of the Reich Main Security Office (including the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD).<br/><br/> He was also Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor (Deputy/Acting Reich-Protector) of Bohemia and Moravia, in what is now the Czech Republic. Heydrich chaired the January 1942 Wannsee Conference, which formalised plans for the Final Solution to the Jewish Question—the deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe.<br/><br/> Heydrich was attacked in Prague on 27 May 1942 by a British-trained team of Czech and Slovak soldiers who had been sent by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile to kill him in Operation Anthropoid. He died from his injuries a week later. Intelligence falsely linked the assassins to the villages of Lidice and Lezaky. Lidice was razed to the ground; all men and boys over the age of 16 were shot, and all but a handful of its women and children were deported and killed in Nazi concentration camps.
In 1933 Blobel joined the police force in Düsseldorf. In June 1934 he was recruited into the SD or Sicherheitsdienst, the security service of the SS and the Nazi Party. In June 1941 he became the commanding officer of Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C that was active in the Ukraine. Following Wehrmacht troops into the Ukraine, the Einsatzgruppen would be responsible for liquidating political and racial undesirables.<br/><br/> Blobel, in conjunction with Reichenau's and Friedrich Jeckeln's units, organized the Babi Yar massacre in late September 1941 in Kiev, where 33,771 Jews were murdered. Up to 59,018 killings are attributable to Blobel, though during testimony he was alleged to have killed 10,000–15,000. He was later sentenced to death by the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunal in the Einsatzgruppen Trial. He was hanged at Landsberg Prison shortly after midnight on 7 June 1951.
Khun Sa, aka Chang Chi-fu (pinyin: Zhāng Qífú; Thai: Chan Jangtrakul (17 February 1934 – 26 October 2007) was a Burmese warlord. He was dubbed the 'Opium King' due to his opium trading in the Golden Triangle region. He was also the leader of the Shan United Army and the Mong Tai Army.<br/><br/> Khun Sa was born to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. He adopted the pseudonym Khun Sa, meaning 'Prince Prosperous'. In his youth he trained with the Kuomintang, which had fled into the border regions of Burma from Yunnan upon its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, and eventually went on to form his own army of a few hundred men. In 1963 he re-formed it into a Ka Kwe Ye local militia loyal to Gen Ne Win's Burmese government. Ka Kwe Ye received money, uniforms and weapons in return for fighting the Shan rebels.<br/><br/> When Khun Sa had expanded his army to 800 men, he stopped cooperating with the Burmese government, took control of large area in Shan and Wa states and expanded into opium production. In 1967 he clashed with the Kuomintang remnants in Shan State, which resulted in his defeat, demoralizing him and his forces. In 1969, the Rangoon government captured him. He was freed in 1973 when his second-in-command abducted two Russian doctors and demanded his release. By 1976 he had returned to opium smuggling, and set up a base inside northern Thailand in the village of Ban Hin Taek. He renamed his group the Shan United Army and began ostensibly fighting for Shan autonomy against the Burmese government.<br/><br/> It is claimed that Khun Sa surrendered to Burmese officials in January 1996, reportedly because he did not want to face drug smuggling charges in the USA. Khun Sa died on 26 October 2007 in Yangon at the age of 73.
The Lord's Resistance Army (also Lord's Resistance Movement or Lakwena Part Two) is a sectarian religious and military group based in northern Uganda.<br/><br/> The group was formed in 1987 and is engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government in what is now one of Africa's longest-running conflicts. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the 'spokesperson' of God and a spirit medium, primarily of the Holy Spirit, which the Acholi People believe can represent itself in many manifestations.<br/><br/> The group is based on apocalyptic Christianity, but also is influenced by a blend of Mysticism and traditional religion, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and Acholi tradition.<br/><br/> The LRA is accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children and forcing children to participate in hostilities.<br/><br/> The LRA operates mainly in northern Uganda and also in parts of South Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo.
The Lord's Resistance Army (also Lord's Resistance Movement or Lakwena Part Two) is a sectarian religious and military group based in northern Uganda.<br/><br/> The group was formed in 1987 and is engaged in an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government in what is now one of Africa's longest-running conflicts. It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the 'spokesperson' of God and a spirit medium, primarily of the Holy Spirit, which the Acholi People believe can represent itself in many manifestations.<br/><br/> The group is based on apocalyptic Christianity, but also is influenced by a blend of Mysticism and traditional religion, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and Acholi tradition.<br/><br/> The LRA is accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children and forcing children to participate in hostilities.<br/><br/> The LRA operates mainly in northern Uganda and also in parts of South Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo.
Khun Sa, aka Chang Chi-fu (pinyin: Zhāng Qífú; Thai: Chan Jangtrakul (17 February 1934 – 26 October 2007) was a Burmese warlord. He was dubbed the 'Opium King' due to his opium trading in the Golden Triangle region. He was also the leader of the Shan United Army and the Mong Tai Army.<br/><br/> Khun Sa was born to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. He adopted the pseudonym Khun Sa, meaning 'Prince Prosperous'. In his youth he trained with the Kuomintang, which had fled into the border regions of Burma from Yunnan upon its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, and eventually went on to form his own army of a few hundred men. In 1963 he re-formed it into a Ka Kwe Ye local militia loyal to Gen Ne Win's Burmese government. Ka Kwe Ye received money, uniforms and weapons in return for fighting the Shan rebels.<br/><br/> When Khun Sa had expanded his army to 800 men, he stopped cooperating with the Burmese government, took control of large area in Shan and Wa states and expanded into opium production. In 1967 he clashed with the Kuomintang remnants in Shan State, which resulted in his defeat, demoralizing him and his forces. In 1969, the Rangoon government captured him. He was freed in 1973 when his second-in-command abducted two Russian doctors and demanded his release. By 1976 he had returned to opium smuggling, and set up a base inside northern Thailand in the village of Ban Hin Taek. He renamed his group the Shan United Army and began ostensibly fighting for Shan autonomy against the Burmese government.<br/><br/> It is claimed that Khun Sa surrendered to Burmese officials in January 1996, reportedly because he did not want to face drug smuggling charges in the USA. Khun Sa died on 26 October 2007 in Yangon at the age of 73.
Khun Sa, aka Chang Chi-fu (pinyin: Zhāng Qífú; Thai: Chan Jangtrakul (17 February 1934 – 26 October 2007) was a Burmese warlord. He was dubbed the 'Opium King' due to his opium trading in the Golden Triangle region. He was also the leader of the Shan United Army and the Mong Tai Army.<br/><br/> Khun Sa was born to a Chinese father and a Shan mother. He adopted the pseudonym Khun Sa, meaning 'Prince Prosperous'. In his youth he trained with the Kuomintang, which had fled into the border regions of Burma from Yunnan upon its defeat in the Chinese Civil War, and eventually went on to form his own army of a few hundred men. In 1963 he re-formed it into a Ka Kwe Ye local militia loyal to Gen Ne Win's Burmese government. Ka Kwe Ye received money, uniforms and weapons in return for fighting the Shan rebels.<br/><br/> When Khun Sa had expanded his army to 800 men, he stopped cooperating with the Burmese government, took control of large area in Shan and Wa states and expanded into opium production. In 1967 he clashed with the Kuomintang remnants in Shan State, which resulted in his defeat, demoralizing him and his forces. In 1969, the Rangoon government captured him. He was freed in 1973 when his second-in-command abducted two Russian doctors and demanded his release. By 1976 he had returned to opium smuggling, and set up a base inside northern Thailand in the village of Ban Hin Taek. He renamed his group the Shan United Army and began ostensibly fighting for Shan autonomy against the Burmese government.<br/><br/> It is claimed that Khun Sa surrendered to Burmese officials in January 1996, reportedly because he did not want to face drug smuggling charges in the USA. Khun Sa died on 26 October 2007 in Yangon at the age of 73.
'Thugs' (literally 'thag', or practitioners of 'thaggi') deceived and strangled travellers: painting by an Indian artist, for Captain James Paton, Assistant to the Resident at Lucknow, 1829-1840.<br/><br/> Thuggee (from Hindi ṭhag ‘thief’, verb, thugna, to deceive, from Sanskrit sthaga ‘cunning’, ‘sly’, ‘fraudulent’, ‘dishonest’, ‘scoundrel') is the term for a particular kind of murder and robbery of travellers in South Asia and particularly in India.<br/><br/> Thuggee trace their origin to the battle of Kali against Raktabija; however, their foundation myth departs from Brahminical versions of the Puranas. Thuggee consider themselves to be children of Kali, created out of her sweat. This is similar to the way Kali was created from aggression and willingness to fight Durga.<br/><br/> According to some sources, especially old colonial sources, Thuggee believe they have a positive role, saving humans' lives. Without Thuggee's sacred service, Kali might destroy all human kind.
Islamic law, or Sharia, has been in effect in Aceh in some form or another since the 16th century.<br/><br/> The Islamic penalty for theft is the amputation of a limb, and the punishment is repeated on other limbs for successive thefts of property worth more than a gram of gold.
Du Yuesheng (Tu Yüeh-sheng), commonly known as 'Big-Ears Du' (1887–1951) was a Chinese gangster who spent much of his life in Shanghai. He was a key supporter of the Kuomintang (KMT; aka Nationalists) and Chiang Kai-shek in their battle against the Communists during the 1920s, and was a figure of some importance during the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the Chinese Civil War and the KMT's retreat to Taiwan, Du went into exile in Hong Kong and remained there until his death in 1951.
The My Lai Massacre was the Vietnam War mass murder of 347–504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, by United States Army soldiers of 'Charlie' Company of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal Division.<br/><br/> Most of the victims were women, children (including babies), and elderly people. Many were raped, beaten, and tortured, and some of the bodies were later found to be mutilated. While 26 US soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at Mỹ Lai, only Second Lieutenant William Calley, a platoon leader in Charlie Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but only served three and a half years under house arrest.<br/><br/> The massacre took place in the hamlets of Mỹ Lai and My Khe of Sơn Mỹ village. The event is also known as the Sơn Mỹ Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Sơn Mỹ) or sometimes as the Song Mỹ Massacre.<br/><br/> When the incident became public knowledge in 1969, it prompted widespread outrage around the world. The massacre also increased domestic opposition to the US involvement in the Vietnam War. Three US servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and protect the wounded were later denounced by US Congressmen. They received hate mail and death threats and found mutilated animals on their doorsteps. It was 30 years before they were honored for their efforts.
Bình Xuyên, often linked to its infamous leader, General Le van 'Bay' Vien, was an independent military force within the Vietnamese National Army whose leaders once had lived outside the law and had sided with the Viet Minh. During its heyday, Binh Xuyen funded itself with organized crime activities in Saigon while effectively battling Communist forces. Binh Xuyen was located in Nha Be, in the marshes and canals along the southern fringes of Saigon-Cholon.<br/><br/> In 1949 Bay Vien, a former brigand and a revolutionary, was given the rank of major general of the Vietnamese National Army and his troops became the Binh Xuyen. The Binh Xuyen was a self-funded army with revenues from legally-run brothels and casinos. General Vien made arrangements with Emperor Bao Dai giving them control of their own affairs in return for their nominal support of the regime. The Binh Xuyen's military forces were mostly wiped out by the Vietnamese National Army under Big Minh's command in Operation Rung Sat in 1955. Bay Vien, the leader of the organization, was exiled to Paris after his unsuccessful attempt to take power from Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem in May 1955.
The land council was a judicial body in the Dutch East Indies. It was the ordinary court for both indigenous people in civil and criminal cases and for non-European foreigners in criminal cases.
At the turn of the 20th century, Thailand, or Siam as it was then known, was going through a period of major modernisation under successive kings, King Mongkut, Rama IV (r. 1851—68) and King Chulalongkorn, Rama V (r. 1868—1910). Punishments for crimes were often severe and the death penalty was frequently employed, although leniency through Buddhist ethics was often used to resolve minor felonies.
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.