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Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a n ame given to the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant.<br/><br/> In 1832 Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922.<br/><br/> In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948.<br/><br/> The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, an-Nakbah, 'The Catastrophe') occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during which Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of Palestinian territory.<br/><br/> In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the remainder of historic Palestine and began a continuing policy of Israeli settlement and annexation.
The Standard of Ur survived in only a fragmentary condition, as the effects of time over the last several millennia had decayed the wooden frame and bitumen glue which had cemented the mosaic in place. The weight of the soil had crushed the object, fragmenting it and breaking the end panels. The present form of the artifact is a reconstruction, presenting a best guess of its original appearance.<br/><br/> It has been reconstructed as a hollow wooden box measuring 21.59 centimetres (8.50 in) wide by 49.53 centimetres (19.50 in) long, inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. The box has an irregular shape with end pieces in the shape of truncated triangles, making it wider at the bottom than at the top.<br/><br/> Inlaid mosaic panels cover each long side of the Standard. Each presents a series of scenes displayed in three registers, upper, middle and bottom. The two mosaics have been dubbed 'War' and 'Peace' for their subject matter, respectively a representation of a military campaign and scenes from a banquet. The panels at each end originally showed fantastical animals but they suffered significant damage while buried, though they have since been restored.
Hand-colored engraving from 'Moeurs, Usages, et Costumes de tous les Peuples de Monde, d'apres des Documents Authentiques et les Voyages les plus Recents', by Auguste Wahlen (Brussels, 1843-44).
The Standard of Ur survived in only a fragmentary condition, as the effects of time over the last several millennia had decayed the wooden frame and bitumen glue which had cemented the mosaic in place. The weight of the soil had crushed the object, fragmenting it and breaking the end panels. The present form of the artifact is a reconstruction, presenting a best guess of its original appearance.<br/><br/> It has been reconstructed as a hollow wooden box measuring 21.59 centimetres (8.50 in) wide by 49.53 centimetres (19.50 in) long, inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. The box has an irregular shape with end pieces in the shape of truncated triangles, making it wider at the bottom than at the top.<br/><br/> Inlaid mosaic panels cover each long side of the Standard. Each presents a series of scenes displayed in three registers, upper, middle and bottom. The two mosaics have been dubbed 'War' and 'Peace' for their subject matter, respectively a representation of a military campaign and scenes from a banquet. The panels at each end originally showed fantastical animals but they suffered significant damage while buried, though they have since been restored.
The Standard of Ur survived in only a fragmentary condition, as the effects of time over the last several millennia had decayed the wooden frame and bitumen glue which had cemented the mosaic in place. The weight of the soil had crushed the object, fragmenting it and breaking the end panels. The present form of the artifact is a reconstruction, presenting a best guess of its original appearance.<br/><br/> It has been reconstructed as a hollow wooden box measuring 21.59 centimetres (8.50 in) wide by 49.53 centimetres (19.50 in) long, inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. The box has an irregular shape with end pieces in the shape of truncated triangles, making it wider at the bottom than at the top.<br/><br/> Inlaid mosaic panels cover each long side of the Standard. Each presents a series of scenes displayed in three registers, upper, middle and bottom. The two mosaics have been dubbed 'War' and 'Peace' for their subject matter, respectively a representation of a military campaign and scenes from a banquet. The panels at each end originally showed fantastical animals but they suffered significant damage while buried, though they have since been restored.
The royal standard of Cambodia bears the royal coat of arms on a dark blue field. Depicted on the coat of arms are two animals which are a gajasingha (a lion with an elephant trunk) on the left, and a singha, or a lion, on the right. Supported by the animals are two royal five-tiered umbrellas. In between is a royal crown with a ray of light at its top.
The Royal Lao flag is a three headed elephant referred to as an Erawan. The three headed elephant generally has the layered "umbrella" over its heads as opposed to one on either side.<br/><br/> The kingdom of Laos existed from the 14th to the 18th centuries, then split into three separate kingdoms. In 1893, it became a French protectorate, with the three kingdoms—Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Champasak—uniting to form what is now known as Laos.<br/><br/> The country briefly gained independence in 1945 after Japanese occupation, but returned to French rule until it was granted autonomy in 1949.<br/><br/> Laos became independent in 1954, with a constitutional monarchy under King Sisavang Vong. Shortly after independence, a long civil war ended the monarchy, when the Communist Pathet Lao movement came to power in 1975.
The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 – September 9, 1945) was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the war merged into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War.<br/><br/> Although the two countries had fought intermittently since 1931, total war started in earnest in 1937 and ended only with the surrender of Japan in 1945. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily and to secure its vast raw material reserves and other economic resources, particularly food and labour. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements.<br/><br/> Yet the two sides, for a variety of reasons, refrained from fighting a total war. In 1931, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria by Japan's Kwantung Army followed the Mukden Incident. The last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, marking the beginning of total war between the two countries.
The flag of the Islamic Amirate (Emirate) of Afghanistan, government of Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, and also the flag of the Afghan Taliban movement (1994 - continuing) shows the shahadah, or Muslim declaration of faith, in black on a white field. The shahahdah, always written in Arabic, states 'There is no God but God, Muhammad is the Prophet of God'.
In Thailand, white elephants (chang phueak) are sacred and a symbol of royal power; all those discovered are presented to the king (usually this is ceremonial — they are not taken into captivity) and the more white elephants the king has, the greater his standing. The current monarch (2011), King Bhumibol Adulyadej, owns ten — considered a sign of great attainment and prestige.<br/><br/> A white elephant in Thailand is not necessarily albino, although it must have pale skin. Candidate animals are assessed according to a series of physical and behavioural criteria (including eye colour, the shape of the tail and ears, and intelligence). Those that pass the tests are then assigned to one of four categories, and are offered to the king, though the lower grades are sometimes refused.<br/><br/> In the past, lower grade white elephants were given as gifts to the king's friends and allies. The animals needed a lot of care and, being sacred, could not be put to work, so were a great financial burden on the recipient - and only the monarch and the very rich could afford them.
In Thailand, white elephants (chang phueak) are sacred and a symbol of royal power; all those discovered are presented to the king (usually this is ceremonial — they are not taken into captivity) and the more white elephants the king has, the greater his standing. The current monarch (2011), King Bhumibol Adulyadej, owns ten — considered a sign of great attainment and prestige.<br/><br/> A white elephant in Thailand is not necessarily albino, although it must have pale skin. Candidate animals are assessed according to a series of physical and behavioural criteria (including eye colour, the shape of the tail and ears, and intelligence). Those that pass the tests are then assigned to one of four categories, and are offered to the king, though the lower grades are sometimes refused.<br/><br/> In the past, lower grade white elephants were given as gifts to the king's friends and allies. The animals needed a lot of care and, being sacred, could not be put to work, so were a great financial burden on the recipient - and only the monarch and the very rich could afford them.