Suchergebnisse

Am 21. März 1990 proklamierte die verfassunggebende Versammlung die Republik Namibia. Am gleichen Tag trat als rechtliche Grundlage der neugewonnenen staatlichen Souveränität die von der verfassungsgebenden Versammlung beschlossene Verfassung in Kraft. Der Autor untersucht den Regionalkonflikt in Angola im Zusammenhang mit dem Unabhängigkeitsprozeß in Namibia, die Wahlen in Namibia sowie die wesentlichen Elemente der Verfassung dieses Staates. (DÜI-Sen)

If you had any questions about why the mainstream
media is dying and it steadily is losing influence politically in Louisiana and
elsewhere, look no further than the rumpus over a column by Republican Sen. John Kennedy the largest newspaper
chain in the state recently accepted and then rejected.

Last month, Kennedy, whose opinion pieces the
media frequently have published spanning more than a decade, initially had one
published in the Shreveport Times and farmed out to the several other
Gannett newspapers in the state. The piece
exhorted Congress to prohibit natal males from competing as and against natal
females in female-only competitions, citing sustained evidence about the
physiological advantages those born male would have regardless of attempts, if
any, to change physical sex.

After a few days, without making any announcement
or informing Kennedy, the piece was removed from the sites that had published
it. Later still, an explanation
to the broken web link was infused, saying the content had been removed because
it didn't "meet our editorial standards."

Further
inquiry revealed that Times editor Misty Castile claimed "process flaws" were
involved in her outlet's decision to publish the piece which ended up
triggering involvement by "people above my head" initially questioning about
evidential citation, even though the web version had well over a dozen solid
citations linked. Gannett's executive in charge of opinion pieces and standards
went on to clarify the failure to "meet editorial standards" ironically came as
a result of "inflammatory" language featuring the "loaded language" of "biological
male" and "biological female," and said Kennedy could have resubmitted using
different terminology. This leaned on the Associated Press stylebook, which argues
that "female"
is emphasizing biology and reproductive capacity over "gender identity" and alleges
such terms "are sometimes used by opponents of transgender rights to
portray sex as more simplistic than scientists assert."

Pot, meet kettle. The language constraints cited are
"loaded language" itself that privileges a particular ideological viewpoint not
backed by science. And, it's this substitution of moralizing in place of
reporting just the news that hasn't gone unnoticed by a public increasingly
dubious of news organizations, especially newspapers.

Last year's most recent polling
showed the most people ever didn't trust the mass media to report the news
fully, fairly, and accurately, according to Gallup. Almost no Republicans do,
and among partisans only older Democrats saw the media more trustworthy than
not.

This drives the continuing deterioration in American
newspaper consumption, with circulation in 2022 around
42 million, down a third from 1987, even as the population
increased by a third. But half of this is digital subscriptions to the New
York Times and Wall Street Journal, portraying a far more stunning
loss for state-level outlets. This has reflected in newsroom employment at newspapers,
which fell 57 percent from 2008 to 2020 to 31,000 total. Such trends have made
a number of newspapers into "zombies" that publish little local news and much
of what does make it into print being sourced from other locations and outside
the area, which has become the norm of Louisiana's Gannett papers (Gannett currently
is part
of a United Arab Emirates state-owned entity).

The Shreveport Times now has in its
newsroom Castile – who
came from out of the area in 2021 under Gannett's previous owner with
little traditional newsroom experience – two reporters (one for sports) and a
photographer to cover a region of around 350,000 people without same-day home
print delivery. On good days it might run two locally-sourced stories, with the
rest of its very few news hole column-inches taken up by other providers (reduced
to running content even from the far-left Louisiana Illuminator website.)

(Contrast this to some three decades ago, when I
remember going to a party thrown by a former student of mine, sadly
no longer with us, who had latched onto employment at the Times.
There at it were no fewer than four Times reporters who had interviewed
me in the previous couple of years.)

The Monroe News Star is even worse off. Serving
a region of roughly 200,000 people, all it has is an editor, a reporter who
appears to have a narrow beat, and two sports reporters. It may report on City
Hall once a month. The curious can find more comprehensive local coverage in
the independent, locally-owned Ouachita Citizen.

The saga behind Kennedy's spiked column explains the
grim results for Gannett outlets in Louisiana. Not just in choices what stories
to print but also in the bowdlerized language that accompanies these is just
too much for people who can see with their own eyes and hear with their own
ears. But don't cry over their vastly smaller reach and therefore influence, because
it's something they've done to themselves by placing an agenda ahead of acting
as a trusted information source.

Since its launch in 1999, the XMM-Newton mission has compiled the largest catalogue of serendipitous X-ray sources, with the 3XMM being the third version of this catalogue. This was possible thanks to the combination of a large effective area (5000 cm2 at 1 keV) and a wide field of view (30 arcmin). The 3XMM-DR6 catalogue contains about 470 000 unique X-ray sources over an area of 982 deg2. A significant fraction of these (100 178 sources) have reliable optical, near-(NIR), and mid-infrared (MIR) counterparts in the SDSS, PANSTARRS, VIDEO, UKIDSS, and WISE surveys. In a previous paper we presented photometric redshifts for these sources using the TPZ machine-learning algorithm. About a quarter of these (22 677) have adequate photon statistics, meaning that a reliable X-ray spectrum can be extracted. Owing to both the X-ray counts selection and the optical counterpart constraint, the sample above is biased towards the bright sources. Here, we present XMMFITCAT-Z: a spectral fit catalogue for these sources using the Bayesian X-ray Analysis technique. To demonstrate the potential of the present catalogue, we comment on the optical and MIR colours of the 765 X-ray absorbed sources with NH?> ?1022?cm?2. We show that a considerable fraction of X-ray-selected AGNs would not be classified as AGNs following the MIR W1?W2 versus W2 selection criterion. These are AGNs with lower luminosities, where the contribution of the host galaxy to the MIR emission is non-negligible. Only one-third of obscured AGNs in X-rays present red colours or r?W2 > 6. Also, it appears that the r?W2 criterion, often used in the literature for the selection of obscured AGNs, produces very different X-ray absorbed AGN samples compared to the standard X-ray selection criteria. ; This work is part of the Enhanced XMM-Newton Spectral-fit Database project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) under the PRODEX program. AR acknowledges support of this work by the PROTEAS II project (MIS 5002515), which is implemented under the "Reinforcement of the Research and Innovation Infrastructure" action, funded by the "Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation" operational programme (NSRF 2014-2020) and co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund). AC acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry MCIU under project RTI2018-096686-B-C21 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER/UE), cofunded by FEDER funds and from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu, ref. MDM-2017-0765. This research has made use of data obtained from the 3XMM XMM-Newton serendipitous source catalogue compiled by the 10 institutes of the XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre selected by ESA. This work is based on observations made with XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and NASA. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the US Department of Energy Office of Science, and the Participating Institutions. SDSS-IV acknowledges support and resources from the Center for High-Performance Computing at the University of Utah. The SDSS web site is www.sdss.org. SDSS-IV is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS Collaboration including the Brazilian Participation Group, the Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, the Chilean Participation Group, the French Participation Group, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, The Johns Hopkins University, Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU)/University of Tokyo, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Leibniz Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg), Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA Garching), Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), National Astronomical Observatories of China, New Mexico State University, New York University, University of Notre Dame, Observatário Nacional/MCTI, The Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, United Kingdom Participation Group, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Oxford, University of Portsmouth, University of Utah, University of Virginia, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, Vanderbilt University, and Yale University. This publication makes use of data products from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which is a joint project of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This research made use of Astropy, a community-developed core Python package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration 2012).

Darbe siekiama išanalizuoti Ukrainiečių Karinės Organizacijos-Ukrainiečių Nacionalistų Organizacijos santykių raidą su Lietuvos Respublika. Darbo chronologinės ribos – nuo ryšių užmezgimo 1922 m. iki 1938 m. organizacijos lyderio pulk. Jevgenijaus Konovaleco mirties Roterdame. Pagrindinės priežastys lėmusios Lietuvos vyriausybės politikų ir intelektualų ryšių su UWO-OUN užmezgimą kilo dėl Lietuvos-Lenkijos konflikto dėl Vilniaus krašto. Ukrainiečius ir lietuvius netenkino orientacija į Antantės valstybes, o geopolitinė situacija ir prarastos teritorijos vertė ieškoti sąjungininkų. UWO-OUN priklausę nariai rengė pasikėsinimus, išpuolius ir sabotažo kampanijas, nukreiptas prieš Lenkijos valstybės aukščiausius pareigūnus. Dėl to Lenkijos slaptosios tarnybos ėmė persekioti J. Konovaleco vadovaujamą organizaciją. UWO-OUN nesugebėjo perkelti organizacijos struktūrų į Lenkijos aneksuotas Vakarų Ukrainos teritorijas, todėl J. Konovalecas kreipėsi į kitas valstybes – Čekoslovakiją, Vokietiją ir Lietuvą, konfrontavusias su Lenkija – tikėdamasis sulaukti pagalbos. Lietuvoje iš lietuvių intelektualų ir politikų kartu su UWO-OUN nariu Ivanu Revjuku buvo suformuota viena iš organizacijos atstovybių, kodiniu pavadinimu "Leniwka", kitaip dar žinoma, kaip Lietuvių-ukrainiečių draugija. Tyrimui atlikti buvo naudojami diachroninis, genetinis, aprašomasis ir analitinis metodai. Kadangi UWO-OUN atstovybes suformavo ne tik Lietuvoje sostinėje Kaune, bet ir kitose valstybėse, tokiose kaip Jungtinė Karalystė, Prancūzija, Vokietija ir t.t. todėl darbe buvo naudotąsi ir transnacionalinės istorijos vienu iš metodu perkėlimo istorija. Darbą sudaro keturi skyriai. Pirmajame skyriuje pristatomi lietuvių ir ukrainiečių pirmieji ryšiai jų užmezgimo aplinkybės, Lietuvos pozicija Vakarų ukrainiečių atžvilgiu. Antrajame skyriuje analizuojamas Stepono Smoko pasikėsinimas į Lenkijos valstybės viršininką Józefą Klemensą Piłsudskį ir ryšių su Lietuva užmezgimas. Trečiajame skyriuje aptariamas Lietuvos vyriausybės politikų ir intelektualų politinis dialogas kartu su UWO-OUN organizacijos atstovais Kaune, analizuojama Lietuvos pozicija kilus nesutarimams tarp UWO-OUN ir VULR vyriausybės. Paskutiniajame - ketvirtajame skyriuje – nagrinėjama Lietuvių ir ukrainiečių kultūrinė veikla. Atlikus tyrimą paaiškėjo, kad ukrainiečių tauta formavosi skirtingai. Vakarų ukrainiečių tautinis atgimimas buvo tolygus kitoms Vidurio Rytų Europos tautoms, tačiau nesugebėjus išlaikyti VULR valstybingumo emigracijoje, ukrainiečių karininkų iniciatyva susiformavo radikalios nacionalistinės organizacijos, kurios siekė nepriklausomos ir vieningos Ukrainos valstybės sudarymo. Lietuvos vyriausybės politikai ir intelektualai buvo susipažinę su Vakarų ukrainiečių nacionalistinėmis nuostatomis, suprato, kad tarp VULR ir UWO-OUN vadovų vyrauja nesutarimai dėl tautinės vyriausybės vadovo vietos. ; The aim of the work is to analyse the development of the relations of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists with the Republic of Lithuania. Chronological limits of the work spans from the first contact establishment in 1922 until the death of the commander Yevhen Konovalets in Rotterdam, 1938. The main reason that began the relationship between the Lithuanian establishment and UWO-OUN was Lithuanian-Polish conflict over the Vilnius region. Ukrainians and Lithuanians were not satisfied with the orientation towards the Entente states, the geopolitical situation and the value of the lost territory in search of allies. Members belonging to the UWO-OUN staged attacks, assaults and sabotage campaigns against the highest Polish state officials. As a result, the Polish secret services began to persecute the organization led by Y. Konovalets. UWO-OUN was unable to relocate the organisation's structures to the annexed territories of western Ukraine, so Konovalets appealed to other countries - Czechoslovakia, Germany and Lithuania, which were confronted with Poland - in the hope of receiving help. In Lithuania, one of the representative offices of the organization, code-named Leniwka, otherwise known as the Lithuanian-Ukrainian Society, was formed from Lithuanian intellectuals and politicians together with UWO-OUN member Ivan Revjuk. Diachronic, genetic, descriptive and analytical methods were used for the study. Since UWO-OUN representations were formed not only in Kaunas, the capital of Lithuania, but also in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, etc., the transfer history was also used as one of the methods. The work consists of four sections. The first chapter presents the first relations between Lithuanians and Ukrainians, the circumstances of their establishment, Lithuania's position towards Western Ukrainians.The second chapter analyzes Stephen Smok's attack on the Polish head of state Józef Klemens Piłsudski and the establishment of relations with Lithuania. The third chapter discusses the political dialogue between Lithuanian government politicians and intellectuals together with the representatives of the UWO-OUN organization in Kaunas, and analyzes Lithuania's position in case of disagreements between the UWO-OUN and the VULR government. The last - the fourth chapter - examines the cultural activities of Lithuanians and Ukrainians. The study revealed that the Ukrainian nation formed differently. The national revival of Western Ukrainians was on a par with that of other Central and Eastern European nations, but by failing to maintain VULR statehood in emigration, radical nationalist organizations formed on the initiative of Ukrainian officers to form an independent and unified Ukrainian state. Lithuanian government politicians and intellectuals were familiar with the nationalist attitudes of Western Ukrainians and understood that there were disagreements between the leaders of VULR and UWO-OUN over the position of the head of the national government. ; Humanitarinių mokslų fakultetas ; Istorijos katedra

В 1714 г. каталонцы, оказавшись в стане проигравших в Войне за испанское наследство, окончательно расстались с надеждами обрести независимость. Спустя 300 лет находящиеся у власти в Каталонии националисты хотят воспользоваться памятной датой для организации регионального референдума с целью выбора самостоятельного пути развития. В обостряющемся противостоянии интересов между Мадридом и Барселоной обеими сторонами используются не только политические и пропагандистские меры, но и финансовые рычаги воздействия. Этнонациональный вопрос в полиэтнической Испании далёк от своего решения, так как на протяжении веков для процесса формирования единого испанского государства было характерно политическое объединение несколькихродственных в генетическом отношении (кроме басков) этнических общностей, но имевших между собой существенные социально-культурные и языковые различия. Не случайно, что до сих пор региональное самосознание в Испании чрезвычайно сильно, а внутриэтническая консолидация испанской нации отличается незавершённостью, что проявляется, в частности, в активизации в последние десятилетия радикально-националистических и сепаратистских настроений в Каталонии, Стране Басков и ряде других автономий. Среди причин, обостривших конфронтацию сторонников и противников независимости Каталонии, следует упомянуть и глобальный финансовый кризис, поразивший как регионы Испании, так и общенациональную экономику. На пути сепаратистов стоит немало преград, начиная с конституционных положений, провозглашающих Испанию единым и неделимым государством и препятствующих проведению региональных плебисцитов, и заканчивая неоднозначным отношением к гипотетической независимости Каталонии, как в самом регионе, так и в других частях страны. Следует учитывать, что в современном мире возможность дробления крупного полиэтнического государства на моноэтнические составляющие более реальна, чем 40-50лет назад. Распад Югославии и Советского Союза, а также появление на политической карте мира Абхазии, Южной Осетии и совсем недавно Республики Крым тому подтверждение. В своих рассуждениях в пользу суверенитета Каталонии националисты ссылаются на произвольность сложившихся в прошлом границ между отдельными европейскими странами и регионами. Современные государственные рубежи действительно не были результатом рационального планирования, демократических договорённостей или учёта мнения местного населения. Во многом нынешние границы -итог исторических процессов, зачастую кровопролитных войн и территориальных отторжений, то есть действий, противоречащих современному международному праву и моральным нормам поведения. Независимая Каталония -это пока ещё гипотеза, но при определённых условиях и целенаправленных усилиях региональных националистов она вполне может стать реальностью. ; In 1714 the Catalans, being in the camp of the losers in the War of the Spanish Succession, finally lost any hope to gain independence. 300 years later, nationalists, who are in power now in Catalonia, want to take advantage of that memorable date by organizing a regional referendum in order to choose their own path of development. In the aggravating conflict of interests between Madrid and Barcelona both parties use not only political and propaganda measures, but also financial leverages of influence. The ethnonational issue in the multiethnic Spain is far from being solved, because for centuries the process of forming a unified Spanish state was characterized by political union of several genetically related (except Basque) ethnic communities, although with significant socio-cultural and linguistic differences among them. It is not coincidental that regional identity in Spain is still extremely strong, while the interethnic consolidation of the Spanish nation can be characterized as incomplete, which can be seen, particularly, in the intensification in recent decades of radical nationalist and separatist sentiments in Catalonia, the Basque Country and some other autonomies. Among reasons which escalated confrontation between supporters and opponents of Catalonian independence, we should mention the global financial crisis that hit the regions of Spain as well as the overall national economy. The separatists have many barriers on their way, starting from the constitutional provisions proclaiming Spain a united and indivisible state which impede to carry out regional plebiscites, and ending by an ambiguous attitude towards the hypothetical independence of Catalonia by both the residents of the region and in other parts of the country. It is important to keep in mind that in today's world the possibility of breaking large multiethnic state into ethnically constituting elements is more possible than 40-50 years ago. Disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union and the emergence on the world political map of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and most recently of the Republic of Crimea confirm this. The Catalonian nationalists in their arguments in favor of the sovereignty of Catalonia refer to the arbitrariness of the borders formed in the past between separate European countries and the regions. Modern state boundaries indeed are not the result of rational planning, democratic arrangements or consideration of the local population's opinion. In many ways, the current borders are the result of historical processes, often of bloody wars and territorial annexations. In other words, they are the result of actions which are contrary to current international law and moral norms of behavior. Independent Catalonia is still a hypothesis, but under certain conditions and, more importantly, as a result of concerted efforts of regional nationalists it could become a reality.

"La Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos, (1917) vigente, no establece una normatividad que rija el procedimiento en materia de inocuidad de la leche a nivel federal. En el Artículo 27, Fracción XX, suscribe: "El Estado promoverá las condiciones para el Desarrollo Rural Integral, con el propósito de generar empleo y garantizar a la población campesina bienes y su participación e incorporación en el Desarrollo Nacional, y fomentará la actividad agropecuaria y forestal para el óptimo uso de la tierra, con obras de infraestructura, insumos, créditos, servicios de capacitación y asistencia técnica. Asimismo expedirá la legislación reglamentaria, para planear y organizar la producción agropecuaria, su industrialización y comercialización, considerándolas de interés público". Adicionada mediante decreto publicado en el Diario Oficial de la Federación el 3 de febrero de 1983. La normatividad en materia de producción lechera a nivel nacional se encuentra establecida en: Ley de Sanidad Animal, Ley General de Salud, Ley sobre Metrología y Normalización y sus respectivos reglamentos. Así mismo en las Normas Oficiales Mexicanas expedidas por la Comisión Nacional de Normalización y en base al ámbito de aplicación por las Secretarías de estado: SAGARPA, SS, STPS y las dependencias interiores de cada una. Por lo que se refiere a lo local, existen las leyes estatales de ganadería. No existe en la legislación mexicana, normas que se refieran a la producción lechera a nivel municipal. Debido a su importancia, las actividades y programas destinados a este sector por parte de la SAGARPA y de organismos desconcentrados como Apoyos y Servicios a la omercialización Agropecuaria (ASERCA, 2012) están dirigidos a impulsar el desarrollo integral y diversificado del subsector pecuario, mejorar su productividad y competitividad sin deterioro del ambiente, aumentar los ingresos de los productores, así como ampliar la oferta y la calidad de alimentos, incluida la expansión del comercio exterior. La producción lechera debe examinarse en un contexto mundial dinámico y en evolución como parte del proceso de globalización, que se caracteriza generalmente por el aumento del comercio internacional, la mayor integración de los mercados, la adopción más rápida de nuevas tecnologías, la transmisión de información. Todos estos aspectos tienen consecuencias sustanciales, tanto positivas como negativas, con respecto a la producción lechera y a la elaboración de un enfoque que abarque toda la cadena alimentaria. La organización de la Agricultura y la Alimentación (FAO) tiene una activa participación en programas de producción lechera. La Dirección de Alimentación y Nutrición (ESN) hospeda a la Secretaría Mixta de la Comisión del Codex Alimentarius (CAC), la cual ha llevado a cabo el Programa Conjunto FAO/OMS sobre Normas Alimentarias durante más de cuarenta años." ; "The Constitution of the United Mexican States, 1917) in force, does not establish a procedure governing regulations regarding safety of milk at the federal level. In Article 27, Section XX, subscribes: "The State shall promote conditions for Integrated Rural Development, in order to generate employment and provide goods to the rural population and their participation and inclusion in the National Development and encourage agricultural activity and Forestry for the optimum use of the land, infrastructure, inputs, credit, training and technical assistance. Also issued regulatory legislation, planning and organizing agricultural production, industrialization and commercialization, considering the public interest. "Added by order published in the Official Journal of the Federation on February 3, 1983. The norms on national milk production is set to: Animal Health Law, Health Law, Law on Metrology and Standardization and their respective regulations. Also in the Mexican Official Standards issued by the National Standards Commission and based on the scope of the Secretaries of State: SAGARPA, SS, STPS and the interior rooms of each. In regard to local, state laws exist livestock. There Mexican law, rules relating to milk production at the municipal level. Because of its importance, activities and programs to this sector by the SAGARPA and decentralized organizations as Support Services for Agricultural Marketing (ASERCA, 2012) are aimed to promote the integral development of the livestock sub-sector and diversified, improve their productivity and competitiveness without environmental damage, increase farmers' incomes and increase the supply and quality of food, including the expansion of foreign trade. Milk production should be considered in a global dynamic and evolving as part of the globalization process, which is generally characterized by the growth of international trade, the increased integration of markets, the faster adoption of new technologies, the transmission of information . All these aspects have significant consequences, both positive and negative, with respect to milk production and the development of an approach that encompasses the entire food chain. The organization of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has an active participation in dairy production. The Food and Nutrition (ESN) hosts the Joint Secretariat of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), which has conducted the Joint FAO / WHO Food Standards for over forty years."

The year 2008 witnessed a polio outbreak in Nigeria, with new international spread to bordering countries, persistent importations in south-central Africa and Sudan and the largest outbreak of polio in eight years in Pakistan. Elsewhere, western Uttar Pradesh in India - historically the world's most entrenched reservoir of polio but free of indigenous poliovirus type 1 for more than a year - was re-infected by a virus from a neighbouring state. By the end of the year, the number of children paralysed by polio in 2008 had returned to 1999 levels. And yet 2008 has proved to be a turning point in the fight against polio. To say 2008 was an arduous year in polio eradication is an understatement. To say it was a watershed for polio eradication is not. Against a sobering epidemiological backdrop, the progress made - in key political, technical, financial and operational areas - led the ACPE and SAGE1 to conclude in November 2008 that the intensified eradication effort had shown that the remaining challenges in the four polio-endemic countries could be overcome. First and foremost, all tiers of government in key polio- infected countries - from central to local levels - have realized the level of support and effort required to finish polio eradication and are engaging in the global effort as never before. In addition to financial and operational commitments, the remaining countries with indigenous polio - Nigeria, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan - now have special mechanisms to monitor the performance of eradication activities and hold local authorities accountable for their quality. Secondly, these efforts are being closely watched and frankly assessed. Following the re-infection of West Africa, for example, the international community has refocused its attention on key polio-affected countries, especially Nigeria, with a World Health Assembly Resolution (WHA) in May 2008 tasking each endemic country - by name - to act. Thirdly, the donor community has remained determined in the face of continued transmission of polio. Mindful that meeting established global health goals demands extraordinary perseverance, donors have redoubled efforts to finish the final lap. In January 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a further US$ 255 million grant for polio eradication to Rotary International, which the latter pledged to match with another US$ 100 million, bringing to US$ 200 million Rotary's matching funds in the past year alone. That same month, the United Kingdom announced a multi-year contribution of US$ 150 million, and Germany signalled its intention to provide US$ 130 million. By the end of the year, these global developments and country-specific strategies were showing an impact on wild poliovirus transmission. In India, monthly vaccination campaigns in the highest-risk areas, using monovalent vaccine, have reduced wild poliovirus type 1 - the more dangerous of the two remaining strains - to record lows. In Nigeria, stronger leadership at state level brought about new commitments to accountability for the quality of vaccination campaigns. By early 2009, the proportion of children with no polio vaccination in the highest-risk states of northern Nigeria fell to under 10% for the first time ever. In Afghanistan, teams exploited lulls in the conflict in the southern region to enter normally inaccessible areas and give children an additional dose of monovalent vaccine between large-scale campaigns. Pakistan started using finger-marking of vaccinated children to objectively measure coverage, thereby introducing real accountability of local authorities. With new multi-sectoral activities, the country laid the ground for the Prime Minister's Action Plan for Polio Eradication, launched in early 2009. Meanwhile, ongoing research in social attitudes, the development of new vaccines and behaviour of the poliovirus is expanding the current state of knowledge. In March 2008, Somalia became polio-free once again, demonstrating that full application of international outbreak response guidelines can stop the virus even in the most difficult conditions. This Annual Report of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) features progress made in 2008 towards the objectives defined in the GPEI Strategic Plan for 2004-08 and reports on intensified eradication activities. ; Eexecutive summary -- Key events 2008 -- 1. Strategic objective I: Interruption of wild poliovirus transmission -- 2. Strategic objective II: Surveillance and certification of global polio eradication -- 3. Strategic objective III: Management of long-term risks after wild poliovirus eradication -- 4. Strategic objective IV: Mainstreaming of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative -- 5. Financing: Financial commitments mark confidence in ending polio -- Appendix A. Performance against milestones in Strategic Plan 2004-2008 -- Appendix B. Performance against milestones in Intensified Eradication Effort 2007-2008 -- Acronyms and abbreviations ; "WHO/POLIO/09.03." ; On cover: logos for World Health Organization, Rotary International, CDC (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), UNICEF. ; Available via the World Wide Web as an Acrobat .pdf file (7.3MB, 52 p.).

Investments in education, health and social protection are the key to improving the state of human development in any society. In recent years, Nepal too has invested heavily in these sectors, particularly in education and health. This note provides an overview of the progress and current state of access and equity in these three sectors. It also presents evidence on some aspects of quality in the education and social protection sectors. While the country has made substantial improvements in different indicators of access at the aggregate level, disaggregated data show that disparities in access continue to exist across demographic and geographical dimensions. There is some evidence of improvement in the quality of educational inputs over the years, but the quality of outcomes remains poor.

ÖZETAvrupa bütünleşme projesi, Avrupa'nın sosyal ve ekonomik yıkımına ve milyonlarca insanın yaşamına mal olan II. Dünya Savaşı'nın ardından, kıtada bir başka topyekün savaşın çıkmasının önlenmesi ve Avrupa ülkelerinin ortak hedef ve çıkarlar doğrultusunda bir araya getirilmesi amacıyla ortaya konulmuştur. Bu süreçte, Avrupa bütünleşmesi önemli başarılar kaydetti. Gerçekten de, Tek Pazar'ın ve Ekonomik ve Parasal Birlik'in tamamlanmasıyla, 1990'lardan itibaren Avrupa'nın siyasi geleceği daha yoğun tartışılmaya başlanmıştır. Öte yandan, Merkez ve Doğu Avrupa ülkelerini içine alan son genişleme dalgasıyla AB'nin 25 üyeli bir birlik haline gelmesi kurumsal yapıyı ve karar alma sürecini son derece karmaşıklaştırmıştır. Hem bu soruna bir çözüm bulmak hem de ulusal düzeyden AB düzeyine giderek artan yetki transferi ve ciddi şekilde eleştirilen demokratik eksiklikten kaynaklanan meşruiyet meselesine bir yanıt bulmak amacıyla ilgili tarafların büyük gayretleri sonucu Avrupa Anayasası hazırlanmıştır. Ancak Anayasa'nın Fransa ve Hollanda'da düzenlenen referandumlarda reddedilmesi AB'nin siyasi geleceği ile ilgili ciddi şüphe ve endişelere yol açmıştır. Bu noktada Anayasa'nın Fransa ve Hollanda halkı tarafından reddedilmesinin ardında yatan nedenler iyi incelenmelidir. Şöyle ki, bu sonucu işsizlik ve kontrolsüz göçe duyulan korku gibi ekonomik ve sosyal sorunlar bağlamında açıklamak AB'nin kendini bütünleşmiş bir Avrupa hedefi ile özdeşleştiren gerçek bir Avrupa halkına sahip olmadığına dair asıl sorunu gizleyerek meseleyi basite indirgeyecektir. Sonuçta, ekonomik hedeflere bütünleşme sürecinin en başından beri öncelik verilmesi neticesinde kültür politikası ve kimlik meselesi ulusal devletlerin bir önceliği olarak kalmış, bu da kaçınılmaz olarak Avrupa bütünleşmesine halk desteğinin eksik kalmasına yol açmıştır. Bu çerçevede Avrupa kimliğinin tartışılması ve bir Avrupalılık hissinin uyandırılması son derece önemlidir. Ancak AB'nin henüz gelişmekte olan benzeri görülmemiş bir siyasi birlik modeli olduğu unutulmamalıdır. Bu nedenle, AB projesi onun benzersiz yapısını azımsamayacak yeni bir anlayış yaratmak üzere yeni terimler ve farklı bakış açıları ile tartışılmalıdır. AB, bütünleşme süreci ile ilgili tartışma ve söylemler bir AB-ulus devlet ikilemine indirilmediği taktirde eğitim ve kültür politikaları gibi geleneksel olarak ulusal devletlerin kontolünde olan alanlarda yaratıcı ve cesur girişimlerde bulunabilecektir . Bu bağlamda, 'Eğitim Politikasının Avrupa Kimliğinin İnşasındaki Rolü' başlıklı yüksek lisans tezi, AB'nin ortak bir eğitim politikası oluşturmadaki rolü ve etkinliğini, işsizlik sorunu ve gittikçe artan küreselleşmeden kaynaklanan teknolojik ve ekonomik rekabet gibi iç ve dış etkenleri göz önünde bulundurarak açıklamayı amaçlamıştır. Kapsamlı bir değerlendirmeye ulaşabilmek için Avrupa eğitim politikasının oluşumu ve başlıca araçları, hem tarihsel arka plan hem de üye ülkelerin ilk ve orta öğrenim yerine mesleki eğitim ve yüksek öğrenim alanlarında işbirliği yapmadaki istekliliklerinin ardındaki nedenler verilerek incelenmiştir. Sonuç olarak, bu çalışma üye ülkelerin ortak bir Avrupa eğitim politikasının oluşturulması söz konusu olduğunda bir Avrupa üst-kimliğinin yaratılmasına yönelik gerçek bir isteklilikten çok ekonomik hedef ve öncelikler doğrultusunda harekete geçtiklerini ortaya koymaya çalışmıştır. ABSTRACTEuropean integration project was put forward following the WWII, which caused social and economic destruction of Europe and claimed of millions of peoples lives, with the aim of preventing outburst of any total war in the Continent and also bringing European countries together in pursuance of common interests and objectives. The European integration has made great strides in this process. With the accomplishment of the Single Market and the Economic and Monetary Union, the political future of Europe has been widely discussed since the '90s. On the other hand, as EU became a union of 25 member states with the last enlargement covering the Central and Eastern European countries, the institutional management and decision-making process became extremely complicated. In order to find a solution to this problem, as well as to meet the issue of legitimacy caused by the increasing sovereignty transfer from national to EU level and the growing problem of democratic deficit, the European Constitution was prepared thanks to the great efforts of the concerned sides. However, the fact that the Constitution was rejected in referendums held in France and the Netherlands give rise to the serious doubts and considerations regarding the future of Europe. At this point, the reasons behind the rejection of the Constitution by French and Dutch people should be studied carefully. Explaining this result in terms of reaction against the integration process due to economic and social problems such as unemployment and fear of uncontrolled immigration will oversimplify the situation while veiling the basic point that EU does not have a genuine European demos identifying with the aim of a united Europe. As a result, since the economic objectives have been given the priority from the very beginning of the integration process, the cultural policy and the issue of identity have remained a priority of national states, which inevitably led to the lack of public support for European integration. In this context, discussing European identity and inspiring a sense of Europeanness are of critical importance. One should be reminded that EU is a unique political unity which is gradually evolving. For this reason, the EU project deserves to be discussed in new terms and from different perspectives so as to create a new understanding of Europe which does not underestimate its unique character. EU will be able to take innovative and courageous initiatives in the areas which are traditionally dominated by national states such as education and cultural policies provided that discourses and discussions about European integration process are not reduced to a nation-state-EU dilemma.In this regard, this MA thesis, titled as 'The Role of Education in the Construction of European Identity', aims to examine the role and influence of EU in shaping of a common educational policy by taking into account the external and internal incentives such as the unemployment problem and the technological and economic competition stemming from increasing globalization. In order to reach a comprehensive assessment, the evolution of European educational policy and its major instruments are examined by providing both the historical background and the main motives behind the willingness of member states to cooperate in vocational training and higher education areas instead of primary and secondary education. As a conclusion, this study attempts to reveal that the member states have been driven by economic aspirations and priorities rather than a genuine enthusiasm for the creation of a supranational European identity considering the formation of European educational policies.

Peace in the Middle East is the ever-elusive holy grail of diplomacy, a goal that much of the wider world fervently wishes to achieve. Modern efforts to achieve a formal, broad-based set of peace treaties between Israel and its various Arab neighbors, as well as a solution to the Palestinian homeland question, have ultimately foundered after some early promise and hard-won negotiating breakthroughs. Entrenched political interests, lack of good faith and mutual trust, domestic security concerns, and popular opposition have generated headwinds and a blame game too powerful to overcome. The full range of proposals, opinions, and analysis across the long history of the peace effort is contained here, allowing readers to survey the process and evaluate its competing agendas and debates