Latvia

• Country name: Republic of Latvia.
• Year founded: The territory of Latvia has been populated since 9000 BC, after the Ice Age glaciers retreated. Around the beginnng of the third millennium BC (3000 BC) the proto-Baltic ancestors of the Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.
• Population: January 2009 estimate: 2,261,700 
• Primary Language: Latvian (official) Russian. 
• Ethnic Make-up: 
• 59.2% Latvians,
• 28% Russians,
• 3.7% Belarusians,
• 2.5%Ukrainians,
• 6.6% others
• Political System: The politics of Latvia takes place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The President holds a primarily ceremonial role as Head of State. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and parliament, the Saeima. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. 
• Year Entered the European Union: 2004.
• Representative of the European Union (include party): United Kingdom
• Type of Economy: Until the middle of 2008 Latvia had the fastest growing economy in Europe. It has had high GDP growth since 2000. In 2003, GDP growth was 7.5% and inflation was 2.9%. Unemployment was 8.8% in 2003, almost unchanged compared to the previous two years. Privatization is mostly complete, except for some of the large state-owned utilities. 
• Currency: lats. 
• Current Exchange rate for American Currency: 1 US Dollar = 0.52544 Latvian Lats 
  1 Latvian Lats (LVL) = 1.90317 US Dollar (USD)
• GDP: 7.5%
• Percentage of Trade within the European Union: 1%
• Unemployment Rate: 8.5%
• Chief exports: Wood and wood products, machinery and equipment, metals, textiles, foodstuffs.
• Key imports: Machinery and equipment, chemicals, fuels.
• Major religions: Christianity, (Protestant, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox). 
• Surrounding countries: Estonia , Russia , Belarus, Lithuania, and the Baltic Sea.
• Litearcy rate: 99.7%
• One Interesting Fact: Latvians are reserved and have a preference for formality in public.

 

Belgium

Country Name:
Kingdom of Belgium
Year Founded:
1830
Population:
10,414,336 (July 2009 est.)
Primary Language:
Dutch, French and German
Ethnic Make-up:
Fleming 58%, Walloon 31%, mixed or other 11%
Political System:
Federal parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy
Year Entered the European Union:
Founding member.
Representative of the European Union (include party):
Ambassador Jan MATTHYSEN
Type of Economy:
This modern, private-enterprise economy has capitalized on its central geographic location, highly developed transport network, and diversified industrial and commercial base.
Currency:
Eur
Current Exchange rate for American Currency:
0.7426
GDP:

GDP (purchasing power parity):
$398.7 billion (2008 est.)
GDP (official exchange rate):
$495.4 billion (2008)
GDP - real growth rate:
1.3% (2008)
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$38,300 (2008 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 1% industry: 24.2% services: 74.9% (2008 est.)

Percentage of Trade within the European Union:
70%
Unemployment Rate:
6.5% (2008)
Chief Exports:
Machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds, metals and metal products, foodstuffs.
Key Imports :
Machinery and equipment, chemicals, diamonds, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, transportation equipment, oil products.
Major Religions:
Roman Catholicism
Surrounding Countries:
France, Luxembourg, Germany and Netherlands.
Literacy Rate:
98%
One Interesting Fact:
Folklore plays a major role in Belgium's cultural life: the country has a comparatively high number of processions, cavalcades, parades, 'ommegangs' and 'ducasses', 'kermesse', and other local festivals, nearly always with an originally religious or mythological background.

The Czech Republic (:

1-Czechoslovakia, The Czech Republic
2-1918 the independent republic
3-2001…10,230,060
4-The official language is Czech
5-Ukrainian (131,965), Slovak (76,034), Vietnamese (60,258), Russian (27,178), Polish (21,710), German (15,700), Moldovan (8,038), Mongolian (6,028), Bulgarian (5,046), Chinese (4,986), American (4,452), Belarusan (3,977), British (3,775), Serbian (3,615), Austrian (3,373), Romanian (3,298), Kazakh (3,038), Italian (2,351), Croatian (2,327), Dutch (2,240), French (2,140), Bosnian (2,093), Macedonian (1,787), Armenian (1,624), Japanese (1,494) and Uzbek (1,148)
6-It is a multi-party parliamentary representative democratic republic
7-After the fallo f the comunista regime, 1989
8- Ambasor Milena vicerovaç
9-The principal industries are heavy and general machine-building, iron and steel production, metalworking, chemical production, electronics, transportation equipment, textiles, glass, brewing, china, ceramics, and pharmaceuticals. Its main agricultural products are sugarbeets, fodder roots, potatoes, wheat, and hops.
10-Czech Koruna (CZK)
11- 1 Czech Koruna (CZK) = 0.05080 US Dollar (USD)
12- GDP per capita at purchasing power parity was $26,800 in 2008, which is 82% of the EU average.
13-This Republic is committed to a free market and maintains a generally open economy with few barriers to trade and investement.
14-2003-9.0%,2004-9.90%,2005-10.60%,2006-8.90%,2007-8.40%,2008-6.60%
15- Machinery and transport equipment, other manufactured goods, chemicals, raw materials and fuel.
16-alcoholic Drinks
17-Most of the country is argonistic, atheist or non believer but 26% is Catholic and 2.5% is protestant.
18- The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east.
19-99.0 adult literacy rate
20- The capital of Czech Republic is Prague, which is a major tourist destination, More than 50 percent of the population in Czech Republic is atheist, The Vltava is the longest river in the Czech Republic. The two popular sports of Czech Republic are football and ice hockey

Dominique

Country name: Republic of Austria

Year founded: 1124

Population: 8,210,281

Primary language: German, locally also Slovene, Croatian and Hungarian

Ethnic Make-up: Austrians 91.1%, former Yugoslavs 4% (includes Croations, Slovenes, Serbs, and Bosniaks), Turks 1.6%, German 0.9%, other or unspecified 2.4%

Political System: Federal Parliamentary Republic

Year entered the European Union: January 1, 1995

Representative of the European Union (include party): Valentin Inzko

Type of economy: Market economy

Currency: Euro

Current Exchange rate for American Currency: euros pero US dollar – 0.7345 (2008 est.)

GDP: GDP (purchasing power parity) $325 billion
GDP (official exchange rate) $432.4 billion
GDP – real growth rate 1.4%
GDP – per capital (PPP) $39,200
GDP – composition by sector agriculture: 1.9%
Industry: 30.6%
Services: 67.4%

Percentage of trade within the European Union: 34%

Unemployement rate: 3.7%

Chief exports: Germany, Italy, US, Switzerland; machinery and equipment, motor vehicules and parts, paper and paperboard, metal goods, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs

Kep imports: Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands; machinery and equipment, motor vehicules, chemicals, metal goods, oil and oil products, foodstuffs

Major Religions: Roman Catholic 73.6%, Protestant 4.7%, Muslim 4.2%, other 3.5%, unspecified 2%, none 12%

Surrounding countries: It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the South, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west.

Literary Rate: 98%

One interesting fact: The central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes.

Germany :)

•Country Name: Germany, officially it’s the Federal Republic of Germany. In German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland

•Year Founded: The Holy Roman Empire founded Germany in 962. Following the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Congress of Vienna convened in 1814 and founded the German Confederation (Deutscher Bund), a loose league of 39 sovereign states. Germany was first unified as a nation-state amidst the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, with the German Empire. By 23 May 1949 it was a Federal Republic and its reunification (East and West) happened the 3rd of October of 1990

•Population: 82,329,758 (July 2009 estimated). It’s the most populous country in the European Union.

•Primary Language: German is the official and predominantly spoken language in Germany. Some recognized native minority languages are Danish, Sorbian, Romany, and Frisian.

•Ethnic Make-up: The people in Germany are 91.5% German, 2.4% Turkish, and other 6.1% made up largely by Greek, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish.

•Political System: Germany's political system operates under a framework created in the West German Constitution of 1949. With the re-unification of the country in 1990, five newly-created East German states joined the Federal Republic (West) in accordance with Article 23 of the West German Constitution. Germany is considered a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, with the seat of government centered in the capital city, Berlin.

•Year Entered the European Union: When Germany was still divided into West and East, West Germany was a founding member of the European Community in 1957, which became the European Union in 1993.

•Representative of the European Union (include party)

•Type of Economy: Germany's affluent and technologically powerful economy - the fifth largest in the world in PPP terms - showed considerable improvement in 2007 with 2.6% growth. Among the most important reasons for Germany's high unemployment during the past decade were macroeconomic stagnation, the declining level of investment in plant and equipment, company restructuring, flat domestic consumption, structural rigidities in the labor market, lack of competition in the service sector, and high interest rates.

•Currency: euro

•Current Exchange rate for American Currency: Euro, 1 Dollar is 1.58 Euro.

•GDP (All 2008 estimated)
-Purchasing power parity $2.863 trillion
-Official exchange rate $3.818 trillion
-Real growth rate 1.7%
-Per capita $34,800
-Composition by sector: agriculture 0.9%, industry 30.1%, services 69%

•Percentage of Trade within the European Union

•Unemployment Rate: 7.9%

•Chief Exports: exports: $1.53 trillion f.o.b. (2008 est.) machinery, vehicles, chemicals, metals and manufactures, foodstuffs, textiles. Export partners:
France 9.7%, US 7.5%, UK 7.3%, Italy 6.7%, Netherlands 6.4%, Austria 5.4%, Belgium 5.3%, Spain 5% (2007)

•Key Imports: $1.202 trillion f.o.b. (2008 est.) Import commodities: machinery, vehicles, chemicals, foodstuffs, textiles, metals. Import partners: Netherlands 12%, France 8.6%, Belgium 7.8%, China 6.2%, Italy 5.8%, UK 5.6%, US 4.5%, Austria 4.4% (2007)

•Major Religions: Christianity is the most practiced religion, with 53 million people (64%). The second one is Islam with 3.3 million people (4%), followed by Buddhism and Judaism, both with around 200,000 people (0.25%). Hinduism has some 90,000 adherents (0.1%). All other religious communities in Germany have fewer than 50,000 (or less than 0.05%) adherents. Protestantism is concentrated in the north and east and Roman Catholicism is concentrated in the south and west. Each denomination comprises about 31% of the population.

•Surrounding Countries: It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

•Literacy Rate: Age 15 and over can read and write. The total population would be: 99%, both male and female.

•One Interesting Fact: German people are the second biggest consumers of beer in the world (after the Irish), with an average of 119 liters per person per year (or 0.32 liters per day).

Luxembourg!

Country Name
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Year Founded
963
Population
491,775
Primary Language
German, French and Luxembourgish
Ethnic Make-up
Luxembourger 63.1%, Portuguese 13.3%, French 4.5%, Italian 4.3%, German 2.3%, other EU 7.3%, other 5.2%
Political System
parliamentary representative democracy with a constitutional monarch;
Year Entered the European Union
1957
Representative of the European Union (include party)
Christian Social People's Party
Type of Economy

Currency
euro
Current Exchange rate for American Currency
1 euro = 1.3653 U.S. dollars
GDP
$85,100 (2008 est.)
Percentage of Trade within the European Union
Unemployment Rate
4.7%
Chief Exports
machinery and equipment, steel products, chemicals, rubber products, glass
Key Imports
minerals, metals, foodstuffs, quality consumer goods
Major Religions
Roman Catholic
Surrounding Countries
germany, Belgium,france
Literacy Rate
total population: 100%
male: 100%
female: 100% (2000 est.)

One Interesting Fact
The country has a highly developed economy, with the second highest Gross Domestic Product per capita in the world

Genocide

After you watch the video, answer the following questions: 

1. What did Damas Gisimba, Carl Wilkens, and Simon Weil Lipman value, and what risks did they take by holding onto their values?
   
2. What values did the children of the orphanage demonstrate?
3. As events unfolded, what were Damas Gisimba's concerns?
4. What does it mean - as both Simone Weil Lipman and Damas Gisimba state - to "see the other as yourself?"

Think back to the incidents that took place during the Rwandan genocide: 

1. What role did the international community play during the genocide?
2. Does the international community have the responsibility of assisting countries threatened by genocide?
3. How can students get involved and make their voices heard against genocide? (For suggestions, visit www.ushmm.org/conscience/alert/students/) 

Think about challenges you face in your everday life: 

1. Have you ever witnessed an incident by which a bystander took the responsibility of offering assistance to someone in need of help? What happened?
2. When someone needs help, do bystanders have the responsibility to offer assistance? What do bystanders risk when they intervene and when they do not get involved? 

At the end of the film, Damas Gisimba stated that hatred must be "banished" to make the world a peaceful place. Reflect on that and answer the following: 

1. What is "hatred?" When is it dangerous?
2. What are examples of different forms of hatred in the global community?
3. Can hatred be banished? 
4. What would it take to banish hatred? 
5. Whose responsibility is it to work to end hatred or to respond when hatred provokes violence? 

Slumdog Millionaire

In one pivotal scene, the show’s host tells Jamal his own story about coming from the slums. He then gives Jamal the wrong answer written on the mirror in the rest room. Why did he give Jamal the wrong answer? What did Jamal do?

He was defeating him, dearing to his knowledge or to his innocence, to see if he was as good* as he appeared, if he was smart enough, if he only had a brain, or he also had social smarts, if you can call it in that way, he had been through a lot of things to trust that easy on someone, of course he would answer the question according to what he believed not letting the host advice interfer.

Also I can say that the host wanted to be the only one that acheived to be a millionaire.

Describe how loss, chance, luck, suffering, and street smarts are also characters behind the scenes. The film explores gain and loss side by side. Triumphs are tempered with loss. Where do you see this evident?

When the boys could ran away from the guy they worked for, they had to leave the girl behind.

When the grown girl could get to Jamal, Salim died because he helped her.

Jamal had to go to jail because he was giving the correct answers and he was becoming a millionaire, but not everyone had feith on him, and his answers.

Slumdog Millionare

• In the final scene, we see Salim and the choice he makes - filling the bathtub with money, etc. Why does he make this choice?
Because he become rich doing bad things and he didn't have the experiences his brother lived and all that money he haved was earned by bad things he had done, also he killed the other man so he his brother and Talika could live peacefull and also Salim maybe preferred to be killed instantly and not suffer to much.
• This film weaves together nightmare and impossible dream. What do you take away as the most important message or impression from the film?
That all that happens in your life is what makes you and things happen for a reason, good or bad things you learn from them and lather they may help you; also that you can do your future you can struggle to make it better.

Slumdog Millionare

- Greed, corruption and the misuse of power are highlighted in the film through a variety of characters. How are those who have money and power glamorized in this film? What happens to the victims?
Salim’s boss, he has so much control over his “employees”, everyone do what he told them to and if they didn’t, the most probable thing that he would do is kill them. Latika also suffered from him, they had her chased at the train station and Salim cut her face.

- In one pivotal scene, the show’s host tells Jamal his own story about coming from the slums. He then gives Jamal the wrong answer written in the mirror in the rest room. Why did he give Jamal the wrong answer? What did Jamal do?
Maybe the host didn’t want Jamal to win and became a millionare as he did once before, I think that he didn’t, like “trust” Jamal because he acused him from fraud. When is was time for Jamal
to choose and answer he chosed the other answer that turned out to be right.


DOMINIQUE

slumdog millionaire

This film weaves together nightmare and impossible dream. What do you take away as the most important message or impression from the film?

This was the story of the live of a common guy in India. We had the opportunity to see how other people in the world struggle for sustain, literally living in trash, seeing prostitutes, having no place and no parents, this at least in my case let me think about the great chance that I have of education, wealth, health and freedom.  Something that stayed with me is the sense of humanity, because these children though they were used to have a bad life they still had dreams to go for. This should make us value what we have and keep doing the best we can because there's people far away  with situations worst than us that just keep going!

In the final scene, we see Salim and the choice he makes- filling the bathtub with money, etc. Why does he make this choice?

I think he perfectly knew he was not going to be able to skip this one , so he preferred to die around a lot of money.  The one he was unable to have during his life.  I think he also wanted to show the guy that was going to enter that he had stole his money and he was going to keep it with him. It was pretty impacting this one, really tough for me. 

-anne

Compare and contrast 3 pivotal choices or desicions made by Jamal and Salim.How do their choices affect their respective paths in life?
As they made different choices in their life their life took different ways.Salim made the decision of living his home.He made a decision about working to a very dangerous man, and at the end of the movie the decided to help his brother and Latika by killing his boss.Those decisions or actions made his end.
Jamal decided to work.That decision made him get in the show of who wants to be a millionaire.he decided to play, and he won at the end.IN the game he made several decisions but at the end he keep on winning so he baceame millionaire.


Is ethnical decision making posible when one must make choices based on survival?Do seemingly "bad"choices make a person bad?
Most of the time because the people who are making a decision they are customed or "made" by their ethic group so they think or act like someone of their ethnic group would act, but talking about survival cases sometimes not because when it's about survival you don't care about the others would think it's just that you want to survive and its not neccesary and ethnical decision.Bad choices don't make a person bad, they are just a mistake.But when you keep on making bad decisions you can change but not at all.

What do you think the film is saying about globalization of culture through media?We see the game show "Who wants to be a millionaire"?adapted in the indian culture.Is this a sign of progress?Why or Why not?What is the film staying about the effect of money on culture.
There are still their culture, there are still extremely poor people and human discrimination, there is globalization but their culture doesn't change.The game could be a sign of progress but not so much because its just a show and just a couple of the indian people win money from there, its progress because they are getting more modern with tv show and all that.People were extremely poor, but in the movie we could see people who were not poor but their culture for me was the same, they still treated women badly, there were fights between the people, etc.

Questions for Reflection & Discussion

1• What does the title mean? How does the title and the contrasts within it provide symbolic summary of the film?
The title means what he basiclly turned into, he was a slumdog and now he is a millionaire. It basiclly sums all the movie because that's what it shows, the life of a slumdog and all the things he had to go through, and how all these things led himto become a millionare.

2• Early in the film we see the young Jamal dive into a latrinepit to steal a glimpse at a visiting movie star. How does his single-mindedness to see this movie star reveal hisdetermination? What other examples do you see in the film of his determination?
It reveals how did everything he could to reach his goal, that was seeing the movie star, he didn't cared getting all dirty, he wanted to see him and no one would stop him from it. Other examples of his determination would be how he never forgot about Latika, everyone said that he should forget about her but he never did, and in the end with his determination he reached his goal, that was to be with her.

3• In the film, the theme of destiny is a central theme. What does it mean that all Jamal desires is just out of his reach? (The prized autograph, Latika, his brother, the answers, etc.)
It means that destiny was good to him because all that he wanted and seemed impossible to have, he got it at the end, like the answer that he didn't knew, it turned out to be the right one.

Excerpts on Death Penalty

The Death Penalty is a form of torture

The cruelty of torture is evident. Like torture, an execution constitutes an extreme physical and mental assault on a person already rendered helpless by government authorities. Abolitionist groups claim that the cruelty of the death penalty is manifest not only in the execution but in the time spent under sentence of death, during which the prisoner is constantly contemplating his or her own death at the hands of the state. Prison is an extraordinarily severe punishment that should not be exacerbated with torture or the death penalty.

Torture Defined
Torture of prisoners violates the Eight Amendment’s provision against Cruel and Unusual Punishment, and also constitutes a violation of several international laws. The United Nations Convention on Torture defined torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.”

An example of torture in the US Criminal Justice System

In May 1998, a lawsuit was filed concerning conditions for death row inmates in Idaho Maximum Security Institution. The suit states that inmates are held in solitary confinement for 163 of every week's 168 hours in small concrete and steel cells with solid metal doors and a narrow slit for a window. Inmates are allowed out of their cells for a maximum of one hour a day, excluding weekends, for recreation, alone and handcuffed in one of 12 enclosed wire mesh pens measuring approximately seven by 15 feet. The prisoner named in the lawsuit, Randy McKinney, states that he has lived under such a regime for 16 years, and that such treatment constitutes torture.

World Trade Center bombing (1993)

The World Trade Center bombing ocurred on February 26, 1993; in New York City when a car bomb was detonated below Tower One on the World Trade Center. The urea nitrate-hydrogen gas was intended to knock the Tower One into Tower Two bringing them both down and killing thousands of people, but it failed and killed 6 people and injured 1,042. The attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Shaikh Mohammed. They mailed letter two various New York newspapers just before the attack, saying it belong to Israel's army.

Ramzi Yousef and a Jordanian friend, Eyad Ismoil drove a yellow van into Lower Manhattan, parking it in the lower paarking in World Trade Center, when it detonated the bomb cut the electricity also knocking the emergency lighting and the smoke rised 93rd floors in the two towers.

The USS Cole bombing (2001)

The USS Cole bombing was a suicide bombing attack against the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole (DDG 67) on 12 October 2000 while it was harbored in the Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed.
On 12 October 2000, USS Cole, under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold, set in to Aden harbor for a routine fuel stop. Cole completed mooring at 09:30. Refueling started at 10:30. Around 11:18 local time (08:18 UTC), a small craft approached the port side of the destroyer, and an explosion occurred, putting a 40-by-60-feet gash in the ship's port side according to the memorial plate to those that lost their lives. According to former CIA intelligence officer Robert Finke, the blast appeared to be caused by explosives molded into a shaped charge against the hull of the boat. It was reported that the boat was so close that the attackers (trying to appear friendly) aboard the boat and the sailors exchanged greetings before the blast. It is believed that sailors aboard the USS Cole thought the boat was just a garbage service boat. The blast hit the ship's galley, where crew were lining up for lunch. The crew fought flooding in the engineering spaces and had the damage under control by the evening. Divers inspected the hull and determined the keel was not damaged.
Seventeen sailors were killed and thirty nine others were injured in the blast. The injured sailors were taken to the United States Army's Landstuhl Regional Medical Center near Ramstein, Germany and later, back to the United States. The attack was the deadliest against a U.S. Naval vessel since the Iraqi attack on the USS Stark (FFG-31) on 17 May 1987.
The asymmetric warfare attack was organized and directed by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist organization. In June 2001, an al-Qaeda recruitment video featuring bin Laden boasted about the attack and encouraged similar attacks.
On 14 March 2007, a federal judge in the United States, Robert Doumar ruled that the Sudanese government was liable for the bombing.

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor,was a surprise military strike conducted by the Japanese navy against the United States' naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of Sunday, December 7, 1941later resulting in the United States becoming militarily involved in World War II It was intended as a preventiveaction to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from influencing the war Japan was planning to wage in Southeast Asia against Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States. The attack consisted of two aerial attack waves totaling 353 aircraft, launched from six Japanese aircraft carriers.

The attack sank four U.S. Navy battleships and damaged four more. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, and one minelayer, destroyed 188 aircraft, and caused personnel losses of 2,402 killed and 1,282 wounded. The power station, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building were not hit. Japanese losses were minimal, at 29 aircraft and four midget submarines, with 65 servicemen killed or wounded.The attack was a major engagement of World War II. It occurred before a formal declaration of war and before the last part of the infamous 14-part message was delivered to the State Department in Eashington D.C. The Japanese Embassy in Washington had been instructed to deliver it immediately prior to the scheduled time of the attack in Hawaii. The attack, and especially the 'surprise' nature of it, were both factors in changing U.S. public opinion from the isolationist position of the mid-1930s to support for direct participation in the war. Germany's prompt declaration of war, unforced by any treaty commitment to Japan, quickly brought the US into the European Theatre as well. The lack by Japan of any formal declaration prior to the attack led President Roosevelt to proclaim "December 7th, 1941—a date which will live in infamy".

I choose this Topic because I saw a movie about this when I was In primary school and it's a Topic I like most about wars in th U.S.I think the U.S. it's always like getting in other countrys problems or trying to take advantage of the problems of somre countrys to get land or finding a way to get more rich.This is one of the most powerfull nations on the world so for me it's admirable their history, so I like the country even though all enemys they have such as konw they are in war.

Here you could see a picture of Pearl Harbor in that time with their ships burning.

Anthrax letters in New York and Washington, DC

Well this event is also known as Amerithrax by the FBI, and it occured some weeks after the attacks of the 9/11 in 2001, started on september 18. What happened is that letters that had anthrax spores were mailed to people in the news media offices and to two Democratic U.S. Senators. It's said that five letters were mailed to ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and the New York Post, all in New York City; and to the National Enquirer at American Media,in Boca Raton, Florida. Only the New York Post and NBC letters were actually found but the existence of the other three letters is inferred because people who worked at ABC, CBS and AMI became infected with later with anthrax.

Two more anthrax letters were dated October 9, three weeks after the first mailing. The letters were sent to two Democratic Senators, Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. When that happened, Daschle was the Senate Majority leader and Leahy was head of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Daschle letter was opened by an assistant on october 15, and the government mail service shut down. The unopened Leahy letter was discovered in an impounded mail bag on November 16. The Leahy letter had been missdirected to the State Department mailin Sterling, Virginia, and a postal worker there, David Hose, contracted inhalational anthrax.

At least 22 were infected by anthrax, 11 inhaled the life-threatening inhalational variety. Five died of inhalational anthrax: Stevens; two employees of the Brentwood mail facility in Washington, Thomas Morris Jr. and Joseph Curseen, Kathy Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant resident in the Bronx who worked in New York City, and Ottilie Lundgren, a 94-year old widow of a prominent judge from Oxford, who was the last known victim.

Although the diffetent anthrax preparations in the five letters were of different grades, all of the material came from the same bacterial strain, known as the Ames strain. More than a dozen of buildings were contaminated with anthrax. The decontamination of the Brentwood postal facility took 26 months and cost $130 million dollars. The Hamilton, New Jersey postal facility remained closed until March 2005 and its cleanup cost $65 million. The United States Environmental Protection Agency spent $41.7 million to clean up government buildings in Washington, D.C. One FBI document said the total damage exceeded $1 billion. The principal means of decontamination is fumigation with chlorine dioxide gas

The primary suspect was not publicly identified until 2008.

Blowing up of the USS Maine (1898)

Back on that time, Cuba was fighting against Spain to liberate their island from the Spanish, but when Spain sent the General Valeriano Weyler y Nicolau with the command to pacify the revolution so he concentated the rebels in districts to areas near military headquarters. So this had as conlcusion starvation and death of over 100,000 Cubans. The "Yellow Press" put pression over the President of the US, William McKinley to end the fighting in Cuba.
Pro-Weyler forces started to investigate in Havana riots in January 1898, and US became very worried about the safety of their citizens in the country.
On 24 January, McKinley sent the USS Maine and it arrived the 25th.
To avoid any conflict the commanding officer didn't allow the soldiers go on shore. The Navy's presence appeared to have a calming effect on the situation.
15 February, the Maine exploted, 266 men died. The city of Washington acted quickly and the Spain position on Cuba hardened, so US declared war to Spain on April 21 and Spain responded on the 23.
Some investigators insist the the explosion of the Maine didn't caused the war, but it served as a catalyst, accelerating the approach to a diplomatic impasse. It rallied American's opinion more strongly behind armed intervention.

Bombing of Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia (1996)

June 25, 1996- 9:43 p.m.- Khobar, Saudi Arabia. The men have parked their truck to one side of the building # 131  where the United States Air Force personnel from the 4404th Wing are housed. At  9:50 p.m. after only 9 minutes the men are gone and the fuel  truck exploded leaving a total of 19 dead and 372 wounded.  

The force of the explosion was enormous.  A huge crater was left were the vehicle was parked, 26 m wide and 11 m deep.  Windows were shattered and thrown miles away from the area and it destroyed six high rise apartment.

 The explosion contained the equivalent of 20,000 to 30,000 pounds of TNT.  The bomb was a mixture of gasoline and explosive powders placed in the gas tank. 

The terrorists were reported to have smuggled explosive materials and timing devices into S. A from Lebanon in paint cans, to later hide them underground in Qatif near Khobar. 

Later the next people were identified and arrested: Ahmed Ibrahim, Abdelkarim Hussein, Ali Saed, Ibrahim Salih and 9 other Saudis. 

The purpose of this attack was to exhort the U.S soldiers to leave the country  and that Khobar Towers would be attacked too if they did not begin immediately. 

William Perry who is the secretary of defense said in an interview in 2007 that " he now bealives "Al- Qaida" rather than Iran was behind a 1996 truck bombing at an American Military base" 

Anne