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Pål Refsdal
Pål Refsdal (born 9 September 1963) is a Norwegian freelance journalist, photographer and filmmaker who has reported from many war zones. He has followed and worked with several rebel groups. In 2009, he was embedded with Taliban in Afghanistan where he was taken captive and held for a week before he was released. He has also worked for Norwegian People's Aid and as press officer for the Norwegian Armed Forces, Norwegian military. Early life and education Refsdal was born in Kongsvinger to a father from Hedmark who is a doctor and a Germans, German mother who is a Physical therapy, physiotherapist. He has three sisters. The family lived in Sweden for five years and later moved to Ulsrud in Oslo, where Refsdal spent most of his adolescence. He finished the Norwegian Army Officer School in 1983, aged 19 with the rank of Second Lieutenant. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soviet–Afghan War
The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 46-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, Afghan military fight against the rebelling Afghan mujahideen, aided by Pakistan. While they were backed by various countries and organizations, the majority of the mujahideen's support came from Pakistan, the United States (as part of Operation Cyclone), the United Kingdom, China, Iran, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, in addition to a large influx of foreign fighters known as the Afghan Arabs. American and British involvement on the side of the mujahideen escalated the Cold War, ending a short period of relaxed Soviet Union–United States relations. Combat took place throughout the 1980s, mostly in the Afghan countryside, as most of the country's cities remained under Soviet control. The conflict resulted in the de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Norwegian Kroner
The krone (, currency sign, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); ISO 4217, code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is the currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including List of possessions of Norway, overseas territories and dependencies). It was traditionally known as the Norwegian Crown (currency), crown in English; however, this has fallen out of common usage. It is nominally subdivided into 100 ''øre'', although the last coins denominated in øre were withdrawn in 2012. The krone was the thirteenth-most-traded currency in the world by value in April 2010, down three positions from 2007. The Norwegian krone is also informally accepted in many shops in Sweden and Finland that are close to the Norwegian border, and also in some shops in the Danish ferry ports of Hirtshals and Frederikshavn. Norwegians spent 14.1 billion NOK on border trade, border shopping in 2015 compared to 10.5 billion NOK spent in 2010. Border shopping is a fairly common practice amongst Norwegians, though i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of countries and dependencies by population, population and is the List of African countries by area, seventh-largest country in Africa. It is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Angola has an Enclave and exclave, exclave province, the province of Cabinda Province, Cabinda, that borders the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital and most populous city is Luanda. Angola has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, Paleolithic Age. After the Bantu expansion reached the region, states were formed by the 13th century and organised into confederations. The Kingdom of Kongo ascended to achieve hegemony among the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mine Clearing
Demining or mine clearance is the process of removing land mines from an area. In military operations, the object is to rapidly clear a path through a minefield, and this is often done with devices such as mine plows and blast waves. By contrast, the goal of ''humanitarian demining'' is to remove all of the landmines to a given depth and make the land safe for human use. Specially trained dogs are also used to narrow down the search and verify that an area is cleared. Mechanical devices such as Mine flail, flails and excavators are sometimes used to clear mines. A great variety of methods for detecting landmines have been studied. These include electromagnetic methods, one of which (ground penetrating radar) has been employed in tandem with metal detectors. Acoustic methods can sense the cavity created by mine casings. Sensors have been developed to detect vapor leaking from landmines. Animals such as rats and mongooses can safely move over a minefield and detect mines, and an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Verdens Gang
(), generally known under the abbreviation ''VG'', is a Norway, Norwegian Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper. In 2016, circulation numbers stood at 93,883, declining from a peak circulation of 390,510 in 2002. Nevertheless, ''VG'' is the most-read online newspaper in Norway, with about 2 million daily readers. Verdens Gang AS is a private company wholly owned by the public company Schibsted, Schibsted ASA. History and profile ''VG'' was established by members of the Norwegian resistance movement shortly after the country was liberated from German occupation of Norway in World War II, German occupation in 1945. The first issue of the paper was published on 23 June 1945. Christian A. R. Christensen was the first editor-in-chief of ''VG'' from its start in 1945 to 1967, when he died. ''VG'' is based in Oslo. The paper is published in tabloid format. The owner, media conglomerate Schibsted, also owns Norway's largest newspaper, , as well as newspapers in Sweden, Estonia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knut Vollebæk
Knut Vollebæk (born 11 February 1946) is a Norwegian former diplomat and politician. A member of the Christian Democratic Party, he served as ambassador to the United States from 2001 to 2007. He is currently a member of the International Commission on Missing Persons Board of Commissioners and heads a government commission investigating the situation of Norwegian Travellers. Education He was educated at the Norwegian School of Economics. He also attended the University of Oslo and the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as completing studies in the French language and culture at Institut Catholique de Paris and in the Spanish language and culture at the Universidad Complutense of Madrid. Career In September 2013, he was elected to the Board of Commissioners of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). Vollebæk was the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities from 2007 until 2013. Prior to that, Vollebæk served as Ambassador to the United S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yugoslav People's Army
The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA/; Macedonian language, Macedonian, Montenegrin language, Montenegrin and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian language, Croatian and ; , JLA), also called the Yugoslav National Army, was the military of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its antecedents from 1945 to 1992. Origins The origins of the JNA started during the Yugoslav Partisans of World War II. As a predecessor of the JNA, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (NOVJ) was formed as a part of the Resistance during World War II, anti-fascist World War II in Yugoslavia, People's Liberation War of Yugoslavia in the Bosnian town of Rudo on 22 December 1941. After the Yugoslav Partisans liberated the country from the Axis Powers, that date was officially celebrated as the "Day of the Army" in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFR Yugoslavia). In March 1945, the NOVJ was renamed the "Yugo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA; , UÇK) was an Albanians, ethnic Albanian separatist militia that sought the separation of Kosovo, the vast majority of which is inhabited by Albanians, from the Republic of Serbia (1992–2006), Republic of Republic of Serbia (1992–2006), Serbia and Serbia and Montenegro, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Albanian nationalism was a central tenet of the KLA and many in its ranks supported the creation of a Greater Albania, which would encompass all Albanians in the Balkans, stressing Culture of Albania, Albanian culture, ethnicity and nation. Military precursors to the KLA began in the late 1980s with armed resistance to Yugoslav police trying to take Albanian activists in custody.. By the early 1990s there were attacks on police forces and secret-service officials who abused Albanian civilians. By mid-1998 the KLA was involved in frontal battle though it was outnumbered and outgunned. Conflict escalated from 1997 onward due to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shining Path
The Shining Path (, SL), self-named the Communist Party of Peru (, abbr. PCP), is a far-left political party and guerrilla group in Peru, following Marxism–Leninism–Maoism and Gonzalo Thought. Academics often refer to the group as the Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path (, abbr. PCP-SL) to distinguish it from other communist parties in Peru. When it first launched its " people's war" in 1980, the Shining Path's goal was to overthrow the government through guerrilla warfare and replace it with a New Democracy. The Shining Path believed that by establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat, inducing a cultural revolution, and eventually sparking a world revolution, they could arrive at full communism. Their representatives stated that the then-existing socialist countries were revisionist, and the Shining Path was the vanguard of the world communist movement. The Shining Path's ideology and tactics have influenced other Maoist insurgent groups such as the Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity
The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (in Spanish: ''Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca'', URNG-MAIZ or most commonly URNG) is a Guatemalan political party that started as a guerrilla movement in 1982. The party laid down its arms in 1996 and became a legal political party in 1998, after the peace process which ended the Guatemalan Civil War. History Background ''PBSUCCESS'' and early insurgency Since the CIA-backed coup in 1954, opposition groups were continuously forming in an attempt to fight against the repression that the military and wealthy landowners in Guatemala had created. The ensuing military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas immediately on 28 June 1954 banned the Guatemalan Party of Labour (PGT) and shortly later other labor unions and left-wing parties with suspected communist sympathies via Decree 4880. After the assassination of Castillo Armas by a left-wing member of the presidential guard, Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes prevailed in the ens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamil Nationalism
Tamil nationalism is the ideology which asserts that the Tamils, Tamil people constitute a nation and promotes the cultural unity of Tamil people. Tamil nationalism is primarily a secular nationalism, that focus on language and homeland. It expresses itself in the form of linguistic purism ("Pure Tamil"), linguistic nationalism, Social equality ("Self-Respect Movement") and Tamil Renaissance. Since the independence of India and Sri Lanka, Tamil separatist movements have been actively suppressed in both countries. Sri Lanka Since the adoption of the Vaddukoddai Resolution in 1976 under the leadership of S.J.V. Chelvanayakam, Tamil nationalists in Sri Lanka have repeatedly attempted to create an independent state (Tamil Eelam) amid the increasing political and physical violence against ordinary Tamils by the Sri Lankan government which was dominated by Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism. Shortly after the island's independence from British Ceylon, Britain, the Sri Lankan gover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
