Udon Thani
Udon Thani ( th, อุดรธานี, ) is a city in Isan (Northeast Thailand), the capital of Udon Thani Province and with a population of approximately 430,000 in its urban area the 7th largest city in the country. The city municipality (city proper) had a population of 130,531 people as of 2019. Udon Thani is one of four major cities in Isan, namely Nakhon Ratchasima, Ubon Ratchathani, Udon Thani, and Khon Kaen. Together they are known as the "big four of Isan". Location Udon is approximately 560 km from Bangkok. It is a major official and commercial center in northern Isan, Thailand, and the gateway to Laos, northern Vietnam, and southern China. History The city's economy was boosted by the proximity to Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base during the Vietnam War and retains reminders of that time in the form of bars, coffee shops, and hotels. "Udon sort of became like Pattaya when the GIs arrived," said a local architect. "Restaurants serving Western cuisine, hotels an ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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List Of Municipalities In Thailand
Thailand divides its settlements (''thesaban'') into three categories by size: cities (''thesaban nakhon''), towns (''thesaban mueang'') and townships (or subdistrict municipality) (''thesaban tambon''). There are 32 cities as of January 2015. The national capital Bangkok and the special governed city Pattaya fall outside these divisions. They are "self-governing districts". Several agencies issue population figures. Locally registered Thai populations as compiled by the Department of Local Administration (DLA), also known as, "Locally Registered Thai Population". These figures reflect the migrant, upcountry, and seasonal nature of Thai labor flows to the capital and tourist hot spots, yet maintain upcountry registration. Figures are very different from those by National Statistics Office (NSO), which conduct the decennial census counts that attempt to count total resident Thai population + under 1,000 permanent resident foreigners ("Total Thai Population"). Neither of these of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Khon Kaen
Khon Kaen ( th, ขอนแก่น, ) is one of the four major cities of Isan, Thailand, also known as the "big four of Isan", the others being Udon Thani, Nakhon Ratchasima, and Ubon Ratchathani. It is the capital of Khon Kaen province and the Mueang Khon Kaen district. Khon Kaen lies north-northeast of Bangkok. Geography and demography Khon Kaen is on the Khorat Plateau, elevation 187 m, and is the center of the mid-northeastern provincial group of Thailand, according to the Thai government. Its coordinates are . The city has a population of 114,459. Regional importance Khon Kaen is a city in the northeastern region of Thailand. The city is bisected by Mithraphap Road, also known as the "Friendship Highway", or "Highway 2", the road linking Bangkok to the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge. Highway 230, a modern, multi-lane by-pass enables through-traffic to avoid the city center to the west, and connects to the airport, the new main bus station (BKS3), and to the highway 12 to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Voice Of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages which it distributes to affiliate stations around the globe. It is primarily viewed by a non-American audience. VOA was established in 1942, and the VOA charter (Public Laws 94-350 and 103–415) was signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. VOA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent agency of the U.S. government. Funds are appropriated annually under the budget for embassies and consulates. In 2016, VOA broadcast an estimated 1,800 hours of radio and TV programming each week to approximately 236.6 million people worldwide with about 1,050 employees and a taxpayer-funded annual budget of . While Voice of America is seen by some foreign list ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United States Senate Select Committee On Intelligence
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (sometimes referred to as the Intelligence Committee or SSCI) is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of the United States that provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches. The Committee was established in 1976 by the 94th Congress. The Committee is "select" in that membership is temporary and rotated among members of the chamber. The committee comprises 15 members. Eight of those seats are reserved for one majority and one minority member of each of the following committees: Appropriations, Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Judiciary. Of the remaining seven, four are members of the majority, and three are members of the minority. In addition, the Majority Leader and Minority Leader are non-voting ''ex officio'' members of the committee. Also, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Committee o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Osama Bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist, his group is designated as a List of designated terrorist groups, terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and various countries. Belonging to the wealthy Bin Laden family, Osama bin Laden was born in Saudi Arabia. His father was Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, a Saudi millionaire from Hadhramaut, Yemen, and the founder of the construction company, Saudi Binladin Group. His mother, Hamida al-Attas, Alia Ghanem, was from a secular middle-class family in Latakia, Syria. He studied at university in the country until 1979, when he joined Islamic Unity of Afghanistan Mujahideen, Mujahideen forces in Pakistan Soviet–Afghan War, fighting against ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Abu Zubaydah
Abu Zubaydah ( ; , ''Abū Zubaydah''; born March 12, 1971, as Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn) is a Saudi Arabian currently held by the U.S. in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. He is held under the authority of Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF). Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan in March 2002 and has been in United States custody ever since, including four-and-a-half years in the secret prison network of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He was transferred among prisons in various countries including a year in Poland, as part of a United States' extraordinary rendition program. During his time in CIA custody, Zubaydah was extensively interrogated; he was waterboarded 83 times and subjected to numerous other torture techniques including forced nudity, sleep deprivation, confinement in small dark boxes, deprivation of solid food, stress positions, and physical assaults. Videotapes of some of Zubaydah's interrogations are amongst ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Black Site
In military terminology, a black site is a location at which an unacknowledged black operation or black project is conducted. According to the Associated Press, "Black sites are clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with a crime and have no legal recourse, with no bail or court order." Egypt Black sites are used extensively by the Egyptian security services. During the Egyptian Crisis (2011–2014) hundreds of protesters alleged that torture occurred at these black sites. The Egyptian security service also operated black sites involved with the CIA’s counter-terror black site program. Russia In Chechnya, gay men have alleged been tortured at black sites by Chechen security forces. Gay men in other parts of Russia have been kidnapped and transported to sites in Chechnya, where over 100 have been tortured, and some killed. Chechen authorities have thwarted attempts by the Russian LGBT Network to help gay people in Chechnya escape to safe locations i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base
Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base (Udorn RTAFB) is a Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) base, the home of 23rd Wing Air Command. It is in the city of Udon Thani in northeastern Thailand and is the main airport serving the city and province. The RTAF 231 Squadron "Hunter" is assigned to Udorn, equipped with the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet-A. History Establishment Udorn RTAFB was established in the 1950s. The civil war inside Laos and fears of it spreading into Thailand led the Thai government to allow the United States to use covertly five Thai bases beginning in 1961 for the air defense of Thailand and to fly reconnaissance flights over Laos. Udorn was one of those bases. Under Thailand's "gentleman's agreement" with the US, RTAF bases used by the US Air Force (USAF) were considered RTAF bases and were commanded by Thai officers. Thai air police controlled access to the bases, along with USAF Security Police, who assisted them in base defense using sentry dogs, observation towers, and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pattaya
Pattaya ( th, พัทยา, , ) is a city in Thailand. It is on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, about southeast of Bangkok, within, but not part of, Bang Lamung district in the province of Chonburi province, Chonburi. Pattaya City ( th, เมืองพัทยา, ) is a self-governing municipal area which covers tambon, Tambon's Nong Prue and Na Klua and parts of Huai Yai and Nong Pla Lai. The city is in the industrial Eastern Seaboard of Thailand, Eastern Seaboard zone, along with Si Racha, Laem Chabang, and Chonburi. Pattaya is at the center of the Pattaya-Chonburi Metropolitan Area—a wikt:conurbation, conurbation in Chonburi Province—with a population of roughly 1,000,000. History The name ''Pattaya'' evolved from the march of Phraya Tak (later King Taksin) and his army from Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province, Ayutthaya to Chanthaburi Province, Chanthaburi, which took place before the fall of the former capital to Burma, Burmese invaders in 1767. When ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. The north was supported by the Soviet Union, China, and other communist states, while the south was United States in the Vietnam War, supported by the United States and other anti-communism, anti-communist Free World Military Forces, allies. The war is widely considered to be a Cold War-era proxy war. It lasted almost 20 years, with direct U.S. involvement ending in 1973. The conflict also spilled over into neighboring states, exacerbating the Laotian Civil War and the Cambodian Civil War, which ended with all three countries becoming communist states by 1975. After the French 1954 Geneva Conference, military withdrawal from Indochina in 1954 – following their defeat in the First Indochina War – the Viet Minh to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Udon Thani International Airport
: ''For the United States use of the facility during the Vietnam War see Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base'' Udon Thani International Airport ( th, ท่าอากาศยานอุดรธานี) is an international airport near the city of Udon Thani ( th, อุดรธานี also ''Udorn Thanee'') in Udon Thani Province in the northeast region of Thailand. It is approximately northeast of Bangkok. It currently has domestic flights to and from Bangkok ( Suvarnabhumi and Don Mueang), Chiang Mai (on Nok Air), Hat Yai (on Thai Lion Air), Phuket (on Thai AirAsia), Rayong (on Thai AirAsia), and Ubon Ratchathani (on Nok Air). In 2006, the airport had 677,411 passengers movements and 1,558 MT cargo movements. In 2013, the airport handled 1,325,305 passengers. In 2015, it handled 2,213,689 passengers and 3,678 tonnes of freight. It has been managed by the Department of Airports (DOA). Udon Thani Airport is the DOA's money-maker, with profits reaching 100 millio ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Northern And Southern China
Northern China () and Southern China () are two approximate regions within China. The exact boundary between these two regions is not precisely defined and only serve to depict where there appears to be regional differences between the climates and localities of northern regions of China vs southern regions of China. Nevertheless, regional differences in culture and language have historically fostered a number of local identities. Extent Often used as the geographical dividing line between northern and southern China is the Qinling–Huaihe Line (lit. Qin Mountains–Huai River Line). This line approximates the 0 °C January isotherm and the isohyet in China. Culturally, however, the division is more ambiguous. In the eastern provinces like Jiangsu and Anhui, the Yangtze River may instead be perceived as the north–south boundary instead of the Huai River, but this is a recent development. There is an ambiguous area, the region around Nanyang, Henan, that lies in th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |