Yasser Arafat

Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (محمد عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني‎) (August 24, 1929 – November 11, 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat, was a Palestinian leader. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, President of the Palestinian National Authority,^[2] and leader of the secular Fatah political party, which he founded 1959.^[3] Arafat spent much of his life fighting against Israel in the name of Palestinian self-determination. Originally opposed to Israel's existence, he modified his position in 1988 when he accepted UN Security Council Resolution 242.

Arafat and his movement operated from several Arab countries. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Fatah faced off with Jordan in a brief civil war. Forced out of Jordan and into Lebanon, Arafat and Fatah were major targets of Israel's 1978 and 1982 invasions of that country. The majority of the Palestinian people — regardless of political ideology or faction — viewed him as a freedom fighter and martyr who symbolized their national aspirations, many Israelis described him as a terrorist for the many attacks his faction led against civilians.^[4]

Later in his career, Arafat engaged in a series of negotiations with the government of Israel to end the decades-long conflict between that country and the PLO. These included the Madrid Conference of 1991, the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2000 Camp David Summit. His political rivals, including Islamists and several PLO leftists, often denounced him for being corrupt or too submissive in his concessions to the Israeli government. In 1994, Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize, together with Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, for the negotiations at Oslo. During this time, Hamas and other militant organizations rose to power and shook the foundations of the authority Fatah under Arafat had established in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born September 9, 1949), is an Indonesian retired military general and the sixth President of Indonesia. Yudhoyono won the presidency in September 2004 in the second round of the Indonesian presidential election, in which he defeated incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri. He was sworn into office on October 20, 2004, together with Jusuf Kalla as Vice President.

Javanese do not have surnames in the Western sense.^[1] The name Yudhoyono was not inherited either from his father or his mother. While Susilo Bambang uses Yudhoyono in naming his children, it is not a descended family surname. In Indonesia, he is referred to in some media as Susilo and is widely known by the initial SBY. Abroad, he is referred to as Yudhoyono, a name that he chose for his military name-tag, while in formal meetings and functions he is addressed as Dr. Yudhoyono. Susilo is apparently derived from Susila in Sanskrit which in means 'well-behaved' or perhaps Sushil, which means 'one with good character'.

Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet^[1] Ugarte (November 25, 1915 – December 10, 2006) was a Chilean military officer and dictator. He was President of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1974 and, by decree of the Junta, President of Chile from 1974 until the return of civilian rule in 1990.

From the beginning of the military regime he implemented harsh measures against his political opponents which included systematic violations of civil liberties and human rights and for which he faced several criminal processes until his death in 2006. His regime is also remembered for its implementation of classically liberal and neo-liberal economic reforms, including the privatization of several state controlled industries and the rollback of many state welfare institutions. These policies were initially very successful in recovering economic growth, and are often called el milagro económico ("the economic miracle") of the military regime in Chile, but they dramatically increased inequality and some attribute the devastating effect of the 1982 monetary crisis in the Chilean economy to these policies.

Rudy Giuliani

Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE (pronounced /ˈruːdi ˌdʒuːliːˈɑːni/;^[1] born May 28, 1944) is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from the state of New York who was Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001.

A Democrat and Independent in the 1970s, and a Republican from the 1980s to the present, Giuliani served in the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, eventually becoming U.S. Attorney. He prosecuted a number of high-profile cases, including ones against organized crime and Wall Street financiers.

Giuliani served two terms as Mayor of New York City, and was credited with initiating improvements in the city's quality of life and with a reduction in crime. He ran for the United States Senate in 2000 but withdrew due to being diagnosed with prostate cancer and to revelations about his personal life. Giuliani gained international attention during and after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.^[2] In 2001, Time magazine named him "Person of the Year"^[3] and he received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.^[4]

After leaving office as mayor, Giuliani founded Giuliani Partners, a security consulting business; acquired Giuliani Capital Advisors (later sold), an investment banking firm; and joined the Bracewell & Giuliani law firm, which changed its name when he became a partner. Giuliani ran for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 United States presidential election. After leading in national polls for much of 2007, his candidacy faltered late in that year and he did poorly in the early caucuses and primaries in 2008. He withdrew from the race on January 30, 2008 and endorsed John McCain.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Persian: محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmud Ahmadinežâd mæhˈmuːd æhmædiːneˈʒɒːd (help·info); born October 28, 1956)^[1][2] is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He became president on August 6, 2005 after winning the 2005 presidential election by popular vote.^[3] Prior to becoming president, Ahmadinejad served as mayor of Tehran, a governor of Kurdistan, Ardabil, and served in the Iran-Iraq War, as a member of Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. He is the highest directly elected official in the country; however, according to Article 113^[4] of Constitution of Iran, he has much less power than the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Iran and has the final word in all aspects of foreign and domestic policies.^[4][5][6]

Ahmadinejad is a critic of the George W. Bush Administration and supports strengthened relations with Russia, Venezuela, Syria, and the Persian Gulf states.^[7][8][9] He has said Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and has refused to end enrichment despite United Nations Security Council resolutions.^[10]

He has called for the dissolution of the state of Israel and its government, which he does not regard as legitimate or representative of the population,^[11][12] and for free elections in the region. He believes that the Palestinians need a stronger voice in the region's future.^[13][14] One of his most controversial statements was one in which, according to some translations, he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," but interpretations of this statement vary widely.^{[15][16][17][18][19]} He has also been condemned for describing the Holocaust as a myth,^[15][20] which has led to accusations of anti-semitism.^[21] In response to these criticisms, Ahmadinejad said “No, I am not anti-Jew, I respect them very much.

Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai (simplified Chinese: 周恩来; traditional Chinese: 周恩來; pinyin: Zhōu Ēnlái; Wade-Giles: Chou En-lai) (March 5, 1898 – January 8, 1976) was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou was instrumental in the Communist Party's rise to power, and subsequently in the construction of the Chinese economy and reformation of Chinese society.

A skilled and able diplomat, Zhou served as the Chinese foreign minister from 1949 to 1958. Advocating peaceful coexistence with the West, he participated in the 1954 Geneva Conference and helped orchestrate Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China. Due to his expertise, Zhou was largely able to survive the purges of high-level Chinese Communist Party officials during the Cultural Revolution. His attempts at mitigating the Red Guard's damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him immensely popular in the Revolution's later stages.

As Mao Zedong's health began to decline in 1971 and 1972, Zhou and the Gang of Four struggled internally over leadership of China. Zhou's health was also failing however, and he died eight months before Mao on January 8, 1976. The massive public outpouring of grief in Beijing turned to anger towards the Gang of Four, leading to the Tiananmen Incident. Deng Xiaoping, Zhou's ally and successor as Premier, was able to outmaneuver the Gang of Four politically and eventually take Mao's place as Paramount Leader.

He is also remembered for saying, when asked for his assessment of the 1789 French Revolution, "It is too early to say".

Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci (IPA: ['ɡramʃi]) (January 23, 1891 – April 27, 1937) was an Italian philosopher, writer, politician and political theorist. A founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy, he was imprisoned by Mussolini's Fascist regime. His writings are heavily concerned with the analysis of culture and political leadership and he is notable as a highly original thinker within the Marxist tradition. He is renowned for his concept of cultural hegemony as a means of maintaining the state in a capitalist society.

Gramsci was born in Ales, Italy, on the island of Sardinia. He was the fourth of seven sons of Francesco Gramsci, a low-level official. His father's family was Arbëreshë and the family name was probably related to Gramsh, an Albanian town. Francesco's financial difficulties and troubles with the police forced the family to move about through several villages in Sardinia until they finally settled in Ghilarza.

In 1898 Francesco was convicted of embezzlement, unjustly it turned out, and imprisoned, reducing his family to destitution and forcing the young Antonio to abandon his schooling and work at various casual jobs until his father's release in 1904. The boy suffered from health problems: a malformation of the spine owing to a childhood accident left him hunch-backed and underdeveloped, while he was also plagued by various internal disorders throughout his life.

Che Guevara

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (June 14,^[1] 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, politician, author, physician, military theorist, and guerrilla leader. After his death, his stylized image became an ubiquitous countercultural symbol worldwide.

As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was transformed by the endemic poverty he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of monopoly capitalism, neo-colonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara’s radical ideology.

Later, in Mexico, he met Fidel Castro and joined his 26th of July Movement. In December 1956, he was among the revolutionaries who invaded Cuba under Castro's leadership with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to Comandante, and played a pivotal role in the successful guerrilla campaign that deposed Batista.^[3] Following the Cuban revolution, Guevara oversaw the revolutionary tribunals and executions of suspected war criminals from the previous regime. Later he served as minister of industry and president of the national bank, before traversing the globe as a diplomat to meet an array of world leaders on behalf of Cuban socialism. He was also a prolific writer and diarist, with one of his most influential works being a manual on the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to incite revolutions first in an unsuccessful attempt in Congo-Kinshasa and then in Bolivia, where he was captured with the help of the CIA and executed.

Ruhollah Khomeini

Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (Persian: روح الله موسوی خمینی (help·info), Rūḥullāh Mūsawī Khumaynī) (September 24, 1902^[1][2] – June 3, 1989) was an Iranian politician, scholar and religious figure, and the political leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran (Persia). Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country's Supreme Leader—the paramount political figure of the new Islamic Republic until his death.

Khomeini was a marja or marja al-taqlid, ("source of emulation"), providing religious leadership to many Twelver Shi'a Muslims, but is most famous for his political role. In his writings and preachings he expanded the Shi'a theory of velayat-e faqih, the "guardianship of the jurisconsult (clerical authority)" to include theocratic political rule by Islamic jurists and to provide the theological basis for his rule of Iran. Internationally he also made a great impact, and has been called "the virtual face of Islam in Western popular culture,"^[3] during his reign as ruler of Iran. He was named Time's Man of the Year in 1979 and also one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (born August 13, 1926) is a Cuban revolutionary leader who served as the country's 22nd president and led the country from January 1959 until his retirement in February 2008. Castro began his political life with nationalist critiques of Batista, and of United States political and corporate influence in Cuba. He gained an ardent, but limited, following and also drew the attention of the authorities.^[2] He eventually led the failed 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks, after which he was captured, tried, incarcerated and later released. He then traveled to Mexico^[3][4] to organize and train for the guerrilla invasion of Cuba that took place in December 1956.

He came to power in an armed revolution that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, and was shortly thereafter sworn in as the Prime Minister of Cuba.^[5] In 1965 he became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba and led the transformation of Cuba into a one-party socialist republic. In 1976 he became President of the Council of State as well as of the Council of Ministers. He also held the supreme military rank of Comandante en Jefe ("Commander in Chief") of the Cuban armed forces.

Following intestinal surgery from an undisclosed digestive illness believed to have been diverticulitis,^[6] he transferred his responsibilities to the First Vice-President, his younger brother Raúl Castro, on July 31, 2006. On February 19, 2008, five days before his mandate was to expire, he announced he would neither seek nor accept a new term as either president or commander-in-chief.^[7][8] On February 24, 2008, the National Assembly elected Raúl Castro to succeed him as the President of Cuba.^[1] Fidel Castro remains First Secretary of the Communist Party.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Пу́тин^?·i Russian pronunciation: [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈputʲɪn]) (born October 7, 1952 in Leningrad, USSR; now Saint Petersburg, Russia) is a Russian politician who was the 2nd President of the Russian Federation (from 2000 to 2008) and is the current Prime Minister of Russia as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on December 31, 1999, succeeding Boris Yeltsin, and then won the 2000 presidential election. In 2004, he was re-elected for a second term lasting until May 7, 2008.

Throughout his presidential terms and into his second term as Prime Minister, Putin has enjoyed high approval ratings amongst the Russian public for countering the chaos of the Boris Yeltsin years. During his eight years in office, the economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase six-fold (72% in PPP),^[3][4] poverty cut more than half^[5][6][7] and average monthly salaries increase from $80 to $640, or by 150% in real rates.^[8][3] At the same time, his conduct in office has been questioned by domestic dissenters, as well as foreign governments and human rights organizations, for his handling of internal conflicts in Chechnya and Dagestan, his record on internal human rights and freedoms, his relations with former Soviet Republics, and his relations with the so-called oligarchs: Russian businessmen with a high degree of power and influence within both the Russian Government and economy (See Criticism of Vladimir Putin). This was seen by the Kremlin as a series of anti-Russian propaganda attacks orchestrated by western opponents and exiled oligarchs.^[9]

Due to constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third consecutive Presidential term. Following the success of his successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in the 2008 presidential elections, he was then nominated by the latter to be Russia's Prime Minister and took the post on May 8, 2008.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was a leader in the American civil rights movement.

A Baptist minister, he became a civil rights activist early in his career. He led the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955–6) and helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (1957), serving as its first president. His efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. There, he raised public consciousness of the civil rights movement and established himself as one of the greatest orators in U.S. history.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. By the time of his death in 1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War, both from a religious perspective.

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was established as a national holiday in the United States in 1986.

Paus Benedictus XVI

Pope Benedict XVI (Latin: Benedictus PP. XVI; Italian: Benedetto XVI; German: Benedikt XVI; born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on 16 April 1927) is the 265th and reigning Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church, and as such, Sovereign of the Vatican City State.^[1] He was elected on 19 April 2005 in a papal conclave, celebrated his Papal Inauguration Mass on 24 April 2005, and took possession of his cathedral, the Basilica of St. John Lateran, on 7 May 2005. Pope Benedict XVI has both German and Vatican citizenship. He succeeded Pope John Paul II.

Benedict XVI is a respected Roman Catholic theologian and a prolific bestselling author,^[2] a defender of traditional Catholic doctrine and values. He served as a professor at various German universities and was a theological consultant at the Second Vatican Council before becoming Archbishop of Munich and Freising and later a Cardinal. At the time of his election as Pope, Benedict had been Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (curial heads lose their positions upon the death of a pope)^[3] and was Dean of the College of Cardinals.

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the thirty-fifth President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.

After Kennedy's military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 during World War II in the South Pacific, his aspirations turned political, with the encouragement and grooming of his father. Kennedy represented the state of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat, and in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated then Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election, one of the closest in American history. He is the only practicing Roman Catholic to be president, as well as the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43.^[1]Kennedy is also the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize.^[2] Events during his administration include the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement and early events of the Vietnam War.

Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime and was murdered two days later by Jack Ruby before he could be put on trial. The Warren Commission concluded that Oswald had acted alone in killing the president; however, the House Select Committee on Assassinations declared in 1979 that there was more likely a conspiracy that included Oswald. The entire subject remains controversial, with multiple theories about the assassination still being debated. The event proved to be an important moment in U.S. history because of its impact on the nation and the ensuing political repercussions. Today, Kennedy continues to rank highly in public opinion ratings of former U.S. presidents.

Sukarno

Sukarno (June 6, 1901 – June 21, 1970) was the first President of Indonesia. He helped the country win its independence from the Netherlands and was President from 1945 to 1967, presiding with mixed success over the country's turbulent transition to independence. Sukarno was forced down from power by one of his generals, Suharto, who formally became President in March 1967.

The son of a Javanese school teacher and his Balinese wife from Buleleng regency, Sukarno was born in Blitar, East Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). He was admitted into a Dutch-run school as a child. When his father sent him to Surabaya in 1916 to attend a secondary school, he met Tjokroaminoto, a future nationalist. In 1921 he began to study at the Technische Hogeschool (Technical Institute) in Bandung. He studied civil engineering and focused on architecture.

Atypically, even among the colony's small educated elite, Sukarno was fluent in several languages. In addition to the Javanese language of his childhood, he was a master of Sundanese and of Indonesian, and especially strong in Dutch. He was also quite comfortable in German, English, and French. Sukarno once remarked that when he was studying in Surabaya, he often sat behind the screen in movie theaters reading the Dutch subtitles in reverse because the front seats were only for elite Dutch people.

In his studies, Sukarno was "intensely modern," both in architecture and in politics. Sukarno interpreted these ideas in his dress, in his urban planning for the capital (eventually Jakarta), and in his socialist politics. For Sukarno, modernity was blind to race, neat and Western in style, and anti-imperialist.

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar^[1] (pronounced [ˈgaːius ˈjuːlius ˈkaɪsar] in Classical Latin; conventionally pronounced [ˈgaɪəs ˈdʒuːliəs ˈsiːzɚ] in English), July 13, 100 BC^[2] – March 15, 44 BC), was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire.

A politician of the populares tradition, he formed an unofficial triumvirate with Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus which dominated Roman politics for several years, opposed in the Roman Senate by optimates like Marcus Porcius Cato and Marcus Calpurnius Bibulus. His conquest of Gaul extended the Roman world all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, and he also conducted the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC; the collapse of the triumvirate, however, led to a stand-off with Pompey and the Senate. Leading his legions across the Rubicon, Caesar began a civil war in 49 BC from which he became the undisputed master of the Roman world.

After assuming control of government, he began extensive reforms of Roman society and government. He was proclaimed dictator for life (dictator perpetuus), and heavily centralised the bureaucracy of the Republic. However, a group of senators, led by Caesar's former friend Marcus Junius Brutus, assassinated the dictator on the Ides of March (March 15) in 44 BC, hoping to restore the normal running of the Republic. However, the result was another Roman civil war, which ultimately led to the establishment of a permanent autocracy by Caesar's adopted heir, Gaius Octavianus. In 42 BC, two years after his assassination, the Senate officially sanctified Caesar as one of the Roman deities.

Much of Caesar's life is known from his own Commentaries (Commentarii) on his military campaigns, and other contemporary sources such as the letters and speeches of his political rival Cicero, the historical writings of Sallust, and the poetry of Catullus. Many more details of his life are recorded by later historians, such as Appian, Suetonius, Plutarch, Cassius Dio and Strabo.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (IPA: [xolíɬaɬa mandéːla]; born 18 July 1918) is a former President of South Africa, the first to be elected in fully representative democratic elections. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress and its armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. He spent 27 years in prison, much of it on Robben Island, on convictions for crimes that included sabotage committed while he spearheaded the struggle against apartheid.

Among opponents of apartheid in South Africa and internationally, he became a symbol of freedom and equality, while the apartheid government and nations sympathetic to it condemned him and the ANC as communists and terrorists.

Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, his switch to a policy of reconciliation and negotiation helped lead the transition to multi-racial democracy in South Africa. Since the end of apartheid, he has been widely praised, even by former opponents.

Mandela has received more than one hundred awards over four decades, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. He is currently a celebrated elder statesman who continues to voice his opinion on topical issues. In South Africa he is often known as Madiba, an honorary title adopted by elders of Mandela's clan. The title has come to be synonymous with Nelson Mandela.

Mandela has frequently credited Mahatma Gandhi for being a major source of inspiration in his life, both for the philosophy of non-violence and for facing adversity with dignity.

Mirza Kuchak Khan

Mīrzā Kūchak Khān (Persian: میرزا كوچک خان) (common alternative spellings Kouchek, Koochek, Kuchak, Kuchek, Kouchak, Koochak) (1880 - December 2, 1921) was an early twentieth century revolutionary and is considered a national hero in modern Iranian history. He was the founder of a revolutionary movement based in the forests of Gilan in northern Iran that became known as the Nehzat-e Jangal (Forest movement). This uprising started in 1914 and remained active against internal and foreign enemies until 1921 when the movement was defeated.
After going through a period of renewed and bloody dictatorship nicknamed the Short Dictatorship (or Lesser Autocracy) finally, in July 1909 the national revolutionary forces from Gilan and central Iran (Bakhtiari tribes) were united to attack and conquer the capital Tehran. Mirza Kuchak Khan was one of the lower rank commanders of the force that invaded the capital from North (under the command of Sepahdar Aazam Mohammad Vali Khan Tonekaboni).
Mirza and his companion, a Russian-German revolutionary adventurer Gauook (Hooshang), left alone in Khalkhal mountains, died of frost bite. His body was decapitated by a local landlord and his head was displayed in Rasht to establish the government’s new hegemony [4] over revolution and revolutionary ideas.

Kim Jong-il

Kim Jong-il (also written as Kim Jong Il) (born February 16, 1941, Vyatskoye, Soviet Union; official biographies state February 16, 1942, Baekdu Mountain, Japanese Korea) is the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. He is the Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army, and General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea (the ruling party since 1948). He succeeded his father Kim Il-sung, founder of North Korea, who died in 1994, and commands the fourth largest standing army in the world. North Korea officially refers to him as the "Dear Leader".
He met with the south Korean representatives who came to Pyongyang to discuss the reunification issue and said the door to inter-Korean contact and dialogue that had remained deadlocked has been opened and high-level representatives from both sides have come to get together and share their views open-heartedly and this constitutes great progress in settling the reunion issue. Pointing to the need to establish the basic principle that would serve as the foundation for settling the reunification issue, he advanced the principles of independence, peaceful reunification and great national unity as the three principles of reunification.

Joseph Merlino

Joseph S. Merlino, aka Skinny Joey (b. March 16, 1962), is an American alleged mafioso, alleged member of the U.S. Cosa Nostra, and alleged head of the Philadelphia Crime Family which controls organized crime as far as Southern New Jersey. He is the son of former Nicky Scarfo underboss/soldier Salvatore "Chuckie" Merlino. He is also the nephew of deceased former Capo Lawrence Merlino and father of Salvatore Merlino Jr. Because of his Mafia family, even though he was short and skinny,Joey was already somewhat feared,at the young age of 14 he already had made some powerfull friends, one of them was a neighborhood killer by the name of Anthony Barone, whos father was also a mob associate. In the summer of 1976 Barone was involved in a violent gang war a few blocks from 10th and wolf. And after it was over there were 5 seriously wounded high school students, and Merlino arrived after it was over, and wanted to know all the details, and Barone explained to him how he had knocked 2 boys down and then hit them with a baseball bat.He was getting his lesson in violence early.

While Merlino was the alleged boss of the Philadelphia crime family, it engaged primarily in extortion, bookmaking, drug trafficking, and loan sharking.

Merlino has been described as a particularly vicious mobster, obsessed with his own public image, and another version of New York's John Gotti, after whom he patterned himself. He is flashy, stylish, flamboyant, and "in your face." “Joey was a party guy,” said "Big Ron" Previte, cop-turned gangster-turned government witness. “He liked to go out. He liked to gamble. He liked the high life.” He invited TV crews to his annual Christmas party for the homeless, and was a fixture at the city's nightclubs, restaurants, and sporting events.^[1][2] With long time buddies Salvatore Scafidi, Michael Ciancaglini, and George Borgesi he was known to some time beat up girls, rob people, and start fights in clubs.