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The ISO (International Standards Organisation) assigns a two character code to each country name. These codes are used by Internet 'whois' databases (these two character abbreviations are the whois country codes) and also other applications.
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A tsunami or tidal wave as they are popularly known, is a seismic sea wave originating from any one of several submarine geological phenomena, such as volcanic explosions or earthquakes. They travel in the open ocean at speeds up to 640 kmh. On Boxing Day 2004, (the 26th December 2004) an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter Scale occurred under the sea off the coast of Sumatra. The resultant tsunami or tidal waves killed over 125,000 people throughout the entire Indian Ocean area extending from Burma, Indonesia and Malaysia in the east, west to Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and the Seychelles.
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Barosaurus was a dinosaur of the Jurassic period. Remains of Barosaurus were first discovered in 1890, and have been found in both the western USA and in Tanzania in rocks of the same age - indicating a continual land-mass between the two places in the Jurassic period. Barosaurus was a herbivore, with a big heavy body, about 25 metres long, thick legs and a long neck and tail.
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The Assa are a native people of the central Masai Steppe in northern Tanzania. They are Hunter-gatherers, some live in settled villages others are nomadic. The Assa are becoming absorbed into the Masai people and other surrounding Bantu groups on whom they are economically dependent. In 1999 there were only about 350 true Assa still in existence.
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The Hadza are an endangered nomadic people of Tanzania. They are hunter-gatherers that live in swamps and wilderness. Reports from 2000 indicate that only about 800 Hadza are still living, and they are in danger of becoming extinct due to destruction of their habitat and diseases brought in from outside peoples.
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Idi Amin Dada was a Ugandan soldier and dictator. He was born in 1925 at Koboko and died in 2003. A sergeant in the British colonial army in Uganda before staging a military coup in 1971 and taking control of the country from the then left-wing leader, Obote. Western governments welcomed Amin's coup as it removed a potential communist from the country. However, Idi Amin's first action was to execute all the military thought to be loyal to Obote.
In order to maintain power - which he did through the public execution of any opposition - Idi Amin required military support. This he at first obtained from Israel, but Israel withdrew after becoming aware of Idi Amin's atrocities. Idi Amin then courted the Arab world, and became an active supporter of the Palestinian terrorists, sending a telegram of support for them following the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Olympics and inviting an Israeli passenger jet, hijacked by Palestinian terrorists to land at Entebbe airport. His brutal rule which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people ended after his failed invasion of neighbouring Tanzania resulted in Tanzania invading Uganda and capturing Kampala, the Ugandan capital in 1979. Idi Amin escaped to exile in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca where he died.
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The Masai are an east African people whose territory is divided between Tanzania and Kenya, and who number about 250,000. They were originally warriors and nomads, breeding humped zebu cattle, but some have adopted a more settled life. They speak a Nilotic language belonging to the Nilo-Saharan family.
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The Nyamwezi are a people of the highlands of north-central Tanzania, south of Lake Victoria. Traders, they established a trade network from the east coast of Africa to Uganda during the 18th century and later into Zambia.
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Osama Bin Laden is a Saudi Arabian millionaire and international terrorist. He was born in 1957. He was the mastermind behind the September 11th assault on the USA in which 2400 people were killed (original figures quoted in excess of 5000, this was later and quietly revised down) at the World Trade centre and Pentagon when hijacked passenger aircraft were flown into them by suicide bombers. As a student, Bin Laden joined the Muslim Brotherhood, and in 1979 went to Afghanistan to join the American-backed Afghan rebels (mujahedin) fighting the Soviet-backed government. Not receiving recognition for his efforts against the Soviets in Afghanistan by his home country of Saudi Arabia, which instead invited American troops into Saudi Arabia, Bin Laden in the mid 1990s declared a Sunni Muslim holy war against the USA and all Jews, followed up by attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In 2001 Bin Laden was allegedly being supported by the extremist Taleban regime of Afghanistan, where he again allegedly trained his own private army. As a result of these allegations the USA invaded Afghanistan on the pretext of capturing Bin Laden, but by 2008 had still not found him.
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TZ is an abbreviation for Tanzania
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The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
©1993 - 2009 The Probert Encyclopaedia
Southampton, United Kingdom
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