During most of the 1980s, the performance of the national economy, as measured by broad economic aggregates, seemed favorable for banking. After the 1980–82 recession the national economy continued to grow, the rate of inflation slowed, and unemployment and interest rates declined. However, in the 1970s a number of factors, both national and international, had injected greater instability into the environment for banking, and these earlier developments were directly or indirectly generating challenges to which not all banks would be able to adapt successfully. In the 1970s, exchange rates among the worlds major currencies became volatile after they were allowed to float; price levels underwent major increases in response to oil embargoes and other external shocks; and interest rates varied widely in response to inflation, inflationary expectations, and anti-inflationary Federal Reserve monetary policy actions. During the 1980s, of course, performance ratios of banks of all sizes weakened and exhibited increased risk. Profitability declined and became more volatile, while loan charge-offs rose dramatically. Large banks assumed greater risk in order to boost profits, as is indicated by the sharp rise in the ratio of loans and leases to total assets for these banks. In contrast, equity ratios increased over the period, particularly for large banks, in line with increased regulatory capital requirements and perhaps also in response to market concerns about distress in the banking system. Resisting foreign domination has deep roots in this part of the world. The Chechens, a distinct Muslim people with a unique language and culture, have survived attacks from numerous would-be conquerors in their 7,000-year history. Over the last 200 years, however, the gravest threat has been from Russia. Both Imperial and Communist Russia successfully annexed the Caucasus, and both met persistent Chechen resistance. After the breakup of the USSR in 1991, Chechnya declared independence from Russia, only to be consumed by war three years later as Russia tried to regain control. The long and bloody war, which resulted in over 70,000 casualties, was finally brought to an end in 1996. But the terms of the peace were indecisive: the belligerents decided to defer a decision about Chechnya's formal status until 2001. Chechnya considers itself independent. In 1997 it held internationally monitored democratic elections in which Maskhadov won the presidency, and changed the name of its capital from Grozny, a Russian name, to Djohar, a distinctly Chechen one. Despite Chechnya's de facto autonomy, the international community still considers the area Russian. The First Chechen War occurred in a two year period lasting from 1994 to 1996, when Russian forces attempted to stop Chechnya from seceding. Despite overwhelming manpower, weaponry and air support, the Russian forces were unable to establish effective control over the mountainous area due to many successful Chechen guerrilla raids. The Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis in 1995 shocked the Russian public and discredited Chechen guerrillas. Widespread demoralization of the Russian forces in the area and a successful offensive on Grozny by Chechen independantist forces lead by Aslan Maskhadov prompted Russian President Boris Yeltsin to declare a ceasefire  in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later. The war was disastrous for both sides. Most estimates give figures of between 3,500 and 7,500 Russian military dead, between 3,000 and 15,000 Chechen militants dead, and no fewer than 35,000 civilian deaths—a total of at least 41,500 dead. Others have cited figures in the range of 80,000 to 100,000. With the impending collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, an independence  movement, initially known as the Chechen National Congress, was formed and led by ex-Soviet Air Force general and new Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev that rallied for the recognition of Chechnya as a separate nation. This movement was ultimately opposed by Boris Yeltsin's Russian Federation, which first argued that Chechnya had not been an independent entity within the Soviet Union—as the Baltic, Central Asian, and other Caucasian States had—but was part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and hence did not have a right under the Soviet constitution to secede; second, that other republics of Russia, such as Tatarstan, would consider seceding from the Russian Federation if Chechnya were granted that right; and third, that Chechnya was a major hub in the oil infrastructure of the Federation and hence its secession would hurt the country's economy and energy access. In the ensuing decade, the territory was locked in an ongoing struggle between various factions, usually fighting unconventionally and forgoing the position held by the several successive Russian governments through the current administration. Various demographic factors including religious ones have continued to keep the area in a near constant state of war. The Fawlty Towers story 'Fawlty Towers' is more than just a comedy, it's a work of genius. Not only did writers John Cleese and Connie Booth give the world the most unhinged sitcom hero ever, a brace of unforgettable comedy moments - 'Don't mention the war' anyone? - and a biting portrayal of loveless marriage, but they knew when to stop. There are only 12 episodes… and no afterthought Christmas specials"! "But don't take my word- the statistics prove it! 'Fawlty Towers' has the most laughs per minute of any British sitcom. It also has the longest scripts and running time. If I were an American I'd say it gave more bang for your buck. But I'm not American". "Americans didn't do too well out of 'Fawlty Towers', with or without waldorfs. Nor did Germans, dodgy aristocrats, harassed chambermaids, travelling salesmen or incompetent builders. But spare a thought in particular for Spanish waiters and their pet hamsters. They were top of the Fawlty hit list". "Farce doesn't normally work on television, but somehow in 'Fawlty Towers' it did. Basil attacking his car with a tree, found straddling Manuel in the hotel lobby, being hit on the head by a stuffed moose… all priceless television moments. Even the hotel sign 'Fatty Owls' had a sense of humour, even if it wasn't a perfect anagram". Wars of the 1990s The Gulf War - Iraq was left in severe debt after the 1980s war with Iran. President Saddam Hussein accused Kuwait of flooding the market with oil and driving down prices. As a result, on August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces invaded and conquered Kuwait. The UN immediately condemned the action, and a coalition force led by the United States was sent to the Persian Gulf. Aerial bombing of Iraq began in January 1991 (see also Gulf War), and a month later, the UN forces drove the Iraqi army from Kuwait in just four days. In the aftermath of the war, the Kurds in the north of Iraq and the Shiites in the south rose up in revolt, and Saddam Hussein barely managed to hold onto power. Until the US invasion in 2003, Iraq was cut off from much of the world. The Congo wars break out in the 1990s: The First Congo War takes place in Zaire from 1996 to 1997, resulting in Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko being overthrown from power on May 16, 1997, ending 32 years of his rule. Zaire is renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Second Congo War starts in 1998 in central Africa and includes 5 different cultures and 7 different nations. It goes on until 2003. The Chechen wars break out in the 1990s: The First Chechen War (1994–1996) - the conflict was fought between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to seize control of the mountainous area of Chechnya but were set back by Chechen guerrilla warfare and raids on the flatlands in spite of Russia's overwhelming manpower, weaponry, and air support. The resulting widespread demoralization of federal forces, and the almost universal opposition of the Russian public to the conflict, led Boris Yeltsin's government to declare a ceasefire in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later. The Second Chechen War (1999 - ongoing) - the war was launched by the Russian Federation starting August 26, 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan and the Russian apartment bombings which were blamed on the Chechens. During the war Russian forces largely recaptured the separatist region of Chechnya. The campaign largely reversed the outcome of the First Chechen War, in which the region gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Kargil War (1999) - In May 1999, Pakistan sends troops covertly to occupy strategic peaks in Kashmir. A month later the Kargil War with India results in a political fiasco for Nawaz Sharif, followed by a military withdrawal to the Line of Control. The incident leads to a military coup in October in which the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is ousted by Army Chief Pervez Musharraf. The Kosovo War (1998–1999): War between ethnic-Albanian separatists and Yugoslav military and Serb paramilitary forces in Kosovo begin in 1996 and escalates in 1998 with increasing reports of atrocities taking place. In 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) led by the United States launched air attacks against Yugoslavia (then composed of only Serbia and Montenegro) to pressure the Yugoslav government to end its military operations against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo due to accusations of war crimes being committed by Yugoslav military forces working alongside nationalist Serb paramilitary groups. After weeks of bombing, Yugoslavia submits to NATO's demands and NATO forces occupy Kosovo and later UN peacekeeping forces to take control of Kosovo. The Yugoslav Wars (1991–1995) - The breakup of Yugoslavia beginning on June 25, 1991 after the republics of Croatia and Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia [disambiguation needed] which was followed by the subsequent Yugoslav wars. The Yugoslav Wars would become notorious for numerous war crimes and human rights violations such as ethnic cleansing and genocide committed by all sides, especially by the Serbs. War in Slovenia (1991) - a brief military conflict between Slovenian TO (Slovenian Territorial Defence) and the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) following Slovenia's declaration of independence. Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995) - the war fought in Croatia between the Croatian government, having declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and both the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and Serb forces, who established the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK) within Croatia. Bosnian War (1992–1995) - the war involved several ethnically defined factions within Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats as well as a smaller faction in Western Bosnia led by Fikret Abdić. The Siege of Sarajevo (1992 - 1994) marked the most violent urban warfare in Europe since World War II at that time as Serb forces bombard and attack Bosniak controlled and populated areas of the city. War crimes occur including ethnic cleansing and destruction of civilian property. The final fighting in Croatian and Bosnian wars ends in 1995 with the success of Croatian military offensives against Serb forces and the mass exodus of Serbs from Croatia in 1995; Serb losses to Croat and Bosniak forces; and finally the signing of the Dayton Agreement which internally partitioned Bosnia and Herzegovina into a Serb republic and a Bosniak-Croat federation. Boris Yeltsin came to power with a wave of high expectations. On 12 June 1991 he was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic with 57% of the vote, becoming the first popularly elected president. However, Yeltsin never recovered his popularity after a series of economic and political crises in Russia in the 1990s. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Yeltsin, vowing to transform Russia's socialist command economy into a free market economy, endorsed price liberalization and privatization programs. Due to the method of privatization, a good deal of the national wealth fell into the hands of a relatively small group of people. In August 1991, Yeltsin won international plaudits for casting himself as a democrat and defying the August coup attempt of 1991 by the members of Soviet government opposed to perestroika. The Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption, economic collapse, and enormous political and social problems. He either acted as his own prime minister (until June 1992) or appointed men of his choice, regardless of parliament. His confrontations with parliament climaxed in the October 1993 Russian constitutional crisis, when Yeltsin called in soldiers to retake Russian White House, after his opponents had taken over the building. Later in 1993, Yeltsin imposed a new constitution with strong presidential powers, which was approved by referendum in December. He left office widely unpopular with the Russian population as an ineffectual and ailing autocrat. By some estimates, his approval ratings when leaving office were two percent. Just hours before the first day of 2000, Yeltsin made a surprise announcement of his resignation, leaving the presidency in the hands of Vladimir Putin. Beginning several months later than fighting in the republics of Slovenia and Croatia, the Bosnian civil war was the most brutal chapter in the breakup of Yugoslavia. On February 29, 1992, the multiethnic republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs, and Muslim Slavs lived side by side, passed a referendum for independence -- but not all Bosnian Serbs agreed. Under the guise of protecting the Serb minority in Bosnia, Serbian leaders like Slobodan Milosevic (1941-) channeled arms and military support to them. In spring 1992, for example, the federal army, dominated by Serbs, shelled Croats and Muslims in Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. Foreign governments responded with sanctions (not always tightly enforced) to keep fuel and weapons from Serbia, which had (in April 1992) joined the republic of Montenegro in a newer, smaller Yugoslavia. Bosnian Serb guerrillas carried out deadly campaigns of "ethnic cleansing," massacring members of other ethnic groups or expelling them from their homes to create exclusively Serb areas. Attacks on civilians and international relief workers disrupted supplies of food and other necessities just when such aid was most crucial: in what became the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, millions of Bosnians (and Croatians) had been driven from their homes by July 1992. Alarmed by ethnic cleansing and other human rights abuses (which Croats and Muslims also engaged in, though to a lesser extent than did the Serbs), the United Nations resolved to punish such war crimes. In early 1994 the fierce three-way fighting became a war between two sides. In February and March the Muslims and Croats in Bosnia called a truce and formed a confederation, which in August agreed to a plan (developed by the United States, Russia, Britain, France and Germany) for a 51-49 split of Bosnia, with the Serbs getting the lesser percentage. Despite the Muslim-Croat alliance, the peace proposal, and an ongoing arms embargo against all combatants (an embargo criticized abroad for maintaining Bosnian Serb dominance in weaponry), the fighting did not stop. In 1994 and 1995 Bosnian Serbs massacred residents in Sarajevo, Srebenica, and other cities that the United Nations had in May 1993 deemed "safe havens" for Muslim civilians. Neither NATO air strikes (beginning in April 1994) nor the cutoff of supplies from Serbia (as of August 1994) nor the cutoff of supplies from Serbia (as of August 1994) deterred the Bosnian Serbs, who blocked convoys of humanitarian aid and detained some of the 24,000 UN troops intended to stop hostilities. Like their allies in Serbia, the Bosnian Serbs wanted to unite all Serb-held lands of the former Yugoslavia. By September 1995, however, the Muslim-Croat alliance's conquests had reduced Serb-held territory in Bosnia from over two-thirds to just under one-half -- the percentage allocated in the peace plan for the Serb autonomous region. On December 14, 1995, the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia signed the Dayton peace accords, officially ending the wars in Bosnia and Croatia after about 250,000 people had died and more than 3 million others became refugees. NATO troops numbering 60,000 entered Bosnia to enforce the accords. In early 1998 about 30,000 NATO peacekeepers were still in Bosnia, which remained scarred by war and divided between the Muslim-Croat confederation and the Bosnian Serb region. Dozens of suspected war criminals had been indicted by the UN tribunal, including Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic (1945-) (who had resigned in June 1996), although many had not been arrested or tried. The Invasion of Kuwait, also known as the Iraq-Kuwait War, was a major conflict between the Republic of Iraq and the State of Kuwait which resulted in the seven-month long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait which subsequently led to direct military intervention by United States-led forces in the Persian Gulf War. In 1990 Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing Iraq's oil through slant drilling, but some Iraqi sources indicate Saddam Hussein’s decision to attack Kuwait was made only a few months before the actual invasion[3] suggesting that the regime was under feelings of severe time pressure. The invasion started on August 2, 1990, and within two days of intense combat, most of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard or escaped to neighboring Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Iraqi forces invade Kuwait August 2 after Kuwait refuses demands by President Saddam Hussein that she pay compensation for allegedly drilling oil on Iraqi territory, cede disputed land, reduce oil output, and raise prices. Kuwait has rebuffed Iraqi demands that she forgive $15 billion in loans extended during the Iraq-Iran war. The Bush administration has told Saddam Hussein that it has no treaty obligation to defend Kuwait and would not take sides (Saddam has interpreted remarks by U.S. ambassador to Iraq April Gillespie that Washington would not oppose him), but Washington, Moscow, Tokyo, London, Teheran, and Beijing unite in denouncing his move and the United Nations Security Council votes 13 to 0 August 6 to impose economic sanctions (Yemen and Cuba abstain). Iraq masses troops on the border of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh agrees to receive U.S. ground and air forces. President Bush says Iraq's aggression "will not stand" and dispatches forces to Saudi Arabia August 7, risking his presidency. Iraq annexes Kuwait August 8 and proceeds to loot the country; Egypt, Syria, Morocco, and nine other Arab states vote August 10 to oppose Iraq with military force; Saddam Hussein calls for a "holy war" against Westerners and Zionists, gaining wide popular support among Arabs; he holds more than 10,000 foreigners hostage beginning August 18 but permits women and children to leave August 29 and releases all the others by early December as the standoff continues. Kuwait's billionaire emir Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, 64, has narrowly escaped capture and fled to Saudi Arabia; he addresses the United Nations General Assembly September 27, urging it to stand by the sanctions it has imposed. His relatives have acted swiftly to keep Kuwaiti funds abroad out of Saddam Hussein's hands. Bush ups the ante November 8 (2 days after the elections), committing far more U.S. forces to "Operation Desert Shield," but popular opposition grows to launching any offensive action Nelson Mandela was released from prison in South Africa following the relaxation of apartheid laws. He'd served 27 years after being convicted of treason in 1964. When Mandela appeared at the prison gates with his wife Winnie, people danced in the streets and the world celebrated alongside them. Later that year Mandela's ANC party suspended its 30 year old armed struggle against the country's minority white government. In return, President FW de Klerk promised to free political prisoners and consider the repeal of security legislation. The end of the oppressive apartheid regime had begun. American law enforcement agencies warn that smoking of methyl-amphetamine "Ice" threatens to become America's drug problem of the 1990's. Vets in Naples discover a kilogramme of heroin hidden inside a cow's stomach in an alleged bungled mafia smuggling operation. Lee Harris owner of London's oldest 'head shop', Alchemy, is sentenced to 3 months' imprisonment for selling items such as cigarette papers and pipes "believed to be used for the smoking of cannabis." Sentence later quashed on appeal. Poll tax 'riot' in Trafalgar Square. A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on March 17, 1991, with the majority of the population voting for preservation of the Union in nine out of fifteen republics. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost, and, in the summer of 1991, the New Union Treaty was designed and agreed upon by eight republics which would have turned the Soviet Union into a much looser federation. Yeltsin stands on a tank to defy the August Coup in 1991. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup — an attempted coup d'état against Gorbachev by hardline Communist Party members of the government and the KGB, who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Yeltsin came out as a hero while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared restoration of full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example), while the other 12 republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union. On December 8, 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords which declared the Soviet Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place. While doubts remained over the authority of the Belavezha Accords to dissolve the Union, on December 21, 1991, the representatives of all Soviet republics except Georgia, including those republics that had signed the Belavezha Accords, signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the dismemberment and consequential extinction of the USSR and restated the establishment of the CIS. Ricky Martin, formerly of the boy group Menudo, struck out on his own last year with his english language self-titled debut album. Hordes and hordes of female followers lined up for hours at autograph sessions just to catch a glimpse of Ricky Martin. Other latin superstars such as Enrrique Iglasias, son of Jullio Iglasias, Marc Anthony, and Jennifer Lopez soon followed suit. On Saturday, 19 June 1999, HRH Prince Edward and Sophie Rhys-Jones were married at 5pm at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. Following the wedding there was a reception at Windsor Castle. The Wedding Service was conducted by the Right Reverend Peter Nott, Bishop of Norwich. Speaking publicly for the first time since announcing the marriage and following a five-year courtship the 34-year-old prince said: "It's impossible for anybody else to understand why it has taken me so long. "But I don't think it had been right before and I don't think Sophie would have said yes. Hopefully the fact that she has said yes means I've got the timing right."  The Queen and France's President Francois Mitterrand have formally opened the Channel Tunnel during two elaborate ceremonies in France and Britain. At first the Channel Tunnel looked like it was going to be a financial disaster. A year after the official opening, the tunnel operator Eurotunnel announced a loss of £925m, one of the biggest in UK corporate history at the time. To add to its woes, freight traffic was suspended for six months in 1996 after a fire broke out on a lorry in the tunnel. A scheme in which banks agreed to swap billions of pounds worth of loans for shares saved the tunnel from going under and in 1999, Eurotunnel was able to announce its first net profit - £64m. It still has huge debts - to the tune of £6.4bn in 2004. But it has become an accepted and popular mode of transport, not least among illegal immigrants trying to get into Britain from Europe. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,500 lb (680 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device  was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into the South Tower (Tower Two), bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people. It failed to do so, but did kill six 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, Yousef's uncle. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives. In November 1997, two more were convicted: Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb. Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s and earlier. The term is often used to describe the means of production and distribution of independent underground music, as well as the style of music that was first associated with this means of production.  Indie rock artists are known for placing a premium on maintaining complete control of their music and careers, releasing albums on independent record labels (sometimes self-owned and operated) and relying on touring, word-of-mouth, airplay on independent or college radio stations and, in recent years, the Internet for promotion. Musicians classified as indie rock are typically signed to independent record labels, rather than major record labels, although there are many examples of indie musicians switching to major labels mid-career. This practice blurs the lines between indie and mainstream music and is often the subject of debate amongst fans. Indeed, some bands that have spent most of their careers on major labels are still occasionally referred to by the press as indie rock because of their sound or aesthetic. A variety of musical genres and subgenres with varying degrees of overlap are associated with indie rock. Some of these include lo-fi, sadcore, C86, math rock, shoegaze/dream pop, jangle pop, indie pop, noise rock, noise pop, riot grrrl, post-hardcore, twee pop, post-punk revival, garage rock revival, dance-punk, indie folk, baroque pop, and indietronica. Indie rock is like pornography in a way: most people can't tell you exactly what it is, but they know it when they see it. Er, hear it. It's loud and obnoxious (or quiet and polite), careless and sloppy (or meticulously composed), complex and pretentious (or simple and unassuming), and, to its fans, cooler and more relevant than any other style of music. It's impossible to list all of the bands who have been influential to indie rock -- doing so would require more space than we have here and would undoubtedly start some petulant silent feuds. One thing's for sure: it's cool. The Official UK Top 40 Albums Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company (OCC) on behalf of the British record industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 (such as the BBC) or the Top 75 (such as Music Week Magazine) of this list. Around 6,500 British retail outlets contribute sales data, as well as most UK online digital download stores. Unlike charts in the United States, no airplay statistics are used for the official UK Singles Chart. The chart week runs from Sunday to Saturday, with most UK singles being released on Mondays. The Top 40 chart is first revealed on Sunday afternoons by BBC Radio 1 (prior even to posting on the OCC’s own website), with the chart subsequently being printed in Music Week magazine (Top 75 only) on the following Monday, and the independent newsletter ChartsPlus (Top 200) on Wednesdays. It is also published online on various sites (generally Top 40 only). Radio 1 broadcasts the Top 40, in reverse order, on Sundays from 16:00 to 19:00. Mark Goodier and Bruno Brookes are famous for having been the presenters of this chart show for many years, though few can rival Alan Freeman whose Pick Of The Pops formed the chart show throughout the 1960s and into the early 70s. Since October 2007, Reggie Yates has presented the chart show and, until September 2009, with Fearne Cotton. Cotton was the first ever permanent female presenter of the Official Chart Show[1]. A rival chart called The Big Top 40 Show, is based on downloads and commercial radio airplay, which is broadcast on 140 commercial local radio stations. According to the canon of The Official Charts Company, the official British singles chart is the New Musical Express chart from 1952 to 1960; the Record Retailer chart from 1960 to 1969; and the Official UK Singles Chart from 1969 on. According to the Official Charts Company's statistics, as of 7 March 2010, 1,123 singles have topped the UK singles chart. The precise number is debatable due to the profusion of different competing charts during the 50s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, although the usual list used is that endorsed by the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles and subsequently adopted by The Official UK Charts Company. Hubble Space Telescope The $2 billion Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was lifted into orbit by the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Weighing approximately 25,500 lb (11,000 kg) and measuring 43 ft (13 m) long by 14 ft (4 m) wide, or roughly the size of a school bus, HST is the most complex and sensitive space observatory ever constructed, and it has become astronomers' principal tool for exploring the universe. During its lifetime, the space telescope has required intermittent servicing. In June 1990, just two months after HST was launched into orbit, astronomers discovered that there was a spherical aberration in one of the telescope's mirrors. In 1991, two of the craft's six gyroscopes failed, and a third failed on Nov. 18, 1993, causing additional problems. NASA successfully repaired the space telescope during the Dec. 2–13, 1993, mission of the Endeavour. Crew members of the space shuttle Discovery made fresh repairs to the telescope during an upgrade mission in Feb. 1997 and installed two powerful new scientific instruments–the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS)–giving HST still sharper and more distant views of the universe. The Near Infrared Camera can see the universe at near infrared wavelengths more sensitively that any other existing or planned telescope. The third servicing mission by the crew of Discovery in Dec. 1999 extended the telescope's scientific power with new instruments and repaired its optics, solar arrays, gyros, and other components. A fourth servicing mission was carried out by astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia in March 2002. This time, the upgrades to the Hubble included a new power control unit, a powerful new camera, and solar array panels. A fifth servicing mission, scheduled for July 2003, was canceled after the Columbia space shuttle disaster. Without servicing, Hubble is expected to be out of commission by 2008. After NASA announced that the telescope would not be repaired due to the risks to a human crew, outcry from scientists, politicians, and the public forced the agency to consider sending a robotic repair mission. In July 2004, a panel from the National Academy of Sciences urged NASA to save the Hubble, voicing a preference for a staffed mission. The telescope repair mission has been put on the back burner as NASA is leaning toward President George W. Bush’s announced desire to see Americans on the Moon and Mars. Hubble is slated to be decommissioned in 2010 and replaced by the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to be launched in 2011. The new observatory will have a primary mirror that is 20 ft in diameter, compared to the Hubble's 8-foot reflector.  On Friday, February 26, 1993, a massive explosion occurred in the public parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. As a result of the explosion, 6 persons were killed, and more than 1,000 injured. The site of the blast became one of the largest crime scenes in NYPD history. Estimates showed property damage in excess of onehalf billion dollars. The sense of fear and panic in the city was palpable. Indeed, many in law enforcement thought of this investigation as the "case of the century." The JTTF stepped into the maelstrom and helped restore calm to the city. Within a month of the blast, the JTTF apprehended four individuals responsible for the attack. The suspects went on trial on September 13, 1993. The trial lasted 6 months with the presentation of 204 witnesses and more than 1,000 pieces of evidence. A jury convicted the four defendants on March 4, 1994, in federal court on all 38 counts against them. On May 25, 1994, a judge sentenced each of the four defendants to 240 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. On February 7, 1995, authorities in Pakistan arrested the prime fugitive wanted in connection with the bombing and subsequently rendered him to U.S. authorities. This suspect, the mastermind behind the bombing, was sentenced to 240 years in prison on January 8, 1998. The quick action taken by the JTTF did much to allay fears and return a sense of normalcy to New York City. The World Trade Center bombing will be remembered as the gravest attack of international terrorism to occur directly on American soil. As part of the plot to strike at the United States, these international terrorists intended to disrupt the dynamics of daily life, commerce, and finance in one of the most heavily populated cities in the United States. The suspect and his associates had hoped to kill upwards of 35,000 innocent people. The excellent work accomplished by the JTTF in investigating and successfully resolving the case dispelled the sense of vulnerability the terrorists had hoped to instil. When war loomed in the Gulf in late 1990/early 1991, Britain committed a large number of forces, including the 22nd Special Air Service. Initially brought into the Gulf without a clear role, the SAS feared that the much-touted high-tech air war might mean a quite war for them. Their traditional role of reconnaissance had largely been assigned to U.S. Special Forces. The human shield crisis seemed like a promising way into the conflict at first but it soon became clear that any attempt to rescue the hundreds of Western civilians held by Saddam Hussein would most likely end in failure and not go ahead. Besides, it wasn't long before the crisis was ended with the release of all the hostages. It was through the efforts of Sir Peter de la Billiere, commander of UK Forces and an Ex-SAS officer, that the SAS were finally given something to get their teeth into. de la Billiere had been lobbying for the use of Special Forces behind Iraq lines. Mindful of the Regiment's beginnings in the Deserts of Africa during World War 2, he persuaded his U.S. counterpart, Norman Schwarzkopf of the need for small fighting columns of SAS forces operating deep behind Iraqi lines, hitting targets of opportunity and generally making a nuisance of themselves. 'Stormin Norman' was distrustful of special operations forces, questioning what the SAS could do that an F16 couldn't and was equally as concerned about diverting resources to rescue an special ops that went wrong. With the air campaign now underway, the SAS were ordered to prepare to move across the border from Saudi Arabia into Southern Iraq, where they were to have carte blanche to attack and harass Iraqi forces at will. For the SAS it was a dream assignment, although soon the focus of their missions would significantly narrow. Gulf War Many controversial questions still surround the Gulf War. Still debated are: "Was U.S. Involvement Justified?" - "Was the war won in the air or on the ground?" - Yet the most weighty question remains: "Did the Coalition forces quit too soon?" In the negotiations following the close of active campaigning the Iraqis were allowed to withdraw many of their units relatively intact. Saddam Hussein was allowed to remain in power in Iraq. Had the ground campaign been taken to its logical conclusion, the Iraqi war machine would have been quickly dismantled (trapped as it surely would have been by the Allied left hook.) Yet President Bush and other Allied leaders had more to consider than military matters. Politically the coalition was beginning to differ on whether total defeat of Iraq was a wise move. Iraq had been the only power to stand in the way of the Iranian war machine making a conquest of all of Arabia burring the Iran/Iraq war. Many felt it would not be wise to completely humiliate a buffer between Iran and Arabia. Second, as evil as Saddam was perceived to be in much of the Western World, he was perceived as a hero by many in the Middle East, for example the Palestinians and Jordanians. Thus Saddam's complete destruction, besides upsetting the balance of power in the Middle East, might antagonize other pro-western Middle-Eastern states. Finally, there is a certain brotherhood that Arabs feel for one another, even when arrayed as enemies on a battlefield. Even an aggressor, as Iraq had surely been during this conflict, could not morally be crushed. As it was, Saddam would prove to be further trouble down the road, repressing his own people, violating peace agreements and continuing work on weapons of mass destruction. Yet twenty/twenty hindsight does not reflect poorly on the wisdom of President Bush in ending the campaign when he did. US war aims were achieved: Kuwait was liberated from Iraq and relative peace has settled into the region. Militarily, the Gulf War was the most efficient campaign in US history; relatively few lives were lost. Schwarzkopf's campaign can be favorably compared with campaigns by the greatest strategists in Military history...out-shining perhaps even Lee at Chancellorsville. Logistically, the buildup and prosecution of the campaign could easily compare with Winfield Scott's capture of Mexico City via Vera Cruz during the Mexican/American war. Schwartkopf's campaign was swift and decisive. Much of this was due in no small part to the support he received from Collin Powell and President Bush who put every resource available at Schwarzkopf's disposal. In the end, this was a popular war that secured economic advantages for the Western World - ensuring our way of life was not threatened by a shortage of the free flow of natural resources. It confirmed the value of air power and air superiority on the battlefield. Finally, it proved that armed aggression never prevails in the face of a free alliance of nations determined to see justice done. What began as two-way communications with taxi cabs and police cruisers has grown into one of the most popular, as well as one of the most dependent, means of communication available today, regardless of the brief history of cellular phones in the United States. From the very first mobile phones that were installed in cars to the micro devices that are smaller than the palm of a person's hand, cellular-phone history tracks the technology of radio wave communications. At first mobile phones were installed into cars and only those who had the financial means were able to afford to get them installed. Later, the next-generation models were equipped with a plug that can be inserted into a car's cigarette lighter and were dubbed as "bag phones" and could be transported from vehicle to vehicle. This beginning step in the history of cell phones pushed the industry to transform cellular phones into devices that could be carried in your shirt pocket. At Bell Labs and engineer first thought of the idea of making available towers that would carry the singles from each respective telephone in the squares in which they were placed, called cells, required the user of the cell phone to stay within the particular cell from which the call originated or they would lose single strengthened and consequently the call would end abruptly. It was not until the year 1970 that the next step in the history of cell phones took place with the advent of the call hand off system giving a call the ability to be transferred from cell to cell without any loss of signal strength. Computing in the first years of the new millennium is continuing the trend of the 1990s. The small are getting smaller, the powerful are getting more powerful, and they're all getting smarter. computing has become not only increasingly personal in the last two years, but also pervasive. The term pervasive computing describes the emerging trend toward numerous, casually accessible, often invisible computing devices, frequently embedded in the environment and connected to an increasingly ubiquitous network structure. The devices themselves have begun to merge. You can buy a cell phone that's also a camera and a PDA. You can install a refrigerator that can download your e-mail and tell you when the milk is going bad. Experts say all these trends will soon have computers melding with the environment until you won't know you're using computers at all. They'll be your microwave, your front door, your jacket. Once they cease to be intrusive, they'll become truly helpful. Although the 1995 criminal trial of O. J. Simpson for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman has been called a "a great trash novel come to life," no one can deny the pull it had on the American public.  If the early reports of the murder of the wife of the ex--NFL football star (turned-NBC-sports-announcer) hadn't caught people's full attention, Simpson's surreal Bronco ride on the day of his arrest certainly did--ninety-five million television viewers witnessed the slow police chase live. The 133 days of televised courtroom testimony turned countless viewers into Simpson trial junkies.  Even foreign leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and Boris Yeltsin eagerly gossiped about the trial.  When Yeltsin stepped off his plane to meet President Clinton, the first question he asked was, "Do you think O. J. did it?"  When, at 10 A.M. PST on October 3, Judge Ito's clerk read the jury's verdict of "Not Guilty," 91% of all persons viewing television were glued to the unfolding scene in the Los Angeles courtroom. On April 17, 1995 Timothy McVeigh reportedly picked up a 20-foot Ryder truck from Elliott's Body Shop in Junction City. The truck was filled with roughly 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertilizer, and nitromethane, a highly volatile motor-racing fuel-a mixture also known as Kinepak or ANFO (ammonium nitrate/fuel oil). At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995,  the truck exploded in the street in front of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building. About 90 minutes later, McVeigh was stopped by an Oklahoma state trooper for driving a vehicle without a license plate, who then arrested him on a firearms charge. Two days later he was charged in the bombing. His friend Terry Nichols was arrested in Kansas, and formally charged with the bombing on May 10. The IRA announced a "complete cessation of military operations". The statement was greeted by widespread celebrations in nationalist areas. But unionists and the UK government pointed out that there was no explicit promise that the truce was permanent. "We believe that an opportunity to create a just and lasting peace has been created," the statement said. "We note that the Downing Street Declaration is not a solution - a solution can only be found as a result of inclusive negotiations." UK Prime Minister John Major said that the statement was "very welcome indeed" but complained that it should be "clear and unambiguous" that violence was over for good. DUP leader Ian Paisley went further saying that the ceasefire statement was an "insult to the people [the IRA] has slaughtered because there was no expression of regret". Ötzi the Iceman Carbon dating tests show that the well-preserved body of a prehistoric human hunter found in an Alpine glacier last year is 5,000 to 5,500 years old, scientists reported yesterday. The first scientifically established age for the frozen corpse is more than 1,000 years older than original estimates. It means the man lived and presumably froze to death well before the Bronze Age replaced the late Stone Age in Europe. "Now we know he's not from the Bronze Age, but much older," said Dr. Werner Platzer, head of the anatomy department at Innsbruck University in Austria, who is directing research on the mummified corpse. "That's very important. It means, I believe, that this is the only corpse we have from the Stone Age." Unusual Post-Mortem The tests on bones and skin tissue were conducted by scientists at Oxford University in England and a Swiss physics institute in Zurich. The results were announced by Innsbruck University, which is keeping the body in cold storage and supervising one of the most unusual post-mortems in history. Ötzi was found by two German tourists from Nuremberg, Helmut and Erika Simon, on 19 September 1991. The body was at first thought to be a modern corpse, like several others which had been recently found in the region. Lying on its front and frozen in ice below the torso, it was crudely removed from the glacier by the Austrian authorities using a small jackhammer (which punctured the hip of the body) and ice-axes using non-archaeological methods. In addition, before the body was removed from the ice, people were allowed to see it, and some took portions of the clothing and tools as souvenirs. The body was then taken to a morgue in Innsbruck, where its true age was subsequently ascertained. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by the Space Shuttle Discovery in April 1990. It is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble. Although not the first space telescope, the Hubble is one of the largest and most versatile, and is well-known as both a vital research tool and a public relations boon for astronomy. The HST is a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, and is one of NASA's Great Observatories, along with the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope