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Badminton: Year in Review 2006 ... Baghmati River

Badminton: Year in Review 2006 Chinese players dominated the 2005 All England badminton championships, held in Birmingham in March. In the men's singles final, Chen Hong defeated the top seed, defending champion Lin Dan. The women's events also featured all-Chinese finals as Xie Xingfang bested Zhang Ning in the singles competition and Gao Ling and ... Badminton village ("parish"), South Gloucestershire unitary authority, historic county of Gloucestershire, southwestern England. Badminton House, seat of the dukes of Beaufort, stands in a large park in the locality. The original manor of Badminton was acquired in 1608 from Nicholas Boteler (to whose family it had belonged for several centuries) by ... badminton court or lawn game played with lightweight rackets and a shuttlecock. Historically, the shuttlecock (also known as a "bird" or "birdie") was a small cork hemisphere with 16 goose feathers attached and weighing about 0.17 ounce (5 grams). These types of shuttles may still be used in modern play, but ... Badoglio, Pietro general and statesman during the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini (1922-43). In September 1943 he extricated Italy from World War II by arranging an armistice with the Allies. Badr Khani Jaladat Kurdish nationalist leader and editor who was one of the chief 20th-century spokesmen for Kurdish independence. Badr, Battle of (624 CE), in Islamic history, first military victory of the Prophet Muhammad. It seriously damaged Meccan prestige while strengthening the political position of Muslims in Medina and establishing Islam as a viable force in the Arabian Peninsula. Badrinath village (uninhabited in winter) and shrine in eastern Uttarakhand state, northern India. Situated in the Himalayas along a headstream of the Ganges (Ganga) River, it lies at an elevation of about 10,000 feet (3,000 metres). It is located along the twin mountain ranges of Nar and Narayan on the left ... Badu, Erykah American rhythm-and-blues singer whose "neo-soul" vocals drew comparisons to jazz legend Billie Holiday. Badulla town, southeastern Sri Lanka, southeast of Kandy, on the Badulu Oya (river). It is surrounded by mountains and is the site of two large and wealthy temples. Badulla is also a marketplace for the agricultural products of the villages, terraced rice paddies, and tea estates in the area. Limestone quarries ... BAE Systems major British manufacturer of aircraft, missiles, avionics, and other aerospace and defense products. It was formed in 1999 from the merger of British Aerospace PLC (BAe) with Marconi Electronic Systems, formerly part of General Electric Company PLC. BAe, in turn, dates to the merger in 1977 of British Aircraft Corporation, ... Bae Yong Jun South Korean actor, who achieved fame as the romantic lead in a number of globally syndicated televised drama series. Baeck, Leo Reform rabbi and theologian, the spiritual leader of German Jewry during the Nazi period, and the leading liberal Jewish religious thinker of his time. His magnum opus, The Essence of Judaism, appeared in 1905. His final work, This People Israel: The Meaning of Jewish Existence (1955), was written in part ... Baedeker, Karl founder of a German publishing house known for its guidebooks. Baekeland, Leo Hendrik U.S. industrial chemist who helped found the modern plastics industry through his invention of Bakelite, the first thermosetting plastic (a plastic that does not soften when heated). Baer, Karl Ernst, Ritter von, Edler Von Huthorn Prussian-Estonian embryologist who discovered the mammalian ovum and the notochord and established the new science of comparative embryology alongside comparative anatomy. He was also a pioneer in geography, ethnology, and physical anthropology. Baer, Max American boxer who won the world heavyweight championship by knocking out Primo Carnera in 11 rounds in New York City on June 14, 1934. He lost the title to James J. Braddock on a 15-round decision at Long Island City, New York, on June 13, 1935. Baerum municipality, southeastern Norway. It is situated at the head of Oslo Fjord and adjoins the national capital of Oslo on the west. It has a broad frontage on Oslo Fjord and extends inland for several miles. Important settlements within Baerum are Lysaker, a small coastal port with paper- and wood-products ... Baetic Cordillera mountain system comprising the Andalusian mountains of southeastern Spain. The northern range (called pre-Baetic in Andalusia and sub-Baetic in Valencia) runs about 360 miles (580 km) from Cape Trafalgar in Andalusia to Cape Nao in Valencia, and it continues in a submerged form to the Balearic Islands, an extension of ... baetylus in Greek religion, a sacred stone or pillar. The word baetylus is of Semitic origin (-bethel). Numerous holy, or fetish, stones existed in antiquity, generally attached to the cult of some particular god and looked upon as his abiding place or symbol. The most famous example is the holy stone ... Baeyer, Adolf von German research chemist who synthesized indigo (1880) and formulated its structure (1883). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1905. Baez, Buenaventura politician who served five terms as president of the Dominican Republic and is noted principally for his attempts to have the United States annex his country. Baez, Joan American folksinger and political activist who interested young audiences in folk music during the 1960s. Despite the inevitable fading of the folk music revival, Baez continued to be a popular performer into the 21st century. By touring with younger performers throughout the world and staying politically engaged, she reached a ... Bafata region located in north-central Guinea-Bissau. Bafata is crosscut by the Geba River, which flows east-west through the northern half of the region and is navigable to Bafata town, the regional capital. The Corubal River flows east-west to form Bafata's southern border with the Quinara and Tombali regions and empties into ... Bafata town located in east-central Guinea-Bissau. It lies along the Geba River, which is navigable to that point. Bafata is an important trading centre for the interior regions of Guinea-Bissau. There also is intensive agriculture around the town. The town produces peanuts (groundnuts) for export and livestock for domestic consumption. Bafata ... Baffin northernmost and easternmost region of Nunavut territory, Canada. In 1967 it was created as Baffin region, Northwest Territories, from most of what was formerly Franklin district, and it took on its present borders with the creation of Nunavut in April 1999. The largest of Nunavut's three regions, Baffin extends southward ... Baffin Bay arm of the North Atlantic Ocean with an area of 266,000 square miles (689,000 square km), extending southward from the Arctic for 900 miles (1,450 km) between the Greenland coast (east) and Baffin Island (west). The bay has a width varying between 70 and 400 miles (110 and 650 km). ... Baffin Island island lying between Greenland and the Canadian mainland. With an area of 195,928 square miles (507,451 square km), it is the largest island in Canada and the fifth largest in the world. Baffin Island is separated from Greenland on the north and east by Baffin Bay and Davis Strait and ... Baffin Island Current surface oceanic current, a southward-moving water outflow along the west side of Baffin Bay, Canada. The Baffin Island Current, flowing at a rate of about 11 miles (17 km) per day, is a combination of West Greenland Current inflow and the outflow of cold Arctic Ocean water from the channels ... Baffin, William navigator who searched for the Northwest Passage and gave his name to Baffin Island, now part of the Northwest Territories, Canada, and to the bay separating it from Greenland. His determination of longitude at sea by observing the occultation of a star by the Moon in 1615 is said to ... Bafing River river in western Africa, rising in the Fouta Djallon massif of Guinea and flowing generally northeast for about 200 miles (320 km). After passing the town of Bafing Makana in Mali, its only important riparian settlement, it curves around to flow approximately north-northwest, to form the Senegal River at its ... Bafoussam town located in western Cameroon, north-northeast of Douala. A trading centre of the Bamileke peoples, it lies in a densely populated region where coffee, kola nuts, tobacco, tea, and cinchona (from which quinine is made) are grown and pigs and poultry are raised. The town has a trade school, coffee-processing ... Baga people who inhabit the swampy coastal region between Cape Verga and the city of Conakry in Guinea. They speak a language of the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo family. The women cultivate rice; the men fish and tend palm and kola trees. Some Baga are employed as wage labourers in ... Bagamoyo town, historic seaport of eastern Tanzania. It lies on the Zanzibar Channel, 45 miles (75 km) northwest of Dar es Salaam. The town was formerly a slave-trading depot at the terminus of Arab caravan routes from Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. The town also served as the first capital of the ... bagasse fibre remaining after the extraction of the sugar-bearing juice from sugarcane. The word bagasse, from the French bagage via the Spanish bagazo, originally meant "rubbish," "refuse," or "trash." Applied first to the debris from the pressing of olives, palm nuts, and grapes, the word was subsequently used to mean residues ... bagatelle game, probably of English origin, that is similar to billiards and was probably a modification of it. Bagatelle is played with billiard cues and nine balls on an oblong board or table varying in size from 6 by 1.5 ft (1.8 by 0.5 m) to 10 by 3 ft (3 ... Bage city, south-central Rio Grande do Sul estado (state), Brazil, lying at 732 feet (223 metres) above sea level amid gently rolling hills covered with tall prairie grass. It was founded in 1811 and given city status in 1859. Located southwest of Porto Alegre, the state capital, and 25 miles (40 ... Bagehot, Walter economist, political analyst, and editor of The Economist who was one of the most influential journalists of the mid-Victorian period. bagel doughnut-shaped yeast-leavened roll that is characterized by a crisp, shiny crust and a dense interior. Long regarded as a Jewish specialty item, the bagel is commonly eaten as a breakfast food or snack, often with toppings such as cream cheese and lox (smoked salmon). Bagerhat town, southwestern Bangladesh. It lies just south of the Bhairab River. Bagerhat was the capital of Hazrat Khan Jahan Ali-the 15th-century pioneer of the Sundarbans region of the southern Padma River (Ganges [Ganga] River) delta-and contains the ruins of his mausoleum and a large mosque (Sat Gumbaz, built c. 1459). ... Baggesen, Jens leading Danish literary figure in the transitional period between Neoclassicism and Romanticism. Baggins, Bilbo fictional character, the diminutive hero of J.R.R. Tolkien's novel The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again (1937). Bilbo Baggins joins a group of dwarfs on an expedition to recover their stolen goods. It is on this journey that Bilbo finds the ring that is the centrepiece of Tolkien's later three-part ... Baggins, Frodo fictional character, a hobbit (one of a race of mythical beings who are characterized as small in stature, good-natured, and inordinately fond of creature comforts) and the hero of the three-part novel The Lord of the Rings (1954-55) by J.R.R. Tolkien. Frodo is the nephew and adoptive heir of Bilbo ... Baggio, Roberto Italian professional football (soccer) player who is widely considered one of the greatest forwards in his country's storied football history. He won the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Player of the Year award in 1993. He is also famous among football fans for missing the penalty kick that ... Baghdad city, capital of Iraq and capital of Baghdad governorate, central Iraq. Its location, on the Tigris River about 330 miles (530 km) from the headwaters of the Persian Gulf, is in the heart of ancient Mesopotamia. Baghdad is Iraq's largest city and one of the most populous urban agglomerations of ... Baghdad Railway major rail line connecting Istanbul with the Persian Gulf region. Work on the first phase of the railway, which involved an extension of an existing line between Haidar Pasha and Ismid to Ankara, was begun in 1888 by the Ottoman Empire with German financial assistance. In 1902 the Ottoman government ... Baghdad school stylistic movement of Islamic manuscript illustration, founded in the late 12th century (though the earliest surviving works cannot be dated before the 13th century). The school flourished in the period when the 'Abbasid caliphs had reasserted their authority in Baghdad. Characterized by the depiction of expressive, individualized faces rather than ... Bagheera kiplingi species of jumping spider (family Salticidae) noted for its largely plant-based diet. The herbivorous nature of Bagheera kiplingi distinguishes it from all other spiders, which are almost exclusively carnivorous; a minority of species are known to supplement their diets by feeding on plant nectar. B. kiplingi is found in Mexico ... Baghelkhand historical region, eastern Madhya Pradesh state, central India. Known as Dahala before the Muslims, Baghelkhand was held by the warlike Kalacuri dynasty (6th-12th century), whose stronghold was at Kalinjar. With the advent of the Baghela Rajputs (warrior caste) in the 14th century, after whom the tract is named, it was ... Bagheria town, northwestern Sicily, Italy, 8 miles (13 km) east-southeast of the city of Palermo. A resort of wealthy Palermitans, Bagheria is noted for several historic villas. The best-known are Villa Palagonia (1715), containing more than 60 Baroque grotesque statues of beggars, dwarfs, monsters, and other oddities; the Villa Butera, with ... Baghlan city, northeastern Afghanistan, near the Qonduz River, at an elevation of 1,650 feet (500 m). Baghlan is the centre of beet-sugar production and has a sugar refinery. Cotton textiles are also manufactured. The city's industrial development has led to rapid population growth. Recently built major highways link Baghlan with Kabul, ... Baghmati River river in south-central Nepal and northern Bihar state, northeastern India. It rises in several headstreams in the lowland area of Nepal and flows southward through the Siwalik (Shiwalik) Range, the southernmost range of the Himalayas. It continues across the plains of Tarai into Bihar and then flows southeastward to enter ...