MTS (network provider)

MTS (; full name: Мобильные ТелеСистемы, "Mobile TeleSystems") is a mobile network operator in Russia, Armenia and Belarus with over 86.7 million subscribers in 3 countries as of Q3 2019 (106.5 million subscribers including MTS Ukraine).  As of 2017, MTS had the largest market share of 31% in Russia.

Operations

Branding

In May 2006, MTS changed their logo as a part of rebranding campaign performed by their parent company, JSFC Sistema. The logo now has two red squares next to each other. The left one, common in form (but not colour) to all JSFC Sistema's telecom subsidiaries, contains a white egg which symbolizes simplicity and genius, while the right square bears the name of the company: МТС (MTS). In 2010, MTS announced acquisition of Sistema Telecom, the owners of the MTS "egg" logo, for $380 million, thus becoming the sole owner of the logo.

In 2008, the MTS brand was included in the Top 100 World's Most Powerful Brands list by Financial Times/Millward Brown ranking, becoming the most valuable Russian brand. According to this ranking, in 2010 MTS brand was 72nd most valuable brand worldwide with the brand value of $9.7 billion. In 2010 MTS also became the most valuable Russian brand according to the Interbrand ranking.

MTS Russia

In 1994, a joint venture of Moscow City Telephone Network, T-Mobile and Siemens, which later became part of Mobile TeleSystems (MTS), offered Russia's first mobile phone service for the public in Moscow. In the same year in June, VimpelCom also started Beeline mobile phone service. MTS having started in the Moscow license zone in 1994, MTS in 1997 received licenses for further areas and began expansion across Russia, later entering other countries of the CIS.

In 2009, MTS acquired several independent mobile retail chains, creating MTS monobrand retail network of 3300 stores - the second largest retail network in Russia. Also in 2009 MTS started marketing MTS-branded mobile handsets. Already in 2010 MTS became the 5th best selling handset brand in Russia, after Nokia, Samsung, LG and SonyEricsson.

In 2010, MTS announced acquisition of 62% of the stock of Comstar, the biggest Russian fixed internet and cable TV provider with 7.5 million of passed households. Comstar products were re-branded to MTS in 2010, forming the largest Russian mobile and fixed telecommunications brand. Until this purchase, MTS was presented at the fixed telephony market through its subsidiary Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS), which at 2013 served more than 4.4 million subscribers in Moscow and Moscow Oblast.

On November 2013, the company has launched the "Home phone MTS"  in Ryazan, Oryol, Kirov, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterinburg. The subscription fee for the wired telephone is 100 rubles. Per month, it includes unlimited calls to numbers of local fixed-line operators. The cost of calls to mobile numbers range from 1.1 rubles per minute depending on the region. Prior to that, in several cities such services are also provided by Comstar, a subsidiary of MTS.

During 2012-2013, MTS deployed FTTB network in nearly twenty new cities of the Far East, Siberia, Central, Volga and Ural federal districts. In 2012, MTS launched in all the cities where the DTV signal standard DVB-C, and in December 2013 a project to provide fixed telephony services to the mass market in the regions.

In 2013, Interregional TransitTelekom won a tender held by MTS to provide IPX services, and became one of the service providers for the company in the international telecommunications market. In November 2013 MTS began offering their Russian customers LTE roaming service, after such agreement were signed first with South Korean operator SK Telecom and then with Saudi Arabia and Great Britain. Along with the construction of the fixed network, the company launched in 2013 DVB-C digital television standard in Ulan-Ude, Blagoveshchensk, Ussuriisk and Nakhodka. In November 2013 MTS completely switched to digital TV by connecting new subscribers, ending the connection to analogue television.

On September 17, 2019, it was revealed that a storage device containing 1.7 terabytes of information related to MTS was exposed to the public internet in a data leak.

VivaCell-MTS Armenia

In Armenia, services under the MTS brand are provided by K-Telecom CJSC, under the brand name "VivaCell-MTS", 80% of which are owned by MTS OJSC. The number of subscribers of VivaCell-MTS in Armenia as of 31 March 2011 was 2.55 million. As of may 2011, VivaCell-MTS occupied more than 60% of the mobile market in Armenia, and as of December 2017 VivaCell-MTS had 2.1 million subscribers.

MTS Belarus

In Belarus, the MTS trademark renders services of cellular communication and data transmission of "Mobile TeleSystems JLLC". The founders of this company are Beltelecom (51% of shares) and The Russian Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (49% of shares).

As of December 2017, MTS had 5.2 million subscribers in Belarus.

Former operations

MTS Turkmenistan

On 25 July 2012, MTS signed an agreement with the TurkmenTelecom enterprise of Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan which says that MTS Turkmenistan will on a monthly basis pay to TurkmenTelecom 30% of its net profit derived from operations in Turkmenistan. This agreement is for five years and may be extended another five years subject to some conditions. The company has also been granted GSM and 3G licenses for a three-year term.

MTS Turkmenistan in September 2017 faced termination of the permit to use the dedicated radio frequency spectrum and some other required resources, the provision of communication services to subscribers in Turkmenistan was suspended. As of 2016, MTS-Turkmenistan had 1.7 million subscribers at its peak.

MTS Uzbekistan

Uzdunrobita was the largest mobile phone operator in Uzbekistan in the 1990s and 2000s. Uzdunrobita was founded in 1991, as a joint venture between a group of American investors, the International Communications Group, with a 45% stake; and the government of what was then the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, with a 55% stake. When Uzbekistan declared independence several weeks later, the registration of the joint venture was shifted from Moscow to Tashkent, with the government stake taken over by the independent Uzbek government.

The company first turned a profit in 1993. By 1996, it had $50 million in annual revenues, 7,000 subscribers, and employed 224 staff. Gulnora Karimova gained control of the firm in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and by 2005 it was 74% owned by Russia's MTS, which paid $121 million for the stake. In 2006 it was reported to have 250,000 subscribers, ahead of Daewoo Unitel, which had 100,000, and a number of much smaller firms.

The company launched an LTE network on 2.6 GHz in July 2010, and receive a license to expand it on 700 MHz in December 2010.

Brand UMC in Uzbekistan existed till mid-2007, when major rebranding campaign occurred turning UMC into MTS. In July 2012, authorities in Uzbekistan announced the suspension of the operating license of MTS's subsidiary Uzdunrobita. Officials argued MTS-Uzbekistan has been responsible for a series of technical violations, and its operations have been suspended beginning on the evening of July 17. According to the MTS, the suspension could affect millions of Uzbek mobile phone users. An MTS statement said the firm has some 10 million clients among Uzbekistan’s population of 28 million.

In August 2012, the government of Uzbekistan revoked the company's operating license and arrested several of its top management, citing repeated regulatory violations. MTS protested the action as a "shakedown", but was unable to effectively oppose it, and moved to write down its stake. At the completion of the case in September 2012, the company's assets were seized, and some of its executives sentenced to prison terms.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted and declared his country is concerned about the situation with Mobile TeleSystems’ Uzbekistan subsidiary Uzdunrobita, after Uzbek authorities suspended the mobile operator’s license and put a senior official into custody. The dispute, which analysts fear may lead to MTS exiting the market, broke out at the beginning of 2012 when Uzbek authorities launched a near $1.3 million back-tax claim against MTS. MTS said in an e-mailed statement that the actions of the Uzbek authorities may be interpreted as “baseless attacks on the business of the Russian investor.” However, In 2019 US Department of justice charged the firm for bribery to secure contracts in Uzbekistan. MTS agreed to pay a penalty of $850 million.

MTS India

In 2008, Sistema formed 74:26 joint venture with India’s Shyam Group to form Sistema Shyam Teleservices (SSTL), and acquired a pan-India license to provide CDMA services in the country. In March 2009, SSTL launched the MTS India brand in the state of Tamil Nadu, followed by neighboring states Kerala and West Bengal in April and May respectively. Following the cancellation of its licenses by the Supreme Court of India, MTS is present in 9 circles out of 22 telecom circles of India. Media reports suggest that the Russian government was planning to buy a 20% stake in SSTL for about $700000 million.

MTS India was acquired by Reliance Communications (RCom) on 14 January 2016 in an all-stock deal, in which SSTL received a 10% share in RCom. SSTL was merged into RCom on 31 October 2017.

MTS Ukraine

On 31 October 2008, Vodafone announced a partnership deal with MTS, whereby Vodafone services will be available to MTS subscribers and both companies have noted the potential for more efficient purchasing, starting with operations in Ukraine.

In October 2015 Mobile TeleSystems and Vodafone expanded their strategic partnership; this resulted in the rebranding of MTS Ukraine to Vodafone Ukraine.

MTS sold its Ukraine operations in 2019.

See also

 Telecommunications in Russia
 Mobile phone industry in Russia

References

External links

MTS Web Site (English)
MTS Web Site (Russian)
Mobile TeleSystems OJSC (ADR) - Google Finance

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Category:Telecommunications companies of Russia
Category:Telecommunications companies of Armenia
Category:Telecommunications companies of Ukraine
Category:Telecommunications companies of Uzbekistan
Category:Telecommunications companies of Turkmenistan
Category:Telecommunications companies of India
Category:Internet service providers of Russia
Category:Mobile phone companies of Russia
Category:Mobile phone companies of Belarus
Category:Mobile phone companies of Uzbekistan
Category:Mobile phone companies of Turkmenistan
Category:Mobile phone companies of India
Category:Companies based in Moscow
Category:Telecommunications companies established in 1993
Category:1993 establishments in Russia
Category:Companies listed on the Moscow Exchange
Category:Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Category:Russian brands


1969 in architecture

The year 1969 in architecture involved some significant architectural events and new buildings.

Events
January 8 – At the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden building is begun, with ground-breaking by President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson, Chief Justice Earl Warren, and the Secretary S. Dillon Ripley.

Buildings and structures

Buildings opened

March 7 – The John Hancock Center in Chicago, Illinois, by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
 June – Houses for Visiting Mathematicians, University of Warwick, Coventry, England, designed by Bill Howell of Howell, Killick, Partridge and Amis.
September 18 – Dresden TV tower (Fernsehturm Dresden-Wachwit) begins radio transmission in Dresden, Germany.
October 3 – Fernsehturm Berlin (Berlin TV tower) in East Berlin, Germany.
St. John's Beacon in Liverpool, England.

Buildings completed
 Knights of Columbus Building (New Haven, Connecticut), designed by Roche-Dinkeloo
 One New York Plaza, Manhattan, New York City, designed by William Lescaze & Associates and Kahn & Jacobs
 Bank One Plaza, Chicago, Illinois (renamed as the Chase Tower on October 24, 2005)
 555 California Street (formerly The Bank of America Center), San Francisco, California, the tallest building west of the Mississippi from 1969–1972
 Sultan Yahya Petra Bridge, Kelantan, Malaysia
 Toronto-Dominion Centre (formerly the Royal Trust Tower) is partially completed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
 Hilton Hotel, Paradise, Nevada, designed by architect Martin Stern, Jr.
 Ullasund Bridge, Norway (replaced in 1998)
 Wyndham Court, Southampton, England
 Span Developments houses at New Ash Green, Kent, England, designed by Eric Lyons
 Taivallahti Church, Helsinki, Finland, designed by Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen in 1960

Awards
AIA Gold Medal – William Wilson Wurster.
Architecture Firm Award – Jones & Emmons.
RAIA Gold Medal – Robin Boyd.
Royal Gold Medal – Jack Antonio Coia.
Twenty-five Year Award – Rockefeller Center

Births
February 28 – Sadie Morgan, English architect and designer
date unknown – Sami Rintala, Finnish architect and artist

Deaths

February 11 – Frederic Joseph DeLongchamps, Nevada-based architect (born 1882)
May 23 – Owen Williams, English structural engineer (died 1969)
July 5 – Walter Gropius, German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School (born 1883)
August 8 – Welton Becket, Los Angeles architect (born 1902)
August 17 – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German-American architect and last director of the Bauhaus (born 1886)
August 19 – Sir Percy Thomas, Cardiff-based architect (born 1883)
November 7 – Ernesto Nathan Rogers, Italian architect, writer and educator (born 1909)
December 15 – Ruth Rivera Marín, Mexican architect (born 1927)

References

Category:20th-century architecture


Honestly (Zwan song)

"Honestly" is a song by American alternative rock group Zwan. It was the first single from their album, Mary Star of the Sea. The song was written by Billy Corgan.

The B-side "The Number of the Beast", an acoustic cover version of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden, was used in the opening credits of the 2002 film Spun by director Jonas Åkerlund.

Content
"Honestly" is a rock song in the key of D major. Musically, it bears some similarities to the chord progression of Corgan compositions "Today" and the chorus of "Cherub Rock". The guitar parts liberally use a flanger effect.

Track listing
All songs were written by Billy Corgan, except where noted.
 "Honestly" – 3:47
 "The Number of the Beast" (Steve Harris) – 4:18
 "Freedom Ain't What It Used to Be" – 4:05

Chart performance

Personnel
 Linda Strawberry – additional singing and piano

References

Category:2003 singles
Category:Debut singles
Category:Songs written by Billy Corgan
Category:Song recordings produced by Billy Corgan
Category:Zwan songs


Hermitage of San Antonio de Padua de la Tuna

The Hermitage of San Antonio de Padua de la Tuna () near Isabela, Puerto Rico dates from 1730. It comprises the ruins of a village church that was abandoned in the early 19th century when the community, with the permission of Governor Salvador Meléndez, moved to a more favorable location nearer the coast, which became the town of Isabela, founded in 1819.

The hermitage was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Isabela, Puerto Rico

References

External links
, owns, protects, researches, and interprets the ermita
Summary sheet from the Puerto Rico State Historic Preservation Office
San Antonio de la Tuna – The Original Town of Isabela, Puerto Rico Day Trips travel guide

Category:Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Puerto Rico
Category:Hermitages in Puerto Rico
Category:Isabela, Puerto Rico


Retribution (video game)

Retribution is a video game developed by British studio Astros Productions and published by Gremlin Interactive for DOS.

Gameplay
Retribution is a game in which players venture out on missions in various land- and air-craft looking to fulfill Headquarter's goals to the letter.

Reception
Next Generation reviewed the game, rating it two stars out of five, and stated that "Mediocre graphics and a generally weak set of sound effects don't do much to generate excitement for what, in the end, is a yawner of a game."

Reviews
PC Gamer (April 1995)
Computer Gaming World (Apr, 1995)

References

Category:1994 video games
Category:DOS games
Category:DOS-only games
Category:First-person shooters
Category:Vehicle simulation games
Category:Video games developed in the United Kingdom


Waggonfabrik Wismar

Waggonfabrik Wismar was a manufacturer of railway vehicles from 1894 to 1947. The company was based in Wismar in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in Germany.

History

Captain Heinrich Podeus of Wismar founded a coach factory in 1894. In 1902 it was moved to a site outside the town that was next to the F. Crull iron foundry and engineering works that already belonged to Podeus. The coach factory was then renamed as Wagenbau F. Crull & Co Wismar (F. Crull Coachbuilders & Co, Wismar). After its takeover by Podeus' sons in 1907 it became the Waggonfabrik Wismar GmbH (Wismar Coach Factory). The firm concentrated on the construction of special coaches; both sleeping and dining cars as well as insulated and refrigerated vans. In addition to railway vehicles it also manufactured chassis for lorries. In 1911 the GmbH became an Aktiengesellschaft. In 1917 the Deutsche Waggonleihanstalt AG (German Coach Hire Firm) took a majority shareholding and merged both companies into the Eisenbahn-Verkehrsmittel A.-G. (Railway Transport Co.) On 23 March 1936 the coach factory was spun off again as the Triebwagen- und Waggonfabrik Wismar Aktiengesellschaft (Wismar Railbus and Coach Factory).

In 1926 the firm had 1,600 employees; this rose to 1,930 workers in 1939.

At the 1924 Railway Exhibition at Seddin, the firm exhibited its first railbus. This had a diesel engine that was located not in the vehicle body, but in the bogie. It was also an entirely steel construction. The firm also pointed the way to the future through the introduction of electric welding that enable a much lighter construction.

The firm maintained good relations with the Lower Saxon State Railway Office (Niedersächsisches Landeseisenbahnamt) and produced the Wismar Railbus in cooperation with them. They also built a number of the Frankfurt variant.

After 1945 the construction of railbuses was concentrated in the Soviet Zone at Dessau. The facilities were given over to the Wismar ship repair firm, Schiffsreparaturwerk Wismar, and the firm was removed from the Trade Register in 1948. Until the early 1990s propellers were manufactured at the site for the diesel engine firm of Dieselmotorenwerke Rostock. Part of the factory facilities have now been demolished.

Sources
 Christian Schröder, Insa Konukiewitz, Wolfram Bäumer: Der Wismarer Schienenbus der Bauart Hannover. In: Die Museums-Eisenbahn 1/2000, S. 17–19

Category:Rolling stock manufacturers of Germany
Category:Defunct railway companies of Germany
Category:Wismar
Category:Buildings and structures in Nordwestmecklenburg


Bride kidnapping

Bride kidnapping, also known as bridenapping, marriage by abduction or marriage by capture, is a practice in which a man abducts the woman he wishes to marry. Bride kidnapping has been practiced around the world and throughout history. It continues to occur in countries in Central Asia, the Caucasus region, and parts of Africa, and among peoples as diverse as the Hmong in Southeast Asia, the Tzeltal in Mexico, and the Romani in Europe.

In most nations, bride kidnapping is considered a sex crime rather than a valid form of marriage. Some types of it may also be seen as falling along the continuum between forced marriage and arranged marriage. The term is sometimes confused with elopements, in which a couple runs away together and seeks the consent of their parents later. However, even when the practice is against the law, judicial enforcement remains lax in some areas. Bride kidnapping occurs in various parts of the world, but it is most common in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Bride kidnapping is often (but not always) a form of child marriage. It may be connected to the practice of bride price, and the inability or unwillingness to pay it.

Bride kidnapping is distinguished from raptio in that the former refers to the abduction of one woman by one man (and his friends and relatives), and is still a widespread practice, whereas the latter refers to the large scale abduction of women by groups of men, possibly in a time of war (see also war rape).

Some cultures today maintain symbolic bride kidnapping ritual as part of traditions surrounding a wedding, in a nod to the practice of bride kidnapping which may have or may have not figured in that culture's history. According to some sources, the honeymoon is a relic of marriage by capture, based on the practice of the husband going into hiding with his wife to avoid reprisals from her relatives, with the intention that the woman would be pregnant by the end of the month.

Background and rationale

Though the motivations behind bride kidnapping vary by region, the cultures with traditions of marriage by abduction are generally patriarchal with a strong social stigma on sex or pregnancy outside marriage and illegitimate births.

In some modern cases, the couple collude together to elope under the guise of a bride kidnapping, presenting their parents with a fait accompli. In most cases, however, the men who resort to capturing a wife are often of lower social status, because of poverty, disease, poor character or criminality. They are sometimes deterred from legitimately seeking a wife because of the payment the woman's family expects, the bride price (not to be confused with a dowry, paid by the woman's family).

In agricultural and patriarchal societies, where bride kidnapping is most common, children work for their family.  A woman leaves her birth family, geographically and economically, when she marries, becoming instead a member of the groom's family.  (See patrilocality for an anthropological explanation.) Due to this loss of labour, the women's families do not want their daughters to marry young, and demand economic compensation (the aforementioned bride price) when they do leave them. This conflicts with the interests of men, who want to marry early, as marriage means an increase in social status, and the interests of the groom's family, who will gain another pair of hands for the family farm, business or home. Depending on the legal system under which she lives, the consent of the woman may not be a factor in judging the validity of the marriage.

In addition to the issue of forced marriage, bride kidnapping may have other negative effects on the young women and their society. For example, fear of kidnap is cited as a reason for the lower participation of girls in the education system.

The mechanism of marriage by abduction varies by location. This article surveys the phenomenon by region, drawing on common cultural factors for patterns, but noting country-level distinctions.

Africa
In three African countries, bride kidnapping often takes the form of abduction followed by rape.

Rwanda

Bride-kidnapping is prevalent in areas of Rwanda. Often the abductor kidnaps the woman from her household or follows her outside and abducts her. He and his companions may then rape the woman to ensure that she submits to the marriage. The family of the woman either then feels obliged to consent to the union, or is forced to when the kidnapper impregnates her, as pregnant women are not seen as eligible for marriage. The marriage is confirmed with a ceremony that follows the abduction by several days. In such ceremonies, the abductor asks his bride's parents to forgive him for abducting their daughter. The man may offer a cow, money, or other goods as restitution to his bride's family.

Bride-kidnap marriages in Rwanda often lead to poor outcomes. Human rights workers report that one third of men who abduct their wives abandon them, leaving the wife without support and impaired in finding a future marriage. Additionally, with the growing frequency of bride-kidnapping, some men choose not to solemnize their marriage at all, keeping their "bride" as a concubine.

Bride kidnapping is not specifically outlawed in Rwanda, though violent abductions are punishable as rape. According to a criminal justice official, bride kidnappers are virtually never tried in court: "When we hear about abduction, we hunt down the kidnappers and arrest them and sometimes the husband, too. But we're forced to let them all go several days later," says an official at the criminal investigation department in Nyagatare, the capital of Umutara. Women's rights groups have attempted to reverse the tradition by conducting awareness raising campaigns and by promoting gender equity, but the progress has been limited so far.

Egypt
There have been cases of Coptic Christian women and girls abducted, forced to convert to Islam and then married to Muslim men.

Ethiopia
Bride kidnapping is prevalent in many regions of Ethiopia.  According to surveys conducted in 2003 by the National Committee on Traditional Practices in Ethiopia, the custom's prevalence rate was estimated at 69 percent nationally, and highest in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region at 92 percent. A man working in co-ordination with his friends may kidnap a girl or woman, sometimes using a horse to ease the escape. The abductor will then hide his intended bride and rape her until she becomes pregnant. As the father of the woman's child, the man can claim her as his wife. Subsequently, the kidnapper may try to negotiate a bride price with the village elders to legitimize the marriage. Girls as young as eleven years old are reported to have been kidnapped for the purpose of marriage. Though Ethiopia criminalised such abductions and raised the marriageable age to 18 in 2004, this law has not been well implemented. A 2016 UNICEF evidence review (based on data from 2010 and 2013) estimated that 10 to 13 percent of marriages in the highest risk areas involved abduction, with rates of 1.4 percent to 2.4 percent in lower risk areas of the country.

The bride of the forced marriage may suffer from the psychological and physical consequences of forced sexual activity and early pregnancy, and the early end to her education. Women and girls who are kidnapped may also be exposed to sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Kenya
Forced marriages continue to be a problem for young girls in Kenya. The United States Department of State reports that children and young teenaged girls (aged ten and up) are sometimes married to men two decades older.

Marriage by abduction used to be, and to some extent still is, a customary practice for the Kisii ethnic group. In their practice, the abductor kidnaps the woman forcibly and rapes her in an attempt to impregnate her. The "bride" is then coerced through the stigma of pregnancy and rape to marry her abductor. Though most common in the late 19th century through the 1960s, such marriage abductions still occur occasionally.

The Turkana tribe in Kenya also practised marriage by abduction. In this culture, bridal kidnapping (akomari) occurred before any formal attempts to arrange a marriage with a bride's family. According to one scholar, a successful bridal kidnapping raised the abductor's reputation in his community, and allowed him to negotiate a lower bride price with his wife's family. Should an attempted abductor fail to seize his bride, he was bound to pay a bride price to the woman's family, provide additional gifts and payments to the family, and to have an arranged marriage (akota).

South Africa
The practice is known as ukuthwalwa or simply thwala in among the nguni speaking tribes. The Basotho call it Tjhobediso. Among Zulu people, thwala, or bride abduction, was once an acceptable way for two young people in love to get married when their families opposed the match (and so actually a form of elopement). Thwala has been abused, however, "to victimize isolated rural women and enrich male relatives."

Central Asia

In Central Asia, bride kidnapping exists in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan. Though origin of the tradition in the region is disputed, the rate of nonconsensual bride kidnappings appears to be increasing in several countries throughout Central Asia as the political and economic climate changes.

Kyrgyzstan
Despite its illegality, in many primarily rural areas, bride kidnapping, known as ala kachuu (to take and flee), is an accepted and common way of taking a wife. A recent victimization survey in Kyrgyzstan (2015) included the crime of kidnapping of young women for marriage. Fourteen percent of married women answered that they were kidnapped at the time and that two-thirds of these cases were consensual, the woman knew the man and had agreed with it up front. This means that about five percent of current marriages in Kyrgyzstan are cases of 'Ala Kachuu'.

There is another source that mentions much higher numbers. Approximately half of all Kyrgyz marriages include bride kidnapping; of those kidnappings, two-thirds are non-consensual. Research by non-governmental organizations give estimates from a low of 40% to between 68 and 75 percent of all marriages in Kyrgyzstan involved bride kidnapping.

Bride kidnappings that involve rape do so to psychologically force the would-be bride to accept her kidnapper and his family's pressure to marry him, since if she then refuses she would never be considered marriageable again. Of 12,000 yearly bride kidnappings in Kyrgyzstan, approximately 2,000 women reported that their kidnapping involved rape by the would-be groom. The matter is somewhat confused by the local use of the term "bride kidnap" to reflect practices along a continuum, from forcible abduction and rape (and then, almost unavoidably, marriage), to something akin to an elopement arranged between the two young people, to which both sets of parents have to consent after the act.

Although the practice is illegal in Kyrgyzstan, bride kidnappers are rarely prosecuted. This reluctance to enforce the code is in part caused by the pluralistic legal system in Kyrgyzstan where many villages are de facto ruled by councils of elders and aqsaqal courts following customary law, away from the eyes of the state legal system. Aqsaqal courts, tasked with adjudicating family law, property and torts, often fail to take bride kidnapping seriously. In many cases, aqsaqal members are invited to the kidnapped bride's wedding and encourage the family of the bride to accept the marriage.

Kazakhstan
In Kazakhstan, bride kidnapping (alyp qashu) is divided into non-consensual and consensual abductions, kelisimsiz alyp qashu ("to take and run without agreement") and kelissimmen alyp qashu ("to take and run with agreement"), respectively. Though some kidnappers are motivated by the wish to avoid a bride price or the expense of hosting wedding celebrations or a feast to celebrate the girl leaving home, other would-be husbands fear the woman's refusal, or that the woman will be kidnapped by another suitor first. Generally, in nonconsensual kidnappings, the abductor uses either deception (such as offering a ride home) or force (such as grabbing the woman, or using a sack to restrain her) to coerce the woman to come with him. Once at the man's house, one of his female relatives offers the woman a kerchief (oramal) that signals the bride's consent to the marriage. Though in consensual kidnappings, the woman may agree with little hesitation to wear the kerchief, in non-consensual abductions, the woman may resist the kerchief for days. Next, the abductor's family generally asks the "bride" to write a letter to her family, explaining that she had been taken of her own free will. As with the kerchief, the woman may resist this step adamantly. Subsequently, the "groom" and his family generally issues an official apology to the bride's family, including a letter and a delegation from the groom's household. At this time, the groom's family may present a small sum to replace the bride-price. Though some apology delegations are met cordially, others are greeted with anger and violence. Following the apology delegation, the bride's family may send a delegation of "pursuers" (qughysnshy) either to retrieve the bride or to verify her condition and honour the marriage.

A recent victimization survey in Kazakhstan (2018) included the crime of kidnapping of young women for marriage. 4% of married women answered that they were kidnapped at the time and that two-thirds of these cases were consensual, the woman knew the man and had agreed with it up front. This means that about 1-1.5% of current marriages in Kazakhstan are the result of non-consensual abductions.

Uzbekistan

In Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region in Uzbekistan, nearly one fifth of all marriages are conducted by bride kidnapping. Activist groups in the region tie an increase in kidnappings to economic instability. Whereas weddings can be prohibitively expensive, kidnappings avoid both the cost of the ceremony and any bride price. Other scholars report that less desirable males with inferior educations or drug or alcohol problems are more likely to kidnap their brides. In Karakalpakstan, the bride kidnapping sometimes originates out of a dating relationship and, at other times, happens as an abduction by multiple people.

The Caucasus

Bride kidnapping is an increasing trend in the countries and regions of the Caucasus, both in Georgia in the South and in Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia in the North. In the Caucasian versions of bride-kidnapping, the kidnap victim's family may play a role in attempting to convince the woman to stay with her abductor after the kidnapping, because of the shame inherent in the presumed consummation of the marriage.

Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia

The Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia regions in the Northern Caucasus (in Russia) have also witnessed an increase in bride kidnappings since the fall of the Soviet Union. As in other countries, kidnappers sometimes seize acquaintances to be brides and other times abduct strangers. The social stigma of spending a night in a male's house can be a sufficient motivation to force a young woman to marry her captor. Under Russian law, though a kidnapper who refuses to release his bride could be sentenced to eight to ten years, a kidnapper will not be prosecuted if he releases the victim or marries her with her consent. Bride captors in Chechnya are liable, in theory, to receive also a fine of up to 1 million rubles. As in the other regions, authorities often fail to respond to the kidnappings. In Chechnya, the police failure to respond to bridal kidnappings is compounded by a prevalence of abductions in the region. Several such kidnappings have been captured on video.

Researchers and non-profit organisations describe a rise in bride kidnappings in the North Caucasus in the latter half of the 20th century. In Chechnya, women's rights organisations tie the increase in kidnappings to a deterioration of women's rights under the rule of Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov.

Azerbaijan

In Azerbaijan, both marriage by capture (qız qaçırmaq) and elopement (qoşulub qaçmaq) are relatively common practices. In the Azeri kidnap custom, a young woman is taken to the home of the abductor's parents through either deceit or force. Regardless of whether rape occurs or not, the woman is generally regarded as impure by her relatives, and is therefore forced to marry her abductor. Despite a 2005 Azeri law that criminalised bride kidnapping, the practice places women in extremely vulnerable social circumstances, in a country where spousal abuse is rampant and recourse to law enforcement for domestic matters is impossible. In Azerbaijan, women abducted by bride kidnapping sometimes become slaves of the family who kidnap them.

Georgia
In Georgia, bride kidnapping occurs in the south of the country. Although the extent of the problem is not known, non-governmental activists estimate that hundreds of women are kidnapped and forced to marry each year. In a typical Georgian model of bride kidnapping, the abductor, often accompanied by friends, accosts the intended bride, and coerces her through deception or force to enter a car. Once in the car, the victim may be taken to a remote area or the captor's home. These kidnappings sometimes include rape, and may result in strong stigma to the female victim, who is assumed to have engaged in sexual relations with her captor. Women who have been victims of bride kidnapping are often regarded with shame; the victim's relatives may view it as a disgrace if the woman returns home after a kidnapping. In other cases, the kidnapping is a consensual elopement. Human Rights Watch reports that prosecutors often refuse to bring charges against the kidnappers, urging the kidnap victim to reconcile with her aggressor. Enforcing the appropriate laws in this regard may also be a problem because the kidnapping cases often go unreported as a result of intimidation of victims and their families.

East and South Asia

Pakistan

An estimated one thousand Christian and Hindu women are kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam and marry Muslim men every year in Pakistan.

Indonesia

In Bali tradition, Balinese men historically must abduct women for marrying.

Hmong culture
Marriage by abduction also occurs in traditional Hmong culture, in which it is known as zij poj niam. As in some other cultures, bride kidnapping is generally a joint effort between the would-be groom and his friends and family. Generally, the abductor takes the woman while she is alone. The abductor then sends a message to the kidnap victim's family, informing them of the abduction and the abductor's intent to marry their daughter. If the victim's family manage to find the woman and insist on her return, they might be able to free her from the obligation to marry the man. However, if they fail to find the woman, the kidnap victim is forced to marry the man. The abductor still has to pay a bride price for the woman, generally an increased amount because of the kidnapping. Because of this increased cost (and the general unpleasantness of abduction), kidnapping is usually only a practice reserved for a man with an otherwise blemished chance of securing a bride, because of criminal background, illness or poverty.

Occasionally, members of the Hmong ethnic group have engaged in bride kidnapping in the United States. In some cases, the defendant has been allowed to plead a cultural defense to justify his abduction. This defense has sometimes been successful. In 1985, Kong Moua, a Hmong man, kidnapped and raped a woman from a Californian college. He later claimed that this was an act of zij poj niam and was allowed to plead to false imprisonment only, instead of kidnapping and rape. The judge in this case considered cultural testimony as an explanation of the man's crime.

China
Until the 1940s, marriage by abduction, known as qiangqin (), occurred in rural areas of China. Though illegal in imperial China, for rural areas it often became a local "institution". According to one scholar, marriage by abduction was sometimes a groom's answer to avoid paying a bride price. In other cases, the scholar argues, it was a collusive act between the bride's parents and the groom to circumvent the bride's consent.

Chinese scholars theorise that this practice of marriage by abduction became the inspiration for a form of institutionalised public expression for women: the bridal lament. In imperial China, a new bride performed a two- to three-day public song, including chanting and sobbing, that listed her woes and complaints. The bridal lament would be witnessed by members of her family and the local community.

In recent years bride kidnapping has resurfaced in areas of China. In many cases, the women are kidnapped and sold to men in poorer regions of China, or as far abroad as Mongolia. Reports say that buying a kidnapped bride is nearly one tenth of the price of hosting a traditional wedding. The United States Department of State tie this trend of abducting brides to China's one-child policy, and the consequent gender imbalance as more male children are born than female children.

Japan
According to the study by Kunio Yanagita, scholar of folklore in Japan, there are three patterns existed in bride kidnapping of Japan.
 The case that man and his cooperators kidnap woman without notice to woman's parents.
 The case that woman's parents cannot permit marriage because they afraid of public reputation.
 The case that the new couple cannot formally get married because of economical hardship.

In Buraku of Kochi, there was the custom of bride kidnapping named katagu (かたぐ).

The Americas

The practice of kidnapping children, teenagers and women from neighbouring tribes and adopting them into the new tribe was common among Native Americans throughout the Americas. The kidnappings were a way of introducing new blood into the group. Captured European women sometimes settled down as adopted members of the tribe and at least one woman, Mary Jemison, refused "rescue" when it was offered.

United States
Several reports of bride kidnapping for religious reasons have surfaced recently. Most known are the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart in Utah and the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard in California. Both perpetrators have been convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault. Other cases exist within some Mormon Fundamentalist communities around the Utah-Arizona border; however, accurate information is difficult to obtain from these closed communities. Most of these cases are usually referred to as forced marriages, although they are similar to other bride kidnappings around the world.

Mexico

Among the Tzeltal community, a Mayan tribe in Chiapas, Mexico, bride kidnapping has been a recurring method of securing a wife. The Tzeltal people are an indigenous, agricultural tribe that is organised patriarchally. Premarital contact between the sexes is discouraged; unmarried women are supposed to avoid speaking with men outside their families. As with other societies, the grooms that engage in bride kidnapping have generally been the less socially desirable mates.

In the Tzeltal tradition, a girl is kidnapped by the groom, possibly in concert with his friends. She is generally taken to the mountains and raped. The abductor and his future bride often then stay with a relative until the bride's father's anger is reported to have subsided. At that point, the abductor will return to the bride's house to negotiate a bride-price, bringing with him the bride and traditional gifts such as rum.

South America
Among the Mapuche of Chile, the practice was known as casamiento por capto in Spanish, and ngapitun in Mapudungun.

Helena Valero, a Brazilian woman kidnapped by Amazonian Indians in 1937, dictated her story to an Italian anthropologist, who published it in 1965.

Europe

Roma (Romani) communities
Bride kidnapping has been documented as a marital practice in some Romani community traditions. In the Romani culture, girls as young as twelve years old may be kidnapped for marriage to teenaged boys. As the Roma population lives throughout Europe, this practice has been seen on multiple occasions in Ireland, England, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Slovakia. The kidnapping has been theorised as a way to avoid a bride price or as a method of ensuring exogamy. The tradition's normalisation of kidnapping puts young women at higher risk of becoming victims of human trafficking.

Mediterranean

Marriage by capture was practised in ancient cultures throughout the Mediterranean area. It is represented in mythology and history by the tribe of Benjamin in the Bible; by the Greek hero Paris stealing the beautiful Helen of Troy from her husband Menelaus, thus triggering the Trojan War; and by the Rape of the Sabine Women by Romulus, the founder of Rome.

In 326 A.D., the Emperor Constantine issued an edict prohibiting marriage by abduction. The law made kidnapping a public offence; even the kidnapped bride could be punished if she later consented to a marriage with her abductor. Spurned suitors sometimes kidnapped their intended brides as a method of restoring honor. The suitor, in coordination with his friends, generally abducted his bride while she was out of her house in the course of her daily chores. The bride would then be secreted outside the town or village. Though the kidnapped woman was sometimes raped in the course of the abduction, the stain on her honor from a presumptive consummation of the marriage was sufficient to damage her marital prospects irreversibly. Sometimes, the "abduction" masked an elopement.

Italy
The custom of fuitina was widespread in Sicily and continental southern Italy. In theory and in some cases it was an agreed elopement between two youngsters; in practice it was often a forcible kidnapping and rape, followed by a so-called "rehabilitating marriage" (matrimonio riparatore). In 1965, this custom was brought to national attention by the case of Franca Viola, a 17-year-old abducted and raped by a local small-time criminal, with the assistance of a dozen of his friends.  When she was returned to her family after a week, she refused to marry her abductor, contrary to local expectation.  Her family backed her up, and suffered severe intimidation for their efforts; the kidnappers were arrested and the main perpetrator was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The exposure of this "archaic and intransigent system of values and behavioural mores" caused great national debate. In 1968, Franca married her childhood sweetheart, with whom she would later have three children. Conveying clear messages of solidarity, Giuseppe Saragat, then president of Italy, sent the couple a gift on their wedding day, and soon afterwards, Pope Paul VI granted them a private audience. A 1970 film, La moglie più bella (The Most Beautiful Wife) by Damiano Damiani and starring Ornella Muti, is based on the case. Viola never capitalised on her fame and status as a feminist icon, preferring to live a quiet life in Alcamo with her family.

The law allowing "rehabilitating marriages" to protect rapists from criminal proceedings was abolished in 1981.

Ireland
The inciting incident for the 12th-century Norman invasion of Ireland was an instance of wife-stealing: in 1167, the King of Leinster Diarmait Mac Murchada had his lands and kingship revoked by order of the High King of Ireland, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair as punishment for abducting the wife of another king in 1152. This lead Diarmait to seek the assistance of King Henry II of England in order to reclaim his kingdom.

The abduction of heiresses was an occasional feature in Ireland until 1800, as illustrated in the film The Abduction Club.

Malta
In 2015, Malta was criticized by Equality Now, for a law which, in certain circumstances, can extinguish the punishment for a man who abducts a woman if, following the abduction, the man and woman get married. (Article 199 and Article 200 of the Criminal Code of Malta) The article was ultimately abolished by Act XIII of 2018, Article 24.

Slavic tribes

East Slavic tribes, predecessor tribes to the Russian state, practised bride kidnapping in the eleventh century. The traditions were documented by Russian monk Nestor. According to his Chronicles, the Drevlian tribe captured wives non-consensually, whereas the Radimich, Viatich, and Severian tribes "captured" their wives after having come to an agreement about marriage with them. The clergy's increase in influence may have helped the custom to abate.

Marriage by capture occurred among the South Slavs until the beginning of the 1800s. Common in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, the custom was known as otmitza. The practice was mentioned in a statute in the Politza, the 1605 Croatian legal code. According to leading intellectual and Serbian folk-chronicler Vuk Karadzic, a man would dress for "battle" before capturing a woman. Physical force was a frequent element of these kidnappings.

Bride kidnapping was also a custom in Bulgaria. With the consent of his parents and the aid of his friends, the abductor would accost his bride and take her to a barn away from the home, as superstition held that pre-marital intercourse might bring bad luck to the house. Whether or not the man raped his bride, the abduction would shame the girl and force her to stay with her kidnapper to keep her reputation. As in other cultures, sometimes couples would elope by staging false kidnappings to secure the parents' consent.

In religion

Catholic law
In Catholic canon law, the impediment of raptus specifically prohibits marriage between a woman abducted with the intent to force her to marry, and her abductor, as long as the woman remains in the abductor's power. According to the second provision of the law, should the woman decide to accept the abductor as a husband after she is safe, she will be allowed to marry him. The canon defines raptus as a "violent" abduction, accompanied by physical violence or threats, or fraud or deceit. The Council of Trent insisted that the abduction in raptus must be for the purpose of marriage to count as an impediment to marriage.

Islamic law

Most Islamic scholars take the view that forced marriage involving an Islamic woman is forbidden. The enslavement of prisoners of war, and concubinage of female PoWs is permitted in the Hadith, while the prostitution of female slaves is forbidden. These women are called ma malakat aymanukum or "those whom your right hand possesses." Female slaves may still be punished if they commit adultery (zina).

In film

Features

Bride capture has been reflected in feature films from many cultures, sometimes humorously, sometimes as social commentary.

Bride kidnapping is depicted as a frontier solution in the 1954 Hollywood musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The 1960 Hong Kong film Qiangpin (The Bride Hunter) portrays the custom in the format of an all-female Yue opera comedy, in which Xia Meng plays a gender-bending role as a man masquerading as a woman. Bride kidnapping is displayed somewhat humorously in Pedro Almodóvar's 1990 Spanish hit ¡Átame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!), starring Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril.  It is the underlying theme behind the 2005 Korean movie The Bow.  In the 2006 comedy Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, the eponymous fictional reporter Borat, played by British comedian/satirist Sacha Baron Cohen, attempts to kidnap Canadian actress Pamela Anderson in order to take her as his wife. He brings a "wedding sack" which he has made for the occasion, suggesting that such kidnappings are a tradition in his parody of Kazakhstan.

On a more serious note, a 1970 Italian film, La moglie più bella (The Most Beautiful Wife) by Damiano Damiani and starring Ornella Muti, is based on the story of Franca Viola, described above.  However, before the national debate caused by the Viola case, a 1964 satire directed by Pietro Germi, Seduced and Abandoned (Sedotta e abbandonata), treated the Sicilian custom as a dark comedy. The 2009 film Baarìa - la porta del vento shows a consensual fuitina in 20th-century Sicily (atypically having the couple enclosed in the girl's house) as the only way the lovers can avoid the girl's arranged marriage to a richer man.

Some Russian films and literature depict bride kidnapping in the Caucasus.  There is a Soviet comedy entitled Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (, literally translated as The Girl Prisoner of the Caucasus), where a bride kidnapping occurs in an unidentified Caucasian country. The 2007 Kyrgyz film Pure Coolness also revolves around the bride kidnapping custom, mistaken identity, and the clash between modern urban expectations and the more traditional countryside.

Documentaries
In 2005, a documentary film entitled Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan made by Petr Lom was presented at the UNAFF 2005 festival, and subsequently on PBS and Investigation Discovery (ID) in the United States. The film met controversy in Kyrgyzstan because of ethical concerns about the filming of real kidnappings.

In 2012, the website Vice.com did a full documentary film about bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan.

In literature

In Frances Burney's novel, Camilla (1796), the heroine's sister, Eugenia, is kidnapped by an adventurer called Alphonso Bellamy. Eugenia decides to stay with her husband on the grounds that she believes her word is a solemn oath. Eugenia is fifteen years old, and so underage, and is coerced into the marriage—both were grounds for treating the marriage as illegal.

A Sherlock Holmes story features bride kidnapping. In "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist", a woman is employed as a governess by a man who knows that she will soon inherit a fortune, with the intent of a confederate marrying her. The ceremony does eventually occur, but is void.

The manga Otoyomegatari A Bride's Story takes place in central Asia. The heroine is married to a boy in an outside clan, but regrets regarding this decision occur when her original clan has problems bearing heirs. Her birth family comes to retrieve her with the intention of marrying her to someone else, but without success.  Her new family tells the invaders that the girl has been impregnated, which would be the last seal on the marriage.  They doubt this has occurred as the groom is very young and, desperate, they resort to a kidnap attempt, but again fail.

The fantasy novel A Storm of Swords features marriage by capture (or "stealing a woman") as the traditional form of marriage north of the Wall. The Free Folk consider it a test for a man to "steal" a wife and outwit her attempts on his life long enough for her to respect his strength and come to love him. More often, though, marriages by capture are conducted between a couple already in love, an elopement without the extra element of attempted murder. Jon Snow and Ygritte have such a marriage by capture, although at the time Jon was ignorant of the custom and thought he was merely taking her prisoner. The Ironborn are also known to practice this custom, taking secondary wives while reaving the mainland, which they refer to as "salt wives".

The Tamora Pierce fantasy novel The Will of the Empress includes bride kidnapping as a major plot point and has extensive discussions of the morality of bride kidnapping. Multiple characters are kidnapped for the purpose of marriage during the novel, which is used as a warning against it (in keeping with the women's rights focus of her series), particularly in the case of poor women or those without social support systems.

In television
In the BBC radio and television comedy series The League of Gentlemen, the character Papa Lazarou comes to the fictional town of Royston Vasey under the guise of a peg-seller. He seeks to kidnap women by entering their homes, talking gibberish to them (Gippog) and persuading them to hand over their wedding rings. He 'names' them all 'Dave', and, after obtaining their rings, proclaims;  "you're my wife now".
In Criminal Minds, season 4, episode 13 titled "Bloodline" depicts bride kidnapping.

Stephen Vincent Benét wrote a short story called "The Sobbin' Women" that parodied the legend of the rape of the Sabine women. Later adapted into the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, it tells the story of seven gauche but sincere backwoodsmen, one of whom gets married, encouraging the others to seek partners. After a social where they meet girls they are attracted to, they are denied the chance to pursue their courtship by the latter's menfolk. Following the Roman example, they abduct the girls. As in the original tale, the women are at first indignant but are eventually won over.

See also

 Bride price
 Bride burning
 Charivari
 Exchange of women
 Groom kidnapping
 History of rape
 Honour killing
 Shotgun wedding, a sudden wedding, often because the bride is pregnant
 Stockholm syndrome, when a captive grows to identify with their captor

Bibliography

Books
 Adekunle, Julius.  Culture and Customs of Rwanda, Greenwood Publishing Group (2007).
 Kovalesky, Maxime.  Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia, London: David, Nutt & Strand (1891).
 Pamporov, Alexey.  Romani everyday life in Bulgaria, Sofia: IMIR (2006). (in Bulgarian)

Journal articles

 Ayres, Barbara  "Bride Theft and Raiding for Wives in Cross-Cultural Perspective", Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 47, No. 3, Kidnapping and Elopement as Alternative Systems of Marriage (Special Issue) (July 1974), p. 245
Barnes, R. H.  "Marriage by Capture."  The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 5, No. 1. (March 1999), pp. 57–73.
Bates, Daniel G.  "Normative and Alternative Systems of Marriage among the Yörük of Southeastern Turkey."  Anthropological Quarterly, 47:3 (Jul. 1974), pp. 270–287.
Evans-Grubbs, Judith. "Abduction Marriage in Antiquity: A Law of Constantine (CTh IX. 24. I) and Its Social Context" The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 79, 1989, pp. 59–83.
Handrahan, Lori. 2004. "Hunting for Women: Bride-Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan." International Feminist Journal of Politics, 6:2 (June), 207–233.
Herzfeld, Michael "Gender Pragmatics: Agency, Speech, and Bride Theft in a Cretan Mountain Village." Anthropology 1985, Vol. IX: 25–44.
Kleinbach, Russ and Salimjanova, Lilly (2007). "Kyz ala kachuu and adat: non-consensual bride kidnapping and tradition in Kyrgyzstan", Central Asian Survey, 26:2, 217–233.
Kleinbach, Russell.  "Frequency of non-consensual bride kidnapping in the Kyrgyz Republic." International Journal of Central Asian Studies. Vol 8, No 1, 2003, pp. 108–128.
Kleinbach, Russell, Mehrigiul Ablezova and Medina Aitieva.  "Kidnapping for marriage (ala kachuu) in a Kyrgyz village."  Central Asian Survey. (June 2005) 24(2), 191–202. available in .
Kowalewsky, M. "Marriage among the Early Slavs", Folklore, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Dec. 1890), pp. 463–480.
Light, Nathan and Damira Imanalieva. "Performing Ala Kachuu: Marriage Strategies in the Kyrgyz Republic".
McLaren, Anne E., "Marriage by Abduction in Twentieth Century China", Modern Asian Studies 35(4) (Oct. 2001), pp. 953–984.
Pamporov, Alexey "Sold like a donkey? Bride-price among the Bulgarian Roma" Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (N.S.) 13, 471–476 (2007)
Rimonte, Nilda  "A Question of Culture: Cultural Approval of Violence against Women in the Pacific-Asian Community and the Cultural Defense'", Stanford Law Review, Vol. 43, No. 6 (Jul. 1991), pp. 1311–1326.
Stross, Brian. "Tzeltal Marriage by Capture."  Anthropological Quarterly. 47:3 (July 1974), pp. 328–346.
Werner, Cynthia, "Women, marriage, and the nation-state: the rise of nonconsensual bride kidnapping in post-Soviet Kazakhstan", in The Transformation of Central Asia. Pauline Jones Luong, ed.  Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2004, pp. 59–89.
Yang, Jennifer Ann.  "Marriage By Capture in the Hmong Culture: The Legal Issue of Cultural Rights Versus Women's Rights", Law and Society Review at UCSB, Vol. 3, pp. 38–49 (2004).

Human rights reports

Amnesty International, Georgia—Thousands Suffering in Silence: Violence Against Women in the Family, AI Index: EUR 56/009/2006, September 2006 (last accessed 18 August 2011).
 Georgian Young Lawyers' Association & OMCT, Violence Against Women in Georgia: Report submitted on the occasion of the 36th session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, August 2006 (last accessed 18 August 2011).
 Human Rights Watch, Reconciled to Violence: State Failure to Stop Domestic Abuse and Abduction of Women in Kyrgyzstan, Vol. 8, No. 9, September 2006 (last accessed 28 January 2009).
 Ireland: Refugee Documentation Centre, "Georgia: Bride-kidnapping in Georgia", 8 June 2009 (last accessed 18 August 2011).
Pusurmankulova, Burulai, "Bride Kidnapping.  Benign Custom Or Savage Tradition?", Freedom House, 14 June 2004 (last accessed 18 August 2011).
 U.S. Department of State, Rwanda: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2007, 11 March 2008 (last accessed 28 January 2009).
 OSCE, Building the Capacity of Roma Communities to Prevent Trafficking in Human Beings, 12 June 2007, (last accessed 9 March 2012).

News articles and radio reports

 Aminova, Alena,   "Uzbekistan: No Love Lost in Karakalpak Bride Thefts", Institute of War and Peace Reporting, 14 June 2004
 Armstrong, Jane,  "Rage or Romance?", Globe and Mail (Canada), 26 April 2008
 BBC, "Ethiopia: Revenge of the Abducted Bride", 18 June 1999
 Brooks, Courtney & Amina Umarova, "Despite Official Measures, Bride Kidnapping Endemic in Chechnya", Radio Free Europe, 21 October 2010
 Kokhodze, Gulo & Tamuna Uchidze, "Bride Theft Rampant in Southern Georgia", Institute of War and Peace Reporting, 15 June 2006
 Najibullah, Farangis, "Bride Kidnapping: A Tradition or a Crime?", Radio Free Europe, 21 May 2011
 Isayev, Ruslan,  "In Chechnya, Attempts to Eradicate Bride Abduction", Prague Watchdog, 16 November 2007
 Kiryashova, Sabina,  "Azeri Bride Kidnappers Risk Heavy Sentences", Institute of War and Peace Reporting, 17 November 2005
 McDonald, Henry,  "Gardai Hunt Gang Accused of Seizing Roma Child Bride", The Guardian, UK, 3 September 2007
 NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, "Kidnapping Custom Makes a Comeback in Georgia", 14 May 2006
 Rakhimdinova, Aijan,  "Kyrgyz Bride Price Controversy", Institute of War and Peace Reporting, 22 December 2005
 Rodriguez, Alex, "Kidnapping a Bride Practice Embraced in Kyrgyzstan", Augusta Chronicle, 24 July 2005
 Ruremesha, Jean, "RIGHTS-RWANDA: Marriage by Abduction Worries Women's Groups", Inter Press Service, 7 October 2003
 Smith, Craig S., "Abduction, Often Violent, a Kyrgyz Wedding Rite", NY Times, 30 April 2005

Dissertations and academic papers

 Moua, Teng, "The Hmong Culture: Kinship, Marriage & Family Systems", University of Wisconsin–Stout (May 2003)
Pamporov, Alexey, Roma/Gypsy Population in Bulgaria as a Challenge to Policy Relevance (2006)

References

External links

 The Kidnapped Bride: A documentary by Petr Lom
 Dedicated to Understanding Ala Kachuu (bride-kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan) and Preventing Non-Consensual Marriage
 Spotlight on: Violence Against Girls in Ethiopia – Marriage by Abduction and Rape
 Rights-Rwanda: Marriage by Abduction Worries Women's Groups
 Article on the kidnap of a young girl for marriage in Kyrgyzstan
 BBC documentary about stolen brides in Chechnya Aired August 2010.
 Captured Hearts: An epidemic of bride kidnappings may at last be waning in Kyrgyzstan  - National Geographic, Paul Salopek

Category:Central Asian culture
Category:Marriage, unions and partnerships in Turkmenistan
Category:Marriage, unions and partnerships in Kyrgyzstan
Category:Marriage, unions and partnerships in Georgia (country)
Category:Marriage, unions and partnerships in India
Category:Kidnapping
Category:Marriage
Category:Violence against women
Category:Women's rights in Asia
Category:Women's rights in Africa
Category:Culture of the Caucasus
Category:North Caucasus
Category:Human trafficking
Category:Human rights abuses
Category:Forced marriage


Fashion design copyright in the United States

Although fashion design in United States copyright law is an intellectual property concept dating back to the 1750s, copyright protection has never been extended to fashion designs. As of late 2015, fashion designs were not subject to copyright laws in the United States, and could not be copyrighted.

Background

Domestic

The beginnings of copyright law began with editorial copyrights in the 1750s. Since then, we have had extensive advancements within society that have called for legislative additions to the initial idea of what should and should not be copyrighted. In 1932 the Fashion Originators Guild of America unified in order to prevent further knock offs by requiring designers to submit their designs for cataloguing, and by “red carding” those stores and businesses that were found to reproduce previously submitted designs under their own name and for their own profit. By red carding these retailers, they essentially blacklisted stores to institute boycotts and dissolve the offending business. However, in 1941 their actions were ruled illegal through violating antitrust laws and monopolizing the competition and so the guild disbanded.
The issue continued to be under debate as designers through the years consistently felt blows in revenue as cheaper versions of their designs flew off the mass marketed racks. Attempts at creating a bill to combat these knock offs rose and fell, until various supporters grabbed hold of ideas to form a tangible and arguable legislation.

International

Fashion design copyright laws in Europe have been known as early as in the 15th century. French king Francis I  gave out specific privileges related to the production of textiles. By 1711, in Lyon, illegalities were already being defined in regards to fashion materials, and in 1787, in England and Scotland fashion designers had fruitfully pushed their needs for protection into basic legislation. In 1876 Germany began protecting fashion patterns as well as models, and in 2002 European regulation on designs that were new and provided an aspect of fresh character or aesthetic were brought under protection. From 2004 to 2006 the “total production volume for clothing decreased by about 5% each year… [and by] 2006 the European union trade deficit for clothing was at 33.7 billion.” These statistics show that while there are benefits of their advanced design legislation, the economic and external factors still hindered their industry growth in ways the U.S. can empathize with. As 2007 came to a close, WIPO, or the World Intellectual Property Organization, had registered twenty-nine international designs.

Legislation

In 1998, Representative Howard Coble of North Carolina was the one to use the example of boat hulls in his argument for fashion design protection. A statute had been added to the copyright legislation describing boat hull designs to be included in the protective act, and Coble expressed how the same types of ideas applied to hull designs could be used for fashion designs. In 2006 the 109th congress found themselves facing the first supported bill asking for protection of fashion designs. This attempt, however, was stalled in congress. A second attempt was made in 2010, and now yet another attempt stands before the congress of 2013, hoping to be pushed through this final time.
The original proposed legislation regarding fashion design copyrights put before congress in 2006 were as follows.
“A fashion design is subject to protection under this chapter… A ‘fashion design’ is the appearance as a whole of an article of apparel, including its ornamentation. The term ‘apparel’ means- an article of men’s, women’s, or children’s clothing, including undergarments, outerwear, gloves, footwear, and headgear; handbags, purses, and tote bags; belts’ and eyeglass frames. In the case of a fashion design, embodied in a useful article that was made public by the designer or owner in the United States or a foreign country more than 3 months before the date of the application for registration under this chapter. A fashion design shall continue for a term of 3 years beginning on the date of the commencement… [Infringement can be claimed on] reasonable grounds to know that protection for the design is claimed”.
The Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Act, as expressed above, outlined what constitutes as a protectable fashion design, something that had been under heavy debate.

Affected designers and manufacturers

Designers included in the list of those with stolen designs and who are part of the campaign for protection include but are not limited to: Diane Von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriquez, Zac Posen, and Yves Saint Laurent. The fight is said to be not against lower priced merchants selling clothes that follow the seasonal fashion trends, but against blatant copying of runway looks, such as dresses or jackets that use the exact color, detail, and structure as pieces that had already debuted under previous designers. These less expensive replicates of previous designs are impacting the luxury business in ways that cause decline in the revenue for luxury designers. Instead of spending the money on a higher priced garment, they buy a cheaper duplicate from a mass producer. In this sense, the Council of Fashion Designers of American argues that their members customers are being stolen by the cheaper knock offs producers.

When original designers are confronted about the issue of price, they justify their expensiveness by means of the creative effort that goes into both the design and production process. This clearly includes the materials and methods used to produce top quality pieces to sell to consumers. Fashion is in all senses a distinct form of art. There are bad pieces and good pieces, but even a bad or plain painting would still be labeled as artwork. Designer pieces are expensive not only because of the brand name, but also the innovation and creativity of the product.

European designers at home have rights to their designs through the European Union, and they want those same protections for their designs in the United States. In Europe, fashion designers receive twenty-five years of protection for a just revealed design in contrast to the current American proposed cap of three years. In other words, they receive a generous amount of protection in one market and get absolutely nothing in the other.

Court cases

Yves Saint Laurent v. Ralph Lauren

In 1994, Yves St Laurent and Ralph Lauren went to court over a specific tuxedo dress that the accused had theoretically designed after a YSL version. The ultimate outcome was the payment of several hundred thousand dollars from Ralph Lauren to the House of YSL. While the court in question was in Paris, this shows the beginnings of public courts taking serious interest and incentive to protect designers from copying one another. A second example from 1994 took place in Chicago, where the company I.B Diffusion L.P. accused Montgomery Ward L.P. of knocking off a specific sweater design and mass-producing it to sell for themselves. This case provides an additional example of American designers facing the challenge of competitors knocking off their designs.

The argument here describes the economic idea of competition. Without competition there leaves no room for businesses to strive for better, newer products in order to outsell each other  (Fischer par. 2). When arguing against legislation, many lump copycat retailers and mass producers into this category of necessary competition. Through imitation of the original products, it “makes it available to a greater number of consumers.” The fact that larger quantities of people have access not only to the product but also to knowledge of the product increases the original designers successful market base. In a roundabout method, imitation is type of advertising for the real design.

An argument put forth for this case is that few to zero customers are actually stolen through knock off retailing. Knockoffs are targeted at a market of consumers who would not be buying the original pieces anyway. The degree of difference in price points from the original to the knock off means that the lower priced market consumers cannot afford the higher priced market products to begin with. In other words, designers and mass retailers cater to entirely different market segments that barely overlap. Not to mention, there is a certain amount of “piracy paradox”. When designs become mass-produced and so mass marketed, it causes market saturation to occur even sooner than it would otherwise. This means that the consumers become familiar with the designs faster and faster, and so cause fashion cycles to also speed up. The time between introduction of a style and decline of a style is decreasing. This allows designers to sell different styles more often, and so increase their overall profit.

References

Category:Fashion design
Category:United States copyright law


Game engine recreation

Game engine recreation is a type of video game engine remastering process whereby a new game engine is written from scratch as a clone of the original with the ability to load the original game's data files such as music, textures, scripts, shaders, levels, and more. The new engine should read these data files and, in theory, load and understand them in a way that is indistinguishable from the original. The result of a proper engine clone is often the ability to play a game on modern systems that the old game could no longer run on. It also opens the possibility of community collaboration, as many engine remake projects tend to be open source. Game engine recreation can be beneficial to game publishers because the legal use of a re-creation still requires the original data files. Meaning, a player must still purchase the original game in order to legally play the re-created game (as detailed in this list of game engine recreations).

Motivation
Game engine recreations are made to allow the usage of classical games with newer operating system versions, recent hardware or even completely different operating systems than originally intended. Another motivation is the ability to fix engine bugs which is often hard or impossible with the original engines (with notable exceptions, see community patch) once a software has become unsupported abandonware, with the source code not available.

Methods

Top down

When game engine recreations are made in a top down development methodology, in the first step the general game's functionality is programmed and the structure is defined. Then, in later steps, the resulting engine is adapted to the specific detail behaviour of the original game, often by reverse engineering, debugging and profiling the original. An example is OpenRA based on specifications contributed by the community by clean-room re-implementations without dis-assembling the original executable, which result in game engines whose behavior differs from the original. Another example is the Total Annihilation engine remake Spring Engine, which resulted in being used for many more games. Typically, this approach results in an approximation of the original behaviour only and not a "clock cycle wise" identical behaviour. On the positive side, running code exists faster, and the finally resulting source code is less specifically tied to a specific, single game and can be reused as a general game engine for other games.

Bottom up

Unlike Top down game engine recreations, bottom up dis-assembled/decompiled versions for a specific game are often able to replicate the behaviour of the original exactly. In these cases, the game core is recreated bottom up with reverse engineering of the original dis-assembled binary executable, CPU instruction for instruction. In the development phase this has the disadvantage that for a long time no running prototype exists. Also on the negative side, the resulting code is very specifically tied to this single game, often ugly ("pseudo-assembly code"), and can hardly be reused as general game engine. Examples are CSBWin or OpenTTD. Most often, the result is also not called "game engine" but "game recreation" or "game clone". MAME is an example of a video game engine emulation project which also follows this philosophy for accurate representation of the games.

Source code ports

Occasionally, as was the case with some of the engines/game cores in ScummVM, the original developers have helped the projects by supplying the original source code (those can be then called source ports). This is the best case, optimal for accuracy and minimizing the effort. An example is Beneath a Steel Sky.

Alternatives
Emulation of classical systems or operating systems is an alternative to an engine recreation; for instance DOSBox is a notable emulator of the PC/MS-DOS environment. Static recompilation is another approach based on the original binary executable, potentially leading to better performance than emulation; an example is the 2014 ARM architecture version of StarCraft for the Pandora. Another alternative are source ports for the seldom cases that the source code is available; examples are Jagged Alliance 2 or Homeworld (more examples in the List of commercial video games with available source code).

See also

 List of game engine recreations

References


Rollin' with the Nines

Rollin' with the Nines is a 2006 British film set mainly in South London, about a rap group turned drug dealers. The working film title was Proper Little Charlie.  The film stars Vas Blackwood, Robbie Gee, Mark Smith (Gladiator), Simon Webbe and Billy Murray. Small appearances are made from Jason Flemyng, Dizzee Rascal, Rodney P, Kano and Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace.

Plot
The movie begins with the UK Hip Hop group "Time Served" getting used to living the high life as rap stars. This all comes crashing down however when one of their members Too Fine is killed in a drive-by because he owes a drug dealer, Temper, money. On returning to her flat after the murder, Too Fine's sister Hope walks in on the same drug dealer looking for his money. After telling her she has two days left to pay or he is going to kill her family, he rapes her and leaves. While this is happening the other two members of the group, Rage and Finny find out that due to being signed as a three-man group, their contract is now void.

Under the premise of paying him back, Hope goes to Temper's house with a sawn-off shotgun. After killing him she goes back to Finny's. Knowing that Temper's two side-kicks, Chosen-one and Chronic, will come hunting for her, Finny, Rage and their friend Pushy decide to finish them off. Turning up at their favourite night-club, they kill the two, catching a waitress in the crossfire.

Hope is then contacted by big time crime lord David Brumby, who wants the money Temper owed him. She instead convinces him to work with her instead, and with Finny, Rage and Pushy, go into the drug dealing business. While this is going on, DS Andy White is on the case looking for the killers of the night club waitress.

White and his cohorts raid a Yardie drug-dealer and find out that Too Fine and Pushy are connected. Knowing this they begin tailing Pushy and his known affiliates, Rage and Finny. Noticing they are being followed on the way to a drug deal, they attempted to give their pursuers the shake. Finny although is captured after their cars rolls off the road and they attempt to get away on foot. In order to avoid going down for multiple offences (White also threatens to have him killed in his cell) he fingers everyone else involved.

The police round up everyone involved, including Rage, Pushy and Brumby, but not Hope. Knowing Finny is the grass, Pushy calls Hope, not fully believing him she hangs up on him. Finny then comes round to Hope's to get her to leave London with him. Now knowing the truth she stabs Finny, dumping his body in a car. With his only witness dead, White has to let Rage, Pushy and Brumby go. Thinking they have gotten off, Rage and Pushy go out to celebrate, but get gunned down in the car park of a pub by Brumby's men, on the orders of DS White, who says he'll turn a "blind eye" to Brumby now.

Characters
Finny (Vas Blackwood) - The front man of the group Time Served, he also used to be in an under-ground rap group beforehand. The other members of the group are killed in a drive by, and he later gets arrested for armed robbery.
Too Fine (Simon Webbe) - Before becoming successful in Time Served he used to be a drug dealer, and his unpaid street debts with Temper are what get him killed, and sparks off the whole movie's storyline.
Rage (Roffem Morgan) - Described as a "Nasty little bastard" he served time in a young offender's institute with Too Fine.
Pushy (Robbie Gee) - A friend of the group but not a member, at the start of the movie he is a small-time marijuana dealer, but joins in with Hope to start selling Brumby's drugs.
Hope (Naomi Taylor) - The sister of Too Fine, she convinces Brumby to go in with her after killing his main dealer Temper.
David Brumby (Billy Murray) - The main drug dealer at the top, he imports the drugs from Holland for Temper, and later Hope to sell. It is possible he is from Essex as DS White says to him, "You're a long fucking way from Essex boys".
DS Andy White (Terry Stone) - The anti-hero of the film, while he is a corrupt officer, who sells confiscated drugs on the side he is dedicated to helping the people that cannot help themselves. While his methods are questionable and extremely heavy-handed, he gets results. After failing to get the killers of the night-club waitress (stating he does not care about the drug dealers that were killed, just her) legally, he orders them killed by Brumby.
Beefy (Mark Smith (Gladiator)) - Corrupt bodyguard who is out for himself.

Awards
Won the Jury Prize at the Raindance Film Festival 2005
Nomination for Director Julian Gilbey at the 60th British Academy Film Awards for the Carl Foreman Award

Soundtrack

Track listing
 Ms. Dynamite & Akala : "Don't Do That"
 Hyper Hitman & S. Dee : "Back Down"
 Life & Rodney P : "Ghetto War Cry"
 Kano : "Buss Dat"
 JC, Major Yardie & Shabba D : "Streets"
 Shy Fx : "On The Run"
 Life, Skinnyman & Sway : "The Whole Nine"
 Northstar : "Rollin' with the Nines"
 Swiss : "Talk 2 Me"
 Camilla, Gemma Fox & Lady Fury : "Girls Gotta Do"
 Daze, Hyper Hitman & J2K : "Dutty Life"
 P.D.C : "Gangster"
 Dizzee Rascal & Klass A : "Money"
 Simon Webbe & UK Team : "2 Step"
 S Elle : "U Choose"
 Kano : "Ghetto Kid"
 Corey J, Gappy Ranks & Jagwa : "Make Way"
 Sizzla : "Rise to the Occasion"
 Sizzla : "Wrath"

References

External links

Category:Black British media
Category:British films
Category:British crime films
Category:2006 films
Category:British gangster films
Category:Hood films
Category:Films directed by Julian Gilbey


List of number-one urban singles of 2007 (Australia)

The ARIA Urban Chart is a chart that ranks the best-performing Urban tracks singles of Australia. It is published by Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), an organisation who collect music data for the weekly ARIA Charts. To be eligible to appear on the chart, the recording must be a single, and be "predominantly of a Urban nature".

Chart history

Number-one artists

See also

2007 in music
List of number-one singles of 2007 (Australia)

References

Australia Urban
Urban 2007
Number-one Urban singles


Stephen Lefeaver

Stephen Lefeaver (born 1791 in Marden, Kent; died 26 July 1867 in Marden) was an English first-class cricketer associated with Kent who was active in the 1820s. He is recorded in two matches in 1825, totalling 9 runs with a highest score of 8, holding one catch and taking one wicket.

References

Bibliography

Category:English cricketers
Category:English cricketers of 1787 to 1825
Category:Kent cricketers
Category:1791 births
Category:1867 deaths


Şatırhüyük

Şatırhüyük  is a town in Nurdağı district of Gaziantep Province, Turkey. It is situated at the point where western the slopes of the Sofdağ Mountains meet the  plains. The coordinates of the town are .  Distance to Nurdağ (to the west) is  and to Gaziantep (to the southeast) is . The population of the town was 3149  as of 2012. The name of the town means merry tumulus referring to a tumulus in the center of the town . This history of this tumulus may be related to various ruins in Sakçagözü, another town  to south. Şatırhöyük is one of the wealthier towns of Gaziantep Province. The land is fertile and many crops including cereal and grapes are produced.
Also large population of the town lives in United Kingdom

References

Category:Populated places in Gaziantep Province
Category:Towns in Turkey
Category:Nurdağı District


Margaret Isabel Dicksee

Margaret Dicksee or Margaret Isabel Dicksee (22 January 1858 – 6 June 1903) was a British painter.

Dicksee was born in London as the daughter of the painter Thomas Francis Dicksee. Her brother Frank Dicksee also became a painter. Dicksee showed her works at the Royal Academy from 1883.

Her paintings In Memoriam and The Child Handel were included in the 1905 book Women Painters of the World.

References

Footnotes

Sources
Margaret Isabel Dicksee on artnet

Category:1858 births
Category:1903 deaths
Category:Painters from London
Category:British women painters
Category:19th-century British painters
Category:19th-century British women artists