This article describes the federal government of Australia. See Australian governments for other jurisdictions.
The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy, a federation, and a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement between what were previously six self-governing British colonies. The terms of this agreement are embodied in the Australian Constitution, which was drawn up at a Constitutional Convention and ratified by the people of the colonies at referendums. The structure of the Australian Government may be examined in light of two distinct concepts, namely federalism and the separation of powers into legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government. Separation of powers is implied from the structure of the Constitution which breaks down the branches of government into separate chapters.

Separation of power

Main article: Parliament of Australia Legislature

Executive
The Australian Constitution dates from 1900, when the Dominions of the British Empire were not sovereign states, and does not use the term "head of state". In practice, the role of head of state of Australia is divided between two people, the Queen of Australia and the Governor-General of Australia, who is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of Australia. Though in many respects the Governor-General is the Queen's representative, and exercises various constitutional powers in her name, he is also independently vested with many important constitutional powers by the Constitution.
The Queen, or Sovereign, of Australia, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is also the Sovereign of fifteen other Commonwealth Realms including the United Kingdom. Like the other Dominions, Australia gained legislative independence from the Parliament of the United Kingdom by virtue of the Statute of Westminster 1931, which was adopted in Australia in 1942 with retrospective effect from 3 September 1939. By the Royal Style and Titles Act 1953, the Australian Parliament gave the Queen the title Queen of Australia, and in 1973 removed from the Queen's Australian style and titles any reference to her status as Queen of the United Kingdom and Defender of the Faith.
Section 61 of the Constitution provides that 'The executive power of the Commonwealth is vested in the Queen and is exercisable by the Governor‑General as the Queen's representative, and extends to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, and of the laws of the Commonwealth'. Section 2 of the Australian Constitution provides that a Governor-General shall represent the Queen in Australia. In practice, the Governor-General carries out all the functions usually performed by a head of state without reference to the Queen.
The question of whether the Queen is Australia's head of state became a political one during the 1999 Australian republic referendum, when opponents of the move to make Australia a republic claimed that Australia already had an Australian as head of state in the person of the Governor-General, who since 1965 has invariably been an Australian citizen. The current Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, said in 2004: "Her Majesty is Australia's head of state but I am her representative and to all intents and purposes I carry out the full role." However, in 2005, he declined to name the Queen as head of state, instead saying in response to a direct question, "The Queen is the Monarch and I represent her, and I carry out all the functions of Head of State." See De facto head of state.
Under the conventions of the Westminster system the Governor-General's powers are almost always exercised on the advice of the Prime Minister or other ministers. The Governor-General retains reserve powers similar to those possessed by the Queen in the United Kingdom. These are rarely exercised, but during the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975 Governor-General Sir John Kerr used them independently of the Queen and the Prime Minister.
Australia has periodically experienced movements seeking to end the monarchy. In a 1999 referendum, the Australian people voted on a proposal to change the Constitution. The proposal would have removed references to the Queen from the Constitution and replaced the Governor-General with a President nominated by the Prime Minister, but subject to the approval of a two-thirds majority of both Houses of the Parliament. The proposal was defeated. The Australian Republican Movement continues to campaign for an end to the monarchy in Australia, opposed by Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.
For more information, see constitutional history of Australia and Australian republicanism.

Head of state

Main article: Federal Executive Council Executive Council

Main article: Cabinet of Australia Cabinet

Main article: List of Australian Government Departments Judiciary
^  Prior to 1931, the junior status of dominions was shown in the fact that it was British ministers who advised the King, with dominion ministers, if they met the King at all, escorted by the constitutionally superior British minister. After 1931 all dominion ministers met the King as His ministers as of right, equal in Commonwealth status to Britain's ministers, meaning that there was no longer either a requirement for, or an acceptance of , the presence of British ministers. The first state to exercise this both symbolic and real independence was the Irish Free State. Australia and other dominions soon followed.

Robert Morss Lovett (December 25, 1870 - February 8, 1956) was an American academic, writer, editor, political activist, and government official.
He was born in Boston, Mass., and graduated from Harvard in 1892. After a period teaching at Harvard, he came to Chicago in 1893 to teach writing and English literature at the University of Chicago. He was assistant professor of English (1894-1904); associate professor from 1904 to 1909; and full professor from 1909 onward. From 1903 to 1920 he was dean in the junior college. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Professor Lovett was the author of The History of English Literature, with W. V. Moody (1902); Richard Gresham, a novel (1904); The First View of English Literature, with W. V. Moody (1905); A Winged Victory, a novel (1907); and Cowards, a play (1914). He served as editor of the Dial in 1917 and joined the editorial staff of the New Republic in 1921. He assisted Tarak Nath Das.
He was associate editor of The New Republic magazine in 1921-40, and a signer of the Humanist Manifesto I in 1933.
As Government Secretary of the Virgin Islands in 1939-43, he served as acting Governor from December 14, 1940 until February 3, 1941.
In 1943, the Dies Committee charged him as a Communist subversive, over his association with left-wing individuals and groups; through a bill passed by both houses of the U.S. Congress, he was forced out of the Secretary position and barred from federal employment. Lovett, who denied he was a Communist, challenged this action through the courts as an unconstitutional bill of attainder, and though he did not get the job back, he won a 1946 decision from the U.S. Supreme Court (United States v. Lovett, 328 U.S. 303), and received back pay.
He died in St. Joseph's Hospital in Chicago in 1956.

The United States Department of Education (also known as ED) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. Created by the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88), it began operating in 1980.
Its functions were previously in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare which was divided into the Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Services when President Carter signed the Department of Education Organization Act into law on October 17, 1979. It began operation on May 4, 1980. It is administered by the United States Secretary of Education.
It is by far the smallest cabinet-level department, with about 5,000 employees. The agency's official acronym is ED (and not DOE, which refers to the United States Department of Energy.)

Opposition
Under President George W. Bush, the Department has primarily focused on elementary and secondary education, expanding its reach through the "No Child Left Behind" law. The Department's budget increased 69.6% between 2002 and 2004.

No Child Left Behind
As with other federal agencies, the ED operates with the assistance of several advisory committees. The Federal Interagency Committee on Education (FICE) is known in higher education for originating the FICE code.
The FICE code is a six-digit identification code that was used to identify all schools doing business with the Office of Education during the early sixties. This code is no longer used in IPEDS; it has been replaced by the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) ID code.

Budget

Educational attainment in the United States
Education in the United States
Department of Education
Secretary of Education
Office of Federal Student Aid
Free Application for Federal Student Aid

Afghan Communist N/A.
The Soviet war in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving Soviet forces supporting Afghanistan's Marxist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) government against the laregly Islamic fundamentalist Mujahideen insurgents that were fighting to overthrow Soviet rule. The Soviet Union supported the government while the rebels found support from a variety of sources including the United States, Pakistan and other Muslim nations in the context of the Cold War. This conflict was concurrent to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War.
The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 25, 1979. The final troop withdrawal began on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989. Due to the high cost and ultimate futility of this conflict for this Cold War superpower, the Soviet war in Afghanistan has often been referred to as the equivalent of the United States' Vietnam War.
Some observers believe the economic and military cost of the war contributed significantly to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. However the main cause was insufficient production of food leading to a negative balance of payments and eventual bankruptcy.

Background

Main article: Democratic Republic of Afghanistan Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
Afghan king Mohammad Zahir Shah succeeded to the throne and reigned from 1933 to 1973. Zahir's cousin, Mohammad Daoud Khan, served as Prime Minister from 1953 to 1963. The Marxist PDPA party's strength grew considerably in these years. In 1967, the PDPA split into two rival factions, the Khalq (Masses) faction headed by Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin and the Parcham (Banner) faction led by Babrak Karmal.
Former Prime Minister Daoud seized power in an almost bloodless military coup on July 17, 1973 through charges of corruption and poor economic conditions against the King's government. Daoud put an end to the monarchy but his attempts at economic and social reforms were unsuccessful. Intense opposition from the factions of the PDPA was sparked by the repression imposed on them by Daoud's regime and the death of a leading PDPA member Mir Akbar Khyber. Nur Muhammad Taraki, Secretary General of the PDPA, became President of the Revolutionary Council and Prime Minister of the newly established Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

The Saur Revolution
After the revolution, Taraki assumed the Presidency, Prime Ministership and General Secretary of the PDPA. In reality, the government was divided along faction lines, with President Taraki and Deputy Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin of the Khalq faction against Parcham leaders such as Babrak Karmal and Mohammad Najibullah. Within the PDPA, conflicts resulted in exiles, purges and executions of Parcham members.
During its first 18 months of rule, the PDPA applied a Soviet-style program of reforms. Decrees setting forth changes in marriage customs and land reform were not received well by a population deeply immersed in tradition and Islam. By mid-1978, a popular rebellion backed by the local military garrison began in the Nuristan region of eastern Afghanistan and soon civil war spread throughout the country. In September 1979, Deputy Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin seized power after a palace shootout that resulted in the death of President Taraki. Over 2 months of instability overwhelmed Amin's regime as he moved against his opponents in the PDPA and the growing rebellion.

Factions inside the PDPA
After the Russian Revolution, as early as 1919, the Soviet government gave Afghanistan gratuitous aid in the form of a million gold rubles, small arms, ammunition, and a few aircraft to support the Afghan resistance to the British. In 1924, the USSR again gave military aid to Afghanistan. It received small arms, aircraft and Red Army military training in the Soviet Union for Afghan Army officers. Soviet-Afghan military cooperation began on a regular basis in 1956, when both countries signed another agreement. The Soviet Minister of Defense was now responsible for training all Afghan military officers.
In 1972, up to 100 Soviet military consultants and technical specialists were sent on detached duty to Afghanistan to train the Afghan armed forces. In May 1978, the governments signed another international agreement, sending up to 400 Soviet military advisors to Afghanistan. In December 1978, Moscow and Kabul signed a bilateral treaty of friendship and cooperation that permitted Soviet deployment in case of an Afghan request. Soviet military assistance increased and the PDPA regime became increasingly dependent on Soviet military equipment and advisors.
With Afghanistan in a dire situation during which the country was under assault by an externally supported rebellion, the Soviet Union deployed the 40th Army in response to an official request from the government of Afghanistan. The 40th Army, which was under the command of Marshal Sergei Sokolov, consisted of three motorized rifle divisions, one airborne division, one assault brigade, two independent motorized rifle brigades and five separate motorized rifle regiments. In all, the Soviet force was comprised of around 1,800 T-62 tanks, 80,000 soldiers and 2,000 AFVs.
The Afghan government repeatedly requested the introduction of Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the spring and summer of 1979. They requested Soviet troops to provide security and to assist in the fight against the Mujahideen rebels. On 14 April 1979 the Afghan government requested that the USSR send 15 to 20 helicopters with their crews to Afghanistan, and on 16 June the Soviet government responded and sent a detachment of tanks, BMPs, and crews to guard the government in Kabul and to secure the Bagram and Shindand airfields. In response to this request, an airborne battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A. Lomakin, arrived at the Bagram Air Base on 7 July. They arrived without their combat gear disguised as technical specialists. They were the personal bodyguards for President Taraki. The paratroopers were directly subordinated to the senior Soviet military adviser and did not interfere in Afghan politics.
After a month, the Afghan requests were no longer for individual crews and subunits, but were for regiments and larger units. On 19 July, the Afghan government requested that two motorized rifle divisions be sent to Afghanistan. The following day, they requested an airborne division in addition to the earlier requests. They repeated these requests and variants to these requests over the following months right up to December 1979. However, the Soviet government was in no hurry to grant these requests.

Soviet-Afghan relations
In June of 1975, militants from the Jamiat Islami party attempted to overthrow the Daoud government. They started the rebellion in the Panjshir valley, some 100 kilometers north of Kabul, and in a number of other provinces of the country. However, government forces easily defeated the insurgency and a sizable portion of the insurgents sought refuge in Pakistan where they enjoyed the support of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government, that had been alarmed by Daoud's revival of the Pashtunistan issue.

Initiation of the insurgency

The Soviet deployment
The Soviet Union decided to intervene militarily in Afghanistan in order to preserve the communist regime. Soviet leaders, based on information from the KGB, felt that Amin destabilized the situation in Afghanistan. The KGB station in Kabul had warned following Amin's initial coup against and killing of President Taraki that his leadership would lead to "harsh repressions, and as a result, the activation and consolidation of the opposition."
The last arguments to eliminate Amin were information obtained by the KGB from its agents in Kabul; supposedly, two of Amin's guards killed the former president Nur Muhammad Taraki with a pillow, and Amin was suspected to be a CIA agent. The latter, however, is still disputed: Amin always and everywhere showed official friendliness to the Soviet Union. Soviet General Vasily Zaplatin, a political advisor at that time, claimed that four of President Taraki's ministers were responsible for the destabilization. However, Zaplatin failed to emphasize this enough. [2]

Decision for intervention
On December 22, 1979, the Soviet advisors to the Afghan Armed Forces advised them to undergo maintenance cycles for their tanks and other crucial equipment. Meanwhile, telecommunications links to areas outside of Kabul were severed, isolating the capital. With a deteriorating security situation, large numbers of Soviet airborne forces joined stationed ground troops and began to land in Kabul on December 25th. Simultaneously, Amin moved the offices of the president to the Tajbeg Palace, believing this location to be more secure from possible threats. According to Colonel General Tukharinov and Merimsky, Amin was fully informed of the military movements, having requested Soviet military assistance to northern Afghanistan on December 17th.

Soviet invasion
U.S President Jimmy Carter indicated that the Soviet incursion was "the most serious threat to the peace since the Second World War." Carter later placed a trade embargo against the Soviet Union on shipments of groceries such as grain. The increased tensions, as well as the anxiety in the West about tens of thousands of Soviet troops being in such proximity to oil-rich regions in the gulf, effectively brought about the end of détente. A USMC Marine Expeditionary Unit was ready to be sent in case of further actions.
The international diplomatic response was severe, ranging from stern warnings to a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. The invasion, along with other events, such as the revolution in Iran and the US hostage stand-off that accompanied it, the Iran-Iraq war, the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the escalating tensions between Pakistan and India, and the rise of Middle East-born terrorism against the West, contributed to making the Middle East an extremely violent and turbulent region during the 1980s.
Babrak Karmal's government lacked international support from the beginning. Action by the United Nations Security Council was impossible because the Soviets had veto power, but the United Nations General Assembly regularly passed resolutions opposing the Soviet occupation. The foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference deplored the entrance and demanded Soviet withdrawal at the sixth emergency special session meeting in Islamabad held January 10–14, 1980. The United Nations General Assembly voted by 104 to 18 with 18 abstentions for a resolution (A/ES-6/2, GA/6172) which "strongly deplored" the "recent armed intervention" in Afghanistan and called for the "total withdrawal of foreign troops" from the country "as to enable its people to determine their own destiny and without outside interference or coercion."
The Non-Aligned Movement was sharply divided between those that believed the Soviet deployment to be legal and others who considered the deployment an illegal invasion. Among the Warsaw Pact countries, the intervention was condemned only by Romania. [3]
Only some allied, friend and satellite countries supported the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, which includes Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland, Libya, Ethiopia, Angola, Madagascar, Syria, South Yemen, India, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, Nicaragua, etc.
Most countries condemned the "invasion", including the US, Canada, the UK, West Germany, all Western countries, Romania, Greece, Albania, Turkey, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Haiti, Chad, Sudan, Zaire, Kenya, Senegal, Swaziland, Somalia, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, China, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

World reaction

The Soviet war
The initial force entering the country consisted of three motor rifle divisions (including the 201st), one separate motor rifle regiment, one airborne division, 56th Separate Air Assault Brigade, and one separate airborne regiment. Following the deployment, the Soviet troops were unable to establish authority outside Kabul. As much as 80% of the countryside still escaped effective government control. The initial mission, to guard cities and installations, was expanded to combat the anti-communist Mujahideen forces, primarily using Soviet reservists.
Early military reports revealed the difficulty that the Soviet forces encountered in fighting in mountainous terrain. The Soviet Army was unfamiliar with such fighting, had no counter-insurgency training, and their weaponry and military equipment, particularly armoured vehicles and tanks, were sometimes ineffective or vulnerable in the mountainous environment. Heavy artillery was extensively used when fighting rebel forces.
The Soviets used helicopters as their primary air attack force, (including Mil Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunships which were regarded as the best helicopters in the world), supported with fighter-bombers and bombers, ground troops and special forces.
The inability of the Soviet Union to break the military stalemate, gain a significant number of Afghan supporters, and to rebuild the Afghan Army, required the increasing direct use of its own forces to fight the rebels. Soviet soldiers often found themselves fighting against civilians due to the elusive tactics of the rebels. They repeated one of the American Vietnam mistakes by winning almost all of the major battles, but failing to control the countryside.

Soviet operations
See also: Mujahideen
By the mid-1980s, the Afghan resistance movement, receptive to assistance from the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, China, and others, contributed to Moscow's high military costs and strained international relations. The US viewed the conflict in Afghanistan as an integral Cold War struggle, and the CIA provided assistance to anti-Soviet forces through the Pakistani secret services, in a program called Operation Cyclone.
The Mujahideen leaders paid great attention to sabotage operations. The more common types of sabotage included damaging power lines, knocking out pipelines, radio stations, blowing up government office buildings, air terminals, hotels, cinemas, and so on. From 1985 through 1987, an average of over 600 terrorist acts a year were recorded. In the border region with Pakistan, the mujahideen would often launch 800 rockets per day. Between April 1985 and January 1987, they carried out over 23,500 shelling attacks on government targets. The mujahideen surveyed firing positions that they normally located near villages within the range of Soviet artillery posts, putting the villagers in danger of death from Soviet retaliation. The mujahideen used mine warfare heavily. Often, they would enlist the services of the local inhabitants and even children.
They concentrated on both civilian and military targets, knocking out bridges, closing major roads, attacking convoys, disrupting the electric power system and industrial production, and attacking police stations and Soviet military installations and air bases. They assassinated government officials and PDPA members. They laid siege to small rural outposts. In March 1982, a bomb exploded at the Ministry of Education, damaging several buildings. In the same month, a widespread power failure darkened Kabul when a pylon on the transmission line from the Naghlu power station was blown up. In June 1982 a column of about 1,000 young party members sent out to work in the Panjshir valley were ambushed within 30 km of Kabul, with heavy loss of life. On 4 September 1985, insurgents shot down a domestic Bakhtar Airlines plane as it took off from Kandahar airport, killing all 52 people aboard.
Mujahideen groups had three to five men in each. After they received their mission to kill this or that government official, they busied themselves with studying his pattern of life and its details and then selecting the method of fulfilling their established mission. They practiced shooting at automobiles, shooting out of automobiles, laying mines in government accommodation or houses, using poison, and rigging explosive charges in transport.
In May 1985, the seven principal rebel organizations formed the Seven Party Mujahideen Alliance to coordinate their military operations against the Soviet army. Late in 1985, the groups were active in and around Kabul, unleashing rocket attacks and conducting operations against the communist government.
By mid-1987 the Soviet Union announced it would start withdrawing its forces. Sibghatullah Mojaddedi was selected as the head of the Interim Islamic State of Afghanistan, in an attempt to reassert its legitimacy against the Moscow-sponsored Kabul regime. Mojaddedi, as head of the Interim Afghan Government, met with then Vice President of the United States George H.W. Bush, achieving a critical diplomatic victory for the Afghan resistance. Defeat of the Kabul government was their solution for peace. This confidence, sharpened by their distrust of the UN, virtually guaranteed their refusal to accept a political compromise.

Afghan insurrection
United States President Jimmy Carter had accepted the view that "Soviet aggression" could not be viewed as an isolated event of limited geographical importance but had to be contested as a potential threat to the Persian Gulf region. The uncertain scope of the final objective of Moscow in its sudden southward plunge made the American stake in an independent Pakistan all the more important.
After the Soviet deployment, Pakistan's military dictator General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq started accepting financial aid from the Western powers to aid the Mujahideen. The United States, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia became major financial contributors to General Zia, who, as ruler of a neighboring country, greatly helped by ensuring the Afghan resistance was well-trained and well-funded. The People's Republic of China also sold Type 69 RPGs to Mujahideen in co-operation with the CIA, as did Egypt with assault rifles. Of particular significance was the donation of American-made FIM-92 Stinger anti-aircraft missile systems, which increased aircraft losses of the Soviet Air Force.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Special Service Group (SSG) were actively involved in the conflict, and in cooperation with the CIA and the United States Army Special Forces, as well as the British Special Air Service, supported the Mujahideen against the Soviets. After Ronald Reagan became the new United States President in 1981, aid for the Mujahideen through Zia's Pakistan significantly increased. In retaliation, the KHAD, under Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah, carried out (according to the Mitrokhin archives and other sources) a large number of operations against Pakistan, which also suffered from an influx of weaponry and drugs from Afghanistan.
In the 1980s, as the front-line state in the anti-Soviet struggle, Pakistan received substantial aid from the United States and took in millions of Afghan (mostly Pashtun) refugees fleeing the Soviet occupation. Although the refugees were controlled within Pakistan's largest province, Balochistan under then-martial law ruler General Rahimuddin Khan, the influx of so many refugees - believed to be the largest refugee population in the world — into several other regions had a heavy impact on Pakistan and its effects continue to this day. Despite this, Pakistan played a significant role in the eventual withdrawal of Soviet military personnel from Afghanistan.

Pakistani involvement and aid
The toll in casualties, economic resources, and loss of support at home increasingly felt in the Soviet Union was causing criticism of the occupation policy. Leonid Brezhnev died in 1982, and after two short-lived successors, Mikhail Gorbachev assumed leadership in March 1985. As Gorbachev opened up the country's system, it became clearer that the Soviet Union wished to find a face-saving way to withdraw from Afghanistan.
The government of President Karmal, established in 1980 and identified by many as a puppet regime, was largely ineffective. It was weakened by divisions within the PDPA and the Parcham faction, and the regime's efforts to expand its base of support proved futile. Moscow came to regard Karmal as a failure and blamed him for the problems. Years later, when Karmal's inability to consolidate his government had become obvious, Mikhail Gorbachev, then General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, said:
The main reason that there has been no national consolidation so far is that Comrade Karmal is hoping to continue sitting in Kabul with our help.
In November 1986, Mohammad Najibullah, former chief of the Afghan secret police (KHAD), was elected president and a new constitution was adopted. He also introduced in 1987 a policy of "national reconciliation," devised by experts of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and later used in other regions of the world. Despite high expectations, the new policy neither made the Moscow-backed Kabul regime more popular, nor did it convince the insurgents to negotiate with the ruling government.
Informal negotiations for a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan had been underway since 1982. In 1988, the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the United States and Soviet Union serving as guarantors, signed an agreement settling the major differences between them known as the Geneva Accords. The United Nations set up a special Mission to oversee the process. In this way, Najibullah had stabilized his political position enough to begin matching Moscow's moves toward withdrawal. On July 20, 1987, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country was announced. The withdrawal of Soviet forces was planned out by Lt. Gen. Boris Gromov, who, at the time, was the commander of the 40th Army.
Among other things the Geneva accords identified the U.S. and Soviet non-intervention with internal affairs of Pakistan and Afghanistan and a timetable for full Soviet withdrawal. The agreement on withdrawal held, and on February 15, 1989, the last Soviet troops departed on schedule from Afghanistan.

Official Soviet personnel strengths and casualties
Over 1 million Afghans were killed.

Damage to Afghanistan

Main article: Afghan Civil War (1989-1992) Media and popular culture

American Bandstand is a television show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989. It is known not only for the emerging performers that it promoted (from Jerry Lee Lewis to Run DMC) but the many dance styles it featured through the decades.

Format
Bandstand originally used "High Society" by Artie Shaw as its theme song, but by the time the show went national, it had been replaced by various arrangements of "Bandstand Boogie" composed by Charles Albertine, including the big-band version performed by Les Elgart remembered by viewers of the daily version. From 1969 to 1974 "Bandstand Theme", a synth instrumental version written by Mike Curb opened each show. Moreover, from 1974 to 1977 an orchestral disco version of "Bandstand Boogie" arose playing during the opening and closing credits. Joe Porter was the music arranger and performer of this orchestral disco version of American Bandstand's theme song at this time.
From 1977 to the end of its ABC run in 1987, the show opened and closed with Barry Manilow's rendition of the theme, which he originally recorded for his 1975 album Tryin' to Get the Feeling. The song's new lyrics, which heavily referenced the series, were co-written by Manilow and Bruce Howard Sussman.
The Manilow version was replaced by an updated instrumental arrangement of "Bandstand Boogie" when Bandstand went into syndication.
From 1974 onward, Bandstand featured another instrumental at its mid-show break -- Billy Preston's synth hit "Space Race".

"American Bandstand" (1975) (file info) — play in browser (beta)

• Theme song performed by Barry Manilow.
  Problems playing the files? See media help. Theme Music
  The show moved from its weekday slot to Saturday afternoons on September 7, 1963.
  Production of the show moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on February 8, 1964, which coincidently was the same weekend that WFIL-TV moved from their 46th and Market location to their new facility located on City Line Avenue. Color broadcasts began for good on September 9, 1967.
  Bandstand moved from ABC to syndication on September 19, 1987, and to cable's USA Network on April 8, 1989 with a new younger host, comedian David Hirsch. Clark remained executive producer. The show ended on October 7, 1989.
  In 2004, Dick Clark announced plans to revive the show in time for 2005 but it did not happen. Clark's plan to revive American Bandstand eventually did come to fruition, just not in the way that was expected. The revived "Bandstand" was to feature a national dance contest, but after several tries to come up with a workable format, they decided to go just with the dance contest component which became So You Think You Can Dance. Dick Clark Productions is credited as the show's co-producer and longtime DC employee Allen Shapiro serves as co-executive producer.
  
  Changes
  
  
  Main article: American Dreams American Dreams
  The section could be improved by integrating relevant items into the main text and removing inappropriate items.
  
  Charlie O'Donnell, then a very young Philadelphia radio DJ, landed his very first network announcing assignment on Bandstand, a job he would hold until the late-1960s.
  The old WFIL-TV building in Philadelphia is currently being used as a business incubator program, The Enterprise Center, and the original "American Bandstand" studio is now a large meeting room.
  The weekly ABC version did not air in the Boston market. WNAC did not air it, neither did WCVB when ABC affiliation in the Boston market switched in 1972 because WCVB's weekly airing of Candlepin Bowling at noontime where it has been since it was WHDH channel 5 which pre-empted Bandstand, although prime time specials did air. It also didn't air in the Houston market on KTRK-TV, starting in 1959, when they had their own local dance show hosted by Larry Kane from 1959-71. After which, KTRK would have local community shows in place of Bandstand. And on September 1, 1984. KTRK finally carried the last three years of American Bandstand after 25 years.
  People who lived in Boston saw American Bandstand on WTEV Channel 6 in New Bedford-Providence (now WLNE) and WMUR-TV Channel 9 in Manchester, NH. But when WTEV Channel 6 and WPRI Channel 12 switched affiliations in 1977. WPRI Channel 12 didn't carry American Bandstand.
  Bandstand was also not carried in Baltimore, Maryland. Instead ABC affiliate WJZ-TV carried the local Buddy Deane Show, the inspiration for the movie Hairspray. Reportedly, the Baltimore station "blacked out" Bandstand because Black teenagers were allowed to dance on the program (although Blacks and Whites were not allowed to dance together).
  It was customary on the show to have Clark perform a mini-interview with the guest band members. Clark says the most difficult interview he performed was with Prince, an unknown at the time of his appearance. Prince was unresponsive and would generally answer his questions with only a hand gesture or a single word. Clark in fact asked Prince how many instruments he played; Prince responded with, "A thousand."
  Another famous mini-interview Clark is famous for is one with Madonna, who, when asked what she would like to do 20 years from now, answered coyly, "To rule the world!"
  B.B. King and Jerry Lee Lewis were the only recording artists to actually sing on the program. They were uncomfortable with miming their performances and requested that they just perform the songs live on the set.
  In 1980, singer John Lydon of Public Image Limited refused to mime on the show; the musicians continued the charade for a while as though they were actually performing "Poptones", but when the time came for their second song, "Careering," the band gave their instruments to the audience, who had swarmed the stage at Lydon's urging.
  In 1961, Tony Orlando performed his then-hit song "Bless You" with his trousers zipper open.
  The first rap/hip hop performance in the history of television occurred in 1981 when the Sugar Hill Gang performed their hit song "Rapper's Delight" on the show.
  Eddie Kelly was the only individual Regular to be singled out for an individual lot (An image of him/paper doll/Lot 202 Page 48 of the catalog) in Dick Clark's Auction held in New York City on December 5th and 6th, 2006. The only other lot was a couple, Regulars, Bob Clayton and Justine Carrelli, of their signed recording, "Drive-In Movie" (Lot 17 Page 14).
  In 1957, Simon and Garfunkel performed their first hit, "Hey Schoolgirl," immediately after Jerry Lee Lewis's "Great Balls of Fire." The song hit #49 on the Billboard Charts when they were just sixteen years old.
  Pro wrestler Sylvester Ritter better known as the Junk Yard Dog appeared on the show to sing his theme song "Grab Them Cakes" from The Wrestling Album
  Dave Johnson appeared on the show numerous times with a female partner doing his famous "Peppermint Twist".
  When the show moved from ABC to syndication, the station that created it all, WPVI (formerly WFIL) didn't carry the syndicated version. KYW (channel 3) picked up the syndicated season. The return of American Bandstand
  
  In 1988, the popular John Waters film Hairspray's The Corny Collins Show is a mix between this and Baltimore's Buddy Deane Show.
  In 2001, IGT created and developed a slot machine based on the show's popularity.
  In 2004 the band Low released the compilation album A Lifetime of Temporary Relief: 10 Years of B-Sides and Rarities, featuring the track "Peanut Butter Toast And American Bandstand" which mentions the show.
  In 2005, rapper Bow Wow came out with the featured single Fresh Azimiz from the album Wanted. The song, produced by Jermaine Dupri mentioned the popularity of American Bandstand in the line, "I'm goin' down in history like American Bandstand."

Ulan Bator, or Ulaanbaatar (Mongolian: Улаанбаатар, Classical Mongolian: ᠤᠯᠠᠭᠠᠨ ᠪᠠᠭᠠᠲᠤᠷ [Ulaɣan Baɣatur]), is the capital of Mongolia.
Ulan Bator has had numerous names in its history. From 1639–1706, it was known as Örgöö (Mongolian: Өргөө, residence), and from 1706–1911 as Ikh Khüree, Da Khüree or simply Khüree (Mongolian: Их = "great", Хүрээ = "camp"). Its Chinese name was Kulun (Traditional Chinese: 庫倫; Simplified Chinese: 库伦; Pinyin: Kùlún). Upon independence in 1911, with both the secular government and the Bogd Khan's palace present, the city's name changed to Niislel Khüree (Mongolian: Нийслэл = "capital").
When the city became the capital of the new Mongolian People's Republic in 1924, its name was changed to Ulaanbaatar ("red hero"), in honor of Mongolia's national hero Damdin Sükhbaatar, whose warriors liberated Mongolia from Ungern von Sternberg's troops and Chinese occupation shoulder-to-shoulder with the Soviet Red Army. His statue still adorns Ulan Bator's central square.
In Europe and North America, Ulan Bator was generally known as Urga (after the Russian form for Örgöö) or sometimes Kuren before 1924, and Ulan Bator afterwards, after the Russian: Улан-Батор. The Russian spelling is different from the Mongolian because it was defined phonetically, and the Cyrillic script was only introduced in Mongolia seventeen years later.

Geography
Founded in 1639, Ulan Bator, then Örgöö (Urga), was originally located at the lake Shireet Tsagaan nuur, around 400 km from the present Ulan Bator in Övörkhangai Province, and was mainly intended to be the seat of the first Jebtsundamba, Zanabazar.
It was moved often to various places along the Selenge, Orkhon and Tuul rivers until reaching its present location in the late 18th century, on the high road from Beijing to Kyakhta, about 700 miles northwest of Beijing and 165 miles south of the trading town of Kyakhta on the Russian frontier. It was the holy city of the Mongols and the residence of the "Living Buddha," metropolitan of the Khalkha tribes, who ranked third in degree of veneration among the dignitaries of the lamaist clergy. This "resplendently divine lama" resided in a palace on the southern side of the town. The town prospered in the 1860s as a commercial center on the tea route between Russia and China (early 20th-century trade was valued at over 1,000,000 dollars a year) and was the seat of the Qing Amban (highest imperial official) in Mongolia, who controlled all temporal matters and was specially charged with the control of the frontier trade town of Kyakhta and its trade with Russia.
In 1904, on the occasion of the British expedition to Tibet, the Dalai Lama withdrew from his Tibetan capital Lhasa and went to Ikh Khüree (as it was named at the time), where he remained until 1908. During his residence there, the Dalai Lama would have no communication with the incumbent Bogd Khan who was described as a "drunken profligate".
After Mongolia first proclaimed its independence, upon the collapse of the Manchu Empire in 1911, the city became the capital of the new Mongolian People's Republic in 1924 under its new name Ulaanbaatar.

History

Main article: Düüreg Administration and Subdivisions
Interurban and international: Ulan Bator is served by the Chinggis Khaan International Airport (formerly Buyant Ukhaa Airport) and is connected by road (mostly unpaved and unmarked) to most of the major towns in Mongolia. There are rail connections to the Trans-Siberian railway via Naushki and to the Chinese railroad system via Jining.
Intra-urban: The national and municipal governments regulate a wide system of private transit providers which operate numerous bus lines around the city. Many of these buses are antiquated Soviet vehicles, though Japan and Korea have recently donated and sold modern busses to the city. A secondary transit system of microbusses (passenger vans) operates alongside these bus lines and competes directly, though generally illegally. In the last few years the city licensed an increasing number of marked taxicabs. However, most drivers in the city offer unregulated and occasional (informal) taxicab service to anyone who signals them.
Costs: Bus fares are regulated at about 200 tugrig; microbusses charge about 400 tugrig; taxicab fares are metered. Informal taxicab rates are negotiated before services are rendered and were around 350 MNT/km in 2006.

Transportation
Ulan Bator has five major universities: the National University of Mongolia, Science and Technological University of Mongolia, University of Health and Medical Science, Pedagogical University, and University of Art and Culture. There are also private and public colleges. A historical library contains a wealth of ancient Mongolian, Chinese, and Tibetan manuscripts.

Colleges and universities
The city consists of a central district built in Soviet 1940s and 1950s-style architecture, surrounded by and mingled with residential concrete towerblocks and larger ger quarters. In recent years, a lot of the towerblock's ground floors have been modified and upgraded to small shops, and many new buildings have been erected, some of them illegally. Among the few pre-1920 buildings is the Choijin Lama Monastery. The main sites are:

Natural History Museum. Features many dinosaur fossils found in Mongolia.
National Museum of Mongolian History
Gandantegchinlen Khiid Monastery, with a 25-meter-high statue of Migjid Janraisig
The Bogd Khan's Winter Palace
Ulaanbaatar Opera House
The Zaisan Memorial, a memorial to Russian soldiers killed in World War II, which sits on a hill south of the city. The Zaisan Memorial includes a Russian tank paid for by the Mongolian people and a circular memorial painting which depicts scenes of friendship between the peoples of Russia and Mongolia. Visitors who make the long climb to the top are rewarded with a panoramic view of the whole city down in the valley.
Sükhbaatar Square, in the government district. In the center of Sükhbaatar Square, there is a statue of Damdin Sükhbaatar on horseback. On the north side of Sükhbaatar Square is the Mongolian Parliament building, featuring a large statue of Chinggis Khan at the top of the front steps.
National Sports Stadium. The Naadam festival is held here every July.
Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, a nature preserve with many tourist facilities, approximately 70 km from Ulan Bator. Description

Tianjin, People's Republic of China
Taipei, Taiwan
Seoul, South Korea
Denver, Colorado, USA
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Miyakonojo, Miyazaki, Japan
Leeds, United Kingdom (according to a 2005 Calendar News broadcast).

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Birmingham Pride is a weekend-long gay and lesbian festival held annually in the Gay Village, Hurst Street, Birmingham, England, over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend.
Described by its organisers as the largest gay and lesbian event in the UK, it features a carnival parade through the city centre on the Sunday, plus dance and musical events, funfair rides, a temporary village green, and street stalls and entertainments.