Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federacija Bosne i Hercegovine, Федерација Босне и Херцеговине) is one of the two political entities that compose the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina (the other entity is the Republika Srpska).
It is primarily inhabited by Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) and Bosnian Croats, which is why it is informally referred to as the Muslim-Croat Federation. However, by decision of the Constitutional court in 2001, the Serbs were declared the third constituent ethnic group of the Federation. The same happened to Bosniaks and Croats in the Republika Srpska.
The Federation was created by the Washington accords signed on March 18, 1994, which established a Constituent assembly (Ustavotvorna skupština/Ustavotvorbeni Sabor). The Constituent assembly continued its work until October 1996.
The Federation now has its own capital, government, flag and coat of arms, president, parliament, customs and police departments, postal system (in fact, two of them), and airline (Air Bosna). It has its own army, the Vojska Federacije Bosne i Hercegovine, though it is under the control of the state-level Bosnia-Herzegovina Ministry of Defense, as is the Vojska Republike Srpske.
Institutions
There is a President of the Federation, and two Vice-presidents thereof, just like in Republika Srpska, the incumbents of which regularly rotate. The current president is a Croat, Niko Lozančić of the HDZ party, whereas both the Bosniak (Sahbaz Džihanović) and Serb (Desnica Radivojević) Vice-presidents come from the SDA party.
The Cabinet has 16 members with carefully delineated nationality quotas. There are 8 Bosniak, 5 Croat and 3 Serb ministers in the current Government. The present Prime minister is a Bosniak, Ahmet Hadžipašić of the SDA.
The Parliament consists of two houses, the House of Representatives and the House of Peoples. The House of Representatives is an elected body of 98 MPs, whereas the House of Peoples consists of representatives delegated by the cantonal parliaments.
Interestingly, a number of institutions in the Federation still function under the 'componental' system; there is a Croat postal system and a Bosniak postal system, a Croat telecom and a Bosniak telecom, a Croat army component and a Bosniak army component; however, recently many systems have been merged into one single public company, eg. the pension system or the public broadcasting company of the Federation. Each of the cantons also has broad-ranging authorities, such as having its own courts and police forces.

List of country names in various languages
Most countries of the world have alternative names in different languages. Some countries have also undergone name changes for political or other reasons. This article attempts to give all known alternative names for all nations, countries and sovereign states. It does not offer any opinion about what the "original", "official", "real", or "correct" name of any country is or was.
Countries are listed alphabetically by their current best-known name in English. Each English name is followed by its currently best-known equivalents in other languages, listed in English alphabetical order (ignoring accents) by name and by language. Historical and/or alternative versions, where included, are noted as such. Foreign names that are the same as their English equivalents are listed, to provide an answer to the question "What is that name in..."?.
Vrelo Bosne
Vrelo Bosne is a spring in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is the source of the river Bosna, and one of the country's top natural landmarks.
Vrelo Bosne is found on the outskirts of Sarajevo, near the suburb of Ilidža. One of the most famous scenes of natural beauty in the region, it is ironically located in Sarajevo's metro area.
After lack of maintenance during much of the 1990s, a giant revitilization project was launched in the year 2000. Local teenagers were led by international ecological organizations in the clean-up. By the end of the year, Vrelo Bosne was back to its former glory.
Today Vrelo Bosne is a thriving tourist attraction, both from foreigners visiting Sarajevo and from locals who wish to enjoy the nature. It consists of a number of small islands connected by bridges over the various little streams. A number of animals are kept in the park as well, such as ducks and swans. There are also numerous minor attractions in the park, such as horse rides, picnic sites and restaurants.

List of dignitaries at the funeral of Pope John
This is a list of dignitaries at the funeral of Pope John Paul II. The funeral of Pope John Paul II commenced after the death of the pope on April 2, 2005 in Vatican City. Before official invitations were sent by the College of Cardinals, approximately 200 countries already had expressed interest to send representatives to the funeral of Pope John Paul II, which took place on April 8, 2005.
In order to accommodate all interested parties wishing to receive a seat during the Mass of Requiem, the Holy See limited the number of members in each official diplomatic delegation to only five people, except for the Polish delegation which, being John Paul II's homeland, was allowed ten people. That did not exclude other people of any nationality from attaining individual invitations, unrelated to the individual's country's delegation, which could have reached the limit of 5 – as did, for instance, Brazilian former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, whose presence in the funerals had no connection with the Brazilian delegation. In addition to it, any number of government officials were permitted to attend as pilgrim travellers, remaining outside the basilica during the Mass of Requiem with the general public. For example, the United States delegation included the president and first lady, two former presidents, and the secretary of state. They had seats in the basilica during the Mass of Requiem. Dozens of members of the U.S. Congress attended the Mass of Requiem, congregating among the general public outside the basilica.
The gathering of dignitaries made the funeral the largest gatherings of statesmen in history. At the funeral, the dignitaries were seated alphabetically by the French spelling of their countries (this order of listing follows). All countries and organisations were limited to five dignitaries seated for the funeral mass, with the exception for Poland and Italy.
Some of the dignitaries that attended the funeral also attended the installation of Pope Benedict XVI on 24 April.