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Wither, George

(Encyclopedia)Wither, George, 1588–1667, English poet, b. Hampshire, studied at Oxford. While in prison for having written the satires Abuses Stript and Whipt (1613), he wrote five pastorals under the title The S...

sea, law of the

(Encyclopedia)sea, law of the, international agreement regulating the use and exploitation of the world's oceans. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) calls for limited, and strictly controlled, mining of...

Lyons, Joseph Aloysius

(Encyclopedia)Lyons, Joseph Aloysius līˈənz [key], 1879–1939, Australian statesman, b. Tasmania. He left schoolteaching in 1909 to enter political life, was a Labour member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly u...

Third World

(Encyclopedia)Third World, the technologically less advanced, or developing, nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, generally characterized as poor, having economies distorted by their dependence on the export...

Harrington, James

(Encyclopedia)Harrington, James, 1611–77, English political writer. His Commonwealth of Oceana (1656) pictured a utopian society in which political authority rested entirely with the landed gentry. Harrington adv...

UNICEF

(Encyclopedia)UNICEF yo͞oˈnĭsĕfˌ [key], the United Nations Children's Fund, an affiliated agency of the United Nations. The term UNICEF is an acronym for the original name of the agency, the United Nations Int...

International Court of Justice

(Encyclopedia)International Court of Justice, principal judicial organ of the United Nations, established 1946 by chapter 14 of the UN Charter. It superseded the Permanent Court of International Justice (see World ...

Hughes, William Morris

(Encyclopedia)Hughes, William Morris, 1862–1952, Australian statesman, b. England. He emigrated in 1884 and after a varied career entered the New South Wales legislature (1894) and, with confederation, the first ...

Ismay, Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron

(Encyclopedia)Ismay, Hastings Lionel Ismay, 1st Baron ĭzˈmā [key], 1887–1965, British general, known as “Pug” Ismay. He served in India and, during World War I, in Africa. During World War II he held simul...

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