Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Anshun änˈsho͝onˈ [key], city (1994 est. pop. 205,600), W central Guizhou prov., SW China. A flourishing town during the opium traffic days, it is now an important market and commercial center. Am...

(Encyclopedia) Tower Hamlets, inner borough (1991 pop. 153,500), of Greater London, SE England. Tower Hamlets was formed in 1965 by the merger of the metropolitan boroughs of Bethnal Green, Poplar, and Stepney. The ...

(Encyclopedia) center, in politics, a party following a middle course. The term was first used in France in 1789, when the moderates of the National Assembly sat in the center of the hall. It can refer to a separate...

(Encyclopedia) Manh, Nong Duc nông do͞ok mī [key], 1940–, Vietnamese political leader. A member of the Tai minority and a forestry worker, Manh joined the Communist party in 1963 and studied forestry in Hanoi (...

(Encyclopedia) lapwing, common name for some members of the family Charadriidae, which includes the plovers. Lapwings are almost all inland or upland birds, found in all temperate and tropical regions except North A...

(Encyclopedia) quetzal kāsälˈ [key], common name for a magnificent bird of the family Trogonidae (trogon family), found in the rain forests from S Mexico to Costa Rica at altitudes of up to 9,000 ft (2,745 m). It...

(Encyclopedia) bead test, test used in the identification of certain metals. Some metallic ions that cannot be identified by a flame test are identified by a bead test. The test can also be used to confirm the resul...

(Encyclopedia)  CE5 Iceland, Icel. Ísland, officially Republic of Iceland, republic (2015 est. pop. 330,000), 39,698 sq mi (102,819 sq km), the westernmost state of Europe, occupying an island in the Atlantic Oce...

(Encyclopedia) Gheorghiu-Dej, Gheorghe gāôrˈgā gāôrˈgyo͞o-dāzh [key], 1901–65, Romanian Communist leader, b. Moldavia. He joined the Communist party in 1930 and while in prison (1933–44) was elected (19...

(Encyclopedia) D'Alema, Massimo mäsˈsēmōˌ dälāˈmä [key], 1949–, Italian politician, premier (1998–2000) of Italy. A member of the Italian Communist party (PCI) since 1968, he worked as a journalist and ...