Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) hostage, person held by another as a guarantee that certain actions or promises will or will not be carried out. During periods of internal turmoil, insurgents often seize hostages; recent examples in...

(Encyclopedia) Oceania ōshēănˈĭkə [key], collective name for the approximately 25,000 islands of the Pacific, usually excluding such nontropical areas as the Ryukyu and Aleutian islands and Japan, as well as T...

(Encyclopedia) Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), alliance organized (1954) under the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty by representatives of Australia, France, Great Britain, New Zealand, Pakistan, ...

(Encyclopedia) Titulescu, Nicholas tēto͞olĕˈsko͞o [key], 1882?–1941, Romanian statesman. A professor of law at Bucharest Univ., he was finance minister (1917, 1920–21) and served as foreign minister from 19...

(Encyclopedia) Soweto [acronym for south-west townships], city, now part of City of Johannesburg metropolitan municipality, Gauteng prov., NE South Africa. Located 10 mi (16 km) SW of Johannesburg, Soweto grew as bl...

(Encyclopedia) Mauss, Marcel märsĕlˈmōs [key], 1872–1950, French sociologist and anthropologist. Nephew of eminant sociologist Émile Durkheim, Mauss graduated from the Univ. of Bordeaux and the École Pratiqu...

(Encyclopedia)  Clinton, George, 1941- , American singer, songwriter, producer, and bandleader, b. Kannapolis, N.C. Although born in North Carolina, Clinton was ...

(Encyclopedia) Inns of Court, collective name of the four legal societies in London that have the exclusive right of admission to the bar. These societies—Lincoln's Inn, Gray's Inn, the Inner Temple, and the Middl...

(Encyclopedia) cordage kôrˈdĭj [key], collective name for rope and other flexible lines. It is used for such purposes as wrapping, hauling, lifting, and power transmission. Early man used strips of hide, animal h...

(Encyclopedia) Warsaw Treaty Organization or Warsaw Pact, alliance set up under a mutual defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, in 1955 by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania,...