(Freebase) The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain) is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. The largest island, Great Britain, is linked to France by the Channel Tunnel. The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and unitary state consisting of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is governed by a parliamentary system with its seat of government in London, the capital, but with three devolved national administrations of varying powers in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh, the...

(Freebase) The United Nations Organization (UNO) or simply United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of Nations, to stop wars between countries, and to provide a platform for dialogue. It contains multiple subsidiary organizations to carry out its missions. There are currently 192 member states, including nearly every sovereign state in the world. From its offices around the world, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout the year. The organization has six principal organs: the General Assembly (the main deliberative assembly); the Security Council (for deciding certain resolutions for peace and security); the Economic and Social Council (for assisting in...

(Freebase) The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the United Nations' global development network. It advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. UNDP is on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners. UNDP is an executive board within the United Nations General Assembly. The UNDP Administrator is the third highest ranking member of the United Nations after the United Nations Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General. Headquartered in New York City, the UNDP is funded entirely by voluntary contributions from member nations. The organization has country offices in 166 countries, where it works with local governments to meet development challenges and develop local capacity. Additionally, the UNDP works internationally to help countries...

(Freebase) The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) coordinates United Nations environmental activities, assisting developing countries in implementing environmentally sound policies and practices. It was founded as a result of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in June 1972 and has its headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. UNEP also has six regional offices and various country offices. UNEP is the designated authority of the United Nations system in environmental issues at the global and regional level. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action. The mandate and objectives of UNEP emanate from United Nations General Assembly resolution 2997 (XXVII) of 15 December 1972 and subsequent amendments adopted at UNCED in 1992, the Nairobi Declaration on the Role and Mandate of UNEP, adopted at the...

(Freebase) The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to 14, 1992. The objective of the treaty is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The treaty itself set no mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms. In that sense, the treaty is considered legally non-binding. Instead, the treaty provides for updates (called "protocols") that would set mandatory emission limits. The principal update is the Kyoto Protocol, which has become much better known than the UNFCCC itself. The UNFCCC was opened for signature on May 9, 1992, after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the...

(Freebase) The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also known as The UN Refugee Agency is a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes, once in 1954 and again in 1981. Following the demise of the League of Nations and the formation of the United Nations, the international community were acutely aware of the refugee crisis following the end of World War II. In 1947, the International Refugee Organisation(IRO) was founded by the United Nations. The IRO was the first international agency to deal comprehensively with all aspects pertaining to refugees' lives. Preceding this was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which was established in 1944 to address the millions of people displaced through...

(Freebase) The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN–HABITAT) is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It was established in 1978 and has its headquarters at the UN office in Nairobi, Kenya. It is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all. Its regional centres are called 'United Nations Centre for Human Settlements' (Habitat)/(UNCHS), and are situated at Nairobi, Rio de Janeiro, and Fukuoka. According to its 2006 Annual Report, sometime in the middle of 2007, the majority of people worldwide will be living in towns and cities, for the first time in history; this is referred to as the arrival of the "urban millennium". The year 2007 will also see the number of slum dwellers hit 1 billion. As regards future trends, it is estimated 93% of urban growth will occur in Asia and Africa, and to a lesser extent Latin America and the Caribbean. By 2050, over 6...

(Freebase) UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is an international development agency that promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a life of health and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports countries in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV/AIDS, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect. UNFPA supports programmes in four regions: Arab States, Europe and Central Asia; Asia and the Pacific; Latin America and the Caribbean; and sub-Saharan Africa. We work in about 150 countries, areas and territories through nine Country Technical Services Teams and 112 country offices. Three-quarters of UNFPA staff work in the field.

(Freebase) United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is a relief and human development agency, providing education, health care, social services and emergency aid to over 4.7 million Palestine refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It is the only agency dedicated to helping refugees from a specific region or conflict. It is separate from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, which is the only other UN agency aiding refugees, dedicated to aiding all refugees in the world. It was established following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War by the United Nations General Assembly under resolution 302 (IV) of 8 December 1949. This resolution also reaffirmed paragraph 11, concerning refugees, of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 and was passed unopposed, supported by Israel and the Arab states, with only the Soviet bloc and South Africa abstaining. UNRWA has had to develop a working definition of "refugee" to allow it to...

(Freebase) The United Nations University (国際連合大学, Kokusai Rengō Daigaku) (UNU) is a United Nations agency established in Tokyo in 1973 to "research into the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations and its agencies". It is a think tank for the United Nations and the member states. Its creation was set in motion by Secretary-General U Thant in 1969. The university motto is "Advancing knowledge for human security, peace, and development". The United Nations University provides educational opportunities to researchers, mainly at the graduate and post-graduate level, through an extensive range of fellowship schemes. It operates through a number of research centres around the world where research fellows or Ph.D. students from other universities, especially those in developing countries, can come to do research. UNU is headed by a Rector and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It does not receive any funding from the regular UN...

(Freebase) The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S. Navy also has the world's largest carrier fleet, with 11 in service, one under construction (two planned), and one in reserve. The service had 328,516 personnel on active duty and 101,689 in the Navy Reserve in January 2011. It operates 286 ships in active service and more than 3,700 aircraft. The Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was essentially disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. The United States Constitution provided the legal basis for a military force by giving Congress the power "to provide and maintain a navy". Depredations against U.S. shipping by Barbary Coast pirates in the Mediterranean...

(Freebase) The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific. At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km) and with over 308 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest both by land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large...

(Freebase) The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (United Steelworkers or USW) is the largest industrial labor union in North America, with 705,000 members. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the United Steelworkers represents workers in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. The United Steelworkers represent workers in a diverse range of industries, including primary and fabricated metals, chemicals, glass, rubber, heavy-duty conveyor belting, tires, transportation, utilities, container industries, pharmaceuticals, call centers and health care. The United Steelworkers is currently affiliated with the American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) as well as several international union federations. On July 2, 2008, the United Steelworkers signed an agreement to merge with the United Kingdom and Ireland based union, Unite, to form a new global union entity called...

(Freebase) The Universal Nut Sheller (UNS; formerly called the Malian Peanut Sheller) is a simple hand-operated machine based on a Bulgarian Peanut sheller, capable of shelling 50 kilograms (110 lb) of raw, sun-dried peanuts per hour. It requires less than US$50 in materials to make, and is made of concrete poured into two simple fibreglass molds, some metal parts, one wrench and any piece of rock or wood that might serve as a hammer. It accepts a wide range of nut sizes without adjustment. If necessary, adjustment is quickly and easily done. It is estimated that one Universal Nut Sheller will serve the needs of a village of 2,000 people. The life expectancy of the machine is around 25 years. The Full Belly Project is working to establish local, sustainable businesses that manufacture and distribute appropriate technologies such as the Universal Nut Sheller. Traditional shelling in developing countries is done by hand or by some form of mortar and pestle and thus requires a lot of labor. With...

(Freebase) University College London (UCL) is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1826, UCL was the first university institution to be founded in London and the first in England to be established on an entirely secular basis, to admit students regardless of their religion and to admit women on equal terms with men. UCL became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London in 1836. UCL is organised into 10 constituent faculties, within which there are over 100 departments, institutes and research centres. UCL's main campus is located in the Bloomsbury area of central London, with a number of institutes and teaching hospitals located elsewhere in central London. There is a UCL campus in Doha, Qatar specialised in archaeology, conservation and museum studies, and the UCL School of Energy and Resources is based in Adelaide, Australia. UCL is a major centre for...