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Black Country

(Encyclopedia)Black Country, highly industrialized region, historically mostly in Staffordshire but partly in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, W central England. It includes Dudley, Rowley Regis (see Warley), Tipto...

Samoa, country, SW Pacific Ocean

(Encyclopedia)Samoa, formerly Western Samoa, officially Independent State of Samoa, constitutional monarchy (2015 est. pop. 194,000), South Pacific, comprising the western half of the Samoa island chain. There are ...

Jordan, river, Asia

(Encyclopedia)Jordan, river, c.200 mi (320 km) long, formed in the Hula basin, N Israel, by the confluence of three headwater streams and meandering S through the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea; the region of Pales...

Palestine, region, Asia

(Encyclopedia)Palestine pălˈəstīn [key], historic region on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, at various times comprising parts of modern Israel, the West Bank and Gaza (recognized internationally by ...

Media

(Encyclopedia)Media mēˈdēə [key], ancient country of W Asia whose actual boundaries cannot be defined, occupying generally what is now W Iran and S Azerbaijan. It extended from the Caspian Sea to the Zagros Mts...

Transcaucasia

(Encyclopedia)Transcaucasia trănzˌkôkāˈzhə, –shə, trănsˌ– [key], transitional region between Europe and Asia, extending from the Greater Caucasus to the Turkish and Iranian borders, between the Black a...

Turkic

(Encyclopedia)Turkic tûrˈkĭk [key], group of languages forming a subdivision of the Altaic subfamily of the Ural-Altaic family of languages (see Uralic and Altaic languages). The Turkic group of languages has a ...

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

(Encyclopedia)Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation: see under Pacific Rim. ...

Lebanon, mountain range, Asia

(Encyclopedia)Lebanon, ancient Libanus, mountain range, c.100 mi (160 km) long, paralleling the Mediterranean Sea from S Lebanon N into Syria and rising steeply from the coast. Qurnet as Sawda (10,131 ft/3,088 m) i...

Southeast Asia Treaty Organization

(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, ...