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International Monetary Fund

(Encyclopedia)International Monetary Fund (IMF), specialized agency of the United Nations, established in 1945. It was planned at the Bretton Woods Conference (1944), and its headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Th...

United Nations

(Encyclopedia)CE5 CE5 United Nations (UN), international organization established immediately after World War II. It replaced the League of Nations. In 1945, when the UN was founded, there were 51 members; 193...

Nazarbayev, Nursultan

(Encyclopedia)Nazarbayev, Nursultan no͝orso͝oltänˈ näzˌərbīˈəf [key], 1940–, Kazakh politician, president of Kazakhstan (1991–2019). Trained as a metallurgical engineer, he was employed at the Karagan...

Yellen, Janet Louise

(Encyclopedia)Yellen, Janet Louise yĕlˈən [key], 1946–, U.S. economist and government official, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., B.A. Brown (1967), Ph.D. Yale (1971). Yellen taught economics (1971–76) at Harvard and subse...

Kropotkin, Piotr Alekseyevich, Prince

(Encyclopedia)Kropotkin, Piotr Alekseyevich, Prince pyôˈtər əlyĭksyāˈĭvĭch krəpôtˈkĭn [key], 1842–1921, Russian geographer and anarchist. He came from a wealthy princely family and as a boy was a pag...

celestial mechanics

(Encyclopedia)celestial mechanics, the study of the motions of astronomical bodies as they move under the influence of their mutual gravitation. Celestial mechanics analyzes the orbital motions of planets, dwarf pl...

Palau

(Encyclopedia)Palau pälouˈ [key], officially Republic of Palau, independent nation (2015 est. pop. 21,000), c.192 sq mi (497 sq km), W Pacific, in the W Caroline Islands. Belau, the indigenous name for Palau, is ...

Qatar

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Qatar or Katar both: kŭˈtər, gŭ–, kətärˈ [key], officially State of Qatar, independent emirate (2015 est. pop. 2,482,000), c.4,400 sq mi (11,400 sq km), E Arabia, coextensive with the ...

homelessness

(Encyclopedia)homelessness, the condition of not having a permanent place to live, widely perceived as a societal problem only beginning in the 1980s. Figures for the number of homeless people in the United States ...

poor law

(Encyclopedia)poor law, in English history, legislation relating to public assistance for the poor. Early measures to relieve pauperism were usually designed to suppress vagrancy and begging. In 1601, England passe...