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Yoshida, Shigeru

(Encyclopedia)Yoshida, Shigeru shēgāˈro͞o yōˈshēdä [key], 1878–1967, Japanese statesman. He was until 1954 the most powerful political figure in postwar Japan. He was ambassador to Italy (1930–32) and t...

Kinross-shire

(Encyclopedia)Kinross-shire or Kinross, former county, E Scotland. Under the Local Government Act of 1973, Kinross-shire became (1975) part of the new Tayside region. In the local government reorganization of 1996,...

Banffshire

(Encyclopedia)Banffshire or Banff, former county, NE Scotland. Under the Local Government Act of 1973, Banffshire became (1975) part of the new Grampian region. In the local government reorganization of 1996, Gramp...

New Caledonia

(Encyclopedia)New Caledonia, Fr. Nouvelle Calédonie, officially Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies, internally self-governing dependency of France (2015 est. pop. 269,000), land area 7,241 sq mi (18,760 s...

Sierra Leone

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Sierra Leone sēĕrˈə lēōˈnē, lēōnˈ; sērˈə lēōn [key], officially Republic of Sierra Leone, republic (2015 est. pop. 5,879,000), 27,699 sq mi (71,740 sq km), W Africa. It is borde...

Buenos Aires

(Encyclopedia)Buenos Aires bwāˈnəs īˈrēz, ârˈēz, Span. bwāˈnōs īˈrās ...

Switzerland

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Switzerland swĭtˈsərlənd [key], Fr. Suisse, Ger. Schweiz, Ital. Svizzera, officially Swiss Confederation, federal republic (2015 est. pop. 8,320,000), 15,941 sq mi (41,287 sq km), central E...

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

(Encyclopedia)Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), an independent U.S. federal executive agency designed to promote public confidence in banks and to provide insurance coverage for bank deposits up to $250...

vampire bat

(Encyclopedia)vampire bat, name for the blood-drinking bats of the family Desmodontidae, found in the New World tropics. Vampire bats feed exclusively on the blood of living animals and are thus the only true paras...

Douglas, Clifford Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Douglas, Clifford Hugh, 1879–1952, English engineer and social economist, educated at Cambridge. Author of the economic theory of Social Credit, he became (1935) chief reconstruction adviser to the ...