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  Australia
  Australia ( /əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
  For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.
  
  wn.com/Australia
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  Bangladesh
  Coordinates: 23°N 90°E / 23°N 90°E / 23; 90
  Bangladesh (ⁱ/ˈbɑːŋɡlədɛʃ/ or ⁱ/bæŋɡləˈdɛʃ/ (Anglicized pronunciation); Bengali: বাংলাদেশ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh (Bengali: গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ Gônoprojatontri Bangladesh) is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India and Burma and by the Bay of Bengal to the south. The capital (and largest city) is Dhaka, located in central Bangladesh. The official state language is Bengali. The name Bangladesh means "Land of Bengal" or "Country of Bengal" the in the Bengali language, from Bangla "Bengal" and desh holding a dual meaning of "land" and "country" as English "country," German land, French pays, etc.
  The borders of present-day Bangladesh were established with the partition of Bengal during the reign and demise of the British India. Its map was chartered by Sir Cyril Radcliffe during the creation of Pakistan and India in 1947, when the region became East Pakistan, part of the newly formed nation of Pakistan. Due to political exclusion and economic exploitation by the politically dominant West Pakistan, popular agitation grew against West Pakistan and led to the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, after the Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence on 26 March 1971. With the intervention of the Indian Army, the war came to an end on 16 December 1971 with the surrender of the Pakistan Army at Ramna Race Course.
  
  wn.com/Bangladesh
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  Belgium
  Belgium (ⁱ/ˈbɛldʒəm/ BEL-jəm), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres (11,787 sq mi), and it has a population of about 11 million people. Straddling the cultural boundary between Germanic and Latin Europe, Belgium is home to two main linguistic groups, the Dutch-speakers, mostly Flemish (about 60%), and the French-speakers, mostly Walloons (about 40%), plus a small group of German-speakers. Belgium's two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region, officially bilingual, is a mostly French-speaking enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia. Belgium's linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in the political history and a complex system of government.
  
  wn.com/Belgium
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  Brunei
  Brunei ⁱ/bruːˈnaɪ/, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace (Malay: Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: نڬارا بروني دارالسلام), is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia. Apart from its coastline with the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the state of Sarawak, Malaysia, and it is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. It is the only sovereign state completely on the island of Borneo, with the remainder of the island belonging to Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei's population was 401,890 in July 2011.
  The official national history claims that Brunei can trace its beginnings to the 7th century, when it was a subject state of the Srivijayan empire under the name P'o-li. It later became a vassal state of Majapahit empire before converting to Islam in the 15th century. At the peak of its empire, the sultanate had control that extended over the coastal regions of modern-day Sarawak and Sabah, the Sulu archipelago, and the islands off the northwest tip of Borneo. The thalassocracy was visited by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 and fought the Castille War in 1578 against Spain. Its empire began to decline with the forced ceding of Sarawak to James Brooke and the ceding of Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company. After the loss of Limbang, Brunei finally became a British protectorate in 1888, receiving a resident in 1906. In the years after the Japanese wartime occupation during World War II, it formalised a constitution and fought an armed rebellion. Brunei regained its independence from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984. Economic growth during the 1970s and 1990s, averaging 56% from 1999 to 2008, has transformed Brunei Darussalam into a newly industrialised country.
  
  wn.com/Brunei
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  Bulgaria
  Coordinates: 42°45′N 25°30′E / 42.75°N 25.5°E / 42.75; 25.5
  Bulgaria ⁱ/bʌlˈɡɛəriə/ (Bulgarian: България, IPA: [bɤ̞ɫˈɡarijɐ]), is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and the Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south and the Black Sea to the east. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometres (42,855 sq mi), Bulgaria is Europe's 14th-largest country. Its location has made it a historical crossroad for various civilisations and as such it is the home of some of the earliest metalworking, religious and other cultural artifacts in the world.
  Prehistoric cultures began developing on Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period. Its ancient history was marked by the presence of the Thracians, and later by the Greeks and Romans. The emergence of a unified Bulgarian ethnicity and state dates back to the First Bulgarian Empire, which dominated most of the Balkans and functioned as a cultural hub for Slavic peoples during the Middle Ages. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for nearly five hundred years. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 resulted in the Third Bulgarian State, recognised in 1908. The following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both World Wars. In 1946 it became a Communist republic with a single-party system until 1989, when the Communist Party allowed multi-party elections. After 1990 Bulgaria transitioned to democracy and a market-based economy.
  
  wn.com/Bulgaria
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  Cambodia
  Cambodia (ⁱ/kæmˈboʊdiə/;Khmer: ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា, Kampuchea, IPA: [kɑmˈpuˈciə]), officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total landmass of 181,035 square kilometres (69,898 sq mi), it is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.
  With a population of over 14.8 million, Cambodia is the 68th most populous country in the world. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced by around 95% of the Cambodian population. The country minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams and 30 various hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh; the political, economic, and cultural center of Cambodia. The kingdom is a constitutional monarchy with Norodom Sihamoni, a monarch chosen by the Royal Throne Council, as head of state. The head of government is Hun Sen, who is currently the longest serving leader in South East Asia and has ruled Cambodia for over 25 years.
  
  wn.com/Cambodia
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  China
  China (ⁱ/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
  The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
  
  wn.com/China
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  Croatia
  Croatia (ⁱ/kroʊˈeɪʃə/ kroh-AY-shə; Croatian: Hrvatska pronounced [xř̩ʋaːtskaː]), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska  listen (help·info)), is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of Central Europe, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres (21,851 square miles) and has diverse, mostly continental and Mediterranean climates. Croatia's Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The country's population is 4.29 million, most of whom are Croats, with the most common religious denomination being Roman Catholicism.
  In the early 7th century the Croats arrived in area of present-day Croatia. They organised the state into two dukedoms by the 9th century. Tomislav became the first king by 925 AD, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Peter Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir. Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs that declared independence from Austria–Hungary and co-founded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. A Croatian state briefly existed during World War II as a fascist puppet state. After the war, Croatia became a founding member and a federal constituent of the Second Yugoslavia, a socialist state. In June 1991, Croatia declared independence, which came into effect on 8 October of the same year. The Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration.
  
  wn.com/Croatia
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  Czech Republic
  The Czech Republic (ⁱ/ˈtʃɛk/ CHEK;Czech: Česká republika, pronounced [ˈtʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka] ( listen), short form Česko Czech pronunciation: [ˈtʃɛskɔ]) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the north, Germany to the west, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. Its capital and largest city, with 1.3 million inhabitants, is Prague.
  It is a pluralist multi-party parliamentary representative democracy, a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group.
  The Czech state, formerly known as Bohemia, was formed in the late 9th century as a small duchy around Prague, at that time under dominance of the powerful Great Moravian Empire (which reached its greatest territorial extent during the reign of Svatopluk I from the House of Mojmír). After the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power was transferred from Moravia to Bohemia, under the Přemyslids. During the rule of Přemyslid dukes/kings and their successors, the Luxembourgs, the country reached its greatest territorial extent (13th–14th century). Life in the country was significantly affected by the Hussite wars, during which it faced economic embargo and crusades from all over Europe. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg monarchy as one of its three principal parts alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Bohemian Revolt (1618–20) led to the further centralization of the monarchy including forced recatholization and Germanization. During radical reforms in the 18th century the Bohemian Crown was even de facto abolished (1749). In the 19th century the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia which was formed in 1918, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire after World War I.
  
  wn.com/Czech_Republic
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  Denmark
  The Kingdom of Denmark (Danish: Kongeriget Danmark, pronounced [ˈkɔŋəʁiːəð ˈdanmɑɡ̊] ( listen)) is a constitutional monarchy and sovereign state consisting the country of Denmark in northern Europe and two autonomous constituent countries, the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic and Greenland in North America. The kingdom is a unitary state with some power being devolved from Denmark proper to Greenland and the Faroe Islands; this polity is referred to as the Danish Realm. Denmark proper is the hegemonial area, where judicial, executive, and legislative power resides. The Faroe Islands are defined to be a community of people within the kingdom, and the Greenlandic people are defined as a separate people with the right to self-determination.
  Denmark is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, located southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. The country consists of a large peninsula, Jutland and many islands, most notably Zealand, Funen, Lolland, Falster and Bornholm, as well as hundreds of minor islands often referred to as the Danish Archipelago.
  
  wn.com/Denmark
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  Finland
  Coordinates: 65°N 27°E / 65°N 027°E / 65; 027
  Finland ⁱ/ˈfɪnlənd/ ( Finnish: Suomi; Swedish: Finland (help·info)), officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.
  Around 5.4 million people reside in Finland, with the majority concentrated in the southern region. It is the eighth largest country in Europe in terms of area and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in Helsinki and local governments in 336 municipalities, and an autonomous region of the Åland Islands. About one million residents live in the Greater Helsinki area, which consists of Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa, and a third of the country's GDP is produced there. Other larger cities include Tampere, Turku, Oulu, Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio.
  
  wn.com/Finland
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  France
  France (English ⁱ/ˈfræns/ FRANSS or /ˈfrɑːns/ FRAHNSS; French: [fʁɑ̃s] ( listen)), officially the French Republic (French: République française [ʁepyblik fʁɑ̃sɛz]), is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is often referred to as l’Hexagone ("The Hexagon") because of the geometric shape of its territory. It is the largest western European country and it possesses the second-largest exclusive economic zone in the world, covering 11,035,000 km² (4,260,000 sq mi), just behind that of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 sq mi).
  Over the past 500 years, France has been a major power with strong cultural, economic, military and political influence in Europe and around the world. During the 17th and 18th centuries, France colonised great parts of North America and Southeast Asia; during the 19th and early 20th centuries, France built the second largest colonial empire of the time, including large portions of North, West and Central Africa, Southeast Asia, and many Caribbean and Pacific Islands.
  
  wn.com/France
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  Germany
  Germany (ⁱ/ˈdʒɜrməni/), officially the Federal Republic of Germany (German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, pronounced [ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant] ( listen)), is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km² and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With 81.8 million inhabitants, it is the most populous member state and the largest economy in the European Union. It is one of the major political powers of the European continent and a technological leader in many fields.
  A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, was documented before AD 100. During the Migration Period, the Germanic tribes expanded southward, and established successor kingdoms throughout much of Europe. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation while southern and western parts remained dominated by Roman Catholic denominations, with the two factions clashing in the Thirty Years' War, marking the beginning of the Catholic–Protestant divide that has characterized German society ever since. Occupied during the Napoleonic Wars, the rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states into the German Empire in 1871 which was Prussian dominated. After the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the subsequent military surrender in World War I, the Empire was replaced by the Weimar Republic in 1918, and partitioned in the Treaty of Versailles. Amidst the Great Depression, the Third Reich was proclaimed in 1933. The latter period was marked by Fascism and World War II. After 1945, Germany was divided by allied occupation, and evolved into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990 Germany was reunified.
  
  wn.com/Germany
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  Greece
  Greece ⁱ/ˈɡriːs/ (Greek: Ελλάδα, Ellada, IPA: [eˈlaða] ( listen) historically in Katharevousa and Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, Hellas, IPA: [eˈlas] and [helːás] respectively), officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Elliniki Dimokratia, IPA: [eliniˈci ðimokraˈtia]), is a country in Southern Europe, politically considered part of Western Europe.Athens is the capital and the largest city in the country (its urban area also including Piraeus). The population of the country is around 11 million.
  Greece has land borders with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km (8,498 mi) in length, featuring a vast number of islands (approximately 1,400, of which 227 are inhabited), including Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, and the Ionian Islands among others. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at 2,917 m (9,570 ft).
  
  wn.com/Greece
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  Hong Kong
  Coordinates: 22°16′42″N 114°09′32″E / 22.27833°N 114.15889°E / 22.27833; 114.15889
  Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港) is one of two special administrative regions (SARs) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is known for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour. With a land mass of 1,104 km² (426 sq mi) and a population of seven million people, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Hong Kong's population is 95 percent ethnic Chinese and 5 percent from other groups. Hong Kong's Han Chinese majority originate mainly from the cities of Guangzhou and Taishan in the neighbouring Guangdong province.
  Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the First Opium War (1839–42). Originally confined to Hong Kong Island, the colony's boundaries were extended in stages to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and then the New Territories in 1898. It was occupied by Japan during the Pacific War, after which the British resumed control until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. The region espoused minimum government intervention under the ethos of positive non-interventionism during the colonial era. The time period greatly influenced the current culture of Hong Kong, often described as "East meets West", and the educational system, which used to loosely follow the system in England until reforms implemented in 2009.
  
  wn.com/Hong_Kong
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  Hungary
  Hungary ⁱ/ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] ( listen)) is a country, which is located in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The country's capital, and largest city, is Budapest. Hungary is a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the Visegrád Group, and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian, also known as Magyar, which is part of the Finno-Ugric group and is the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe.
  Following a Celt (after c. 450 BC) and a Roman (AD 9 - c. 430) period, the foundation of Hungary was laid in the late 9th century by the Hungarian prince Árpád, whose great-grandson Saint Stephen I was crowned with a crown sent by the pope from Rome in 1000 AD. The Kingdom of Hungary lasted for 946 years, and at various points was regarded as one of the cultural centres of the Western world. After about 150 years of partial Ottoman occupation (1541–1699), Hungary was integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy, and later constituted half of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy (1867–1918).
  
  wn.com/Hungary
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  India
  India (ⁱ/ˈɪndiə/), officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the south-west, and the Bay of Bengal on the south-east, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west;China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north-east; and Burma and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives; in addition, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
  Home to the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation and a region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four of the world's major religions—Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism—originated here, whereas Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived in the 1st millennium CE and also helped shape the region's diverse culture. Gradually annexed by and brought under the administration of the British East India Company from the early 18th century and administered directly by the United Kingdom from the mid-19th century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi.
  
  wn.com/India
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  Indonesia
  Indonesia (ⁱ/ˌɪndəˈniːʒə/ IN-də-NEE-zhə or /ˌɪndoʊˈniːziə/ IN-doh-NEE-zee-ə), officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia Indonesian pronunciation: [rɛpʊblɪk ɪndɔnɛsɪa]), is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 17,508 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies. The Indonesian economy is the world's 17th largest economy by nominal GDP.
  The Indonesian archipelago has been an important trade region since at least the 7th century, when Srivijaya and then later Majapahit traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually absorbed foreign cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Muslim traders brought Islam, and European powers brought Christianity and fought one another to monopolize trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia's history has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a democratization process, and periods of rapid economic change.
  
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  Israel
  Coordinates: 31°N 35°E / 31°N 35°E / 31; 35
  Israel, officially the State of Israel ( /ˈɪzriːəl/ or  /ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל‎, Medīnat Yisrā'el, IPA: [me̞diˈnät jisʁäˈʔe̞l] ( listen); Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل‎, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the south, and it contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and Democratic State in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state.
  Following the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption and implementation of the United Nations plan to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined.^{[neutrality is disputed]} Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.
  
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  Italy
  Italy ⁱ/ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic or the Republic of Italy (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in south-central Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south, it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, while Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km² (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world.
  Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries a political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became the birthplace of Maritime republics and the Renaissance, an immensely fruitful intellectual movement that would prove to be integral in shaping the subsequent course of European thought.
  
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  Japan
  Japan ⁱ/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国  Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".
  Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.
  Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.
  
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  Latvia
  Latvia ⁱ/ˈlætviə/ (Latvian: Latvija), officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Republika), is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia (border length 343 km), to the south by Lithuania (588 km), to the east by the Russian Federation (276 km), to the southeast by Belarus (141 km), and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden. With 2,067,887 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km² (24,938 sq mi) it is one of the least populous and least densely populated countries of the European Union. The capital of Latvia is Riga. The official language is Latvian and the currency is called Lats (Ls). The country has a temperate seasonal climate.
  The Latvians are a Baltic people, culturally related to the Lithuanians. Together with the Finno-Ugric Livs (or Livonians), the Latvians are the indigenous people of Latvia.Latvian is an Indo-European language and along with Lithuanian the only two surviving members of the Baltic branch. Indigenous minority languages are Latgalian and the nearly extinct Finno-Ugric Livonian language. In terms of geography, territory and population Latvia is the middle of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Latvia and Estonia share a long common history: historical Livonia, times of German (Teutonic Order), Polish-Lithuanian, Swedish, Russian, Nazi German and Soviet rule, 13th century Christianization and 16th century Protestant Reformation. Both countries are home to a large number of ethnic Russians (26.9% in Latvia and 25.5% in Estonia) of whom some are non-citizens. Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant, except for the region of Latgalia in the southeast which is historically predominantly Roman Catholic.
  
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  Macau
  Coordinates: 22°10′N 113°33′E / 22.167°N 113.55°E / 22.167; 113.55
  Macau (Chinese: 澳門), also spelled Macao ( /məˈkaʊ/), is one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong. Macau lies on the western side of the Pearl River Delta across from Hong-Kong which is to the east, bordering Guangdong province to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east and south.
  The territory's economy is heavily dependent on gambling and tourism, but also includes manufacturing.
  Macau is a former Portuguese colony, and is both the first and last European colony in China. Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 16th century and subsequently administered the region until the handover on 20 December 1999. The Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration and the Basic Law of Macau stipulate that Macau operates with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2049, fifty years after the transfer. Macau was first lent by the Chinese empire as a trading port in the 16th century, and had to administer the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty. In 1887, Macau became a colony of the Portuguese empire and its sovereignty transferred to the Portuguese.
  
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  Malaysia
  Malaysia (ⁱ/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or ⁱ/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 27.5 million, with over 20 million living on the Peninsula.
  Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. However, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.
  
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  Maldives
  Maldives (ⁱ/ˈmɒldaɪvz/ or /ˈmɒldiːvz/), (Dhivehi: ދިވެހިރާއްޖެ, Dhivehi Raa'je), officially Republic of Maldives (Dhivehi: ދިވެހިރާއްޖޭގެ ޖުމްހޫރިއްޔާ, Dhivehi Raa'jeyge Jumhooriyya), also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep Islands, between Minicoy Island and Chagos Archipelago. It stands in the Laccadive Sea, about 700 kilometres (430 mi) south-west of Sri Lanka and 400 kilometres (250 mi) south-west of India. During the colonial era, the Dutch referred to the country as "Maldivische Eilanden" in their documentation, while "Maldive Islands" is the anglicised version of the local name used by the British, which later came to be written "Maldives".
  The archipelago is located on top of the Chagos-Maldives-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean. Maldives also form a terrestrial ecoregion together with the Chagos and the Lakshadweep. The atolls of Maldives encompass a territory spread over roughly 90,000 square kilometres (35,000 sq mi), making it one of the world's most geographically dispersed countries. Its population of 328,536 (2012) inhabits 200 of its 1,192 islands. Maldives' capital and largest city Malé had a population of 103,693 in 2006. It is located at the southern edge of North Malé Atoll, in the Kaafu Atoll. It is also one of the Administrative divisions of the Maldives. Traditionally it was the King's Island where the ancient Maldive Royal dynasties were enthroned.
  
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  Moldova
  Moldova ⁱ/mɒlˈdoʊvə/, officially the Republic of Moldova (Moldovan/Romanian: Republica Moldova pronounced [reˈpublika molˈdova]) is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991 as part of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. On 29 July 1994, the new constitution of Moldova was adopted. A strip of Moldova's internationally recognized territory on the east bank of the river Dniester has been under the de facto control of the breakaway government of Transnistria since 1990.
  The nation is a parliamentary republic with a president as head of state and a prime minister as head of government. Moldova is a member state of the United Nations, Council of Europe, WTO, OSCE, GUAM, CIS, BSEC and other international organizations. Moldova currently aspires to join the European Union, and has implemented the first three-year Action Plan within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).
  
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  Mongolia
  Mongolia ⁱ/mɒŋˈɡoʊliə/ (Mongolian:  Монгол улс (help·info), literally Mongol country/state) is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 38 kilometres (24 mi) from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the population. Mongolia's political system is a parliamentary republic.
  The area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Gökturks and others. The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206. After the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols returned to their earlier pattern of constant internal conflict and occasional raids on the Chinese borderlands. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Mongolia came under the influence of Tibetan Buddhism. At the end of the 17th century, all of Mongolia had been incorporated into the area ruled by the Qing Dynasty. During the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence, but had to struggle until 1921 to firmly establish de facto independence from the Republic of China, and until 1945 to gain international recognition.
  
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  Montenegro
  Montenegro (ⁱ/ˌmɒntɨˈneɪɡroʊ/ or /ˌmɒntɨˈniːɡroʊ/; or /ˌmɒntɨˈnɛɡroʊ/; Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора [tsr̩̂ːnaː ɡɔ̌ra] ( listen), meaning "Black Mountain") is a country in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the southeast. Its capital and largest city is Podgorica, while Cetinje is designated as the Prijestonica (Пријестоница), meaning the former Royal Capital City.
  In the 10th century, there existed three Slavic principalities on the territory of Montenegro: Duklja, roughly corresponding to the southern half, Travunia, the west, and Rascia, the north. In 1042, archon Stefan Vojislav led a revolt that resulted in independence of Duklja and the establishment of the Vojislavljević dynasty. Duklja reached its zenith under Vojislav's son, Mihailo (1046–81), and his son Bodin (1081–1101). By the 13th century, Zeta had replaced Duklja when referring to the realm, which at the time was part of the Serbian Grand Principality of the Nemanjić dynasty.
  
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  Nepal
  Nepal (नेपाल) (ⁱ/nɛˈpɔːl/ ne-PAWLNepali: नेपाल [neˈpal] ( listen)), officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India. Specifically, the Indian states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Sikkim border Nepal, while across the Himalayas lies the Tibetan Autonomous Region. With an area of 147,181 square kilometres (56,827 sq mi) and a population of approximately 27 million (and 2 million absentee workers living abroad), Nepal is the world's 93rd largest country by land mass and the 41st most populous country. Kathmandu is the nation's capital and the country's largest metropolis. Kathmandu Valley itself has estimated population of 5 million.
  Nepal has a rich geography. The mountainous north has eight of the world's ten tallest mountains, including the highest point on Earth, Mount Everest, called Sagarmatha in Nepali. It contains more than 240 peaks over 20,000 ft (6,096 m) above sea level. The fertile and humid south is heavily urbanized.
  
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  New Zealand
  New Zealand (Māori: Aotearoa) is an island country located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses ‒ that of the North and South Islands ‒ as well as numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans.
  During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of both animal and plant life. Most notable are the large number of unique bird species, many of which became extinct after the arrival of humans and introduced mammals. With a mild maritime climate, the land was mostly covered in forest. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions caused by the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates clashing beneath the earth's surface.
  
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  Norway
  Norway ⁱ/ˈnɔrweɪ/ (Norwegian:  Norge (Bokmål) or  Noreg (Nynorsk)), officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and the subantarctic Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres (148,747 sq mi) and a population of about 5 million. It is the second least densely populated country in Europe. The majority of the country shares a border to the east with Sweden; its northernmost region is bordered by Finland to the south and Russia to the east; in its south Norway borders the Skagerrak Strait across from Denmark. The capital city of Norway is Oslo. Norway's extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea, is home to its famous fjords.
  
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  Pakistan
  Pakistan (ⁱ/ˈpækɨstæn/ or ⁱ/pɑːkiˈstɑːn/; Urdu: پاکستان) (Urdu pronunciation: [paːkɪˈst̪aːn] ( listen)), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan (Urdu: اسلامی جمہوریۂ پاکستان), is a sovereign country in South Asia. It sits at the crossroads of the strategically important regions of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046-kilometre (650 mi) coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by India to the east, Afghanistan to the west and north, Iran to the southwest and China in the far northeast. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistan's narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, and it shares a marine border with Oman.
  The territory of modern Pakistan was the site of several ancient cultures, including the Neolithic Mehrgarh and the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilisation, and has undergone invasions or settlements by Hindu, Persian, Indo-Greek, Islamic, Turco-Mongol, Afghan and Sikh cultures. Thus the area has been ruled by numerous empires and dynasties, including the Indian Mauryan Empire, the Persian Achaemenid Empire, the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, the Mongol Empire, the Mughal Empire, the Durrani Empire, the Sikh Empire and the British Empire. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and India's struggle for independence, Pakistan was created in 1947 as an independent nation for Muslims from the regions in the east and west of India where there was a Muslim majority. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a new constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic. A civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh.
  
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  Palau
  Palau (ⁱ/pəˈlaʊ/, sometimes spelled Belau or Pelew), officially the Republic of Palau (Palauan: Beluu ęr a Belau), is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. Geographically part of the larger island group of Micronesia, with the country's population of around 21,000 people spread out over 250 islands forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands. The islands share maritime boundaries with Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Federated States of Micronesia. The most populous island in the group is Koror, with the capital city, Ngerulmud, located on nearby Babeldaob.
  The country were originally settled around 3000 years ago by migrants from the Philippines, with a Negrito population sustained until around 900 years ago. The islands were first visited by Europeans in the 18th century, and were made part of the Spanish East Indies in 1885. Following Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War in 1898, the islands were sold to Imperial Germany in 1899 under the terms of the German–Spanish Treaty, where they were administered as part of German New Guinea. The Imperial Japanese Navy conquered Palau during World War I, and the islands were later made a part of the Japanese-ruled South Pacific Mandate by the League of Nations. During World War II, skirmishes, including the major Battle of Peleliu, were fought between American and Japanese troops as part of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. Along with other Pacific Islands, Palau was made a part of the United States-governed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947. Having voted against joining the newly-independent Federated States of Micronesia in 1979, the islands gained full sovereignty in 1994 under a Compact of Free Association with the United States.
  
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  Papua New Guinea
  Papua New Guinea (PNG; Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands (the western portion of the island is a part of the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua). It is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in a region defined since the early 19th century as Melanesia. The capital is Port Moresby.
  Papua New Guinea is one of the most culturally diverse countries on Earth. According to recent data, 841 different languages are listed for the country, although 11 of these have no known living speakers. . (A detailed series of language maps of Papua New Guinea may be found at Ethnologue) There may be at least as many traditional societies,out of a population of about 6.2 million. It is also one of the most rural, as only 18% of its people live in urban centres. The country is one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically, and many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior of Papua New Guinea.
  
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  Philippines
  The Philippines ⁱ/ˈfɪlɨpiːnz/ FI-lə-peenz (Filipino: Pilipinas [ˌpɪlɪˈpinɐs]), officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas) is a sovereign country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam. The Sulu Sea to the southwest lies between the country and the island of Borneo, and to the south the Celebes Sea separates it from other islands of Indonesia. It is bounded on the east by the Philippine Sea. Its location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and its tropical climate make the Philippines prone to earthquakes and typhoons but have also endowed the country with natural resources and made it one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. An archipelago comprising 7,107 islands, the Philippines is categorized broadly into three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its capital city is Manila.
  With an estimated population of about 98 million people, the Philippines is the 7th most populated Asian country and the 12th most populated country in the world. An additional 12.5 million Filipinos live overseas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by successive waves of Austronesian peoples who brought with them influences from Malay, Hindu, and Islamic societies. Trade introduced Chinese cultural influences which remain to this day.
  
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  Poland
  Poland ⁱ/ˈpoʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika; Silesian: Polsko Republika), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. Poland has a population of over 38 million people, which makes it the 34th most populous country in the world and the sixth most populous member of the European Union, being its most populous post-communist member. Poland is a unitary state made up of 16 voivodeships. Poland is a member of the European Union, NATO, the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), European Economic Area, International Energy Agency, Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, International Atomic Energy Agency, G6, Council of the Baltic Sea States, Visegrád Group, Weimar Triangle and Schengen Agreement.
  
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  Portugal
  Portugal ⁱ/ˈpɔrtʃʉɡəl/ (Portuguese: Portugal, IPA: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ]), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa) is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula . Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are part of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.
  The land within the borders of the current Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times: occupied by Celts like the Gallaeci and the Lusitanians, integrated into the Roman Republic and later settled by Germanic peoples such as the Suebi, Swabians, Vandals and the Visigoths. In the 8th century most of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Moorish invaders professing Islam, which were later expelled by the Knights Templar under the Order of Christ. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom from León in 1139, claiming to be the oldest European nation state.
  
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  Republic of Ireland
  Ireland (/ˈaɪərlənd/ or /ˈɑrlənd/; Irish: Éire, pronounced [ˈeːɾʲə] ( listen)) is a sovereign state in Europe occupying about five-sixths of the island of Ireland. Its capital is Dublin. The population of the state was 4.59 million in 2011. It is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy, with an elected president serving as head of state. In the 1937 constitution, the name of the state is given as simply "Ireland". The Constitution of Ireland (Article 4) and the Republic of Ireland Act 1948 provides that the "Republic of Ireland" (Irish: Poblacht na hÉireann) is "the description of the state".
  Ireland is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations. A developed country with the seventh highest Human Development Index, Ireland is also highly ranked for press freedom, economic freedom and democracy and political freedom.
  The modern Irish state was established in 1922 as the Irish Free State, a dominion within the British Empire, following the Anglo-Irish Treaty which brought an end to the Irish War of Independence. The partition of Ireland had already been provided for in previous British legislation in 1921 in response to opposition to Irish Home Rule or independence by Unionists, who formed a majority in the north-eastern part of the country. Six of the nine counties in the northern province of Ulster were established under that legislation as Northern Ireland, part of the United Kingdom, with which the Irish state shares its only land border. The state is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south east, and the Irish Sea to the east.
  
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  Romania
  Romania (ⁱ/roʊˈmeɪniə/ roh-MAY-nee-ə; dated: Roumania; or Rumania;Romanian: România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and Moldova to the northeast and east, and Bulgaria to the south.
  At 238,400 square kilometers (92,000 sq mi), Romania is the ninth largest country of the European Union by area, and has the seventh largest population of the European Union with over 19 million people. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, the tenth largest city in the EU with about two million people.
  The Kingdom of Romania emerged when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were united under Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza in 1859. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared on 9 May 1877, and was internationally recognized the following year. At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. Greater Romania emerged into an era of progression and prosperity that would continue until World War II. By the end of the War, many north-eastern areas of Romania's territories were occupied by the Soviet Union, and Romania forcibly became a socialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact.
  
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  Serbia
  Serbia ⁱ/ˈsɜrbiə/, officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: Република Србија / Republika Srbija, pronounced [rɛpǔblika sř̩bija]), is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans. Serbia borders Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to the west; additionally, it borders Albania through Kosovo, whose status as part of Serbia is disputed. Serbia covers an area of 88,361 km² and has a population of just over 7.1 million, while the capital and largest city is Belgrade.
  The arrival of the Serbs to the Balkans in the 7th century, established several states, eventually forming the Serbian Empire in the 14th century. By the 16th century, Serbia was conquered and occupied by the Ottoman Empire, at times interrupted by the Habsburgs. In the early 19th century the Serbian revolution re-established the country as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory and pioneered the abolition of feudalism in the Balkans. The former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina united with Serbia in 1918. Following World War I, Serbia formed Yugoslavia with other South Slavic peoples which existed in several forms up until 2006, when the National Assembly of Serbia declared independence and the legal succession to the former State Union. In February 2008 the parliament of UNMIK-governed Kosovo, Serbia's southern province, declared independence, with mixed responses from international governments.
  
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  Singapore
  Singapore (ⁱ/ˈsɪŋəpɔər/ SI-ngə-pohr), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. Singapore is highly urbanised but almost half of the country is covered by greenery. More land is being created for development through land reclamation.
  
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  Slovakia
  The Slovak Republic (short form: Slovakia ⁱ/sloʊˈvɑːkiə/ or /sləˈvækiə/; Slovak:  Slovensko (help·info), long form  Slovenská republika (help·info)) is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi). Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is the capital, Bratislava, and the second largest is Košice. Slovakia is a member state of the European Union, NATO, United Nations, OECD and WTO among others. The official language is Slovak, a member of the Slavic language family.
  The Slavs arrived in the territory of present day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries during the migration period. In the course of history, various parts of today's Slovakia belonged to Samo's Empire (the first known political unit of Slavs), Principality of Nitra (as independent polity, as part of Great Moravia and as part of Hungarian Kingdom), Great Moravia, Kingdom of Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Habsburg Empire, and Czechoslovakia. A separate Slovak state briefly existed during World War II, during which Slovakia was a dependency of Nazi Germany between 1939 and 1944. From 1945 Slovakia once again became a part of Czechoslovakia. The present-day Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
  
  wn.com/Slovakia
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  Slovenia
  Slovenia (ⁱ/sloʊˈviːniə/ sloh-VEE-nee-ə, Slovene: Slovenija), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Republika Slovenija,  [reˈpublika sloˈveːnija]) is a Slavic nation state, situated in South-Central Europe, at the crossroad of main European cultural and trade routes. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Croatia to the south and southeast, and Hungary to the northeast. It covers 20,273 square kilometres (7,827 sq mi) and has a population of 2.05 million. It is a parliamentary republic, member of the European Union and NATO. Relative to its geography, history, economy, culture, and language, it is a very diverse country distinguished by a transitional character. It is characterised by a high economic and social level. Its capital and largest city is Ljubljana.
  The territory of Slovenia is mainly hilly or mountainous and has an exceptionally high landscape and biological diversity and a mosaic structure, which are a result of natural attributes and the long-lasting presence of humans. Four major European geographic units interweave here: the Alps, the Dinaric Alps, the Mediterranean, with a small portion of coastline along the Adriatic Sea, and the Pannonian Plain. The climate is temperate and significantly influenced by the variety of territory, with a strong interaction of the continental climate, the sub-Mediterranean climate and Alpine climate across most of the country. The country is one of the water-richest in Europe, with a dense river network, a rich aquifer system, and significant karstic underground watercourses. Over half of the territory is covered by forest.
  
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  South Africa
  Coordinates: 30°S 25°E / 30°S 25°E / -30; 25
  South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline. To the north of the country lie the neighbouring territories of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory.
  South Africa is multi-ethnic and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution. Two of these languages are of European origin: South African English and Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. Though English is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language. All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President.
  
  wn.com/South_Africa
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  South Korea
  South Korea ( listen), officially the Republic of Korea (Hangul: 대한민국; Hanja: 大韓民國; Daehan Minguk  listen), is a sovereign state in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The name "Korea" is derived from Goryeo, a dynasty which ruled in the Middle Ages (an initial "G" in Korean is pronounced like an English "K").
  Its neighbors are China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the Korea Strait to the south. South Korea lies in the north temperate zone with a predominantly mountainous terrain. It covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers and has a population of almost 50 million. The capital and largest city is Seoul, with a population of 9,794,304.
  Archaeological findings show that the Korean Peninsula was occupied by the Lower Paleolithic period.Korean history begins with the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC by the legendary Dan-gun. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea under Silla 668 AD, Korea went through the Goryeo Dynasty and Joseon Dynasty as one nation until the end of the Korean Empire in 1910, when it was annexed by Japan. After liberation and occupation by Soviet and U.S. forces at the end of World War II, the nation was divided into North and South Korea. The latter was established in 1948 as a democracy, though political turmoil and times of military rule and martial law characterized much of the period until the foundation of the Sixth Republic in 1987.
  
  wn.com/South_Korea
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  Spain
  Spain (ⁱ/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
  Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.
  
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  Sri Lanka
  Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (ⁱ/ʃriː ˈlɑːŋkə/, /sriːˈlɑːŋkə/, or /sriːˈlæŋkə/;Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකාව, Tamil: இலங்கை), is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia. Known until 1972 as Ceylon ( /sɨˈlɒn/, /seɪˈlɒn/, or /siːˈlɒn/), Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar, the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the Maldives.
  As a result of its location in the path of major sea routes, Sri Lanka is a strategic naval link between West Asia and South East Asia. It was an important stop on the ancient Silk Road. Sri Lanka has also been a center of the Buddhist religion and culture from ancient times, being the nation where the Buddhist teachings were first written down as well as the oldest continually Buddhist country. Sri Lanka boasts a diverse range of cultures, languages and religions. The Sinhalese people form the majority of the population; Tamils, who are concentrated in the north and east of the island, form the largest ethnic minority. Other communities include Moors, Burghers, Kaffirs, Malays and the aboriginal Vedda people.
  
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  Staten Island
  Staten Island  /ˌstætən ˈaɪlənd/ is a borough of New York City, United States, located in the southwest part of the city. Staten Island is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull, and from the rest of New York by New York Bay. With a population of 468,730, Staten Island is the least populated of the five boroughs but is the third-largest in area at 59 sq mi (153 km²). The Borough of Staten Island is coextensive with Richmond County, the southernmost county in the state of New York. Until 1975, the borough was officially named the Borough of Richmond. Staten Island has been sometimes called "the forgotten borough" by inhabitants who feel neglected by the city government.
  Staten Island is overall the most suburban of the five boroughs of New York City. The North Shore — especially the neighborhoods of St. George, Tompkinsville, Clifton, and Stapleton — is the most urban part of the island; it contains the officially designated St. George Historic District and the St. Paul’s Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, which feature large Victorian homes. The South Shore has more suburban-style residential neighborhoods. The East Shore (South Beach) is home to the 2.5-mile F.D.R. Boardwalk, the fourth-longest in the world. Historically, the central and southern sections of the island were dominated by dairy and poultry farms, almost all of which disappeared in the 20th century. Staten Island used to claim the largest landfill in the world. It was closed in 2001, then shortly afterward temporarily reopened to accept the debris from the September 11th attacks. The landfill is being made into what will be New York City's largest public park.
  
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  Sweden
  Sweden (ⁱ/ˈswiːdən/ SWEE-dən; Swedish: Sverige [ˈsværjɛ] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish:  Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland, and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Øresund.
  At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the third largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of about 9.4 million. Sweden has a low population density of 21 inhabitants per square kilometre (54 /sq mi) with the population mostly concentrated to the southern half of the country. About 85% of the population live in urban areas. Sweden's capital city is Stockholm, which is also the largest city.
  Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages. In the 17th century, the country expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire. The empire grew to be one of the great powers of Europe in the 17th and early 18th century. Most of the conquered territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries. The eastern half of Sweden, present-day Finland, was lost to Russia in 1809. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Sweden by military means forced Norway into a personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, practicing "non-participation in military alliances during peacetime and neutrality during wartime". However, Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 1995 and is a member of the OECD.
  
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  Switzerland
  Switzerland (German: die Schweiz[ˈʃvaɪts]; French: Suisse [sɥis(ə)]; Italian: Svizzera [ˈzvit͡sːɛra]; Romansh: Svizra [ˈʒviːtsrɐ] or [ˈʒviːtsʁːɐ]), in its full name the Swiss Confederation (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica, hence its abbreviation CH), is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western Europe, where it is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Italy to the south, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east.
  Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km² (15,940 sq mi). While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of approximately 8 million people is concentrated mostly on the Plateau, where the largest cities are to be found. Among them are the two global cities and economic centres of Zurich and Geneva.
  The Swiss Confederation has a long history of armed neutrality—it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815—and did not join the United Nations until 2002. It pursues, however, an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. Switzerland is also the birthplace of the Red Cross and home to a large number of international organizations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association and is part of the Schengen Area – although it is notably not a member of the European Union, nor the European Economic Area.
  
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  Taiwan
  Taiwan (ⁱ/ˌtaɪˈwɑːn/ TY-WAHN; Chinese: 臺灣 or 台灣; pinyin: Táiwān; see below), officially the Republic of China (ROC; Chinese: 中華民國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Mínguó), is a state in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China now governs the island of Taiwan (formerly known as Formosa), which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, and other minor islands. Neighboring states include the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east and northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taipei is the capital city and economic and cultural centre of the country, and New Taipei is the most populous city.
  The earliest evidence of inhabitation of Taiwan dates back to the late Paleolithic era. The island of Taiwan was mainly inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before being colonized in the 17th century by the Dutch and the Spanish Empire. The first Han Chinese polity on Taiwan began when Koxinga's troops defeated Dutch forces and established the Kingdom of Tungning. The island was subsequently ruled by the Qing Dynasty after the kingdom's defeat in the Battle of Penghu in 1683, a period that lasted for over 200 years. Following Japan's victory over the Qing Dynasty in the first Sino-Japanese war, Taiwan was ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895.
  
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  Thailand
  Thailand ( /ˈtaɪlænd/ TY-land or /ˈtaɪlənd/;Thai: ประเทศไทย, RTGS: Prathet Thai), officially the Kingdom of Thailand (Thai: ราชอาณาจักรไทย, RTGS: Ratcha Anachak Thai; IPA: [râːt.tɕʰā ʔāːnāːtɕàk tʰāj] ( listen)), formerly known as Siam (Thai: สยาม; RTGS: Sayam), is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the southern extremity of Burma. Its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India in the Andaman Sea to the southwest.
  The country is a constitutional monarchy, headed by King Rama IX, the ninth king of the House of Chakri, who, having reigned since 1946, is the world's longest-serving head of state and the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history. The king of Thailand is titled Head of State, Head of the Armed Forces, the Upholder of the Buddhist religion, and the Defender of all Faiths.
  
  wn.com/Thailand
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  Turkey
  Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye), known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( Türkiye Cumhuriyeti (help·info)), is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia (mostly in the Anatolian peninsula) and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe. Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan (the exclave of Nakhchivan) and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast. The Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus are to the south; the Aegean Sea is to the west; and the Black Sea is to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (which together form the Turkish Straits) demarcate the boundary between East Thrace and Anatolia; they also separate Europe and Asia.
  Turkey is one of the six independent Turkic states. The vast majority of the population are Muslims. The country's official language is Turkish, whereas Kurdish and Zazaki languages are spoken by Kurds and Zazas, who constitute 18% of the population.
  
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  United Kingdom
  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 north-western coast of continental Europe. The country includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a land border with another sovereign state—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 United Kingdom is a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system, with its seat of government in the capital city of London. It is a country in its own right and consists of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. There are three devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff, the capitals of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Associated with the UK, but not constitutionally part of it, are three Crown Dependencies. The United Kingdom has fourteen overseas territories. These are remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in 1922, encompassed almost a quarter of the world's land surface and was the largest empire in history. British influence can still be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former territories.
  
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  Vietnam
  Vietnam ( listen), formally the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam;  listen), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 91.5 million inhabitants as of 2012, it is the world's 13th-most-populous country, and the eighth-most-populous Asian country. The name Vietnam translates as "South Viet", and was officially adopted in 1945. The country is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east.
  The Vietnamese became independent from Imperial China in 938 AD, following the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Successive Vietnamese royal dynasties flourished as the nation expanded geographically and politically into Southeast Asia, until the Indochina Peninsula was colonized by the French in the mid-19th century. The First Indochina War eventually led to the expulsion of the French in 1954, leaving Vietnam divided politically into two states, North and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified, with heavy foreign intervention, during the Vietnam War, which ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975.
  
  wn.com/Vietnam

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  Al Capone
  Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone (January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947) was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early 1920s to 1931.
  Born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City to Italian immigrants, Capone became involved with gang activity at a young age after being expelled from school at age 14. In his early twenties, he moved to Chicago to take advantage of a new opportunity to make money smuggling illegal alcoholic beverages into the city during Prohibition. He also engaged in various other criminal activities, including bribery of government figures and prostitution. Despite his illegitimate occupation, Capone became a highly visible public figure. He made donations to various charitable endeavors using the money he made from his activities, and was viewed by many to be a "modern-day Robin Hood".
  
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  Aleksa Palladino
  Aleksa Palladino (born September 21, 1980) is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for her lead roles in Manny & Lo, The Adventures of Sebastian Cole, Find Me Guilty, Boardwalk Empire, Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.
  Palladino was born in New York City, where she grew up and worked as an actress. Her debut role was as Lo in the critically acclaimed Manny & Lo opposite Scarlett Johansson, where she played a 16 year old character despite being 14 at the time. The next year she was given her first lead role in the short film Number One Fan with Glenn Fitzgerald, and soon appeared in Wrestling with Alligators with Joely Richardson, the well-received The Adventures of Sebastian Cole with Adrien Grenier, and Second Skin with Fitzgerald again.
  The year 2000 saw the release of Palladino's Red Dirt, followed by the independent film Lonesome, and Storytelling with Selma Blair. She then had guest appearances in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, The Sopranos (where she played 2 different characters) and Law & Order.
  
  wn.com/Aleksa_Palladino
• Anatol Yusef
  Anatol Yusef is a British stage, film and television actor best known for his work in Last Orders, at The Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently for his portrayal of Meyer Lansky in the television series Boardwalk Empire.
  Anatol Yusef was born in Barking, East London, UK into a Turkish Cypriot family. His father emigrated from Cyprus to London at the age of 11 whilst his mother was born in London to Turkish Cypriot parents.
  As a teen, Yusef found early work in television shows including Jeeves and Wooster, Grange Hill, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, and also the movies Batman, and Aliens. He then trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. While in school he worked on a television show, Thief Takers and was a finalist in the BBC Carleton Hobbs Radio Award. He graduated in 2000.
  Upon graduation, Yusef was offered a role in Fred Schepisi's award winning film Last Orders, playing the younger self of Bob Hoskins "Ray" and working with British actors Sir Michael Caine, Dame Helen Mirren, Ray Winstone, David Hemmings, and Tom Courtenay.
  
  wn.com/Anatol_Yusef
• Anna Katarina
  Anna Katarina is a Swiss actress.
  
  wn.com/Anna_Katarina
• Anthony Laciura
  Anthony Laciura (born September 27, 1951) is an American operatic tenor, noted for his abilities as a comprimario. Born in New Orleans, he studied voice there with Charles Paddock, also the teacher of Ticho Parly.
  As a boy soprano, Laciura made his operatic debut in a small role in Louise, in March 1965, at the New Orleans Opera Association, opposite the last performances in this opera of Dorothy Kirsten and Norman Treigle. As an adult, he would give many performances with that company, and would earn music degrees from Loyola University of the South and Tulane University.
  On the Opening Night of the 1982-83 season, the tenor debuted with the Metropolitan Opera, where he appeared well over 800 times. That first role was the Major-domo in Der Rosenkavalier, with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. In fact, that production was televised, as were Laciura's performances in La forza del destino (directed by John Dexter, 1984), Francesca da Rimini (with Renata Scotto and Plácido Domingo, 1984), Tosca (1985), Le nozze di Figaro (opposite Ruggero Raimondi, and produced by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, 1985), Die Fledermaus (1987), Carmen (in Sir Peter Hall's production, 1987), Turandot (conducted by James Levine, 1987), Les contes d'Hoffmann (1988), Ariadne auf Naxos (with Jessye Norman, 1988), La fanciulla del West (1992), Falstaff (with Paul Plishka, Mirella Freni, and Marilyn Horne, 1992), I lombardi alla prima crociata (opposite Luciano Pavarotti, 1993), Billy Budd (1997), Le nozze di Figaro (1998), and Wozzeck (2001). Several of these productions have been published on DVD. The tenor's final appearance at the Met was in The Gambler (2008). In October 2011, he returned to the New Orleans Opera, for Emperor Altoum, in Turandot.
  
  wn.com/Anthony_Laciura
• Arnold Rothstein
  Arnold Rothstein (January 17, 1882 – November 5, 1928), nicknamed "the Brain," was a New York businessman and gambler who became a famous kingpin of the Jewish mafia in New York. Rothstein was widely reputed to have been behind baseball's Black Sox Scandal, in which the 1919 World Series was fixed.
  According to the crime writer Leo Katcher, Rothstein "transformed organized crime from a thuggish activity by hoodlums into a big business, run like a corporation, with himself at the top." According to Rich Cohen, Rothstein was the person who first realized that Prohibition was a business opportunity, a means to enormous wealth, who "understood the truths of early century capitalism and came to dominate them." His notoriety inspired several fictional characters based on his life, portrayed in contemporary and later short stories, novels, musicals and films.
  Arnold Rothstein was born in New York City, the son of a wealthy businessman, Abraham Rothstein, and his wife. Abraham Rothstein was known as a philanthropist, donating to Beth Israel Hospital. Arnold was skilled at mathematics. He dropped out of school and developed an early interest in illegitimate business. His older brother studied to become a rabbi.
  
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  Bobby Cannavale
  Robert M. "Bobby" Cannavale (born May 3, 1970) is an American actor known for his leading role as Bobby Caffey in the first two seasons of the television series Third Watch. He also had a recurring role as Officer Vince D'Angelo on the comedy series Will & Grace.
  Cannavale grew up in Union City, New Jersey, to an Italian American father and a Cuban American mother. He was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school. Cannavale graduated from Coconut Creek High School in Coconut Creek, FL.
  Cannavale began his acting career in the theater – with no acting training – and gained early film roles in Night Falls on Manhattan (1997) and The Bone Collector (1999), Cannavale became well-known when he starred as Bobby Caffey for two seasons on Third Watch. Following this, in 2001, he starred with Alan Arkin in 100 Centre Street – which was written and directed by Sidney Lumet, his then-father-in-law.
  
  wn.com/Bobby_Cannavale
• Bored to Death
  Bored to Death is an American comedy series that premiered on HBO on September 20, 2009. As of 2011^[update], three seasons have aired, each consisting of eight episodes. The show was created by author Jonathan Ames, and stars Jason Schwartzman as a fictional Jonathan Ames—a writer based in Brooklyn, New York City, who moonlights as an unlicensed private detective. The show also stars Ted Danson as George, and Zach Galifianakis as Ray, both friends of Jonathan. The third season premiered October 10, 2011. HBO cancelled Bored to Death on December 20, 2011.
  When Jonathan's girlfriend Suzanne breaks up with him, and his career as a writer is floundering, he finds himself with a lot of spare time on his hands. Inspired by a Raymond Chandler detective novel, Jonathan posts an ad on Craigslist, advertising himself as an unlicensed private detective. He easily solves his first and second cases, which involve a missing person and a cheating boyfriend respectively.
  Jonathan attempts to reignite his relationship with Suzanne, but he is unsuccessful. George introduces Jonathan to film director Jim Jarmusch and is given an opportunity to write for him, but fails to produce any material before Jarmusch changes his mind. Ray agrees to donate sperm to a lesbian couple, although against Leah's will. In another attempt to win back Suzanne, Jonathan arranges to take her to Brighton Beach with Ray and Leah. However, Jonathan also tries to solve a case while with her, and it ruins the night. Seeking adventure, George joins Jonathan and Ray as Jonathan tries to steal from a notorious blackmailer. Ray and George establish a friendship for the first time while waiting for Jonathan, sharing their love of marijuana. Ray learns that the lesbian couple he supplied with sperm were actually reselling it to other couples, and the couple has since fled town. Jonathan meets and beds a new woman, Stella.
  
  wn.com/Bored_to_Death
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  Bugsy Siegel
  Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (born Benjamin Siegelbaum; February 28, 1906 – June 20, 1947) was an American gangster who was involved with the Genovese crime family. Because of his notoriously quick and violent temper, the ruthless Siegel became one of the most infamous and feared gangsters of his day. Siegel was also a major driving force behind large-scale development of the Las Vegas Valley.
  Benjamin Siegelbaum was born in 1906 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to a poor Jewish family from Letychiv,Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire, in modern Ukraine. As a boy, Siegel joined a gang on Lafayette Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and committed mainly thefts, until, with a youth named Moe Sedway, he devised his own protection racket: pushcart merchants were forced to pay him a dollar or he would incinerate their merchandise. He also had an extensive record of crime, including armed robbery, rape, and murder dating back to his teenage years.
  During adolescence, Siegel befriended Meyer Lansky, who was forming a small mob whose activities expanded to gambling and car theft. Siegel reputedly also worked as the mob's hitman, whom Lansky would hire out to other crime families (Smith). By age 21, Siegel was making a good deal of money, and he flaunted it. He bought a fancy apartment at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. He wore fancy clothes and he bought a Tudor home in nearby Scarsdale. On January 28, 1929, Siegel married Esta Krakower, his childhood sweetheart and sister of contract killer Whitey Krakower.
  
  wn.com/Bugsy_Siegel
• Catherine Russell
  Catherine Russell (born 1966) is a British stage, television and screen actress.
  Catherine Russell is the daughter of actor Nicholas Smith and his wife Mary. She is married to film producer Richard Holmes and they have two children, Sam and Poppy. She trained at The Central School of Speech and Drama from 1983 to 1986 under George Hall.
  Russell's credits are extensive and varied including being nominated for an Ian Charleson Award for her performance in Chekhov's Three Sisters. She has played leads in the West End at The National, The Royal Court, Soho Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Lyric; Royal Exchange, Manchester and Almeida Theatre.
  She regularly works with the visionary director Max Stafford-Clark for his acclaimed theatre company Out of Joint where, as well as Masha in Three Sisters, she created roles such as Tess in Timberlake Wertenbaker's The Break of Day, Rima and Phoebe in Robin Soans' Talking to Terrorists, Mrs Peacham and Bett Rock in Stephen Jeffreys' The Convict's Opera and Hildy in Stella Feehily's Dreams of Violence. Other new work includes Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest directed by Michael Buffong, leading roles in Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott's The Last Carnival and award winning Kevin Elyot's The Day I Stood Still directed by the renowned Ian Rickson. Recently^[when?] she played Rosie in the West End production of Mamma Mia!
  
  wn.com/Catherine_Russell
• Charlie Cox
  Charlie Cox (born 15 December 1982) is an English actor best known for his starring role as Tristan Thorn in Stardust and more recently for his supporting role in HBO's Boardwalk Empire second season.
  Cox, the youngest of five children, was born in London, England and brought up in East Sussex, the son of Trisha and Andrew, who is a publisher. He was brought up as a Roman Catholic.
  Charlie was educated at two independent schools: at Ashdown House in the village of Forest Row in East Sussex and Sherborne School in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset. He later trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol.
  Cox played the role of Tristan Thorne in the 2007 film Stardust. He was next seen in the 2008 film Stone of Destiny in which he played Ian Hamilton. He made his West End debut in a double bill of Harold Pinter's The Lover & The Collection at the Comedy Theatre in London, and in the same year played the Duke of Crowborough in the ITV drama series Downton Abbey. He also appeared in Kleist's The Prince of Homburg, playing the title role, at the Donmar Warehouse in London in 2010. He played the part of St. Josemaría Escrivá in the 2011 Roland Joffé film There Be Dragons. Also in 2011, Cox signed on to play a recurring role in the second season of the Martin Scorsese-produced HBO original series Boardwalk Empire as an Irish immigrant with ties to the IRA.
  
  wn.com/Charlie_Cox
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  Curb Your Enthusiasm
  Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself. The series follows David in his life as a semi-retired television writer and producer in Los Angeles and later New York City. Also starring are Cheryl Hines as David's wife Cheryl, Jeff Garlin as David's manager Jeff, and Susie Essman as Jeff's wife Susie. Curb Your Enthusiasm often features guest stars, and many of these appearances are by celebrities playing versions of themselves fictionalized to varying degrees.
  The plots and subplots of the episodes are established in an outline written by David and the dialogue is largely improvised by the actors themselves. Much like Seinfeld, the subject matter in Curb Your Enthusiasm often involves the minutiae of daily life, and plots often revolve around Larry David's many faux pas, and his problems with certain social conventions and expectations, as well as his annoyance with other people's behavior. The character has a hard time letting such annoyances go unexpressed, which leads him often into awkward situations.
  
  wn.com/Curb_Your_Enthusiasm
• Dabney Coleman
  Dabney Wharton Coleman (born January 3, 1932) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in 9 to 5, WarGames, You've Got Mail, Sworn to Silence, The Beverly Hillbillies and as the voice of Principal Peter Prickly in Recess and Recess: School's Out.
  Coleman was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Mary Wharton (née Johns) and Melvin Randolph Coleman. He entered the Virginia Military Institute in 1949, then studied law at the University of Texas before turning to acting. He was drafted in 1953 to the US Army and served in Europe.
  Coleman is a character actor who has a wide range, with over 60 films to his credit. He is often typecast as a comic relief villain, the smarmy, devious foil to the main character. An early example of such features was his portrayal of an ethically absent Harrison Wilby in the Elvis Presley film The Trouble with Girls as well as a role in a 1962 AMC Rambler commercial.
  Coleman's fate in these types of roles was cemented with roles such as that of Franklin Hart, Jr. in 1980's 9 to 5, a sexist boss whose murder is fantasized about by his office employees (Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin). That role reunited him with actress Marian Mercer, with whom he also worked on the TV series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; he played Fernwood's mayor, Merle Jeeter and Marian played his second wife, Wanda Rittenhouse Jeeter. He broke from this type somewhat in his portrayal of military computer scientist John McKittrick in WarGames (1983).
  
  wn.com/Dabney_Coleman
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  Dominic Chianese
  Dominic Chianese ( /ˌkiːəˈnɛzɛ/; born February 24, 1931) is an American film, television and theatre actor, perhaps best known for his role as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos.
  Chianese was born in the borough of The Bronx in New York, the son of a bricklayer. He graduated from Bronx High School of Science in 1948. He worked as a bricklayer with his father and attended night school during the 1950s, graduating with a bachelor's degree in speech and theater from Brooklyn College in 1961. His earliest stage work occurred in 1952 with a Gilbert and Sullivan repertory company of singers, actors and musicians called The American Savoyards, under the direction of Dorothy Raedler.
  After a decade of attending college and appearing in off-broadway theatre, Chianese attended his first professional acting class at HB Studios in Manhattan, with renowned teacher Walt Witcover. Drama and musical theater became Chianese's passion. His first Broadway show was Oliver! in 1965. He has continued to perform in Broadway theatre, Off Broadway, and regional theatre. To supplement income in the dry periods, he played rhythm guitar and sang in taverns and restaurants. Chianese's first television credit occurred when George C. Scott recommended him for a role in the acclaimed series East Side, West Side. In 1974, Francis Ford Coppola cast Chianese as Johnny Ola in The Godfather Part II, which sparked a film career, culminating in several films (and plays) with Al Pacino.
  
  wn.com/Dominic_Chianese
• Edoardo Ballerini
  Edoardo Ballerini is an actor, writer, director and film producer.. He is best known for his work on screen as junkie Corky Caporale in The Sopranos (2006–2007), a hotheaded chef in the indie hit Dinner Rush (2001), and an NFL businessman in the blockbuster Romeo Must Die (2000). He has appeared in numerous films and television series, from I Shot Andy Warhol (1996) to the upcoming Omphalos (2013). His directorial debut, Good Night Valentino, premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. Ballerini starred in the film as silent film idol Rudolph Valentino.
  Edoardo Ballerini's first professional role was as an autistic teenager on Law & Order (1995). Two years later, he starred in the John Leguizamo comedy The Pest (1997) and, after that, appeared in (Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco, 1998) and (Amos Kollek's Sue, 1998).
  Ballerini was cast as the "star chef" in Bob Giraldi's Dinner Rush (2001) opposite Danny Aiello. The film grossed only $638,227 but received largely positive reviews. Internationally, the film did much better and broke into the top ten in box office receipts in Japan in 2003.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Edoardo_Ballerini
• Erik Weiner
  Erik Weiner (born June 7, 1977) is an American actor, comedian, and writer best known for co-creating the play The Bomb-itty of Errors and his role as Agent Sebso on HBO's Boardwalk Empire.
  Erik was born and raised in San Francisco. He graduated from New York University. In 1999 he co-created and starred in The Bomb-itty of Errors, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, blending hip-hop and Shakespeare. The show has been performed in New York (Off-Broadway), London (West End), Chicago, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Dublin, Florida, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and continues to play around the world.
  Erik was invited to be a fellow at the Sundance Institute's Screenwriting Lab in 2002.
  In 2002 Erik co-created and starred in the MTV sketch comedy series, Scratch & Burn. Erik made his feature film debut in the 20th Century Fox romantic comedy, Brown Sugar (2002 film). The film stars Taye Diggs, Mos Def & Queen Latifah.
  In 2005 Erik acted on HBO's Unscripted, directed and executive produced by George Clooney.
  
  wn.com/Erik_Weiner
• Extras
  Extras is a British sitcom about extras working on TV and film sets and in theatre. The series was co-produced by the BBC and HBO, and is created, written, and directed by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, both of whom also star in it. Extras charts the lives of Andy Millman, his friend Maggie Jacobs and Andy's substandard agent and part-time retail employee Darren Lamb, as Millman rises to fame.
  Extras has two series of six episodes each as well as a Christmas Special. The first episode aired in the UK on 21 July 2005 on BBC Two and on 25 September 2005 on HBO in the US. The second series premiered in the UK on BBC Two on 14 September 2006 and began airing in the US on HBO and in Australia on ABC on 14 February 2007. The Christmas Special aired on 27 December 2007 on BBC One and on 16 December 2007 on HBO. Both series are available on DVD in the UK and the US.
  The series is filmed in a more traditional sitcom style than the mockumentary style used by Gervais and Merchant in their previous series The Office. Each episode has at least one guest star; a television or film celebrity, who play what Gervais and Merchant have referred to as "twisted" versions of themselves; an exaggerated or inverted parody of their famous public personas.
  
  wn.com/Extras
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  Gaston Means
  Gaston Bullock Means (July 11, 1879 – December 12, 1938) was an American private detective, salesman, bootlegger, forger, swindler, murder suspect, blackmailer, and con artist.
  While not involved in the Teapot Dome scandal, Means was associated with other members of the so-called Ohio Gang that gathered around the administration of President Warren G. Harding. Means also tried to pull a con associated with the Lindbergh kidnapping, and died in prison following his criminal conviction.
  
  wn.com/Gaston_Means
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  German American
  German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 50 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group.California, Texas and Pennsylvania have the largest numbers of German origin, although upper Midwestern states, including Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, have the highest proportion of German Americans at over one-third.
  None of the historical German states had overseas colonies, so not until the 1680s did the first significant groups of German immigrants arrive in the British colonies, settling primarily in New York and Pennsylvania. Immigration continued in very large numbers during the 19th century, with some eight million arrivals from Germany. They were pulled by the attractions of land and religious freedom, and pushed out of Europe by shortages of land and religious or political oppression. Many arrived seeking religious or political freedom, others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others simply for the chance to start fresh in the New World. The arrivals before 1850 were mostly farmers who sought out the most productive land, where their intensive farming techniques would pay off. After 1840, many came to cities, where "Germania"—German-speaking districts—soon emerged.
  
  wn.com/German_American
• Greg Antonacci
  Gregory Antonacci is an American television actor, director, producer and writer.
  As a director, producer and writer, he worked on a number of television series namely Brothers, The Tortellis, Perfect Strangers, The Royal Family, The John Larroquette Show, Herman's Head, It's a Living, Soap, and other series.
  As an actor he is perhaps best known for his roles as Vinnie Morabito in Busting Loose, Tony Manucci in Makin' It, Butch DeConcini in The Sopranos and most recently as Johnny Torrio in Boardwalk Empire.
  On 1978, Antonacci married actress Annie Potts, they divorced in 1980. In 1981, he married actress Lynda Costanzo, having one child.
  
  
  
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  Gretchen Mol
  Gretchen Mol (born November 8, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She is known for her roles in films like Rounders, Celebrity, 3:10 to Yuma, The Thirteenth Floor, and The Notorious Bettie Page, where she played the title character. She appears as Gillian Darmody in HBO's Boardwalk Empire.
  Mol was born in Deep River, Connecticut, where her mother, Janet, is an artist and teacher and her father is a school teacher at RHAM. She went to high school with Broadway actor Peter Lockyer, with whom she performed in school musicals and plays. Her brother, Jim Mol, is a director and editor in the film industry. Mol attended The American Musical and Dramatic Academy and graduated from the William Esper Studio. After summer stock in Vermont, she took a job for a while as an usher at Angelika Film Center. She was living in a Hell's Kitchen walk-up when she was noticed by a talent agent who spotted her working as a hat check girl at Michael's Restaurant in New York.
  Mol's acting career began in summer stock theatre in Vermont where she played a variety of roles including Godspell and 110 In The Shade. She played Jenny in Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things on stage in both London and New York in 2001, in a role she reprised in the film version, released in 2003. The New York Times critic Ben Brantley, in his review of the play (which he disliked), wrote, "[Mol] gives by far the most persuasive performance as the unworldly Jenny, and you wind up feeling for her disproportionately, only because she seems to be entirely there, in the present tense". In 2004, Mol spent a year singing and dancing as Roxie in the Broadway production of Chicago.
  
  wn.com/Gretchen_Mol
• Heather Lind
  Heather Lind (born March 22, 1983) is an American actress. She is the twin sister of actress Christina Bennett Lind.
  Lind was raised in Guilderland, New York. She earned her BA in 2005 at Fordham College and her MFA in acting at NYU's Graduate Acting program.
  She made her Broadway debut in the Shakespeare in the Park production The Merchant of Venice where she played the daughter of Shylock, played by Al Pacino, and was awarded the 67th annual Theatre World Award for Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performances during the 2010-2011 theatrical season.
  In 2011, Lind played a recurring character named Katy in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.
  
  wn.com/Heather_Lind
• Howard Korder
  Howard Korder is an American screenwriter and playwright. He is the author of the 1988 coming-of-age play Boy's Life, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Drama nomination. His play Search and Destroy was adapted into a film in 1995. Among the screenplays he has written are The Passion of Ayn Rand and Lakeview Terrace. He is also one of the writers of Boardwalk Empire.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Howard_Korder
• Jack Huston
  Jack Alexander Huston (born 7 December 1982) is an English actor. Huston had a starring role in Neighborhood Watch and filmed Outlander (2008) with James Caviezel and Sophia Myles. He appeared in the third film in the Twilight series, Eclipse, where he played Royce King II.
  Huston also appears in HBO's Boardwalk Empire as Richard Harrow, a severely disfigured World War I marksman turned gangster. On December 16, 2010, it was announced Huston would be made a series regular after appearing in five episodes of the first season.
  Huston was born in London, the son of Lady Margot Lavinia Cholmondeley and Walter Anthony (Tony) Huston. His paternal grandfather was director John Huston and his maternal grandfather was Hugh Cholmondeley, 6th Marquess of Cholmondeley. Through his maternal grandfather, Huston is descended from David Sassoon, the Treasurer of Baghdad, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, who founded the Rothschild family international banking dynasty, and Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. Huston is the nephew of actors Anjelica Huston and Danny Huston.
  
  wn.com/Jack_Huston
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  James Gandolfini
  James J. Gandolfini, Jr. (born September 18, 1961) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO TV series The Sopranos, about a troubled crime boss struggling to balance his family life and career in the Mafia. For this role, Gandolfini garnered enormous praise, winning both the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series three times. Gandolfini's other roles include the woman-beating mob henchman Virgil in True Romance, enforcer/stuntman Bear in Get Shorty, Lt. General Miller in In the Loop, and the impulsive Wild Thing Carol in Where the Wild Things Are. In 2007, Gandolfini produced the HBO documentary "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" in which he interviewed 10 injured veterans from the Iraq War. In 2010, Gandolfini produced another HBO documentary "Wartorn: 1861-2010" in which Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and its impact on soldiers and families is analyzed throughout several wars in American history from 1861 to 2010.
  
  wn.com/James_Gandolfini
• Johnny Torrio
  John "Papa Johnny" Torrio (January 20, 1882 – April 16, 1957), also known as "The Fox", was an Italian-American mobster who helped build the criminal empire known as the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s that was later inherited by his protege, Al Capone. He also put forth the idea of the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s and later became an unofficial adviser to the Genovese crime family.
  Torrio's birthplace is a topic of debate. He was born in southern Italy and possible places which gave birth to him are Naples and Amalfi (Campania), Orsara di Puglia (Apulia) and Irsina (Basilicata).
  His father died when he was two years old, and his widowed mother emigrated with him to New York City.
  His first jobs were as a porter and bouncer in Manhattan. While a teenager, he joined a street gang and became their leader; he eventually managed to save enough money and opened a billiards parlor for the group, out of which grew illegal activities such as gambling and loan sharking. Torrio's shrewd business acumen caught the eye of Paolo Vaccarelli (a.k.a. Paul Kelly), the leader of the famous Five Points Gang. Jimmy "The Shiv" DeStefano, Danny 'Big Wang' Glaister and Al Capone who worked at Kelly's club admired Torrio's quick mind and looked to him as their mentor. Torrio greatly admired Kelly, who knew much about organized crime culture; Kelly convinced the younger man to dress conservatively, stop swearing, and set up a front as a legitimate entrepreneur. The lessons Torrio learned from Kelly stayed with him throughout his career; Torrio eventually earned the moniker of "The Fox" due to his cunning and diplomatic ways.
  
  wn.com/Johnny_Torrio
• Julianne Nicholson
  Julianne Nicholson (born July 1, 1971) is an American actress. She played Det. Megan Wheeler on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and more recently starred in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.
  Nicholson was born and raised in Medford, Massachusetts (outside Boston), and is the eldest of four siblings. After graduating from Arlington Catholic High School, she modeled in New York for six months, quit for a year, then resumed her modeling career in Paris for another six months. After returning to New York, she attended Hunter College as a general studies major for two years. While in New York, Nicholson supported herself by waitressing and eventually left school to study acting and begin her professional career.
  In her first feature film role, Nicholson she starred opposite Michael Caine and James Spader in the Peter Yates film Curtain Call. Later she won what proved to be both her breakthrough and favorite role as a headstrong young feminist in Peter Chan's The Love Letter. She has worked with other international directors in films such Alain Berliner's Passion of Mind, and Nick Hurran's Little Black Book. She has an uncredited role in Guy Ritchie's British gangster film Snatch as the booking agent with the shaved head. Nicholson's domestic drama credits include William Vincent (Jay Anania), Staten Island (James DeMonaco), Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (John Krasinski), Tully (Hilary Birmingham), Kinsey (Bill Condon). Her domestic comedy credits include Seeing Other People (Wally Wolodarsky) and Puccini For Beginners (Maria Maggenti).
  
  wn.com/Julianne_Nicholson
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  Kelly Macdonald
  Kelly Macdonald (born (1976-02-23)23 February 1976) is a Scottish actress, known for her role in the independent film Trainspotting and mainstream releases such as Nanny McPhee, Gosford Park, Intermission, No Country for Old Men and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. On television, she is known for her roles in Boardwalk Empire, The Girl in the Café and State of Play.
  Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Her mother was a garment industry sales executive.
  In August 2003, Macdonald married musician Dougie Payne. Their son was born in March 2008.
  Macdonald's career began while working as a barmaid. She saw a leaflet advertising an open casting session for Trainspotting and decided to audition, winning the part of Diane, the underage seductress to Ewan McGregor's Renton. Other roles include Mary O'Neary in Two Family House and an actress playing Peter Pan in Finding Neverland. She also had major roles in Robert Altman's British period piece Gosford Park, where she played an aristocrat's maid, as well as in Intermission (2003), as Deirdre.
  
  wn.com/Kelly_Macdonald
• Lawrence Konner
  Lawrence Konner has had a long and distinguished career as an American screenwriter and television writer. In addition, he has produced a number of award winning documentaries.
  Konner began as a television writer, writing for the shows Little House on the Prairie, Family and Remington Steele. He and his movie-writing partner Mark Rosenthal first worked together on the motion picture The Legend of Billie Jean, which garnered a cult following on video. This was followed by the films The Jewel of the Nile, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, as well as the updated versions of The Beverly Hillbillies, Mighty Joe Young and Planet of the Apes. Other screenplays include Mona Lisa Smile, Flicka, and Mercury Rising.
  Konner has been writing and producing television shows for over 35 years. He began writing on such shows as Family, Little House on the Prairie, and Remington Steele. More recently, he has written episodes of the HBO series The Sopranos, one of which was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramatic Writing. He was writer and co-executive producer for the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. Most recently, he has been a writer and co-executive producer of the series Magic City, which premiers in January 2012 on the Starz channel.
  
  wn.com/Lawrence_Konner
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  Leon Redbone
  Leon Redbone (born Dickran Gobalian, August 26, 1949) is a singer and guitarist specializing in interpretations of early 20th-century music, including jazz and blues standards and Tin Pan Alley classics.
  Recognized for his trademark Panama hat, dark sunglasses, and bow tie, Redbone first appeared on stage in Toronto, Canada in the mid-1970s.
  Redbone has released approximately fifteen albums and earned a sizable cult following. His concerts blend performance, comedy, and skilled instrumentals. Recurrent gags involve the influence of alcohol and claiming to have written works originating well before his time. He sang the theme to the television series Mr. Belvedere.
  According to the Toronto Star report in the 1980s, his birth name is Dickran Gobalian, he came to Canada from Cyprus in the mid-1960s and changed his name via Ontario, Change of Name Act. However, a reference from 1973 states that he was a native of Philadelphia who moved to Toronto.
  While living in Canada in the early 1970s, Redbone began performing in public at Toronto area nightclubs and folk music festivals. He met Bob Dylan at the Mariposa Folk Festival. Dylan was so impressed by Redbone's performance that he mentioned it in a Rolling Stone interview, leading that magazine to do a feature article on Redbone a year before he had a recording contract. The article described his performances as "so authentic you can hear the surface noise [of an old 78 rpm]." His first album, On the Track, was released by Warner Bros. Records in 1975.
  
  wn.com/Leon_Redbone
• Louis Kuehnle
  Louis Kuehnle, ( /ˈkuːnliː/; December 25, 1857 - August 6, 1934), known as the Commodore, was an American business entrepreneur and politician considered a pioneer in the growing resort town of Atlantic City in the late 1880s and early 1900s. He was leader of the Republican organization that controlled Atlantic City during the early 1900s. Future president New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson pursued Kuehnle after his 1910 election as part of his campaign to clean up Atlantic City. The effort led to the unsuccessful prosecution of Kuehnle for election fraud and the successful prosecution and conviction of him for a conflict of interest in connection with a government contract. His name then tarnished by scandal, he was succeeded by Enoch "Nucky" Johnson as leader of the organization.
  Kuehnle was born in New York City, New York on December 25, 1857 the son of German immigrants Louis and Katrina Kuehnle, where Louis Sr. was a successful chef. In 1858, Louis Kuehnle Sr., moved his family to Egg Harbor City, New Jersey where he began his first hotel, The New York Hotel. The family then moved again, in 1875, to nearby Atlantic City to open another hotel, Kuehnle's Hotel.
  
  wn.com/Louis_Kuehnle
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  Lucky Luciano
  Salvatore Lucania, better known as Charles "Lucky" Luciano (pronounced /luːtʃiˈɑːnoʊ/)November 24, 1897 – January 26, 1962), was an Italian-born, naturalized American mobster born in Sicily. Luciano is considered the father of modern organized crime in the United States for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families and the establishment of the first Commission. He was the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family. He was, along with his associate Meyer Lansky, instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States.
  Salvatore Lucania was born on November 24, 1897 in Lercara Friddi, Sicily. His parents, Antonio and Rosalia Lucania, had four other children: Bartolomeo (born 1890), Giuseppe (born 1898), Filippia (born 1901), and Concetta. When Charlie was 10 years old (1907), the family migrated to the United States. They settled in New York City, on the Lower East Side at 265 East 10th Street. The neighborhood was a popular destination for Italian immigrants at the time.
  
  wn.com/Lucky_Luciano
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  Margaret Nagle
  Margaret Nagle is a screenwriter and television producer who has been nominated for two Emmy Awards and won two Writer's Guild of America Awards. Her very first script HBO's "Warm Springs" won the 2005 Emmy Award for Best Television Movie. It also won Nagle the 2006 Writers Guild of America Award for Long Form Original Screenplay. She was also nominated for the 2005 Emmy Award for the same film, which was nominated for Best Writing of a TV Movie for a total of a record-breaking 16 Emmy Awards nominations. The film won 5 Emmys that year including the award. It starred Cynthia Nixon, Kenneth Branagh, Kathy Bates, David Paymer, Felicia Day and Tim Blake Nelson.
  A former actress, Nagle appeared on the cult-hit "My So-Called Life" as the beleaguered Biology teacher Ms. Chavatal. About her performance The New York Times wrote, "Watch out for the faculty members, each astutely idiosyncratic. I especially liked the hopelessly perky science teacher, played by Margaret Nagle, whose style is to lead the class to answers they have no interest in giving: "An experiment must test a what? A hypothesis. And a hypothesis consists of several . . . ? Anybody?"
  
  wn.com/Margaret_Nagle
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  Mark Wahlberg
  Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg (born June 5, 1971) is an American actor, film and television producer, and former rapper. He was known as Marky Mark in his earlier years, and became famous for his 1989 debut as frontman with the band Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. He was named No. 1 on VH1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90's. Wahlberg is well known for his roles in films such as Boogie Nights (1997), Three Kings (1999), The Perfect Storm (2000), Planet of the Apes (2001), Rock Star (2001), The Italian Job (2003), I Heart Huckabees (2004), Four Brothers (2005), The Departed (2006), Invincible (2006), Shooter (2007), and The Fighter (2010), Date Night (2010). He has also served as the executive producer of the TV series Entourage, Boardwalk Empire and How to Make It in America.
  Wahlberg was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the youngest of nine children, with siblings Arthur, Jim, Paul, Robert, Tracey, Michelle, Debbie (died in 2003 at age 44), and Donnie. His father was of half Swedish and half Irish ancestry, and his mother is of Irish, English, and French Canadian descent. Maternally, Wahlberg is distantly related to author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wahlberg's mother, Alma Elaine (née Donnelly), was a bank clerk and nurse's aide, and Wahlberg's father, Donald Edward Wahlberg, was a Teamster who worked as a delivery driver. His parents divorced in 1982. Wahlberg had a Roman Catholic upbringing and attended Copley Square High School (but never graduated) on Newbury Street in Boston.
  
  wn.com/Mark_Wahlberg
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  Martha Wainwright
  Martha Wainwright (born May 8, 1976) is a Canadian-American folk-rock singer-songwriter. She is the daughter of American folk singer and actor Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian folk singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle. She was raised in a musical family along with her older brother, Rufus Wainwright, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  Wainwright released an independent cassette, Ground Floor, in 1997. The following year, her song "Year of the Dragon" appeared on The McGarrigle Hour, an album released by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Shortly after this recording, Martha began singing backup vocals for her brother, and released the six-song EP Martha Wainwright in 1999.
  Following her drama classes at Montreal's Concordia University, she moved to New York City, where she established herself as singer and songwriter. She made contacts within the industry, one of whom was producer Brad Albetta, who worked with Wainwright to produce her self-titled debut album, Martha Wainwright (released April 12, 2005, by MapleMusic Recordings).
  
  wn.com/Martha_Wainwright
• 
  Martin Scorsese
  Martin Charles Scorsese ( /skɔrˈsɛsɛ/; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation. He is a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema, and has won Academy Award, Palme d'Or, Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and DGA Awards.
  Scorsese's body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption,machismo, modern crime, and violence. Scorsese is hailed as one of the most significant and influential filmmakers of all time, directing landmark films such as Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), and Goodfellas (1990) – all of which he collaborated on with actor and close friend Robert De Niro. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), having been nominated a previous five times.
  
  wn.com/Martin_Scorsese
• Max Casella
  Max Casella (born June 6, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for his roles on the television series The Sopranos,Doogie Howser, M.D., and as the voice of Daxter in the Jak and Daxter video game series.
  Casella was born in Washington, D.C., son of David Deitch (a newspaper columnist) and Doris Casella (a social worker). He is of half Italian and half Jewish descent. He grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he attended the same school as actors Traci Bingham and Matt Damon.
  Casella played Vincent Delpino in the television series Doogie Howser, M.D. from 1989 to 1993 alongside Neil Patrick Harris. In 1992, Casella played Racetrack Higgins in the movie Newsies. The movie was based upon true events in the 1899 newsboys strike against Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. He appeared in WindRunner: A Spirited Journey, starring Margot Kidder and Russell Means as Jim Thorpe's ghost. In 1997, Casella played Timon in the original Broadway production of The Lion King; a performance for which he was awarded a Theatre World Award and received a Drama Desk Award nomination. In 2000-2001 he returned to Broadway as Marcellus Washburn in the revival of The Music Man.
  
  wn.com/Max_Casella
• 
  Meyer Lansky
  Meyer Lansky (born Meyer Suchowljansky; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant," was a Russian-born American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States. For decades he was thought to be one of the most powerful people in the country.
  Lansky developed a gambling empire which stretched from Saratoga, New York to Miami to Council Bluffs and Las Vegas; it is also said that he oversaw gambling concessions in Cuba. Although a member of the Jewish Mafia, Lansky undoubtedly had strong influence with the Italian Mafia and played a large role in the consolidation of the criminal underworld (although the full extent of this role has been the subject of some debate).
  Lansky was born Meyer Suchowljansky in Grodno (then in Russia, now in Belarus), to a Jewish family who experienced pogroms. In 1911, he emigrated to the United States through the port of Odessa with his mother and brother and joined his father, who had previously emigrated to the United States in 1909, and settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York.
  
  wn.com/Meyer_Lansky
• 
  Michael Pitt
  Michael Carmen Pitt (born April 10, 1981) is an American actor and musician. Pitt is known in film for his role in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers, and in television for his role as Jimmy Darmody in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.
  Pitt made his off-Broadway debut in 1999 in the play The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek at the New York Theatre Workshop. A casting agent, whom Pitt mistook as a police officer attempting to arrest him, noticed him and recommended him for a guest role on the television series Dawson's Creek (he played Henry Parker in 15 episodes between 1999 and 2000). His breakout role as the lover of a transgender rock star in Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 2001 led to supporting roles in Bully and in mainstream Hollywood fare such as Murder by Numbers and The Village, as well as the lead in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers.
  He next appeared in Asia Argento's The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, and headlined Gus Van Sant's Last Days, playing a rock star based on Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. He performed all of the songs, which closely resembled Cobain's guitar and singing styles. On set, he met Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, who had been hired by Van Sant to serve as the film's music consultant. The pair formed a close bond, with Moore writing, "[Gus] wanted me to hang out with Michael and talk about his character, and let him be in character. We ended up spending a lot of time together. My daughter Coco still relates to Michael as Blake from Last Days."
  
  wn.com/Michael_Pitt
• Michael Stuhlbarg
  Michael S. Stuhlbarg (born July 5, 1968) is an American theatre, film and television actor.
  Stuhlbarg was born in Long Beach, California, and raised in Reform Judaism. He trained at The Juilliard School in New York City, where he was a member of the Drama Division's Group 21 (1988–1992). Stuhlbarg graduated from Juilliard with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1992.
  He also studied acting at the University of California at Los Angeles, the Vilnius Conservatory in Lithuania, the British American Drama Academy at Oxford, and the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain at the University of London. He studied mime with Marcel Marceau at the World Centre.
  Stuhlbarg became a theater actor appearing in several productions including award winning performances in Old Wicked Songs in 1996, Long Day's Journey into Night in 1997 and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play for The Pillowman in 2005 (for which he also received his first Tony Award nomination).
  He has appeared in a number of television shows including Law & Order, Ugly Betty and The American Experience. He currently plays organized crime boss Arnold Rothstein in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.
  
  wn.com/Michael_Stuhlbarg
• Michael Zegen
  Michael Zegen (also credited as Mike Zegen) is an American actor, best known for his role as probie firefighter "Damien Keefe" on the FX Network television drama Rescue Me, as well as his recurring role as "Dwight the Troubled Teen" on over 50 episodes of the Late Show with David Letterman. He is a graduate of Skidmore College and a member of the New York City sketch comedy troupe "Hottie$ Galore."
  Zegen is Jewish. His role on Rescue Me began as a recurring character in Seasons 1-3, playing the nephew of series lead Tommy Gavin (Denis Leary). In Seasons 5-6, he was promoted to the main cast when his character began probie school to become a firefighter.
  In late 2010, Zegen was officially cast as gangster Bugsy Siegel for the second season of the HBO series, Boardwalk Empire.
  In 2011 Zegen, along with James Ransone, were cast in supporting roles in the HBO comedy series How To Make It In America. In mid 2011, Zegen was cast in a recurring guest role in the second season of the AMC series The Walking Dead.
  
  wn.com/Michael_Zegen
• Mickey Duffy
  Michael "Mickey" Duffy (born William Michael Cusick; 1888-August 30, 1931), also known as John Murphy and George McEwen, was a Polish-American Atlantic City mobster and rival of Maxie "Boo Boo" Hoff during Prohibition. He became one of the most famous and powerful beer bootleggers in Philadelphia.
  Born William Michael Cusick to Polish immigrants in Grays Ferry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he changed his name to fit in well with the Irish gangs in Philadelphia. Duffy became involved in petty theft and other misdemeanors during his youth before more serious crimes during his teenage years, including armed robbery and hijacking prior to entering bootlegging during Prohibition.
  In May 1919, Duffy was arrested for assault and battery with intent to kill serving two years and eleven months at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. Upon his release, Prohibition was law and organized crime syndicates began smuggling, making and selling illegal alcohol. He married Edith Craig shortly after his release.
  
  wn.com/Mickey_Duffy
• 
  Nellie McKay
  Nellie McKay (born Nell Marie McKay), is an American singer-songwriter, actor, and former stand-up comedienne, noted for her critically acclaimed albums, and for her Broadway debut in The Threepenny Opera (2006), for which she won a Theatre World Award. Her music has showcased different genres, from jazz to rap and disco to funk.
  Nellie McKay was born in London to writer-director Malcolm McKay and actress Robin Pappas. While growing up, she lived with her mother in Harlem, Olympia, WA, and rural Pennsylvania.
  McKay studied jazz voice at the Manhattan School of Music, but did not graduate.
  Her performances at various New York City music venues, including the Sidewalk Cafe and Joe's Pub, drew attention from record labels. She signed with Columbia Records.
  The recording sessions for McKay's debut album Get Away from Me took place in August 2003 with Geoff Emerick as producer. Emerick was known for working as The Beatles' engineer on such albums as Revolver and Abbey Road. The title is a play on Norah Jones' Come Away with Me. McKay is said to be the first woman to release a double album as her first release. Originally, her contract with Columbia called for 13 songs, but McKay aggressively lobbied her label for a double album, including bottles of wine, a PowerPoint slideshow, and a mock photo of her threatening Emerick with a gun. (Allmusic).
  
  wn.com/Nellie_McKay
• Nucky Thompson
  Enoch "Nucky" Thompson is a fictional character from the HBO TV series Boardwalk Empire. Played by Steve Buscemi, Nucky is based on former Atlantic City political figure Enoch L. Johnson. Nucky is employed as treasurer of Atlantic County, New Jersey, but in effect controls the region as a political boss. The show opens on January 15, 1920 the day before prohibition is to take effect He is shown celebrating with other local politicians over the amount of money they can now make bootlegging liquor. Nucky conducts his business out of the top floor of the Ritz-Carlton and makes a fortune on bootlegging and other criminal activities performed in Atlantic County.
  In season one, Nucky is assisted by his younger brother Eli, who serves as Sheriff of Atlantic County and James "Jimmy" Darmody his driver/bodyguard who regards Nucky as a surrogate father. Their strained relationship with Nucky serves as a major plotline of season two. Along with many political allies in Atlantic City, Nucky also has a working relationship with Walter Edge, Johnny Torrio and Arnold Rothstein (all based on their real life counterparts).
  
  wn.com/Nucky_Thompson
• 
  Paz de la Huerta
  María de la Paz Elizabeth Sofía Adriana de la Huerta (born September 3, 1984), better known by her professional name Paz de la Huerta, is an American actress and model. She is best known for her role as Lucy Danziger in the HBO cable television series Boardwalk Empire.
  Paz De la Huerta was raised with older sister Rafaela de la Paz (born November 5, 1981) in the Lower Manhattan, New York City neighborhood of SoHo by her parents Íñigo de la Huerta y Ozores (born November 17, 1944; San Sebastián, Spain) and Judith Bruce (born October 23, 1946; Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States). She attended private Saint Ann's School in the New York City borough of Brooklyn with fellow student and future fashion designer Zac Posen for whom she has since modeled. She also attended the performing arts camp, Buck's Rock.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Paz_de_la_Huerta
• Raging Bull
  Raging Bull is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, and adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta's memoir Raging Bull: My Story. It stars Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta, a middleweight boxer whose sadomasochistic rage, sexual jealousy, and animalistic appetite destroyed his relationship with his wife and family. Also featured in the film are Joe Pesci as Joey, La Motta's well-intentioned brother and manager who tries to help Jake battle his inner demons; and Cathy Moriarty as his abused wife. The film features supporting roles from Nicholas Colasanto, Theresa Saldana, and Frank Vincent.
  Scorsese was initially reluctant to develop the project, though he eventually came to relate to La Motta's story. Schrader re-wrote Martin's first screenplay, and Scorsese and De Niro together made uncredited contributions thereafter. Pesci was an unknown actor prior to the film, as was Moriarty, who was suggested for her role by Pesci. During principal photography, each of the boxing scenes was choreographed for a specific visual style and De Niro gained approximately 60 pounds (27 kg) to portray La Motta in his early post-boxing years. Scorsese was exacting in the process of editing and mixing the film, expecting it to be his last major feature.
  
  wn.com/Raging_Bull
• 
  Regina Spektor
  Regina Ilyinichna Spektor (Russian: Реги́нa Ильи́нична Спе́ктор, IPA: [rʲɪˈɡʲinə ˈspʲɛktər], English: /rɨˈdʒiːnə ˈspɛktər/; born February 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her music is associated with the anti-folk scene centered in New York City's East Village.
  Spektor was born in Moscow, Soviet Union in 1980 to a musical Russian Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, is a photographer and amateur violinist. Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Soviet college of music and now teaches at a public elementary school in Mount Vernon, New York. She has a brother Barry (Bear), who was featured in track 7, "* * *", or "Whisper", of her 2004 album, Soviet Kitsch.
  She learned how to play piano by practising on a Petrof upright that was given to her mother by her grandfather. She was also exposed to the music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles, Queen, and The Moody Blues by her father, who obtained such recordings in Eastern Europe and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union. The family left the Soviet Union in 1989, when Regina was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. Regina had to leave her piano behind. The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not leaving the USSR, but they finally decided to emigrate, due to the ethnic and political discrimination that Jews faced. Spektor is fluent in Russian and reads Hebrew, and has since paid tribute to her Russian heritage, quoting the poem February by the Russian poet Boris Pasternak in her song Après Moi, and stating “I’m very connected to the language and the culture.”
  
  wn.com/Regina_Spektor
• Robert Clohessy
  Robert Clohessy (born June 10, 1958) is an American actor, known for playing Correctional Officer Sean Murphy on the HBO drama Oz.
  Clohessy was born in the Bronx, the son of John Clohessy, a police officer. Clohessy graduated from SUNY Purchase, along with Oz co-stars Edie Falco, Kirk Acevedo, and Seth Gilliam. Clohessy fought in the 1975 Golden Gloves in Madison Square Garden. He graduated from Pearl River High School in Pearl River, New York where he played varsity football. Clohessy first appeared on stage at Pearl River High School in their class production of Guys and Dolls, playing, of all things, a police officer.
  Clohessy has had recurring roles in daytime dramas All My Children and Guiding Light. In primetime, he has become known for his multiple regular turns as police officers and other law enforcement officials, creating parallels between his acting career and upbringing by his policeman father. The first of such roles was in the seventh and final season of Hill Street Blues, where he played Officer Patrick Flaherty. The following season, Clohessy was cast as the new co-star of Pat Morita on the ABC detective series Ohara, playing Lt. George Shaver. Later, he would join the cast of the HBO prison drama Oz as Correctional Officer Sean Murphy. However, in between these roles, Clohessy would play characters not associated with law enforcement, with starring roles in NBC's short-lived One of the Boys in 1989, and in the ABC sitcom Laurie Hill in 1992, playing a stay-at-home freelance writer married to the series' lead, played by DeLane Matthews (the series also featured an up-and-coming Ellen DeGeneres). Clohessy also had a regular role in the short-lived Fox show New Amsterdam.
  
  wn.com/Robert_Clohessy
• 
  Sam Mendes
  Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE (born 1 August 1965) is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty (1999) and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret (1994), Oliver! (1994), Company (1996) and Gypsy (2003). He is currently working on Skyfall, the 23rd James Bond film. He has a child with his former wife Kate Winslet.
  Mendes was born in Reading, Berkshire, the only child of Valerie Helene (née Barnett), an author of children's books, and Jameson Peter Mendes, a university professor. His father is from Trinidad of ethnic Portuguese descent, and his mother an English Jew. His grandfather is the Trinidadian writer Alfred Mendes.
  Mendes' parents divorced when he was a child. He grew up in Oxfordshire and attended Magdalen College School and Peterhouse, Cambridge where he graduated with a first in English. While at Cambridge, he was a member of the Marlowe Society and directed several plays, including a critically acclaimed production of Cyrano de Bergerac with Tom Hollander and Nick Clegg amongst the cast members.
  
  wn.com/Sam_Mendes
• Shea Whigham
  Franklin Shea Whigham, Jr. (born January 5, 1969), best known as Shea Whigham, is an American actor notably starring as Elias "Eli" Thompson on the HBO dramatic series Boardwalk Empire.
  Whigham was born in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1969 to attorney Frank and school librarian Beth, moving to Lake Mary when he was five years old. He attended Tyler Junior College (Tyler, Texas) and after completing studies there, transferred to the State University of New York at Purchase, where he was part of a small acting program with only 31 students and a graduating class of eight seniors. After graduating, he co-founded New York City theatre troupe The Rorschach Group with his college roommate Kirk Acevedo; he was actor and artistic director with the troupe for three years.
  Whigham appeared in one 1997 episode of the television series Ghost Stories before he received a starring role in the 2000 film Tigerland, alongside Colin Farrell and future Boardwalk Empire co-star Michael Shannon. He went on to appear in the television movies Submerged, R.U.S./H. and Paradise before acting in the 2003 film All the Real Girls. Between 2004 and 2006, he was credited in the Japanese film Out of This World, the drama television series Medical Investigation, the films Water and Man of the House, the television movie Faith of My Fathers, and the films Lords of Dogtown, Psychic Driving and South of Heaven.
  
  wn.com/Shea_Whigham
• 
  Stephen Root
  Stephen Root (born November 17, 1951) is an American actor and former voice actor. He is best known for his comedic work on the TV sitcom NewsRadio, in the film Office Space and as the voices of Bill Dauterive and Buck Strickland in the animated series King of the Hill. He has also won acclaim for his occasional dramatic roles.
  Root was born in Sarasota, Florida, the son of Leona Estelle and Rolland Clair Root, a construction supervisor. He graduated from Vero Beach High School in Vero Beach, Florida. He is a graduate of the University of Florida, where he majored in acting and broadcasting.
  Among his most recognized television roles are eccentric billionaire Jimmy James on the sitcom NewsRadio and as the voice of depressed Army barber Bill Dauterive and Hank Hill's skirt-chasing boss Buck Strickland on the animated television series King of the Hill (Root originally auditioned for the role of Dale). He had a recurring role on the final two seasons of The West Wing as Republican campaign consultant Bob Mayer. His most recognizable film roles to date are as the mumbling, quirky Milton Waddams in Office Space, as the mild-mannered gymrat Gordon Pibb in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, as Suds, a drunk sports writer, in Leatherheads, and as the dimwitted principal in the 2008 Judd Apatow produced comedy Drillbit Taylor.
  
  wn.com/Stephen_Root
• 
  Steve Buscemi
  Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi (/bʉˈʃɛmi/ boo-SHEM-ee or boo-SEM-ee; born December 13, 1957) is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Desperado, Con Air, Armageddon, The Grey Zone, Ghost World and Big Fish; and the HBO television series The Sopranos. He is also known for his appearances in many films by the Coen brothers: Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski and Paris, je t'aime.
  Since 2010, he has starred in the critically acclaimed series Boardwalk Empire, which earned him two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe, and a nomination for an Emmy Award.
  He made his directorial debut in 1996, with Trees Lounge, in which he also starred. Other works include Animal Factory (2000), Lonesome Jim (2005) and Interview (2007).
  
  wn.com/Steve_Buscemi
• 
  Steven Spielberg
  Steven Allan Spielberg (born December 18, 1946) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing such issues as the Holocaust, slavery, war and terrorism. He is considered one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks movie studio.
  Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). Three of Spielberg's films—Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Jurassic Park (1993)—achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes puts Spielberg's wealth at $3.0 billion.
  
  wn.com/Steven_Spielberg
• Terence Winter
  Terence Winter (born in Brooklyn, New York) is an American writer and producer of television and film. He is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire. Before creating Boardwalk Empire, Winter was a writer and executive producer for the HBO television series The Sopranos.
  Terence Winter attended New York University in New York City, where he received a bachelor's degree. He went on to attend St. John's University School of Law, and became a member of the bars of New York State and Connecticut. He practiced law for two years in New York City before moving to Los Angeles, California in 1991 to pursue a screenwriting career. He eventually won a spot in the Warner Bros. Sitcom Writers Workshop, and later joined the writing staff of the Fox Broadcasting series The Great Defender, starring Michael Rispoli, later a Sopranos cast-member.
  Prior to The Sopranos, Winter wrote for the series Sister, Sister, Xena: Warrior Princess, The Cosby Mysteries, The New Adventures of Flipper, Diagnosis: Murder, Charlie Grace, DiResta and The PJs. He additionally wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film Get Rich or Die Tryin' and its accompanying video game, 50 Cent: Bulletproof.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Terence_Winter
• Tim Van Patten
  Tim Van Patten (born 10 June 1959) is an American television director, actor, screenwriter, and producer. As a director, Van Patten has directed episodes of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Boardwalk Empire, Rome, The Pacific, Game of Thrones, Ed, and Sex and the City. Van Patten is perhaps best known for portraying Salami on The White Shadow. He also played the villainous teenager Peter Stegman in Class of 1984 and Max Keller on The Master.
  Van Patten was born in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Massapequa, New York (where he attended the same high school as Jerry Seinfeld). Van Patten is the half brother of Dick Van Patten and Joyce Van Patten, and the uncle of Vincent Van Patten and Talia Balsam.
  In 2001, together with Terence Winter, Van Patten won both the Writers Guild Award and the Edgar Award for The Sopranos episode "Pine Barrens", directed by Steve Buscemi. In 2004, Van Patten directed an episode called "Long Term Parking", which won an Emmy for "Best Writing in a Dramatic Series".
  
  wn.com/Tim_Van_Patten
• 
  Vincent Piazza
  Vincent Piazza is an American film, television and stage actor best known for his roles in the television series Boardwalk Empire and the 2007 film Rocket Science.
  Born and raised in Queens, New York and of German-Italian descent,^{[citation needed]} Piazza was originally a club ice hockey player representing Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, until a recurring shoulder injury forced him to quit playing and leave the university after only a year. His ending in hockey brought him to a career in acting as he began to work with acting coach Alice Spivak and joined the TerraNOVA Collective theatre group in Lion Theatre along Theatre Row in New York City. After appearing in a number of New York Off Broadway productions, including Baby Steps, A Match Made in Manhattan and Much Ado About Nothing, he made his feature film debut in the 2006 film Stephanie Daley and went on to appear in the television movie The Dawn and an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. P
  Piazza has appeared in three episodes of the television series The Sopranos; the eighth, eleventh and thirteenth episodes of the show's sixth season. He describes his experience working on the show as "incredible" and says he would appear in any prequels or sequels to the series if he was asked. He then featured in the 2007 film Rocket Science as Earl Hefner, the kleptomaniac older brother of the film's protagonist. After auditioning at a casting session held at a New York acting school, he ended up being one of the first actors cast, writer-director Jeffrey Blitz saying: "Vince brought just the right combination of humor and threat to the part ... [I] kept many of the rest of the choices Vince brought to Earl. He’s a very physical actor and a very funny one, too." He went on to appear in the independent films Goodbye Baby, Tie a Yellow Ribbon and Apology, as well as guest-starring in an episode of Law & Order, before he landed the recurring role of Tony in Rescue Me's fourth season.
  
  wn.com/Vincent_Piazza
• Waxey Gordon
  Waxey Gordon (born Irving Wexler; 1886/1889 - June 24, 1952) was an American gangster who specialized in bootlegging and illegal gambling. An associate of Arnold Rothstein during prohibition he was caught up in a power struggle following Rothstein's death. Fellow Rothstein associates, Charles Luciano and Meyer Lansky, provided authorities with evidence that led to his imprisonment for ten years.
  Born Irving Wexler to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents in New York's Lower East Side around 1889, Gordon became known as a pickpocket and sneak thief as a child, becoming so successful he earned the nickname "Waxey" for supposedly being so skilled in picking pockets it was as if his victims' wallets were waxed. Joining "Dopey" Benny Fein's labor sluggers in the early 1910s Gordon helped organize Fein's operations before being noticed by Arnold Rothstein, who hired him away from Fein and put him to work as a rum-runner during the first years of Prohibition.
  Gordon's success later led him to run all of Rothstein's bootlegging on most of the east coast, specifically New York and New Jersey, and importing large amounts of Canadian whiskey over the U.S.–Canadian border. Gordon, now earning an estimated $2 million a year, began buying numerous breweries and distilleries as well as owning several speakeasies. Gordon began to be known to live extravagantly, traveling in limousines and living regularly in prominent Manhattan hotel suites, as well as owning mansions built for him in New York and Philadelphia.
  
  wn.com/Waxey_Gordon

Boardwalk Empire (2010)

Genres

• Crime
• Drama

Taglines:

Atlantic City, 1920. When alcohol was outlawed, outlaws became kings.
You Can't Be Half A Gangster

Quotes:

Arnold Rothstein: [referring to D'Alessio brothers] Do you know what the nice thing is about the Bronx zoo, Charlie? There are bars between you and the monkeys.

Arnold Rothstein: [during a card game] What should I do here, Charlie?::Lucky Luciano: Depends on what the other guy got.::Arnold Rothstein: Depends on what the other gentleman has.::Lucky Luciano: Right.::Arnold Rothstein: Well? What does he have?::Lucky Luciano: How should I know? I'm no swami.::Arnold Rothstein: The very reason this game is so challenging. There's a lot of money in that pot. How much do you think is in there?::Buck: Plenty.::Arnold Rothstein: 22,500$. How much mining equipment do you have to sell to make 22 grand, Buck?::Buck: A lot. Now are you gonna call or fold?::Arnold Rothstein: I'll see your two... And raise you five.::Buck: Take it. I was bluffing.::Arnold Rothstein: I know. So was I.

Lucky Luciano: You wanted to see me?::Arnold Rothstein: Yeah, it turns out my sister-in-law's nephew, for a time at least, survived the shooting in the woods.::Lucky Luciano: Well, I'm sorry about your loss. Obviously, if there's anything I can do...::Arnold Rothstein: There is actually. You can kill someone for me to settle a debt. I have it on good authority that a James Darmody of Atlantic City was one of the two shooters.::Lucky Luciano: Who was the other one?::Arnold Rothstein: I don't know. But I'd bet you're persuasive enough to get Darmody to tell you.::Lucky Luciano: That's a good bet.::Arnold Rothstein: The only kind I make.

Arnold Rothstein: Meyer, Charlie, I believe you know Mr. Masseria.::Lucky Luciano: Everybody knows Joe the boss.::Arnold Rothstein: Then perhaps you also know, though it is of course news to me, that a card game you operate is located in territory that Mr. Masseria considers to be his.::Joe Masseria: Not considers! Is mine.::Arnold Rothstein: My thinking was, before any more blood is shed, that a compromise can be reached.::Meyer Lansky: More blood?::Joe Masseria: Tompkins Square Park, my two nephews? [imitates throat-cutting]::Lucky Luciano: I don't know what you're talking about.::Arnold Rothstein: Apparently two of Mr. Masseria's emissaries to your establishment were murdered shortly after their visit.::Meyer Lansky: We do operate a game in what might be termed a grey area territorially. But as to any violence in the neighborhood...::Joe Masseria: They stab themself, eh?::Lucky Luciano: A coincidence then. It happens.::Joe Masseria: On my streets, no coincidence. [indicates Charlie] This little prick, since he's 10 years old he causes problems.::Arnold Rothstein: It seems to me you boys ought to extend a token of goodwill towards Mr. Masseria. Shall we say a one-time fee of $2,000 for the families of those gentlemen and a tax of 10% on the game going forward?::Lucky Luciano: Hold on a fuckin' second...::Arnold Rothstein: Charlie.::Joe Masseria: 10% is okay. For now.::Arnold Rothstein: Then we have an agreement? [shake hands]::Joe Masseria: [in Italian] What are you doing with these Christ-killers? Come with me, I'll make you rich.::Lucky Luciano: [in Italina] With your other hand in my pockets.::Joe Masseria: [in Italian] I'm watching you, boy. Every fucking step. [Luciano stands up angrily]::Arnold Rothstein: Charlie.::Lucky Luciano: A.R., two grand is bad enough, but 10% of the fucking game?::Meyer Lansky: We already pay half the take on that game to you.::Arnold Rothstein: Yes. And now you boys know why.

Lucky Luciano: There's another 50 in the car. They're ingersolls.::Meyer Lansky: I wish you would stop with this. We schlep around with a box of watches, what do we look like?::Lucky Luciano: Fellas who know what time it is.::Meyer Lansky: Might as well set up a pushcart.::Benny Siegel: [comes in, surprised] Arnold Rothstein's here.::Meyer Lansky: We're talking, Benny.::Benny Siegel: Oh. So I should tell him go fuck a duck?::Lucky Luciano: Enough with the crazy shit already, huh?::Meyer Lansky: [glancing at Rothstein through the window] Bring him in before he breaks the house. [they scramble to look presentable] A.R., did you come to sit in?::Lucky Luciano: You know you're always welcome.::Arnold Rothstein: I'm afraid those sharpers out there'd fleece me. Owing to his present difficulties, I've made a deal with Nucky Thompson. He'll be offloading his liquor shipments in Philadelphia. Waxey Gordon will ensure safe arrival. The route to Atlantic city will be my responsibility.::Meyer Lansky: And you'd like us to recruit the muscle?::Arnold Rothstein: I would like you to be the muscle.::Lucky Luciano: A.R., we, uh, got some business going on just now.::Arnold Rothstein: I can see that. But Mr. Thompson is paying me a premium.::Lucky Luciano: Anybody could ride shotgun.::Arnold Rothstein: Until you encounter Indians.::Meyer Lansky: We're honored by your trust, A.R., and flattered that you would come below 14th street to discuss it personally. Aren't we, Charlie?::Lucky Luciano: Sure.::Arnold Rothstein: As it happens, I was down here having dinner with Joe Masseria, who left me with the distinct impression he'd still like both of you dead.::Lucky Luciano: You broke bread with that prick?::Arnold Rothstein: We were served a native dish of tripe, which I cannot abide. But I ate it anyway, to keep the peace. Some things, Charlie, you just have to swallow.

[coming in to speak with her husband, Arnold Rothstein]::Carolyn Rothstein: Arnold, a Nucky Thompson on the telephone.::Arnold Rothstein: I'll take it in here, darling.::Carolyn Rothstein: [about his diet, with a smile] How's that stomach?::Arnold Rothstein: It's still a little tentative.::Carolyn Rothstein: So much apple bread.::Arnold Rothstein: [laughs lightly] It has a binding effect.::Carolyn Rothstein: Is that the best thing right now?::Arnold Rothstein: A sound elimination is the basis of good health.::[Carolyn looks at him amusedly before exiting]

Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson: The puppies have grown fangs.

Margaret Schroeder: I would be honored to name my child after you.::Enoch 'Nucky' Thompson: Enoch? You couldn't possibly be so cruel.

James 'Jimmy' Darmody: You can't be half a gangster, Nucky. Not anymore.

Chalky White: These here are my daddy tools.::Klan leader: [nervously] What are you going to do with them?::Chalky White: Well, I ain't building no bookcase.