Panama (ⁱ/ˈpænəmɑː/ PAN-ə-mah; Spanish: Panamá), officially the Republic of Panama (Spanish: República de Panamá [reˈpuβlika ðe panaˈma]), is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The capital is Panama City. Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela, named the Republic of Gran Colombia.When Gran Colombia the dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined. Nueva Granada later became the Republic of Colombia.

With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the Panama Canal to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the century.

The Hidden Pearl: The Syrian Orthodox Church And Its Ancient Aramaic Heritage is a 2001 documentary published by TransWorld Film Italia commissioned by the Syriac Orthodox community. The documentary was published in the form of three videos together with three printed volumes.

Volume 1, The Ancient Aramaic Heritage, deals with the Aramaic heritage as the cradle of civilization. It covers the pre-Christian Old Aramaic period, covering the Aramaean city states, the Neo-Assyrian, Achaemenid and Seleucid periods, including the kingdoms of Palmyra, Petra, Edessa and Hatra.

Volume 2, The Heirs of the Ancient Aramaic Heritage, addresses Middle Aramaic tradition and literature, the Aramaic of Jesus and classical Syriac literature.

Volume 3, At the Turn of the Third Millennium: the Syrian Orthodox Witness, focuses on and describes the current situation of the Syriac Orthodox Church and its history in Tur Abdin, on Seyfo and the Syriac diaspora.

Nicolás Maduro Moros (born 23 November 1962 in Caracas) is a Venezuelan politician who was appointed foreign minister by President Hugo Chávez on 9 August 2006.

Nicolas Maduro began his political career as a bus driver and unofficial trade-unionist representing the workers of the Caracas Metro system in the 1970s and 1980s (back then, unions within the Metro company were not allowed). He finished high school in the Liceo Avalos, a public high-school west of Caracas during the '80 (El Valle neighborhood), but lacks any university or further education. He is considered one of the founders of the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), but his biggest political accomplishment was as activist for the release of Hugo Chávez from prison, and later as one of this regional political coordinators during the 1998 presidential race. Maduro was elected on the MVR ticket to the Venezuelan Chamber of Deputies in 1998, to the National Constituent Assembly in 1999, and to the National Assembly in 2000 and 2005, representing the Capital District. The legislature elected him Speaker of the Assembly, even though he did not have a college degree or formal education. He held that position from 2005 until the first half of 2006. Maduro is married to Cilia Flores, herself a prominent figure within the MVR. She replaced Maduro as Speaker of assembly.