Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant, and historically has been known by other names including Canaan, Zion, Syria Palaestina, Southern Syria, Jund Filastin and Outremer.

The boundaries of the region have changed throughout history, and were first defined in modern times by the Franco-British boundary agreement (1920) and the Transjordan memorandum of 16 September 1922, during the mandate period. Today, the region comprises the country of Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Palestine is also used to refer to the State of Palestine which, since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, has referred to a state in the Palestinian territories on 22% of "historical Palestine". The State of Palestine is recognized today by approximately two-thirds of the world's countries, although this status is not recognized by the United Nations, Israel and major Western nations such as the United States.

Palestina is the Latin short-form of the name "Syria Palaestina".

Palestina, Palestine, and Philistia, are alternate Bible names for the land of the Philistines in Exodus 15:14, Isaiah 14:29-31, Joel 3:4, Psalm 60:8, Psalm 87:4, Psalm 108:9.

It is also the name of several places, mostly in Latin America:

Region is most commonly found as a term used in terrestrial and astrophysics sciences also an area, notably among the different sub-disciplines of geography, studied by regional geographers. Regions consist of subregions that contain clusters of like areas that are distinctive by their uniformity of description based on a range of statistical data, for example demographic, and locales. In astrophysics some regions have science-specific terms such as galactic clusters.

In Geography, regions can be broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of Humanity and the environment (environmental geography). Geographic regions and subregions are mostly described by their imprecisely defined, and sometimes transitory boundaries, except in human geography where jurisdiction areas such as national borders are clearly defined in law.

Apart from the global continental regions, there are also hydrospheric and atmospheric regions that cover the oceans, and discrete climates above the land and water masses of the planet. The land and water global regions are divided into subregions geographically bounded by large geological features that influence large-scale ecologies, such as plains and steppes, forested massifs, deserts, or mountainous regions. Subregions describe the areas within regions that are easily distinguished in both the geological and ecological observable features.

Raji Sourani (Arabic: راجي الصوراني‎) is widely considered the Gaza Strip's foremost human rights lawyer. He is the 1991 recipient of the 1991 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, was an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience in 1985 and 1988, member of International Commission of Jurists EXCO and IDAL EXCO, and Vice President of the International Federation of Human Rights. He is the founder and director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Sourani was active in the cases of Palestinians representing deportation, and in monitoring the conditions of Israeli prisons and detentions. He remains an unreserved critic of human rights violations occurring on both sides of the conflict.

Raji is currently living in Gaza with his wife Amal and their two children, Nour and Basil.

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.