KGB

The KGB, an initialism for Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti (Russian: Комите́т госуда́рственной безопа́сности (КГБ); IPA: [kəmʲɪˈtʲɛt ɡəsʊˈdarstʲvʲɪnnəj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ], translated in English as Committee for State Security), was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its break-up in 1991. Formed in 1954, as a direct successor of such preceding agencies as the Cheka, NKGB, and MGB, the committee was attached to the Council of Ministers. It was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", acting as internal security, intelligence, and secret police. Similar agencies were instated in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from Russia and consisted of many ministries, state committees, and state commissions.

The KGB was a military service and was governed by army laws and regulations, similar to the Soviet Army or MVD Internal Troops. While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two online documentary sources are available. Its main functions were foreign intelligence, counterintelligence, operative-investigatory activities, guarding the State Border of the USSR, guarding the leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government, organization and ensuring of government communications as well as combating nationalism, dissent, and anti-Soviet activities.

State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus

The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus (Belarusian: Камітэт дзяржаўнай бяспекі, КДБ; translit. Kamitet Dziaržaǔnaj Biaspieki, KDB, Russian: Комитет государственной безопасности, КГБ; translit. Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, KGB) is the national intelligence agency of Belarus. Along with its counterparts in Transnistria and South Ossetia, it is one of the few intelligence agencies that kept the Russian name "KGB" after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, albeit it is lost in translation when written in Belarusian (becoming KDB rather than KGB). (The "Special Riot Police," however, are still called OMON.)

It is the Belarusian successor organization to the KGB of the Soviet Union. Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, who founded the Cheka – the original Bolshevik intelligence police – was born in what is now Belarus and remains a national hero.

It is governed by the law About State Security Bodies of the Republic of Belarus.

KGB (disambiguation)

KGB, standing for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, is the Committee for State Security, the former Soviet intelligence agency.

KGB may also refer to:

Organizations

Entertainment and media

Other

Nova

A nova (plural novae or novas) is a cataclysmic nuclear explosion on a white dwarf, which causes a sudden brightening of the star. Novae are not to be confused with other brightening phenomena such as supernovae or luminous red novae. Novae are thought to occur on the surface of a white dwarf in a binary system when they are sufficiently near to one another, allowing material (mostly hydrogen) to be pulled from the companion star's surface onto the white dwarf. The nova is the result of the rapid fusion of the accreted hydrogen on the surface of the star, commencing a runaway fusion reaction.

Development

The development begins with two main sequence stars in a binary relation. One of the two evolves into a red giant leaving its remnant white dwarf core in orbit with the remaining star. The second star—which may be either a main sequence star, or an aging giant one as well—begins to shed its envelope onto its white dwarf companion when it overflows its Roche lobe. As a result, the white dwarf will steadily accrete matter from the companion's outer atmosphere; the white dwarf consists of degenerate matter, so the accreted hydrogen does not inflate as its temperature increases. Rapid, uncontrolled fusion occurs when the temperature of this accreted layer reaches ~20 million kelvin, initiating a burn via the CNO cycle.

Nova (eikaiwa)

Nova (formerly Nova Group) is a large eikaiwa school (private English teaching company) in Japan. It was by far the largest company of this type until its widely publicized collapse in October 2007. Before its bankruptcy, Nova employed approximately 15,000 people across a group of companies that supported the operations of and extended out from the "Intercultural Network" of its language schools. The scope of its business operations reached its peak in February 2007 following a rapid expansion of its chain to 924 Nova branches plus a Multimedia Center located in Osaka.

Nova, known for high-priced lesson packages, and later plagued by lawsuits and negative publicity, began to decline in earnest almost immediately after the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry placed a six-month ban against soliciting new long-term contracts from students on the company on 13 June 2007. The impending financial crisis facing Nova related to a rapid increase in refund claims, significant drops in sales figures, and deterioration of its reputation, came to the fore in September 2007 when Nova began to delay payment of wages and bonuses to staff. The NAMBU Foreign Workers Caucus in Tokyo estimated that up to 3,000 staff had not received their salaries on time. A solution for Nova's failure to pay wages was promised by 19 October in a fax sent to branch schools. On 23 October the Osaka Labor Standards office accepted a demand by unionized Nova instructors to investigate criminal charges against Nova President and founder, Nozomu Sahashi, over delayed and unpaid wages, but Sahashi was ultimately not charged.

Malta (band)

Malta was a Swedish band. It was a duo consisting of Claes af Geijerstam and Göran Fristorp. In 1973, they had to change their band name to Nova in order to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest 1973 to perform the song "You're Summer" in Luxembourg, which would put them in 5th place.

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