The history and rapid development of minor planet dis In addition to citing the bibliographic source of the nam coveries constitute a fascinating story and one with a ing, we also provide the source of numbering. A spe rather breathtaking evolution. By October 2005, the cial concordance list will enable the evaluation of the total of numbered planets exceeded the remarkable cor respective publication dates. The complete work is, nerstone of 100,000 objects and only three years later of course, a thoroughly revised and considerably en in November 2008 we are even faced with minor planet larged data collection and every e?ort has been made ( ) 200000 . This dramatic evolution must be compared to check and correct each single piece of information ( ) with the huge time span of two centuries 1801–2000 again. For even more detailed information on the dis that was necessary to detect and to re?ne the orbits of covery circumstances of numbered but unnamed plan only the ?rst 20,000 minor planets. Nowadays, we need ets, the reader is referred to the extensive data ?les even less than 13 months for the same quantity! At the compiled by the Minor Planet Center. end of 2005, we had achieved a total of 12,804 named ( According to a resolution of IAU Division III 2000, minor planets a fraction of less than 11 per cent of ) Manchester IAU General Assembly DMPN attained all numbered minor planets.

More than forty years on the throne have given King Hussein and the Hashemite Kingdom an aura of security, stability and permanence. In the face of numerous enemies and adversaries, Hussein's resilience has remained constant. From Abdullah to Hussein examines the most turbulent period in the history of Jordan's ruling house, the six years following the assassination of the kingdom's founder, Abdullah, in 1951. Those years witnessed the country's lone episode of weak monarchy, when the king - the novice Hussein or his ill-starred father, Talal - was not the preeminent political actor in the land. Rather, it was during that time that the regime was left in the hands of a mix of Palestinian, Transjordanian, and Circassian royalists who had never before wielded executive authority inside the kingdom. Based on exclusive interviews, including two sessions with King Hussein, and newly released archival resources from the United States, Britain, Israel and Jordan, the book traces the only two royal successions in Jordanian history: the eleven-month reign of the little-known Talal, and the early years of King Hussein. Throughout, it chronicles the relationship between King and "King's men" that saw Jordan pull itself back from the brink of political disaster and permitted young Hussein to restore a ruling coalition of King, Government and Army that has remained the foundation of the regime ever since. The first scholarly examination of the transition from Abdullah to Talal to King Hussein, this book takes an in-depth look at domestic politics inside Jordan, including the kingdom's early efforts at multi-party elections. It will be of great interest to historians, scholars, and students of themodern Arab world.