Two students, Laila and Abdallah met in High School in the early 1950s. Upon graduation in 1953, Laila went to London to further her education and Abdallah opted to join the labor market as a teacher of English in a night school. After two years of working, Abdallah wanted to have a better future. He applied to and was accepted by the American University of Beirut (AUB) as a full time student. While walking on campus, Abdallah spotted Laila's sister Najwa who also was a student at the university. He asked her about Laila. Najwa said, Laila is still in London and she asked about you. Abdallah told her to please say hello to her for me. Six months later, Abdallah asked Najwa about Laila. She said well, Laila is back home in Beirut now. Abdallah said, hopefully she and I will cross paths again. A week later, on June 15, 1958, Abdallah saw a pretty young lady sitting on a bench under the Banyan tree. He approached her reluctantly and asked if she were Laila. She responded by asking if he is Abdallah. Both rekindled their relationship after five years of separation. They dated on and off for two years and decided to get engaged on October 20, 1960. They got married on December 15, 1962 after which they traveled to the United Stated as Abdallah was accepted to the graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley.

This book documents the history of Government House and Barrackpore Park along with a photographic series of its present day restoration.

The history of Australia’s north coast is a story of ancient industry and international trade with tentacles that reached as far as China. It tells of travel to the far reaches of the world where an old, mid-19th century Groote Eylandt man, spoke of chasing huge fish across cold seas and hunting furred creatures on seas hard as stone. It’s a story of great, forgotten empires on Australia’s doorstep and rich Sultans who claimed that Australia’s north as their own long before Cook laid eyes on it. It’s a story very few Australians know about. When marine biologist Graeme Dobson asked elders about the origins of a strange stone structure in the middle of a bay, off a tiny island, near the coast of Arnhem Land they replied ‘Not ours’, and so began a remarkable quest that became a mystery wrapped in an adventure, folded into history. His research took him to the far corners of Arnhem Land and into the Seas and Islands to its north. It led him back through time, past missionaries, colonists, huge fishing fleets, Dutch map-makers, Portuguese explorers-come-slavers, unknown settlers and miners, and pearl cultivating tribesmen until he finally found the answer in another bay off another tiny island, this time in the remote Indonesian Aru Islands. This is a mystery/adventure with a difference, plus fascinating insights into little discussed history of northern Australia.

Thomas Lichauco was born in about 1813 in China. He married Cornelia Laochangco (1819-1900) in 1836 in Manila, Philippines.. They had five children. Ancestors, descendants and relatives lived mainly in China, Philippines and Hong Kong.

Human population growth has been a topic of speculation and spirited debate since the English economist Thomas Malthus predicted that population will increase faster than the food supply, with catastrophic results. Today, even as fertility rates decline on a global scale, relentless increases in population and other population-driven factors threaten not only the food supply, but also the stability of entire regions of the world. No single individual has contributed more to our understanding of scientific matters related to human population than Sheldon Segal has. Pioneer in contraceptive research and developer of Norplant, Segal has orchestrated many of the international clinical trials of new contraceptives in the last quarter century. In this one volume Segal examines how population factors impact critical scientific elements of human affairs: contraception, family planning, environmental degradation, climate change, food and fresh water supply, and the threat of newly emerging diseases. As we follow Segal from meetings with heads of state and foreign ministers through to his impassioned, grassroots efforts to secure suitable funds for impoverished countries, we gain a behind-the-scenes perspective on how individuals and nations juggle humanitarian and scientific concerns with political agendas. Informed at every turn by Segal's keen intelligence and humane values,Under The Banyan Tree skillfully blends engaging narrative with history and analysis, providing a dramatic and all-encompassing portrait of this most basic of human concerns.

A stunning, powerful debut novel set against the backdrop of the Cambodian War, perfect for fans of Chris Cleave and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. Soon the family's world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus. Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labour, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood - the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author's extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyanis testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience. 'In the Shadow of the Banyanis one of the most extraordinary and beautiful acts of storytelling I have ever encountered' Chris Cleave, author of The Other Hand 'Ratner is a fearless writer, and the novel explores important themes such as power, the relationship between love and guilt, and class. Most remarkably, it depicts the lives of characters forced to live in extreme circumstances, and investigates how that changes them. To read In the Shadow of the Banyan is to be left with a profound sense of being witness to a tragedy of history' Guardian 'This is an extraordinary debut … as beautiful as it is heartbreaking' Mail on Sunday

Minnie O'Brien reflects back on her long life in rural Ireland and her struggle to hand her farm over to her youngest son.