Hezbollah —also transliterated Hizbullah, Hizballah, etc.—is a Shia Islamist political party and militant group based in Lebanon. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese parliament. Since the death of Abbas al-Musawi in 1992, the group has been headed by Hassan Nasrallah, its Secretary-General. The group, along with its military wing is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel, Canada, the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Argentina, Paraguay, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, and Venezuela. Germany and the European Union outlawed only Hezbollah’s military wing, and work with Hezbollah’s political wing and allow it to raise funds in Europe.
Satan, also known as the Devil, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood. In Christianity and Islam, he is usually seen as either a fallen angel or a jinn, who used to possess great piety and beauty, but rebelled against God, who nevertheless allows him temporary power over the fallen world and a host of demons. In Judaism, Satan is typically regarded as a metaphor for the yetzer hara, or "evil inclination", or as an agent subservient to God.
2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2006th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 6th year of the 3rd millennium, the 6th year of the 21st century, and the 7th year of the 2000s decade.
Slayer was an American thrash metal band from Huntington Park, California. The band was formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, drummer Dave Lombardo, and bassist and vocalist Tom Araya. Slayer's fast and aggressive musical style made them one of the founding "big four" bands of thrash metal, alongside Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax. Slayer's final lineup comprised King, Araya, drummer Paul Bostaph and guitarist Gary Holt. Drummer Jon Dette was also a member of the band.
The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams representing 198 national football associations from all six populated continents participated in the qualification process which began in September 2003. Thirty-one teams qualified from this process, along with the host nation, Germany, for the finals tournament. It was the second time that Germany staged the competition, the first as a unified country, and the tenth time that it was held in Europe.
Bhumibol Adulyadej, conferred with the title King Bhumibol the Great in 1987, was the ninth monarch of Thailand from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama IX. Reigning since 9 June 1946, he was, at the time of his death, the world's longest-reigning head of state, the longest-reigning monarch in Thai history and the longest-reigning monarch having reigned only as an adult, reigning for 70 years and 126 days. During his reign, he was served by a total of 30 prime ministers beginning with Pridi Banomyong and ending with Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Halo: Combat Evolved is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released as a launch title for Microsoft's Xbox video game console on November 15, 2001. Microsoft released versions of the game for Windows and Mac OS X in 2003. The game was later released as a downloadable Xbox Original for the Xbox 360. Halo is set in the twenty-sixth century, with the player assuming the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier. The Chief is accompanied by Cortana, an artificial intelligence. Players battle various aliens as they attempt to uncover the secrets of the eponymous Halo, a ring-shaped artificial world.
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii competed with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others. As of the first quarter of 2016, the Wii led its generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales, with more than 101 million units sold; in December 2009, the console broke the sales record for a single month in the United States.
The L Word is an American-Canadian co-production television drama that aired on Showtime from January 18, 2004 to March 8, 2009. The series follows an ensemble cast of friends who live in West Hollywood, California; it featured television’s first ensemble cast of lesbian characters. The series' premise originated with Ilene Chaiken, Michele Abbot, and Kathy Greenberg; Chaiken is credited as the primary creator of the series, and also served as its executive producer.
Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner. He began acting as a child, making his acting debut in City Slickers (1991), followed by roles in his father's films A Dangerous Woman (1993) and Homegrown (1998). His breakthrough performances were as Homer Hickam in October Sky (1999) and as a psychologically troubled teenager in Donnie Darko (2001). His most widely seen film to that point came with the disaster film The Day After Tomorrow (2004).
Cars is a 2006 American computer-animated road-comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed and co-written by John Lasseter from a screenplay by Dan Fogelman, it was Pixar's final independently produced film before its purchase by Disney in January 2006. Set in a world populated entirely by anthropomorphic talking cars and other vehicles, the film stars the voices of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Tony Shalhoub, Cheech Marin, Michael Wallis, George Carlin, Paul Dooley, Jenifer Lewis, Guido Quaroni, Michael Keaton, Katherine Helmond, John Ratzenberger and Richard Petty, while race car drivers Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mario Andretti, Michael Schumacher and car enthusiast Jay Leno voice themselves.
Casino Royale is a 2006 spy film, the twenty-first in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the third screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel of the same name. Directed by Martin Campbell and written by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, and Paul Haggis, it is the first film to star Daniel Craig as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond, and was produced by Eon Productions for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Columbia Pictures, making it the first Eon-produced Bond film to be co-produced by the latter studio. Following Die Another Day, Eon Productions decided to reboot the series, allowing them to show a less experienced and more vulnerable Bond.
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 American romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx, the screenplay was written by Ossana and Larry McMurtry. The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and Michelle Williams and depicts the complex emotional and sexual relationship between Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist in the American West from 1963 to 1983.
V for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian political thriller film directed by James McTeigue and written by the Wachowskis, based on the 1988 DC/Vertigo Comics limited series of the same name by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. Set in an alternative future where a Nordic supremacist and neo-fascist totalitarian regime has subjugated the United Kingdom, the film centers on V, an anarchist and masked freedom fighter who attempts to ignite a revolution through elaborate terrorist acts, while Natalie Portman plays Evey, a young, working-class woman caught up in V's mission and Stephen Rea portrays a detective leading a desperate quest to stop V.
Prison Break is an American television serial drama created by Paul Scheuring for Fox. The series revolves around two brothers, Lincoln Burrows and Michael Scofield ; Burrows has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and Scofield devises an elaborate plan to help his brother escape prison and clear his name. The series was produced by Adelstein-Parouse Productions, in association with Original Television and 20th Century Fox Television. Along with creator Paul Scheuring, the series is executive produced by Matt Olmstead, Kevin Hooks, Marty Adelstein, Dawn Parouse, Neal H. Moritz, and Brett Ratner who directed the pilot episode. The series' theme music, composed by Ramin Djawadi, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2006. Prison Break is a joint production between Original Film, Adelstein/Parouse Productions, and 20th Century Fox Television and syndicated by 20th Television.
The ARIA Charts, stylised as the AR1A Charts since November 2018, are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the official Australian music chart in June 1988, succeeding the Kent Music Report which had been Australia's national charts since 1974.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, more commonly known simply as Borat, is a 2006 satirical mockumentary comedy film co-written and produced by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen who also plays the title character, Borat Sagdiyev, a fictitious Kazakh journalist travelling through the United States recording real-life interactions with Americans. The film was directed by Larry Charles and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Much of the film features unscripted vignettes of Borat interviewing and interacting with real-life Americans who believe he is a foreigner with little or no understanding of American customs. It is the second of three films built around Baron Cohen's characters from Da Ali G Show (2000–04): the first, Ali G Indahouse, was released in 2002, and featured a cameo by Borat, and the third, Brüno, was released in 2009. The film is produced by Baron Cohen's production company, Four By Two Productions.
Stephen Robert Irwin, nicknamed "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, television personality, wildlife expert, environmentalist and conservationist.
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African Anglican cleric and theologian known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was the Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then the Archbishop of Cape Town from 1986 to 1996, in both cases being the first black African to hold the position. Theologically, he sought to fuse ideas from black theology with African theology; politically, he identifies as a socialist.
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Economics, is an award for outstanding contributions to the field of economics, and generally regarded as the most prestigious award for that field. The award's official name is The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
