NAKHONPATHOM*
The name derives from the Pali words Nagara Pathama, meaning First city, and Nakhorn Pathom is often referred as Thailand's oldest city. Archaeological remains have been linked to the (pre-Thai) Dvaravati kingdom, dating to the 6th through 11th centuries.Nakhon Pathom Province centuries ago was a coastal city on the route between China and India; due to sedimentation from the Chao Phraya river, the coast line moved much farther to sea. When the Tha Chin river changed its course, the city lost its main water source and thus was deserted, the population moving to a city called Nakhon Chaisi (or Sirichai). King Mongkut (Rama IV) ordered the restoration of Phra Pathom Chedi, which was then crumbling and abandoned in the jungle. A city gradually formed around it, bring new life to Nakhorn Pathom. A museum presents the archaeological record of the city's history.Major settlement of the province included emigration beginning in the reign of King Buddha Loetla Nabhalai (Rama II), which included Khmer villages (e.g. Don Yai Hom), the Lanna populated (Baan Nua) and Lao Song villages (e.g. Don Kanak), as well as a major influx of Southern Chinese in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Today Nakhon Pathom is attracts people from all over Thailand, most notably from Bangkok and the Northeastern, plus and Burmese migrant workers. The province includes industrial zones, major university towns, government offices relocated from Bangkok and agricultural and transport hubs.

AYUTHAYA*
According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Siamese state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby kingdoms of Lavo (at that time still under the Khmer control) and Suphannaphoom (Suvarnabhumi). One source says that, in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King U Thong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya on an island surrounded by rivers, which was the former seaport city of Ayothaya, or Ayothaya Si Raam Thep Nakhon, the Angelic City of Sri Rama. The new city was known as Ayothaya, or Krung Thep Dvaravadi Si Ayothaya. Later it became widely known as Ayutthaya, the Invincible City.Other sources say that King Uthong was a rich merchant of Chinese origin from Phetchaburi, a coastal city in the south, who moved to seek fortune in Ayothaya city. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic Ramakien, which is a southeastern version of Hindu epic Ramayana by the end of the century, Ayutthaya was regarded as the strongest power in mainland Southeast Asia. Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai, Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanuloke. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested .These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.1686 French Map of SiamFrom the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, where the great trading port of Malacca contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests on Malacca. Due to the military support of Ming China, Malacca was diplomatically and economically fortified. In the early fifteenth century the Ming Admiral Zheng He had established one of his bases of operation in the port city, so the Chinese could not afford to lose such a strategic position to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished into one of Ayutthaya's great foes, until its conquest in 1511 by the Portuguese.Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Toungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese began the hostilities with an invasion in 1548 but failed. The second Burmese invasion led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in April 1564. The royal family was taken to Pegu, with the king's eldest son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king.In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return back from Pegu as a monk. The ensuing third invasion captured Ayutthaya in 1569, and Bayinnaung made Maha Thammarachathirat vassal king.Siamese nobles, including one Prince Naresuan, were brought to Pegu.After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, Maha Thammarachathirat proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Siamese fought off repeated Burmese invasions, capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day.) Naresuan went on capture the entire Tenasserim coast (up to Martaban) and Lan Na from the Burmese. Northern Tenasserim and Lan Na fell back to Burmese control after Naresuan's death but after 1615, Burmese invasions stopped.The kingdom attempted to take over Lan Na and northern Tenasserim in 1662 but failed.Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous.In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The first invasion by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The second invasion succeeded in sacking the Ayutthaya city and ending the kingdom in April 1767.

QATAR*
Recent discoveries on the edge of an island in western Qatar indicate early human presence in pre-historic Qatar.[clarification needed] Discovery of a 6th millennium BC site at Shagra, in southeastern Qatar revealed the key role the sea (Persian Gulf) played in the lives of Shagra’s inhabitants. Excavations at Al-Khor in northeastern Qatar, Bir Zekrit and Ras Abaruk, and the discovery there of pottery, flint, flint-scraper tools, and painted ceramic vessels indicates Qatar’s connection with the Al-Ubaid civilisation, which flourished in the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers in present-day Iraq during the period of 5th–4th millennium BC. There had also been a barter-based trading system between the settlements at Qatar and the Ubaid Mesopotamia, in which the exchanged commodities were mainly pottery and dried fish.Islam conquered the entire Arabian region during the 7th century in a string of widespread conflicts resulting in the Islamization of the native Arabian pagans. With the spread of Islam in Qatar, the Islamic prophet Muhammad sent his first military envoy, Al Ala Al-Hadrami, to Al-Mundhir Ibn Sawa Al-Tamimi, the ruler of Bahrain (which extended from the coast of Kuwait to the south of Qatar, including Al-Hasa and Bahrain Islands), in the year 628, inviting him to accept Islam as he had invited other kingdoms and empires of his time such as Byzantium and Persia. Mundhir, in response to Muhammad, announced his acceptance of Islam, and all the inhabitants of Qatar became Muslim, heralding the beginning of the Islamic era in Qatar.In medieval times, Qatar was more often than not independent and a participant in the great Persian Gulf–Indian Ocean commerce. Many races and ideas were introduced into the peninsula from the sailors of Sindh, East Africa, South and Southeast Asia, as well as the Malay archipelago. Today, the traces of these early interactions with the oceanic world of the Indian Ocean survive in the small minorities of races, peoples, languages and religions, such as the presence of Africans and Shihus.Although the peninsula land mass that makes up Qatar has sustained humans for thousands of years, for the bulk of its history, the arid climate fostered only short-term settlements by nomadic tribes. The Abbasid era (750–1258) saw the rise of several settlements, including Murwab. The Portuguese ruled from 1517 to 1538, when they lost to the Ottomans. For the duration of the 18th and 19th century, Qatar was independent, but in 1876, Shaikh Jassim Bin Muhammad bin Thani invited the Ottomans, who had recently annexed the Ahsa region, to protect Qatar. Qatar thus became a dependency of the Ottoman Empire, although not a part of it. But attempts by the Ottomans to annex Qatar outright soon led to the expulsion of the Ottomans from the Qatar Peninsula. In March 1893, at the Battle of Wajbah (10 miles west of Doha), Shaikh Jassim defeated the Ottomans and banished them for good from Qatar. This date is a landmark in Qatari history, one that marks the emergence of modern Qatar as a nation.The British initially sought out Qatar and the Persian Gulf as an intermediary vantage point en route to their colonial interests in India; although, the discovery of petroleum and other hydrocarbons in the early 20th century would re-invigorate their interest. During the 19th century, the time of Britain’s formative ventures into the region, the Al Khalifa clan reigned over the northern Qatari peninsula from the nearby island of Bahrain to the west.Although Qatar had the legal status of a dependency, resentment festered against the Bahraini Al Khalifas along the eastern seaboard of the Qatari peninsula. In 1867, the Al Khalifas launched a successful effort to crush the Qatari rebels, sending a massive naval force to Al Wakrah. However, the Bahraini aggression was in violation of the 1820 Anglo-Bahraini Treaty. The diplomatic response of the British to this violation set into motion the political forces that would eventuate in the founding of the state of Qatar on December 18, 1878 (for this reason, the date of December 18 is celebrated each year as the National Day of Qatar). In addition to censuring Bahrain for its breach of agreement, the British Protectorate (per Colonel Lewis Pelly) asked to negotiate with a representative from Qatar.The request carried with it a tacit recognition of Qatar’s status as distinct from Bahrain. The Qataris chose as their negotiator the entrepreneur and long-time resident of Doha, Muhammed bin Thani. The Al Thanis had taken relatively little part in Persian Gulf politics, but the diplomatic foray ensured their participation in the movement towards independence and their hegemony as the future ruling family, a dynasty that continues to this day. The results of the negotiations left the nation with a new-found sense of political identity, although it did not gain official standing as a British protectorate until 1916.

BERNARD KOUCHNER

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs In office
17 May 2007 – 13 November 2010
Prime Minister François Fillon
Preceded by Philippe Douste-Blazy (Foreign and European Affairs)
Succeeded by Michèle Alliot-Marie
Minister of Health
In office
2 April 1992 – 29 March 1993
Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy
Preceded by Claude Evin
Succeeded by Simone Veil
Personal details
Born 1 November 1939 (1939-11-01) (age 71)
Avignon, France
Political party Independent (2007–present)
Other political
affiliations Socialist Party (1966–2007)
Communist Party (Before 1966)
Spouse(s) Christine Ockrent
Profession Physician
Bernard Kouchner (born 1 November 1939 in Avignon) is a French politician, diplomat, and doctor. He is co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Médecins du Monde. From 2007 until 2010 he was the French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the right-wing Fillon government under president Nicolas Sarkozy, although he had been in the past a minister in socialist governments.

VANESSA - MAE
Vanessa-Mae began playing piano at the age of three and violin at five.She was particularly famous in the United Kingdom throughout her childhood making regular appearances on television (for example on Blue Peter) mostly involving classical music and conservative style. According to Guinness World Records, she is the youngest soloist to record both the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky violin concertos, a feat she accomplished at the age of thirteen. During this time she attended the Francis Holland School in central London.Vanessa-Mae made her international professional debut at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany in 1988, and also during 1988 made her concerto debut on stage with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London.On entering adolescence Vanessa-Mae broke away from her traditional classical influences and became known for her flashy, sexual style appearing in music videos in stylish outfits. Her first pop-style album, The Violin Player, was released in 1995. She appeared on the 1997 Janet Jackson album The Velvet Rope playing a violin solo on the song "Velvet Rope".She performed in the interval of the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest in Birmingham.In April 2006, Vanessa-Mae was ranked as the wealthiest young entertainer under 30 in the UK in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 having an estimated fortune of about £32 million stemming from concerts and record sales of over an estimated 10 million copies worldwide, which is an unprecedented achievement for a young female violinist.Vanessa-Mae announced in 2006 that she would be releasing a new album sometime between 2007 and 2008. The album was said to draw inspiration from great ballets and opera themes. A new album was expected in 2009 but the year ended without the expected release. Vanessa-Mae was the special guest violinist for Il Divo's Christmas Tour 2009.She plans to compete in the 2014 Winter Olympics as a downhill skier, representing Thailand.