Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Africa (contd) Madeira (annexure-3)

Madeira  is a Portuguese archipelago, just under 400 kilometres (250 mi) north of Tenerife,Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union. The archipelago comprises the major part of one of the two Autonomous regions of Portugal (the other being the Azores located to the northwest), that includes the islands of Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Desertas, administered together with the separate archipelago of the Savage Islands.
Madeira was claimed by Portuguese sailors in the service of Infante D. Henrique (Henry the Navigator) in 1419, and settled after 1420. The archipelago is considered to be the first territorial discovery of the exploratory period of thePortuguese Age of Discovery.
Today, it is a popular year-round resort, being visited every year by about one million tourists, noted for its Madeira wine, flowers, landscapes and embroidery artisans, as well as for its annual New Year celebrations that feature the largest fireworks show in the world, as officially recognised by Guinness World Records in 2006. The main harbour in Funchal is the leading Portuguese port in cruise liner dockings, being an important stopover for commercial and trans-Atlantic passenger cruises between Europe, the Caribbean and North Africa.

Monday, April 28, 2014

Africa Contd-Ceuta (annexure-2)

Ceuta  is an 18.5-square-kilometre , autonomous city of Spain and anexclave located on the north coast of Africa, sharing a western border with Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies along the boundary between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta, along with the Spanish exclave Melilla, is one of two permanently inhabited Spanish territories in mainland Africa. It was part of Cádiz province until 14 March 1995, when the city's Statute of Autonomy was passed.
Ceuta, like Melilla, was a free port before Spain joined the European Union. As of 2011, it has a population of 82,376.Its population consists of ChristiansMuslims (chiefly Arabic and Berber speakers), and small minorities of Jews and Indian Hindus. Spanish is the official language. The majority of the city's population are ethnic Spanish who are opposed to the idea of being ruled by Morocco. A poll conducted by Instituto Opina found that 87.9% of people from mainland Spain consider the two cities (Ceuta and Melilla) to be Spanish..
The official currency of Ceuta is the euro. It is part of a special low tax zone in Spain. Ceuta is one of two Spanish port cities on the northern shore of Africa, along with Melilla. They are historically military strongholds, free ports, oil ports, and also fishing and smuggling centers. Today the economy of the city depends heavily on its port (now in expansion) and its industrial and retail centres. Ceuta Heliport is now used to connect the city to mainland Spain by air..

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Africa (cntd-1) - Canary Islands (annexure-1)

The Canary Islands  are a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are one of Spain's 17 autonomous communities and are among the outermost region of the European Union proper. The islands include (from largest to smallest): TenerifeFuerteventura,Gran CanariaLanzaroteLa PalmaLa GomeraEl HierroLa GraciosaAlegranzaIsla de LobosMontaña ClaraRoque del Este andRoque del Oeste..- 13 main islands.
The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Canariae Insulae, meaning "Island of the Dogs", a name applied originally only to Gran Canaria. According to the historian Pliny the Elder, the Mauretanian 

king Juba II named the island Canariabecause it contained "vast multitudes of dogs of very large size"

The dunes of Maspalomas inGran Canaria is one of the tourist attractions
The economy is based primarily on tourism, which makes up 32% of the GDP. The Canaries receive about 12 million tourists per year. Construction makes up nearly 20% of the GDP and tropical agriculture, primarily bananas and tobacco, are grown for export to Europe and the Americas. Ecologists are concerned that the resources, especially in the more arid islands, are being overexploited but there are still many agricultural resources like tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cochinealsugarcanegrapesvinesdates, oranges, lemons, figs, wheat, barley, maize, apricotspeaches andalmonds.
The economy is  25 billion (2001 GDP figures). The islands experienced continuous growth during a 20 year period, up until 2001, at a rate of approximately 5% annually. This growth was fueled mainly by huge amounts of Foreign Direct Investment, mostly to develop tourism real estate (hotels and apartments), and European Funds (near € 11 billion euro in the period from 2000 to 2007), since the Canary Islands are labelled Region Objective 1 (eligible for euro structural funds).[citation needed] Additionally, the EU allows the Canary Islands Government to offer special tax concessions for investors who incorporate under the Zona Especial Canaria (ZEC) regime and create more than 5 jobs.
The Canary Islands have great natural attractions, climate and beaches make the islands a major tourist destination, being visited each year by about 12 million people (11,986,059 in 2007, noting 29% of Britons, 22% of Spanish, not residents of the Canaries, and 21% of Germans). Among the islands, Tenerife has the largest number of tourists received annually, followed by Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.[7][8] The archipelago's principal tourist attraction is the Teide National Park (in Tenerife) where the highest mountain in Spain and third largest volcano in the world (Mount Teide), receives over 2.8 million visitors annually.
The combination of high mountains, proximity to Europe, and clean air has made the Roque de los Muchachos peak (on La Palma island) a leading location for telescopes like the Grantecan.
The islands are outside the European Union customs territory and VAT area, though politically within the EU. Instead of VAT there is a local Sales Tax (IGIC) which has a general rate of 7%, an increased tax rate of 13.5%, a reduced tax rate of 3% and a zero tax rate for certain basic need products and services.
Canarian time is Western European Time (WET) (or GMT; in summer one hour ahead of GMT). So Canarian time is one hour behind that of mainland Spain and the same as that of the UK, Ireland and Portugal all year round..

Data of islands[edit]

FlagCoat of armsIslandCapitalArea (km²)Population (2010)
Flag of El Hierro with CoA.svgEscudo de El Hierro.svgEl HierroValverde268.7110,960
Flag of Fuerteventura.svgEscudo de Fuerteventura.svgFuerteventuraPuerto del Rosario1,660103,492
Flag of Gran Canaria.svgEscudo de Gran Canaria.svgGran CanariaLas Palmas de Gran Canaria1,560.1845,676
Bandera La Gomera.PNGEscudo de La Gomera.svgLa GomeraSan Sebastián de La Gomera369.7622,776
Flag of Lanzarote.svgEscudo de Lanzarote.svgLanzaroteArrecife845.94141,437
Flag of La Palma with CoA.svgEscudo de La Palma.svgLa PalmaSanta Cruz de La Palma708.3286,324
Flag of Tenerife.svgEscudo de Tenerife.svgTenerifeSanta Cruz de Tenerife2,034.38906,854
--La GraciosaCaleta de Sebo29.05658
--Alegranza-10.3-
--Isla de Lobos-4.5-
--Montaña Clara-1.48-
--Roque del Este-0.06-
--Roque del Oeste-0.015-

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Annexure-1, Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most-populous continent. At about 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi) including adjacent islands, it covers six percent of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4 percent of the total land area. With 1.1 billion people as of 2013, it accounts for about 15% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, both theSuez Canal and the Red Sea along the Sinai Peninsula to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagoes. It has 54 fully recognized sovereign states ("countries"), nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition.

The countries in this table are categorized according to the scheme for geographic subregions used by the United Nations, and data included are per sources in cross-referenced articles. Where they differ, provisos are clearly indicated.

Physical map of Africa

Political map of Africa
( The rank mentioned in the bracket is from poorest as in 2003 in Africa out of 53, of which first 29 countries are below the poverty line and the last 24 are developing countries.)
Name of region and
territory, with flag


Area
(km²)
Population[117]YearDensity
(per km²)
Capital
Northern Africa
 Algeria (46 in marxist)2,381,74034,178,188200914Algiers    
 Canary Islands (Spain)7,4922,118,5192010226Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
 Ceuta (Spain)2071,50520013,575
 Egypt (43 in marxist)1,001,45082,868,000201283Cairo
 Libya        ?1,759,5406,310,43420094Tripoli
 Madeira (Portugal)797245,0002001307Funchal
 Melilla (Spain)1266,41120015,534
 Morocco (41)446,55034,859,364200978Rabat
 Sudan (30)1,861,48430,894,000200817Khartoum
 Tunisia (48)163,61010,486,339200964Tunis
  Western Sahara ?266,000405,21020092El Aaiún
Horn of Africa
 Djibouti  (40)23,000623,891201222Djibouti
 Eritrea (8)121,3205,647,168200947Asmara
 Ethiopia (1)1,127,12784,320,987201275Addis Ababa
 Somalia ?637,6579,832,017200915Mogadishu
Eastern Africa
 Burundi (3)27,8308,988,0912009323Bujumbura
 Comoros (29)2,170752,4382009347Moroni
 Kenya (25)582,65039,002,772200966Nairobi
 Madagascar (17)587,04020,653,556200935Antananarivo
 Malawi (7)118,48014,268,7112009120Lilongwe
 Mauritius (52)2,0401,284,2642009630Port Louis
 Mayotte (France) ?374223,7652009490Mamoudzou
 Mozambique (10)801,59021,669,278200927Maputo
 Réunion (France)2,512743,9812002296Saint-Denis
 Rwanda (11)26,33810,473,2822009398Kigali
 Seychelles (53)45587,4762009192Victoria
 South Sudan (same as Sudan)619,745 8,260,490200813Juba
 Tanzania (16)945,08744,929,002200943Dodoma
 Uganda (12)236,04032,369,5582009137Kampala
 Zambia (24)752,61411,862,740200916Lusaka
 Zimbabwe (31)390,58011,392,629200929Harare
Central Africa
 Angola (3)81,246,70012,799,293200910Luanda
 Cameroon (36)475,44018,879,301200940Yaoundé
 Central African Republic (14)622,9844,511,48820097Bangui
 Chad (13)1,284,00010,329,20820098N'Djamena
 Republic of the Congo (35)342,0004,012,809200912Brazzaville
 Democratic Republic of the Congo (2)2,345,41069,575,000201230Kinshasa
 Equatorial Guinea (39) 28,051633,441200923Malabo
 Gabon (51)267,6671,514,99320096Libreville
 São Tomé and Príncipe (21)1,001212,6792009212São Tomé
Southern Africa
 Botswana (50)600,3701,990,87620093Gaborone
 Lesotho (34)30,3552,130,819200970Maseru
 Namibia (45)825,4182,108,66520093Windhoek
 South Africa (49)1,219,91251,770,560201142BloemfonteinCape Town,Pretoria[124]
 Swaziland (42)17,3631,123,913200965Mbabane
Western Africa
112,6208,791,832200978Porto-Novo
 Burkina Faso (18)274,20015,746,232200957Ouagadougou
 Cape Verde (44)4,033429,4742009107Praia
 Côte d'Ivoire (37)322,46020,617,068200964Abidjan,[125] Yamoussoukro
 Gambia ?11,3001,782,8932009158Banjul
 Ghana ((23)239,46023,832,4952009100Accra
 Guinea (27)245,85710,057,975200941Conakry
 Guinea-Bissau (5)36,1201,533,964200943Bissau
 Liberia (4)111,3703,441,790200931Monrovia
 Mali (15)1,240,00012,666,987200910Bamako
 Mauritania (26)1,030,7003,129,48620093Nouakchott
 Niger (9)1,267,00015,306,252200912Niamey
 Nigeria (22)923,768166,629,0002012180Abuja
 Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)4207,728201213Jamestown
 Senegal ((33)196,19013,711,597200970Dakar
 Sierra Leone (6)71,7406,440,053200990Freetown
 Togo (19)56,7856,019,8772009106Lomé
  Africa Total30,368,6091,001,320,281200933