Both are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the African Union and other multilateral organizations.

Conversely the use of true brass seems to have declined in Western Europe during this period in favour of gunmetals and other mixed alloys but by the end of the first Millennium AD brass artefacts are found in Scandinavian graves in Scotland, brass was being used in the manufacture of coins in Northumbria and there is archaeological and historical evidence for the production of brass in Germany and The Low Countries areas rich in calamine ore which would remain important centres of brass making throughout the medieval period, especially Dinant – brass objects are still collectively known as dinanterie in French.

Older editions of the CIA World Factbook, going back to 1989, country rankings constructed from CIA data, and additional country information from other sources are available at the Countries of the World website, which was begun in 1996.

Countries marked in dark colors are authoritarian, and most often dictatorships.

Countries that are more red are authoritarian, and most often dictatorships.

Countries choose this kind of economic integration if their economical structures are complementary.

In 2004 the Right to Food Guidelines are adopted, offering guidance to states on how to implement their obligations on the right to food .< ref > Olivier de Schutter ( 2010 ) " Countries tackling hunger with a right to food approach.

Excavations are currently underway, and if the so far presented estimates hold true, the site would be the only pre-glacial ( Neanderthal ) site so far discovered in the Nordic Countries, and it is approximately 125, 000 years old.

Countries within the EU are required to adopt the directive in national legislation by early 2013.

The IMU's members are Member Countries and each Member country is represented through an Adhering Organization, which may be its principal academy, a mathematical society, its research council or some other institution or association of institutions, or an appropriate agency of its government.

The Commission for Developing Countries supports research travel of mathematicians based in developing countries as well as mathematics research conferences in the developing world through its Grants Program which is open to mathematicians throughout the developing world, including countries that are not ( yet ) members of the IMU.

Countries are required to update their AIP manuals every 28 days and so provide definitive regulations, procedures and information for each country about airspace and aerodromes.

Countries are increasingly recognizing how severely IC / PBS can affect patients ' lives, by officially recognizing that it can completely impair functioning.

Countries pictured ( clockwise from upper left ) are Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt ( across the Gulf of Aqabah ), Israel, and the disputed West Bank, with Jordan in the center.

In common use are such terms as Lusophone, meaning Portuguese-speaking, and Lusitanic, referring to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries — once Portugal's colonies and presently independent countries still sharing some common heritage.

* They are both members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

Countries seen as not being sufficiently compliant with such recommendations are subjected to financial sanctions.

Countries with a minority Muslim population are more likely than Muslim-majority countries of the Greater Middle East to use mosques as a way to promote civic participation.

Some micro-nationalists call their countries Nomadic Countries, especially ones that have no land and are based on the Internet.

Both are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the African Union and other multilateral organizations.

Countries with a coastline on the Persian Gulf are ( clockwise, from the north ): Iran, Oman ( exclave of Musandam ), United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar on a peninsula off the Saudi coast, Bahrain on an island, Kuwait and Iraq in the northwest.

Countries such as Belgium and Switzerland that often use charitable fund-raising design stamps that are desirable for collectors.

However, this power can be lost under certain circumstances: some Countries have been forced to disarm by other Countries, upon losing a war, or by having arms embargos or sanctions placed on them.

For a second time in his youth, Richard was forced to seek refuge in the Low Countries, which were then part of the realm of the Duchy of Burgundy.

* January 10 – WWII: Mechelen Incident: A German plane carrying secret plans for the invasion of western Europe makes a forced landing in Belgium, leading to mobilization of defense forces in the Low Countries.

* February 10 – Mary of Burgundy, the daughter of Charles the Bold, is forced by her disgruntled subjects to sign the Great Privilege, by which the Flemish cities recover all the local and communal rights which had been abolished by the arbitrary decrees of the dukes of Burgundy, in their efforts to create in the Low Countries a centralized state.

In July 1340, Edward returned and besieged Tournai ; again, Philip brought up a relieving army which harassed the besiegers but did not offer open battle, and Edward was again forced to return home, fleeing the Low Countries secretly to escape his creditors.

In order to get released Philip was forced to sign a treaty with Henry VII – the so called – which included a mutual defence pact, the extradition of rebels, including the Earl of Suffolk who as an exile was a guest of Philip in the Low Countries, and a trade agreement which allowed English merchants to import cloth duty free in to the Low Countries.

Louis was swift to re-engage, and forced Maximilian to agree to the Treaty of Arras ( 1482 ) by which Franche-Comté and Artois passed for a time to French rule, only to be regained by the Treaty of Senlis ( 1493 ), which established peace in the Low Countries.

With Louis XIV concentrating his resources in Alsace and the Low Countries, Catinat was forced onto the defensive.

England's entry into the war later that year led to the French capture of Calais, and French armies plundered Spanish possessions in the Low Countries ; but Henry was nonetheless forced to accept the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, in which he renounced any further claims to Italy.

Shas demands and endorses a compensation package for those Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews that were forced to leave their host countries and their property behind, making it a condition for its being willing to accept any peace deal with the PLO and bilateral peace agreements with Arab Countries.

" Reivers served as mercenaries, or were forced to serve in English and Scots armies in the Low Countries and in Ireland.

Following Germany's invasion of France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940, 4 Squadron was frequently forced to change bases by the approach of the advancing German armies, being withdrawn to the UK on 24 May.

England's entry into the war later that year led to the French capture of Calais, England's last possession on the French mainland, and French armies plundered Spanish possessions in the Low Countries ; but Henry was nonetheless forced to accept the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, in which he renounced any further claims to Italy.

The Brethren were forced to operate underground and eventually dispersed across Northern Europe as far as the Low Countries, where Bishop John Amos Comenius attempted to direct a resurgence.

Maximian then forced the Salians in Toxandria ( the present Low Countries ) to accept imperial authority, but was not able to follow on this success by reconquering Britain.

Countries such as Portugal ( which states that one of the primary roles of the Constituent Assembly is to open the way to socialist society ), India and Algeria have used the term " socialist " in their official name or constitution without claiming to follow Communism or any of its derivatives.

The regiment saw action in the Low Countries the following year at the Battle of Walcourt, in which an Allied Army defeated the French, though defeats for the Allies would soon follow.

The suit further contends that the company violated federal racketeering laws by conspiring with National Council of La Raza and League of United Latin American Countries not to question the employment applications of anyone with a Hispanic surname.

Behind him lay the Low Countries, where men were still completing the cathedrals that a later Florentine would describe as `` a malediction of little tabernacles, one on top of the other, with so many pyramids and spires and leaves that it is a wonder they stand up at all, for they look as though they were made of paper instead of stone or marble '' ; ;

Montgomery's training paid off when the Germans began their invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May 1940 and the 3rd Division advanced to the River Dijle and then withdrew to Dunkirk with great professionalism, entering the Dunkirk perimeter in a famous night-time march which placed his forces on the left flank which had been left exposed by the Belgian surrender.

Countries like Russia and China had already delivered a small quantity of military equipment some years earlier, but gained on importance during the past few years.

It was announced on 24 January 2006 that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao would visit Fiji that April to open the China-Pacific Islands Countries Economic Development & Cooperation Forum Ministerial Conference 2006 at Sofitel Fiji Resort in Nadi, a conference of economic and trade ministers from Pacific island countries.

* Nordgren, I .: The Well Spring of the Goths: About the Gothic peoples in the Nordic Countries and on the Continent ( 2004 ).

The Bourbons of France held a strong claim to Luxembourg, the Emperor of Austria on the other hand had controlled the duchy until the revolutionary forces had joined it to the French republic ( he reportedly was not enthusiastic about regaining Luxembourg and the Low Countries, being more interested in the Balkans ).

Under the IMF's Highly Indebted Poor Countries debt relief program, Senegal will benefit from eradication of two-thirds of its bilateral, multilateral, and private sector debt, contingent on the completion of privatization program proposed by the government and approved by the IMF.

With an external debt of U. S .$ 2, 495 million, and with its economic reform program on track, Senegal qualified for the multilateral debt relief initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries ( HIPC ).

According to Jan Michiel Otto, Professor of Law and Governance in Developing Countries at Leiden University, " Anthropological research shows that people in local communities often do not distinguish clearly whether and to what extent their norms and practices are based on local tradition, tribal custom, or religion.

On 14 December, 1960, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514 ( XV ) under titled Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples provided for the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples in providing an inevitable legal linkage between self-determination and its goal of decolonisation, and a postulated new international law-based right of freedom also in economic self-determination.

" Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples "

Countries that use variations on the theme of the Westminster system include the following:

Maximilian's wife had inherited the vast Burgundian domains in France and the Low Countries upon her father's death in the Battle of Nancy on 5 January 1477.

From early on, the Low Countries began to develop as a commercial and manufacturing center.

In Dutch, a distinction still exists between on the one hand ' de Nederlanden ' ( plural, the Low Countries ) and ' Nederland ' ( singular, the present-day state of the Netherlands ) that is a consequence of this separation in the 17th century.