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National name: Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan President: Hamid Karzai (2002) Area: 250,000 sq mi (647,500 sq km) Population (2002 est.): 27,755,775 (growth rate: 2.4%); birth rate: 41.0/1000; infant mortality rate: 144.8/1000; density per sq m...

National name: Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan Pr...

Geography Location: Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea and Ionian Sea, between Greece and Serbia and Montenegro. Geographic coordinates: 41 00 N, 20 00 E Map references: Europe Area: total: 28,750 sq km ; land: 27,400 sq km ;...

Geography Location: Southeastern Europe, borderi...

Formal Name: Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria. Short Name: Algeria. Term for Nationals: Algerian(s). Capital: Algiers. Date ofIndependence: July 5, 1962, from France. GEOGRAPHY Size: 2,381,741 square kilometers, more than fo...

Formal Name: Democratic and Popular Republic of Al...

Background Bahrain's small size and central location among Persian Gulf countries require it to play a delicate balancing act in foreign affairs among its larger neighbors. Possessing minimal oil reserves, Bahrain has turned to petroleum processing ...

Background Bahrain's small size and central locat...

Background Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration of sovereignty in October 1991, was followed by a declaration of independence from the former Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992 after a referendum boycotted by ethnic Serbs. The Bosnian Serbs - supported by n...

Background Bosnia and Herzegovina's declaration o...

Background The Sultanate of Brunei's heyday occurred between the 15th and 17th centuries, when its control extended over coastal areas of northwest Borneo and the southern Philippines. Brunei subsequently entered a period of decline brought on by in...

Background The Sultanate of Brunei's heyday occur...

The Republic of Chad is the largest country of former French Equatorial Africa. Chad is a landlocked country with one of the world’s lowest population densities. It is situated in the heart of Africa and has borders with Cameroon in the south-west, N...

The Republic of Chad is the largest country of for...

The French Territory of the Afars and the Issas became Djibouti in 1977. A peace accord in 1994 ended a three-year uprising by Afars rebels. Geography Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, between Eritre...

The French Territory of the Afars and the Issas be...

The regularity and richness of the annualNileRiver flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. A unified kingdom arose circa 3200 B.C. and a serie...

The regularity and richness of the annualNileRiver...

Eritrea was awarded to Ethiopia in 1952 as part of a federation. Ethiopia's annexation of Eritrea as a province 10 years later sparked a 30-year struggle for independence that ended in 1991 with Eritrean rebels defeating governmental forces; independ...

Eritrea was awarded to Ethiopia in 1952 as part of...

The Gambia gained its independence from the UK in 1965; it formed a short-lived federation of Senegambia with Senegal between 1982 and 1989. In 1991 the two nations signed a friendship and cooperation treaty. A military coup in 1994 overthrew the pre...

The Gambia gained its independence from the UK in ...

Independent fromFrance since 1958, Guinea did not hold democratic elections until 1993 when Gen. Lansana CONTE (head of the military government) was elected president of the civilian government. He was reelected in 1998. Unrest inSierra Leone has spi...

Independent fromFrance since 1958, Guinea did not ...

The world's largest archipelago, Indonesia achieved independence from the Netherlands in 1949. Current issues include: alleviating widespread poverty, implementing IMF-mandated reforms of the banking sector, effecting a transition to a popularly-elec...

The world's largest archipelago, Indonesia achieve...

Formerly part of theOttoman Empire, Iraq became an independent kingdom in 1932. A "republic" was proclaimed in 1958, but in actuality a series of military strongmen have ruled the country since then, the latest being SADDAM Husayn. Territorial disput...

Formerly part of theOttoman Empire, Iraq became an...

Background There are 27 coral islands in the group. Captain William Keeling discovered the islands in 1609, but they remained uninhabited until the 19th century. Annexed by the UK in 1857, they were transferred to the Australian Government in 1955. ...

Background There are 27 coral islands in the grou...

Mayotte was ceded to France along with the other islands of the Comoros group in 1843. It was the only island in the archipelago that voted in 1974 to retain its link with France and forego independence Geography Location: Southern Africa, isla...

Mayotte was ceded to France along with the other i...

Independent fromFrance in 1960, Mauritania annexed the southern third of the formerSpanish Sahara (nowWestern Sahara) in 1976, but relinquished it after three years of raids by the Polisario guerrilla front seeking independence for the territory. Opp...

Independent fromFrance in 1960, Mauritania annexed...

Morocco's long struggle for independence fromFrance ended in 1956. The internationalized city ofTangier was turned over to the new country that same year.Morocco virtually annexed Western Sahara during the late 1970s, but final resolution on the stat...

Morocco's long struggle for independence fromFranc...

Not until 1993, 35 years after independence from France, did Niger hold its first free and open elections. A 1995 peace accord ended a five-year Tuareg insurgency in the north. Coups in 1996 and 1999 were followed by the creation of a National Reconc...

Not until 1993, 35 years after independence from F...

In 1970, QABOOS bin Said Al Said ousted his father and has ruled as sultan ever since. His extensive modernization program has opened the country to the outside world and has preserved a long-standing political and military relationship with the UK. ...

In 1970, QABOOS bin Said Al Said ousted his father...