Seychelles (i/seɪˈʃɛlz/ say-shelz; French: [sɛʃɛl]), officially the Republic of Seychelles (French: République des Seychelles; Creole: Repiblik Sesel), is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some 1,500 kilometres (932 mi) east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar. It is part of the Mascarene Islands along with Mauritius and Réunion.

Other nearby island countries and territories include Zanzibar to the west, Réunion to the south, Comoros and Mayotte to the southwest. Seychelles, with an estimated population of 86,525, has the smallest population of any African state.[3]

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Politics
3 Subdivisions
4 Education
5 Geography
5.1 Climate
6 Economy
7 Demographics
8 Culture
9 Flora and fauna
10 Media and telecommunications
11 See also
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links
[edit]History

Main article: History of Seychelles
Austronesian seafarers or Arab traders were the first to visit the uninhabited Seychelles. The earliest recorded sighting by Europeans took place in 1502 by the Portuguese Admiral Vasco da Gama, who passed through the Amirantes and named them after himself (islands of the Admiral).

A transit point for trade between Africa and Asia, the islands were occasionally used by pirates until the French began to take control starting in 1756 when a Stone of Possession was laid by Captain Nicholas Morphey. The islands were named after Jean Moreau de Séchelles, Louis XV’s Minister of Finance.[4]

The British contested control over the islands between 1794 and 1810. Jean Baptiste Quéau de Quincy, French administrator of Seychelles during the years of war with the United Kingdom, declined to resist when armed enemy warships arrived.[5] Instead, he successfully negotiated the status of capitulation to Britain which gave the settlers a privileged position of neutrality.

Britain eventually assumed full control upon the surrender of Mauritius in 1810, formalised in 1814 at the Treaty of Paris. Seychelles became a crown colony separate from Mauritius in 1903. Elections were held in 1966 and 1970. Independence was granted in 1976 as a republic within the Commonwealth.[6] In 1977, a coup d'état ousted the first president of the republic, James Mancham, who was replaced by France Albert René.[7] The 1979 constitution declared a socialist one-party state, which lasted until 1991. The first draft of a new constitution failed to receive the requisite 60 percent of voters in 1992, but an amended version was approved in 1993.

[edit]Politics

Main article: Politics of Seychelles


State House, Victoria – the seat of the President
The Seychelles president, who is both head of state and head of government, is elected by popular vote for a five-year term of office. The previous president, France Albert René, first came to power in an overthrow of the government in 1977, one year after independence.[8] He was democratically elected after the constitutional reforms of 1992. He stepped down in 2004 in favour of his vice-president, James Michel, who was re-elected in 2006. Michel was reelected in 2011 in an election declared by over 100 international observers, representing Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth of Nations and the Indian Ocean Commission, as being free and fair,[9] although the opposition parties claim that there was vote-buying.[10][11]

The cabinet is presided over and appointed by the president, subject to the approval of a majority of the legislature.

The unicameral Seychellois parliament, the National Assembly or Assemblée Nationale, consists of 34 members, of whom 25 are elected directly by popular vote, while the remaining nine seats are appointed proportionally according to the percentage of votes received by each party. All members serve five-year terms.

The main rival parties are the ruling socialist Seychelles People's Progressive Front (SPPF), as of 2009 the SPPF became the People's Party (PP) or Parti Lepep (LP), and the liberal democrat Seychelles National Party (SNP). Politics has been an integral part of the lives of the Seychellois since its inception in the early sixties. The range of opinion spans socialist and liberal democratic ideology.



President James Michel in his office in Victoria, Seychelles in 2009
Seychelles is part of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), La Francophonie and the Commonwealth of Nations.

Seychelles performed excellently on the 2010 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, ranking 2nd out of 48 sub-Saharan African countries, with an overall score of 79 out of 100, second only to Mauritius, which received a score of 83. Particularly good were its scores in Safety and Security, Participation and Human Rights, and Human Development. The Ibrahim Index is a comprehensive measure of African governance, based on a number of different variables which reflect the success with which governments deliver essential political goods to its citizens.

[edit]Subdivisions

Main article: Districts of Seychelles
Seychelles is divided into twenty-five administrative regions that comprise all of the inner islands. Eight of the districts make up the capital of Seychelles and are referred to as Greater Victoria. Another 14 districts are considered the rural part of the main island of Mahé with two districts on Praslin and one on La Digue which also includes respective satellite islands. The rest of the Outer Islands are not considered part of any district.

Republic of Seychelles

Seychelles (ⁱ/seɪˈʃɛlz/ say-shelz; French: [sɛʃɛl]), officially the Republic of Seychelles (French: République des Seychelles; Creole: Repiblik Sesel), is an island country spanning an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, some 1,500 kilometres (932 mi) east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar. It is part of the Mascarene Islands along with Mauritius and Réunion.

Other nearby island countries and territories include Zanzibar to the west, Réunion to the south, Comoros and Mayotte to the southwest. Seychelles, with an estimated population of 86,525, has the smallest population of any African state.^[3]

Loch Ness (pronounced /ˌlɒx ˈnɛs/, Scottish Gaelic: Loch Nis, [l̪ˠɔxˈniʃ]) is a large, deep, freshwater loch in the Scottish Highlands (57°18′N 4°27′W) extending for approximately 37 km (23 mi) southwest of Inverness. Its surface is 15.8 m (52 ft) above sea level. Loch Ness is best known for the alleged sightings of the cryptozoological Loch Ness Monster, also known affectionately as "Nessie". It is connected at the southern end by the River Oich and a section of the Caledonian Canal to Loch Oich. At the northern end there is the Bona Narrows which opens out into Loch Dochfour, which feeds the River Ness and a further section of canal to Inverness. It is one of a series of interconnected, murky bodies of water in Scotland; its water visibility is exceptionally low due to a high peat content in the surrounding soil.

Loch Ness is the second largest Scottish loch by surface area at 56.4 km² (21.8 sq mi) after Loch Lomond, but due to its great depth, it is the largest by volume. Its deepest point is 230 m (755 ft),^[1][2] deeper than the height of London's BT Tower at 189 m (620 ft) and deeper than any other loch except Loch Morar. It contains more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales combined,^[2] and is the largest body of water on the Great Glen Fault, which runs from Inverness in the north to Fort William in the south.

Ngorongoro Conservation

he Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) is a conservation area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site situated 180 km (112 miles) west ofArusha in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania. The conservation area is administered by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, an arm of the Tanzanian government, and its boundaries follow the boundary of the Ngorongoro Division of Ngorongoro District. The Ngorongoro Crater, a large volcanic caldera, lies within the area.

The Skiddaw massif, town of Keswick and Derwent Water seen from Walla Crag.

Australia's A$45 million bid garnered just one vote when Qatar won the contest to host the world's biggest single sporting event last December in a ballot also contested by the United States, Japan and South Korea.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter last week responded to newspaper reports that two members of the executive committee were paid to vote for the Gulf State's bid by saying the whistleblower behind the allegations would be interviewed this week.

Blatter, who goes up against Qatari Mohamed bin Hammam in an election for the presidency of FIFA on June 1, has not ruled out a re-run of the vote but Football Federation Australia was not about to pre-empt a decision.

"FFA has yet to seriously consider its position following the FIFA President's comments about the 2022 World Cup bidding process," an FFA spokesman said on Monday.

"If and when FIFA makes a decision about a review, FFA will make a decision on what is best for Australian football."

Sports minister Mark Arbib also sounded a cautionary note when asked about the prospects of a re-run over the weekend.

"We're not getting our hopes up that there will be a decision to have a new ballot," he said. "I don't think we should get our hopes up yet.

"We need to have a chance for these allegations to be heard."

Arbib, who is expected to face questions in the Australian parliament on Tuesday about how the A$45 million was spent, said a new campaign should not cost any extra money.

"All the work has been done in terms of scoping the stadium, all the specifications, the technical work is complete," he added.

Frank Lowy, the octogenarian shopping centre tycoon who runs FFA and said executive committee members had "outright lied" to the Australian bid team, has yet to make public comment on the corruption allegations.

Even if there was to be a re-run, however, Australia would be far from favourites, as one newspaper columnist pointed out on Monday.

"Lost in the wash of last December's contentious vote was the fact that the Qataris weren't alone in giving Frank Lowy a black eye," Michael Cockerill wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.

"By the time the poll closed, the Americans had eight times as many votes as Australia. That's a lot of ground to make up."

Eurosport

 

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes and its mountains (or fells), and its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth and the Lake Poets.

The central, and most visited, part of the area is called the Lake District National Park which was designated as a National Park in 1951. It is the largest of thirteen National Parks in England and Wales, and second largest in the UK (after the Cairngorms).[1] It lies entirely within the modern county of Cumbria, shared historically by the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire. All the land in England higher than three thousand feet above sea level lies within the National Park, including Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. It also contains the deepest and longest lakes in England.

Despite the name, only one of the lakes in the Lake District actually contains the word "lake" in its name, Bassenthwaite Lake, the rest being either "meres", "waters", "tarns" or "reservoirs".

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes and its mountains (or fells), and its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth and the Lake Poets.

The central, and most visited, part of the area is called the Lake District National Park which was designated as a National Park in 1951. It is the largest of thirteen National Parks in England and Wales, and second largest in the UK (after the Cairngorms).[1] It lies entirely within the modern county of Cumbria, shared historically by the counties of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire. All the land in England higher than three thousand feet above sea level lies within the National Park, including Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. It also contains the deepest and longest lakes in England.

Despite the name, only one of the lakes in the Lake District actually contains the word "lake" in its name, Bassenthwaite Lake, the rest being either "meres", "waters", "tarns" or "reservoirs".