may have reached a
turning point with the election in January 2005 of Mahmud ABBAS as
the new Palestinian leader following the November 2004 death of
Yasir ARAFAT.

Italy
Italy became a nation-state in 1861 when the city-states of
the peninsula, along with Sardinia and Sicily, were united under
King Victor EMMANUEL II. An era of parliamentary government came to
a close in the early 1920s when Benito MUSSOLINI established a
Fascist dictatorship. His disastrous alliance with Nazi Germany led
to Italy's defeat in World War II. A democratic republic replaced
the monarchy in 1946 and economic revival followed. Italy was a
charter member of NATO and the European Economic Community (EEC). It
has been at the forefront of European economic and political
unification, joining the Economic and Monetary Union in 1999.
Persistent problems include illegal immigration, organized crime,
corruption, high unemployment, sluggish economic growth, and the low
incomes and technical standards of southern Italy compared with the
prosperous north.

Jamaica
Jamaica gained full independence within the British
Commonwealth in 1962. Deteriorating economic conditions during the
1970s led to recurrent violence and a drop off in tourism. Elections
in 1980 saw the democratic socialists voted out of office. Political
violence marred elections during the 1990s.

Jan Mayen
This desolate, mountainous island was named after a Dutch
whaling captain who indisputably discovered it in 1614 (earlier
claims are inconclusive). Visited only occasionally by seal hunters
and trappers over the following centuries, the island came under
Norwegian sovereignty in 1929. The long dormant Haakon VII
Toppen/Beerenberg volcano resumed activity in 1970; it is the
northernmost active volcano on earth.

Japan
In 1603, a Tokugawa shogunate (military dictatorship) ushered
in a long period of isolation from foreign influence in order to
secure its power. For 250 years this policy enabled Japan to enjoy
stability and a flowering of its indigenous culture. Following the
Treaty of Kanagawa with the United States in 1854, Japan opened its
ports and began to intensively modernize and industrialize. During
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Japan became a regional
power that was able to defeat the forces of both China and Russia.
It occupied Korea, Formosa (Taiwan), and southern Sakhalin Island.
I