Mendip Hills, range of hills in south-western England; located mostly in the county of Somerset and reaching up to the border of Avon in the north, the Mendips extend about 37 km (23 mi) north-west from the Frome valley. The Western Mendip rises to a plateau over 240 m (787 ft) high, and about 9 km (5.6 mi) wide. The limestone of which the hills consist has encouraged the formation of underground streams and caves, the most famous of these being Cheddar Gorge at the north-western end. Evidence of ancient settlements has been found on the hills, which were later mined by the Romans for lead.

India is a secular country that has traditionally absorbed and given birth to a variety of religions and religious sects. The majority of present-day Indians are Hindu, however, and this is reflected in many aspects of the shared culture across the country. Hinduism itself has, over centuries, absorbed and evolved a number of different philosophies and approaches, from the philosophical Advaita of Shankara to the devotion of the Bhakti movement.
The coexistence of significant minority faiths with the majority faith of Hinduism has by no means always been peaceable; Hindu-Muslim and Hindu-Sikh tensions (often fanned by motives other than religious ones) have, in the past, resulted in many deaths. The Ramajanmabhoomi movement, whose demands to build a Hindu temple on what they claim to be the birthplace of Rama in Ayodhya resulted in the destruction by a mob of the Babri Masjid (a mosque which they declared to have

India may be divided into four main regions: the Himalaya, the northern river-plains, the Deccan Plateau, and the Eastern and Western Ghats.
radio Listen to radio from India
The Himalaya mountain system is about 160 to 320 km (100 to 200 mi) wide and extends about 2,410 km (1,498 mi) along the northern and eastern margins of the Indian subcontinent, separating it from the rest of Asia. It is the highest, youngest, and one of the most active mountain systems in the world. Notable peaks wholly or partly within India include Kanchenjunga (8,598 m/28,208 ft), the third-highest peak in the world, after Mount Everest and K2 (Mount Godwin-Austen), Nanga Parbat (8,126 m/26,660 ft), Nanda Devi (7,817
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More than a fifth of the world’s total population lives within China’s borders. China gave birth to one of the world’s earliest civilizations and has a recorded history that dates from some 3,500 years ago. Zhongguo, the Chinese name for the country, means “central land”, a reference to the Chinese belief that their country was the geographical centre of the Earth and the only true civilization.

China’s Communist government placed great emphasis on radio when it began gathering support for its new policies in the early 1950s. Loudspeakers were placed in commune fields and workplaces from the 1950s to the 1970s, and the people gradually became accustomed to continual media presence in their lives; by 1997 more than 417 million radio receivers were in use. Between 1977 and 1981 the number of privately owned television sets in China grew from 630,000 to 7 million; overall, an estimated 400 million television receivers were in use in 1997. In Beijing, two sets for every three households is the urban average. A symbol of the freer economic climate of the 1980s was the inauguration of commercial radio broadcasting in 1986, in southern China. Though officially banned in 1993, satellite television receivers are widespread, serving to disseminate outside news and popular culture.
The Central People’s Television Station was established in Beijing in 1958; in the same year the first Chinese television sets were manufactured in the Tianjin State Radio Plant. Beijing has augmented the standard programming of the Central People’s Television Station with two additional channels, and many cities or provinces have their own local stations. The average composition of programming is 20 per cent news; 25 per cent sports, service, science, and programmes for children and specialized audiences; and 55 per cent entertainment.
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With the increase in foreign cultural exchanges since the mid-1970s, the official attitude towards the propaganda aspects of the arts has been relaxed. Foreign literature, which had been banned in the 1960s, began to reappear in China. In 1978 and 1979 some 200 translations of foreign works, including popular novels from the West, were completed in the People’s Literature Publishing House.

Founded by Zhu, the Ming dynasty first established its capital at Nanjing and revived the characteristically Chinese civilization of the Tang and the Song. Chinese power was reasserted in China and throughout East Asia. Civil government was re-established. Literature was patronized, schools were founded, and the administration of justice was reformed. The Great Wall was extended and the Grand Canal improved. The empire was divided into 15 provinces, most of which still bear their original names. Each province was supervised by three commissioners—one for finances, one for military affairs, and one for judicial matters.