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THAILAND, formerly known as Siam, is a constitutional monarchy located in Southeast Asia. The only country in the region to have escaped being made into a European colony (although Japanese troops occupied it during World War II). It is a tropical country of mountains and jungles, rainforests, and green plains.
The BAHAMAS consists of an archipelago of 700 islands located in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida’s southeast coast. The largest island is Andros (4,144 square kilometers or 1,600 square miles), but most islanders live on Grand Bahama or New Providence, where the capital, Nassau, lies. Winters in the Bahamas are mild and summers warm. The most rain falls in May, June, September, and October, and thunderstorms are frequent in summer. The islands are also subject to hurricanes and other tropical storms.
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC), formerly Zaire, is situated in west-central Africa. It is a vast country with a short coastline of only 40 kilometers or 25 miles on the Atlantic Ocean. There is a constant arable variety in the country’s geography, from the rainforests on the western border to the huge central plain and mountains in the northeast, east, and south. However, the Congo (Zaire) river basin dominates the land and reaches from the country’s center to mountains or plateaux on all sides. In the east, the Ruwenzori Mountains overlook the lakes in the Great Rift Valley.
PHILIPPINES comprises 7,107 islands and islets in the western Pacific, which are scattered over a vast area and form the northernmost group of the Malay Archipelago.
There are four main groups: Luzon and Mindoro to the north, the Visayan Islands in the centre, Mindanao, and the Sulu Archipelago in the south Palawan in the southwest.
Manila, the capital, is on Luzon. The great majority of the islands (6,647) are less than 2.6 square kilometers or 1 square mile in area and uninhabited, and only 11 are of a large enough size to accommodate the bulk of the population. These are Luzon and Mindanao (the two largest islands), Mindoro, Samar, Masbate, Leyte, Cebu, Bohol, Negros, Panay, and Palawan.
THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (UAE) is a federation of seven oil-rich sheikdoms located in The Gulf. The Emirates have loosely defined boundaries and occupy a formerly known region known as the Pirate Coast and, later, the Trucial States. The largest is Abu Dhabi, while the others are Dubai (Dubayy), Sharjah, Ras al Khaymah, Al Fujayrah, Ajman, and Umm al Quwain.
THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND (UK) is situated in northwest Europe and comprises England, Wales, Scotland, and the six counties of Northern Ireland. The latter is a historical and political entity rather than a geographical one.
Also belonging to the United Kingdom are several hundred islands, many of them off the Scottish coast, and some are large and inhabited. In contrast, others are little more than rocky outcrops battered by stormy seas.
VATICAN CITY lies in the heart of Rome in Italy on a low hill on the west bank of the River Tiber; it is the world’s smallest independent state and headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO form the third-largest British Commonwealth country in the West Indies. The islands, situated off the Orinoco Delta in northeastern Venezuela, are the most southerly of the Lesser Antilles group.
Trinidad consists of a mountain range in the north and undulating plains in the south. It has a vast, asphalt-producing lake, Pitch Lake, approximately 42 hectares or 104 acres in size. Tobago is a mountain that is about 550 meters or 1,800 feet above sea level at its peak.