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LIECHTENSTEIN is a small independent state sandwiched between Switzerland in the north, west, and south and Austria in the east. Liechtenstein is a hereditary, constitutional monarchy whose population shares many links with their near neighbours in Switzerland, Germany, and Austria. German is the official language within the principality, but a dialect called Alemannish is also in everyday use.
LITHUANIA is the largest of the three former Soviet Baltic Republics. Lithuania is bounded by Latvia, Belarus, Poland, and Russia (Kaliningrad), with a Baltic Sea coastline to the west.
Lithuania is a plains country, broken by low hills with numerous rivers and lakes and many marshes and wetlands, some of which drained. The upland areas are generally to be found in the west, while most of the lakes are in the southern and northeastern parts of the republic.
With its tributaries, the Neman River forms part of the border with Russia and supplies the country with hydroelectric power. Over two-thirds of the country’s people live in cities, towns, or urban areas. Vilnius is Lithuania’s capital and largest city.
LUXEMBOURG is entirely landlocked, bounded by France in the south, Belgium in the west, and Germany. The northern part of the country is a wooded plateau, known as the Oesling, rising to 550 meters or 1,804 feet.
This region is a continuation of the Ardennes Plateau’s forested hills, where Luxembourg’s highest peak, Buurgplatz (559 meters or 1,835 feet), is situated.
MACEDONIA declared its independence from Yugoslavia in November 1991. The FYROM or Vardar Macedonia is one of the three parts of Macedonia’s ancient, historical kingdom, which also included Aegean Macedonia in Greece and Pirin Macedonia in Bulgaria. Vardar Macedonia only came into being as a republic of Yugoslavia, in 1946, following the victory of the communist forces of Josip Broz Tito.
Its status disputed at the time, and this has continued to be the case. This controversy has been the cause of ongoing difficulties for the FYROM, mainly in gaining much needed international recognition since the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. The government of the FYROM has put into place several measures to encourage economic growth. It is hoped that having now gained further international recognition, particularly from its neighbours since 1996, the country’s economic situation will start to improve.
MADAGASCAR is an island state in the Indian Ocean. It lies off the southeast coast of Africa and is separated from the mainland by the Mozambique Channel. There are several smaller islands. The main island is the fourth-largest island in the world.
MALAWI lies along the southern and western shores of the third-largest lake in Africa, Lake Malawi. Tanzania and Zambia bound it to the north and northwest and Mozambique to the south and east.
This narrow country is only a little over 800 kilometers or 496 miles long and up to 160 kilometers or 99 miles to its fullest. It was formerly the British colony of Nyasaland (“Land of the Lake”) and was named by the 19th-century explorer David Livingstone.
MALAYSIA is a federal constitutional monarchy that lies in the South China Sea in southeast Asia. It comprises eleven states located in the southernmost part of the Malay Peninsula, which forms West Malaysia, and the two states of Sarawak and Sabah on the island of Borneo, which form East Malaysia. Sarawak and Sabah separated from the western part of the kingdom by 650 kilometers or 400 miles of the South China Sea.
MALDIVES, the, is a republic consisting of 1,200 low-lying coral islands grouped into 12 atolls, lying 640 kilometers or 398 miles southwest of Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. Roughly 202 islands are inhabited, and the highest point is only 1.5 meters or 5 feet above sea level.
Independence gained in 1965, with a republic formed three years later.
MALI is a landlocked republic in West Africa. Shaped somewhat like a butterfly with one wing more massive than the other, it consists mainly of level plains interrupted by isolated groups of hills and mountains. It rises to 1,155 meters or 3,790 feet in the Adrar des Iforas Mountains in the northeast.
The northern third lies within the Sahara Desert, which is slowly encroaching southwards, and life here revolves around the few oases. Southwest of the real desert lies a region of dry grassland called the Sahel, and this gives way to better-watered land surrounding the Rivers Niger and Senegal and their tributaries.