J. K. Rowling

In January 2004, it was reported that Stouffer's appeal against the judgement had been rejected. Opposition from senior Iraqi officials together with the poor security situation meant that Bremer's privatization plan was not implemented during his reign, though his Orders remain in place. Stouffer was fined US$50,000 and ordered to pay part (but not all) of the plaintiffs' costs. Other orders established a flat tax of 15% and permitted foreign corporations to repatriate 100% of profits earned in Iraq. In September 2002, the court found in Rowling's favour, stating that Stouffer had lied to the court and falsified and forged documents to support her case. Order 39 laid out the framework for the privatization of everything in Iraq aside from the "primary extraction and initial processing" of the oil reserves themselves, and permitted 100% foreign ownership of Iraqi assets. Rowling and her colitigants argued that much of the evidence that Stouffer presented was fraudulent, and asked for sanctions and attorneys' fees as punishment. During his year as the supreme authority in Iraq, Ambassador Paul Bremer issued a series of orders designed to restructure Iraq's broadly socialist economy in line with neo-liberal thinking.

Stouffer, who had not previously sued, then filed counterclaims alleging such infringement. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the economy has to a great extent shut down and attempts are underway to revive it from the damages of the war and rampant crime. (the producer of the film adaptations) sued Stouffer, asking the court to judge that there was no infringement of Stouffer's trademarks or copyright. The drop in GDP in 2001 was largely the result of the global economic slowdown and lower oil prices. In 2001, Rowling, Scholastic Press (the American publisher of her books), and Warner Bros. However, 28% of Iraq's export revenues under the program are deducted to meet UN Compensation Fund and UN administrative expenses. In the late 1990s, Nancy Stouffer, an author of children's books published in the 1980s, began to publicly charge that Rowling's books were based on her books, including The Legend of Rah and the Muggles, and Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly. Oil exports were more than three-quarters of the pre-war level.

Rowling has been involved in a lawsuit over the Harry Potter series, and other litigation has been suggested or rumoured. Iraq changed its oil reserve currency from US dollar to euro in 2000. She has also said that she has told Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane certain secrets about their characters that are not yet revealed. In December 1999, the UN Security Council authorised Iraq to export under the program as much oil as required to meet humanitarian needs. She says she has told him more about the later books than anybody else, but not everything. Subsequent investigation of the program has revealed significant corruption, with highly placed U.N. officials being bribed, Ba'ath Party officials receiving lucrative kickbacks, and much of the money from oil sales being redirected into weapons research and acquisition by the Iraqi military. Rowling assists Steve Kloves in writing the scripts for the films, ensuring that his scripts do not contradict future books in the series. For the first six, six-month phases of the program, Iraq was allowed to export limited amounts of oil in exchange for food, medicine, and some infrastructure spare parts.

Rowling's insistence on British actors for the main roles resulted in Steven Spielberg passing on the opportunity to direct the series. Although government policies supporting large military and internal security forces and allocating resources to key supporters of the Ba`ath Party government have hurt the economy, implementation of the United Nations' oil-for-food program started in December 1996 was to have improved conditions for the average Iraqi citizen. only. Iraq's seizure of Kuwait in August 1990, subsequent international economic sanctions, and damage from military action by an international coalition beginning in January 1991 drastically reduced economic activity. She only reluctantly went along with changing Philosopher's Stone to Sorcerer's Stone, and limited it to the U.S. A combination of low oil prices, onerous repayment of the war debts (at around US$3 billion a year) and the costs of reconstruction resulted in a serious financial crisis which was the main short term motivation for the invasion of Kuwait. Rowling resisted suggestions by the filmmakers that the movies should be filmed in the United States or cast with American actors (only one American appears in the first film). After hostilities ended in 1988, oil exports gradually increased with the construction of new pipelines and restoration of damaged facilities.

Rowling, who was a fan of Cuarón's work prior to the third film, has stated that the third film is her personal favorite. In the 1980s financial problems caused by massive expenditures in the eight-year war with Iran and damage to oil export facilities by Iran led the government to implement austerity measures, borrow heavily, and later reschedule foreign debt payments; Iraq suffered economic losses from the war of at least US$100 billion. A darker atmosphere was adopted in the film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, attributed to the new director, Alfonso Cuarón. Iraq's economy is dominated by the oil sector, which has traditionally provided about 95% of foreign exchange earnings. A film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released in late 2001 and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002. Main article: Economy of Iraq. This death has heavily affected her writing, according to Rowling. Iraq is considered to be one of the fifteen lands that comprise the so-called "Cradle of Humanity".

She has contributed money and support to many other charitable causes, especially research and treatment of multiple sclerosis, from which her mother died in 1990. Other major cities include Basra in the south and Mosul in the north. All proceeds from them go to the UK Comic Relief charity. The capital Baghdad is situated in the centre of the country, on the banks of the Tigris. They are complete with handwritten annotations and scribblings in the margins, and include introductions by Albus Dumbledore. The northern mountainous regions experience cold winters with occasional heavy snows, sometimes causing extensive flooding. The last two purport to be facsimiles of books mentioned in the novels. Fantastic Beasts is a textbook, while Quidditch is probably the most popular book in the Hogwarts library. The local climate is mostly a desert clime with mild to cool winters and dry, hot, cloudless summers.

Rowling has also made a guest appearance as herself on the American cartoon show The Simpsons, on a special British-themed episode entitled "The Regina Monologues". Iraq has a small coastline with the Persian Gulf. Close to the coast and along the Shatt al-Arab there used to be marshlands, but many of these were drained in the 1990s. On December 20, 2004, she announced that the sixth Harry Potter book would be released on July 16, 2005. The north of the country is largely mountainous, with the highest point being Haji Ibrahim at 3,600 m. Although she was "amused by the suggestion", she turned the offer down, as she was busy working on the next novel in the Potter series. Large parts of Iraq consist of desert, but the area between the two major rivers Euphrates and Tigris is fertile, with the rivers carrying about 60 million cubic meters of silt annually to the delta. Davies to contribute an episode to the British television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Main article: Geography of Iraq.

In late 2003, she was approached by television producer Russell T. The constitutionally recognized Kurdistan Autonomous Region includes parts of a number of northern provinces, and is largely self-governing in internal affairs. The fifth book was released on June 21, 2003. Particularly in Iraqi government documents the term governorate is preferred:. After forcing her publishers to drop her deadline, she enjoyed three years of quiet writing, commenting that she spent some time working on something else that she might return to when she is finished with the Harry Potter series. Iraq is divided into 18 governorates or provinces (Arabic: muhafazat, singular - muhafadhah, Kurdish: پاریزگه Pârizgah). She said that at one point, she had considered breaking her arm to get out of writing, because the pressure on her was too much. Main article: Governorates of Iraq.

Rowling took some time off from writing at this point, because during the process of writing the fourth book, she felt her workload was too heavy. The first is to attempt to reign in the insurgency which has blighted the country in recent months, and the second is to re-engage in the writing of a new Iraqi constitution, as outlined above, to replace the Iraqi transitional constitution of 2004. The fifth book, titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was delayed by an unsuccessful plagiarism suit directed towards her by rival author Nancy Stouffer (see below). The new Government has two major tasks ahead of them. Five of these have already been published. Most power will be invested in him. The Harry Potter series is expected to run to seven volumes, one for each year Harry spends in school. Ibrahim al-Jaafari a Shiite, whose United Iraq Alliance Party won the largest share of the vote, has been appointed the new Prime Minister of Iraq.

Neil Murray, on December 26, 2001. It also appointed Adel Abdul Mehdi, a Shiite Arab, and Ghazi al-Yawar, the former Interim President and a Sunni Arab, as Vice Presidents. The sales made her a multi-millionaire, and in 2001, she purchased a luxurious 19th century mansion, Killiechassie House, on the banks of the River Tay in Perthshire, Scotland, where she married her second husband, Dr. On 5 April, the Iraqi National Assembly appointed Jalal Talabani, a prominent Kurdish leader, President. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was a huge success, and she has thus far published four sequels. However, these rules will be set aside once the Transitional National Assembly is seated. Rowling chose to adopt her grandmother's middle name, Kathleen. Since Iraqi forces are currently considered ill-equipped to police and secure the country, it is expected that coalition troops will remain in the country for many years to come.

Rowling's publisher, Bloomsbury, wanted to use initials on the cover of the Harry Potter books, suggesting that if they used an obviously female name, the target group of young boys might be reluctant to buy them. Furthermore, since the coalition forces are currently an official occupying power under the United Nations, coalition troops can remain in control of the country indefinitely despite the transfer of sovereignty. Unemployed and living on welfare, she completed the novel, doing some of the work in an Edinburgh cafe as there was no heating in her home. Controversially, however, it states that all laws that were in effect on the transfer date cannot be repealed. On her divorce she came to Edinburgh with her daughter, planning to live near her sister. constitution. They had one child, a daughter named Jessica Rowling Arantes (born July 27, 1993), before their divorce in 1995. The constitution also includes basic freedoms like freedom of religion, speech, and assembly, and in many ways has been hailed as more liberal than the U.S.

While there she married Portuguese TV journalist Jorge Arantes on October 16, 1992. The election system for the council effectively ensures that all three of Iraq's major ethnic groups are represented. Rowling then moved to Oporto, Portugal to teach English as a foreign language. Under the Iraqi transitional constitution, signed March 2004, the country's executive branch is now led by a three-person presidential council. She began working on the story during her lunch hours. The Assembly will:. According to her, by the time she reached her destination, she had the characters and a good part of the plot for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in her head. On January 30, 2005, the Iraqi people voted in an election conducted by their transitional government which elected a 275-member Transitional National Assembly.

It was during this period that she had the idea for a story about a young boy who attends a school of wizardry, during a four-hour train trip between King's Cross, London and Scotland. The interim president was Sheikh Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, and the interim prime minister Iyad Allawi. After college she moved to London to work for Amnesty International as a researcher and bilingual secretary. The actual transfer of sovereignty occurred on 28 June 2004. She studied French at Exeter University, spending a year in Paris as part of her studies. In November 2003, the US-managed Coalition Provisional Authority announced plans to turn over sovereignty to an Iraqi Interim Government by mid-2004. She attended secondary school at Wyedean Comprehensive, where she told stories to her fellow students. No non-Ba'ath candidates were allowed to run.

Joanne's family moved twice as she was growing up, first to Winterbourne in Bristol and then to Tutshill near Chepstow. The unicameral Iraqi parliament, the National Assembly or Majlis al-Watani, had 250 seats and its members were elected for 4-year terms. Rowling also has a sister, Di, two years younger than she, who is now a lawyer. From 1979 to 2003, Iraq was under Ba'ath Party rule, under the leadership of President Saddam Hussein. Her mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when Rowling was 15; she died in the early 1990s. Main article: Politics of Iraq. Rowling's parents met on a train, coincidentally from King's Cross station to Scotland. The current situation remains volatile while the new government attempts to re-establish security in the country.

dollars, by writing books; Rowling is also the wealthiest woman in the United Kingdom, well ahead of even Queen Elizabeth II [1] (http://www.forbes.com/2004/02/26/cx_jw_0226rowlingbill04.html) [2] (http://www.forbes.com/lists/results.jhtml?passListId=10&passYear=2004&passListType=Person&searchParameter1=unset&searchParameter2=unset&resultsHowMany=25&resultsSortProperties=%2Bstringfield11%2C-numberfield3&resultsSortCategoryName=Country&fromColumnClick=&bktDisplayField=&bktDisplayFieldLength=&category1=category&category2=category&passKeyword=&resultsStart=301). A coalition of Kurds and Shi'ites came to power (both groups were repressed by Saddam's government), although the Sunnis are now under-represented due to the fact that Sunni leaders encouraged them not to vote. In February 2004, Forbes magazine estimated her fortune as £576 million, making her the first person to become a billionaire, in terms of U.S. On January 30, 2005, Iraq held new legislative elections, changing the political face of Iraq, which had been mostly dominated by its Sunni minority since its foundation. Rowling's books have gained international attention and have won multiple awards. The American-led 2003 invasion of Iraq removed Saddam Hussein's Government from power, replacing it with an interim American-backed Provisional Authority, and then an interim government. Rowling is most famous for being the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. Saddam's absolute and particularly bloody rule lasted throughout the Iran-Iraq War (1980–1988), which ended in stalemate; the al-Anfal campaign of the late 1980s, which led to the alleged gassing of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 resulting in the Gulf War and the United Nations-imposed economic sanctions and no-fly zones which followed.

Rowling (pronunciation: role-ing as in rolling stone), is a British fiction writer. The Ba'ath's key figure became Saddam Hussein who acceded to the presidency and control of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), Iraq's supreme executive decision making body, in July 1979, killing off many of his opponents in the process. Joanne Rowling, OBE, (born July 31, 1965 in Yate), commonly known as J.K. The British installed Hashemite monarchy lasted until 1958, when it was overthrown by one of a series of coups, the last of which in 1968 brought the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party to power. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001). It was formed out of three former Ottoman Willayats (regions): Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. Quidditch Through the Ages (2001). Modern Iraq became a British mandate (the British League of Nations Trust Territory of Iraq) at the end of World War I (the, and was granted independence from British control in 1932.