United States Surgeon General

United States Surgeon General former head of the U.S. Public Health Service, which is responsible for protecting the people's health (see public health ). Since a 1986 reorganization, the surgeon general has largely served as a national spokesperson and watchdog on health issues. The separate U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force surgeons general oversee military health care.

States-General (or Estates-General) Usually a gathering of representatives of the three estates of a realm: the Church; the nobility; and the commons (representatives of the corporations of towns). They met to advise a sovereign on matters of policy. The name was applied to the representative body of the United Provinces of the Netherlands in their struggle for independence from Spain in the 16th century.

In France, it began as an occasional advisory body, usually summoned to register specific support for controversial royal policy. It was developed by Philip IV who held a meeting in 1302 to enlist support during a quarrel with the pope, but throughout the 14th century it was rarely convoked and the first proper States-General in France was in 1484 in the reign of Louis XI.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) The main deliberative organ of the UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION, where representatives of every member country sit and have a vote. The Assembly, based at UN headquarters in New York, can discuss and make recommendations on all questions which fall within the scope of the UN Charter; it is also responsible for the UN budget. It first met in January 1946 and meets for three months annually in regular session, although both special and emergency sessions can also be convened. Such sessions have been held to discuss issues of particular importance, such as the SUEZ WAR in 1956, PALESTINE, disarmament, or the sanctioning of the US-led war against Iraq in 1991. It may also meet when the UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL has failed to agree on a course of action in an international dispute, such as occurred in Afghanistan (1980), Namibia (1981), and the Israeli-occupied Arab territories (1982). Decisions on important questions require a two-thirds majority, otherwise a simple majority is sufficient. In the UN's early years, the USA could normally command a majority in the General Assembly, but with the dramatic increase in new members following decolonization, the balance shifted to favour the developing countries, who were often unwilling to endorse the policies of either superpower, preferring to adopt a NON-ALIGNED stance. Since the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, the General Assembly's numbers have been further swelled by newly independent republics. At the end of 1997 there were 185 member states.