World Food Programme (WFP) Organization established in 1961 by the United Nations to help alleviate world hunger. The world’s largest food-aid organization (providing food aid to some 75 million people annu¬ ally), the WFP aims to assist the approximately 15% of the world’s popu¬ lation that is hungry. Its Food-for-Life program aids victims of both natural and man-made disasters by collecting and transporting food to crisis areas. Contributions of commodities, cash, and services (primarily shipping) help beneficiaries to maintain balanced diets. Its Food-for- Growth programs are directed at vulnerable groups—including children, pregnant and nursing women, and the elderly—and its Food-for-Work program encourages self-reliance by providing food in return for labour. Its headquarters are in Rome.
World Health Organization (WHO) Public-health agency of the UN, established in Geneva in 1948 to succeed two earlier agencies. Its mandate is to promote “the highest possible level of health” in all peoples. Its work falls into three categories. It provides a clearinghouse for infor¬ mation on the latest developments in disease and health care and estab¬ lishes international sanitary standards and quarantine measures. It sponsors measures for the control of epidemic and endemic disease (including immunization campaigns and assistance in providing sources of pure water). Finally, it encourages the strengthening of public-health programs in member nations. Its greatest success to date has been the worldwide eradication of smallpox (1980).
World Heritage site Any of various areas or objects designated as having “outstanding universal value” under the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. This conven¬ tion, adopted by UNESCO in 1972, provides for international coopera¬ tion in preserving and protecting cultural and natural treasures throughout the world. Each site on the list is under strict legal protection by the gov¬ ernment of the nation in which it is situated. Among the cultural sites are many of the world’s most famous buildings. The ratio of cultural to natu¬ ral sites on the list is roughly three to one. See table opposite.
world music Musical genre incorporating diverse styles from Africa, eastern Europe, Asia, South and Central America, the Caribbean, and nonmainstream Western folk sources. The term was first coined largely in response to the sudden increase of recordings in non-English languages that were released in Great Britain and the United States in the 1980s, but by the early 1990s world music had become a bona fide musical genre and counterpoint to the increasingly synthetic sounds of Western pop music. Initially, African popular music and world music were virtually synonymous, and the genre’s biggest stars included the Nigerians King Sunny Ade and Fela Anikulapo Kuti and the Senegalese Youssou N’Dour. Moreover, one of its earliest advocates was the Cameroonian-born Frenchman Francis Bebey. By the 21st century world music encompassed everything from Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and the pop- flamenco of the French group the Gipsy Kings to “ambient-global” projects that merged so-called ethnic voice samples with state-of-the-art rhythm programming.
World Series Annual championship of U.S. major league baseball, played between the top team of the American League (AL) and that of the National League (NL). First held in 1903, it was canceled the following year after the New York Giants (NL) refused to play Boston (AL). The series resumed in 1905 and continued annually until a players’ strike in 1994 forced its cancellation that year. A seven-game series has been stan¬ dard since 1922.
World Trade Center Complex formerly consisting of seven buildings around a central plaza, near the southern tip of Manhattan. Its huge twin towers (completed 1970-72) were designed by Minoru Yamasaki (1912— 86). At 1,368 ft (417 m) and 1,362 ft (415 m) tall, they were the world’s tallest buildings until surpassed in 1973 by the Sears Tower in Chicago. The towers were notable for the relationship of their simple, light embel¬ lishment to their underlying structure. In 1993 a bomb planted by terror¬ ists exploded in the underground garage, killing several people and injuring some 1,000. A much more massive attack occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, when first One World Trade Center and then Two World Trade Center were struck by hijacked commercial airliners that were deliber¬ ately flown into them. Shortly thereafter both of the heavily damaged
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
2077
Selected UNESCO World Heritage sites
site*
country
notes
site*
country
notes
Africa
Europe
Abu Ruwaysh
Egypt
archaeological remains
Acropolis of Athens
Greece
complex of monuments
Aksum
Ethiopia
historic monuments
Alhambra
Spain
Moorish palace and fortress
Carthage
Tunisia
remains of ancient city
Altamira
Spain
prehistoric cave paintings
Dahshur
Egypt
pyramids and funerary complex
Amiens Cathedral
France
Romanesque and Gothic styles
Giza
Egypt
pyramids and funerary complex
Arles
France
Roman, Romanesque monuments
Goree Island
Senegal
slave-trading depot
Auschwitz
Poland
Nazi concentration camp
Great Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
ruins of Shona capital
Avebury
England
prehistoric megalith group
Hadar
Ethiopia
early hominid remains
Bergen
Norway
Hanseatic wharf
Karnak
Egypt
Theban temple ruins
Bern
Switzerland
medieval city center
Kilimanjaro
Tanzania
montane national park and reserve
Canterbury
England
cathedral and abbey
Kings, Valley of the
Egypt
Theban necropolis
Chartres Cathedral
France
Gothic architecture
Lalibela
Ethiopia
rock-hewn medieval churches
Delphi
Greece
remains of sanctuary complex
Leptis Magna
Libya
remains of Roman architecture
Ferrara
Italy
Renaissance architecture
Luxor
Egypt
Theban ruins
Florence
Italy
historic city center
Marrakech
Morocco
historic medina
Fontainebleau
France
royal chateau and gardens
Memphis
Egypt
remains of ancient city
Giant's Causeway
Northern Ireland
coastal rock formations
Mount Kenya
Kenya
national park and forest reserve
Granada
Spain
Moorish, Andalusian structures
Ngorongoro
Tanzania
wildlife conservation area
Hadrian's Wall
England
Roman fortification
Olduvai Gorge
Tanzania
early hominid remains
Herculaneum
Italy
ruins of Vesuvius-destroyed town
Philae
Egypt
Nubian monuments
Istanbul
Turkey
numerous historic sites
Saqqarah
Egypt
step pyramid and funerary complex
Krakow (Cracow)
Poland
medieval city center
Serengeti
Tanzania
national park, wildlife refuge
Lascaux Grotto
France
prehistoric cave paintings
Thebes
Egypt
ruins of ancient Egyptian capital
Lubeck
Germany
Hanseatic architecture
Timbuktu
Mali
medieval center of Islamic culture
Luxembourg city
Luxembourg
fortifications and old city
Victoria Falls
Zambia
national parks, cataracts, Zambezi River,
Meteora
Greece
Orthodox Christian monasteries
and Zimbabwe
rainforest, and wildlife
Mont-Saint-Michel
France
medieval village and abbey
Virunga
Congo (Kinshasa)