The monarch is also head of the armed forces, supreme governor of the Church of England, head of state of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth countries.

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The USSR president is the head of the Union state exercising supreme executive power...

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"The Military Council is totally ready to hand over power immediately and return to its original job protecting the people, if the people want that in a referendum, " Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the usually secretive Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said on state television.

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As head of state, he has only limited powers, dwarfed by those of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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Musharraf was re-elected by Parliament in October, but the Supreme Court held up his confirmation following complaints that a military man could not constitutionally serve as an elected head of state.

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In similar fashion, in early January, when the country was still reeling from disastrous floods, the assembly quietly appointed a host of the president's nominees to head supposedly independent state institutions, ranging from the Supreme Court to the Central Bank, and including the ombudsman, the attorney-general and the comptroller (national auditor).

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In Iran's complex political system, the head of state is answerable to the conservative-dominated parliament and bound by the absolute rule of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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