In this task, you will be presented with a passage and have to answer a question based on your understanding of the events inferred from the passage. Try to find the best answer that is most likely to fill in "_". Note that the URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].

[EX Q]: (CNN) Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, often seen as a fractured and undisciplined group, apparently has carried out its second major terror attack in two months -- claiming more than 20 lives in the assault on a luxury hotel and two other targets in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The gun attack on the Splendid Hotel bears many similarities to that on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali, on November 20 in which 22 people were killed. Both targets were popular with Westerners and international (especially U.N). officials; they were "soft," rather than military installations or police stations. The attackers (two in Bamako, possibly four in Ouagadougou) were armed with automatic weapons, their aim to kill and then take as many hostages as possible.Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb appears to have been rejuvenatedIts affiliates are based in areas with limited state security 
 Question:Belmoktar is leader of Al Mourabitoun, which carried out another deadly hotel attack in the Malian town of Sevare last August in addition to the _ and Ouagadougou attacks.
[EX A]: Bamako

[EX Q]: Richmond, Virginia (CNN) -- A historical society in Virginia, where slavery began in the American colonies in 1619, has discovered the identities of 3,200 slaves from unpublished private documents, providing new information for today's descendants in a first-of-its-kind online database, society officials say. Many of the slaves had been forgotten to the world until the Virginia Historical Society received a $100,000 grant to pore over some of its 8 million unpublished manuscripts -- letters, diaries, ledgers, books and farm documents from Virginians dating to the 1600s -- and began discovering the long-lost identities of the slaves, said society president and CEO Paul Levengood.The Virginia Historical Society finds 3,200 slaves named in private documentsThe unpublished documents are from Virginians' attics, basements and desk drawers"We sold all the negros 43 in number at astonishingly large prices," an 1858 letter saysOne user of the society's free database of slaves finds the owner of his great-great-great-grandfather 
 Question:Those _ families found the old, handwritten papers in attics, basements or desk drawers, Levengood said.
[EX A]: Virginia

[EX Q]: We're not bluffing, the Obama administration told Afghanistan on Tuesday in announcing for the first time it has started planning for the possible withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of the year if no security agreement is signed. Statements by the White House and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel showed President Barack Obama's impatience with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's refusal to sign the agreement that would keep several thousand American troops in the country after combat operations conclude this year. In a phone call with Karzai on Tuesday to discuss upcoming elections for a new Afghan leader, Obama made clear that time was running out to properly plan for keeping any U.S. forces in the country beyond 2014, the White House said.President Obama calls Afghan leader to discuss security agreementObama orders planning for bringing home all U.S. troops at the end of 2014Afghan President Karzai refuses to sign a deal to keep some troops thereThe White House says an agreement could happen after Karzai leaves office in April 
 Question:_, he said, has been very clear that the possibility of U.S. troops staying in Afghanistan depends "on whether we have a bilateral security agreement signed by the Afghani government, to assure our rights of our troops and other important elements that are required any time America has troops in another country."
[EX A]:
Obama