On May 2, 2011, United States Navy SEALs killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who led the September 11, 2001 attacks and other terrorist attempts.
Immediately after the attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation started PENTTBOM. This was the biggest criminal investigation in the history of the United States. At one point, more than half of the FBI's agents worked on the investigation and followed a half-million leads. The FBI concluded that there was "clear and irrefutable (cannot be denied)" evidence linking al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks.
The FBI did not record the 2,977 deaths from the attacks in their annual violent crime record for 2001. New York City also did not include the deaths in their annual crime statistics for 2001.
The Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) did a review of the CIA's pre-9/11 performance. He was very critical of senior CIA officials for not doing everything possible to stop terrorism. He criticized their failure to stop two of the 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, as they entered the United States. He also criticized their failure to share information on the two men with the FBI. In May 2007, senators from both major U.S. political parties wrote legislation to make the review public. One of the backers, Senator Ron Wyden said, "The American people have a right to know what the Central Intelligence Agency was doing in those critical (important) months before 9/11."
In February 2002, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence created a joint inquiry into the performance of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Their 832-page report was released in December 2002. In the report, there were detailed failings of the FBI and CIA to use available information. This included information about terrorists the CIA knew were in the United States. They failed to use this information in order to stop the plans. The joint inquiry got its information about Saudi Arabian government officials possibly being involved from non-classified sources. The Bush administration demanded 28 related pages stayed classified.
On the day of the attacks, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said: "We will rebuild. We're going to come out of this stronger than before, politically stronger, economically stronger. The skyline will be made whole again."
The damaged part of the Pentagon was rebuilt within one year of the attacks. Construction of One World Trade Center started on April 27, 2006. It reached its full height on May 20, 2013. The spire was installed on top of the building at that date. This makes the total height of 1 WTC's at 1,776 feet (541 m). This makes it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. One WTC finished construction and opened on November 3, 2014.
On the World Trade Center site, three more office towers were supposed to be built one block east of where the original towers were. 7 WTC was the first to open on May 23, 2006 after four years of construction. 4 WTC was the second tower to open on November 13, 2013. 3 WTC opened on June 11, 2018 making it the fourth skyscraper at the site to be finished.
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital and biggest city of Wales, in the United Kingdom.
Its name in the Welsh language is "Caerdydd". A 2011 census reports that around 346,100 people live in Cardiff. It is the most important city in Wales for tourism, culture, government, sport, transport, nightlife and business.
Cardiff was declared a city in 1905, and it became the capital of Wales in 1955.
The Romans built a fort here in about 55 AD. Later, a castle was built within the walls of the fort when the city was first founded.
In 1404, Owain Glyndŵr set Cardiff on fire. Most of the buildings in Cardiff were made out of wood, so fire destroyed the city.
Cardiff has a big port that used to be known as Tiger Bay. It is now just called Cardiff Bay, and the Welsh Government works there. There are now lots of shops, pubs and restaurants in Cardiff Bay. Cardiff has an international airport, and is twinned with Nantes in France and Stuttgart in Germany. Cardiff has one of the largest stadiums in the United Kingdom, the Millennium Stadium, where important world sports matches and concerts happen. Other big stadiums in the city are the Cardiff City Stadium, where the main football team play, Cardiff Arms Park where the main rugby team play, and the SWALEC Stadium where cricket is played.
Three big rivers flow through Cardiff - the Taff, the Ely and the Rhymney.
Part of Cardiff is built on marshland.
To get around, there are lots of bus routes and train lines in the city. There are two big train stations in Cardiff city centre, called Central station and Queen Street station, but there are also 18 other smaller stations in the city for local areas. There are lots of cycle paths in Cardiff on and off the road.
Cardiff has a large university, with 33,000 students, making it the tenth-largest university in Britain. The city also has 127 schools.
Valladolid
On 19 October, 1469, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile married secretely in the "Palacio de los Vivero". Also, Christopher Columbus died in the city on 20 May, 1506.
The river that runs through the city is known as the Pisuerga. Valladolid has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate ("Csa" in the Köppen climate classification).
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (29 September 1810 – 12 November 1865) was an English writer.
She was born in Chelsea, London. After her mother died, she lived with her aunt in Knutsford, Cheshire. She married William Gaskell, a priest, in 1832. They lived in Manchester, where several of her books are set. She died of a heart attack in Holybourne, Hampshire.
Her most famous books are "Mary Barton", "Cranford", "North and South", and "Wives and Daughters". She also wrote a book of the life of her friend, writer Charlotte Brontë. Some of her books have been made into movies and television programmes.
Venice
Venice is a city in Italy. It is the capital of the Veneto region, which is in the north-east of the country. The population of the 'Comune di Venezia', which is Venice, its lagoon and its mainland is 271,367. Area is 412 km². The population of Venice itself keeps on shrinking at an alarming rate and is now under 55000 locals.
Venice is built on 118 small islands that are separated by 150 canals. People cross the canals by many small bridges. They can also navigate across the city on boats, both rowing boats and motor boats. The most famous Venetian type of boat called a "gondolas". The buildings in Venice are very old and attractive, and tourists come from all over the world to see them and the canals. This has made Venice one of the most famous cities in the world. The most famous sights are the Rialto Bridge, St Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace.
It is important to remember that Venice is much more than few landmarks and that we owe the city a lot: from words to objects or services of our daily life. Its lifestyle and culture are unique in the world and it can get confusing at first.
There are several problems in Venice, but it is still the most popular tourist attraction in northeast Italy. Every year the city sinks a few millimeters because the ground is made from mud. Eventually, the city might be completely underwater, but that would take decades. Because of this, the Italian government is building the MOSE Project, a state-of-the-art defense against the sea-water flooding, that will safely protect Venice indefinitely.