Question: Some definitions of southern Europe, also known as Mediterranean Europe, include the countries of the Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal), the Italian peninsula, southern France and Greece. Other definitions sometimes include the Balkan countries of southeast Europe, which are geographically in the southern part of Europe, but which have different historical, political, economic, and cultural backgrounds.

Different methods can be used to define southern Europe, including its political, economic, and cultural attributes. Southern Europe can also be defined by its natural features its geography, climate, and flora.

Southern Europe's most emblematic climate is that of the Mediterranean climate, which has become a typically known characteristic of the area. The Mediterranean climate covers much of Portugal, Spain, Southeast France, Italy, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, Greece, the Western and Southern coastal regions of Turkey as well as the Mediterranean islands. Those areas of Mediterranean climate present similar vegetations and landscapes throughout, including dry hills, small plains, pine forests and olive trees. 1. Describe vegetation of the Mediterranean
2. What type of forests?
3. What does the Iberian peninsula consist of?
4. What other peninsula is part of the region?
5. Where are the Balkans located?
6. Which lands have the Mediterranean climate?
7. And?
8. And?
9. Does Turkey have the same climate?
10. What parts? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers: 1. dry hills
2. pine
3. Spain and Portugal
4. the Italian peninsula
5. in the southern part of Europe
6. Greece
7. Italy
8. much of Portugal
9. Yes
10. the Western and Southern coastal regions

Question: Istanbul (CNN) -- A Turkish prosecutor has openly accused police of interfering with a high-level corruption investigation.

"Court orders have not been carried out and there has been open pressure on the judicial process from both the chief prosecutor's office and from the police force, which is supposed to carry out the decisions of the courts," Muammer Akkas said in a Thursday statement.

He spoke one day after three Cabinet ministers resigned their posts, after their sons were arrested or temporarily detained in an anti-graft sting, semiofficial news agency Anadolu reported.

One of them, Urbanization and Environment Minister Erdogan Bayraktar, went further than the other two, not just resigning his Cabinet position but also calling on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down.

Turkish media reported a possible second wave of detentions as imminent late Wednesday, but the raids did not materialize.

Instead, an apparent deadlock within the judiciary emerged as Akkas, the prosecutor, issued his statement saying the judiciary was under the heel of the government.

Akkas accused police and prosecutors of ignoring a decision of the courts by refusing to carry out more raids.

In a televised statement, Chief Istanbul Prosecutor Turan Colakkadi fired back, saying that Akkas had mishandled the investigation and leaked information to the press, leading to his removal from the case.

Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan and Interior Minister Muammer Guler, whose sons were also arrested in the investigation, also resigned Wednesday. Erdogan accepted the resignations, Anadolu reported.

The sons were detained in a roundup that included the head of a public bank, several bureaucrats and high-profile businessmen. The roundup came after a two-year investigation by the Istanbul Prosecutor's Office into allegations of corruption including money laundering, gold smuggling and bribery. 1. who is accused?
2. accused of what?
3. interfering with what?
4. what type of investigation?
5. did the media report?
6. what did they report?
7. a second wave of what?
8. when was this to happen?
9. did the detentions occur?
10. did anyone resign?
11. who resigned?
12. what does he do?
13. did anyone else resign?
14. who?
15. what was his position? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers: 1. A Turkish prosecutor
2. of interfering
3. investigation
4. a high-level corruption investigation.
5. yes
6. reported a possible second wave
7. of detentions
8. late Wednesday,
9. no
10. yes
11. Muammer Guler
12. Interior Minister
13. yes
14. Zafer Caglayan
15. Minister

Question: (CNN) -- It's been more than three weeks since militants from the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group dragged 276 girls out of their beds at a boarding school in northern Nigeria, and still no one knows where the girls are. International assistance has begun to flow into Nigeria, whose president has vowed to end the terror threat plaguing his country.

Here's what you need to know to get caught up:

Where are the girls?

It's anyone's guess. Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, said in a video that he was going to sell them into slavery, but it's unknown whether he has. Pentagon spokesman U.S. Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby and other officials have said they believe the girls may have been separated into smaller groups, making the task of finding them inordinately more difficult. Gordon Brown, a former UK prime minister and the U.N.'s special envoy for global education, speculated that the girls may have been moved into neighboring countries. "The search must be in Niger, Cameroon and Chad, to see if we can find information," he said.

What's being done to find them?

Nigeria hasn't given a lot of information about its efforts other than to say that its soldiers have been out in the field, looking for the girls. Nigerian police offered a $310,000 reward, but there's no evidence that has turned up any leads. The United States and Britain have sent advisers to help the Nigerian government find the girls, stage rescue missions and help in the larger fight to defeat Boko Haram. 1. When did Boko Haram kidnap the girls?
2. Where are they?
3. Who leads the group?
4. Who is looking for them? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers: 1. three weeks ago
2. no one knows
3. Abubakar Shekau
4. soldiers

Question: (CNN) -- We've all done things in our past we might prefer the general public not talk about, but only the lucky few get to be the targets of whole industries dedicated to digging those things up.

Targets like celebrities.

Politicians.

And apparently CEOs, that is if the abrupt resignation of Mozilla's new chief Brendan Eich is any indication.

For many, the story of Eich -- who stepped down this week amid criticism of his contribution to a 2008 initiative to ban same-sex marriage-- is one of freedom of speech trampled by the intolerant.

I don't see it that way.

Don't get me wrong; to paraphrase Voltaire, I disagree with Eich's views on marriage equality but will defend to the death his First Amendment right to express them. But as I've written in the past, the First Amendment doesn't protect him, Mozilla, or anyone else from others' using their First Amendment right to signal their disapproval.

To me, Eich's case is about the power of information, and how -- with technology, 24-hour news and social media- -everyone's past is just a hashtag away from being the present.

Sometimes this is a good thing for the public, like the digging up of David Duke's KKK past as he attempted to climb the political ladder. Sometimes the information is significant, but used mainly to score points against a political opponent, as in the GOP's escalation of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky saga. But more often than not it's about gossip to sell magazines or get clicks on a website. 1. Who was a CEO?
2. Of what company?
3. Was he fired?
4. How did he leave?
5. What did he contribute to?
6. Wanting to do what?
7. Did the author agree with his thoughts on this matter?
8. But what did the author think he should be able to do?
9. Which is protected by what?
10. Does that also protect people who don't agree with him?
11. Who was a part of the KKK?
12. What was he trying to do?
13. Who else has been exposed?
14. Who increased the attention on that?
15. How can people share things that happened in the past? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers:
1. Brendan Eich
2. Mozilla's
3. No
4. resigned
5. a 2008 initiative
6. to ban same-sex marriage
7. No
8. his right to express them.
9. First Amendment
10. Technically yes, but author doesn't think so.
11. David Duke
12. climb the political ladder
13. Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky
14. the GOP's
15. with technology