Washington The Iraqi government has agreed to let U.S. Rep. Tony Hall visit the country next week to assess a humanitarian crisis that has festered since the Gulf War of 1990, Hall's office said Monday. The Dayton Democrat, who has traveled to other crisis points including Sierra Leone and North Korea, will spend three days visiting hospitals and other facilities to seek understanding why aid has been ineffective in stemming malnourishment and other medical problems. Iraq has been under economic sanctions since the war ended, which some say have thwarted the country's ability to recover from the devastation of the bombing campaign. The Persian Gulf War destroyed much of the country's medical infrastructure, according to a report by the World Health Organization. In 1996 the WHO found that much of the population existed in a state of ''semi-starvation.'' Hall will be only the second member of Congress to travel in Iraq since the war, according to Hall's office. The last visitor was then-U.S. Rep. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who went to help a pair of U.S. oilmen in diplomatic trouble. Hall flies to Amman, Jordan, on Friday, where he'll spend the night before driving to Iraq. Flights are not permitted into Iraq. Hall is to return to Washington on April 22. Story Filed By Cox Newspapers

Question: "Why is U.S. Rep. Tony Hall visiting Iraq?"

Response: "To visit hospitals and other facilities"
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A: no

American Airlines Flight 11: FAA Awareness. Although the Boston Center air traffic controller realized at an early stage that there was something wrong with American 11, he did not immediately interpret the plane's failure to respond as a sign that it had been hijacked. At 8:14, when the flight failed to heed his instruction to climb to 35,000 feet, the controller repeatedly tried to raise the flight. He reached out to the pilot on the emergency frequency. Though there was no response, he kept trying to contact the aircraft. At 8:21, American 11 turned off its transponder, immediately degrading the information available about the aircraft. The controller told his supervisor that he thought something was seriously wrong with the plane, although neither suspected a hijacking. The supervisor instructed the controller to follow standard procedures for handling a "no radio" aircraft. The controller checked to see if American Airlines could establish communication with American 11. He became even more concerned as its route changed, moving into another sector's airspace. Controllers immediately began to move aircraft out of its path, and asked other aircraft in the vicinity to look for American 11. At 8:24:38, the following transmission came from American 11: American 11: We have some planes. Just stay quiet, and you'll be okay. We are returning to the airport. The controller only heard something unintelligible; he did not hear the specific words "we have some planes." The next transmission came seconds later: American 11: Nobody move. Everything will be okay. If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane.

Question: "What was said in the transmissions from the American 11?"

Response: "If you try to make any moves, you'll endanger yourself and the airplane"
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A: yes

Little is known of the earliest Stone Age inhabitants of Europe's southwestern extremity. The ancient Greeks called them the Cynetes (or Cunetes). Whatever their origins, their culture evolved under the pressure and influence of foreign forces. Among the many invading armies that settled here and contributed to nascent Portuguese culture were Phoenicians, who settled in the area around 1,000 b.c., followed by the Celts, Iberians, Greeks, and Carthaginians. But it was the Romans, who arrived late in the third century b.c., who most greatly influenced all of Iberia. They built towns, industries, roads, and bridges, developed agriculture, and bequeathed the Latin language, of which Portuguese is a direct descendant. The Romans named the southwestern province of the peninsula Lusitania, oddly enough for one of the Celtiberian tribes they defeated, and by the third century a.d. had introduced Christianity. By the beginning of the fourth century the Algarve had a bishop in place, based in Faro. But Rome had already fallen into decay, and soon hordes of northern tribesmen took over the empire. The Algarve fell to the Visigoths in the mid-fifth century. Under Moorish Rule In a.d. 711, the Moors brought powerful armies from North Africa and launched a devastating attack on the Iberian peninsula, conquering much of what would become Spain and Portugal. They imposed Islam and left an indelible influence on the countryside and the population of the Algarve. The Moorish legacy can still be seen in the form of wells and waterwheels, squat white houses, the dark complexions of the people, and in the very name given the regiontaken from Al-Gharb, which means "country of the west" (when the Moors conquered the territory, it was the most westerly in the known world). The Moors governed their Iberian kingdoms from across the border in Seville, but the Algarve had its own regional capital and huge, invulnerable fortress. The capital was Chelb (or Xelb), and it was bigger and better defended than Lisbon. Today the town, known as Silves, is a provincial outpost whose only besiegers are busloads of tourists who climb the narrow streets up to the old Moorish ramparts.

Question: "How did the Moors change Portugal?"

Response: "The Moors influence can be seen in their contribution of wells, waterwheels, squat white houses, the dark complexions of the local people and the introduction of Islam as a religion"
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A:
yes