Ratners Group PLC, a fast-growing, acquisition-minded London-based jeweler, raised its price for Seattle-based specialty jeweler Weisfield's Inc. to $57.50 a share, or $62.1 million, from $50 a share, or $55 million, after another concern said it would be prepared to outbid Ratners's initial offer. The other concern wasn't identified. Ratners's chairman, Gerald Ratner, said the deal remains of "substantial benefit to Ratners." In London at mid-afternoon yesterday, Ratners's shares were up 2 pence (1.26 cents), at 260 pence ($1.64). The sweetened offer has acceptances from more than 50% of Weisfield's shareholders, and it is scheduled for completion by Dec. 10. The acquisition of 87-store Weisfield's raises Ratners's U.S. presence to 450 stores. About 30% of Ratners's profit already is derived from the U.S.

Question: "How many of Weisfield's stores are to be liquidated and acquired by Ratners by Dec. 10?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "87 stores"

Response: yes

Bin Laden reportedly discussed the planes operation with KSM and Atef in a series of meetings in the spring of 1999 at the al Matar complex near Kandahar. KSM's original concept of using one of the hijacked planes to make a media statement was scrapped, but Bin Laden considered the basic idea feasible. Bin Laden, Atef, and KSM developed an initial list of targets. These included the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, and the World Trade Center. According to KSM, Bin Laden wanted to destroy the White House and the Pentagon, KSM wanted to strike the World Trade Center, and all of them wanted to hit the Capitol. No one else was involved in the initial selection of targets. Bin Laden also soon selected four individuals to serve as suicide operatives: Khalid al Mihdhar, Nawaf al Hazmi, Khallad, and Abu Bara al Yemeni. During the al Matar meetings, Bin Laden told KSM that Mihdhar and Hazmi were so eager to participate in an operation against the United States that they had already obtained U.S. visas. KSM states that they had done so on their own after the suicide of their friend Azzam (Nashiri's cousin) in carrying out the Nairobi bombing. KSM had not met them. His only guidance from Bin Laden was that the two should eventually go to the United States for pilot training. Hazmi and Mihdhar were Saudi nationals, born in Mecca. Like the others in this initial group of selectees, they were already experienced mujahideen. They had traveled together to fight in Bosnia in a group that journeyed to the Balkans in 1995. By the time Hazmi and Mihdhar were assigned to the planes operation in early 1999, they had visited Afghanistan on several occasions. Khallad was another veteran mujahid, like much of his family. His father had been expelled from Yemen because of his extremist views. Khallad had grown up in Saudi Arabia, where his father knew Bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam, and Omar Abdel Rahman (the "Blind Sheikh").

Question: "Whose father was expelled from Yemen for having extremist views?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "The Blind Sheikh"

Response: no

A handful of Bronze Age relics has fostered an assumption that prehistoric settlers inhabited Ibiza thousands of years ago. Greater evidence of such a people is found on Mallorca and Menorca than on Ibiza, but one of the Balearics' most important sites is actually on the island of Formentera, where the megalithic monument/tomb of Ca Na Costa has been dated to 2000 b.c. Ibiza's key location between Africa and ancient Iberia made it a convenient stopover for Mediterranean seafarers, such as the Phoenician traders, who called the island Ibosim. The Greeks dubbed it Ebysos, the Romans called it Ebusus, and the Moors, Yebisah. The Carthaginians: A detailed history of the island doesn't begin until it became a colony of Carthage in the 7th century b.c. . The Carthaginians originally came from the area comprising present-day Lebanon, and from their bases in North Africa and what's now Spain, they challenged the Roman Empire for domination of the Mediterranean region. Their interest in Ibiza lay partly in its vast salt flats, which to this day remain the source of a profitable industry. They capitalized on the natural resources by using the salt to cure fish, which they exported to their home country. The Carthaginians also carried out lead mining and continued to be of significance up until this century. It is believed that the lead pellets which were used by the Carthaginian general Hannibal were made on Ibiza. The Carthaginians also considered the island a holy place, and here in great splendour they buried thousands of their citizens in a huge necropolis on the Puig des Molins (Hill of the Windmills) below the Dalt Vila (Old Town) of Ibiza. Under the gnarled olive trees archaeologists have uncovered a treasure trove of statues, jewellery, pitchers, tools, and coins, which are now displayed in the town's two archaeological museums. The Romans never really infiltrated Ibiza, and even after the defeat of Hannibal in 202 b.c. during the Second Punic War their influence was restrained. Only with the fall of Carthage in 146 b.c. did they manage to make inroads, but, as local historians stress, Ibiza was neither conquered nor annexed by Rome, but confederated, retaining remarkable autonomy. For centuries to come the old Carthaginian traditions were allowed to continue on Ibiza alongside the new Roman way of life.

Question: "What did Carthaginians capitalize on in Ibiza?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "The natural resources"

Response: yes

Do not look for the Danteum in the Eternal City. In true Dantean form, politics stood in the way of its construction in 1938. Ironically this literature-inspired building can itself most easily be found in book form. Reading this book I remembered Goethe's quote about frozen music. Did Terragni try to freeze Dante's medieval miracle of song? Certainly a cold-poem seems artistically repulsive. Unflattering comparisons to the lake of Cocytus spring to mind too. While I cannot read Italian, I can read some German. After locating the original quotation I discovered that 'frozen' is a problematic (though common) translation of Goethe's original 'erstarrte.' The verb 'erstarren' more properly means 'to solidify' or 'to stiffen.' This suggests a chemical reaction in which the art does not necessarily chill in the transformation. Nor can simple thawing yield the original work. Like a chemical reaction it requires an artistic catalyst, a muse. Indeed the Danteum is not a physical translation of the Poem. Terragni thought it inappropriate to translate the Comedy literally into a non-literary work. The Danteum would not be a stage set, rather Terragni generated his design from the Comedy's structure, not its finishes.

Question: "What did Teragni translate the Comedy into?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "Cocytus"

Response:
no