Question: (CNN) -- The Syrian government has told the parents of a missing American journalist that it doesn't know where their son is, the man's father said Monday at a news conference in Beirut, Lebanon.

Austin Tice last contacted his family on August 13 while in Syria reporting on the uprising there against the government of President Bashar al-Assad. He was reportedly preparing to leave Syria for Lebanon when he went missing, according to his family.

Read more: Family working for journalist's release plans visit to Lebanon

In October, a shaky video surfaced on YouTube showing a man believed to be Tice surrounded by armed men walking him up a hill.

Tice's father, Marc Tice, said that family members have been in touch, "directly and indirectly," with Syrian government officials, but they have learned nothing about his son's location despite traveling to Beirut to seek his release.

"We're reaching out to everyone that we can get in touch with," he said.

Tice's parents say they are willing to go to Syria if that what it will take to get their son back.

"We have no idea what will be required, and we would like to know from whoever is holding him what it is that we need to do," Marc Tice said.

Austin is the oldest of the couple's seven children.

"We are a big, close family. We have all felt the void [of] his absence," said his mother, Debra Tice.

With the holiday season approaching, they are "dismayed by the empty chair at our family table," she said. "We miss Austin. Knowing his smile, big laugh, great storytelling." 1. Who is missing?
2. Who is looking for him?
3. When did he last communicate with his family?
4. Where was he?
5. What was he doing there?
6. Where was he going to be heading after he left Syria?
7. Does he have any siblings?
8. Is he the youngest of them?
9. Will the family go to Syria to look for him?
10. Has there been video evidence that he is still alive?
11. What did it show?
12. When was this?
13. Where could the video be found? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers: 1. Austin Tice
2. The Syrian government
3. August 13
4. in Syria
5. Reporting
6. Lebanon
7. Yes
8. No
9. Yes
10. Yes
11. Tice surrounded by armed men walking him up a hill
12. October
13. YouTube

Question: Birmingham is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Jefferson County. The city's population was 212,237 in the 2010 United States Census. In the 2010 US Census, the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of about 1,128,047, which is approximately one-quarter of Alabama's population.

Birmingham was founded in 1871, during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period, through the merger of three pre-existing farm towns, notably, former Elyton. It was named for Birmingham, England, the UK's second largest city and then major industrial city. The Alabama city annexed smaller neighbors and developed as an industrial and railroad transportation center, based on mining, the new iron and steel industry, and railroading. Most of the original settlers who founded Birmingham were of English ancestry. The city was developed as a place where cheap, non-unionized, and African-American labor from rural Alabama could be employed in the city's steel mills and blast furnaces, giving it a competitive advantage over unionized industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast.

From its founding through the end of the 1960s, Birmingham was a primary industrial center of the southern United States. Its growth from 1881 through 1920 earned its nicknames as "The Magic City" and "The Pittsburgh of the South". Its major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry. Rails and railroad cars were both manufactured in Birmingham. Since the 1860s, the two primary hubs of railroading in the Deep South have been nearby Atlanta and Birmingham. The economy diversified in the latter half of the 20th century. Banking, telecommunications, transportation, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education, and insurance have become major economic activities. Birmingham ranks as one of the largest banking centers in the United States and as one of the most important business centers in the Southeast. 1. What US state is Birmingham in?
2. Are there any other places by that name?
3. Where?
4. What was important about that one?
5. How did the US city form?
6. When?
7. What was the basis of its economy then?
8. Why did businesses like it there?
9. What type of factories did they work in?
10. What nicknames did the city have during its heyday?
11. And the other?
12. Why did it get these names?
13. What did they manufacture there?
14. Why else was it important to railroad companies?
15. Are these still the basis of the city's economy?
16. WHy is the city important today?
17. WHat other business activities take place there?
18. What is the population according to a recent census?
19. Is that large for an Alabama town?
20. How does it rank among cities there? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers: 1. Alabama
2. yes
3. Birmingham, England,
4. UK's second largest city and then major industrial city. T
5. it annexed smaller neighbors
6. 1871
7. mining, the new iron and steel industry, and railroading.
8. it had cheap, non-unionized, and African-American labor
9. steel mills and blast furnaces
10. it had 2, 1 was The Magic City
11. "The Pittsburgh of the South"
12. it's growth as an industrial city
13. Its major industries were iron and steel production, plus a major component of the railroading industry.
14. 2 major railway hubs in the south are near
15. no
16. It's a major banking center in the US
17. Telecommunications, transportation, electrical power transmission, medical care, college education, and insurance
18. 1,128,047
19. yes
20. most populous

Question: (CNN) -- It was a case of deja vu at Cheltenham on Wednesday as Ruby Walsh and Willie Mullins took the opening race for a second day in a row.

Favorite Faugheen proved too classy for rivals in the Novices' Hurdle, powering away from Ballyalton and Rathvinden to land another win for flamboyant American owner Rich Ricci.

"Gosh, that was magic wasn't it?" former banker Ricci told reporters. "He was just brilliant. He's been a very hard horse to keep right but Willie and Ruby have done a fantastic job with him."

Sprinter Sacre, one of the brightest stars of National Hunt racing, is sadly absent from this year's Festival as vets continue to ponder his irregular heartbeat, but the magnificent Selle Francais did have a representative in the winners' enclosure in the shape of jockey Nico de Boinville.

Sprinter Sacre's regular work rider got up on Whisper to deny AP McCoy on Get Me Out of Here in a photo finish in the day's main handicap.

Beating perennial Champion jockey McCoy added to the pleasure for amateur De Boinville, who said:"I was very, very worried when I could see him coming up to me, but it's such a great feeling when they jump and travel as well as my horse did. I didn't have a clue that I'd won -- you don't dream this sort of thing happens."

In the day's feature race, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Sire de Grugy produced the fairytale ending that connections and neutrals were hoping for by running away with the title by six lengths from Somersby and Module. 1. Who took the opening race?
2. Who was absent from the festival?
3. Who produced the fairytale ending?
4. Who was brilliant? Provide a numbered list of answers.
****
A numbered of answers:
1. Ruby Walsh and Willie Mullins
2. Sprinter Sacre
3. Sire de Grugy
4. Favorite Faugheen