ISIS
Another city falls: ISIS militants grabbed control of the Syrian city of Tadmur, which is close to the ancient ruins of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. ISIS controlled most of Tadmur by yesterday evening, after Syrian government forces fled to the city’s security headquarters. Many fear that ISIS will destroy Palmyra’s ruins, just like the militants destroyed the ancient city of Nimrud and took sledgehammers to statues in Iraq’s Mosul Museum.
CALIFORNIA OIL SPILL
Cleanup begins: The ruptured pipeline near Santa Barbara may have spilled as much as105,000 gallons of crude oil on the California coastline. That’s the worst-case scenario estimate from Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline, the company that owns the pipeline. An estimated 21,000 gallons made it into the Pacific Ocean. The cause of the spill is not yet known, but there were problems reported Tuesday morning at a pair of pump stations.
BIN LADEN
Treasure trove: Osama bin Laden apparently did a lot of reading and writing during his final years spent hiding out in a compound in Pakistan. At least that’s what the release yesterday of 103 documents — taken during the May 2011 Navy SEAL raid that killed him — seems to indicate. Bin Laden was still obsessed with killing Americans and urged other jihadist militants to abandon all but U.S.-related targets. At the same time bin Laden was focused on his family, exchanging letters with his many wives and children, and even expressing excitement about an upcoming wedding. The documents also hint at the size and nature of the bureaucracy of al Qaeda at the time and of the extensive digital library that bin Laden had assembled, a library that often included titles on terrorism by American think tanks.
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source: CNN.com
5 Things To Know For Your New Day — Thursday, May 21 was originally published on praisecleveland.com
