Newsletter Archive

VOA’s Kurdish service reports on a Yazidi gathering Wednesday, at the Lalash Temple in Kurdistan, northern Iraq, to mark the grim second anniversary of the Islamic State’s launch of brutal attacks on the religious minority group. Militants killed hundreds of Yazidis, kidnapped thousands of women and children, and sold some as sex slaves. Hundreds of thousands took refuge in Iraq’s Duhok province, where many remain in unbearable conditions. U.S. officials at the event reaffirm Washington’s commitment to protecting the religious minority group and to helping ensure that the trauma won’t be repeated.

The Islamic State also is suspected of plotting to kill Myanmar’s state counselor, Aung San Suu Kyi. The country’s authorities say they’ve launched an investigation, citing a purported IS letter that threatens the prime minister and several officials, too.

South Africa votes Wednesday in local elections that may upend the political status quo. The vote marks the first real challenge to the Africa National Congress since Nelson Mandela brought the party to power in 1994. VOA reports from the polls in one diverse Johannesburg neighborhood that reflects just how much the Rainbow Nation itself is changing. Results are expected within the week.

Before war drove him out of Syria, Amer Horani took great pride in his status as a student at Damascus University. He studied psychology and dreamed of using his education to help others. Now, he’s a refugee in Lebanon – and, along with many of the estimated 200,000 other college students who fled Syria, he’s had to set aside his plans. Insufficient funds, language barriers and missing documents have created “the most challenging higher-education emergency we have ever faced,” the Institute of International Education’s president says.

Pakistan’s tiny, pagan Kalash tribe confronts some tough prospects. Its population has dwindled to roughly 4,000, trimmed by religious conversions to Islam (sometimes allegedly coerced), encroachment on land and declines in the agriculture that once was its mainstay. So the Kalash have staked their survival on tourism, inviting outsiders to visit their enclaves in several Hindu Kush mountain valleys. The Pakistani government has done little to help, even in terms of building roads to improve access, but a donors’ conference is in the works.

President Barack Obama doubles down on his efforts to pitch the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal to a wary Congress. At a news conference Tuesday, he again says the TPP’s lower tariffs on U.S. goods and stricter labor and environmental standards abroad would help Americans. But it’s a tough sell in this election year, when everyone aiming to succeed the president has expressed opposition to the TPP. Calling Don Draper of “Mad Men” for marketing advice.

A simple kebab or curry? So yesterday. Today’s Indian chefs reinterpret traditional restaurant fare, stuffing naan with blue cheese, serving kebabs with pesto, and drizzling truffle oil on other quintessential dishes.  Now they’re exporting these fusion dishes, in hopes of winning new global customers to a cuisine long defined by butter chicken.