Newsletter Archive

A selfie showing a moment of inter-Korean friendship – picturing Olympic gymnasts Lee Eun-Ju of the South, right, and Hong Un Jong of the North – comes at a time of deep division and high tension between the Seoul and Pyongyang governments. And it stands in contrast to other rivals, such as the Lebanese athletes who refused to share a bus with their Israeli counterparts en route to the Summer Games’ opening ceremonies. The president of South Korea’s International Sport Cooperation and Diplomacy Institute tells VOA the Olympics offer the two Koreas a chance to find some common ground. The photo, he notes, is “a good starting point.”

Speaking of diplomacy, the United States has sent an ambassador to Somalia for the first time in 25 years. Presenting his papers Tuesday in Mogadishu, Stephen Schwartz praises recent progress in the country and promises U.S. help in building a “stable democratic government.” The East African country has grappled with civil war and the al-Shabab insurgency.

The American University of Afghanistan briefly suspends operations after Sunday’s kidnapping of two foreign teachers: an American and an Australian. The private, Kabul-based school expects to reopen Wednesday, it says in a statement. It has not named those taken. Kidnappings for ransom have escalated amid Taliban insurgent attacks in Afghanistan’s capital and elsewhere. Last week, Taliban militants attacked a group of U.S. and European tourists in the western province of Herat. On Thursday, after a helicopter crash in Logar province, the five Pakistani crew members and their Russian navigator were seized by gunmen and still have not been found.

Breaking into the music industry might seem next to impossible. But if you’re a techie who shies away from the spotlight, opportunities abound in California’s Silicon Valley. Pandora, Dolby Laboratories and Smule are among the companies that call the region home. The nonprofit Real Industry works with business and universities to highlight noteworthy prospects for electrical engineers, computer scientists and designers. They’re jammin’:  making apps, creating sets and designing instruments.

Harmony is the goal of renewed police efforts to engage with residents of Los Angeles’ poor, heavily minority neighborhoods. In an update of police athletic leagues, LAPD cops are organizing youth basketball games, talking with neighbors and promoting themselves as positive role models. Racial tensions have heated up in recent years with news of shootings of and by police.

Two years ago, Ferguson blazed into public consciousness with the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white police officer. The shooting sparked fiery riots – and it fueled the Black Lives Matter movement as well as a national debate over police brutality and the need for criminal justice reforms.

Shea butter, an ingredient for cosmetics and cooking, is greasing business opportunities for women’s cooperatives in Ivory Coast. They’re trying to transform its production from a cottage industry into big business, aiming to satisfy international demand. Neighboring Burkina Faso earns an estimated $33 million a year in exporting the cocoa butter substitute, and Ivory Coasters are trying to catch up. The nut, harvested in the country’s north, is also called “women’s gold.”

Ethiopia’s Oromo and Amhara people, historically pitted against each other, are uniting in their anger at the central government. And that anger has grown since security forces suppressed scattered anti-government protests over the weekend, killing nearly 100, according to human rights groups. The Oromios object to a government master plan, now put on hold, that would annex them to Addis Ababa, the capital. The Amharas also are involved in a territorial dispute over the Wolkayt administrative district, which they say was wrongly wrested from them two decades ago. The government has clamped down on protests, warning of destabilization.