Newsletter Archive

It has been over a month since Republican Donald Trump’s upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton for the U.S. presidency. But the results won’t be official until Monday, when the Electoral College’s 538 members cast votes that actually decide the next leader. A long-shot effort to have the Electoral College deny Trump the White House adds one more chapter to this wildly unpredictable election. (Texas elector Rex Teter, above, says he’s backing Trump.)

The Pakistani doctor who helped the United States track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 is serving a 33-year prison term that U.S. authorities denounce as unjust. Now, Pakistan’s prime minister has told VOA’s Urdu service his country “would be willing” to discuss Shakil Afridi’s release with the incoming Trump administration. As a candidate, Trump said he would get Afridi out “in two minutes” if elected president.

VIDEO: Here’s how the violent Islamic State group triggers a chain reaction of despair. A police officer from the Iraqi city of Kirkuk gets killed in an IS attack. Later, his disconsolate widow asks their young son, “Do you want to go to your daddy?” When he says no, she sends the boy from the room. He hears a gunshot. Now, he, his sister and baby brother are orphans.

Cambodian refugees lost their country when they fled the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. Many who settled in the United States feared losing their culture, too. So the California city of Long Beach, home to the nation’s largest number of Cambodian-Americans, eight years ago began offering free Khmer classes to sustain connections with their homeland. As one participant says, “Language is the breath of a culture.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Technology frontiers expanded in 2016 in developing countries, with small devices – from mobile phones to drones – delivering big assists in education and healthcare. Literacy advocate Worldreader put 31,000 digital books at the fingertips of schoolchildren in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. Guyana, Haiti and other countries aim to draft drones to deliver medical supplies to remote areas.