Newsletter Archive

It was a short-lived war-time love affair between a US seaman and young Vietnamese woman. When Gary Wittig left Vietnam, he knew Huỳnh Thị Chút was pregnant with his daughter. But things were complicated — Chút was already married with a young son and Wittig, at 23, had no idea how to begin to tackle the necessary paperwork to get Chút to the US. So they parted ways and it was almost a half century later before all three would be reunited.

On second thought… Pakistan, Nepal and Myanmar have all recently canceled or sidelined major hydroelectricity projects planned by Chinese companies. The three projects, worth nearly $20 billion, are part of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to build infrastructure across the globe. While there are various political and economic reasons behind nixing the projects, there’s also a growing realization among poorer countries that Chinese proposals to build massive infrastructure projects can come at too high a price.

Imagine taking a virtual trip through your own brain. That’s now a reality for patients facing brain surgery at Stanford Medical Center. The ‘fly through’ not only gives people more insight into their surgery, but is also intended to reassure nervous patients. It can be a good thing for doctors too, allowing them a virtual practice run before they pick up the scalpel.

A girl’s place is often in the lab in Rwanda, which is making a big push to equip girls for science-related careers. The government’s on a mission to transform the economy by 2020, in part by promoting careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. VOA visits a girls boarding school in Kigali, which is one of many STEM-focused schools to open in Rwanda over the past decade, creating a model for other African nations to follow.

VIDEO: Tanzanians would rather not live on borrowed time. Offices open at 8am in the African nation but most native residents consider that to be 2 in the morning. That’s because Swahili time has remained dominant in Tanzania despite the introduction of so-called ‘English time’ during the colonial period. VOA reports from Dar es Salaam where the clocks might confuse foreign visitors, but where living on their own time is a source of national pride for Tanzanians.