Newsletter Archive

The younger sister and close advisor of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un steps into the spotlight Friday when she arrives at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony. Kim Yo Jong will be the first member of North Korea’s ruling party to enter South Korea. She’s expected to have lunch with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in South Korea today intent on countering North Korea’s Olympic charm offensive, a trip that could possibly include an encounter between Pence and Kim Jong Un’s sister.

He once sat by Nelson Mandela’s side negotiating the end of apartheid but today South African President Jacob Zuma’s future is in doubt. Zuma’s been a magnet for scandal — including a rape trial, corruption trial, hundreds of corruption charges, and at least two out-of-wedlock children that Zuma, a polygamist with four known wives, fathered with daughters of political allies — but that’s not what finally brought the populist president down.

Is fear keeping Russian President Vladimir Putin from calling it a day? Presidential hopeful Ksenia Sobchak, a Russian TV celebrity and socialite, tells VOA’s Russian language service that Putin would retire from politics, IF he could safely leave the limelight without fear of retribution from his political enemies. Opposition activists say the 36-year-old’s candidacy is a Kremlin ploy to boost turnout and help Putin’s bid for another six-year term. But Sobchak, who denies she is personally close to Putin, her father’s one-time political protege, says Russians must focus on regime change and not vengeance for the past.

Female genital mutilation is now banned in the self-declared republic of Somaliland. Authorities have issued a religious fatwa banning the practice and vowing to punish violators. FGM in Africa is an age-old tradition that involves the cutting of the clitoris of young girls and women, usually as a rite of passage. Somalia is among the countries where FGM is most prevalent. An estimated 98 percent of Somali females between the ages 15 and 49 have undergone the procedure.

The world’s most complete T-Rex dinosaur skeleton is on the move. Actually Sue the Tyrannosaurus Rex is only moving one floor up from its current home at Chicago’s Field Museum. She’ll settle into ‘cozier’ digs because the 21-meter-high ceiling of her current spot in the museum dwarfs the 13-foot-tall T-Rex, to the disappointment of many museum visitors. The short move is more complicated than it sounds because the Tyrannosaurus Rex has to be taken apart bone by bone.