Today@VOA: US intelligence gets a jolt

Informing, engaging & connecting the people of the world. November 21, 2016

After months spent in Greek refugee camps, a Syrian family finally has a home. The Othman family is living in an apartment given to them —rent-free — by someone they had never met before. The story of how they got there begins almost a century ago.

On This Day in American History On November 21, 1981, 350 million people around the world tune in to find out who shot J.R. on the popular television show 'Dallas.' The character that fans love to hate had been shot at the end of the previous season, in one of television's most famous cliffhangers.

Donald Trump supporters are eagerly waiting for the president-elect to deliver on his campaign promises now that the election is over. Although some don't expect Trump to follow through on everything he vowed to do, here's what they are hoping he will accomplish.

More Asian-Americans voted for Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump in the recent U.S. election, according to polls. But those who voted for Trump did so for a variety of reasons and now they're waiting to see if he'll address the issues — like abortion and the economy — that are important to them.

President-elect Donald Trump's first selections for key national security posts seem likely to push the country's intelligence agencies out of their comfort zones. Trump's outsider picks could give U.S. intelligence a jolt.

Coal used to be king, but now it's giving way to greener energy in the United States. In Salisbury, North Carolina, a shuttered coal-fired plant that once produced enough electricity to power a thousand households, sits across the way from three noisy turbines at a new natural gas-fired plant — a potent sign of change in the energy industry.

A Malawi man convicted of having sex with widows and young virgins is facing five years in prison. The 45-year-old was charged with practicing sex customs that were outlawed three years ago in the southern African nation. VOA is in Nsanje, Malawi, where centuries-old beliefs hold that bedding widows exorcises evil spirits, while deflowering virgins prepares them for married life.

The planned introduction of new bond notes has sparked heated protests in Zimbabwe. VOA reports from Harare, where the opposition accuses President Robert Mugabe's government of failing to end corruption and human rights abuses. Instead of solving these problems, critics argue the central bank's introduction of new the bond notes will plunge the nation back to the days of hyperinflation and shortages, when Zimbabwe's currency became practically worthless.

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