Amid Alabama Farm Fields, a Citadel of Black Learning Shines
In 1881, a 25-year-old former slave from Virginia used a $2,000 gift to open a one-room teacher-training school in one of the poorest rural counties in the southern state of Alabama. This man and his school, that began in a church basement, would become American legends. The man was Booker T. Washington.

Blair Promotes Interfaith Initiatives in Africa
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is in Africa on a three-nation trip that will take him to Nigeria, Liberia and Sierra Leone. He was in Abuja Nigeria on Saturday to lend support to interfaith initiatives focused on delivering the Millennium Development Goal to tackle deaths from malaria.

Last Tsar’s Murder Probe Raises Divisive Questions About Bolshevik Crimes
A Moscow court is due to start hearings today into a dispute pitting the self-proclaimed heir to Russia's imperial throne against the Prosecutor-General's Office. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, who styles herself as the head of the Romanov imperial line, filed suit last month after prosecutors closed a probe into the murder of Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, and his family, shot dead by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

Reagan’s Greatness
Jon Kyl
February 6 marked the 99th birthday of one of our most successful and beloved former presidents, Ronald Reagan. At this time of economic uncertainty and global tension, it’s worth recalling the challenges Reagan faced when he took office and what he did to conquer them.

From Chinggis Khan to Prayer Wheels, Mongolians Reclaim What’s Theirs
There are ordinary equestrian statues. And then there's Chinggis Khan, the monument so tall that visitors need to ride an elevator and climb several flights of stairs just to reach his waistline. Located on a windswept plateau an hour's drive from the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, the massive stainless-steel monument reaches 50 meters high, including its 10-meter base.

New York’s Jews Unite to Help Haiti
It's just after seven p.m. on a recent bitter cold evening and the cavernous sanctuary of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on Manhattan's Upper West Side is bursting. Jewish musicians and congregants are among the people who have turned out for the second benefit for Haiti in as many weeks.

In Georgia, Crimes Of The Past Haunt The Present
Klaus and Yury Kiladze had to wait more than 70 years to see justice served for the repression of their family under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. This week, the European Court of Human Rights found Georgia guilty of denying the brothers financial compensation and ordered authorities to pay them 4,000 euros ($5,560) each.

Kremlin Ties to Orthodox Church Raise Concern
Human-rights activists say 2009 represented a breakthrough in relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government. But they say the closer ties appear to place other faiths at a disadvantage. Sergei Mozgovoi of the independent Freedom of Conscience Institute told a Moscow news conference Russian lawmakers are rushing through laws to legitimize decisions made earlier by President Dmitriy Medvedev on behalf of Russian Orthodoxy.

US Churches Collecting Aid for Haiti
Churches in the United States are collecting relief aid for Haiti. Many of them waited until the aid could be brought into the country. VOA visted one church outside of Washington that is taking donations of food, water and medical supplies. For parishioners at the Catholic Church of the Nativity in Burke, Virginia, there's a special place in their hearts for the Haitian people.

France Moves Closer to Banning Face-Covering Veils
France has moved closer to banning the face-covering Islamic veil, with the publication of a long-awaited report recommending the garment be barred from public transportation and institutions. The report was authored by a parliamentary commission appointed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and comprising lawmakers from both the right and left.

A Volcano about to Erupt
Gary Cooperberg
In the 1930s, a Jew by the name of Ze’ev Jabotinski traveled throughout Europe warning his fellow Jews that they were sitting atop a volcano that was about to erupt. He begged them to get up and leave the Exile while they still could and come home to "Palestine" (which in those days was a Jewish concept, not an Arab one). Jabotinski was ridiculed for saying things that people preferred not to hear; millions perished for their refusal to face reality.

The Wizard of Cost Control
Joe Pitts
"Pay no attention to my six-figure stipend." That’s what MIT economist Jonathan Gruber has been saying since it was revealed that he was being paid by the Department of Health and Human Services while also defending the administration’s health bill as an "independent researcher." Gruber is a health economist currently with MIT, but formerly with the Clinton Treasury Department.

When "Old Europe" Means Really, Really Old
How do traces of a civilization with no written language and no documented history survive? In the case of the ancient societies that populated Eastern and Southeastern Europe in the period between 5000-4000 B.C., the challenge has proved especially daunting.