Music has long helped people express their emotions and connect with one another. Over the years, medical studies have proved that music has many health benefits, too. They range from facilitating regular breathing and lifting mood to improving emotional function and motor control in patients
Five-year-old Sayeed Abdul Rahman was just 8 months old when he was shot during fighting between Afghan forces and Taliban militants. His leg was subsequently amputated. Now, thanks to support from a Red Cross hospital in Kabul, he can walk and dance on a prosthetic limb
Venezuela, opposition leader Juan Guaido remains free while several of his allied lawmakers face possible criminal prosecution after a failed attempt to force socialist President Nicolas Maduro from office. Dozens of countries, including the United States, view Maduro’s 2018 re-election as illegitimate and have recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s leader. Brian Padden reports on concerns for the opposition leader’s safety as Maduro seeks to reassert his authority by cracking down on opponents
In late 2016, CEO Mark Zuckerberg infamously dismissed as “pretty crazy” the idea that fake news on his service could have swayed the election. He later backtracked, and since then the company has reduced the amount of misinformation shared on its service, as measured by several independent studies
Improvised explosive devices and land mines have been killing and injuring thousands of civilians in Afghanistan. One of those affected is Zaheer Ahmad Zindani, who has become a well-known peace activist in the country
Seventeen-year-old Rahila Rafi was killed last August in a suicide attack on a Kabul classroom. Her brother has opened a library in honor of his slain sister after being inspired by an entry in Rahila’s diary~RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
Russia Today’s 2017 documentary – “My Mother Sold Me” – depicted a young Cambodian woman selling her daughter’s virginity. The film went viral – but it wasn’t good news for Cambodian fixer, Rath Rott Mony, who worked for RT. Cambodian authorities labeled it fake news and jailed him for “incitement to discriminate.” Now, Mony’s family says the Russian government, which bankrolls RT, should be working to get him free
Robert Kyagulanyi, the Ugandan singer and legislator better known as Bobi Wine, has vowed to continue using music to denounce longtime President Yoweri Museveni
The flood of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh in late-2017 created a sudden medical emergency; but, it has now turned into a protracted crisis
In the predominantly Muslim country of Pakistan, less than 5% of the population is non-Muslims. Among them are Christians and Hindus. Rights groups say hundreds of young Hindu and Christian girls are forcibly converted to Islam every year in Pakistan