Kane Farabaugh's Kanestergram

Government corruption and control of the diamond industry fueled the civil war that erupted in Sierra Leone in 1991. By the end of the decade, fighting had spread throughout the African country and included battles in the capital, Freetown. Thousands fled to Guinea and other neighboring nations. But as VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports, the end of the civil war marked the beginning of success for "Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars." There is a saying among the refugees of Sierra Leone. "Today you settle, tomorrow you pack," something Reuben Koroma knows all too well. After fleeing rebel forces in Freetown in 1999, he lived in five different refugee camps in Guinea -- a place where adversity became the mother of musical invention. "Instead of thinking all the time of what has happened to us, I think we need to do something else, and we found music as a treatment for ourselves, passionately." Other musicians found their way to Koroma in the camps. Some...

It is some of the most controversial real estate on the planet. The 16 acres of land in New York that is known as "Ground Zero" draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and interest in what will eventually be built there reaches a peak on the anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports there appears to be little progress at the site six years after the attacks, but developers continue to be optimistic that the Ground Zero redevelopment plan will be finished by 2012. At street level, it is hard to see the construction effort at Ground Zero. But look down at the site from above, and the scale of the work becomes clearer. Each day, hundreds of construction workers are literally laying the foundation of lower Manhattan's future. Six years after the terrorist attacks that changed New York City forever, delays, debate and disaster have all contributed to a perceived lack of progress at the site. The chairman of the Lower M...