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https://web.archive.org/web/20091020224623/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95550177Trial and Triumph: Stories Out Of Africa by Ofeibea Quist-Arcton October 9, 2008 Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR's Africa-based correspondent, tells why her beat has proved one of the most interesting this year. She discusses the stories that have been painful and devastating for many nations on the continent such as the violent political fights that have led to power-sharing deals. She also describes the stories that have been exciting, including the U.S. presidential race of Kenyan-born Sen. Barack Obama.

I graduated from Bir Zeit on the Hudson [Columbia University] a little too early to remember Barry Soetoro a/k/a Barack Hussein Obama. But isn't it more than a little curious that not a single one of the 25 members of the Columbia College Class of 1983 - allegedly Obama's class - who lives in Israel remembers him? What are Obama's classmates in Israel up to? Quite a few, like him, went straight to law school after finishing their undergraduate degrees. One is a doctor, several are engineers, and a few hold top jobs in finance. There's an architect in the...