VIDEO: A new U.S. Congress opened in Washington Thursday with a historic class of new legislators, many without political experience. The new class has set some records, including the most women elected to Congress, the first Native American and Muslim women and the first U.S. Army Green Beret. Voice of America is following the challenges these lawmakers will face in their first year .

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On January 4, 1896, Utah becomes the 45th state of the United States. Starting in 1847, Mormons fleeing persecution back east began to settle what would later become Utah. Today, more than 60 percent of the state’s population is Mormon. Utah is the 13th largest state by area, the 31st most-populous, and the 10th least densely populated of the 50 states. Utah has a population of more than 3 million.

Somalia’s U.N. envoy Thursday urged the United Nations not to interfere in his country’s internal affairs, two days after the federal government expelled the U.N.’s top official there .

Sonbola Bakery in southern Lebanon is well known for its German breads as well as its staff. The bakers, all with special needs, are defying the odds and showing society they are quite capable.

Matthieu Finot knows a lot about wine. He sees it as a combination of science and art. From watching the weather and checking the soil, to testing grapes for sugar levels and acidity and then deciding when to harvest, Finot says nature and winemaker must work together.

Since Malaysia’s election of a new party for the first time in more than six decades in May, the new government has delivered on a number of once unthinkably progressive reforms, including abolishing the nation’s sedition law and the death penalty.