VIDEO: “Hell and Hope” is a feature program about the lives of Yazidi girls abducted by ISIS terrorists in 2014 from Sinjar province in Iraq. The militants raped, tortured and sold the girls several times while they were in captivity. A few girls risked their lives to escape, and those who succeeded were eventually able to settle in Germany, where they live and work today.

ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY On April 12, 1954, Bill Haley & His Comets record one of the most iconic songs in rock and roll, “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock.” The song ended up being released as the B side to “Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town).” The record had anemic sales until it was featured in the 1955 teen angst movie, Blackboard Jungle , starring Glenn Ford. That made the song the anthem of teenage rebellion and sales soared. The song was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2018 as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant.”

VIDEO: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol continues to face difficulties in processing the large number of undocumented migrants entering the U.S. through El Paso, Texas. Voice of America accompanied border agents this week on one of their tours in which they detained several groups of Cuban and Central American migrants.

China’s President Xi Jinping received his first-ever foreign honorary doctorate, in engineering, Thursday from the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. University officials praised the powerful leader for his contributions to engineering and for what they called his world vision, but critics question the move.

Corn and soybeans typically bring in the largest amount of profit for U.S. farmers each year. While many rotate planting the crops season to season as a way to improve the soil, the ongoing U.S. trade dispute with China is affecting routine decisions for farmers as they prepare to head to the fields for spring planting.

A court in Islamabad on Thursday ruled that two Hindu sisters from Sindh province, who were allegedly abducted and forced to marry Muslim men, voluntarily converted to Islam.