Recent world attention has been focused on the Ivory Coast in Africa, with U.N. officials recently expressing concern over the potential for genocide. NPR ran a story about the situation today. http://www.npr.org/2011/01/24/133178384/foreign-policy-in-ivory-coast-a-genocide-problem

The BBC has a good background on the situation at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11916590

In news about the Cleveland production, I made some progress last week. I spoke to the agent for a musician we would love to have involved in the project, and I had a long chat with the theater where we hope to have the production. Both very productive conversations!