● CONGO. Hope blooms in smiles of Kinshasa polio kids. Notorious for its violence, and recovering from a 1998-2003 war and humanitarian crisis that killed four million people ? the most lethal conflict since World War Two ? Congo recently held its first free elections in more than 40 years. Incumbent Joseph Kabila was elected as president, but the legacy of misrule, violence and greed dating back to Belgium?s colonial rule means improvements for ordinary civilians are likely to come slowly. Things didn?t look much better on a recent trip back to cover the elections. Opposition mobs attacked journalists, spat at us, beat and robbed us while uttering death threats. But the polio kids still smile, despite being thinly sheltered from the hostility outside their compound?s cracked concrete walls and rusted green gate. Some suffer from more than just polio, a viral infection that paralyzes limbs and is still present in only a few developing countries. A few also have cerebral palsy or spasticity. Others, such as 10-year-old Lopez Vidal, are deaf. But even Lopez has created his own crude form of sign language and charms visitors with his good looks and winning smile. Run on a shoestring budget provided by donors and on slim profits from a small roadside bar, IPVRC provides basic food and spartan shelter for its 100 children in a house bereft of furniture. Most sleep curled together without blankets on hard tiles rubbed smooth by small bodies. Last night in Kinshasa, IPVRC threw a party with music and dancing. For a while at least, it was easy to forget Congo?s troubles

● USA. Chicago jazz mecca closes doors. In a city that lost several beloved institutions in 2006, the sound coming out of Chicago?s jazz scene is providing a year-end coda no one wants to hear. The Jazz Showcase, this jazz-drenched city?s oldest club dedicated to the musical form and the second-oldest US jazz venue after New York?s Village Vanguard, is closing its doors this weekend after 59 years. A New Year?s Eve ?last blast? featuring saxophonist David ?Fathead? Newman and Henry Johnson?s Organ Express has been the final show at the club, which for six decades presented artists like Charlie Parker and others working out of the tradition associated with legendary players like John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. This fall, the club lost its lease and despite help from the city of Chicago, its owner and founder, 80-year-old Joe Segal, still has found no new digs. The uncertainty surrounding the venerable club?s future serves as a depressingly apt final note in a year that saw a number of Chicago landmarks ? including the Marshall Field?s department store on State Street, the Berghoff restaurant, and the scruffy City News Service ? pass from the scene.