Domestic violence victim granted asylum in US (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - After suffering 10 years of horrific abuse at the hands of her husband, Rody Alvarado fled her native Guatemala in 1995 and applied for asylum in the U.S.

Last week, in a one-page decision, an immigration judge finally granted her request. It was the culmination of a long personal odyssey for Alvarado and of a thorny legal case that inflamed passions on both sides of the immigration debate. Full article

Centenarian Becomes Citizen (from About.com)

Dar Sun Kim, 100 years old, looks over her naturalization papers declaring her an American citizen while her daughter Chin Duk Chung stands behind at Flushing Hospital December 21, 2009 in the Queens borough of New York City. Kim, who was widowed in her native Korea in the 1940s, moved to the United States about 20 years ago to be closer to her children, and had always wanted to become a citizen but presumed she was too old. Her citizenship paperwork was in progress when she was hospitalized last week with stomach illness. USCIS officers decided to administer the oath to her in her hospital room.

by Jennifer McFadyen on About.com