A curated selection of public diplomacy-relevant news from a global cross-section of English-language media outlets, including independent, corporate-owned, and state-sponsored sources. The stories featured don't necessarily represent CPD's views nor have they been verified by CPD.

Canada Dual-Citizen Aid May Be Cut

The government has been urged to limit consular services for dual citizens who travel on a foreign passport or who live outside Canada for prolonged periods, a report said Tuesday. The proposal was described in briefing books prepared for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and Trade Minister Ed Fast, and cited by the daily Globe and Mail.

Tags: canada, immigration, visas, consular diplomacy, dual citizenship,

Russia: Silencing Sochi Critics Intensifies On Eve Of Olympics

Russian authorities have intensified blatant harassment and intimidation of environmental and civic activists in the final weeks before Russia hosts the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Since late December, police have interfered with peaceful one-person pickets, detained and jailed protestors, and called and visited several activists and a lawyer at their homes.

Tags: russia, human rights, censorship, human rights watch, sochi, international olympics committee, authoritarianism, 2014 winter olympics

Why These Two New York Chefs Consider Curry Japanese Soul Food

Chefs Harris Salat and Tadashi Ono both own Japanese restaurants in New York. Together, they've written a cookbook called "Japanese Soul Cooking." It's not about fancy stuff like sushi, but rather, Japanese comfort food - things like gyoza, soba, tempura - and curry.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, europe, japan, gastrodiplomacy, food diplomacy, new york, soul food, curry

The Snowden Affair: 2013 As A ‘Napster Year’ For Government Secrecy And World Order

When historians look back at the first few decades of the 21st century, 2013 will almost certainly be seen as a game-changing year. That judgement can in the main be attributed to a series of disclosures made by American fugitive Ed Snowden, formerly a low level CIA employee and National Security Agency sub-contractor whose flight and subsequent revelations have given rise to sensational reverberations across the globe.

Tags: united states, new technology, brazil, edward snowden, intelligence, national security agency

KONY 20Never

Joseph Kony has been called Africa’s most wanted man, and for good reason: Over the past 27 years, he has led a rebel militia of child soldiers that is responsible for the death of more than 100,000 people and the kidnapping of some 50,000 young boys and girls. From 1986 to 2006, Kony savaged northern Uganda, terrorizing defenseless villages. But after losing clandestine support from Sudan and refuge in neighboring South Sudan, he took his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and began peace talks with the Ugandan government.

Tags: africa, sudan, uganda, south sudan, democratic republic of the congo, central african republic, joseph kony, lord's resistance army

Anita L. DeFrantz, America’s Powerful Olympic Presence

Anita L. DeFrantz has her bags packed for the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia — but heck, she's had her bags packed for athletic events around the world for the last 40 years, as a competitor and as a member of the International Olympic Committee (currently on the executive board) and the U.S. Olympic Committee (board member).

Tags: russia, sports diplomacy, olympics, vladimir putin, lgbt, anti-gay, greenpeace, authoritarianism, sochi winter olympics, anita l. defrantz

US Collegians On Baseball Diplomacy Tour In Cuba

Balls and strikes, not politics, ruled the day Wednesday at a baseball diamond in Havana, as last year’s college championship team from the University of Tampa played an exhibition game against a Cuban youth squad. The visitors scraped out a hard-fought 2-1 win, but the encounter was more about bridging the vast gulf between these neighboring nations that disagree on just about everything except their shared love of the game.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, sports diplomacy, cuba, baseball, youth exchange, university of tampa, baseball diplomacy, youth diplomacy

Tunisian Constitution, Praised For Balance, Nears Passage

Tunisia’s National Constituent Assembly is close to passing a new Constitution that legislators across the political spectrum, human rights organizations and constitutional experts are hailing as a triumph of consensus politics. Two years in the making and now in its third draft, the charter is a carefully worded blend of ideas that has won the support of both Ennahda, the Islamist party that leads the interim government, and the secular opposition. It is being hailed as one of the most liberal constitutions in an Arab nation.

Tags: middle east, arab spring, islam, tunisia, human rights, democracy, north africa, constitution, ennahda, national constituent assembly

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