Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro has threatened to expel the US news network CNN from the country over its reporting of recent protests there. Mr Maduro said he would take action if CNN did not "rectify its coverage". Earlier, Mr Maduro said he was sending troops to the western state of Tachira, where there has been continuing unrest.

Sports diplomacy is often presented as a slam dunk approach for building relations across political divides. Last week veteran NBA star Dennis Rodman took a shot at “basketball diplomacy” in North Korea and showed how professed good intentions can go afoul.

CNN food and travel host Anthony Bourdain's excellent hour-long special on Israel-Palestine, in he which he explores both sides of the green line, begins with a line that could not ring truer for me. "It's easily the most contentious piece of real estate in the world. And there's no hope – none – of ever talking about it without pissing somebody, if not everybody, off," he says of Israel-Palestine and particularly Jerusalem.

The family of the late ambassador had requested that CNN not issue any reports based on the journal — or even reference its existence — before the family consented. CNN agreed to abide by the family’s wishes, according to Philippe Reines, a State Department spokesman who listened in on a conference call between a CNN executive and a representative of the Stevens family.

What’s the future of international broadcasting? Tony Maddox, the executive vice president of news organisation CNN International, thinks that despite changes in the world media environment, there will always be a role for traditional broadcasting.

Indeed, the elections that took place in Egypt and Tunisia have demonstrated that the young, multilingual and Internet-savvy spokesmen for the revolution who had become prominent on Al Jazeera and CNN television coverage from Tahrir Square lack any strong base of electoral support.