The US State Department has awarded PT Ganesha Aggies Jaya a contract for just under $3 million for communications support for the @america public outreach center in Jakarta. The firm will provide public affairs and PR support as well as diplomacy programming for the outreach center, according to a representative from the federal agency. The representative did not provide further details on the contract's length.

He may be no Black Mamba like Kobe Bryant, but Vice President Jejomar Binay unabashedly dribbled around Yao Ming, as if challenging the 7’6” former Houston Rockets center to a one-on-one. A shocked Binay welcomed Yao and his Shanghai Sharks to his Coconut Palace Monday morning, gaping at the giant and looking up to shake hands with the retired NBA player.

In an article in The New Yorker two years ago, reporter Ryan Lizza famously quoted an anonymous adviser to President Obama characterizing the president’s strategy in Libya as “leading from behind.” That’s not a bad way to describe the president’s foreign policy in general. Obama takes great pains not to lead too conspicuously, not to step on toes, not to offend allies or enemies. Libya, in fact, was the ideal: Let the Europeans and the Arabs take the lead, and we’ll quietly help out. Or not.

World-renowned Guitarist Roberto Limon from Mexico will perform at St. John’s College Great Hall 60 College Avenue Annapolis on May 24, 2013, at 7 PM. Mr. Limon is widely recognized as a concert performer throughout the world. He performs regularly as soloist with numerous orchestras in both his own country of Mexico but throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas, including the Czech National Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, and the National Symphony Orchestra.

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa recently announced thatglobalFEST (globalfest.org) is one of 817 nonprofit organizations nationwide recommended to receive an NEA Art Works grant. This is the first NEA grant to globalFEST and will support 11th edition of the organization's annual flagship festival in New York City in January, 2014.

A U.S. rights group warned this week that media repression is casting a chill over free speech in South Sudan, where a writer who was critical iof the government in Juba was killed several months ago. Senior Government Fellow at Human Rights First, Sonni Efron, said attacks on journalists, such as the unsolved killing in December last year of political commentator Isaiah Diing Abraham Chan Awuol, who frequently criticized the South Sudanese government in his writing, have a "chilling effect" on citizens' access to information.

After helping coordinate the American civilian aid efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya, Mark Ward arrived in Turkey last year to oversee the Obama administration's effort to provide non-lethal assistance to Syria's rebels. Unwilling to provide arms, Washington hoped to strengthen the Syrian Opposition Coalition. Led by moderates, the group was seen as a potential counterweight to jihadists.