Newly confirmed Secretary of State John Kerry is now the face of America to the world -- a pervasively religious world. With more than 80 percent of the global population affiliated with a religion, Kerry's ability to engage religious issues and actors will be vital to the success of his diplomacy.

American director Sam French helped make history this year when his film "Buzkashi Boys" became the first movie shot in Afghanistan to receive an Oscar nomination. But the 29-minute film holds another unusual distinction: It was funded almost entirely out of a $150 million State Department campaign to combat extremism, support Afghan media and burnish the U.S. image in Afghanistan.

Nordic Ministers of Culture and representatives of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, as well as Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Åland met with Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine on February 20 at the U.S. Department of State to mark the opening of the Nordic Cool 2013 festival.

A screening and reception for the Hollywood film "Argo" at the Canadian embassy in Washington last fall was such a hot ticket, people complained afterwards about not getting invited...Documents obtained by The Canadian Press reveal the film company Time Warner considered the October event a "Canada love-in" which helped mitigate some of the bad press the movie had received.

Two US athletes, Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer Barry Larkin and Olympian Natasha Watley, are headed to India as sports envoys to encourage youth participation in sports. During their Feb 12-18 trip to India, Larkin and Whatley will lead baseball and softball clinics in New Delhi and Imphal for underserved youth and their coaches, as well as engage in dialogue on sports and diversity, the State Department announced Tuesday.

Despite growing up in the birthplace of hip-hop, Bronx resident Ronalda Livingston traveled all the way to Germany to learn more about her borough's biggest export. "It was a mind-blowing experience," said Livingston, now 21, of her first-ever overseas experience, a visit to Berlin in 2010. "I have grown so much since the trip."

The exchanges between Santiago Zabala and Hamid Dabashi published in Al Jazeera brings about one of the crucial issues of the 21st century: the increasing process of re-westernisation (the revamping of Western ways of thinking, from Christianity to Liberalism and Marxism), de-westernisation and decoloniality in all sphere of life, politics, economy, religions, aesthetics, knowledge and subjectivity.

Pianist Herbie Hancock will celebrate the special connection between Turkey and jazz music forged decades ago when the Turkish ambassador opened his residence to white and black musicians at a time when segregation held sway in the U.S. capital.