Cultural Diplomacy

The decision to declassify documents with access to the Malvinas veterans was agreed following a request from the Argentine embassy in Montevideo on petition from Cesar Gonzalez Trejo who was president of the Malvinas Veterans Federation.The embassy in Montevideo said in a release that the Malvinas veteran had requested ‘support’ to have access to the Falklands/Malvinas war documents in Montevideo for which he also asked for a scanner and a lap top.

It may be that the process is so unruffled that many people won't notice, but the woman who has presided over a major shift in United States foreign policy — Hillary Clinton — has left her job. Not only has she left her position as US secretary of state, she has also left with a stunning personal approval rating of 69%.

The White House-appointed board overseeing government-funded broadcasts to 100 countries is a dysfunctional mess beset by “acute internal dissension” revolving around a longtime friend of former President George W. Bush, according to a new inspector general’s report obtained by the Daily News.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's trip to Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia underscores that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) remains the cornerstone of Japan's Asian diplomacy. Before cutting his trip short to deal with the kidnapping of Japanese nationals in Algeria, Abe commented, "Open seas are public assets and Japan will do utmost to protect them by cooperating with ASEAN. China's economic rise is definitely a plus for Japan but it is important for China to act responsibly as part of international society."

Sour Lips by Omar El-Khairy is a play that dramatises the story of Amina Arraf, a fictional Syrian character created by Tom MacMaster in a blog he dubbed A Gay Girl in Damascus. Emerging in the hype surrounding the Arab Spring, the blog bore an activist façade and was part of a buzzing blogsphere discussing a transition to democracy and progressiveness in the region.

Crater Lake National Park may soon have a sister park in southeast China's Fujian Province. Park Superintendent Craig Ackerman and Carolyn Hill, executive director of the Crater Lake National Park Trust, are working with Chinese officials as well as the Oregon Legislature and others to create a sister-park agreement between Oregon's only national park and the Mount Wuyi World Heritage and Cultural Site in Fujian Province.

Pakistani-American artist Shahzia Sikander has been honoured with the US State Department's inaugural Medal of Arts for her "outstanding commitment" to the "Art in Embassies" programme. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton conferred the award on Sikander at a ceremony in Washington, the Daily Times reported. With an eye on cultural exchange and visual diplomacy, the "Art in Embassies" creates permanent and temporary art exhibitions in over 200 diplomatic venues worldwide.

That's what happened to Michelle Obama when new photographic evidence emerged that proved — no paperwork needed, no investigative journalism, no shoe-leather reporting — that she has bangs. SHE HAS BANGS! If this were an old black-and-white movie, this would be the part where you'd suddenly see people madly running to telegraph machines and reporters hurrying to the phones to call their editors, and you'd hear "beeeeep-be-deep-deep-beetle-deep-deep" as the news began to spread.

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