Madrid's 2020 Olympic bid committee says it has appointed Los Angeles Lakers star Pau Gasol to act as one of its spokesmen. In a statement issued Tuesday, the committee says Gasol, one of Spain's most well-known athletes and a two-time Olympic silver medalist, will address the International Olympic Committee during Madrid's final presentation in Buenos Aires next month.

The recent senseless shooting of Christopher Lane, an Australian student athlete who was on a baseball scholarship at a small Oklahoma state university, is so sad and disturbing that it shakes our souls. It is hard to imagine the horror and sadness that his family and friends in Australia and Oklahoma must be experiencing at this moment.

To further advance Nigeria’s course on the cyberspace, the National Council on Communication Technology (NCCT), has recommended that all state governments and their agencies should switch to the country’s domain name and adopt the gov.ng platform. NCCT, which gave August 18, 2014 as deadline date for the switch to have been completed, noted that this would not only create a better cyberspace, but also engender economic growth.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has refuted allegations that the Endless Possibilities tagline adopted by Malaysia was copied from Israel. According to PMO, the Government unveiled its latest branding concept four months before Israel announced the same theme as part of its tourism promotion. “Malaysia’s Endless Possibilities nation branding concept was unveiled in January 2013 at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

In the latest episode of Breaking Bad, Saul (Bob Odenkirk) nervously suggested that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) order a hit on his brother-in-law Hank (Dean Norris), telling Walt that he could send his brother-in-law “on a trip to Belize,” just as he did with old buddy Mike (Jonathan Banks). Walt is hypocritically aghast at the suggestion, but audiences everywhere welcomed the euphemism into the cultural lexicon.

Saudi Arabia is ranked first in the growth of tourism in the Arab world followed by Egypt and Morocco, according to a recent report by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Saudi Arabia’s top ranking was not hampered by a significant decline in the number of tourists in 2012. The report said the Kingdom witnessed the largest decline in the number of tourists — 22 percent — in 2012 compared to a whopping increase of 61 percent in 2011 over 2010. Tourists numbers are likely to drop again at the end of this year.