In mid-January, the State Department's Office of the Inspector General issued a scathing report on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the nine member panel that oversees all of America's official public broadcasting abroad. It concluded that the board is seriously flawed in its operations and deeply "dysfunctional" in terms of its organization.

The flamboyant former NBA star is visiting the reclusive Communist state with three members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team and a Vice film crew, to shoot a documentary for HBO.

For a brief moment on Tuesday, the nuclear dispute between Iran and the United States took a back seat to sport...Diplomatic ties between Iran and the United States have been cut since 1980 after Iranian students took 52 U.S. diplomats hostage in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution. But wrestling, one of Iran's most popular sports, has proven a rare arena in which the two countries have friendly relations.

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman brought his basketball skills and flamboyant style -- neon-bleached hair, tattoos, nose studs and all -- on Tuesday to the isolated Communist country with possibly the world's drabbest dress code: North Korea. Arriving in Pyongyang, the American athlete and showman known as "The Worm" became an unlikely ambassador for sports diplomacy at a time of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.

Last night was one big sister act at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.The center’s first female leader, Jane Harman, jokingly referred to Anita McBride, the former chief of staff to Laura Bush, as her “little sister.” McBride is now executive in residence at American University’s School of Public Affairs. Harman is the center’s director, chief executive and president.

Perhaps the greatest deterrent to extremism is prosperity. If people have a decent place to live, can put food on the table for their families, and see their children healthy and being educated, they are likely to tune out recruitment efforts by terrorists and other proponents of violence.

The Book of African Records is a project that is researching African records. These records, dating back to the times when records began, are to be published annually, with the first edition expected by the researchers to come out before the end of 2014.

The project is widely seen as part of a charm offensive launched by Azerbaijan in France that aims, in effect, to buy goodwill and counteract bad publicity arising from Baku s poor rights record. France, as a major European Union power, is a natural target for such a campaign; it ranks as Azerbaijan s fifth-largest investor, primarily in the energy sector. And with a large Armenian Diaspora population, the country has also been an important diplomatic booster of Baku s longtime antagonist, Armenia.