public diplomacy
Ten new movie screens open each day in China as the popularity of cinema soars in the country, but the appeal of Chinese films has failed to maintain the pace.
In its rapid transformation from quiet backwater to emerging global player, the tiny Gulf nation of Qatar has embraced many aspects of western culture. For some traditionalists, jazz music is one of those vices. Nevertheless, Doha has recently opened a jazz venue in partnership with legendary trumpeter Wynton Marsalis.
After a fun-filled four-day visit to Okinawa, 24 children and their six chaperones bid farewell to their host families and made their journey back to Oshima Island... The Oshima visitors came to Okinawa as part of the youth cultural exchange program hosted by Marine Corps Community Services. “The Marine Corps supported the Japanese people following the earthquake and tsunami, and since that day, the Marine Corps has maintained a very special friendship with the community and families of Oshima.”
Audiences in Mali can now get the latest news from the Voice of America (VOA) on an FM transmitter that went on the air today — part of a stepped-up response to the Malian crisis by the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
As the public swearing-in of U.S. President Barack Obama for his second term takes place, Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) journalists will be there to provide complete coverage of the day’s events along with expert commentary on U.S. policy, the 44th President and the road ahead.

The USC Center on Public Diplomacy welcomed Michael B. Oren, Israel's Ambassador to the United States, to campus for a moderated conversation about U.S.-Israeli relations.
As part of an effort to continue to attract smart, dynamic, capable people into the Foreign Service, the Department of State is releasing a new one-minute trailer and an accompanying short video that showcases the faces and stories of the amazing men and women who have helped make the world a better place through a career in the Foreign Service.
“Culture is an axis of diplomacy that was practiced by any number of autocratic regimes, Hitler as well as Stalin,” said Lorraine de Meaux...
Russian officials have even suggested that Mr. Depardieu’s flight toward Russia’s flat income tax rate of 13 percent may start a trend. “The distinctiveness of our tax system is poorly known about in the West,” a deputy prime minister, Dmitri O. Rogozin, wrote...