The US State Department has released their International Religious Freedom Report for 2011 which covers 199 countries including Georgia. The report reads that the Georgian Government demonstrated a trend toward the improvement in respect for and protection of the right to religious freedom.

The State Department, like the rest of America, has its eyes fixed on the London Olympics. But officials there aren’t just rooting for Team USA — they’re also looking for new recruits. Today’s gold medalists, after all, are tomorrow’s sports diplomats.

On July 25, Department Secretary of State Bill Burns announced the creation of Networks of Diasporas in Engineering and Science, or NODES, at an event organized by the Office of the Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State (STAS). At the same event, Under Secretary of State of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine launched the Science, Technology, and Innovation Expert Partnership.

The U.S. State Department has recently decided to cut all funds for the George J. Mitchell Scholarship program for fiscal year 2013. Born out of the peace process in Northern Ireland in which former Sen. George Mitchell played a pivotal role, the Mitchell program at its inception was intended to strengthen and modernize the relationship between the island of Ireland and the United States.

The Secretary’s Global Diaspora Forum recognizes and celebrates the work of American diaspora communities with roots across the globe and encourages them to contribute to the development of, and diplomatic relations with, their countries of origin. For additional information about the Global Diaspora Forum agenda, please visit: http://diasporaalliance.org/.

The theme of this year’s Forum is “Moving Forward by Giving Back,” and will focus on how the U.S. Government and diaspora communities are partnering to further investment and trade, philanthropy, volunteerism, social innovation, and entrepreneurship in developing and emerging communities around the world.

These are safer, portable alternatives to the crude stoves used by hundreds of millions of women in the developing world at grave risk to themselves, their children and the planet. Not long after becoming secretary of state in 2009, Clinton took up the cookstove cause, which she describes as one of the "smart power" issues - though sceptical veterans of American foreign policy tend to deride them as soft more than smart.