Global News Journal
Beyond the World news headlines
from Tales from the Trail:
U.S. State Dept. figures out how to say “Twitter” in Arabic
It took a while, but the U.S. State Department is now tweeting in Arabic.
With unprecedented political turmoil rocking Egypt and protesters turning to social media such as Twitter and Facebook, the mouthpiece of U.S. foreign policy wants in on the game.
Its first message? #Egypt #Jan25 تعترف وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية بالدور التاريخي الذي يلعبه الإعلام الإجتماعي في العالم العربي ونرغب أن نكون جزءاً من محادثاتكم
(Translation: "We want to be a part of your conversation!")
The new State Department Arabic Twitter feed, @USAbilaraby, joins a growing chorus of Twitter feeds describing and commenting on events in Egypt and across the Arab world, where social media is helping to broadcast political ferment.
The feed, which currently has a scant 161 followers, has passed along messages including President Barack Obama's statement that the future of Egypt is in the hands of the Egyptian people and Vice President Joe Biden's demand that Egypt immediately stop harassing journalists and scrap its emergency law.
from Tales from the Trail:
Where’s an embattled leader to go?
Spa treatment or desert retreat?
With so many possible locations from which to choose and no worries about stretching the 401K, where's an embattled leader to settle in retirement? 
Egypt's Hosni Mubarak has announced he will not run for reelection in September. But protesters who have taken to the streets of Cairo and other Egyptian cities by the thousands are demanding he leave office now.
from Tales from the Trail:
Panda diplomacy: the remix
The latest chapter in the long story of panda diplomacy was written at Washington's National Zoo, where the Chinese government agreed to lengthen the "loan" of popular panda pair Mei Xiang and Tian Tian for another five years. Actually, the loan is conditioned on whether they produce a new heir or heiress to the cuteness of panda-dom in the next two years; one or both could be exchanged for more fecund substitutes.
They have a good track record: Washington native Tai Shan, born in 2005, headed back to China last year.
from Tales from the Trail:
Washington flatfooted by return of Haiti’s “Baby Doc”
He departed Haiti in 1986 aboard a U.S. Air Force plane, winging to stage-managed exile after weeks of pressure from the Reagan administration.
Haiti's infamous "Baby Doc", Jean Claude Duvalier, made a surprise reappearance in his homeland this weekend, and Washington's planners had less than an hour to prepare.
from Tales from the Trail:
Clinton jokes about Yemen stumble
Call it the Trip.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, wrapping up a high-stakes trip to Yemen to discuss counter-terrorism cooperation on Wednesday, stumbled briefly upon re-entering her airplane. Clinton was unhurt and newswise it was a non-event -- except that it was captured by television cameras.
Clinton's video misstep ended up going out on YouTube and became a minor Internet sensation, prompting snarky headlines from some of the world's headline writers ("Unexpected trip on Clinton plane!" joked one).
from Tales from the Trail:
Clinton dispels bikini wrestling myths in Australia
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would like the world to know: the United States is not about wearing bikinis and wrestling all day.
Clinton took her personal diplomacy to Australia's airwaves, braving a popular radio comedy team who grilled her on potato chips, reality tv and the diplomacy of barbecues.
from Tales from the Trail:
McCain sees India, U.S. teaming up against “troubling” China
As President Barack Obama begins his visit to India, his erstwhile rival John McCain is voicing hope that Washington and New Delhi will tighten up their military cooperation in the face of China's "troubling" assertiveness.
McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate and the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told a think-tank audience in Washington on Friday that the two huge democracies were natural allies in the quest to temper China's ambitions.
from Tales from the Trail:
Green energy aspirations for Obama’s India visit
When Barack Obama heads for India next month, he'll be carrying a heavy policy agenda -- questions over the handling of nuclear material, the outsourcing of U.S. jobs and India's status as a growing economic power, along with regional relations with Pakistan and Afghanistan. But Rajendra Pachauri, the Nobel Peace laureate who heads the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, hopes the U.S. president has time to focus on clean energy too.
Even as Pachauri and the U.N. panel evolve -- and as Pachauri himself weathers pressure from some quarters to resign -- he urged Obama to work on U.S.-India projects that he said would enhance global energy security.
from Tales from the Trail:
Clinton sees diplomats of the future in cargo pants as well as pinstripes
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Congress to finance a major new U.S. push on overseas development aid, arguing that only by building up a global middle class will the United States increase its own national security.
Clinton, in an article in Foreign Affairs magazine which previews a pending State Department report on diplomacy and development, says it is essential for Congress to keep the money flowing even as the United States grapples with its own financial problems at home.
from Tales from the Trail:
Hillary Clinton stops to see Bill’s statue in Kosovo
Hillary Clinton stopped on Bill Clinton Boulevard to view one of Kosovo's main attractions: the Bill Clinton Statue.
Clinton, on her first visit to Kosovo as secretary of state, on Wednesday received a rapturous welcome from the crowd waving U.S. flags and cheering on the Clinton Brand, which many Kosovars see as key to their country's independence.
