WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — Today, we mark the ninth annual International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C). It is estimated that 100 to 140 million women around the world have undergone this brutal procedure and three million girls are at risk every year. We must continue to act to end this affront to women’s equality and the rights and dignity of women and girls.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G – Chapter 14 – Backstage Pass. My parents liked going to the movies, so I was introduced to lots of different kinds of films when I was a kid. (Yes, this is a bit of a flashback — we’ll be doing that from time to time, but don’t worry, I’ll try to warn you.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson will lead an Energy Trade Mission to Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana February 6-17, 2012. The delegation of U.S. government and private-sector executives will meet host country senior government officials to discuss challenges for U.S. private-sector investment in energy infrastructure projects.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — Following is the text of a joint statement by United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs K. Shanmugam, signed on February 1, 2012, in Washington, D.C.:

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. Department of State will host a symposium focusing on how social media and other internet-enabled data streams are used to create real-time awareness in different contexts at the Tech@State: Real-Time Awareness conference on February 3 – 4, 2012.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. Department of State, in close collaboration with the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, will hold a three day conference, Rio+2.0: Bridging Connection Technologies and Sustainable Development, at Stanford, February 2-4, 2012.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. Department of State selected John O’Loughlin Kennedy, an Irish alumnus of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) Fulbright Student Program, as February’s State Alumni Member of the Month.

eNewsChannels COLUMN: A sporting event where it doesn’t matter who wins. A sixty-minute game crammed into four hours of television programming. An exercise in organized hype. An excuse for overeating and excessive drinking. Yup, it’s Super Bowl time again. Yay! But there are battles brewing outside the game.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G – Chapter 13 – Hi, School. You may not believe it, but the powers-that-be at middle school allowed me to move on to high school. Go figure. I believe they said something like ‘After in-depth deliberation, it is our judgment that it will be to the reciprocal mutual advantage of all concerned parties that John Scott now move forward with the next stage of his educational pursuits.’ Translation: get this guy the hell out of here.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — As the 2012 G8 Chair, the U.S. has assumed the lead for the three nonproliferation groups that report to the G8: the Nonproliferation Directors Group (NPDG); the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction (GP), and the Nuclear Safety and Security Group (NSSG).

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G – Chapter 12 – Numbers Game. Jeanne was a quiet flirt. Whether she was in a classroom, out on the quad, or in the lunchroom, she didn’t say much but people gathered around her anyway. Attractive women can achieve this. It’s called the ‘moths-to-a-flame’ phenomenon.

eNewsChannels COLUMN: Politics is sometimes the art of perception. If you can define the way people discuss a topic, you are a few steps closer to influencing how they vote on it. All political parties attempt to do this, of course, but some teams are [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — On Wednesday, January 18, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s All-Time Leading Scorer and a New York Times’ best-selling author, to discuss his new role as a global Cultural Ambassador. During the meeting, Secretary Clinton reiterated the United States’ strong commitment to engaging young people worldwide and to using people-to-people diplomacy as a means to create opportunities for greater understanding.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs welcomes 63 secondary school teachers from 15 countries to the United States for the International Leaders in Education Program (ILEP) that began on January 9, 2012.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — On January 18, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented the Secretary of State’s 2011 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) to Sahlman Seafoods, Incorporated, in Nicaragua; Procter & Gamble in Nigeria; and Procter & Gamble in Pakistan.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — In an important symbol of America’s commitment to an enduring friendship with the people of Liberia, as well as the importance of our bilateral relationship with the Liberian Government, the United States dedicated its new embassy in Monrovia today.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G – Chapter 11 – Get on the Bus. A school bus might seem like a personal injury lawyer’s wet dream. A long metal tube on wheels. Very high center-of-gravity. No seat belts for the passengers. Often over-crowded, with three kids in seats designed for two people.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. Department of State will present the thirteenth annual Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE) on January 18, 2012, during a ceremony in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the Harry S. Truman building, Washington, DC. The ceremony will start at 11:00 a.m. and will be followed by a reception in the Thomas Jefferson Room.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — Today, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton imposed sanctions on three companies under the Iran Sanctions Act, as amended by the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act (CISADA), for conducting business with Iran’s energy sector.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announced today the second international sports exchange with the Democratic Republic of the Congo that includes 20 boys and girls basketball players and coaches.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G – Chapter 10 – Boss Angeles. There are two possible openings to this chapter. Here’s the straight-to-the-point version: Our family had enough of Fort Richland and moved. And here’s the arty-as-hell version: After a few years in the richly rigid and unintentionally Dadaistic city of Richland, the entire family was ready for a saner lifestyle and a more cultured existence. But we didn’t get it because we moved to Los Angeles.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. Department of State selected Consolata Ndayishimye, an alumna of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), as State Alumni Member of the Month.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G – Chapter 9 – Playing in the Poison. My dad was speaking on the telephone. Well, mostly he was listening intently on the telephone. From what he was saying, it sure seemed like it was a Very Serious Conversation. Which was no big deal to me as a kid except for one thing: this Very Serious Conversation was about me. I wanted so much to be in on both sides of the discussion but of course could only catch one-half of it.

eNewsChannels COLUMN: Ideas and opinions come flying at you non-stop in Mark Morford’s essays. His eye-opening concepts are presented with slashing images and hyperbolic language. This results in delightful shock waves for the brain and jarring karma for the soul.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G – Chapter 8 – Don’t Look, Don’t Count. The amount of plutonium produced at the plant each day was Pop Secret. Wait, no, that’s a microwave corn snack product. It must have been Top Secret. Yeah, that’s the term we want. The information was protected by a very official classified classification, something like: super ultra-magnificent big important clandestine hotstuff. Or SUMBICH.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs has released the Tenth Edition of To Walk the Earth in Safety. The report summarizes the actions and accomplishments of the U.S. Conventional Weapons Destruction Program, including the U.S. Humanitarian Mine Action Program, the world’s largest such operation to help countries safely dispose of landmines and excess arms and munitions.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G – Chapter 7 – In Security. Spooky. That’s what it’s like to move into a town that hadn’t existed until the government put it there. For one thing, the entire place was what might be called utilitarian.

eNewsChannels COLUMN: On the surface, this is a book about combat, both personal and professional. But while there are plenty of scenes with bloody battles, all of which are shocking and gripping to read, you will also find humanity, philosophical questioning, and ultimately the cleansing elation of personal redemption.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), in partnership with the Institute of International Education, marks the tenth anniversary of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G. Chapter 6: Mr. Radioactivity is Your Friend. Bulletin: Warning! This is a test of the emergency government -to-citizen communication system. This is only a test. Of course it’s only a test. Had this been an actual emergency, you can bet your ass I would still be sitting here typing at you.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — Using music as a means to engage audiences worldwide, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announced today that the American Music Abroad program is now accepting applications for the 2012-2013 season.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The United States, along with 22 other countries and other non-governmental participants, will take part in the Freedom Online conference hosted by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The Department of State’s Office of Medical Services and the U.S. Coast Guard’s Health, Safety and Work-Life Directorate recently signed an interagency agreement to share an Integrated Health Information System (IHiS), which includes a commercial electronic health record, Epic.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G. Chapter 5 – Beautiful Downtown Nowhere. Some of you have been wondering about my sarcastic attitude towards the center of our nation. It’s not so much the geographic center that bugs me as it is the ‘middle of the road.’ I am quite sarcastic about that.

eNewsChannels COLUMN: A collection of articles about boxing, Katherine Dunn’s ‘One Ring Circus’ covers a lot of road: defense of the sport, call for reforms in the sport, two-fisted literary revelry in the sport, and just plain beautiful writing about the sport.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The U.S. Department of State selected Nathan Collett, a U.S. alumnus of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) Fulbright Student Program, as State Alumni Member of the Month.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — Today we pay tribute to the millions of lives lost and families affected by HIV/AIDS. We also recognize the brave individuals living with HIV who carry the burden of this disease every day. It is in their honor that we remain steadfast in our pursuit of an AIDS-free generation

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G. Chapter 4 – Ooh, That’s a Big One. To save you the trouble of looking it up online, the encephalitis did not kill me. Although there were times I wished for death, like during the torture. Oops, I mean during what the healthcare community describes as ‘a procedure.’

eNewsChannels COLUMN: On November 1, our Native American Olympic Team Foundation (NAOTF) submitted to the UN its recommendations, including wisdom of Indigenous Elders, for the 2012 Rio+20 Conference, June 21-22. This marks 20 years after the first UN Conference on Sustainable Development, and never in history has there been such a need to work in unity to restore Earth.

eNewsChannels COLUMN: Two monumental novels, one phenomenal idea to save America, and a river of lysergic acid diethylamide. For some people, that is the legacy of Ken Kesey, but in the hands of neo-new-journalist Mark Christensen, the tale takes on mythic proportions and is One Hell of a Great Ride.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G. Chapter 3 – Ten Least Wanted List. The FBI regularly puts out the Ten Most Wanted list. And it is a fun read, let me tell you! You can find it here if you’re interested in killing some time. Or whatever you’re into killing. I don’t know who composes the entries but in some of the descriptions of the guys on the lam, it often seems you can sense just a hint of a chatty tone creeping into the write-ups

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — On November 17, the United States formally announced the Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI) in Lilongwe, Malawi. The NEPI, established in 2010, was launched publically, culminating a three-day workshop on strategies to enhance the number and quality of nursing and midwifery professionals in areas of Africa where they are needed most.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the U.S. Department of State and the TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) International Association are launching a joint effort to connect teachers of and resources for English language teaching (ELT) in the United States with parties or entities with ELT needs outside the United States.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G. Chapter 2: Open Wide and Say Ahhh. Sex is fun, recovery is not. Unless your doctor orders you to get lots of bed rest and gives you a big wink while saying it. Which didn’t happen to me, but I’m just saying.

eNewsChannels BOOK SERIAL: ‘Secret Sex, A Book Alive Online,’ written and lived by John Scott G. Chapter 1 Your Place in the Universe. Much like you, I came into this world unable to type. That skill was acquired later, allowing me to take part in the highly-paid ‘word nerd’ thing enjoyed by swanky novelists, playwrights, poets, bloggers, and writers of auto dealership advertising.

eNewsChannels COLUMN: It is easy to say ‘Google it’ because that company has virtually defined the online experience of searching for, well, everything. But there are profound implications in turning over so much hidden power to one company and Siva Vaidhyanathan is not afraid to explore a lot of them.

eNewsChannels COLUMN: Mounting well-reasoned attacks against those who seek to steal, degrade or destroy creative works is not an easy task these days but Robert Levine accomplishes it with wit, style and taste. That he also points the way toward some possible solutions just makes [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — In an important symbol of our enduring friendship with the Dominican Republic, Dominican Republic President, Leonel Fernandez; U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Raul Yzaguirre; and Leo Hession, Managing Director for Operations of the Department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), broke ground on the New Embassy Compound (NEC) in Santo Domingo today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. /eNewsChannels/ — As part of our engagement with emerging African partners in addressing the challenge of climate change, the U.S. Department of State will sponsor Apps4Africa: Climate Challenge, a public diplomacy program comprised of three African regional competitions to address local climate change challenges through the use of mobile technology.

eNewsChannels COLUMN: When you keep someone alive in your heart, it can make a difference in the way you act towards others. Looking back at the death of my dad nearly a decade-and-a-half ago helps me maintain my view of him while changing my view of others.