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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Venezuelan tourism promo uses American detainee

From Wire Reports

Miami – A short-lived promo posted to Twitter by Venezuelan tourism officials to highlight the nation’s openness to foreigners featured a Miami Herald reporter who had been detained while covering the country’s elections.

Earlier this week, a promo ran on the Twitter feed of the state-run Telesur television with a tag-line that read, translated from Spanish, “We love Venezuela for receiving foreigners like one of our own.”

The Herald reported that the promo included a November 2013 photo of Jim Wyss hugging a colleague, Luisa Yanez, at Miami International Airport. Wyss had just returned from Venezuela, where he said officials had taken him into custody and held him for about 48 hours.

The promo is no longer posted on Telesur’s Twitter feed.

Venezuela’s tourism ministry declined to comment.

Dalai Lama, Obama to attend prayer event

Washington – President Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama will be at the National Prayer Breakfast next week in Washington, the first time the two men have been together in nearly a year.

While the president and the Tibetan spiritual leader could have a chance encounter at the event Thursday, the White House played down any official engagement between the two.

“As he has done in the past, the president will see many religious leaders at the event, but we don’t have any specific meeting with the Dalai Lama to announce,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said Friday.

The Dalai Lama does not have a speaking role at the prayer breakfast and will be seated with the audience. Obama, a speaker, will be at the head table.

Obama has met three times with the Dalai Lama. In each case, the meetings prompted objections from the Chinese government, which has branded the Dalai Lama an anti-Chinese separatist.

After the most recent meeting last February, China accused the U.S. of meddling in its affairs. Sensitive to those objections, the White House made sure the meeting was not portrayed as a conference between two heads of state and closed the session to journalists.

Meehan said Obama, as in previous appearances before the National Prayer Breakfast, will talk about the importance of upholding religious freedoms.