My ‘Brazil Beat’ posts from the 2014 World Cup

Throughout the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Associated Press reporters filed dispatches about happenings in and around and country. Here is a collection of mine from my three-and-a-half week assignment

The ‘Voice of Israel Baseball’

PETAH TIKVA, Israel (AP) _ My first childhood dream was to be a major league baseball player. My second was to be a broadcast journalist.

It’s always good to have

The many fronts of Israel’s PR offensive

JERUSALEM (AP) _ Ivri Lider is Israel’s newest freelance ambassador.

The openly gay musician is one of a new breed of unofficial envoys trying to improve Israel’s international image —

Ivri Lider: Gay, Israeli and famous

JERUSALEM (AP) _ Late on a Friday night, inside a dark, trendy club, a crowd of young men and women gaze at Ivri Lider and sing along as he performs