The song starts with guitar and then Rabab, coupled with a melodious voice. It is a Pashto song but the accent is American.

Saturday 1st December in Mexico, the Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe, attended the inauguration of the new president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, who replaces outgoing President Mr. Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, a great friend of the Haitian people.

On a recent Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walked with her husband onto a stage at the New York Sher aton to a standing ovation that only got louder as she tried to quiet things down.

What a year you’ve had, the kind that really burnishes a legend. At the Democratic National Convention, on the campaign trail, in speeches aplenty and during interviews galore, you spoke eloquently about what this country should value, and you spoke unequivocally about where it should head.

Susan Rice was miffed, all right. Her frequent foil, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin – an outsize personality whom she might be screaming at one moment, then laughing with the next – was at it again.

The President should announce his intention to nominate Susan Rice as the next Secretary of State, or move on.

A new Heritage Foundation research paper by Chinese expert Dean Cheng lays out the principles and theory behind China’s public diplomacy advances—or, as the Chinese call it, “public opinion warfare.” “Winning Without Fighting: Chinese Public Opinion Warfare and the Need for a Robust American Response” is highly recommended reading for lawmakers, Pentagon planners, State Department personnel, and anyone who sees China as a global competitor of the U.S.

A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking to a funder from a major philanthropic organisation at the Open Up! conference on international development in London. We acknowledged that philanthropists should be in a position to take more risks, such as funding creative projects that might deliver development outcomes in unexpected ways, because unlike government aid agencies they are not accountable to a nation of taxpayers.