This month, the State Department welcomed 25 chefs and foodies from all over the world to Washington, D.C., as part of an exciting new International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). From Brazil to Vietnam, every country in the world has a unique food culture, and the United States is no exception.

After waging a rather impressive charm offensive for some years -- after pursuing a subdued diplomacy in which the Iron Chancellor would've taken pride -- Beijing has wantonly squandered the reserves of goodwill it accumulated in Asian capitals.

It is not an exaggeration when people say it is unlikely to know Americans and not fall in love them – a feeling I share passionately as a first generation immigrant. Americans are kind, generous, and tolerant and genuinely believe in those empowering universal values of personal liberty and individual responsibility.

On Thursday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed his excitement over the 3-month-old black terrier puppy he had received as a gift from his Russian counterpart. “He is a good dog and beautiful,” Chavez told a Russian delegation in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, according to the Associated Press. ”I’m going to call him ‘Russian’.”

While meeting a team of visiting Chinese journalists here, Sam Kutesa, Uganda's minister of foreign affairs hailed the China- Africa cooperation which dates back to the 1950s and 1960s as Africa struggled to free itself from colonial rule.

On Friday, Sarkisian, 91, officially retired from the Voice of America, where the weekly radio show he started 47 years ago, “Music Time in Africa,” is VOA’s longest-running English-language program.

After World War II, musician and composer Clotilde Arias, an immigrant from Peru living in New York City, was commissioned by the U.S. State Department to write a translation that could be sung to the tune of the "Star-Spangled Banner."

The Canadian foreign minister and the British foreign secretary recently announced that certain embassies of our two countries will in future share locations and facilities, though not diplomats or policies. That’s an obvious and sensible cost-cutting idea, despite the misgivings of the Canadian government’s critics.