Do you remember candidate Barack Obama offering his hope-and-change platitudes in front of the fake Greek columns during the Democratic convention? Or earlier pontificating at the Victory Monument in Berlin? Why didn't an old cigar-chomping Democratic pro take him aside and warn him about offending Nemesis? She is the dreaded goddess who brings divine retribution in ironic fashion to overweening arrogance.

After the collapse of Soviet Union, the US took the global leadership as the lone super power and bestowed itself with the responsibility to look after the world affair with commanding posture. For the last couple of years perception of developing countries vis-à-vis America has been changing

During the 2nd session of the Arabic Arts Festival which is held in Beijing from June 18 to 25, 2010, Tunisia took part in a roundtable on “the role of cultural exchange in the Arab-Chinese Cooperation”. During the roundtable, Mr. Abderraouf El Basti, the Minister of Culture and Heritage Preservation stressed Tunisia’s interest in culture since the Change, and its role in sustainable development.

It is the friendship Western policymakers wish they could have prevented: Turkey- secular, Western-leaning, and a key member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - drawing close to a resurgent theocratic Iran whose nuclear program and geopolitical ambitions present a full-frontal challenge to the established international order.

[But] Turkish television has given the soap a fresh twist by making the connivers, kidnappers and canoodlers Muslims. And it is Arab audiences, even more than Turks, who have been swept off their feet...Through the small screen, Turkey has begun to exercise a big influence at Arab dinner tables, in boardrooms and bedrooms from Morocco to Iraq. Politics and culture go hand in hand, here as elsewhere.

When Barack Obama was running for President in 2008, he wanted, first and foremost, to be different from George W. Bush who was despised by a large majority of people everywhere on this planet.

Do we care what the world thinks of us? Should we? A new survey of global opinion is getting the usual respectful attention. The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed people in 57 countries and found that President Obama's approval ratings have slipped a bit among Europeans, Latin Americans, and Asians -- though he remains quite a bit more popular than George W. Bush was in his final year in office.

Findings in a new U.S. Senate report that questions the effectiveness and costs of continuing Alhurra are leading to renewed calls for congressional hearings on the government-run satellite channel and the broadcasting agency that oversees its work.