Kyodo News has launched a fully redesigned website for its English-language service as part of efforts to strengthen its multilingual and multimedia services... The Kyodo News English-language service covers developments around the globe 24 hours a day, with a particular focus on Japan and the Asia-Pacific region.

Syria’s ancient capital is hardly the usual venue for an international band on tour. Partly due to its negative image in the West and partly because it is uncharted territory for foreign musicians, pop-loving Syrians have long been resigned to traveling to neighboring Lebanon or Jordan to watch their favorite international artists. Now that’s changing.

The Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, and Agence France-Presse sent a letter to South African President Jacob Zuma to express concern about a proposed law that could limit press freedom in South Africa.

Addressing over 500 participants at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), leaders representing African governments and the continent’s best and brightest in the fields of agriculture, finance, and development emphasized the need to break from long-term policies that have neglected agriculture and discouraged investment in the farm sector.

Facing square-on the ethical dilemmas that arise in times of conflict, Israeli experts shared their vast experience providing humanitarian aid at home and abroad with 65 medical students and activists from 25 countries.

India has widened its security crackdown, asking all companies that provide encrypted communications - not just BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion - to install servers in the country to make it easier for the government to obtain users' data. That would likely affect digital giants like Google and Skype.

China's Minister of Culture Cai Wu arrived in Taipei Thursday at the head of a 40-member delegation for an eight-day visit...Cai was invited by the Taipei-based Sheen Chuen-chi Cultural and Educational Foundation to visit in his capacity as chief of Beijing's China Friendship Association.

[Rik] Panganiban is assistant director of the Online Leadership Program for Global Kids, which for four years has relied on the Teen Grid to educate urban youth from around the world about such topics as racism, the genocide in Darfur, child trafficking, public diplomacy, and the digital divide, in collaboration with UNICEF, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Youth Ventures, and more.