Like her predecessors, Ms. Park has made the U.S. her first overseas destination after taking office in order to bolster an alliance that goes back to the 1950-53 Korean War, when the countries fought together against invasion from North Korea.

Battered by a French-led military campaign in Mali, al-Qaida's North African arm is trying something new to stay relevant: Twitter. The PR campaign by the terror network seeks to tap into social grievances and champion mainstream causes such as unemployment, all in a bid to reverse decline and win new followers.

Leading candidates assert that they will be responsible stewards, unlike the firebrand Ahmadinejad, who cannot run again because he is limited to two terms. One criticized Ahmadinejad for "controversial but useless" statements. Others even say the country should have a less hostile relationship with the United States.

This renewed effort starts with Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to Moscow this coming week for talks with leaders in Russia, the Syrian government's most powerful international friend.

A U.S. rights group warned this week that media repression is casting a chill over free speech in South Sudan, where a writer who was critical iof the government in Juba was killed several months ago. Senior Government Fellow at Human Rights First, Sonni Efron, said attacks on journalists, such as the unsolved killing in December last year of political commentator Isaiah Diing Abraham Chan Awuol, who frequently criticized the South Sudanese government in his writing, have a "chilling effect" on citizens' access to information.

After helping coordinate the American civilian aid efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya, Mark Ward arrived in Turkey last year to oversee the Obama administration's effort to provide non-lethal assistance to Syria's rebels. Unwilling to provide arms, Washington hoped to strengthen the Syrian Opposition Coalition. Led by moderates, the group was seen as a potential counterweight to jihadists.

Forget panda diplomacy. China has added a new weapon to its soft-power arsenal — home-grown luxury cars. On Friday, Beijing donated 20 Chinese-made Hongqi, or Red Flag, sedans worth around $2.3 million, to the Pacific nation of Fiji.

Accessing the money administered by the Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) and Bank of Industry (BOI) has been tough and despite President Jonathan saying the Ministries of Finance and Culture would administer the $3 billion, some filmmakers were not too impressed.