Mayor Annise Parker has named former Houston Rockets' star Yao Ming as an Honorary Goodwill Ambassador for the city of Houston. In a Feb. 15 ceremony at City Hall, Yao was given a key to the city. Yao, who was in town to attend the NBA All-Star Game, will promote the city on the international stage.

Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke for nearly 30 minutes Sunday about the civil war in Syria and North Korea's recent nuclear test, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said. The two agreed to look for a date in the next several weeks for their first meeting since Kerry took over as the top U.S. diplomat, Nuland added.

The itinerary and agenda for President Obama's trip to Israel next month is still being hammered out by teams on both sides. But the visit already has an official name, and by the end of the week, it will have a logo too. Past presidential or dignitary visits to Israel have been named, but mostly by the police, who code-named their operation to secure President George W. Bush's visit "Clear Skies" and Pope Benedict XVI's tour as "White Robe."

“IT is not going too far to say that American foreign policy has become completely subservient to tactical domestic political considerations.” This stern verdict comes from Vali Nasr, who spent two years working for the Obama administration before becoming dean of the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Social cause gaming, or the use of games to promote awareness of societal problems, has been growing since pioneer online projects like Food Force, the United Nations World Food Program’s 2005 game about confronting famine, and Darfur Is Dying, MTV’s 2006 offering in which players navigate the terrors of a Sudanese refugee camp.

Waiting for David in the concrete bowels of the Parc des Princes is a sweaty affair. More than 400 journalists have packed into a press room which can comfortably take 200 and usually attracts 20. The boy David – at 37, there is something still irresistibly boyish about Beckham – has been undergoing a medical at the hospital where Diana, Princess of Wales, died in August 1997.

February is a busy month for Indonesia’s senior fashion designer Poppy Dharsono. After several years out of the spotlight, tending to her ill husband, the 61-year-old has decided to make a comeback at Indonesia’s fashion week this month.

After the latest nuclear experiment conducted by North Korea that consisted of detonating a nuclear device underground close to the Chinese border, more and more Chinese people are having second thoughts in regards to the once tight relationship between the two countries. China is considered to be the biggest supporter of the North Korean state and one of the only friends they have left in world politics.