Libyan officials on Wednesday condemned Tuesday’s attack on the U.S. Consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi that resulted in the death of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.
Mohamed al-Megariaf, president of Libya’s General National Congress, apologized to the U.S. and Americans for the attack.

Thailand is boosting bilateral trade, investment and tourism with Vietnam, including a project to build a new department store in the neighboring country, while Bangkok Bank has also obtained a licence to operate for 99 years in Vietnam.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has added a culinary dimension to the exercise of "smart power" by enlisting 80 top chefs including an Indian-American in the aid of diplomacy. Mumbai native Vikram Sunderam, executive chef at Rasika, a top end Indian restaurant in Washington, is part of the State Department's new Diplomatic Culinary Partnership initiative.

Dozens of disappointing Pew polls later, with the United States government having earmarked vast sums of money for public diplomacy, you have to wonder whether Washington hasn’t run up a blind alley in its desire to be popular among Arabs.

The delegates arrived from all over the world including Denmark, Sweden, Turkey and Australia, to take part in the New Media & Public Diplomacy Seminar at Ariel University in Samaria. Their formal goal is to “gain a better understanding of how public diplomacy shapes the Middle East conflict,” but they are also counting on having a lot of fun.

The U.S. Navy is spending more than $20 million each year sending ships to poorer nations in the Asian-Pacific region to provide cataract surgery, dental fillings and other medical care... "The image of American power going abroad and bringing benefits to people all around the world... It builds the image of American power, of American soft power..."

The American embassy in Cairo’s response to Tuesday’s attacks in Egypt and Libya have raised new questions about the role of social media in diplomacy... “How do you govern in an era when Twitter is faster than the CIA?” said Philip Seib, author of the book “Real-Time Diplomacy: Politics and Power in the Social Media Era”.

Closer cooperation in the fields of trade, public diplomacy, and communication was advocated at the 5th South Asia Economic Summit which began in Islamabad on Tuesday. Speakers believed that, Pakistan and India can play a leading role for deeper regional integration as the two major nations of South Asia,