Comparing China's public diplomacy to sports activities, where both professionals and public support are critical to success, Zheng addressed a group of top government officials, international affairs experts, and media professionals at the 2012 Charhar public diplomacy conference in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province on Aug. 18.

Charhar public diplomacy conference 2012, China's most influential non-governmental public diplomacy conference, kicked off in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, on Aug. 18. Nearly 200 high-ranking government officials, business leaders, diplomats, experts on international relations, media and other related fields, and top media representatives are attending the two-day conference.

A seminar on cross-border dialogue through books and television, part of the two-day Charar Forum on Public diplomacy in Hebei Province, emphasized how cooperation on joint media projects can strengthen bilateral ties.

Hong Kong's love of Japanese cuisine will help ease tensions over Tokyo's arrest of activists who left from its harbor and landed on one of the disputed Senkaku Islands, fisheries minister Akira Gunji said Thursday at a major food fair in the city. Gunji said the relationship between Hong Kong and Japan will flourish as long as the culinary binds between them stay strong.

The U.S Department of State has withdrawn plans to place a $16.5 million order on Amazon.com for its Kindle Touch devices along with content management and logistics, stating that it intends to conduct additional market research and re-examine its requirements for the program.

First, the other members of the band released a new single online, "Putin Lights Up the Fires." The Guardian newspaper in England compiled clips and stills for an accompanying video, and the song could be a post-sentencing rallying cry for the millions of music fans and free-speech advocates following the case.

Ecuador dragged Britain into an emergency meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States Friday at OAS headquarters in Washington, calling for a foreign ministers' meeting following the British threat to go into the Ecuadoran embassy in London and get Assange, who is wanted for questioning in connection with sexual assault charges in Sweden.

China has outmaneuvered everybody else in the strategic calculations with respect to cultivating relationships with Africa. In the recently concluded fifth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) on China-Africa strategic partnership, President Hu Jintao pledged a US$20 billion of credit line for African countries in the next three years—double the amount of what China promised to lend Africa at the last joint forum three years ago.