After having cautiously lingered in the shade for almost eight months figuring out the meaning and dangers of the Arab Spring, Israel suddenly stirred itself on Tuesday. In an unprecedented move, Israeli President Shimon Peres called in the Arab media for a press conference...

Voice of Russia, Russia’s state-funded radio station, is taking a new approach to informing Americans: using American and Russian voices to broadcast international news from American soil. For the first time since its beginnings in 1929, Voice of Russia will broadcast to Americans...

“It’s very clear that the public wants a real state, not just a state in name. The public is willing to pay the price.” Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki explains why a unilateral declaration of statehood may be the last chance Palestinians give to their current leadership...

Iranian leaders have tried to portray democracy movements in the Arab world as inspired by their 1979 Islamic revolution.. However, a new poll by the Arab American Institute shows approval of Iran's role in the region plummeting since 2006...

Yep, it seems that Pakistan's new 34-year-old foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, has accomplished what years of tense diplomacy haven't been able to -- create some genuine goodwill between the two constantly sparring nations.

Xinhua's U.S. expansion is seen as an effort to burnish the country's image and build its brands here. A Pew Research Center poll earlier this year found that 43 percent of Americans saw China as a "serious problem."

The Arab Spring encapsulates the failure of public diplomacy whose actions do not speak louder than words. The series of popular uprisings apparently partially resulted from the WikiLeaks exposure of regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and stung the US twice -- once for supporting these autocrats, and again for failing to move quickly and decisively, choosing to remain on the sidelines.

Europe's far right wing parties, whose views have become steadily more mainstream.. have strongly rejected Breivik's actions. However the crimes are bound to unleash some soul-searching generally in the EU where the far-right has been growing, tapping into an anti-foreigner sentiment...