These “missionaries of the revolution” are well-received in host countries from Algeria to South Africa to Venezuela. Yet those who hail Cuba’s generosity overlook the uglier aspects of Cuba’s health diplomacy.

Pakistani-American Leadership Center, an advocacy group working on the Capitol Hill, has urged President Barack Obama to visit Pakistan during his trip to Asia in November, arguing that the U.S. leader’s expression of support for flood-hit ally this way would greatly help ties between the two nations.

The security obsessed Israeli military is confronting a new adversary - trying to control what its own soldiers post to the Internet. Facebook, along with YouTube and other popular sites, is turning into a formidable nuisance for the army, as young recruits in this tech-crazy country post embarrassing and potentially sensitive information online, circumventing tight military controls.

The Taliban is proposing a joint commission to investigate civilian casualties in Afghanistan. The move reveals that the militants are growing more concerned about their image in a war where the population’s loyalty is hotly contested

The controversy over a mosque close to the World Trade Center site in New York City has swept through the country like a summer storm...It is a controversy that can do irreparable harm to United States foreign policy and its struggle against Islamic extremism. For it punctures the image the United States was trying so hard to project: that America is a place where Muslims can freely worship and co-exist with other religions in peace and harmony; that Islam can coexist with modernity and tolerance

Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan ordered his cabinet to avoid the controversial Yasukuni Shrine on the Aug. 15 anniversary of the end of WWII. It underscores his shift toward improving relations with Asian neighbors.

China's rising influence, particularly its robust economic growth in the past three decades, has created a view among some that it is no longer a developing country.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is openly gay and likes his partner to accompany him on foreign trips. However, he now says that he will travel alone to countries where homosexuality is an offence. He wants to promote tolerance, but not "imprudently."