As the federal government works to reform America’s beleaguered health system, the State Department’s new Office of Global Health Diplomacy is trying integrate the U.S. government’s international health aid efforts and help governments in developing countries create sustainable healthcare funding and care models.

“Enjoy the city of Jerusalem … and go back home as strong ambassadors of the state of Israel and the city of Jerusalem." While this largely evangelical movement is most well organized in the US, its most rapid growth is coming from developing countries like Brazil and Nigeria, which have not traditionally supported the Jewish state.

The Book of African Records is a project that is researching African records. These records, dating back to the times when records began, are to be published annually, with the first edition expected by the researchers to come out before the end of 2014.

The project is widely seen as part of a charm offensive launched by Azerbaijan in France that aims, in effect, to buy goodwill and counteract bad publicity arising from Baku s poor rights record. France, as a major European Union power, is a natural target for such a campaign; it ranks as Azerbaijan s fifth-largest investor, primarily in the energy sector. And with a large Armenian Diaspora population, the country has also been an important diplomatic booster of Baku s longtime antagonist, Armenia.

According to the Public Diplomacy Officer, United States Consular-General Office, Mrs. Rhonda Watson, the focus on black history stems from the fact that for too many years the contributions and accomplishment of African Americans were never recorded in the history books. "It was as if we did not exist and that we didn't even matter,"

The Grand Opening festivities commenced with a greeting from Sweden’s Minister for Culture, Ms. Lena Adelsohn Liljerot: “Sweden has experience with migration in both directions. Between 1890 and 1920, 1.3 million Swedes immigrated to North America. Swedish landing in 1638 and the great transatlantic partnership between Sweden and the U.S. are among events to be celebrated throughout 2013 as a part of our Globalization theme.”

If the games are successful – which they probably will be, despite Brazil’s reputation for having a very relaxed attitude to planning – they will help seal the country’s image globally as one of the world’s emerging powers. Not a military power, but the first big “soft” power, a kind of Canada writ large but with Carnival thrown in. It is a Brazil, however, whose project is only half-finished and one in which self-congratulation would be premature.

Russia will back the use of "soft power" in the fight against organized crime at a UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting in Vienna in March, an official told RIA Novosti on Friday.