Soccer used to be their game -- the Europeans, the South Americans, the Africans. Today it is our game too, bringing the nation together in a passionate embrace of its athleticism, its skill and, yes, its excitement. But it hasn't always been this way. Even after the U.S. hosted the World Cup for the first time in 1994 -- setting attendance records that still stand today -- many still dismissed soccer as somehow not quite American.

Look out, mainland China: Batman, cloaked in the cause of Hong Kong independence, is coming to get you, along with the cast of 2012's special-effects filled, genre-busting summer extravaganza Cloud Atlas.  

As President Obama recently announced, the Department of State’s Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, in collaboration with Brand USA, supports the National Travel and Tourism Strategy goal of bringing 100 million international visitors to the United States by 2021. In July, five members of the American Chef Corps will travel to East-Asian markets to promote U.S. tourism and agricultural exports.

White House says aid will help defend Syrian people, stabilize areas under opposition control, facilitate the provision of essential services, counter terrorist threats, and promote conditions for a negotiated settlement.

Pyongyang on Wednesday condemned an upcoming Hollywood film starring actors James Franco and Seth Rogen — who play characters caught up in a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — as an “act of war.” The reclusive communist country has vowed to unleash a “merciless countermeasure” if the U.S. government fails to ban the movie’s release. 

The Chinese Embassy in Washington blasted members of Congress forvoting to rename its street address after an imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate in what was a clear -- if somewhat juvenile -- attempt to needle Beijing for its human rights record.

For half a century now, America's best diplomatic tool has been its music.  Embassies overseas still want American musicians to come for diplomatic reasons. But these days they're not asking for jazz — they're asking for hip-hop.