Chinese web users scoffed and Beijing expressed outrage at the May 19 announcement of a U.S. indictment of five Shanghai-based army officers on charges of hacking and economic espionage. In an uncharacteristically speedy response posted to the Foreign Ministry website within 90 minutes of the US announcement, spokesman Qin Gang called the accusations "absurd" and "purely ungrounded." Qin demanded that U.S. authorities drop the case immediately and added that Beijing would be suspending its participation in Sino-U.S.

The outcome of India's national election — a resounding triumph for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party — has put the United States in an awkward position. The BJP's Narendra Modi will soon be India's prime minister. In 2005, Washington revoked his U.S. visa, citing a law banning visits by foreign officials responsible for egregious violations of religious freedom. 

After prolonged engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US has finally made a move to renew its commitment towards Asia, which has always been an arena of US strategic and economic interest. The Asian rebalancing strategy highlights the current power shift in the international order from the west to the east. The economic engagement between the US and the Pacific nations is one the major pillars of the rebalancing strategy as the US identifies ‘economic statecraft’ as a major plank of its ‘Pivot to Asia’.

By providing an alternative to mainstream media, the internet can increase mutual understanding. Although today China-U.S. relations are not bad, the relationship remains very complicated. There are many factors affecting China-U.S. relations, some of which are very serious. This is why President Xi Jinping proposed the establishment of a “new model of major country relationship”

US ambassador John Berry says the two countries have achieved great advances for their LGBT communities. "We do not have to accept this, the world can fight homophobia," Berry said in a video filmed for samesame.com.au and released on the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. "It is so important because we need to communicate to our brothers and sisters who are in less fortunate places that we have not forgotten them, that we stand together, that gay rights are human rights and both the US and Australia will stand to protect them."

Two bombs killed 10 people and wounded 70 others Friday, at a market in Kenya’s capital, while hundreds of British tourists were evacuated from the coastal resort of Mombasa after warnings of an impending attack by Islamic extremists.  President Uhuru Kenyatta, appearing at a previously planned news conference soon after the bombings, offered his condolences.  But he dismissed the tourism warnings from the U.S. and Britain that led to the evacuations, saying terrorism is a common problem and not unique to Kenya.

A group of 24 students from Hoesbach, Germany, and two of their teachers spent the past three weeks in Hudson experiencing American culture and education.  For the teens from Hanus-Seidel Gymnasium (the German name for a college preparatory school), it also was a reunion with Hudson High School students who visited Hoesbach for three weeks last June.

A cherry tree by the Potomac River measures 2 meters around its trunk. Looking at the young leaves, you would never guess this tree was more than 100 years old. A nearby sign states that this is the first cherry tree that Tokyo gifted to Washington, D.C., in 1912 as a symbol of their friendship.