A few months ago, the Pew Research Center observed that Americans’ “isolationist sentiment” hit an all time high. According to Pew, Americans want to pay attention to problems at home, rather than focusing on problems overseas.

In an eatery here, 28-year-old Israeli human rights activist Avner Gvaryahu described the first time he came face to face with a Palestinian. He was 19 and serving in the Israel Defense Forces when his unit invaded the home of a Palestinian family in the dead of night. They were there to perform a “straw widow,” a raid during which soldiers forcibly seize control of a Palestinian civilian home.

Iran and the United States should establish public and non-official diplomacy, first deputy Speaker of Iranian Parliament, Mohammad Reza Bahonar said, Iranian Bahar newspaper reported. He went on to note that, official diplomacy has limitations while public diplomacy does not have.

A picture spoke volumes about the United States' loss of global prestige and influence due to the shutdown of its government in a partisan standoff over the federal budget and debt. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin beamed front and centre in the family photograph of Asian leaders at last week's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bali.

An unusual football marriage looks on the rocks as the collaboration between Egypt and their American coach Bob Bradley appears close to an end after their World Cup playoff humiliation by Ghana on Tuesday. A 6-1 thrashing in Kumasi in the first leg of the African zone playoff was not only a record-breaking defeat but also leaves Egypt facing the stark reality of yet another painful failure in the preliminaries.

One basic obstacle for the new round of talks over Iran’s nuclear program that open today will be America’s basic distrust of the Iranian regime. Before striking any deal with Tehran, the Obama Administration will have to gauge whether a country where hostility toward the U.S. has been a core political theme since 1979 is acting in good faith.

In contrast to neighboring countries, former U.S. National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair welcomes the efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to reinterpret the pacifist Constitution and bolster the nation’s defense capabilities, saying Japan needs to adapt itself to the changing security landscape of the Asia-Pacific region.