The most significant management shake-up in Apple Inc's recent history, including this week's forced departure of the technology company's top mobile software and retail executives, will do little to undercut the "soft power" of iconic American companies in Southeast Asia.

The screening room of the public library in the U.S. Embassy is dim and quiet. Around 20 pairs of eyes are locked on the flat screen Sony TV at the front as the theme song to The West Wing rises to a crescendo.

During last week’s presidential debate on foreign policy, Republican nominee Mitt Romney missed an opportunity to criticize one aspect of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy that has gone largely unnoticed: the shift away from U.S. international radio broadcasting in favor of more high-tech media outlets.

Members of Russia's Civic Chamber, a state-appointed consultative body that advises the government on civic issues, will observe the U.S. presidential elections. They will act as foreign observers for the first time ever, Alexander Sokolov, the head of the Civic Chamber Inter-Commission Working Group on International Cooperation and Public Diplomacy, said on Friday.

In what experts describe as an unusual form of public diplomacy, U.S. colleges have created State-Department-funded “American Cultural Centers” in partnership with Chinese host universities. “Their primary purpose is to expose Chinese audiences to the depth and breadth of U.S. culture,” said Erik W. Black, an assistant cultural affairs officer at the American embassy in Beijing.

The US Department of State and the Association of American Voices is facilitating a unique musical program called American Music Abroad. The program works to implement Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s vision of “smart power”diplomacy

Six Taiwanese tourists arrived in New York on Thursday as the first from their disputed island to be allowed to visit the United States without visas, officials said. Taiwan is the first territory of any kind which does not have formal diplomatic relations with the United States to get visa waiver status, said its de facto ambassador in New York, Andrew Kao.

Last November, Michelle Makori, a business reporter formerly of Bloomberg News, joined a small group of seasoned Western television journalists for a whirlwind tour of China. The trip, arranged by China Central Television (CCTV), the world's largest broadcaster, culminated in a visit to the network's two headquarters