Obama's comments to the General Assembly will be scrutinized around the globe and by the gathering of presidents and prime ministers in the famed United Nations hall, given the tumult, terrorism, nuclear threats and poverty that bind so many nations. He will respond to unrest in the Muslim world and seek to underscore U.S. resolve in keeping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Since the 2001 attacks on the United States, American public diplomacy has gradually developed greater sophistication in terms of its respect for Islamic and Arab culture, but that gradualism must now accelerate to keep pace with the confident assertion of Arab identity by millions still relishing the transformations begun in the Arab revolutions.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), aimed at spreading American values all over the world, has started packing up in Russia early this week. Moscow was the initiator of closing down the instrument of American “soft power”, referring to Russian laws.

The stunning success of the video and the song has turned assumptions about nation branding and images of Korean upside down... "Gangnam Style" was an unexpected hit, not a promoted one...This says volumes about efforts to promote Korean cultural products overseas: What Koreans like is not necessarily what foreigners like.

It is one of the most sought-after addresses in New York: 1014 Fifth Avenue... According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, the Foreign Ministry is keen to see it house what it calls a German American Forum, an institution aimed at revitalizing trans-Atlantic ties.

President Hosni Mubarak did not even wait for President Obama’s words to be translated before he shot back. "You don’t understand this part of the world,” the Egyptian leader broke in. “You’re young.”

U.S. President Barack Obama Tuesday addresses the United Nations General Assembly, where he plans to say that violence is never acceptable.

Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi, is visiting the United States for the first time since taking office, and in an interview with the New York Times shortly before departing Cairo, he provided insights not only about his style of leadership but also about how Egypt has changed since the 2011 revolution that marked the end of Hosni Mubarak’s lengthy rule.