On August 31st, little noticed outside naval analyst circles, China’s first purpose-built hospital ship left port on her inaugural mission... Peace Ark’s deployment marks the start of a new phase of Chinese soft power: medical assistance to win hearts and minds.

The United States Wednesday said it is ready to provide further humanitarian aid to North Korea suffering from recent flooding, despite chilly relations over North Korea's nuclear ambitions and torpedoing of a South Korean warship.

To head this division, the search engine titan has tapped a former State Department official “Jared Cohen” who is credited with assisting to bring social networking and other Web 2.0 tools to US diplomacy now heading to Google to form a new Think/do Tank called “Google Ideas”. Today that became official.

As it now stands, this law remains harmful to the intellectual and cultural exchange between nations that is crucial to fostering growth, tolerance, and progress. It is particularly vital for those countries with significant cultural and political differences to learn about one another...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Wednesday that "a new American moment" had arrived in international relations--"a moment when our global leadership is essential, even if we must often lead in new ways."

The promises are part of the effort to build trust between the United States and Pakistan so that the latter can believe that Washington is a long-term partner, committed to the country’s development, and is not pursuing short-term strategic goals.

Iraq announced on Tuesday the return of hundreds of looted antiquities that had ended up in the United States...The latest trove reflects not only a history dating from the world’s oldest civilizations but also a more recent and tortured history of war, looting and international smuggling that began under Saddam Hussein, accelerated after the American occupation and continues at archaeological sites to this day.

The Associated Press, Reuters, Bloomberg, and Agence France-Presse sent a letter to South African President Jacob Zuma to express concern about a proposed law that could limit press freedom in South Africa.