At the headquarters of U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, some young civilians are pushing back at extremist messages that permeate Internet forums. This Digital Engagement Team’s members, who are fluent in Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu, comb through online postings in their respective languages looking for incendiary or inaccurate commentary about U.S. military operations or related activity.

A small storefront leads to an English-language school run by Disney...Most students seem happy and engaged. As they ask each other questions, their English sounds no less articulate than that of similarly-aged Americans. Thousands of Chinese children have signed up for Disney’s schools since the first one was opened in October 2008.

The Internet has become an increasingly important part of the distribution channels for U.S.-funded international broadcasting operations. Here’s one example. Radio Liberty’s Persian-language radio service Radio Farda broadcasts on short- and medium-wave, the Internet and satellite radio to Iran 24/7.

The new website CienciAmérican (Science of the Americas) -- the brainchild of a Cornell neurobiologist -- combines some functions of Facebook and Craigslist. It launched Aug. 16 to help Latin American scientists exchange ideas among themselves and their North American colleagues.

Most Arab columnists agree with the argument that the anti-mosque movement will badly harm Arab and Muslim views of the United States, contra Rashed, but there isn't as much active discussion of it in the forums as you'd expect. That isn't a reason to relax, though.

Across the world, the bruising struggle over an Islamic center near ground zero has elicited some unexpected reactions....For many in Europe...America’s fight over Park51 seems small fry...But others, especially in countries with nothing similar to the constitutional separation of church and state, find it puzzling that there is any controversy at all.

For now, Washington is focusing on "people-to-people" exchanges under which academics, corporations, humanitarian groups and athletic teams could travel to Cuba as a way to promote cultural exchanges and programs with universities.

Analysts in Seoul said Mr. Carter, on his second trip to Pyongyang, would also try to help break an impasse in relations between the United States and North Korea. Mr. Carter was greeted at Pyongyang airport by Kim Kye-gwan, a senior North Korean diplomat, according to the North’s official news agency, KCNA.