President Barack Obama will host a summit with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in California on Feb. 15 and 16, the White House said on Wednesday. [...] “This unprecedented gathering – the first hosted by the United States with the ASEAN leaders – builds on the deeper partnership that the United States has forged with ASEAN since 2009 and will further advance the Administration’s rebalance to Asia and the Pacific,” 

In the past year, China and Latin America have given strategic priority to bilateral cooperation through establishing a comprehensive cooperation mechanism, upgrading production capacity cooperation, furthering cooperation in trade, investment and finance as well as increasing cultural exchanges.

The Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Saturday launched a global thought leadership platform to help frame and stimulate regional and global debate on vital development issues shaping the Middle East.

The day after he retired in 2006, dairy specialist Archie Devore headed to Russia to help farm operations update their practices. [...] Devore’s trip to Russia was the first of 28 assignments in nine different countries that the Lincoln resident has taken through a U.S. government program that has sent more than 16,000 agricultural volunteers overseas over the past 30 years.

India selected Japan to help build its first high-speed rail link in a coup for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and a defeat for China, which also had bid for the signature project. The $15 billion deal clinches three years of negotiations and reflects the deepening relationship between India and Japan stemming from the personal relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Abe. 

The Ministry of International Cooperation and Development said the UAE has provided Dh173 billion in foreign aid to 178 countries and geographical areas between 1971 and 2014. The report noted that the UAE ranked as the world's most generous donor in 2013 and 2014 and became an international role model of relief and assistance of millions of people affected by natural and man-made disasters and crises.

China’s approach to winning friends around the world has long been characterised as cheque-book diplomacy, with big events overseas invariably accompanied by top-dollar deals. But President Xi Jinping’s ongoing visit to Africa seems to point to a shift, with China more concerned about politics than pure economics.

Active on Twitter since 2009, PM Modi is the most followed Indian politician, and the 2nd most followed politician in the world, right after US President Barack Obama (@barackobama) with 66.1 million followers. PM Modi has also set new records as the largest increase in the number of followers in a 12-month period for an Indian account.