I live in Edinburgh, Scotland, and for me the star turn at this year's Edinburgh International Festival was the Beijing People's Art Theatre's production of Shakespeare's "Coriolanus." This was Chinese “soft power” at its best. The play was well chosen. Strangely, for a play written four hundred years ago when England was still an absolute monarchy, "Coriolanus" is a critique of democracy, set in ancient republican Rome, as England had never experienced such a thing.

An initiative by the Colombian government to teach Spanish to international tour guides is due to start on Monday. The initiative is the result of a collaboration between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the Presidential Agency for the International Cooperation of Colombia (APC); the Colombian Institution of Educational Credit (ICETEX) as well as eight universities in locations throughout the country.

Nephi Craig graduated from culinary school in 2000 and began a promising career. In a few years, he was working his way up the stations at Mary Elaine’s, Arizona’s only five-star French restaurant, led by James Beard Award–winning chef Bradford Thompson. “I was getting a great French, classical training, but something was missing,” says Craig, who is 33. “The French tradition isn’t my tradition, and I wanted to cook in the tradition of my people: Apaches and Navajos.”

About a year ago, in Washington’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, an independent grocer called Bestway changed hands. The new owner is In Suk Pak, a South Korean by way of Pennsylvania. He renamed the store Bestworld, replacing the second word of the big-block letters out front. Then he rejiggered the store’s product mix to fit the neighborhood’s changing demographics, adding gourmet chips and high-end beers, and Asian items like wasabi peas and dried seaweed.

Kazi Hasan Arabi, a longtime Indian expatriate in Saudi Arabia, talks about his experience of the country, its development and what led him to find a home in the kingdom. “My education started late, because in our family, in those times, we were not allowed to go to school, rather, teachers used to come home and teach us.

The chamber in the Municipal Court of Budapest was packed, observers crammed into sweaty overflow rooms staring at closed circuit television screens and anxiously awaiting the verdict. As these rooms filled, an unwieldy queue formed outside as an incongruous gaggle of journalists, victims' family, and some skinhead supporters of the accused implored court officials to let them in to hear the verdict. Arpad Kiss, his brother Istvan, their friend Zsolt Peto, and accomplice Istvan Csontos stood dead-eyed in front on the judge, flanked by masked policemen.

If you’re a film buff, you may have heard of a Korean-made summer blockbuster that, strangely, hasn’t reached American shores quite yet. Starring a line-up of famous Western actors, some critics say Snowpiercer — Korea’s most expensive film ever — represents a potential cultural landmark. Based on a French comic book, it covers a dystopia of post-apocalyptic survivors who, living on a train that travels around the world, rebel against their repressive overlords.

Despite sweltering temperatures during the afternoon and near 90-degree heat well into the evening, thousands of people flocked to the grounds of Granada Hills Charter High School here in the San Fernando Valley Aug. 17 to celebrate India’s 67th Independence Day. Organized by the India Association of Los Angeles, the Independence Day celebration was peacefully festive and featured key leaders, including an ambassador, congressman, and district attorney, hailing India as a role model for democracy and growth.