Iran's former nuclear negotiator, now a candidate in Iran's presidential election, pledged Thursday to improve rocky relations with the West if he is elected. Hasan Rohani is considered a leading candidate in the June election because of his centrist views and close ties to Iran's ruling clerics. A top supporter said he favors negotiations to resolve the dispute over Iran's suspect nuclear program, while preserving Iran's rights.

North Korea is a tiny dictatorship with a bankrupt economy, but its leaders are remarkably adept at manipulating global public opinion. In recent weeks, we have been exposed to yet another brilliant example of their skill.

It's apt that Simon Fraser, permanent under-secretary to the Foreign Office, head of the diplomatic service and chair of the FCO board, should have a copy of Henry Kissinger's seminal work, Diplomacy, in his Whitehall office.

The University of Pittsburgh is one of the few American colleges to have this Indonesian orchestra composed of percussive instruments of brass and iron. Gamelans are usually given a name, and in the case of the 40 instruments that Pitt received in 1994, "Kyai Tirta Rukmi" -- Venerable Rivers of Gold -- also had black and gold colors and carvings of the Pitt Panthers logo.

The trade between Portugal and Saudi Arabia is still low, but last year’s results showed a 43 percent growth of Portuguese exports to the Kingdom, Portugal’s Minister of Health Paulo Moita de Maceda has said. “Portugal remains committed to free-trade agreement between the European Union and the GCC,” the minister told Arab News.

Here's a coffee shop in an out-of-the-way part of Baku where the walls are covered with illustrations from an early 20th century satirical magazine called Molla Nasreddin. The magazine represents a bygone era, when Azerbaijan was a font of new cultural trends in the Muslim world, pioneering such issues as female emancipation, anti-clericalism, anti-colonialism and labor rights. Although Azerbaijan was the birthplace of the magazine, arguably the country affected most by its essays and illustrations was Iran.

Around 160 events featuring French and Chinese cultural displays or performances will be staged across China during the near-three-month Sino-French cultural exchange festival, which opened here on Wednesday.

Around 20,000 visitors paid a visit to the African Fair, held the weekend of 5-7 April in Paris. The fair promoted business and cultural exchange and took the opportunity to celebrate a continent often misunderstood by Europe. The fair's creator, Marc Yao, says many Europeans think of Africa only in terms of stereotypes. "The African fair is a platform for African countries to show the wealth of resources they have to offer to Europe," says Yao.