Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy added his voice to the growing calls to switch the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup to the winter when he made his first public speaking appearance since May today by addressing the conference here.

Since 1999, the sister cities of Worthington and Sayama, Japan — a suburb of Tokyo — have participated in a cultural exchange involving visits from city officials, resident delegations, school groups and other representatives of each area. For the latest phase in the relationship, the long journey has been made not by contingents of people but by works of art.

In 2002, Blackwell founded a company called Killerspin, based in Chicago. The idea came to him when he was asked to help host a table tennis exhibition in Chicago in the early 2000s, an event meant to celebrate the anniversary of the good-natured exchange of table tennis players between the U.S. and China later known, of course, as Ping Pong Diplomacy.

A US official is taking a novel approach to diplomacy in Pakistan - singing in a local language to build bridges in Pakistan, where anti-Americanism runs rampant. Shayla Cram, a public diplomacy officer assigned to Peshawar, has not only learnt Pushto but has penned her own Pushto-style song.

The National Hockey League (NHL) lockout has put a damper on the winter of most hockey fans. However, it ended up turning out pretty well for Ben Newman. The Little Falls senior met several locked-out NHL stars, visited historic landmarks and met with top-level government officials recently, all part of a sports diplomacy trip to Russia with a group from USA hockey, Oct. 4-14.

In 2004 Chinese-American rapper Jin released a song titled Learn Chinese. The hit song, which peaked up to 29 on the US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales, prophesied that "Ya'll gonna learn Chinese."

As a way of entrenching the values in culture into the lives of Nigerian children at early stage, the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) on Thursday hosted its annual Children’s Cultural Festival at National Theatre, Lagos.