India has taken yet another step in furthering its cultural diplomacy in south-east Asia with a new Indian cultural centre in Seoul. President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Karan Singh, left for a week-long visit to Seoul where he will inaugurate the centre Thursday, ICCR said in a statement.

In its quest for resources and business opportunities, China needs to have influence in many countries. Increasingly, Beijing uses a sophisticated charm offensive, presenting an image of a modern and dynamic China — a strategy often called "soft power."

Youku Inc., China’s top online video site, said Tuesday it had signed a deal with Warner Bros. to stream hundreds of the studio’s new and old movies. Warner Bros. has been among the forefront of Hollywood’s efforts to gain access to China’s booming movie-going market. China currently limits the number of foreign movies for theatrical release to 20 per year.

In a new documentary video game tracing the life of the late Dr. Mohammad Mossadegh, Iran's hugely popular prime minister, users get to play his frisky pet cat. The cat sets in motion many key historical events of Mossadegh's life, starting from his death under house arrest and moving backward through the pivotal 1953 Western-backed coup d'etat that saw his overthrow.

Work is set to begin building a new town inspired by the writing of Yugoslavian Nobel literature laureate Ivo Andrić, following plans by film director Emir Kusturica and the Republika Srpska's government. Andrić, who won the Nobel in 1961, is best known for his novel The Bridge on the Drina, the inspiration behind the new town of Andrićgrad.

The decision by the International Football Federation (FIFA) to grant Qatar the world's most watched sporting event came as the crowning of a policy of "sports diplomacy" initiated nearly two decades ago. Its neighbors in the United Arab Emirates...are also involved in sports diplomacy. Sports diplomacy reaches European countries in the form of the purchase or sponsorship of top soccer teams.

In the midst of the current global tumult, I decided to take an afternoon’s break and escort my young children to the local movie theater to watch the new animated feature film Rio. As the first brightly colored 3-D computer-generated images flashed up on the screen, I felt assured of at least ninety minutes’ respite from the so-called real world.

With the establishment of its first academic research center on public diplomacy at Beijing Foreign Studies University and a well-publicized International Forum on Public Diplomacy in 2010, China has been taking some major steps forward as it tries to, in Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying’s words, “effectively present its image to other countries” and overcome a lack of experience “in handling relations with the media and the public in foreign countries”.  T