Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Seyed Mohammad Hosseini voiced Tehran and Cairo's willingness to strengthen bilateral ties, specially in area of culture. On May 30, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi voiced confidence about the improvement of relations between Iran and Egypt, but meantime said that resuming ties between the two Muslim states needs time and patience.

It should come as no surprise — last month's royal wedding led to a surge in passengers at major UK airports. Airport operator BAA handled 9.34 million people at its six UK airports in May 2011. This is a 9.2% increase on the May 2010 figure, which was affected by the first Icelandic ash-cloud crisis and industrial action.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will host its second EducationUSA Forum to promote U.S. higher education overseas. With increased global competition in the field of international education, students need reliable, comprehensive and unbiased information about study opportunities in the United States, and EducationUSA provides that information.

Ten terracotta statues (picture) have been shipped to Singapore for their first exhibition in South-east Asia, at the Asian Civilisation Museum. Together with about 100 artefacts from China's Qin and Han dynasties, the statues were shipped, over land and by air, from the Chinese city of Xi'an. The "Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor and His Legacy" exhibition will run from June 24 to Oct 16.

India is planning a big cultural centre in Toronto along the lines of the famous Nehru Centre in London – the first of its kind in North America. The new cultural centre will be ready by next year to cater to the North America Indian diaspora. It is part of India’s thrust to use culture as a tool of its foreign policy.

Nations are brands because people perceive them as brands. Few Ghanaians have time to learn what most countries are really like, so we navigate through the complexity of the modern world armed with a few simple clichés about places. The writer wants to know: What about Ghana? What are we going to use as a brand to attract people from outside Ghana?

The Aspen Institute Global Initiative on Culture and Society and the newly built state-of-the-art Royal Opera House Muscat (ROH Muscat) of the Sultanate of Oman have announced their strategic partnership and the planning of an unprecedented ROH Muscat - Aspen Creative Arts World Summit to be held in Muscat, Oman, November 28-30, 2011.

Just as the American culture industries, especially Hollywood, were instrumental in constructing and disseminating the narrative about the attraction of the United States that helped make it the most influential player on the world stage in the 20th century, the rise in the popularity of Bollywood films could help to do the same for India in the 21st.