Kutch may be Gujarat's most barren region, but it has given birth to people with the most fertile imagination. Films, music, literature... Kutchis have left their imprint on everything creative.

Just under the wire, this note from Nicholas Charles Bouloukos, a jazz pianist and conductor now working in China, is too interesting not to share while the Hu Jintao visit is still more or less newsworthy. Bouloukos explains how the White House choice of a jazz-centric music program for last week's State Dinner matches developments in China itself.

In early March, celebrations dedicated to the Russian Maslenitsa Festival, or the Pancake Week, will be held in the city of Rome as part of the Russia-Italy cross-cultural exchange year. The traditional farewell-to-winter carnival will take place under the auspices of the governments of St. Petersburg and Rome.

Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Barack Obama's hometown of Chicago Thursday, under the auspices of furthering cultural exchanges between the two countries. Hu is scheduled to visit a local Confucius institute today before attending a ceremony of business-contract signings.

Chinese President Hu Jintao had a busy schedule from Tuesday to Thursday, meeting with U.S. leaders on major bilateral and world issues in Washington. His diplomacy in the United States, however, turned somewhat light-hearted as he walked into a Chicago high school on Friday morning.

A group of hungry college students crowded around the newest food stall in an upscale market here: the American Hotdog Factory. Its sign proudly announced, "real American hotdogs for the first time in India."

How do you sell a movie called “Captain America” to an overseas market? In South Korea, Russia and the Ukraine, apparently, the answer is you don’t even try... Those involved in the decision are being careful to frame the move as a matter of brand management and consumer awareness and not as a decision tilted by cultural or political winds.

Addressing a symposium to mark the 10th anniversary of the Law on Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, Liu said popularizing the standard Chinese language is vital for "carrying out the Chinese culture, enhancing the country's soft power, national unification and unity among all ethnic groups."