Turkish soap operas have conquered the Balkans reversing Turkey's negative image with the Balkan nations from the time of the Ottoman yoke, according to Austrian paper Der Standard. Turkey's film industry is not only making money from the showing of its soaps in Balkan countries... but it is also helping out the Turkish diplomacy, the newspaper says in an article entitled "Ottoman Television Runs Like Clockwork."

Economic shortages and the U.S. embargo make it difficult to get most sporting equipment there. For skateboarders, it was nearly impossible. "We both said right away, 'We are going there,' " Lecour recalled.

With roughly 10,000 instruments from more than 200 countries, the place would have been cacophonous if they were all playing out loud. Instead, wireless headphones activate when you walk up to a display, which has the instrument itself as well as a video showing a musician playing it in its native setting.

What are your first thoughts about symbols of Chinese culture? The Great Wall, the Bird's Nest or Peking opera? A survey among 2,000 college students shows that Confucius, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), and former chairman Mao Zedong broke into the top 10 Chinese cultural icons among the 270 candidates.

Americans bring some distinctively American perspectives to the employment of different instruments of power, hard and soft.

The number of people proclaiming their faith worldwide is growing. This is clearly so in the Islamic world. Whereas Europe's birthrate is stagnant, the Arab population is set to double in the coming decades, and the population will rise in many Asian Muslim-majority countries.

Dominating the games demonstrates to the Chinese the superiority of their system, analysts say. China's lavish preparations and hospitality show fellow Asian nations that it is a friendly power whose leadership in the region should be embraced, not feared, they say.

Iran's Soureh University will hold an Iranian student film week in the Netherlands in an attempt to expand cultural relations between the two countries. In a meeting held at Tehran's Art Bureau, President of Tehran's Soureh University Mohammad Roshan and the Dutch ambassador to Tehran Cees J. Kole discussed holding an Iranian student film festival in the Netherlands.