Few may know that the game known to some as football and to others as soccer was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. The nomination letter by Swedish politician Lars Gustafsson observed that sports - of which football was "the greatest sport of all" - play a valuable role in international relations by enhancing "the understanding between people of different races and religions in different countries."

An international project will help Taiwan’s indigenous Paiwan gain remote access to museum collections, document intangible aspects of their culture and disseminate information about their heritage to a broader public, including indigenous groups abroad.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music has been tapped to produce the first official year of DanceMotion USA, a cultural diplomacy project. The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs worked with BAM on a pilot program this year that sent three U.S. dance companies to tour three regions of the world.

At a press conference for international media, Dr. Sheng said that more than 100 cultural, sports and tourism activities would be lined up throughout next year. These range from shows of traditional Chinese and aboriginal folk art, international golf and baseball tournaments, and a home stay program for youths from 100 countries.

President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday once again played up the notion of the nation’s soft power, saying its pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai had helped to reduce tensions in the Taiwan Strait and prevent war.

For most Qataris, the world's most watched sporting event represents a chance to offer a new image of their homeland and the wider Middle East. "This is not just for Qatar, but for the whole region," Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, wife of the country's ruler, told Reuters in an interview.

It happens every first Sunday. A line snakes inside the lobby and spills outside the doors of the Doongsoong Presybeterian Church in Hyewah, Seoul. Expats and natives congregate for a curious cultural exchange as the Heritage Mass Choir prepares to spread the gospel with a foot-stomping, hands-waving-in-the-air-like-you-just-don’t-care side-to-side swagger.

In spring 2011 three major German museum bodies – the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich – will join forces with the National Museum of China to present an exhibition on the art of the Enlightenment, to be held in Beijing.