Around 1987, I noticed a funny thing about aerial photos of African villages: they look a lot like fractals, the repetitive shapes from computer graphics. Rectangular architecture had nested rectangles within; circular houses were in circles of circles, sometimes down to very small scales. A Fulbright fellowship gave me a year of travel in west and central Africa...

Ideas and good writing may be fun, good music can be soothing, the cinema and theater are certainly entertaining, and sports and video games are heart-racing. All that is good and well, and all are the flesh and blood of the soft power that many countries try to build and whose management the United States has possibly mastered.

The new American ambassador to the Philippines, Harry Thomas, is an avid sportsman. Thomas, an African-American, used to play football, track and field, softball and baseball, considered as the United States’ national sport.

A unique website dedicated to the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage's participation at the Assilah Festival showcases a spectrum of its wide programme of arts, culture, heritage and conservation initiatives and projects at the Assilah Art Festival, on the Atlantic coast of the North Eastern tip of Morocco, this July 10-27, 2010

The Balkan Express departed from Ankara last week and will travel throughout the Balkans to improve relations between Turkey and Southeastern European countries during a 50-day trip.

“Soft power” challenged Korea’s traditional development paradigm. From the 1960s, authoritarian governments had placed absolute primacy on economic growth. Social and political development was de-prioritized as the entire nation was hitched to an economic locomotive that would convey Korea to the terminus of “advanced nations.”

Numerous young people, mostly university students in their 20s from diverse countries, including the United States, Germany and Pakistan, accepted invitations to the retreat and bought plane tickets, eager to explore Russia and to meet their Russian counterparts.

Delhi University, while realising the importance of an international exposure, is keen on casting its net wide. It has signed many MoUs with universities and colleges abroad for student and faculty exchange programmes.