The French parliament is debating a new road map for French universities, which includes the proposal of allowing courses to be taught in English. For some, this amounts to a betrayal of the national language and, more specifically, of a particular way at looking at the world - for others it's just accepting the inevitable.

Battered by a French-led military campaign in Mali, al-Qaida's North African arm is trying something new to stay relevant: Twitter. The PR campaign by the terror network seeks to tap into social grievances and champion mainstream causes such as unemployment, all in a bid to reverse decline and win new followers.

The French and the Germans have a duty to shape a new European vision. Precisely because we are different, precisely because our histories and our cultures are sometimes so antagonistic, only we have the size and credibility to outline a new European compromise.

Around 160 events featuring French and Chinese cultural displays or performances will be staged across China during the near-three-month Sino-French cultural exchange festival, which opened here on Wednesday.

Around 20,000 visitors paid a visit to the African Fair, held the weekend of 5-7 April in Paris. The fair promoted business and cultural exchange and took the opportunity to celebrate a continent often misunderstood by Europe. The fair's creator, Marc Yao, says many Europeans think of Africa only in terms of stereotypes. "The African fair is a platform for African countries to show the wealth of resources they have to offer to Europe," says Yao.

A special delegation of 11 Israeli high school students landed in Paris on Sunday as part of the Israeli Jewish Congress' "Young Ambassadors" program..."Teenagers are the most useful group when it comes to public diplomacy," Sloutsker said.

The minister of foreign affairs has made the diplomatic economy a top priority of his action. This is why the new Directorate for Businesses and Global Economy has been created, as of March 1, 2013. This directorate will be the first point of contact at the ministry for businesses – for large groups as well as SMEs. It will also ensure that their interests are properly taken into account in negotiations that are likely to impact their activities, in particular with respect to issues relating to global economic regulation.

The project is widely seen as part of a charm offensive launched by Azerbaijan in France that aims, in effect, to buy goodwill and counteract bad publicity arising from Baku s poor rights record. France, as a major European Union power, is a natural target for such a campaign; it ranks as Azerbaijan s fifth-largest investor, primarily in the energy sector. And with a large Armenian Diaspora population, the country has also been an important diplomatic booster of Baku s longtime antagonist, Armenia.