Women’s empowerment may not replace climate change as the next top priority on the global agenda. But behind the emergence of politicized gender issues, reshuffled coalitions of political and economic interests among major powers are underway. China will undoubtedly be an active leader for designing international governance focused on women’s empowerment.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said Wednesday his country has developed nuclear weapons of a size small enough for a ballistic missile. [...] North Korea’s public diplomacy, or lack of it, has only increased the pressure. Last week, North Korea answered new United Nations sanctions by firing projectiles into the sea. Kim also threatened to carry out a nuclear strike against South Korea and the United States.

President Paul Kagame has called on African nations to scale up investments in research to increase impact of science in development.The president was speaking at the opening session of the Next Einstein Forum (NEF) currently underway in Dakar, Senegal.

Female panda Er Shun and her mate, Da Mao got a celebrity greeting from politicians and media at the Toronto airport upon their arrival in Canada. [...] Pandas, an endangered species native to China, are carefully meted out by Beijing to reward its foreign allies, and their arrival was hailed at the time as a sign of thawing relations between Beijing and Ottawa.

The nation and the world are mourning the loss of former First Lady Nancy Reagan, who died Sunday in California at the age of 94. She will be remembered most as the backstage adviser and fierce protector of Ronald Reagan. [...] As first lady, she made an impact on the public wherever she went.

President Paul Kagame and his Djiboutian counterpart Ismael Omar Guelleh yesterday pledged to do more to advance trade between the two countries [...] The briefing was preceded by the signing of a General Cooperation Agreement between the two countries to provide a foundation for future technical agreements. 

South Korea has vowed to provide Egypt with a financial package worth $3 billion for export credits and to develop infrastructure in the transport, energy and water resources sectors, the Egyptian presidency stated on Saturday. 

In his first trip to the U.S. since assuming his duties as mayor of Taiwan's capital city in December 2014, Ko will visit San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, all of which are sister cities of Taipei, Lin said. A main focus of Ko's U.S trip will be to learn about industrial development in Silicon Valley in northern California.