Bill Richardson, a former US presidential candidate and currently governor of out-of-the-way New Mexico, grabbed world headlines over the weekend. He travelled to North Korea and, amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula, announced a wide-ranging deal with Kim Jong-il's regime.

The ethnic cultural diversity of the South American nation of Ecuador came to life in the Indian capital with a colourful showcase of music and dances based on the indigenous folklores and social mores of the country.

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.

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.

The group will depart the United States in late January to perform a pair of stage productions to an Indian audience. As part of the tour, the group will visit Delhi, Chennai, Ranchi, Trissur, Pondicherry, Hyderabad and Bangalore. In addition to performing, the group will teach dance classes.

I attended the closing session of the Gulf Cooperation Councils (GCC) Summit in Abu Dhabi this year. As all the delegates arrived and were seated I would estimate at least a total of 60 people, I could not help but observe, from all the government delegations present, we were 10 women in attendance as part of these delegations. A clear reminder of the gender gap in our region.

Every town in every country in Africa is home to at least one makeshift soccer field, the game is more than just a sport, it is part of daily life. In the lead up to the World Cup, photographers traveled from Egypt to Kenya, Nigeria to Ghana, capturing soccer lovers around the continent.