Emirates is to increase flights from Dubai to Al Medinah al Munawarah in Saudi Arabia to seven flights per week from 31 October 2010 due to the growing importance of economic and cultural ties between the two nations.

Tsinghua University, one of China’s top universities, said on Monday it will increase its number of foreign graduate students as Beijing steps up use of education and other “soft power” initiatives to promote its image abroad.

Germany largely has China to thank for its current economic upswing, given the Asian powerhouse's demand for German machine tools and other such products. But many German industrialists are asking themselves how long the symbiotic relationship can go on, given Beijing's ambition to become a high-tech economy itself.

There is concern that protests in the United States against the construction of a mosque near the site of the 2001 terrorist attacks could bolster anti-American extremists in the Muslim world.

Beijing Foreign Studies University recently announced that it has established a Public Diplomacy Research Center during a press conference in Beijing on Aug. 26. This is China's first institution to specialize in public diplomacy research and its establishment will promote China's public diplomacy research to provide intellectual support for the practice of the government's public diplomacy and a platform for the public to participate in public diplomacy.

“This cultural activity is only one part of Keren Hayesod’s activities to increase cultural ties between Russia and Israel, and create an interface of cooperation on social issues which don’t always find expression in normal diplomatic ties,” said Director-General of Keren Hayesod Greg Masel.

The new website CienciAmérican (Science of the Americas) -- the brainchild of a Cornell neurobiologist -- combines some functions of Facebook and Craigslist. It launched Aug. 16 to help Latin American scientists exchange ideas among themselves and their North American colleagues.

For now, Washington is focusing on "people-to-people" exchanges under which academics, corporations, humanitarian groups and athletic teams could travel to Cuba as a way to promote cultural exchanges and programs with universities.