The Brazilian government, under pressure to improve public health services, has dropped plans to import a contingent of Cuban doctors and is instead looking to hire physicians in Spain and Portugal, the Health Ministry said on Monday. The plan to bring in Cuban doctors created a backlash because of questions about their qualifications. Brazilian medical associations argued that standards at Cuba’s medical schools were lower than in Brazil and equivalent in some cases to a nursing education.

Giant pandas are not only one of China's most visible symbols, but are probably the country's biggest brand. One third of all tourist revenues in the province of Sichuan come from pandas, putting the equivalent of $16bn into the government's coffers.

On 12 July, Malala will be joined by hundreds of students from more than 80 countries in a unique Youth Assembly, where diplomats will take a back seat as young people take over the UN. They will gather to issue a global call for quality education for all. Education is a fundamental right, a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and crucial to mutual understanding and global citizenship. Many of us did not have to learn this lesson from a book. We lived it.

The pace of Burma’s political, economic, and social reforms is being matched by a boom in investment and construction... Burma’s geostrategic location between India and China and extensive natural resource wealth make it a natural crossroads for Asian trade and a focal point for broader regional integration.

For the United States and the European Union, TTIP represents a chance to tackle issues that continue to hinder the true potential of transatlantic trade. Unlocking that potential requires ambitious standards surrounding regulatory harmonization, intellectual property protection and enforcement, and market access.

A recent survey shows that China is rapidly replacing the US and Britain as the top source of inspiration for many Africans, with 34 per cent of Kenyans looking up to Beijing as a role model and destination for business opportunities, technology and infrastructure development.

The innovative public diplomacy effort to explain all aspects of the working of India's foreign ministry was in six 30 minute segments in which, for the first time, senior Indian diplomats candidly and publically responded to all questions directed at them in such a platform.

While Mao Zedong once said that women hold up half of the sky, in truth women wield relatively little power in China, particularly in politics. There are no women among the recently elected members of the Politburo Standing Committee. Traditionally, first ladies rarely entered the spotlight and fell under a cloak of secrecy.