An exchange programme targeted at examining the role that journalists play in the society and the challenges they face while doing their jobs tagged Spring 2013 Professional Fellows Congress opens Wednesday in Washington, D.C., United States of America with 10 journalists from four countries in Africa – Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda – participating.

China has used various forms of soft power as a form of diplomatic currency in the past. There was the ping pong diplomacy of the early 1970s. There was also panda diplomacy. Now China is expanding its soft power diplomacy to luxury vehicles. According to the Wall Street Journal, last Friday, Beijing donated 20 Chinese-designed and manufactured Hongqi, or Red Flag, vehicles to the Pacific island nation of Fiji. The fleet of sedans is estimated to have cost around $2.3 million.

NATO secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned European lawmakers yesterday that the European Union cannot rely on its vaunted soft power. Speaking before the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Subcommittee on Security and Defence, Rasmussen warned against continuing cuts in Europe's defense capabilities.

The conference, dubbed as 'Diplomacy and Soft Power in the Great Prophet's (PBUH) Sirah (life and tradition)', is underway in the conference hall of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) in Tehran. Over 600 local and international scholars and researchers are present in the international conference.

Starting on May 3, the White House's petition website has become a favored landing spot for Chinese Web users, and the hashtag #occupytheWhiteHouse, and a variety of related memes, has recently appeared on Chinese social media platforms. The origin of this chatter provides a case study in censorship, Chinese netizen humor, American soft power, and the unintended consequences of a (sometimes) borderless Internet.

The slogan "Israel Under Fire," used by various Israeli government bodies during Operation Pillar of Defense last November, was disastrous for Israeli tourism, the head of the Tourism Ministry's marketing department said Monday. Speaking at a conference at Haifa University on public diplomacy during the eight-day operation, Oren Drori, deputy director-general of the Tourism Ministry and the head of its marketing efforts, said the slogan caused "serious damage to the Israeli tourism market.

With the threat of a missile strike from North Korea still looming, South Korea is exploring all avenues to defend itself. One possibility is to buy Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile defence system. Kim Minjung and her friends are studying Middle East politics at Jerusalem's Hebrew University.