Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday, in his first public comment about US President Barack Obama's upcoming visit, said the trip was very important to underline the strong US-Israeli ties at a time of a raging regional storm.

The Chinese table tennis player who was instrumental in the pingpong diplomacy that paved the way for President Nixon's groundbreaking visit to China has died. Zhuang Zedong was 73. Zhuang, a three-time world champion, was a major sporting figure in China. Photographs of him with Cowan created a stir because of poor relations between their two countries.

GSIS Model United Nations 2013 is underway at GSIS Main Campus, Islamabad, says a press release. The four-day event started on February 07, with the inauguration ceremony by the Secretary General, Hassan Abbas. GMUN Patron and GSIS Principal Qurat-ul-Ain Ali Rizvi while addressing the participants said: “The organisers have worked really hard for the GMUN. There are going to be great enthusiastic debating sessions, colourful activity of global village and social events.”

As befitting a celebrated poet at the height of his powers, Robert Pinsky strides toward an interview in the company of a striking flame-haired woman in black. At 72, Pinsky comes close to fulfilling Hollywood's fantasy of what a poet ought to look like: trim and fit, with a full head of steel-gray hair and a profile eerily reminiscent of another Massachusetts poet, Robert Lowell.

Even the most ardent supporters of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) concede that last year was a pretty disastrous one for the ten-country grouping. Replacing the region’s usual mild-mannered consensus was an unprecedented eruption of rowing and bickering, all on very public and humiliating display at its summit meetings.

Not only are there a lot of similarities between Public Relations (PR) and Public Diplomacy (PD) but were it not for one major element, they might be identical. Scholars have argued that issues of power have been neglected in PR. This is true. However, that might not illustrate the complete picture as the main difference is perhaps the cohesion of PD, and the power it can achieve thanks to this.

President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday met with Japanese artists at the Presidential Office and said that he was pleased to see the increasing extent of cultural exchange between Taiwan and Japan. Although public works can spur a nation's growth, it is culture that makes a nation great, Ma said, stressing that culture is the foundation of a country.