India and Pakistan have used "cricket diplomacy" to improve relations in the past, and over the next little while they will do it again. Pakistan's national cricket team is in India for the first series of games between the two countries in five years. The matches will take place from Dec. 25 to Jan. 6. For this very reason, the Indian government has issued a number of visas to Pakistan cricket fans, allowing them to enjoy the matches live.

Taiwan is “the only force on Earth that may have an impact on the future political development of China,” said Steven S.F. Chen, formerly the island’s envoy to the United States and now an adviser to its president. “Not, I’m afraid to say, the United States, not Japan, not any another country. Only Taiwan.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now tweeting in Arabic on a new Twitter account opened in mid-December. The development caught the attention of the Saudi Internet news service, Al Arabiya, which reported this week that Netanyahu’s Twitter account has drawn new followers from Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon, currently numbering 671 followers.

Israel’s ambassadors and consuls general serving throughout the world will discuss wide-ranging diplomatic and strategic issues at a conference to be held next week in Jerusalem.

China's ambassador to the UK defended the country's internet crackdowns on Friday during an interview with the BBC. Liu Xiao Ming told Newsnight's Gavin Essler that there was a "misperception" about the internet in China and the way the Communist Party dealt with it. He also denied that it was difficult for Chinese bloggers to publish their opinions because of crackdowns on free speech.

We are all well aware that both India and China are rivals for supremacy in Asia and both are fishing for new strategies to tap to forge the alliances needed to strengthen that supremacy. If India and China nations that once put Buddhism aside for other priorities are now realizing that their answer for supremacy lies with Buddhism why has Sri Lanka’s policy makers not utilized this power which is under their very nose?

India can use the vibrant civil society network spanning Southeast Asia to highlight the shared concerns of rural riparian communities and engage China in a sub-regional dialogue to resolve trans-boundary water issues, Nimmi Kurian, Associate Professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, says.

Cricket legend Kapil Dev remembers what it was like playing for his country against India's bitter rival, Pakistan, when he made his international debut in 1978: a bowler was expected to aim at the batsman's body...Fast-forward to 2012, and India and Pakistan are once again preparing to face off on the cricket field, playing their first series since 2008, when already brittle relations were shattered by the Mumbai attacks.