Daniel Zajfman, the President of the Weizmann Institute for Science, sees science as a critical bulwark against Israel’s challenging circumstances. “We’re in a noisy neighborhood,” he says understatedly, “so using technology to help solve some of our problems is important.” Zajfman has become a leading voice in the attempt to connect science and society, and he made his case recently at the Falling Walls Conference in Berlin.

China has launched a drive to win "hearts and minds" in Africa just as western powers – including Britain and America – are cutting back on their spending on international broadcasting. In January China Central Television (CCTV) launched its first African hub in Nairobi.

On November 2, Xinhua News Agency issued its first digital interactive e-magazine in Arabic, called China Panorama. The new service will focus on in-depth financial reporting and will target Arab elites and professionals. Its aim is to provide a “better and deeper understanding of China and Chinese economy”. Xinhua will thus add another piece to its expanding media network, which already boasts 142 overseas branches.

Latin dancer, choreographer and teacher Becky Fleming has been encouraging the children at Garran Primary School to learn more about Cuba's musical traditions. "Their learning about the music and the rhythm and the timing and how to be little gentlemen and ladies," she said. "It is teaching them respect for each other.

High costs have caused friction for several hosts of Formula One, which has expanded aggressively from its traditional European domain with seven races now in the Asia-Pacific region. Promoters argue that the longer-term benefits in terms of increased tourism and improved nation-branding outweigh the direct financial losses.

Israel said the expanding Hamas media empire is part of the Islamists’ “terrorist operations,” although it stopped short of branding everyone working for it as a potential target in its offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers. Al-Aqsa TV, which employed the two journalists , said they were killed on the job, and it accused Israel of trying to silence those documenting the suffering of Gaza’s civilians.

“The bottom line is that Hamas is more relevant,” said Yoram Meital of Ben-Gurion University’s Chaim Herzog Center for Middle East Studies and Diplomacy. “Israel’s image is as the side that refused to pay the price for peace, and most Palestinians see Hamas’s ‘resistance’ as more attractive and up to date, and the Palestinian authority as somewhat not relevant.”

The Israeli government is trying to pre-empt a publicity pounding over its Gaza offensive by aggressively pushing out its version of events, furiously tweeting and Facebook posting updates from a "media bunker." The instant they heard about a bus bombing in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, scores of tech-savvy youth in Israel's government media command center in Jerusalem sprang into action.