In order to build greater understanding and cultural bonding among youghs of different backgrounds , the International Youth Fellowship, a worldwide youth organization, is holding the IYF World Camp at Thyagaraj Sports Complex from November 4 to 7.

It has taken well over sixty years, but after a traumatic divorce that unraveled an empire, India and Britain now seem to be having some kind of cultural honeymoon. The landmark exhibition “Mummy: The Inside Story,” which opens on Nov. 21 at the biggest museum in Mumbai, the CSMVS, is the result of a new collaboration between the British Museum, whose collection forms the display, and the CSMVS.

“Good use of soft power objectively helps us reach priorities in international activities,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told a meeting of the Public Chamber’s Council for International Cooperation and Public Diplomacy. Among Russian soft power tools, Gatilov listed the extension of cultural, informational and humanitarian presence abroad.

World leaders, ministers and high-level officials from 54 countries across the Asia-Pacific region will participate in the fifth Bali Democracy Forum (BDF). The Foreign Ministry’s director general for information and public diplomacy, Abdurrahman M. Fachir, said that the BDF would seek to discuss approaches to integrating democratic principles into global governance, especially in managing collective efforts to promote peace, security, economic development and the enjoyment of human rights.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Algeria this week seeking the country’s support for a West African force to help Mali’s military regain control of the north. And her talks with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika were dominated by the issue of how to deal with the terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists who took control of more than two-thirds of Mali after a coup toppled the government in Bamako last March.

Whenever DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University hosts a diversity workshop, seminar or speaking session, it draws a capacity crowd. “Usually attendance at our professional development sessions is hit and miss depending on how busy students are,” says Dr. Milena Head, acting director, MBA Programs at DeGroote. “But if diversity is the focus, we know there’s always going to be a full room.”

Tune in to the main television channel of our national broadcaster on many nights of the week and you could be forgiven for thinking that you’re in the home counties of the United Kingdom. Sitting as I am, in the middle of a conference of Asia-Pacific arts centres in Taipei, it is encouraging for me and my Asian counterparts to see that the White Paper on Australia in the Asian Century recognises the value of cultural engagement in a comprehensive approach to our relations in the region.

During the September 11 riots outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo, a staffer's sarcastic response to a tweet from the Muslim Brotherhood led to an exchange that was widely covered by the mainstream media. The tweets came on the heels of a controversial statement that the embassy published on its website shortly after an Egyptian salafi television show broadcast The Innocence of the Muslims, a crude U.S.-produced YouTube video that portrayed the prophet Mohamed as a womanizer and charlatan.