Becoming a father was a prime motivator for Randy Berry to accept what's sure to be a controversial new role at the State Department. Berry, 50, is the U.S. special envoy for the human rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender persons, the first such post ever created by a nation, according to the State Department. In that trailblazing role, he said he has an opportunity to help his two children grow up in a world more accepting than the one he was born into.

The lecture at UNAM was packed with about 500 students, with many people standing. Around the end of the lecture, I invited Hitomi to the stage and with her spoke to the audience about why maid cafes have become one of the icons of Japan’s pop culture and why they attract foreign visitors.In a nutshell, these cafes seriously entertain their customers by providing them with an experience which is completely different from their daily lives.

Cinema Organization of Iran Director Hojjatollah Ayyubi said that Fajr International Film Festival helps Iran improve public diplomacy in the world. He made the remarks during the opening ceremony of the international section of the 33rd edition of the festival held at Tehran’s Mellat Cinema Complex on Saturday.

On the last day of her South America trip, President Park Geun-hye met with around 2-hundred Korean emigrants in Sao Paulo, an economic hub in Brazil, the seventh largest economy in the world.  More than 50-thousand Koreans call the city home, making it the largest Korean community in Brazil.

Despite the futuristic billboard, there’s something retro about Israel’s agricultural pitch to the family of nations. Israel has long swapped its communal agrarian identity for a capitalist society that is one of the most unequal among Western nations. The kibbutz movement is a shadow of what it once was, and nearly all of the farm labor in Israel is performed by foreign workers. But organizers say that Israeli agriculture heritage, as much as its identity as a “start up nation,” is a selling point.

Until the 20th century, they were Europe’s biggest imperial powers. Today, France, the UK, Belgium, Spain, Germany and Portugal are spending the bulk of their official development assistance (ODA) budgets on their former colonies.

China has grown rapidly in influence and ability to act in the international arena. That means it faces bigger, tougher and ever more urgent challenges. Therefore, there is a growing need for more high quality think tanks which can offer solutions to these challenges by mining the wisdom in the broader society.

This week, Gallup released "Rating World Leaders: What People Worldwide Think of the U.S., China, Russia, the EU and Germany," the first-ever Gallup report on global public opinion about these major world powers.