The league’s latest attempt to introduce American football to a Chinese audience was more modest: A traveling version of the “NFL Experience” interactive marketing event held Sunday in Shanghai gave locals – and plenty of Americans – a chance to punt, pass and kick like the pros. American football isn’t a natural sell in China.

Egypt's Kefaya ("Enough" in Arabic) movement was in many ways the forefather of the Arab uprising. It pioneered the use of social media, mastered the art of symbolic demonstrations, and pried open a space in the Egyptian media. This opening of closed regimes to raw information and opinion, a faith in the power of public ideas, was itself one of the key ideas underpinning the Arab uprisings.

Gains in civilian technologies offer a less-threatening way for the country...to recapture a leading role as a technological power. Having access to technology and being a science destination of choice “enhances China’s soft power for sure,”...The government backing and growth prospects also help lure and retain talent, especially people who have spent time overseas.

A representative of China's Human Rights Society told a public gathering of African officials that the West is unfairly maligning China's human records -- just as it unfairly maligned Michael Jackson, she said. The speech is a small (and, probably, uncoordinated) part of China's much larger effort to deploy soft power in Sub-Saharan Africa, where Chinese workers and firms are increasingly prevalent.

...of course an important part of diplomacy is public diplomacy, so that is how our country internationally connects with ordinary people,” he said.... He noted there were lots of ways for the British government to connect with local citizens, but the most important way was online with the use of blogs and social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.

'I think, we have had a really good take off on making a Sesame Sim Sim Hamara which belongs to Pakistan. It has Pakistani characters, it has content which is specially designed for Pakistan and there is a lot of development on the side of making an international level production,'

The ongoing conflict between Arabs and Jews in the Middle East is one of the more intractable conflicts of our times - but, by looking at the conflict through the eyes of two outsiders, film director Peter Kosminsky hopes to tell the human story behind the bloody headlines and failed peace talks.