Throughout the Middle East, protestors have employed Facebook, Twitter...and other technologies to organize and spread news at home and to the outside world. Democratic governments aren’t the only ones reacting to the Arab Spring. Autocracies, including China, which hosts the world’s most sophisticated online control regime, are drawing their own lessons.

From the very beginning of the revolution, street art and artists played a significant role in the protests...perhaps the uncensored, tongue-in-cheek, political commentary of Ganzeer and other street artists is just what is called for to help Egyptians make sense of the new world they live in — and their ability to make a mark on it.

Sean Penn was among the demonstrators at a protest in Egypt on Friday calling for a faster transition to democracy. The two-time Oscar winner arrived in north Africa at the invitation of Egyptian film star Khaled El Nabawy as part of efforts to show the country is once again safe for tourists following the revolution earlier this year.

He Tao ...said they have already started a major campaign to turn the city into a top international gastronomic center. This, he said, accords with the national strategy of using each city's soft power, but, of course, the city got a boost after it received the UNESCO's global gastronomy label.

The up-to-the-minute news and messages these embassies post show that the micro blog has become the medium of choice for foreign diplomatic agencies to conduct public diplomacy.

The relationship between the US and Pakistan is back on track. Musically speaking, that is. ...a series of joint concerts here by an American jazz band and a Pakistani soft-rock group demonstrated that in nonpolitical spheres the two countries can have a productive and at times - does one dare say it? - harmonious relationship.

British Council director Peter Clack who left the country last month for a new posting, talks fondly of local food and the role he played in Malaysia’s quest to be an education hub.

China and India have declared 2011 as the "Year of China-India Exchange", during which each side will invite 500 youths from the other side for a visit.