This week a national and international love object will feel the chill of the government's need to cut the deficit. The BBC's World Service, broadcasting to 180 million people in 32 languages, and until 2014 still funded by the Foreign Office rather than the licence fee, will take its share of the pain.

I had the great fortune to be in Abu Dhabi two weeks ago leading a group of MBA students from USF as part of their Global Immersions study abroad program. Most of the students are executives pursuing their MBA part-time and this was for many their first visit to the region.

China's campaign to use the soft power of culture to present an appealing face to the world seems to have found an official mascot: Confucius. The 2,500-year-old Chinese theorist, who preached devotion to tradition, has become the first non-revolutionary figure to be honored in Tiananmen Square with a new monumental statue...

During the street demonstrations in Tunis, amidst the signs demanding “Ben Ali Out” were placards saying “Thank you, Al Jazeera.” The Qatar-based pan-Arab television network has never been allowed to open a bureau in Tunisia – a prescient if ultimately unsuccessful tactic by Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s government...

Who will be most damaged by this extraordinary glimpse into the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process? Perhaps the first casualty will be Palestinian national pride, their collective sense of dignity in adversity badly wounded by the papers revealed today.

There was a significant decline, in terms of percentage, of anti-Semitic events in the world last year, but the Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs still claim anti-Semitic trends are on the rise.

The African country that has the highest percentage of people with Facebook accounts is Tunisia, at 18%. That's triple the penetration of the social-media service in repressive Egypt.