President Ma Ying-jeou said Monday that the inauguration of direct flights between the city airports of Taipei and Tokyo is indicative of the strong relationship between Taiwan and Japan and of Taiwan's ability to strike a balance in its diplomacy while improving ties with China.

With the G-20 Summit approaching, all eyes are focusing on Seoul. The Korean economy has been growing rapidly over the past couple of years and it now ranks 9th in the world in terms of export volume. However, Korea’s national brand image still lags behind.

How does Brand Oz look in China these days? Jennifer Mills went to the Shanghai Expo to see the results of Simon Crean's recent nation branding exercise.

A new study by the World Bank’s Jishnu Das and Pomona College’s Tahir Andrabi titled In Aid We Trust: Hearts and Minds and the Pakistan Earthquake of 2005 reiterates that humanitarian aid can win local favour. The study shows that those Pakistanis who interacted with aid workers after the 2005 earthquake retained positive impressions and high levels of trust in westerners four years after that calamity.

A bill that not only stiffens the penalty for gay sex by imposing the death sentence in some instances but also criminalizes the discretion of people who know about a gay relationship but do not report it may be headed for law in Uganda after languishing for a year.

Multiculturalism just doesn't work in Germany, according to Chancellor Angela Merkel. Speaking to the youth association of her Christian Democrat Union party (CDU), she said that the "multi-kulti" concept that "we are now living side-by-side and are happy about it ... this approach has failed, utterly." Merkel described this as living in "parallel societies" similar to the Chinatowns of New York and San Francisco or the Little Italy in Philadelphia.

What the West needs most is a fresh look at the full range of its capabilities and interests. Only then can its power fulfill its purpose. Seen as a wonder tool, smart power has been embraced as a fresh and benign aspect of power; a definably formulaic mix of soft (cultural) power and hard (military) power.

Indeed, said [ESA Council chairman Giuseppe] Pizza, there is no question of achieving ambitious scientific objectives or opening a significant new chapter in space exploration without a global strategy, including the active participation of every European player.