The Comsats Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) here on Tuesday signed an agreement to formalise cooperation between the two bodies in science diplomacy. The ceremony took place at Pakistan Academy of Sciences (Pas) where Comsats Executive Director Dr Imtinan Qureshi asserted the need for pragmatic and informed decision-making regarding issues of global climate change and international commitments and policies, leading to consensus on binding international agreements.

When one of Richard Stone's contacts in North Korea asked him four years ago if he knows any Western volcanologists who might like to study Mount Paektu, a volcano on North Korea’s border with China, he saw a rare chance.  [...] Two related scientific papers are now in preparation, said Stone at a panel discussion he moderated about science diplomacy in North Korea at the 9th World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul, South Korea, this week (10 June). 

The EU approach to science diplomacy, I wish to see, is simple. Investing in science and research for its ability to establish unity, as much as for its ability to stimulate intellectual and economic progress. Known in America for a long time, science diplomacy is an emerging term in the EU context, and a recent one at broader international level. 

 A rising call for African-led research has permeated Cape Town this week as HIV researchers and scientists from around the world flooded the city for the first HIV Research for Prevention Conference.

Since the end of the Cold War, deepening globalization has generated the possibility that science diplomacy may help states solve common challenges - in the areas of food, water, energy, climate, and health - that do not respect territorial boundaries. Science diplomacy refers to the way in which states make use of scientific knowledge to diplomatically represent themselves and their interests in the international arena.

"The contents of the MoU include broadening of scientific and cultural relations, preparing the grounds for cooperation between the two countries' scientific and cultural bodies and holding joint scientific, literary and research conferences," the Iranian cultural attaché told reporters in Dushanbe on Wednesday.

The Ugandan president committed to meeting with American “experts” on homosexuality to try to change his mind about the Anti-Homosexuality Act signed into law last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday during a forum at the State Department moderated by BuzzFeed.

On February 23, two giant pandas arrived in Belgium on a 15-year loan, where they received a red-carpet welcome. Among those waiting on the tarmac were 2000 people, many of them excited kids, and also the Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.