The Summer Work and Travel program, created as a public diplomacy tool in 1963, allows foreign university students to work and travel for up to four months in the United States, where most work entry-level jobs at resorts, theme parks and restaurants, and experience American culture. The only firm requirements for participation in the program are a working knowledge of English and to be a full-time student at a university. About 1 million students have participated in the program.

Did you know Yemeni Kurds support Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s peace efforts with the Kurdistan Workers Party? The March 6 tweets from Yasin Aktay, a prominent pro-Justice and Development Party (AKP) pundit, say they do.

David Pountney, who is also the company's artistic director, was awarded the Order of Merit at a ceremony in Vienna. It recognises outstanding contributions to co-operation between Poland and other nations. He was honoured for staging Polish opera in his role as director of the Bregenz festival in Austria since 2003.

The Japanese government presented two former baseball players with the People's Honor Award recently, causing a sensation in the country. The two winners were Shigeo Nagashima in his late 70s and Hideki Matsui who has just retired. Once a player and coach of a famous Japanese professional baseball team Yomiuri Giants, Nagashima is one of the most celebrated baseball players in postwar Japan

The United States and Japan opened the door Sunday to new nuclear talks if North Korea lowered tensions and honored past agreements, even as the saber-rattling government rejected South Korea's latest offer of dialogue as a "crafty trick." U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in Tokyo that North Korea would find "ready partners" in the United States if it began abandoning its nuclear program.

While the Fulbright educational program celebrated its 40th anniversary in Russia on April 10, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Tara Sonenshine, took the opportunity to drop in on the American Center in Moscow. She delivered a speech on the importance of soft power and how it can be used to cope with and minimize political differences.

aiwan should increase efforts to foster creativity and boost the nation’s soft power in the face of China’s rapid development in the arts sphere, Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) said yesterday, urging the government to recognize China’s strength in this regard amid a recent frenzy over a Chinese TV show.

On Thursday, Mursi announced that he will hold daily Twitter sessions with the general public, underscoring his perception that the mainstream media are deliberately misrepresenting him. Several anti-Mursi media outlets are owned by Mubarak loyalists, who would like to see post-revolutionary Egypt destabilised to such an extent that the military would seize control again.