...If we want our people-to-people exchanges to remain central to our public diplomacy engagement, we have to open new channels. We have to communicate government to people, and people to people. And one of the best ways we can leverage those conversations is through social media and other connective technologies, such as video teleconferencing.

In Atlanta, you already have natural connections with your major trading partners: Canada, Mexico, Japan, United Kingdom and China,” he said during his presentation in the Tom Murphy Ballroom at the Georgia World Conference Center. But you also have connections with other metros, such as Seoul (Korea), London, Toronto, Cancun (Mexico) and Montego Bay, Jamaica, through business and tourism travel. Going forward this region must strengthen these connections and forge new connections in order to thrive in the global economy.

The worst of the anti-Japanese protests that have swept China in recent days may be over. The financial fallout for the world’s second- and third-biggest economies may be just beginning. Japanese-owned factories, restaurants, mini-marts and clothing retailers across China closed en masse Tuesday as protests continued in nearly 100 cities, sparked by a dispute over control of uninhabited islands near Taiwan.

Remember the UK's swinging Cool Britannia nation branding effort under Prime Minister Tony Blair? Now Mulberry is looking to revive pride in all things British with its just-launched Brilliant Britain Guide. Sub-titled "a guide to a truly great nation," it's a branded content marketing move to continue the celebratory year that 2012 represents for the United Kingdom, from the Queen's Diamond Jubilee to a successful Olympics and Paralympics

Pakistan can learn lessons from Brazil, which has pursued this course in the last two decades and has emerged as the leading nation of South America, they said. The conference on Pakistan-Brazil relations was jointly organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and the Brazilian embassy.

Chinese state television hailed Mo Yan as "the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize in literature" following the announcement Thursday of the 2012 award... As part of its quest for soft power, Beijing has been obsessed for years about winning Nobel prizes, which in its view too often go to dissidents and emigres.

The number of students from China studying at universities across the United States has increased dramatically. According to some statistics, the number of undergraduate students from China in the U.S. has doubled in the last two years. Economists say the trend is due, in large part, to a growing middle class in China. VOA's Elizabeth Lee reports from Los Angeles county, with one of the largest Chinese student populations in the U.S. - totaling more than 4000 students.

As part of its quest for soft power, Beijing has been obsessed for years about winning Nobel prizes, which in its view too often go to dissidents and emigres. Chinese authorities were especially stung by the peace prize awards to the Dalai Lama and most recently in 2010 to the dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year prison term for subversion of state authority.