Shot in a life-size replica of the temple built in Zhejiang province, "Shaolin"could re-introduce the background to one of the best-known Chinese worlds, [Emperor Motion Pictures CEO Albert] Lee said, right at a time when the industry is under pressure from Beijing to make exportable movies to help China's soft power.

Turkey remains stubbornly fixed in Western culture as a backward-looking land of doner kebabs, bazaars, and guest workers. But take population out of the equation -- an admittedly big variable -- and Turkey promptly becomes a likely candidate for future superpower.

To celebrate the first global sporting event to be contested on the African continent, the South African hosts staged a dazzling pageant on the soccer pitch that reflected the nation's arts, culture, song and dance, as well as multiple jet flyovers, fireworks and a giant dung beetle kicking a giant inflated soccer ball toward a goal.

So like a debtor who decides that it's easier to ask for a raise than chop up his credit cards, Team Obama decided to focus on boosting American power, not reducing American obligations. The Bush Administration, they reasoned, had leveraged only military power. Obama would deploy "soft power" too, the power to attract rather than coerce.

The Russian delegation, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Serguei Ryabkov, offered Nicaragua a generous package of aid in the areas of transportation, budget assistance and technical support..the Russian government agreed to provide Nicaragua with $10 million in budget support, a new fleet of inner-city buses and a shipment of LADA vehicles, as well as reinitiate a twice-weekly commercial flight from Moscow to Managua, via Cuba.

How does one bring in the right type of tourist? A crucial step would be to come up with promotional campaigns bearing the correct branding...Branding is important to position the tourist destination concerned on the top of the lists of would-be tourists while also ensuring it attracts only tourists who can appreciate what that country offers.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is using its financial clout to push the Haitian marketplace toward change by offering $10 million in prizes to the first companies to help Haitians send and receive money with their cell phones.

In this age of globalization and social networking, a World Expo might seem a quaint throwback to a bygone era. But for many countries, including, notably, China, it offers a global platform to present strengths and salient characteristics to the world.