India's version of the X factor has launched with performances ranging from the amazing to the downright atrocious. What marks out the Indian version of the show is the country's rich and diverse musical heritage, which saw performers try their hand at everything from Bollywood to Bhangra.

State Department Award is one of the most prestigious awards by U.S. government, and two American Indians students Aparajit Sriram and Avanti Dabholkar, have bagged it for creating a website named "Cultural Diplomacy With the Muslim World" for its 2011 Doors to Diplomacy Award.

Since Osama bin Laden’s killing, US lawmakers have been engaged in a feisty debate over whether to cut aid to Pakistan. They ask why American taxpayers should give over $3bn annually to a country that would harbour the world’s most-wanted terrorist.

A little over a month ago, Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, made one of the warmest gestures of bonhomie towards his Pakistani counterpart in years."Cricket diplomacy” raised hopes of a revival of bilateral peace talks, stalled since the devastating 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, widely blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

They loved us back in the day. When my family visited my mother's Pakistani hometown of Lahore in 1974, our relatives gazed upon us as that rarest of breeds — those who had found success in America. They would whisper about us in awed tones.

In 1961, a clutch of Chinese intellectuals gathered in Beijing to reminisce about a bearded poet from Bengal. They called Rabindranath Tagore a symbol of Hindi-Chini friendship and released ten translated tomes of his writing to mark his 100th birth anniversary.

My title for this piece is intentionally ambiguous, because the relationship between the United States and Pakistan is utterly ambiguous. It could refer to Washington leaders saying, “Sorry that we violated your sovereignty to kill Osama bin Laden, but we still want to be friends.” Or it could refer to Americans saying, “We know some of your conservatives are sad to lose Osama, but we still want want to be friends.”

Over the past ten years since 9/11, event after event in and outside Afghanistan has overshadowed the need to connect with the Afghan people and to deliver on their basic expectations for peace, justice, and prosperity. Even though NATO member-states increasingly appreciate the importance of public diplomacy at home and abroad, they have largely faltered to engage and listen to the Afghan people on how to secure Afghanistan.