Last month, multi-national telecommunications company Huawei renewed its sponsorship of Wellington Phoenix. It is the largest sponsorship deal in the history of New Zealand football. Though the deal is vital for the club, it is also significant for Huawei. So significant that Huawei global CEO Guo Ping made the official announcement when Prime Minister John Key was at the company's Beijing headquarters as part of his latest China visit.

The 21st Francophonie Festival is going to launch in more than 200 cities across China in March. A variety of cultural events featuring French music, films, literature, sports, gastronomy and art will show the French language and culture.

The Los Angeles bid to host the 2024 summer Games was unveiled at sunset keeping in theme with the new slogan and features a winged angel as a symbol of the city. On the top floor of a USC skyscraper bid leaders and civic officials gathered to view the new logo with panoramic views of the City's 2024 Games venues, coastline and mountains as the backdrop.

The Qatar China 2016 Year of Culture launched with a spectacular show featuring folkdances, songs and acrobatics by Chinese performers at a packed Katara Drama Theatre last night.

In 2013, North Korea conducted its third nuclear test, and the world responded by inducing a period of brinksmanship that came dangerously close to spiraling the unending Korean War out of control. [...] Any creative collaboration one could possibly imagine between the US and North Korea is not only theoretically possible, but an actual reality.

From the World Service to the Queen and even Norman Wisdom, Britain punches above its weight in the soft power stakes. [...] But the global soft-power reach of the UK is a phenomenon all on its own.

President Park Geun-hye on Sunday urged Japan to face up to and sincerely atone for its brutalities during colonial rule as a first step to writing a “new history” with Korea for the next 50 years. In her Independence Movement Day address, she called for the two Koreas to meet to discuss reunions of families displaced by the 1950-53 Korean War, while expanding cooperation in sports, culture, arts and humanitarian areas. 

The 2014 CPD Annual Review demonstrates that although public diplomacy is present in every region of the world, it is predominantly in the northern hemisphere. North America is ranked the most active region in public diplomacy, with the United States contributing the most. Asia (Asia Pacific, Southeast Asia and Central Asia combined) comes in second, and Europe is third, with almost the same presence as Asia. As expected, China, Japan, and South Korea take the lead as the major actors in Asia Pacific. India is also very active in PD in South Asia.