South Africa's ambassadors should ensure they present the country in a positive light, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday. "In this era of globalisation, since information flows like fire and can easily be misinterpreted, our diplomacy cannot afford to neglect public opinion," Zuma said at the heads of mission conference in Pretoria on Thursday, according to a copy of his speech. He referred to the killing of 13 South African soldiers in the Central African Republic during fighting with rebels near Bangui on March 23.

The University of Pittsburgh is one of the few American colleges to have this Indonesian orchestra composed of percussive instruments of brass and iron. Gamelans are usually given a name, and in the case of the 40 instruments that Pitt received in 1994, "Kyai Tirta Rukmi" -- Venerable Rivers of Gold -- also had black and gold colors and carvings of the Pitt Panthers logo.

The pundits believe this is a honeymoon period for China and South Korea. Ironically, it is happening as Pyongyang has been ratcheting up its rhetoric and war posturing.

The opening of Confucius Institutes this week in New York and Washington brings a key part of China's "soft power" initiative to the United States. On Tuesday, administrators at Columbia University will cut the ribbon to inaugurate the Confucius Institute at the Ivy League school in Manhattan. A day later, it will be George Washington University that does the honors, on a campus within walking distance of the US State Department and blocks away from the White House and Capitol Hill.

Americans are not allowed to go to Cuba for tourism but can obtain licences for academic, religious, journalistic or cultural exchange trips. The visit by the couple was authorised by the US Treasury Department and involved meeting Cuban artists and musicians, a children's theatre group, and going to several nightclubs where live music was performed.

On April 12 a meeting of bilateral working group on democracy in frames of U.S.-Georgian strategic partnership charter will be held, according to the U.S. embassy in Tbilisi. It’s one of those four inter-agency bilateral groups, which were established to address priority areas of the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership Charter, which was signed in January, 2009. Other areas of cooperation identified by the charter are defense and security, economic and people-to-people relations.

Jet Tila has been appointed the first Culinary Ambassador of Thai Cuisine by the Royal Thai Consul-General in Los Angeles, tasked with spreading awareness nationwide and making official his unofficial -- and longstanding -- role as a guide to the cuisine. Tila was tapped for the position after a meeting with the Consul-General, who sought his feedback on promoting the cuisine last month. The chef's duties will include touring the United States on behalf of the Thai government, giving food demonstrations, making media appearances and coordinating events.

She was an unassuming young diplomat, only 25, who greeted journalists at the heavily fortified American Embassy gates in Kabul, escorting them to interviews and impressing them with her organization and her studied wish to build bridges between Afghan and American cultures.