Balls and strikes, not politics, ruled the day Wednesday at a baseball diamond in Havana, as last year’s college championship team from the University of Tampa played an exhibition game against a Cuban youth squad. The visitors scraped out a hard-fought 2-1 win, but the encounter was more about bridging the vast gulf between these neighboring nations that disagree on just about everything except their shared love of the game.

In its drive to double the number of Japanese youths studying abroad by 2020, the education ministry has launched a campaign involving the private sector, which is eager to hire more graduates with overseas experience. Under the campaign titled “Tobitate! Ryugaku Japan,' the ministry in cooperation with business people, athletes and artists, will stage a series of promotional activities to encourage more young people to seek out educational opportunities in other countries.

This year, the YES alumni in Pakistan are working to help over 1,000 Pakistani people in 10 different cities over the course of a month. The alumni are working to provide these 1,000 people with ration packages for the month. This event is taking place over the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and is divided into three phases. The first phase is fund raising and distribution, the second phase is to work with orphanages and slums, and the third phase is the distribution of Eid gifts to sick children in hospitals in Pakistan.

When it comes to choosing a summer camp to send your children to, North Korea may not be top of the list. But for decades the Songdowon International Children's Camp has entertained young people from around the world with its swimming pools, waterslides and boating lakes. When it opened in the 1960s, Songdowon International Children's Camp was a centre for the kind of cultural exchanges common amongst Communist countries at the time. Set on a beach front, amongst a sweep of pine trees, it was a place where young people from friendly nations could meet.

Despite soggy conditions, including a brief downpour, more than 100 people still showed up for the St. Petersburg, Russia-based youth ensemble, Golden Gates at Poinciana United Methodist Church last Thursday. By imitating dancers, sampling instruments or copying the rhythmic clapping and foot stomping of Russian dance, the audience got a taste of faraway culture when the youth ensemble performed a 90-minute show providing an entertaining and authentic glimpse into Old Russia.

Thanks to the 2013 Chinese Training Program for EU Employees, some 30 officials got the opportunity to know more about China. Launched by the Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters) and organized by Beijing Foreign Studies University, the program, which lasts from July 20-28, is the first such cultural exchange platform in China designed for European Union employees, said Jing Wei, deputy director-general of Hanban.

ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) youth leaders'symposium was held on Thursday, aiming at strengthening and broadening friendly relations between the two sides. Addressing the two-day meeting, Pit Chamnan, secretary of state at Cambodia's Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, praised the close cooperation between ASEAN and Plus 3 countries.