The bento-bako, or Japanese lunch box, is enjoying great popularity overseas, with many retailers abroad even marketing the product under its Japanese name.

In a bid to use the arts and culture effectively in global diplomatic roles, Nigeria is planning to set up cultural centres in such countries as U.S.A., China and Brazil.

[HSBC] bank, known for its "world's local bank" slogan, has backed this summer's Festival Brazil, a programme of cultural activities at London's South Bank Centre celebrating the country that is predicted to be the world's fifth-largest economy by 2025.

In search of soft power, Brazil is turning itself into one of the world's biggest aid donors. But is it going too far, too fast?

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will arrive in South Africa with a delegation of seven ministers on Thursday for a four-day visit, the department of international relations said. Lula da Silva and President Jacob Zuma hoped to sign a declaration launching a South Africa-Brazil strategic partnership, as well as a memorandum of understanding on inter-governmental co-operation, it said.

William Burns, US Undersecretary of State for political affairs, Tuesday told a panel hearing of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee that pursuing possible alternative approaches such as a fuel swap deal that was offered by Brazil and Turkey "was not off the table."

Haitians love Brazilian soccer like almost nothing else, a half-century-old histoire d'amour that even smoothed the way for Brazil-led U.N. peacekeepers to help quell political unrest in 2004. With Haitians badly needing a release from tension and misery of the post-quake year, the 2010 Cup and Selecao mean more than ever.

Rising middle-level powers such as Turkey and Iran in the Middle East and Brazil in South America now are challenging the diplomatic supremacy of Washington. Earlier this month, the new contours of diplomatic power were on display in Istanbul.