Some 130 youth representatives from 51 Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem) countries, including Malaysia, will attend the five-day 7th Model Asem in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Themed 20 years of Asem: Partnership for Future through Connectivity, participants will address inter-regional issues on politics, economic and socio-cultural between Asia and Europe. Asean members such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore are expected to discuss on migration, health, environment and education.

Public mobilization follows. People-to-people exchange is strengthened, more Greek people learn Chinese and more Chinese people learn Greek, bilateral or multilateral scientific projects are carried out, joint events are organized and media are cooperating in their day-to-day operations.

First Lady Michelle Obama has been meeting with key stakeholders -- accompanied by daughters Sasha and Malia -- to promote her Let Girls Learninitiative and address the institutional and cultural barriers preventing 62 million girls worldwide from receiving an education on an overseas trip including Liberia, Morocco, and next, Spain. The most star-studded event on her trip took place Tuesday, when the Obama girls spoke to a group of local adolescents in a panel discussion featuring Meryl Streep and Frieda Pinto in Morocco. 

As he nears the end of his presidency, Barack Obama continues to enjoy a broad degree of international popularity. A new Pew Research Center survey conducted in 10 European nations, four major Asia-Pacific countries, Canada and the United States finds that half or more of those polled in 15 of 16 countries express confidence in the American leader. 

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said on Wednesday the Greek government will start constructing a mosque and a Muslim cemetery for the Muslim minorities in the city. Speaking at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Tsipras touched on refugee flows and the Greek government's efforts to improve the fundamental rights of minority groups living in Greece. Tsipras's promise concerns 200,000 Muslims living in Athens, while Athens is known as the only capital without a mosque in Europe.

What if the solutions to Europe’s most pressing problems lie not in politics or diplomacy, but in art and culture? With the European Union under pressure from economic stagnation, a wave of refugees, terror attacks and the possibility of Britain leaving the bloc, more than 150 cultural figures from 37 countries — including the actor Jude Law and the architect Rem Koolhaas — gathered here at a forum last week to explore that possibility.

Though both sides indulged in diplomatic nice ties regarding the non-confrontational nature of the collaboration, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inviting other countries to join in developing the port, Islamabad’s precarious economy can hardly permit such participation.