DOHA, Qatar --- News from the Middle East is dominated by conflict, whether the stories come from Syria, Libya, Iraq, or other states in the region. Blood is plentiful; hope is scarce. But beyond the lurid viciousness that dominates daily journalism are long-term challenges to the region’s future that are impervious to solutions that rely on the weaponry of conflict. The resolve and creativity with which Arab leaders and publics address these matters, as well as their local wars, will shape the lives of coming generations.

India wants increased partnership with Nigeria in education through institutional cooperation, content development, faculty exchange and joint ventures that would enhance the West African country's human resource devlopment, according to Indian High Commissioner Mahesh Sachdev.

Looking back over 50 years of the Union, 'cultural diplomacy' has a greater chance of creating understanding between peoples than what I will call for the purposes of this article, 'conventional diplomacy'. As such, over the next 50 years, we should throw down the challenge to the AU to put cultural diplomacy at the top of its agenda.

US President Barack Obama will visit Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania in June, the White House has said. Mr Obama is expected to meet lawmakers as well as business and civil society leaders and youth on his trip.

The government is considering posting dedicated cultural attaches at South Africa's missions abroad, Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile said on Thursday. “Culture has now become the soft power of nations,” Mashatile said in his budget vote speech in the National Assembly, before detailing cultural exchanges with France and Britain.

While highlighting the educational opportunities in India, he announced that in 2012, over 1,200 Nigerians studied there, while he expressed hope for an increase. According to him, “Nigerian stakeholders are discovering the attractiveness of Indian education.

An exchange programme targeted at examining the role that journalists play in the society and the challenges they face while doing their jobs tagged Spring 2013 Professional Fellows Congress opens Wednesday in Washington, D.C., United States of America with 10 journalists from four countries in Africa – Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda – participating.

From hosting the world's top emerging powers to enforcing the Rwanda/DRC peace agreement and monitoring elections in Zimbabwe, South Africa is looking good on the world stage. But critics from within say Pretoria's diplomacy has lost its way. Gathered in the grand Oliver Tambo Building in Pretoria, South Africa's top diplomats were not expecting fireworks when President Jacob Zuma gave his annual pep talk on 11 April.