On the 31st anniversary of the hostage-taking of U.S. diplomats in Iran, a dozen of Iranian student activists and members of the country's largest reformist student group have called on U.S. President Barack Obama to follow up the case of current and former student activists who are in jail in Iran. In a letter to the U.S. president, the student activists call those in jail "student hostages."

Turkey is not wavering in the slightest from its pro-European course. Nevertheless, as a trading nation with a dynamic economy that is the living proof of the fact that Islam, a secular political landscape and a parliamentary democracy are indeed compatible, it has in recent times rediscovered its Arab neighbours.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave insight into the company’s burgeoning international policy on Wednesday night at a meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York City. Schmidt, who oversees the company’s technical and business strategy, spoke about the effects of technological democratization in the modern age and some of the challenges Google faces as it drafts its early forays into diplomacy.

Foreign policy is typically the executive branch’s domain because that is the branch that decides who the US negotiates with and what gets offered in those negotiations. However, Tuesday’s Republican victory, particularly the GOP takeover of the House and leadership of some key committees, has the ability to affect the US's dialogue, and in some cases policy, on a few key US relationships with other countries.

Propaganda has been an art form in Iran since before the 1979 Islamic revolution. Back then, Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini rallied the faithful with these words: “Propaganda is explosive as a grenade.” The same applies today as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes his first official visit in a decade to Qom, the religious heart of Iran.

The second item, reform of [Voice of America’s Persian News Network] PNN, underscores just how important U.S. international broadcasting continues to be in closed societies like Iran. According to [Amir Abbas] Fakhvarar, VOA’s Persian service is only one of two outside networks reaching Iranian audiences—the other being the BBC’s Persian service.

Due to the pressure either by NATO or the EU, as well as, the efforts by the countries involved, the Iranian influence has rather decreased, but it remains in the form of a "soft power" structure, closely related to the state apparatus of Teheran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, is visiting Qom, the religious epicenter of Iran and the residence of most of the country's top religious authorities. But a little known fact is that the office of the supreme leader has a Twitter account that is providing updates and links, including pictures, from his visit.