Hours after a Sudanese court sentenced his pregnant wife to death when she refused to recant her Christian faith, her husband told CNN he feels helpless.  "The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion, is abhorrent and should never be even considered," Manar Idriss, Amnesty International's Sudan researcher, said in a statement.

Tags: faith diplomacy, christianity, islam, human rights, government pd, non-state actors, sudan, africa, amnesty international

A group of 24 students from Hoesbach, Germany, and two of their teachers spent the past three weeks in Hudson experiencing American culture and education.  For the teens from Hanus-Seidel Gymnasium (the German name for a college preparatory school), it also was a reunion with Hudson High School students who visited Hoesbach for three weeks last June.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, cultural exchange, germany, europe, united states, north america, public diplomacy, education diplomacy

Every May, Israelis and Palestinians hold warring days of remembrance – one for the day their country was born, the other for the day their nation suffered a nakba, or "catastrophe." But amid all the waving of the Israeli flags this year, an Israeli NGO has launched a smartphone app to commemorate the more than 400 Palestinian villages depopulated or destroyed in the wake of Israel’s founding.  iNakba puts those villages back on the map, allowing users to upload photos, videos, stories, and other data to paint a picture of the former landscape. 

Tags: israel, palestine, middle east, conflict, new technology, education diplomacy, social media

Cooking experts and young chefs from around the region will get a chance to shine at this year’s Dubai World Hospitality Championship (DWHC) 2014.  The second edition of the championship, set to take place between October 30 and November 3, will focus on encouraging Emiratis and Gulf citizens to showcase their cooking talents and promote their products in the market at the event.

Tags: dubai, united arab emirates, Cultural Diplomacy, soft power, gastrodiplomacy, middle east

Internet, its online media sources and numerous digital services have become an essential part of international data exchange as well as a powerful instrument to influence public opinion worldwide. What countries are the most advanced users of the new digital tools? A research project conducted at Tel Aviv University's Department of Communications into the practice of "digital diplomacy" yielded rather unexpected results.
 

Tags: digital diplomacy, new technology, israel, russia, poland, sweden, public opinion, social media, public diplomacy

Dozens of women in Iran are flouting state-imposed dress rules with online, often anonymous photographs showing them dropping their headscarf for a moment.  In only 10 days, a Facebook page titled “Stealthy Freedoms of Women in Iran” has received more than 100 such photos and 146,000 expressions of support.  The page’s organizers say they want to fuel debate on the government-mandated hijab head-covering, which is often enforced by local militias with beatings or detention for women suspected of following loose Western ways.

Tags: iran, social media, facebook, hijab, islam, non-state pd, new technology

The Qatari government has announced several changes to its controversial labour system amid international criticism of its treatment of foreign workers.  At a joint press conference in Doha on Wednesday, Qatar's Ministries of Interior and Labour released plans to ease restrictions on foreign workers' terms of employment.

Tags: tourism, human rights, qatar, government pd, public opinion, public diplomacy, middle east, amnesty international

In the biggest savings measure in this year's budget, the Australian Government is cutting the country's foreign aid spending by $7.6 billion over the next five years.  The Abbott Government says Australia's aid budget will be spent where it can make the most difference.  There has been an increase to aid to Papua New Guinea in return for hosting the Manus Island immigration processing centre.

Tags: aid diplomacy, australia, foreign aid, asia-pacific, oxfam, public diplomacy