Stories of rape, gun crime, police brutality and obscene levels of violence flashed across the globe, overshadowing the country's breathtaking landscapes, stunning wildlife and the joy of the 2010 football world cup. “South Africa's seemingly untouchable reputation started to wane,” said Dion Chang, founder of Flux Trends analysts. “The death of a Mozambican taxi driver at the hands of the police invoked apartheid style brutality, and Oscar Pistorius brought South Africa the harshest form of unwanted publicity.”

Sixteen Moldovan journalists and civil society activists, keen on using media as a tool to make government more transparent, have just completed a Broadcasting Board of Governors-sponsored workshop that focused on using mobile phones and new media tools to promote the free flow of information.

Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun on Monday urged Chinese businesses in Africa to work for mutual benefits and shared development. Zhai made the call at a forum on Chinese businesses in Africa, which was hosted by China Public Diplomacy Association and attended by Chinese enterprises, academics, and African diplomats in Beijing.

Since 2009, the U.S. Department of State has worked to strengthen and deepen U.S. diplomacy and development around the world through public-private partnerships (PPPs) that leverage creativity and innovation for greater impact. The proactive pursuit of PPPs by the State Department offers tremendous public diplomacy opportunities. To date, the State Department has worked with over 1,100 partners to support key foreign policy objectives.

The fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones has long enthralled movie audiences, taking on assorted villains in quests to find mythical treasures, with some limited help from the government. Minus any bullwhips, the real-life U.S. State Department works with other federal departments in a journey to protect important archaeological sites and ancient treasures in the face of conflict.

As interest in study abroad to non-traditional destinations continues to rise, so does the number of students interested in African languages and cultures. Despite the fact that there are somewhere between 1,000 and 2,500 languages spoken on the African continent (UNESCO, 2010), there are relatively limited options for students to focus on language study in Africa. New initiatives and programs designed to attract U.S. students to study in Sub-Saharan African countries focus students’ attention on a small subset of the most widely spoken African languages.

The Saharawi case represents a unique example of women's inclusion in state-building for an Islamic government-in-exile. Palestinian activist Randa Farah suggests that Saharawi women have traditionally possessed great autonomy despite being Muslim:

The Book of African Records is a project that is researching African records. These records, dating back to the times when records began, are to be published annually, with the first edition expected by the researchers to come out before the end of 2014.