Prime Minister Tony Abbott is facing an Indonesian social media backlash over his linking of $1 billion in tsunami aid to the mercy campaign for Bali Nine death-row inmates Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, with a campaign urging people to collect coins to return to Australia.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has been leading what officials describe as a "massive" private and public diplomacy campaign to persuade Indonesian leaders to halt the execution of drug traffickers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, convicted of trafficking heroin.

Indonesia’s foreign ministry told Australia on Wednesday that Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s reminder about a $1 billion aid rendered during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami crisis will not change Indonesia’s mind about executing the Bali Nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran for drug trafficking. Foreign Ministry spokesman Armanatha Nasir told reporters that he understood what Abbott meant with his statement.

The future of aid, how aid agencies need to evolve and the impact of Australia’s foreign aid cuts were among the hot topics on Day One of the Australasian Aid Conference in Canberra.

Incompatible attitudes towards recreational drugs complicates Australian diplomacy in the region. (...) For Australia’s foreign policy in Indonesia, this causes problems. Canberra has had a tougher than usual relationship with Jakarta in recent years.

On Sunday, Radio Australia's shortwave signal to Asia will be turned off, another result the ABC says of recent government funding cuts.  Shortwave broadcasting into the Pacific will continue, but signal strenth outside Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji may be degraded.

In a world in which diplomacy has expanded from government-to-government contacts into public and cultural diplomacy, and in which nations are ranked as much for their performance in high-profile international tournaments as on other attributes, autocratic abuse of sports and its impact on football, including performance, is nowhere more prevalent than in the Middle East and North Africa. 

For 11 years, the G'Day USA gala has brought together business leaders, tourism experts, government representatives and the ubiquitous celebrities, performers, sportspeople and screen stars who serve to attract media interest.