European Union Ambassador Roland Kobia is upbeat about prospects of stepped up engagement between the EU and Myanmar following the new Myanmar government coming to power. In the following interview conducted recently with Mizzima Editor-in-Chief SoeMyint, EU Ambassador Kobia talks about engagement, trade and investment, the peace process, and the development of Myanmar.

The United States on Wednesday marked the completion of the first year of restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba. [...] Since the re-establishment of diplomatic relations, the department said the United States and Cuba have expanded cooperation in areas such as the environment, transportation, agriculture, health and law enforcement.

The top human rights body of the United Nations voted on Thursday to appoint an independent monitor to help protect gay and transgender people around the world from violence and discrimination. The U.N. Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, creates an “independent expert” charged with identifying the root causes of violence and discrimination against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, and then talking with governments about ways to protect them.

The planet is facing a bevy of “wicked” problems, which threaten global destabilization. Issues such as climate change, food and water, biodiversity preservation, and pandemic disease cut across disciplines and borders and affect people at all levels of society. This new threat set requires cooperation between countries, but such challenges cannot be resolved by the same type of diplomacy that characterized the 20th century.

In India, dabbawalas are using their world-renowned delivery techniques to pass on surplus wedding food to the poor, as Matthew Wheeler and Priti Gupta found out, while in Lebanon, FoodBlessed's "hunger heroes" showed Carolina Valladares and Mohamad Chreyteh their food rescue techniques.

Though both sides indulged in diplomatic nice ties regarding the non-confrontational nature of the collaboration, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inviting other countries to join in developing the port, Islamabad’s precarious economy can hardly permit such participation.