The house of late Turkish businessman Mohamed Ali in Harar, a town 525km east of Addis Ababa, reflects the strong cultural relations that go back more than a century.  The house is now being transformed into a museum that will exhibit the culture and heritage of both countries.

Architect Maya Lin and portraitist Kehinde Wiley are among the seven artists to be honored with the 2014 Department of State-Medal of Arts for their efforts to promote cultural understanding through art.

Shakespeare is booming in China. But translating the Bard’s greatest works isn’t as clear as a summer’s day.(...) Already a phenomenon in China, William Shakespeare — known locally as Shashibiya or even Old Man Sha — is about to get a major boost. In September, the Royal Shakespeare Company announced an initiative to translate the Complete Works, all 37 plays and 154 sonnets, from Elizabethan English into modern standard Mandarin, the world’s most-spoken mother tongue.

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. 

 Iranian ambassador to Slovenia met with Slovenian Minister of Culture on Friday to discuss promotion of bilateral arts, cultural, religious ties.

The White House and Congress must be pushed by public opinion to take immediate measures to stop the flow of stolen artifact into our country. Obama administration officials should meet with the proposed legislation sponsors and get behind the draft bills objective which is to “deny terrorists and criminals the ability to profit from instability by looting the world of its greatest treasures.”