‘Art is committed to telling truths, even if unpalatable. This can make life uncomfortable for governments’. Abraham Oghobase is a Nigerian photographer in his mid-thirties whose witty and original pictures are gaining him an international reputation. His work is based on the documentary tradition, but it is given a distancing quality by the artist’s own presence in the photograph. This combination of reportage and performance art, while not unique, compellingly adds layers of complication to otherwise straightforward depictions of the socio-economic tensions of his homeland.

At the height of the Cold War, the US State Department deployed a new weapon in its fight against communism – jazz. Over a period of 20 years, it dispatched some of the greatest musicians – Dizzie Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington –to play in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and even the Soviet Union, where Benny Goodman tooted his clarinet in Red Square, in a battle for hearts and minds. The New York Times of 6 November  1955 reported on its front page: “America's secret weapon is a blue note in a minor key.” Louis Armstrong was named as “its most effective ambassador”.

The Palestinian Education Ministry on Monday officially inaugurated a Turkish high school for girls in the occupied West Bank's Ramallah and Al-Bireh provinces in cooperation with the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA). Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan participated in an inauguration ceremony via videoconference from Turkey. Erdogan congratulated students on the opening of the school and wished them well in the future. He said TIKA had carried out 15,000 p

Oscar-winning Bosnian director Danis Tanovic will be adding another prize to his trophy cabinet after this year’s Cannes Film Festival.Tanovic was presented with the EU’s Prix Media (Media Prize) for his film project entitled, “What are you looking at?” He shares the award with co-scriptwriter Predrag Kojovic and producer Amra Baksic Camo. The EU Media Prize given to the best new film project eligible for support from the Creative Europe Media programme. The award provides funding for script development, casting, initial marketing and pilot production.

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.

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.

Boeing Co. (BA) will sell 50 737 aircraft worth at least $3.8 billion to a low-cost carrier being set up by Juneyao Airlines Co., as a loosening of Chinese government controls on low-cost travel stokes demand expectations.  Economic growth is helping make air travel affordable to more Chinese, increasing demand for planes from carriers such asAir China Ltd. (1055) and China Southern Airlines Co.