An Iraqi adaption of Shakespeare's famous love story opens at the playwright's home town of Stratford-upon-Avon tonight, marking the European premiere of "Romeo and Juliet in Baghdad," according to the World Shakespeare Festival.

When I hear from people about the relative advantages of cultural diplomacy, they often point to the apparent “neutrality” or “apolitical” basis of, say, cultural exchange. Coming from an anthropological background, this often advanced claim has always puzzled me.

When I hear from people about the relative advantages of cultural diplomacy, they often point to the apparent “neutrality” or “apolitical” basis of, say, cultural exchange. Coming from an anthropological background, this often advanced claim has always puzzled me.

Liquid Comics and the Open Hands Initiative, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to public diplomacy efforts, on Wednesday announced the launch of the Silver Scorpion animated Web series on MTV Voices.... the wheelchair-bound Silver Scorpion is the brainchild of a group of 26 American and Syrian youths with disabilities who convened for a Youth Ability Summit in Damascus over a year ago.

Officials said the 40 American college students from across the nation will serve as a "public face" for the U.S. as it seeks to promote people-to-people exchanges with visitors during the Expo.

[It had] a very complex culture, with very sophisticated and beautiful material, a very complex social organization, [and] a very intelligent relationship with the landscape. And it gives an idea of the lifestyle of these people, who continued in Kazakhstan until relatively recently and is part of their proud heritage.

The “pop-up” restaurant trend – in which restaurant owners let their establishments be taken over by amateur chefs for a night – that has been thriving in the U.S. and Europe for a couple of years reached Seoul this past weekend, when two expat food bloggers crafted a “Korean Food Reimagined” menu for their readers.

A small-scale but bursting-with-energy chamber ensemble, the quartet is the latest cultural exchange group visiting South Africa from America. J BROOKS SPECTOR spoke to the group after they performed for the students of Johannesburg’s National School for the Arts.