Saying goodbye can take many forms, but none quite like a farewell blog post penned by the United Kingdom’s departing ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher: “Sorry to write again. But I’m leaving your extraordinary country after four years. Unlike your politicians, I can’t extend my own term.”

India plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its "victory" over Pakistan in the 1965 war with a series of events, including a "grand carnival". But critics say it is in bad taste and a waste of money, writes the BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi.

Governments, human rights activists, national human rights institutions and UN officials from across the Pacific attended the launch, shared their perspectives of the situation of LGBTI, (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex), people and called for action to combat homophobia and transphobia.

The Israeli campaign could be seen as classic public diplomacy – a government reaching out directly to a foreign public – or it could be seen as inappropriate interference that could produce an anti-Israel backlash. This is a line public diplomats should be wary about crossing. Even in the world of hardboiled foreign affairs, subtlety and restraint have value.

The visa appeared to be part of an effort by Iran to influence the American Jewish community in favor of the nuclear deal between it and the world powers, reached on July 14, according to the report by the Times.

There is still time for Israel to change its course. But that is up to Israel to decide. For Jews who live in the Diaspora, however, we can also make a decision. We can decide that the choice is not between mindlessly supporting Israel in its drive to suicide and its daily practices of occupation, settlement expansion, and all the human rights violations that these necessarily imply on the one hand and silence on the other.