The British higher education system is in the middle of a quiet revolution, tilting relatively quickly towards an American-style market-based approach favored by the current coalition government. The government has laid out plans to cut government funding for universities by 40% by 2014. But that money has to come from somewhere. And it will likely be students. But such tuition caps don’t apply to students from outside the European Union, which is a large part of the reason the UK just unveiled a new strategic effort to attract students from overseas.

This Ramzan the Indian army is exploring gastronomical route to win the hearts and minds of the people in the restive Jammu and Kashmir. From Rajouri to Gool and from Kupwara to Tangmarg, the army is throwing Iftaar parties in remotest corners of the state to celebrate Ramzan with the common people. The sub-text of the Iftaar bashes is to uild bridges and improve its image amongst the general public.

The US has offered Iran a "willing partnership", after President Hassan Rouhani was inaugurated in Tehran. The White House said Iran now had a chance to allay fears over its nuclear programme and meet its international obligations. Mr Rouhani used his inauguration speech to promise a government of moderation for all Iranians, but also called for international sanctions to be lifted.

The United States extended embassy closures by a week in the Middle East and Africa as a precaution on Sunday after an al Qaeda threat that U.S. lawmakers said was the most serious in years. The State Department said 19 U.S. embassies and consulates would be closed through Saturday "out of an abundance of caution" and that a number of them would have been closed anyway for most of the week due to the Eid celebration at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday continued to insist on the reinstatement of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Mursi, despite attempts by a senior U.S. official to find a peaceful solution to Egypt’s political crisis. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, William Burns, met with the Freedom and Justice Party, the Brotherhood’s political arm, for a second round of talks on Saturday.

For a little under a year, the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have been holding peace talks in Havana -- the first since the round conducted by the Pastrana administration from 1998 to 2002. Those were plagued by delays, accusations from the FARC that the Colombian government was planning to assassinate its top leaders, accusations from the Colombian government that the FARC was planning to kidnap officials, and ongoing violence.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to Tokyo on July 27 after visiting Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. This was his third visit to Southeast Asia since he returned to power in December. Clearly he is placing great importance on Japan’s ties with the region. Of the three countries he visited this time, Malaysia and the Philippines have territorial disputes with China. There is a strong possibility that China feels that Japan is trying to encircle it diplomatically.

There are plenty of reasons to be cynical about U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's relaunch of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The personalities and the politics involved do not immediately inspire confidence. Nevertheless, I choose not to be negative, partly because it is always easy to sit on the sidelines and take potshots. The more important consideration is, because peace is so essential to the lives and futures of the peoples of the region and to American interests in the Middle East, that any good faith effort deserves support and a chance to succeed.