Diplomacy, until recently, was reserved for diplomats. As official ambassadors of governments, it has traditionally been the near-exclusive realm of diplomats to impose visa bans and financial sanctions, advise executives on how to defend national interests and ideals, persuade foreign governments to change behaviors, argue for international energy or trade deals, and negotiate treaties. Today, these activities are increasingly being undertaken by citizen diplomats who force the hands of governments on foreign policy issues, rather than follow their leads.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had reportedly wanted a special exposition of Kapilawastu-relics at Temple Trees.

‘Relic diplomacy’ is a standard weapon in the arsenal of those in possession of movable holy-objects, from the Catholic Church to India and China. The Rajapaksa version is relic-politics: using sacred items venerated by masses of believers as a means to bridge popularity deficits.

The Lithuanian Parliament, Seimas, held the solemn opening ceremony of the Lithuania-Armenia forum, where MPs, political, scientific, cultural, representatives as well as sport figures, actors, journalists and representatives of the Armenian community participated, Armenian MFA informs Armenian News-NEWS.am.

At a time when international public opinion of Israel is at an all-time low, a Jerusalem-based association that unites Jews and Christians in their support for the Jewish state has expanded its operations to Asia. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews – of the country’s biggest donors to social and education projects – officially opened its South Korean office in Seoul on Thursday.

After days of anti-American violence across the Muslim world, the White House is girding itself for an extended period of turmoil that will test the security of American diplomatic missions and President Obama’s ability to shape the forces of change in the Arab world.

This summer, two groups of international food bloggers visited Israel for the first time on separate all-expense-paid trips, one of which was partially funded by the Tourism Ministry. The goal of these trips and similar ones planned for the future, organizers say, is to expose influential writers to Israel through something as seemingly apolitical as food - and to encourage them to share their impressions of Israeli cuisine and culture with their millions of followers.

The last time I saw Chris Stevens was in May, at his swearing-in ceremony for his first post as ambassador, in Libya. We'd been friends since he was a junior diplomat on the Iran desk, when we used to gab for hours about Tehran's cryptic politics. We later met up in Mideast hot spots, from Syria and Saudi Arabia to the Palestinian territories. He always had funny tales about diplomatic mischief.

In one of his last acts as U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens put together a group of Libyan journalists and sent them to the U.S. on a tour of media outlets. A day after receiving news that their friend Stevens was killed by protesters at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, the group of seven Libyan reporters and other media professionals visited this newspaper to exchange ideas about journalism in the U.S.