Less than a decade ago, few ventured to the seaside village set against lush tropical forest and the Sierra Nevada mountains. Marxist rebels, paramilitary bands and narco-traffickers had the run of it. This was the bad-news Colombia of guerrilla wars and Pablo Escobar.  It is a nation far from perfect, with plenty of conflicts and problems, but on the mend and coming up.

Venice gets 20 million visitors every year - but soon tourists may have to pay just to visit the city.  Locals are tired of day trippers who do not spend much money in the city, so now the authorities are proposing a daily fee of $40.

Providing medical care in foreign countries is a great way to improve the U.S. image abroad. The U.S. Navy hospital ships Mercy and Comfort are prime examples of an effective soft power program. These hospital ships provide medical care to impoverished communities worldwide. The USNS Mercy is itself one of the largest trauma facilities in the United States. 

Israel's internal public diplomacy failed during Operation Protective Edge, deputy minister for liaison with the Knesset Ophir Akunis (Likud) charged Sunday in an interview with Israel Radio.  There has been much written about whether Israel's external public diplomacy to the foreign press succeeded during the operation. But Akunis was the first politician to allege a failure in how information about the military campaign was relayed to the Israeli public.

"We're here to do something bigger and better," pro-wrestler Jon "Strongman" Anderson roars backstage.  He could also be alluding to the purpose of the trip, an attempt at "sports diplomacy" by Antonio Inoki, a Japanese former pro-wrestler turned politician.

In the past week or so, major social media events have included a funeral, a police shooting, and a beheading. I don't mean to suggest that the ceremony for Mike Brown in Ferguson, the shooting of Kajieme Powell a few miles away, or the Islamic State's beheading of James Foley in Syria were primarily social media events. They are all tragedies, which have taken and shattered lives.

As Scotland's September referendum on independence approaches, groups both for and against separation from the United Kingdom are making efforts to appeal to undecided voters. But one particular advertisement has caused a fury of commotion online.  Scottish Twitter users had mostly negative initial reactions to the advertisement, which was widely considered condescending and outdated.