A charity dedicated to maintaining Edinburgh's heritage has offered to help the restoration of several of Syria's cultural sites. Edinburgh World Heritage has offered to help the work of Professor Maamoun Adbulkarim, director-general of antiquities and museums, who this week called for help to protect the country's heritage. 

Culture is now in the global "war zone", the director of a major cultural summit during the Edinburgh festivals has declared. Sir Jonathan Mills, the former director of the Edinburgh International Festival, now director of the Edinburgh International Cultural Summit, said that the endangerment or destruction of cultural heritage in several areas of conflict around the world will bring an "edge" to the summit which will take place in Edinburgh from August 24.

Scotland could have a significant presence in the cultural events surrounding the Olympics in Brazil next year as well as Tokyo in 2020, The National can reveal. Culture chiefs from both countries confirmed Scotland could play a part in the events after they paid fact-finding visits to the Edinburgh festivals.

Fraser is the director of the Pushkin Prizes, a unique creative writing competition which unites the most promising young Scottish and Russian writers. It was founded in 1988 by Lady Butter, the great-great-great granddaughter of the celebrated author Alexander Pushkin, with the aim of fostering a community of writers from both countries.

The launch of the latest campaign to promote Scotland as a great place to visit, live, study and work provoked a little bit of controversy recently. As the Herald reported, for some the imagery relied too much on the traditions of kilts and bagpipes. It was, they said, playing it safe.

Human rights groups have urged Scottish universities to sever links with Chinese language centres that have sparked worldwide fears over academic freedom.