Jerusalem and Minsk are set to sign a visa-waiver program, Israel’s ambassador to the internationally ostracized former Soviet republic of Belarus said. Ambassador Yosef Shagal announced the signing on Friday to 700 participants at the Limmud FSU conference in Vitebsk, the former Soviet country’s third-largest city. The Limmud conference is an educational and cultural gathering.

The government has pledged a £1.5 million grant to the Royal Shakespeare Company, to translate the entire works of Shakespeare into Chinese.  The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will give the RSC a further £300,000 to tour through China, in the hopes of boosting tourism and "cultural links".

Where in the world is Armenia? It’s a question that the country’s President, Serzh Sargsyan, is hoping to get more people around the globe to answer correctly. He wants to mobilize the 10 million Armenians living abroad for a global internet publicity campaign to boost tourism and influence foreign investors. Referring to the “One Armenian, One Article” campaign, the BBC reminds that the idea is to get expatriates to write positive stories about the country.

Plans for the two phased project, which will cover an area of 65 square kilometres in Jebel Ali, was unveiled to His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, over the weekend. With the vision behind Dubai's aviation master plan now crystallised, the city's entire economy is set to benefit significantly.

China’s biggest online travel agency is offering a 30% discount on trips to Thailand’s beaches and malls. The Chinese aren’t buying it.  "Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are traditionally the favourite tourism route for the Chinese," said Jiang Haibin, a public affairs manager at Ctrip.com International Ltd. "This year, that route was affected a lot."

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.

The seminar, to be held on Monday, is organised by the Spanish Permanent Mission to the United Nations together with Casa África, Spain’s main public diplomacy institution dedicated to the African continent, and Real Instituto Elcano, one of the most prestigious think-tanks. It will be attended ambassadors accredited to the UN and business executives from the United States and Spain.

The statement came from the head of the cultural center of the Iranian embassy in Azerbaijan Ibrahim Ibrahimi speaking at the press conference in Baku. According to Ibrahimi, they put forward a proposal for joint action of national orchestras of Iran and Azerbaijan in both countries as well as in other countries. "I hope that in this connection the contract will be signed by the end of the year", he said.