Art & Culture | WPN World People News

Lithuania's presidency of the EU Council provides an occasion for Litvaks to gather on the narrow streets of the Old Town of Vilnius. The contribution of Litvaks – Jews with roots in the Grand Duchy and their descendants – to the culture of both Lithuania and the world is outstanding. Did you know that both the cellist Jascha Heifetz and the artist Samuel Bak were born in Vilnius, and that sculptor Jacques Lipchitz was born in Druskininkai? Canadian poet and singer Leonard Cohen, iconic U.S. musician Bob Dylan, and Philip Glass, perhaps the most famous avant-garde minimalist composer of the twentieth century, can also in some sense be referred to as Litvaks because their ancestors came from Lithuanian Jewish families.

The EP’s foreign affairs committee has called on the Muslim Brotherhood to return to the negotiation table and give up violence. The committee held a special meeting on 28 August, during which members debated how to get the troubled country back on the track to democracy.

UNESCO / Professor Maamoun Abdul Karim,
The Al-Omari Mosque

The European Commission and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) agreed to extend their cooperation in strengthening public media in the countries of the European Neighbourhood.

China’s official media recently published a series of articles warning against the establishment of a Western-style constitution-based political system. Analysts said this is a reaction to growing public demand for a political system that puts the Communist Party under the rule of law, not above it.

Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova.

Screen Australia announced over $3.2 million investment in 10 documentaries, generating almost $10 million in production.

Hundreds of indigenous and non-indigenous rowers arrive by canoe in Manhattan en route to UN Headquarters in New York City to mark International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples.

Are Muslims effective participants in governance or are they victims of policies over which they have little say? This is just one of the debates, featuring contributions from academics, think-tanks, policy-makers and the voluntary and community sectors, taking place on an innovative new on-line faith and public policy forum hosted by the University of Bristol and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).