Google‘s head of operations in Brazil, Fabio Jose Silva Coelho, was arrested yesterday for disobeying authorities to take down YouTube videos that criticized a local politician. He was released today after signing a document saying that he promised to show up in court on a date that has yet to be determined.

India’s policymakers have been fixated with pursuing major strategic ambitions with the hopes of one day becoming a superpower.... It has been lobbying for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and it has been trying to raise its profile globally through public diplomacy and events such as the Commonwealth Games.

Everybody’s trying to rebrand Africa, and it isn’t going so well. Vogue Italia’s latest issue... is called “Rebranding Africa”, and as you’d expect the whole thing is an embarrassing and insulting shambles. The images are okay, but otherwise it feels like something a middle-schooler cobbled together for a class project. And then got a “D” for it.

...a wide adoption of .ng by Nigerians shall constitute a good tool in the effort to project the good people of Nigeria and the nation, noting that, “The ‘bad image’ war will be won on local and international fronts when institutions of government; credible, real and legal persons and entities in Nigeria, adopt the use of the .ng, not just from a consumerism perspective, but by generating Nigerian content on the Internet.”

...At every opportunity, we talk about the need to address the problem of corruption. It is a dialogue we carry out at the highest level of this government and we recognize there is a problem. But I think we are deploying resources to assist the government of Nigeria to address this problem and it is part of our public diplomacy message.

India's attempts to increase its “soft power” will only translate into something meaningful if it uses this power in a more systematic and planned way, improving its economic performance, suggests author Mr Nicholas Blarel.

Mexico's President Felipe Calderon has called in a British expert on country branding for advice, and the country's tourism industry is now headed by a man who has worked for some of the biggest consumer brands in the world.

If India is perceived as corrupt on international indices as well as amongst its own people, then her credibility is damaged, and her ability to conduct public diplomacyis diminished, if not demolished.