In an ever more interdependent world, diplomacy is going beyond official relations and reaching out to people at all levels and between all parts of society, he says. “That’s why social media are gaining more importance. At the German Embassy we are using the networks more and more for our media and public relations activities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, who wooed Nepalis on his two visits last year, during which he promoted his “neighborhood first” diplomacy, is now an object of scorn. Some people have burned effigies of him, and a #BackoffIndia hashtag was recently trending on Twitter. While Nepal’s allies, including China, welcomed the new Constitution, India merely “noted” it.

Al-Shabaab propaganda video tries to lure fighters with scenes of African hunting safari. The shooting is just one of the surreal scenes in the latest of a series of high-definition videos called "Front Lines" that al Qaeda-linked Somali insurgent group Al-Shabaab uses to recruit members. The U.S. government designated the militant group a terrorist organization in 2008.

The UK's Ambassador to the UN is using Twitter to crowdsource ideas for how the the UK could contribute to improving the UN Security Council during its presidency. More information on the Canadian Foreign Ministry's $9.5 million digital diplomacy project in Iran that opens up the internet in countries ruled by repressive regimes by circumventing government firewalls.

Delivering reliable Internet access to a country that has more than 17,000 islands, which are scattered across a vast area of the Indian and Pacific Ocean, is a challenge. Luckily for folks in Indonesia, Google is ready to take on that challenge with its Project Loon, which brings Internet access to remote areas via a network of high-altitude balloons.

More than a million Mexicans subscribe to internet comedy star Chumel Torres' YouTube channel, El Pulso de la Republica, the country's most successful independent satirical show. Twice a week, Torres, 33, uses the ample supply of public corruption, embarrassing mismanagement and other hot-button issues that plague Mexico to script his show, delivered mainly straight to the camera with an array of props [...]