U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed to a meeting of U.S. and German security officials in the coming days to discuss allegations that the National Security Agency eavesdropped on 500 million phone calls, emails, and other data passing through Germany ... Foreign policy expert Sergey Lagodinsky, with the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, suggests that, in the wake of the allegations, the Obama administration should consider public diplomacy.

As a current citizen of Berlin, I was aware of the large-scale relief effort the U.S. mounted after the Soviet Union had blocked all land supply routes into West Berlin in June 1948, in what became known to the world as the Berlin Airlift. In this context, I had also heard the story of American pilots dropping candy from their C-54s when flying into Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin. I could not, however, have spoken with certainty about the origin or the scope of the candy dropping operation, even though by now whole books have been written on the subject.

Visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his German counterpart Angela Merkel held talks to map out future mutual cooperation and reached an important consensus on deepening the strategic partnership between the two nations.

Germany is the most positively viewed nation in the world in this year's annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service...They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was "mainly positive" or "mainly negative".Germany came out top with 59% rating it positively. Iran was once again the most negatively viewed.

Prof. Wilfried Lulei, a German researcher of Vietnam Studies, highlighted the significance of the event, saying it will help strengthen the bilateral friendship and mutual understanding about the cultural traditions and customs of each country.

Talking to a Chinese taxi driver is always interesting as they know what is rotten in the Middle Kingdom and speak up candidly. Sometimes these conversations are also interesting for students of public diplomacy, especially when concerned with the image and impression of a country.

Talking to a Chinese taxi driver is always interesting as they know what is rotten in the Middle Kingdom and speak up candidly. Sometimes these conversations are also interesting for students of public diplomacy, especially when concerned with the image and impression of a country.