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.

Over the past decade, Slovakia has reformed its taxation, healthcare, pension, and social welfare systems, attracting large inflows of foreign investment into the automobile and electronic sectors, and becoming Central Europe’s first country to adopt the euro in January, 2009. But Europe’s economic woes have slowed growth. The Slovak government believes it must forge ahead finding new and innovative sources of growth - particularly on the Internet.

As in the case of mass protests in Bulgaria, Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey, Brazil’s political establishment was caught utterly off-guard. Predictably, they first dismissed the demonstrators as “vandals”. They quickly changed their tune after police were filmed deploying excessive force against protestors and journalists. In a bid to lower the temperature, Brazilian President Rousseff tried instead to initiate a dialogue with the protestors, and hastily unveiled a five-part reform plan.

The United States State Department spent $630,000 to increase the popularity of it's Facebook page over the course of two years, according to a recent report released by the department's Inspector General. Although the page gained nearly 2 million likes, State Department employees criticised the campaign for its failure to promote sustained engagement between the bureau and its target audience.

Every mass protest is based on the same essential calculation: There's strength in numbers. And that certainly seems to be the assumption that's animating the astonishing numbers of demonstrators we've been witnessing in just the past few weeks, in places ranging from Egypt and Turkey, to Indonesia and Brazil, and even Bulgaria. The causes of discontent are myriad, though certain themes tend to resurface.

According to a new report released by the United Nations, the number of mobile-cellular subscriptions will reach a projected 6.8 billion by the end of 2013. That means that in only 6 months, there will be nearly as many mobile phone subscriptions as there are people in the world (at present the global population is just over 7 billion).

Mr Obama visited the country’s Ubungo power station as part of his “Power Africa” initiative, unveiled in Cape Town on June 30th, which aims to double access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa. The Norwegian-built gas plant is the kind of public-private investment that America is seeking to encourage in Africa, where two-thirds of people have no access to power.