The European Patent Office is a great European success that should be seen not only as a centre for patent granting excellence, but also as a means of generating European soft power across the world. So says the office’s current president Benoît Battistelli.

It was inevitable as governments and the militants fighting governments became more adept at social media that they’d end up using Twitter and YouTube against each other. The problem is that in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the very real war can come across as farcical on Twitter, as the two sides go at each other.

Blogs are gradually emerging as mainstream media in India... Niche blogs in the space of culture, technology, and hobbies wield significant clout. ‘Category blogging,’ as I may call it, actually presents an additional engagement opportunity for state-sponsored public diplomacy initiatives.

Blogs are gradually emerging as mainstream media in India. I previously mentioned in my own blog that the presence of a free press and recent proliferation of media outlets in India has relegated bloggers to the background, unlike in societies where there are limits to freedom of expression. This is true especially in the space of ‘issues’ where the ability of bloggers to influence public discourse in India seems to be limited by being ‘somewhat unnecessary’.

The Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and YouTube have announced the launch of a unique initiative, inviting people all over the world to participate in a short film contest titled ‘India Is…a visual journey’, celebrating India and her diversity. The contest will be open to users across the globe for a period of three months, with the last day of submission being February 9.

In October last year, big headlines about two idyllic South Pacific island nations, Tokelau and Tuvalu, which are facing a water crisis, made a splash in the Asia–Pacific region. After six months without rainfall they were running out of fresh water fast and had declared a state of emergency.

Future prejudices of China will be born not in the columns of the print media and in the radio and TV reports, but in the mushrooming blogs and micro-blogs of the digital world... Future stability will depend not only on what happens in the real world, but also on what happens in the digital world.

During the tour Cameron will seek to revive relations with both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where the UK has significant business interests in the oil industry. In addition, Britain will also seek to peddle 100 Typhoon fighter jets to both nations in a deal worth a potential US$10 billion.