On Thursday, August 18th, Food Republic, a food website that features extensive food news and culture, will be hosting a live Twitter chat with Chefs John Besh, Andrew Zimmern, Aaron Sanchez, Beau MacMillan, Michael Voltaggio, and sites Foodspotting and Food + Tech Connect about our roles using social media to raise awareness about food and other causes, such as the crisis in East Africa.

Something big is happening in China, and it started soon after the onset of the “Arab Spring” demonstrations and regime changes: the most serious and widespread wave of repression since the Tiananmen Square crackdowns 22 years ago. The spread of protest from one Arab-Islamic country to its neighbors might have seemed predictable. Less so was the effect in China.

Some of Africa's best-known musicians are working together to fight famine...Africans Act 4 Africa, launched today, aims to put pressure on African governments to fund relief for a crisis on their own turf. The group’s organizers hope to raise awareness through social media and media coverage, prompting leaders to step up to help the 12 million Kenyans, Somalis, and Ethiopians urgently needing food aid.

For long, India in the imagination of the world remained the land of the Taj Mahal, Khajuraho temples...Innovation, seen as a core dimension of economic change, was not a word associated with India. A newly published coffee table book titled “The India Idea”, challenges this viewpoint.

Britain is considering disrupting online social networking such as Blackberry Messenger and Twitter during civil unrest, Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday, a move widely condemned as repressive when used by other countries.

The world of diplomacy has been changing so fast in the past 20 or so years because of technology. Public diplomacy is also an important part of an Ambassador’s job. It is the way we present our country to the public. It has been shaped around the advancement in communication technologies and has gained great momentum in the past few years thanks to social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.

The morning after devastating riots swept across London, hundreds of people gathered in Twitter-organized crews to sweep up broken glass, clean vandalized buildings and show the world — and themselves — that their city is about more than mindless destruction.

In a sphere often dominated by celebrities and lighter fare, the presence of a prayer campaign is a bit unusual. At the heart of the #prayforlondon tweets is the Evangelical Alliance, the largest body serving Evangelical Christians in the UK. It called for a prayer vigil in the Gaumont State of London at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Christians were invited to join in prayer for those afflicted by the riots shaking the country.