Last week, it was brought to a lot of people's attention that al Qaeda were active on Twitter. This was slightly less surprising than it sounds. At a grassroots level, these early masters of the viral beheading video know social media's black magic well enough, which is probably why they decided to crowdsource ideas of how they could improve their online image.

Social responsibility is no longer just an option for businesses, brands are learning. From TOMS shoes which fund the giving of shoes for people in need, to Warby Parker, which provides glasses to people in need for every pair sold, buying where your buck goes further (globally) is appealing. charity: water is a little different, as it is a proper non-profit, rather than a charity-driven business.

A collaboration between USC Annenberg, the David and Dana Dornsife College and Price School of Public Policy sent a group of USC students to study shifting political, social and economic landscapes in Cuba for the second consecutive summer. Under the direction of Journalism Professor Roberto Suro and USC Dornsife Professor Pamela Starr, 25 students from an array of disciplines — public relations, public diplomacy, specialized journalism, strategic communications and international relations — spent one month immersed in research and investigation of all things Cuba.

Dan Matthews is a rapper. He was adopted from Korea when he was 8 months old and grew up in Southern California as an American kid. But he was curious about his birth parents. So after many years of being on the fence about finding them…he wrote a letter to his adoption agency. He just never thought he’d get this response: "Dear Dan Matthews. I’m writing to share the information of your birth family. As you may be aware your birth parents were married and are still married. they have one son and a daughter.

Mexico's Aeromexico airline and its ad agency have apologized for a producer's casting call requesting that only light-skinned people apply as actors for a television commercial. Mexico's population is largely dark-skinned, but Mexican television ads routinely feature light-skinned actors, sparking accusations of racial discrimination. The commercial has not yet been made, but the casting call specified it wanted "nobody dark skinned," only actors with "white skin."

With the bloodbath in Egypt, ongoing carnage in Syria, and gruesome bombings in Iraq, another explosion in the Middle East might hardly seem like news. But the importance of the blast that rocked Beirut’s southern Shia-dominated suburbs on August 15, killing around 20 people and wounding hundreds more, should not be diminished. It could spell the beginning of the end for Hezbollah, the dominant political-military actor in Lebanon and one of the United States’ most powerful nemeses in the region.

#you_tried. A jihadist Twitter account tried to solicit suggestions from the al Qaeda community Wednesday by creating the hashtag #اقتراحك_لتطوير_الإعلام_الجهادي, which roughly translates to #Suggestions_to_develop_Jihadist_media, according to a linguist fluent in Arabic who translated it for Business Insider.

When the banking and economic crisis broke around the world in October 2008, few imagined that its recessionary effects would linger for as long as they have. In Europe, and particularly in some eurozone countries, people accustomed to years of relative prosperity have had to get used to harsh government austerity measures, wage freezes and job cuts.