Let me begin by describing a scenario to you.

It’s Wednesday night in Costa Rica, about 8.30pm, and people in Costa Rica, as people do in most countries, are watching prime-time television. On this particular night, Costa Rica takes on their neighbors Venezuela in a soccer match and, due to the mass popularity of soccer in Costa Rica, it is drawing a large audience. Costa Rica scores, and after endless replays and analysis of a truly average goal, the action cuts to a "and here’s the reaction in China" sequence of pictures.

‘I am confident that the multi-continental breadth of the Geneva Consensus of May 27-28th 2009, the ‘soft power’ and ‘smart power’ it represented, the international legitimacy it confirmed, and the politico-diplomatic and strategic space for post-war Sri Lanka that it symbolised, remains safely intact and indeed ably enhanced in the hands of the professionals.’

The government of Ivory Coast's incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo has officially banned UN radio broadcasts. Mr Gbagbo has refused to stand down following polls in November, which the UN peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast say was won by Alassane Ouattara.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is hosting a global town hall at Twitter headquarters to talk foreign policy with users of the online messaging service. Ambassador Susan Rice will be taking questions from around the world Thursday morning via Twitter and from employees at the company's San Francisco office.

The new African Union (AU) team of experts left Addis Ababa on Sunday for Abidjan in a fresh bid to resolve Côte d’Ivoire’s political crisis.

Several hundred people gathered on Saturday afternoon near the United Nations for a demonstration in support of the recent antigovernment protesters in Egypt. Participants came from New York City and beyond, buoyed, they said, by the hope that a wave of clashes taking place in Egyptian cities over the last few days might sweep Mr. Mubarak from office and usher in democratic reforms.

Bolivia has launched a diplomatic offensive to try to end an international ban on chewing coca leaf. Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca is on a European tour in a bid to drum up support for taking coca off a UN treaty on banned drugs.

Back in 2002, the Indian writer Arundhati Roy brilliantly satirised the official excuses for the invasion of Afghanistan . “It’s being made out that the whole point of the war was to topple the Taliban regime and liberate Afghan women from their burqas,” she said. “We are being asked to believe that the US marines are actually on a feminist mission.”