This just popped into my head. Kind of randomly, you might say.
1. A notification like the World Assembly and News ones for new messages on the Regional Message Board. Although I can see how some people may not like that, so a 'disable' button would probably be neccessary too.
2. Is best summed up by this:
http://i53.tinypic.com/259xqnd.png
(Or it could say "Region" I suppose, but it's called "Location" on the nation pages.)
Both game-changing modifications... not. Still, I think they'd both be useful.