IMHO, first, that is a question of education... Education system in Europe is very very different that education system in USA. I doubt that geography (or history) in USA schools is even close to what you learn in schools in Europe.
I'm sure that 9 of 10 Europeans know that NO is in USA, and 5 of 10 exactly where. At the other hand, I'm not sure how many "Americans" will show that percent of knowledge about any (other) country in the world...
And, 2nd, we are all (adult webmaster or content providers) on one or other way engaged with USA. Simply we are paid in USA$, or our costumers/partners are from/in USA, so we are interested what is going on in/with USA...
And, of course news from USA are in "news from aroud the world" section, except in case of "breaking news"...
Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my
