Encounters Africa Shorts focus on love
Encounters South African International Documentary Festival 2008, the Jan Vrijman Fund of IDFA and the SABC this year produced five short documentary films on the theme of love with filmmakers from Malawi (Virginia Ndasowa), DRC (Makela Pululu), South Africa (Joanne Levitan), Zambia (Mali Kambandu) and Zimbabwe (Dorothy Meck-Chimbuya). The festival provides the platform to release and market the filmmakers and their shorts continentally and internationally. Leonard Retel Helmrich and Brian Tilley supported and mentored the five filmmakers. All the shorts will be screen at Cape Town Nu Metro V&A Waterfront on Wednesday, 9 July 2008 at 8.30pm and on Sunday 13 July with a Q&A session at 6.15pm. For more information, go to www.encounters.co.za.

AFRICA

CBC-African Business Awards 2008 winners
LONDON: The inaugural CBC-African Business Awards took place on Thursday evening, 3 July 2008 at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. Just under 500 government, business and media leaders from Africa, Europe, Asia and the USA attended the event. The awards were presented at the glittering ceremony, which was co-hosted by the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) and African Business magazine, and sponsored by Zenith Bank, Ecobank, IGI and the private sector arm of the African Development Bank. A distinguished panel of judges, chaired by Omari Issa, selected winners in 16 categories. The nominees came from north, south, west and central Africa.

FACIM 2008: Maputo International Trade Fair
The Maputo International Trade Fair (FACIM) is respected as the most important international event of its kind in Mozambique and one of the most important in Southern Africa since 1963. The event will take place from 1-7 September 2008 with business people and enterprises from different parts of the world coming together.

Government closes Niamey's press house
NIGER: Reporters Without Borders is baffled by the communication ministry's decision on 30 June 2008 to close down Niamey's House of the Press, a centre used by journalists for various activities, including training seminars organised by the French and US embassies.

BOTSWANA

Controversial media practitioners' bill announced
On 27 June 2008, the government of Botswana gazetted a media practitioners' bill which is expected to regulate the media by, among other things, setting up a statutory press council. The bill also seeks to register media practitioners residing in Botswana and provides for hefty penalties for any violation of the law. As an example, anyone contravening the regulations stipulated in the bill would be liable for a penalty of 5,000 Botswana pulas (approximately US$750) or three months in prison.

Practical content necessary for mobile phone user satisfaction
A recent study by the Research & Insights department of AKQA, a US company, in conjunction with dotMobi, finds that there is a strong consumer desire for practical mobile content on phones.

ZIMBABWE

WAN tells Mugabe: "Drop punitive tax"
World Association of Newspapers tells Mugabe to drop tax clearly aimed at stifling news, after newspaper suffers 70% drop in circulation as it staggers under "luxury" tax.

Why everything costs more
A rough guide to why food prices keep going up.

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe: No foreign currency, no food
A R100 (US$13) remittance from a relative living in South Africa was a lifeline to food for Lydia Nxumalo, 36, and her family in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city.

Shell may pull out of Zimbabwe
LONDON: Oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell, may pull out of operations in Zimbabwe, the Observer newspaper reported Sunday.

AFRICA

Unspent EU farm aid to go to Africa
The European Union will channel one billion euros (US$1,6 bn) in unused European farm subsidies to African farmers as part of its response to the global food crisis, the head of the EU executive said.

Flat screen TV sets look great, right?
But there is a problem. It seems the rising popularity of the slim and sleek devices has not been good for the environment.