Kenya boosts tea and coffee marketing budgets
Kenya is boosting the budgets of its tea and coffee boards to help them compete more effectively in the global marketplace, a senior official said yesterday.

Young & Rubicam Kenya gets new MD
Neema Wamai is the new managing director of Ayton Young & Rubicam Group's advertising division - Y&R Nairobi. She will oversee and help re-invent communication strategies for major client accounts in East Africa.

GHANA

Poisoning the poor - Electronic waste in Ghana
[Greenpeace International] The latest place where we have discovered high tech toxic trash causing horrendous pollution is in Ghana. Our analysis of samples taken from two electronic waste (e-waste) scrap yards in Ghana has revealed severe contamination with hazardous chemicals.

Ebook Library and Mallory International partner to bring e-books to Africa
Bristol: EBL and Mallory International are delighted to announce a joint initiative to promote and develop the sale and access of ebooks into libraries in Africa. Innovative pricing and delivery models, appropriate to the region, are being developed jointly, to give institutions effective access to the latest content and e-book technology.

CENTRAL AFRICA

Malawi: Minister pleads with media to simplify economic issues
[Gregory Gondwe] Malawi's Economic Planning and Development Minister, Dr. Ken Lipenga has pleaded with economic and business journalists to simplify economic issues to promote popular participation.

Association for Progressive Communications Annual Report 2007
Uruguay: In existence as a virtual community since 1990, APC's leitmotif is building and strengthening online networks for social change. The 2007 Annual Report describes the challenges encountered building networks to influence international internet policy so that more people have reliable and affordable access to the internet, networks of technicians who are taking wireless to parts of Latin America where there's no internet, and networks of women concerned about keeping the internet safe but not censored. Read more here.

Interpublic increases stake in MCN
The Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) has announced that it has concluded an important transaction in the Middle East and North Africa region, increasing its stake in the Middle East Communication Networks (MCN) from a minority position to 51% ownership.

TSN becomes country's media trendsetter
As the electronic media deploys new technologies in the industry, there is enough evidence that print media's audience is rapidly shrinking. In order to maintain their share of readership, the latter is now striving to cope with the emerging alternative mass media communication technologies.


YouTube to show Olympics in Africa, Asia, Middle East
Google Inc.'s YouTube, the most popular video-sharing website, will show daily coverage of the Olympic Games in India, Nigeria and 75 other countries where broadcasters haven't bought exclusive rights to the programming.

SOUTH AFRICA

Are you an email addict?
According to AOL Mail's fourth annual Email Addiction Survey, 46% of email users said they're hooked on email (up from just 15% last year) and 51% check their email four or more times a day. One in five said they check their email more than 10 times a day and some even, for crying out loud, check their emails while in church. Granted, the survey is an American one, but are African's so different? Are you an email addict?

EU: Strengthening international research with Africa
The European Union has announced that it will be offering a grant of over EUR600,000 to a joint partnership between the School of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton and the Regional Institute for Population Studies at the University of Ghana.

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe: Banks run out of money
Attempts to tame Zimbabwe's multi-million percent annual inflation rate had an inauspicious beginning on 1 August when banks turned customers away after running out of cash.


Uganda, Iran's gateway into Africa: envoy
Gorgan: The Ugandan Ambassador to Tehran, Mohammad Ahmad Kissule announced earlier this week that Uganda can be an appropriate gateway for Iranian investors to enter African markets.

Libya to spur economic growth in Africa
Speaking at a press conference that was held at Grand Regency Hotel in Nairobi, the president of the Libya Africa Portfolio Fund for Investment (LAP), Bashir Saleh said Libya is planning to invest over $8bn in Africa's economic sectors including oil, gas, air transport, tourism and the construction of oil refineries, among others, to spur Africa's economic development.

Soles4Souls launches donation for Africa
Soles4Souls, the global organisation dedicated to providing free footwear to people in need all over the world, are conducting a donation drive. A $10 purchase of a pair of flip flops means that two additional pairs will be donated and sent to Africa for people experiencing hardships.

The sizes and gender of flip flops to be distributed to Africa will be determined by the local need. The flip flops will be available for shipment beginning in September 2008. For more information, visit www.giveshoes.org.

Multichoice Malawi introduces new facilities
[Gregory Gondwe] Multichoice Malawi, a local digital satellite television service provider, has introduced new facilities, which its sales and marketing officer, Chimwemwe Nyirenda said would make it stand above its competitors in Malawi.