e-Marketers getting crafty in spam-flooded world
[Keith Regan] Even in a post CAN-SPAM world, where legal protections and technological advances give consumers more control than ever over their inboxes, e-mail remains a key component of many interactive marketing strategies.

Zambia: Where are the workers?
International investors are toasting Zambia's fast-growing economy, but economists and social rights activists point out that it is yet to make a serious dent in poverty.

Southern Africa: Integration and the migrant migraine
The goal of Southern African regional integration is being set back by the outflow of Zimbabwean migrants to neighbouring countries, according to researchers.


Google gets on board for Kenya's tourism industry
[Carole Kimutai] Kenya's struggling tourism sector will receive a boost following an announcement by Google to promote tourism in Africa through online marketing tools by providing free advertisement vouchers to African organisations to market their businesses in an online environment.

AFRICA

Zim advertising competition attracts surprising number of entries
[Dumisani Ndlela] Zimbabwe's annual advertising competition attracted significant interest, despite an economic crisis that has stunted growth and limited new advertising campaigns in a once vibrant sector.

UGANDA

Airlines sweeten travel in Ugandan skies
[Walter Wafula] First, Fly540 a new Kenyan airline, started low-cost daily flights from Entebbe to Nairobi, then South African Airways launched daily flights to Johannesburg, and just before the week could close, Air Uganda added a third and comfortable airplane to its fleet.

Kenya gets major health drive boost
[Carole Kimutai] Thousands of new mothers in Kenya are set to receive free child health tips as part of an ongoing maternal health awareness program funded by Reckitt Benckiser, makers of Dettol.

CENTRAL AFRICA

Malawi student developing a solar autoclave
[Gregory Gondwe] Malawi's University of Mzuzu final-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Renewable Energy is developing a solar autoclave, the first of its kind in Malawi.

SOUTHERN AFRICA

SA to participate in Nordic/Africa meeting
South African Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma is to lead a South African government delegation to the 7th Informal Nordic–Africa Foreign Ministers meeting.

Last call for Tabbie nominations
CLEVELAND, US: The nomination process for the 2008 Tabbies is close to wrapping up. Entries in the editorial and design awards programme, run by Trade, Association and Business Publications International (TABPI), must be postmarked by Wednesday, 5 March 2008.

ZIMBABWE

RBZ donates new fleet to state media
[Lebo Nkatazo] Zimbabwe's central bank has "donated" a fleet of brand new vehicles to state media houses, to prop them up ahead of the 29 March 2008 elections.

Chad govt issues new press law
The Chadian government has adopted a new press law by decree which does not abolish prison terms for press offences, but instead makes the sentences much longer and makes it harder to launch a newspaper.

And so it begins…
Reporters Without Borders has voiced serious concern over a growing government crackdown on independent media with one month to go before presidential elections in Zimbabwe on 29 March 2008.

SOUTH AFRICA

Calling Africa's journalists
Attention African journalists: the deadline to apply for the 2008 Kaiser Family Foundation Award for Excellence in HIV/AIDS Reporting in Africa has been extended to 14 March 2008.

Uganda Telecom to give away seventh car to customers
[Walter Wafula] Thousands of university students in Uganda have the opportunity to own a new Nissan Tida, the seventh the company has given away. The offer has been made by Uganda Telecom (UT) is its latest promotion dubbed Jazz My Life.

Tariffs tumble in search for subscribers
[Walter Wafula] Calling charges of telecom phone companies in Uganda are falling as operators battle to win more subscribers.

SOUTH AFRICA

This year's World Newspaper Congress lineup
Eighteen months after combining three publishing companies into one multi-media group, Belgium's De Persgroep is ready to report on the lessons of its transformation at the World Newspaper Congress, to be held in Göteborg, Sweden, 1 – 4 June 2008.

The year of personal improvement: 2008 - Quo Vadis Communications
Quo Vadis Communications will be running its communications courses in Johannesburg and Cape Town during March, April and May 2008.

Third Cameroonian broadcaster under censorship
Police in the Cameroon capital, Yaoundé, last week forced a popular radio station off the air and confiscated its equipment over commentary critical of the government during a call-in program, according to local journalists.

WEST AFRICA

How to avoid a food crisis again this year
According to the government's current estimates, donors will need to provide 20,000 tonnes of food aid to compensate for Guinea-Bissau's expected production shortfalls in 2008.

Now Zimbabweans have to queue to queue
[Mary Revesai] A study conducted in the United States more than a decade ago estimated the cost to the American economy of alcohol abuse and alcoholism at US$246 billion. With queuing having become an almost enforced addictive activity in Zimbabwe, where ordinary people spend hundreds of hours in queues to do things that are routine in other countries such as shopping, depositing or withdrawing money from the bank etc, it would be interesting to quantify its impact on productive pursuits.

Bulawayo runs out of money
The municipality, one of Zimbabwe's second city's largest employers, has not paid its employees since December - and that means less money is in circulation, and fewer purchases from retailers.

Poland to fund Angolan fisheries academy
Poland will finance the estimated $22 million construction of a fisheries academy in the southern Angolan province of Namibe, says its ambassador to Angola, Piotr Mysliwiec.

AFRICA

Rapid increase in radio and TV channels in Africa, says new report
A rapid increase in the number of radio and TV channels in Africa over the last three years has piqued interest in the continent by international media players.

Apprentice Africa - let the business begin
Touted as the ultimate job interview, Africa's own version of the popular reality TV series The Apprentice launched on Tuesday, 26 February 2008.