African airline wins 2008 Brussels Airport Marketing Award
Ethiopian Airlines has been awarded the 2008 Brussels Airport Marketing Award by the Brussels Airport Company as well as the 2008 Best Airline in Africa Award in Network and Connection.

Temporary shelters in Cape Town dismantled
[Nthambeleni Gabara] CAPE TOWN: The City of Cape Town on Tuesday, 28 October, 2008 confirmed the closure of the temporary shelter at the Youngsfield Military Base which has been housing displaced people from other countries.

AFRICA

Africa's industrialisation key to achieving MDGs
DURBAN: Through accelerated industrialisation and the strategic use of the international demand for natural resources, Africa will be able to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Agreement allows for free viewing of 2010 matches
COTONOU: Following last week's strategic co-operation agreement between FIFA and the African Union of Broadcasters (AUB), Africans in sub-Saharan Africa will be able to view the 2010 FIFA World Cup free of charge.

AFRICA

AUB-FIFA launch broadcast academy
COTONOU/BENIN: FIFA and the African Union of Broadcasters (AUB) last week launched a joint broadcast academy to enhance the quality of football coverage and to assist in the better commercialisation of sports rights in Africa.

Online media seen as Kenya's next advertising frontier
The Kenyan media landscape is no longer what it was in the 1990s; holding a television screen in your palm is now a reality; the internet continuously keeps online readers updated with breaking news at every turn. The digital era has led to renewed competition, as consumers look for comfort and speed.

Two Cape Town creatives to judge 2009 D&AD
Almost 250 judges have now been confirmed for the D&AD Awards 2009, with the advertising and digital juries announced yesterday, Wednesday, 29 October 2008. So far, the two South Africans are Draftfcb Cape Town's Glynn Venter on the Direct jury (who was also a Cannes Lion Direct judge this year), and BBDO Cape Town's Ivan Johnson for Radio Advertising.

Global matchmaking site launched for linking creatives, NPOs
NEW YORK: DesignismConnects.org was launched earlier this week by The Art Directors Club, in partnership with Idealist, to support the creative needs of non-profits and connect them with creatives willing to give their time and talent to causes.

AFRICA

Spotlight on SA during Service Exporter Network meeting
Nation brands are difficult to get right. When it comes to Africa, the branding of the continent can be particularly one-sided. Africa is often misrepresented. Despite being one of the world's most compelling continents. Africa's dominant image bas been created by charity brands such as Live Aid. The tables, however, are beginning to turn.

ZAMBIA

Zambia: New president puts emphasis on jobs, tourism
President Rupiah Banda, this central African nation's new president, said in his inaugural speech that he wants his government to place a lot of emphasis on job creation, which in turn will boost the retail sector as consumers progressively have more disposable income.

Branding Botswana
Botswana promotes own tourist attractions in a bid to keep more money at home.

“Google joins world of copyright” - ACAP
The ACAP (Automated Content Access Protocol) Project yesterday, Wednesday, 29 October 2008, welcomed the landmark settlement reached in the case brought against Google by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP), in which Google has acknowledged publishers' intellectual property rights in the online environment, putting copyright back centre stage of the creative marketplace.

Financial crisis triggers cyber-crime surge
Panda Security has issued a security alert that reveals a direct correlation between the recent stock market volatility and the growth of new threats.

Namibia: Improved internet connectivity by the private sector
Improved internet connectivity by the private sector received a significant boost last week when Internet Technologies Namibia (ITN) commissioned their second satellite dish to provide another direct international broadband link.

AFRICA

Bloggers to fight hunger in Africa
[Janine Erasmus] The ingenuity of an African NGO is raising international awareness for the plight of Africa's millions of starving people, and harnessing the power of the internet to drive its newest project.

TANZANIA

Budding entrepreneurs get a boost in Tanzania
Regional seminars will provide insight on further development of business plans.

Ghana: MTN unveils training centre
Committed to invest in its human resource capacity in its operational areas in the West, East and Central African (WECA) regions, telecommunications giant, Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN), over the weekend in Accra, unveiled a training centre to help train and upgrade the company's staff in order to meet future challenges.

ZIMBABWE

Zimbabwe: Enemies at work, comrades in the bar
Zimbabwe is one of the few places in the world where you can still be called a "running dog of imperialism", and other choice revolutionary phrases, by a state media that seethes, daily, at the opposition.

SOUTHERN AFRICA

2008 John Manyarara Investigative Journalism Awards winners
Charles Mpaka and Mike Chipalasa of the Daily Times, Malawi and Conceição Vitorino of Canal de Mozambique have won the 2008 MISA John Manyarara Investigative Journalist of the Year Award and the MISA John Manyarara Upcoming Investigative Journalist of the Year Award respectively.

Journalists barred from covering talks
Journalists were barred from covering the SADC Troika-mediated talks in Harare on 27 October, 2008 as part of efforts to break the impasse over the allocation of ministerial positions in accordance with the terms of an agreement for an inclusive government signed by ZANU-PF and the two MDC formations.

Etisalat Nigeria plans free calls to win market
Barring intervention from the country's telecom regulator, Etisalat Nigeria will offer subscribers free network-to-network calling for no less than six months to win over mobile subscribers.

2008 Global Mobile Marketing Award finalists released
NEW YORK, LONDON, SINGAPORE & SAO PAULO: The finalists in the fourth annual Global Mobile Marketing Awards, which honour the companies who are successfully using and leading the adoption of the mobile channel for marketing purposes, were released yesterday, Tuesday, 28 October 2008, by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

Tellumat boosts Nigerian Starcomms fortunes
Doing business in Africa, according to Tellumat, is a daunting prospect, with Nigeria near the top of the 'no-sissies' list. And yet the country is an extremely attractive proposition, with sound economic fundamentals and largely untapped potential.

Microsoft to make MS Office available online
As part of the next release of Office, Microsoft has announced that it will deliver Office web applications - light-weight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote - through a browser. With these new applications, people can use a browser to create, edit, and collaborate on Office documents.

Zimbabwe: 'Just airlift the food'
It gets worse each day for Zimbabweans struggling with shortages and escalating food prices, now denominated in US dollars.

SADC discusses faster implementation of programmes
[Bathandwa Mbola] PRETORIA: Permanent secretaries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) met at the Union Buildings on Thursday, 30 October 2008, to discuss the issues affecting the region and faster implementation of programmes.

EAST AFRICA

Illicit trade undermining single East African market
Illicit trade is undermining moves to establish a single market in East Africa according to a report issued yesterday, 30 October, 2008 at the East Africa International Business Forum in Kigali.

SOUTH AFRICA

PEP opens in Angola
South Africa's biggest single brand store network, PEP, is extending its southern African store footprint into Angola and is making a major investment in Africa's fastest growing country. On 31 October 2008, PEP opens its first store in Lobito, central Angola. The group has also established a 2 000 m² distribution centre in Benguela.

Zimbabwe's survival recipe book
Rural Zimbabweans have always turned to an emergency larder of wild foods to see them through hard times, but in this year of shortages and dizzying prices for all basic foodstuffs, the fruits and roots foraged from the bush are keeping many alive.

BUSA calls for a new partnership with China
Business Unity South Africa has called for a new partnership for economic cooperation between Chinese and South African business in Africa.

Ethiopian Airlines, profitable 2007/08 performance
Ethiopian Airlines recorded positive results in many of its performance parameters during the fiscal year 2007/08. According to the financial reports released, Ethiopian generated 9.2 billion Birr in operating revenue during the budget year, a 34% increase over that of the previous year.

Kenya: KBL moves to court to settle Ksh21m dispute
Kenya Breweries Ltd (KBL) will face a beer distributor in a full hearing in court over a Sh21 million stock dispute.

UGANDA

Uganda bows to global financial crisis
[Walter Wafula] Ugandans are beginning to feel the pinch of the wild financial mess that is ravaging American, European and Asian economies. In the past few weeks share prices of the nine listed companies at the Uganda Securities Exchange have danced to a rhythm echoed by falling stock prices across global financial markets.

Bio-fuels production dominates Africa's arable land
[Michael Appel] COTONOU: With the global demand for the production of bio-fuels growing, Africa's arable land once used for food production is increasingly being used to grow crops for the cleaner more sustainable alternative to oil.