NORTH AFRICA

Sudan halts BBC Arabic radio

The Sudanese government suspended the BBC's licence to broadcast in Arabic on FM radio stations in four cities in north Sudan on Monday (9 August 2010). An Information Ministry statement published by the state news agency SUNA on Sunday said the suspension was related to violations of the accord governing BBC activities, including the smuggling of satellite equipment. Read more >>

UGANDA

Ugandan online editor accused of sedition

NAIROBI: Police accused the online editor of The Ugandan Record, Timothy Kalyegira, of sedition on Tuesday (3 August 2010) and searched his house on Wednesday, 4 August, Kalyegira told the Committee to Protect Journalists. Read more >>

MALAWI

Malawi: Innovative campaigning by women candidates

[Claire Ngozo] LILONGWE: You will find Beauty Kasonda on her campaign trail at funerals, weddings, church functions or just about any local gathering in her community. Kasonda does not have the sort of funding her male counterparts have for campaigning in the country's November 2010 elections but she is not letting that stop her. Read more >>

AFRICA

Unique concept to preserve World Cup

[Nthambeleni Gabara] PRETORIA: The legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup is being established across Africa through a unique concept called Youth Zones. Read more >>

AFRICA

Loeries Radio Crafts judging panel announced

The Loerie Awards has announced the Radio Crafts judging panel for the 2010 awards. Radio Crafts categories include Direction, Writing for Radio Advertising and Original Music and Sound Design. The Loeries judging will take place in Johannesburg between 17-25 August 2010 at Vega, the Brand Communication School. Read more >>

AFRICA

Loeries TV Crafts panel announced

The Loerie Awards has announced the TV Crafts judging panel for the 2010 awards. TV Crafts categories include Art Direction, Animation and Special Visual Effects, Cinematography, Direction, Editing, Original Music and Sound Design, and Writing for TV and Cinema. Read more >>

SOUTH AFRICA

Best of South Africa 2011 - bringing SA's best brands together

The Best of series publishing concept is a home-grown South African success story which now covers the globe, with these B2B coffee table books currently being published in over 45 countries from Australia to Chile, Kenya to Britain, Belgium to Egypt ... and beyond. Read more >>

AFRICA

e-Applications for the development of Africa

ABUJA: On the second day, 5 August 2010, of the experts' session of the Third AU Conference of Ministers in charge of Communication and Information Technologies (CITMC-3) in Abuja, Nigeria, from 3-7 August, experts brainstormed on e-applications such as tele-medicine and tele-education, e-schools and e-post. Read more >>

KENYA

20 Kenyan start-ups worth watching

[Mark Kaigwa] Kenya is abuzz right now. The outlook for technology and innovation in Africa has never been brighter, and Kenya is positioning itself strategically in anticipation of a wave of groundbreaking web and mobile emerging market products and services. The resources being put into the Kenyan IT sector currently demonstrate how seriously the country is taking the challenge to become Africa's innovation hub. Read more >>

AFRICA

AiM film festival celebrates independent Africa

Africa in Motion (AiM), a UK-based African film festival, is taking place from 21 October to 5 November 2010 at Edinburgh's Filmhouse Cinema and other venues across the city. This year's festival takes as its main theme 'Celebrations', in commemoration of 50 years of independence of 17 African countries, as well as celebrating the fifth birthday of the festival. Read more >>

AFRICA

Obama discusses Africa's future with young leaders

PRETORIA: President Barack Obama is meeting 115 young African leaders to discuss "their vision for Africa for the next 50 years" and to help craft innovative solutions to regional challenges. Read more >>

WEST AFRICA

Cameroon: Journalist deportation halted

A Cameroonian journalist who was due to have been deported from the United Kingdom on Monday (2 August 2010) has been granted a last-minute temporary reprieve. News website allmediascotland reported on Tuesday that the forced deportation of Charles Atangana had been deferred. Read more >>

MALAWI

Airtel appoints Malawian as Zain MD

[Gregory Gondwe] Zain Malawi, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of India's Bharti Airtel, has announced the appointment of Saulos Chilima as the new MD of the company. Chilima is the first Malawian to head Zain Malawi ever since it arrived in the country as Celtel. Read more >>

KENYA

Kenya's mobile money innovation boom

[Erik Hersman] Kenya is quickly gaining a competitive advantage in the mobile payments space. Led by mobile operator giant Safaricom with their Mpesa product, the market locally sees huge value in mobile money transactions. Add to that a regulatory system that is relaxed enough for innovation to be encouraged, and you have a great space for interesting things to happen. Read more >>

MALAWI

TNM, Zain migrate to local currency usage

[Gregory Gondwe] Malawi's only two mobile phone service providers, TNM Limited and Zain, have migrated to usage of the local currency, the Malawi kwacha, starting 1 August 2010. Initially, the two companies were charging its services in US dollars before government pointed out to them that this was against the country's laws. Read more >>

AFRICA

Africa's 'first' mobile TV subscription service launched by Vodacom

TV: On Demand - a new offering for Vodacom's 3G subscribers, was launched yesterday (3 August 2010) with a promise to bring popular television shows and music videos to the mobile screen. Read more >>

AFRICA

World Press Trends 2010 released

According to the just-released World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers' (WAN-IFRA) annual world press trends update, newspaper circulation worldwide fell just slightly in 2009, despite the economic downturn, and the impact of the global recession on newspaper advertising revenues appears to be easing. Read more >>

UGANDA

Google speaks two new Ugandan languages

[Walter Wafula] Luo and Runyakitara, two widely spoken languages in Uganda are the latest additions to Google's diction in the country. The two languages which are spoken by more than five million people, including Kenyan relatives of US President Barack Obama, were launched earlier this week at Makerere University in Kampala. Read more >>

AFRICA

80 000 video submissions for YouTube's Life in a Day

LOS ANGELES, CA: Submissions for YouTube's Life in a Day project closed on Saturday, 31 July 2010, with a total of 80 000 submissions representing 197 countries in 45 different languages. Footage from remote regions in South Africa, the Middle East and Africa have been uploaded to the site due to the efforts by groups and organisations that participated. Read more >>

KENYA

Media influences Kenya's referendum poll

[Carole Kimutai] With just hours before Kenya's constitution referendum to be held on 4 August 2010, research has cited the media as the main source of information about the contents of the proposed constitution. Read more >>

EAST AFRICA

Madagascar joins AfricaRice as member state

ANTANANARIVO: The Government of Madagascar's application to join the Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice) has been approved by the organisations council of ministers. Madagascar is one of the biggest per capita consumers of rice in the world. Read more >>

AFRICA

Africa might ditch Asian rice if prices increase

[Miriam Mannak] CAPE TOWN: Thailand and other major rice exporting countries are at risk of losing Africa as an important trading partner if they raise their rice prices. Half of the 10 million tons of rice exported by Thailand last year went to Africa. Nigeria, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire and South Africa were among the main buyers of rice in Africa. Read more >>

SOUTHERN AFRICA

Southern Africa: Removing barriers to trade

[Charles Mpaka] BLANTYRE: Cecilia Gondwe waits in the shade of a tree at the Mwanza Border Post between Malawi and Mozambique. Somewhere inside, a clearing agent is completing elaborate paperwork on her behalf. The agent will deal with customs officials, going over forms, calculating import and excise duty... Read more >>

AFRICA

Southern Africa: Boost cross-border trade for food security

LUSAKA: Small-scale traders on either side of the Mwami Border Post between Zambia and Malawi are key to meeting local demands that larger importers do not. Read more >>

ZIMBABWE

Coca-Cola enters Zimbabwe's energy drink market

[Dumisani Ndlela] The Coca-Cola Company has entered Zimbabwe's energy drinks market in a demonstration of renewed interest in a country that had become a pariah to international investors due to an unprecedented economic crisis. Read more >>

AFRICA

Watchdog dismisses brandhouse claim against SAB

[Michael Bleby] Pretender to the South African beer crown brandhouse suffered a knock yesterday (Monday, 2 August 2010), when the advertising watchdog knocked back most parts of a complaint it made against local king South African Breweries (SAB). Read more >>

AFRICA

"Free trade in natural resources bad for development"

[Isolda Agazzi] GENEVA: While some believe that restrictions on natural resource exports should be done away with, this could cause an increase in such exports that would be detrimental to the environment and bad for development. Read more >>

CHINA

Asia-Pacific Digital Magazine Conference early-bird deadline extended

HANGZHOU, CHINA: The 2nd Asia-Pacific Digital Magazine Conference, hosted by FIPP and CPA (China Periodicals Association) will take place on 14-15 October 2010 at the InterContinental Conference Centre, Hangzhou, China and the early bird registration discount has been extended to 1 September 2010. Read more >>

UNITED STATES

Office for Mac 2011 hitting store shelves this October

REDMOND, US: Microsoft Office for Mac 2011, the next version of the leading productivity suite for the Mac, will be available in more than 100 countries around the world at the end of October. Read more >>

AFRICA

Flying Banners - the long and short of it - Big Eye Branding

Do you sometimes feel like you're flying by the seat of your pants in your marketing efforts? Flying banners are a high impact way to fly your brand, indoors or out. They're convenient , cost-effective and made to last. Read more >>