International news agency AFP joins Alcatel-Lucent and 64 member companies to gain new vantage points and develop next generation concepts

AFP is to strengthen its permanent staff in Tunisia and Morocco in the wake of the uprisings in the Arab world in recent months.The Tunis bureau will be reinforced with a new staffer while a new bureau chief in Rabat will be named.Agence France-Presse currently has six journalists in Tunis and seven in Rabat as part of its workforce of more than 2,900 in 165 countries, of 80 different nationalities.

AFP has recently begun using forensic software to alert photo editors to manipulated images produced by third party sources and amateur witnesses.

Agence France-Presse was the only international media organisation to be able to get in to Deraa after a 10-day siege by Syrian security forces.

Follow all the latest news from Cannes on AFP's special Facebook page <a href="http://www.facebook.com/AFPCinema" target="blank">http://www.facebook.com/AFPCinema</a>, with stories, videos, pictures and graphics in English and French.

AFP reporter Emmanuel Duparcq was awarded the prestigious Albert Londres prize Saturday for his coverage of events in Pakistan and Afghanistan focusing on the activities of the Taliban.

AFP videos spanning Politics, Fashion, Sports, Entertainment, Health and Technology are now available on <a rel="external" href="http://www.blinkx.com/">www.blinkx.com</a>.

South Africa-based Murray, 46, will be responsible for coordinating and promoting the business development and marketing of AFP-Relaxnews within AFP. AFP-Relaxnews is the world’s first newswire dedicated to lifestyle and leisure, the result of a strategic partnership between the two agencies.

Emmanuel Hoog, AFP's chairman and chief executive officer, wound up a US tour over the weekend involving talks with US counterparts on how news organizations are adapting to the rapidly evolving landscape of new mobile and Internet media platforms.

The Arab revolutions from Tunisia to Yemen have underscored the importance of the social networks for newsrooms the world over. Therefore in the context of current events in Syria, AFP is painstakingly collecting and verifying data from the social networks on a daily basis.