Agence France-Presse on Monday named Philippe Massonnet as its new global news director with a mission to oversee the international news agency's evolution to a fully integrated multimedia operation. Massonnet, a former Beijing bureau chief and China specialist, takes over the post from Denis Hiault at the head of a revamped news management team. A new post of deputy global news director will be filled by Juliette Hollier-Larousse, AFP's current international multimedia editor.

Getty Images, the leading provider of digital media and Agence France-Presse (AFP), the global press agency, announced today that they have renewed their agreement. The renewed contract takes effect on 1st June 2009 and extends the partnership between the two companies for a further three years.

AFP and Getty Images have agreed a worldwide video partnership, effective from the beginning of March, which will allow both agencies to market their video content in English.

The awards, co-organised by Amnesty International, the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club and the Hong Kong Journalists Association, recognise news stories, features, photos, broadcast reports and online articles that highlight human rights -- or the lack of them -- across the Asia Pacific region during 2008, a year when there was the Olympic Games in Beijing, a major cyclone in Myanmar and a quake in China, unrest in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and a vast range of other issues, from AIDS to migrant workers to police brutality.

Up to the Minute Video News and Headlines From Global News Leaders Will Be Pushed to Viewers’ Screen of Choice – Smartphone or Desktop

Agence France-Presse and French agency relaxnews have launched a global leisure newswire in Asia that they hope will become the world's leading source for lifestyle news. Aimed at the media, industry brands, PR agencies and telecommunications companies, the service will offer stories and multimedia reports on tourism, home life, entertainment, health and well-being.

The international news agency AFP and leisure news service relaxnews joined forces Monday to launch the first global newswire devoted to leisure and lifestyle coverage at the Fondation Cartier in Paris.

The US Postal Service has issued a souvenir commemorating Barack Obama's election as US president which features a portrait of the president-elect taken by an Agence France-Presse photographer.

The Agence France-Presse board on Friday elected Pierre Louette to a second three-year term as chairman and chief executive of the international news agency.

TOKYO - Top Japanese fashion school Bunka Gakuen and Agence France-Presse on Tuesday launched a service providing global news and archive material to Japanese universities and higher learning institutions.