The International news agency, Agence France Presse (AFP) and BNS, Asia’s leading IPTV technology and content solutions provider, have entered into a content distribution partnership to make AFP’s news content available on BNS’ in-room hospitality entertainment platform, RoomWise.

A “web 2.0” publishing applicationAFP’s new publishing application lets web and mobile operators handle AFP's multimedia content for the 2010 Winter Olympics and World Cup. The online application automates publication of AFP content (illustrated historical and biographical data, real time stories, results, photo slideshows, videos) and allows clients to customize multimedia feeds to publish HTML modules directly on websites or mobile websites. It can handle all of AFP’s multimedia content and allows the generation of a search engine (which can access all AFP production) and links from AFP content to social networking websites, as well as handling top online advertising formats.

Motion content from Agence France-Press is now available via Framepool.com. As a global news agency, AFP supplies comprehensive, reliable and independent reports from across the world. More than 40 international video production units produce a wide range of reports in 7 languages 24/7. These clips are now available via Framepool.com for further licensing and use by filmmakers. The marketing agreement between AFP and Framepool applies both to current and future material, as well as to motion content from previous years.

Launched at the beginning of the year by AFP and Relaxnews, the world’s first leisure newswire gets a promising early assessment despite the economic crisis.

J.S. Tissainayagam, a Tamil reporter and editor serving a 20-year prison sentence in Sri Lanka, was awarded the first Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism on Friday. His wife, Ronnate Tissainayagam, accepted the award, named for a 30-year veteran of Agence France-Presse who died last year, at a ceremony at the National Press Club.

Two Agence France-Presse journalists and a Getty Images photographer arrested in Libya on Saturday have been released in Tripoli.

In a March 22 letter regarding detained Agence France-Presse journalists Dave Clark and Roberto Schmidt, as well as photographer Joe Raedle from Getty Images,

AFP has learned this morning of the arrest of two of its journalists in Libya as well as a photographer for its partner Getty Images.

Two Agence France-Presse journalists are missing in Libya, where they were covering the conflict around the eastern city of Tobruk.

Estrade, who covered wars, conflicts and revolutions around the world for over four decades, has died in Paris following a long illness. He was 65.