Agence France-Presse (AFP), the world’s most far-reaching news agency, and Handmark®, a world-leading provider of games, applications and services for mobile phones, today announced they have partnered to launch a new mobile application, AFP Mobile News for BlackBerry® smartphone users.

The scholarship was launched this year to honour the commitment to journalism training of veteran AFP journalist Peter Mackler, who died suddenly in June, 2008. Mackler, who was AFP North Americas chief editor at the time of his death, was a founding board member of the AFP Foundation, which runs training programmes for journalists in the developing world.

Agence France-Presse on Monday named Florence Biedermann as its new chief editor.

New from Paris Modes. The AFP partner for fashion video, which covers the haute couture and ready-to-wear shows in Paris, London, Milan and New York, as well as exclusive interviews with celebrated designers, has revamped its coverage.

The global news and media industry is battling once-in-a-lifetime challenges: recession worsened by a dramatic fall in advertising income, and the technological challenge of the digital revolution, the rise of the Internet and innovation in the mobile phone sector.

The world is changing and so is Agence France-Presse, so that it can give an ever better service to its clients. Our agency dates back to 1835, but it has never had to confront an upheaval such as the Internet era. What is not changing is our devotion to facts, a near religion, an age-old tradition that must never be considered out of date. The agency has a passion for getting it right, preparing a sourced and checked story and delivering it as quickly as possible.

Global news agency AFP (Agence France-Presse) will extend its successful interactive online sports products with two new offerings in 2009. The Champions League and Europa League (formerly UEFA Cup) Flash™ applications will launch in September 2009 and be available in a wide range of languages.

¡Fútbol Ya!, a photo-rich application covering soccer news from across Latin America and the world powered by one of the most trusted sources, Agence France-Presse (AFP), is now available for Hispanic media outlets as a customizable, branded mobile application.

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.