A new study by the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and Gallup on women and media in Africa says education and language skills play a big role in influencing which platform women access most frequently.  And while daily TV usage for men and women is similar in most places, the same cannot be said for radio, mobile phones and the Internet.

“Africa’s development is not only an important economic growth story, it is also a development story,” said minister Christian Paradis.  In his address to Canadian and African businesses, the minister added that economic growth was critical to creating better communities.

With a total pledge of $38 million, China’s assistance has been dwarfed by the $175 million given by the United States. But that has not deterred the state media from highlighting China’s role in reining in the epidemic. While emphasizing the heroism of Chinese medical teams and “selflessness” of the humanitarian aid, it also touted the country’s “rich” experience and expertise in fighting major disease outbreaks.

Kenya is set to use social media to promote its tourism industry that is currently on its knees due to security challenges posed by terrorist attacks. The East African nation will in the next months start using Facebook, Twitter, blogs and Instagram to reach out to potential tourists across the world in new and traditional source markets. 

Ebola is thousands of miles away from Kenya's pristine Indian Ocean beaches, but the deadly disease appears to be discouraging tourism there and elsewhere in this vast continent.

This week, China announced that it was sending 700 military personnel to join the UN's peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, an oil-rich east African state and site of an ongoing civil war. China has contributed to UN peacekeeping missions before, but the unprecedented size of its contribution, and its purpose in sending troops, reveals just how complicated China's foreign outreach has become as the country continues its rise to super-power status.

Britain is to set up a medical centre to treat victims of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, the international development secretary said on Monday. The 62-bed centre near the capital Freetown is planned to be open in eight weeks' time and will be built and operated by military engineers and medical staff. The worst-ever outbreak of the disease has killed 491 people in Sierra Leone, which is one of three countries at the centre of an epidemic that has claimed over 2,000 lives so far.

The seminar, to be held on Monday, is organised by the Spanish Permanent Mission to the United Nations together with Casa África, Spain’s main public diplomacy institution dedicated to the African continent, and Real Instituto Elcano, one of the most prestigious think-tanks. It will be attended ambassadors accredited to the UN and business executives from the United States and Spain.