Dubai The 11th Arab Media Forum (AMF) concluded Wednesday with the announcement of the region’s foremost acknowledgement of excellence in media — the Arab Journalism Awards (AJA).

At a gala ceremony attended by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, 17 media professionals were honoured.

Also present were Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai; Shaikh Maktoum Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, and Shaikh Majid Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Culture.

The awards, organised by Dubai Press Club (DPC), had a shortlist of 36 nominees in ten categories from 4,000 submissions. In addition, the AJA honoured four outstanding media people under Special Award; Media Personality of the Year 2012; and Newspaper Column. These were decided by 60 jury members comprising reputed journalists and industry leaders from across the Arab region.

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Dubai The role of a media spokesperson was the topic of debate during the morning session of the opening day of the Arab Media Forum (AMF) 2012. The differences between Arab and foreign spokespeople were discussed.

During the session titled ‘The Official Foreign Spokespersons: An Expanding Role and Ambiguous Influence’, Abdul Wahab Badrakhan, writer and political analyst, said that there was a disparity between Arab and foreign spokespeople.

"It is near impossible to get in contact with an Arab spokesperson.

"When you do, he has nothing useful to say, and you can feel the lack of communication between him and the department he represents."

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Once home to fishermen and farmers, modern Hong Kong is a teeming, commercially-vibrant metropolis where Chinese and Western influences fuse.

The former British colony became a special administrative region of China in 1997, when Britain's 99-year lease of the New Territories, north of Hong Kong island, expired.

Hong Kong is governed under the principle of "one country, two systems", under which China has agreed to give the region a high degree of autonomy and to preserve its economic and social systems for 50 years from the date of the handover.

Hong Kong's constitution, the Basic Law, provides for the development of democratic processes. However, Beijing can veto changes to the political system and pro-democracy forces have been frustrated by what they see as the slow pace of political reform.

China controls Hong Kong's foreign and defence policies, but the territory has its own currency and customs status.

Hong Kong's economy has moved away from manufacturing and is now services-based. The region is a major corporate and banking centre as well as a conduit for China's burgeoning exports. Its deepwater port is one of the world's busiest.

Companies based in Hong Kong employ millions of workers in the neighbouring Chinese province of Guangdong.

China ceded Hong Kong island to Britain in 1842 after the First Opium War. Britain later added parts of the Kowloon peninsula and the many smaller islands surrounding Hong Kong to its holdings.

In the 19th and 20th centuries Hong Kong's population was boosted by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants from China, many of whom were fleeing domestic upheavals. Industrialisation gathered pace, and by the 1970s Hong Kong had become an "Asian tiger"; one of the region's economic powerhouses.

With little room for expansion across its hilly terrain, high-rise Hong Kong has among the highest population density in the world; some 6,300 people per square kilometre. Skyscrapers and temples, shopping malls and traditional markets sit cheek-by-jowl.

But amid the urban hustle there are quiet parks and green spaces, beaches and mountain-top views.

A nation with a proud cultural heritage, Poland can trace its roots back over 1,000 years. Positioned at the centre of Europe, it has known turbulent and violent times.

There have been periods of independence as well as periods of domination by other countries. Several million people, half of them Jews, died in World War II.

A new era began when Poland became an EU member in May 2004, five years after joining Nato and 15 years after the end of communist rule.

It was the birthplace of the former Soviet bloc's first officially recognised independent mass political movement when strikes at the Gdansk shipyard in August 1980 led to agreement with the authorities on the establishment of the Solidarity trade union.

The shoots of political freedom were trampled again 16 months later when communist leader Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law. But the movement for change was irreversible. Elections in summer 1989 ushered in eastern Europe's first post-communist government.

The presence in the Vatican of Polish Pope John-Paul II was an important influence on the Solidarity movement throughout the 1980s. The Roman Catholic church remains a very potent force in Polish life.

In the years between the end of communism and EU accession, power in Poland switched between the centre right and the centre left. Successive governments faced sleaze allegations.

The country has had some success in creating a market economy and attracting foreign investment. There was a massive movement of workers to western Europe in the years after Poland joined the EU, but the exodus slowed down after the global economic crisis took hold.

Poland still has a huge farming sector – agriculture accounts for about 60% of the country's total land area – which is unwieldy and very inefficient. Poverty is particularly widespread in rural areas.

Warsaw's profile on the international stage was raised by its support for the US-led military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Polish peacekeeping troops served in south-central Iraq from 2003 until 2008, and the country has also contributed a sizeable contingent to the Nato peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – America’s skyscrapers, many built before World War Two, are showing their age. IBM’s “building whisperer,” Dave Bartlett, believes many of these buildings could use a diet.

Bartlett, who leads IBM’s smarter building initiative, is known as the “building whisperer” because he views buildings as living organisms, an approach that can help identify problems and suggest cost-effective ways of making buildings healthier and more energy-efficient.

Bartlett is bullish about demand for building retrofits, a market that electrical service companies and other participants see growing by double-digits for several years.

“In New York City, we’re definitely in the depths of middle age, trying to get a second lease on life,” Bartlett said. “I’m very gung-ho about the outlook for retrofits.”

Getting a building in shape is a lot like eating right. Under this approach, dubbed “the physiology of buildings,” a heating and cooling system is akin to the respiratory system; elevators and corridors are a circulatory system; and a building’s smart sensors with sophisticated computer monitoring are the nervous system.

Each system affects others: water meters in bathrooms work together with security systems to analyze occupancy, affecting how quickly the building breathes in fresh air. Lighting, by heating a space, affects how much power is used for cooling. With the right data, an owner can decide whether replacing air conditioners makes better sense than a new roof.

The interaction of those systems adds up to an ecosystem that can be measured and improved, like a visit to the doctor or a gym membership. Bartlett, who studied biology, eventually sees buildings forming part of a wider ecosystem that brings nature into cities, making them more literally “green.”

IBM is in the early stages of greening New York’s massive convention hall, the Jacob Javits Center, looking at ways to turn its sprawling roof into an animal habitat.

“We think we can create one of the largest green spaces in Manhattan,” Bartlett said.

FAST-GROWING MARKET

Technology giant IBM competes in a market for building automation software that is forecast to reach $36 billion by 2015. The global market for energy efficiency in buildings will reach $103.5 billion by 2017, up more than 50 percent from 2011, according to Pike Research, a consultancy.

The high-profile retrofit of the Empire State Building is becoming a rallying point for advocates who say building retrofits could lift the U.S. economy and create jobs.

“The savings are so significant,” Bartlett said. “It’s a building everyone knows and everyone appreciates.”

Engineers Johnson Controls Inc and its partners on the Empire State retrofit said Monday energy savings are ahead of projections.

Not all retrofits require a lot of capital, according to IBM. Some call for only minor modifications to control systems or the way people operate the building.

Recent upgrades to lighting, security and other systems have led to a proliferation of sensors. The next step is tap the vast data being generated to look for patterns and potential savings, and to improve the quality of life for tenants. For example, heating and a cooling system may both be optimized, but if they are not communicating, they could be working at cross-purposes.

Obstacles remain to a retrofit boom. One of the biggest is a lack of financing for capital-intensive projects. Also, the motivation is split between building owners who commit money and tenants who benefit from lower utility costs, Bartlett said.

However, the cost of leased assets like buildings is increasingly the concern of finance chiefs, especially under accounting rules that make such assets more visible on the balance sheet. Those CFOs will push for smarter use of space, while more tenants are also demanding green work spaces.

“We’re at this tipping point,” Bartlett said. “It’s going to take off.”

(Reporting By Nick Zieminski in New York; editing by Matthew Lewis)

In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, film-maker and columnist Farai Sevenzo considers level playing fields and what the crisis between Sudan and South Sudan means for the Nuba people who are caught up in the middle of the conflict.

Ms Riefenstahl's images of the Nuba did not erase from memory her work as Adolf Hitler's favourite filmmaker, but managed to rehabilitate her as an artist, and all African artists should be grateful for what she has managed to preserve for eternity.

Malawi will host an African Union summit in July and their new leader, Madame President Joyce Banda, has called on the AU to decide Mr Bashir's position.

Back in October 2011 Mrs Banda's predecessor, Bingu wa Mutharika, openly defied the International Criminal Court by welcoming Mr Bashir to Malawi and ignored the ICC's ridiculous threats of reporting his country to the UN Security Council.

That made Malawi, Kenya, Chad and Djibouti stand out as those who had refused to arrest Mr Bashir and whose names have been "reported" to the Security Council.

The African Union has told its members to ignore the ICC's warrant of arrest as it only targets Africans, and on current evidence, that is a difficult point with which to argue.

Mrs Banda, though, found a perfectly reasonable defence for wanting Mr Bashir to stay away.

"Malawi is already going through unprecedented economic problems and… it would not be prudent to allow one person to come and attend the summit against much resistance from our co-operating partners and donors," she told journalists in Lilongwe.

"Such kind of decisions cost us the USA Millennium Challenge Co-operation. At the end of the day Malawi will have to seriously take into consideration the economic repercussions of hosting President al-Bashir in Malawi."

And we learn that Malawi lost $350m (£217m) for an energy boost co-operation which was withheld by Washington last time Mr Bashir came calling.

So what does this tell us besides the fact that the playing field is never level, even in the case of our political criminals?

It says that the Nuba have some way to go for justice when they just want the bombs to stop, that the ICC's close proximity to the Security Council dilutes its authority, that justice served by paying witnesses as is alleged in the Charles Taylor case, may be as futile as bribing small nations like Malawi into arresting an African leader for more aid funds.

If you would like to comment on Farai Sevenzo's column, please do so below.

Situated at the strategically important crossroads where Europe meets Asia, Georgia has a unique and ancient cultural heritage, and is famed for its traditions of hospitality and cuisine.

Over the centuries, Georgia was the object of rivalry between Persia, Turkey and Russia, before being eventually annexed by Russia in the 19th century.

Since emerging from the collapsing Soviet Union as an independent state in 1991, Georgia has again become the arena of conflicting interests, this time between the US and a reviving Russia. Tense relations with Russia have been further exacerbated by Moscow's support for the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Georgia's brief interlude of independence after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution in Russia ended when it was invaded by the Soviet Red Army in 1921 and incorporated into the Soviet Union a year later.

The US has a major strategic interest in the country, having invested heavily in an oil pipeline from Azerbaijan via Georgia to Turkey. The Georgian armed forces have been receiving US training and support.

Increasing US economic and political influence in the country has long been a source of concern for the Kremlin, as have Georgia's aspirations to join NATO and the EU.

Tensions between Moscow and Tbilisi are never far from the surface and in August 2008 flared up into an armed conflict triggered by clashes between Georgian troops and South Ossetian separatist forces.

Following the collapse of communism in the USSR in 1991, Georgians voted overwhelmingly for the restoration of independence and elected nationalist leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia as president. However, Gamsakhurdia was soon overthrown by opposition militias which in 1992 installed former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze as the country's new leader.

During his 11 years in office, the Georgian people felt increasingly at the mercy of poverty, corruption and crime. He was ousted in November 2003 following mass demonstrations over the conduct of parliamentary elections.

Once a relatively affluent part of the USSR, with independence Georgia lost the cheap energy to which it had access in the Soviet period. As relations between Georgia and Russia deteriorated, Moscow did not flinch from tightening the economic screws, and the rupturing of trading ties caused the Georgian economy to nose-dive.

Georgia has been heavily dependent on Russia for its energy supply. Like some other republics of the former Soviet Union, it saw the price of gas supplied by the Russian gas giant Gazprom rise sharply in January 2006. Gazprom has since doubled the price again. It is no coincidence that Georgia has started receiving an increasing proportion of its gas from Azerbaijan.

Since independence, the people of Georgia have endured periods of civil war and unrest as well as violence related to the independence aspirations of the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Both regions had close ties with Moscow, which in August 2008 announced it was formally recognising their independence.

Russian troops had operated there since the early 1990s, and were regularly accused by Georgia of siding with the separatists.