Day: February 27, 2022

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Pakistan’s Embassy in Ukraine engages in supporting and evacuating Pakistani students 

Islamabad, February 27, 2022 (PPI-OT):Pakistan’s Embassy in Ukraine is engaged in supporting and evacuating Pakistani students in every possible way. According to the latest fact sheet provided by Pakistan’s Embassy in Ukraine, the majority of the 3,000 Pakistani students have already left Ukraine while the evacuation of the remaining six to seven hundred students is underway.

Evacuation locations and focal persons have been identified in Ternopil, Kyiv and Lviv. Pakistani Ambassador in Ukraine Retired Major General Noel Israel Khokhar contacted the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine for the safe evacuation of Pakistani citizens.

The Pakistani embassy has requested a meeting with the border commander on the Ukrainian-Polish frontier and also highlighted the issue of evacuation of Pakistanis stranded on the border. For any kind of assistance following numbers can be contacted in Ternopil 0038063698264, 00380638282984, 00923329184350. In Kyiv assistance can be inquired through 00380681734727 and in Lviv on 00380932197175 and 00380637019154.

For more information, contact:
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
Government of Pakistan
4th Floor, Cabinet Block, Pak. Secretariat, Islamabad, Pakistan
Tel: +92-51-9103557
Email: info@moib.gov.pk
Website: http://www.moib.gov.pk

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PAGD releases ‘white paper’ exposing BJP claims on Article 370 abrogation 

Srinagar, February 27, 2022 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, two and half years after the Modi-led fascist Indian government abrogated the Kashmir’s special status, the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a group of political parties fighting for restoration of the pre-August 5, 2019 situation, has issued a white paper that counters claims made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the consequences of the abrogation.

The PAGD spokesman MY Tarigami talking to reporters said that in the white paper the PAGD has also clarified doubts on whether Article 370 can be rolled back, whether Article 35-A can be removed, etc. “We challenge the Kashmir administration and the BJP government to counter our white paper with its own white paper. We challenge the BJP government on its claims of providing jobs, investment and development,” Tarigami said.

He was speaking at the residence of PAGD’s chief Dr Farooq Abdullah, where all members of the alliance, including Mehboboa Mufti, Muzaffar Shah and Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi were present. Tarigami rebuffed claims of real estate investment in JK. “What real estate are you talking about? Tell us how many youth from Jammu have got jobs post Article 370 revocation, let alone in Kashmir?” he said.

He said the alliance will invite all MPs of Parliament for a discussion on Article 370 abrogation and will also send copies of its white paper to the President of India. “This assault (on constitutional rights) has become a poison which can reach Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and other states. We appeal to Indian intelligentsia, civil society, the press and all Indians to understand the pain of Kashmiris,” Tarigami said, adding that it is not just people subscribing to BJP’ ideology who live in India but lakhs of others opposed to it, too.

Tarigami also questioned the manner in which the ongoing exercise of delimitation of assembly constituencies is being done in J and K. He said the PGD is not against delimitation but against the manner in which it is being done. He reiterated that the PAGD had been steadfast on its stand that the present delimitation exercise was being done under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act which has been challenged in the Indian Supreme Court by a constituent of the alliance.

For more information, contact:
Kashmir Media Service
Phone: +92-51-4435548, +92-51-4435549
Fax: +92-51-4861736
Email: info@kmsnews.org
Website: www.kmsnews.org

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With Cinemas Closed, Ghana’s Hand-Painted Movie Posters Find Homes Abroad

With a flick of his brush, Ghanaian painter Daniel Anum Jasper armed actor Paul Newman with a pair of revolvers. Unfinished paintings of a bell-bottomed John Travolta and nunchuck-spinning Bruce Lee adorned the walls of his crammed Accra studio.

Jasper, a veteran movie poster designer, was finishing up one of the 1969 classic “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” commissioned by a foreign collector who had reached out over Instagram.

From the late 1970s to the 1990s, Ghana developed a tradition of advertising films with vibrant hand-painted posters. Local cinemas were flourishing in the West African country, and artists competed over who could entice the largest audience with their often gory, imaginative and eye-popping displays.

Jasper was a pioneer of the tradition and has been painting movie posters on repurposed flour sacks for the last 30 years. But the market for his work, which once had people clamoring for theater seats, has changed.

“People are no longer interested in going out to watch a movie when it can be watched from the comfort of their phones,” Jasper said.

“But there is a growing interest in owning these hand-painted posters internationally,” he added. “Now they hang them in private rooms or show them in exhibitions.”

With the rise of the internet, Ghana’s independent cinemas fell into obscurity. But Jasper’s work has gained appeal abroad, including in the United States, where the posters are valued as unique representations of a specific period in African art.

Western action flicks were mainstays of the tradition, as were Bollywood films and Chinese pictures. Many of the posters include paranormal elements and gratuitous violence even if the films had none, and physical features are wildly exaggerated.

Joseph Oduro-Frimpong, a professor in pop culture anthropology at Ghana’s Ashesi University, has several of Jasper’s paintings. He has collected the posters for years and has been known to buy up a closing video store’s entire supply.

He plans to display his posters at the Centre for African Popular Culture opening at the university later this year, and said he hopes people appreciate their historical significance.

“Of course there is an esthetic value to the posters, how crazy it is and all of that, but we use them to have a conversation with students,” he said.

“We tell them not to think about what they’re seeing now… [but] to think of these art forms as symbols of history that can tell their own stories.”

Source: Voice of America

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BP Exiting Stake in Russian Oil and Gas Company Rosneft

BP said Sunday it is exiting its share in Rosneft, a state-controlled Russian oil and gas company, in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

BP has held a 19.75% stake in Rosneft since 2013. That stake is currently valued at $14 billion.

London-based BP also said its CEO, Bernard Looney, and former BP executive Bob Dudley will immediately resign from Rosneft’s board.

“Like so many, I have been deeply shocked and saddened by the situation unfolding in Ukraine and my heart goes out to everyone affected. It has caused us to fundamentally rethink BP’s position with Rosneft,” Looney said in a statement.

Rosneft said it was informed of BP’s decision Sunday.

“BP has come under unprecedented pressure from both the regulator and its shareholders. BP’s decision was preceded by a Western media campaign full of false reports and conclusions,” Rosneft said in a statement on its website that was translated by The Associated Press. “The decision of the largest minority shareholder of Rosneft destroys the successful, 30-year-long cooperation of the two companies.”

BP Chairman Helge Lund praised the “brilliant Russian colleagues” BP has worked with for decades, but said Russia’s military action “represents a fundamental change.”

“The Rosneft holding is no longer aligned with BP’s business and strategy and it is now the board’s decision to exit BP’s shareholding in Rosneft,” Lund said in a statement.

BP’s action was an abrupt turnaround from earlier this month. During a conference call with investors on Feb. 8, Looney downplayed concerns and said there were no changes to the company’s business in Russia.

“Let’s not worry about things until they happen. And who knows what’s going to happen?” Looney said.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the U.K.’s secretary of state for business and energy, said he welcomed BP’s decision.

“Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine must be a wake up call for British businesses with commercial interests in Putin’s Russia,” Kwarteng said in a tweet.

BP said it will take two non-cash charges in the first quarter to reflect the change, including an $11 billion charge for foreign exchange losses that have accumulated since 2013.

It is not clear exactly how BP will unwind its holdings, or who might step up to buy them.

Rosneft’s partnerships with Western oil and gas companies have been stymied before.

In 2011, Exxon Mobil, led at the time by future U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, signed a deal with Rosneft to potentially drill in the oil-rich Russian Arctic. But Exxon ended that partnership in 2017, citing U.S. and European sanctions against Russia.

Source: Voice of America

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EU to Finance Weapons Purchases For Ukraine, Ban Russian Media

The European Union plans to take the unprecedented step of funding weapons purchases for Ukraine, EU officials said on Feb. 27 as the bloc announced a raft of new sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The EU’s plan to fund weapons purchases will use millions of euros to help buy air-defense systems, anti-tank weapons, ammunition and other military equipment for Ukraine’s armed forces. It would also supply things like fuel, protective gear, helmets and first-aid kits.

“For the first time ever, the European Union will finance the purchase and delivery of weapons and other equipment to a country that is under attack,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said of the weapons purchases, calling it a “watershed moment.”

Von der Leyen expects the measure to be endorsed by EU leaders along with other significant moves — a ban on pro-Kremlin media outlets RT and Sputnik, the closure of EU airspace to Russian planes, and sanctions against Belarus.

She said RT and Sputnik are part of the “Kremlin’s media machine,” and the EU is “developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe,” von der Leyen said.

They will “no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war and to sow division in our union,” von der Leyen said.

The closure of the EU’s airspace comes after many individual European countries along with Britain and Canada announced they would ban Russian planes. The EU airspace ban will prohibit flights into or over the EU by “every Russian plane — and that includes the private jets of oligarchs,” von der Leyen said.

The EU also will hit Russian ally Belarus with sanctions for facilitating the invasion. The regime of Belarusian strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka had been “complicit in the vicious attack against Ukraine,” von der Leyen said.

New restrictive measures will hit Belarus’s most important sectors, including tobacco, wood, cement, iron and steel.

The measures come on top of EU sanctions announced Feb. 26, including cutting some Russian banks from the SWIFT interbank messaging network, banning all transactions with Russia’s central bank, and added restrictions on Russian oligarchs.

The measures also follow Germany’s decision to commit 100 billion euros ($113 billion) to a special armed forces fund and to keep its defense spending above 2% of GDP from now on.

Source: Voice of America