The Government of the United States of America and the Government of Norway have continued their long-term commitments to supporting the unexploded ordnance (UXO) sector in Lao PDR, with a combined total of over USD $9.1 million committed to Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) to support survey and clearance operations in four southern provinces of Lao PDR.

The following Memorandum of Agreement (MOU)amendment was approved by the Lao PDR Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 30 May 2022 and signed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare’s National Regulatory Authority for the UXO Sector (NRA)and NPA in Vientiane on 10June 2022, valid until 31 March 2023. The MOU totals do not include donor contributions for costs of certain administration fees, as per Lao government MOU instructions.

Positively, funding from the United States government to support UXO survey and clearance in Lao PDR has increased again in 2022, up from the total funding awarded in 2021. Under a generous grant, NPA is receiving USD $8,500,000 from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for the period 1 January – 15 February 2023.

Additionally, NPA is receiving NOK 7 million from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NOK 350,000 from Fagforbundet, the Norwegian General Union for Municipal Employees, in 2022.

This increase will enable NPA to continue to expand their survey and clearance operations across Lao PDR’s southern provinces. This will accelerate the pace of vital life-saving work to remove the threat of cluster munitions and other UXO and bring socio-economic benefits to thousands of families in hundreds of villages in Attapeu, Champasak, Saravane, and Sekong provinces.

The increased U.S. funding is also providing job opportunities and employment for over 430 people in NPA’s areas of operations and its support functions.

The official induction ceremony, held in Saravane province on Jul 8, 2022, was attended by Vice Governor of Saravan Mr. Somchai Ounchit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Deputy Head of the INGO division, Mr. Chanthala Vannahong, Deputy Director General of the National Regulatory Authority for the UXO Sector (NRA), Mr. DouangsyThammavong, the Head of the Planning and International Cooperation department of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, Mr. Thipphasone Soukathammavong, and other distinguished representatives from the provincial authorities of Attapeu, Champassak, Saravan, and Sekong provinces.

Mr. P. Daniel O’Hara, Head of the Political and Economic Affairs Section and Acting Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Vientiane reaffirmed his country’s commitment to supporting the UXO sector, saying “On behalf of the United States, I thank Norwegian People’s Aid for your extensive survey efforts. To date, NPA has surveyed more than 672 villages in Saravan, Sekong, Attapeu and Champassak provinces. These surveys enable humanitarian clearance operators to more accurately and effectively target areas for clearance. This is particularly important as our collective UXO work shifts focus from surveying to clearing high priority Confirmed Hazardous Areas”.

Ambassador Grete Løchen, Ambassador of Norway to Vietnam, who also oversees Norwegian diplomatic affairs in the Lao PDR, relayed her remarks. “I am very pleased that the MOU is signed today. NPA is a valuable partner of the Norwegian Government in mine action activities at the global level and has been active in Laos since 2009. NPA has a long history of survey and clearance both in Laos and in the whole region. With its unique approach and the priority on capacity-building of both national and local authorities, NPA can use the funding under this MOU and prioritise their operational budget for the activities to assist the Lao PDR in creating an effective, efficient and sustainable national capacity in mine action efforts and thus contributing to Laos’ post-Covid economic recovery”, said Grete Løchen, Ambassador of Norway to Vietnam accredited to Lao PDR.

Clearance of cluster munitions and other UXO is critical to improving the lives and livelihoods of people living in the Lao PDR, as projects conducted by NPA will benefit those most at-risk living in areas with the highest amount of contamination. This will allow Lao people to use their land without fear of injury or death from UXO.

Cluster munition contamination in the Lao PDR is amongst the highest in the world when measured against the population, and extensive contamination poses a risk to the livelihoods, socio-economic development and quality of life of those living in affected communities. The U.S. Government and the Government of Norway have shown significant, ongoing commitment to assisting the Lao PDR in reducing the impacts of unexploded cluster munitions and in meeting its obligations under the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM). This funding will support the development of the National Regulatory Authority for the UXO Sector (NRA) in their long-term management and regulation of mine action activities in the Lao PDR.

NPA will implement survey and clearance activities in Attapeu, Champasak, Saravane and Sekong provinces. Under this MOU, NPA expects to clear close to 11.3 sqkm of high priority confirmed contaminated areas and survey an additional 5.3 sqkm to identify additional potential contamination from UXO. Over 3,480 people are expected to directly benefit from these activities, and over 430 Lao people will be employed across 140 villages, in 21 districts in 4 southern provinces of the Lao PDR including support function staffing from other provinces.

Source: Lao News Agency

Iran has arrested an internationally renowned filmmaker, several newspapers reported Tuesday, the third Iranian director to be locked up in less than a week as the government escalates a crackdown on the country’s celebrated cinema industry.

The arrest of award-winning director Jafar Panahi and wider pressure on filmmakers follows a wave of recent arrests as tensions escalate between Iran’s hardline government and the West. Security forces have detained several foreigners and a prominent reformist politician as talks to revive Tehran’s nuclear accord with world powers hit a deadlock and fears grow over the country’s economic crisis.

Panahi, one of Iran’s best-known dissident filmmakers, had gone to the prosecutor’s office in Tehran on Monday evening to check on the cases of his two colleagues detained last week, when security forces scooped him up as well, the reports said.

A colleague of Panahi, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals, told The Associated Press that authorities sent him to Iran’s notorious Evin Prison to serve out a prison term dating back years ago.

In 2011, Panahi received a six-year prison sentence on charges of creating anti-government propaganda and was banned from filmmaking for 20 years. He was also barred from leaving the country.

However, the sentence was never really enforced and Panahi continued to make underground films — without government script approval or permits — that were released abroad to great acclaim.

Panahi has won multiple festival awards, including the 2015 Berlin Golden Bear for “Taxi,” a wide-ranging meditation on poverty, sexism and censorship in Iran, and the Venice Golden Lion in 2000 for “The Circle,” a deep dive into women’s lives in Iran’s patriarchal society.

The Berlin International Film Festival said it was “dismayed and outraged” to hear of Panahi’s arrest, calling it “another violation of freedom of expression and freedom of the arts.”

His detention came after the arrest of two other Iranian filmmakers, Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad.

Authorities accused Rasoulof and al-Ahmad of undermining the nation’s security by voicing opposition on social media to the government’s violent crackdown on unrest in the country’s southwest.

Following the catastrophic collapse of the Metropol Building that killed at least 41 people in May, protests erupted over allegations of government negligence and deeply rooted corruption. Police responded with a heavy hand, clubbing protesters and firing tear gas, according to footage widely circulating online.

Rasoulof won the Berlin Film Festival’s top prize in 2020 for his film “There Is No Evil” that explores four stories loosely connected to the themes of the death penalty in Iran and personal freedoms under tyranny. In 2011, Rasoulof’s film “Goodbye” won a prize at Cannes but he was not allowed to travel to France to accept it.

Cannes sharply condemned the arrests of the three filmmakers and “the wave of repression obviously in progress in Iran against its artists.”

PEN America, a literary and free speech organization, said their detention marks a “brazen violation of their human right to free expression and speech.”

Several foreigners have also landed in Iranian prison in recent weeks, including two French citizens, a Swedish tourist, a Polish scientist and others, spurring concerns that Iran is trying to leverage them as bargaining chips in negotiations.

It’s a tactic Iran has used in the past, including in 2014 when authorities arrested Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian. He was released a year and a half later in a prisoner swap with the United States as the landmark nuclear accord took effect.

On Monday, the family of a Belgian humanitarian worker being held in Iran, Olivier Vandecasteele, appealed to Brussels to do “everything” to secure his release from Evin Prison. They said he was arrested in late February after working for more than six years in Iran to help its Afghan migrant community.

The Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the AP on Tuesday it had asked Iran for his release on “several occasions” and still had “no information on the reasons of his arrest.” It said the government was providing him with consular assistance.

Source: Voice of America

Authorities of Phine, Phalanxay and Xonbouly continue to face challenges in increasing Covid-19 vaccination coverage with vaccine hesitancy being among the most common barriers, according to the Deputy Director of the Savannakhet Provincial Health Department Tiangkham Pongvongsa.

Vaccination uptake in Savannakhet and some other provinces remains low. Savannakhet has so far achieved only 67 per cent of its Covid-19 vaccination coverage plan for first doses and approximately 57 per cent for second doses.

Meanwhile those given third doses represent only 20 per cent.

“Our current plan is to increase vaccination coverage in areas that are immediately within reach, such as urban areas, especially when considering the heavy rainfall we are experiencing right now which can make the terrain more difficult to navigate in more remote areas. After ensuring improved vaccination coverage in those immediately accessible areas, we will focus on mobilising our vaccination efforts in rural areas,” Dr. Tiangkham told the media on Monday.

The Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism (MICT) and the Ministry of Health (MOH), with support from UNICEF, is organizing a joint visit for journalists to Savannakhet province to observe and advocate COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the province.

A team of journalists from national media outlets, led by Deputy Director General of the Lao National Radio Mr. SangkhaneChoumkhamphanh is visiting Phine, Phalanxay and Xonboulydistricts of the southern province.

“COIVD-19 has severely affected the economy and livelihoods of the Lao people, and the provincial media has dedicated a lot of efforts towards promoting the COVID-19 response in Savannakhet,” said Ms. Daovone Saysoulian, Director of the Savannakhet Provincial Information, Culture and Tourism Department.

She explained that despite those efforts, challenges remain in increasing vaccination coverage due to financial constraints and limited human resources.

“Nevertheless, the promotion of COVID-19 vaccination remains an important task and the media is required to ramp up promotion efforts through its channels, including television, radio, newspapers and village loudspeakers,” she said.

Daily infections and deaths from the COVID-19 throughout the Lao PDR has been declining in the last couple of months thanks to steady progress in vaccination, with around 70 per cent of population in the country having already completed their primary series of vaccination.

Laos has an ambitious plan to increase the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination coverage to 80 per cent by 2022.

Source: Lao News Agency

The red on beige sign outside La Torre shop advertises the kind of underwear earlier generations might have worn, mostly knickerbockers and girdles.

The shop — known as The Tower in English — has been a standard in Barcelona for more than 120 years, preserving a glimpse into the city’s past.

La Torre has withstood the relentless march of Starbucks, McDonald’s, and other international corporate chains which, critics say, have eaten up the souls of downtowns. Other period shops, cinemas or libraries have not been so fortunate and have been forced to close.

Campaigners in Spain are determined to safeguard a form of heritage which they say is increasingly under threat: the shop signs which advertise small businesses often run by families.

Described as the “Indiana Jones of the Lost Shop Signs” by the Spanish newspaper ABC, they advocate for everything from the Art Deco cinema signs, old-fashioned flashing Buy Easy signs and the ornate golden shoe shop signs.

The commercial signs outside shops that have long shaped the identity of cities, towns and villages are a part of our past, said volunteers from the Iberian Network in Defense of Graphic Heritage, a collective of about 50 projects across Spain.

Heritage

To most people, heritage sums up the idea of castles, priceless paintings, and royal jewels. But these campaigners contend that the urban landscape which most people inhabit every day is as much a part of our treasured past too.

Heritage legislation in Spain protects everything from cathedrals to castles to bullfighting but not shop signs – so far. So, campaigners must first convince local councils to protect these symbols of everyday life.

“We are against nostalgia because it says that the past is better than the present or the future. We want to preserve these shop signs because they represent something from the past that we can use to learn about for the future,” Alberto Nanclares, of the Iberian Network, told VOA in an interview.

Nanclares said the organization began in 2014 after the then government abolished a law which guaranteed cheap rents to companies, driving many small shops out of business. He said they plan to open a museum to show off the signs they have saved.

“It should be very popular because it will attract designers, architects, elderly people who want to see the past and people who want to take their grandparents to see the place where they grew up,” he added.

Laura Asensio is a graphic designer who has been working for an organization called Valladolid with Character. They hope to stop Valladolid, a northern Spanish city, from becoming a bland version of many other cities across Europe.

Volunteers are mapping out the old shop signs which have been saved or at risk from being lost.

Asensio said she hopes to convince the city council to change local laws to preserve this part of the city’s heritage. A book will be published with photographs in December detailing this part of the city life for future generations.

“The reason we started this organization is to stop shop signs from being lost to globalization. All over Europe, city centers are being dominated by McDonalds, Zara, or Burger King,” she told VOA.

Laura Arribas, an interior designer, and member of the Iberian Network, said younger people may not appreciate the value of the architectural heritage of their own cities.

“But if you don’t value traditions and distinctiveness of your cities then Madrid ends up looking much like Barcelona or London with the same chains springing up due to globalization,” she told VOA from her home in Madrid. “We are not against globalization, but the architectural heritage brings value to your city because it makes it different to other places which is important for tourism and the quality of life.”

Source: Voice of America

A funding of about US$ 9.1 million provided by the government of the United States of American and Norway aims to support Laos’ government efforts in clearance of target areas in Champassak, Saravan, Sekong and Attapeu provinces.

The two governments have continued their long-term commitments to support the UXO sector in Laos, with the combined total of the funds committed to Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)to support survey and clearance operations in these four southern provinces.

Head of the Political and Economic Affairs Section and Acting Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Vientiane, Mr P. Daniel O’Hara, reaffirmed his country’s commitment to supporting the UXO sector.

To date, NPA has surveyed more than 672 villages in Champassak Saravan, Xekong and Attapeu provinces.

These surveys enable humanitarian clearance operators to more accurately and effectively target areas for clearance, he said. “This is particularly important as our collective UXO work shifts focus from surveying to clearing high priority Confirmed Hazardous Areas.”

An amendment to a Memorandum of Agreement (MOU) was approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on May 30, and signed on June 10, by the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare’s National Regulatory Authority for the UXO Sector (NRA) and NPA in Vientiane, and is valid until March 31, 2023.

Source: Lao News Agency

The Fifth BRICS Media Forum was held last Friday in Beijing where media outlets of BRICS countries were urged to focus on cooperation for global development.

BRICS comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the forum and delivered a speech, according to Xinhua News Agency report.

Huang said that Chinese President Xi Jinping has recently made important speeches on strengthening BRICS cooperation and advancing global development. These speeches have drawn a new blueprint for and injected new impetus into BRICS cooperation and development, he added.

Citing the responsibilities and missions entrusted to the BRICS media by the times and the common expectations of people from across the world, Huang called on media outlets of BRICS countries to champion development, focus on global development cooperation, and work together to forge a united, equal, balanced and inclusive global development partnership.

Huang urged efforts to consolidate the foundation of solidarity, promote the pursuit of the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and provide more stabilizing and positive momentum for jointly building a community of security for humanity.

Huang also called for efforts to build a bridge of friendship, carry forward the BRICS spirit of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation, and boost the BRICS cooperation.

The Fifth BRICS Media Forum has also issued the Action Plan of the BRICS Media Forum for 2022-2023.

The world is enduring a new period of turbulence and transformation, and the international community’s pursuit of peace and development, fairness and justice, democracy and freedom, and win-win cooperation has become all the more vital, says the action plan.

Noting that BRICS countries need dialogue and cooperation more than ever, the action plan urges the media organizations of the BRICS countries to play their role as bridges to generate strong synergy for ensuring a high-quality BRICS partnership and strengthening the BRICS mechanism to the fullest extent.

In order to usher in a new era of BRICS media cooperation, the BRICS Media Forum upholds the principle of joint development and mutual benefit, and is committed to supporting and facilitating BRICS media to jointly carry out a series of actions, the action plan says.

On sharing the BRICS stories and promoting peace and development, the action plan highlights issues such as peace, economic growth, solidarity against COVID-19, food security, climate change and digital governance. We will plan joint interviews, carry out cooperation on special editions, websites, and news feeds, and undertake joint production for special feature films and live broadcasts on trending topics at different locations. We will launch BRICS news cooperation projects, such as BRICS Influencers and BRICS Link, to promote the core theme of peace and development and generate positive synergy that will benefit the five countries, it says.

Hosted by Xinhua News Agency, the Fifth BRICS Media Forum was themed “Building BRICS Consensus, Promoting Global Development.” Nearly 300 representatives from more than 170 media outlets, including Lao News Agency and institutions in 73 countries and regions attended the forum either online or offline.

Source: Lao News Agency