India, Jan 16 (UNB/AsiaNet) -

Three months after its soft launch across 190+ countries, digital entertainment platform ZEE5 [https://www.zee5.com ] is now zooming in on specific priority markets. Close on the heels of the launch of its brand campaign Dil Se Desi in APAC, MENA and Africa targeting the Indian and South Asian diaspora, ZEE5 today rolled out a customized campaign, titled 'Share the Love' for two important neighboring markets, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

 

    (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/808397/ZEE5_Logo.jpg)

 

    (Photo:

https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/808398/Share_The_Love_Bangladesh.jpg)

 

    Exuding the same playfulness as #DilSeDesi and crafted by ZEE5 with

Publicis Capital, the campaign #ShareTheLove is themed around the similarities that ZEE5 shares with Pakistan and Bangladesh in terms of culture and of course entertainment. Bringing in a strong bouquet of content which resonates with audiences in these markets, including Hindi and Bengali original shows like Rangbaaz, Kaali and the upcoming Sharate Aaj, original films like Aranyadeb and Tigers as well as digital premieres like Namaste England and Praktan; ZEE5

'shares the love'.

 

    Amit Goenka, CEO, ZEE International and Z5 Global

[https://twitter.com/AmitGoenka_?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5 Eauthor], said, "Indian content, especially our TV shows, movies and music gets tremendous love across the globe, and especially so from the sub-continent due to the relatability. We are glad to announce our availability in Bangladesh and Pakistan vide our new campaign #ShareTheLove and we look forward to getting a tremendous response from these markets."

 

    "Good content transcends borders and especially so with Pakistan and

Bangladesh where there is so much shared context of culture and language. This high energy TVC captures our innate similarities and showcases the content that we all love to watch, which is now available on ZEE5. With this message at its core, #ShareTheLove is sure to resonate beautifully with audiences in these markets," adds Archana Anand, Chief Business Officer,

[https://twitter.com/ArchanaAnand_?lang=en] ZEE5 Global.

 

    ZEE5 offers 1,00,000 hours of Indian Movies, TV Shows, Cine plays, Music,

Videos and a slew of exclusive Originals, across 12 languages - English, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi, Bengali, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Gujarati and Punjabi. It also offers 60+ popular Live TV channels.

 

    The ZEE5 App can be downloaded from Google Play Store or iOS App Store.

ZEE5 is also available http://www.ZEE5.com. ZEE5 is also available on Samsung

Smart TV, Apple TV, Android TV and Amazon Fire TV.

 

    Bangladesh TVC: https://youtu.be/WIlK8DMcoYk

   

    Press Contacts:

    Ms. Rashmi Punshi

    Rashmi.Punshi@zee.esselgroup.com

    +91-98202-98575

  

    Ms. Louane Simone Rodrigues

    Louane.Rodrigues@zee.esselgroup.com

    +91-78754-98111

 

    Source: ZEE5

Venezuela, Jan 14 (AP/UNB) — When Venezuelans rang in the new year, few in the crisis-wracked nation had even heard of Juan Guaido.

Two weeks later, the young backbench lawmaker has emerged as a key power broker as he leads the opposition-controlled congress in a high-stakes standoff with socialist President Nicolas Maduro, who is increasingly seen as a dictator both at home and abroad.

"Guaido for president!" people shouted Friday at the largest street rally in over a year to take on Maduro, eagerly waiting for the fresh-faced 35-year-old to speak. "Out with Maduro!"

As Venezuela's economic crisis deepens, with masses fleeing the country to escape runaway inflation on pace to surpass 23 million percent, many are desperate for a new leader to rescue the once-wealthy oil nation from two decades of socialist rule.

Dozens of countries, including the United States, denounced Maduro as illegitimate as he took the oath Thursday for a second, six-year term.

Into that void stepped Guaido.

An industrial engineer who cut his political teeth in a student protest movement a decade ago, he was elected to the National Assembly in 2015, and in its first session this year was named its leader.

Maduro in a Friday night TV address from the presidential palace made light of Guaido's newcomer status, feigning confusion over whether his name was "Guaido" or "Guaire," a notoriously polluted river that runs through Caracas.

"A lot of people in Venezuela are going to ask what is this 'Guaido'?" Maduro joked.

However, the perils of tangling with Maduro are no laughing matter. Shortly after he was elected head of the National Assembly, the rival constitutional assembly controlled by Maduro's allies threatened Guaido and others with an investigation for treason.

 

That's the same charge that landed in jail another up-and-coming opponent, Juan Requenses, following a drone attack on Maduro in August. Requenses has yet to have a public hearing, nor have prosecutors presented any evidence in the case.

Venezuela's feared SEBIN intelligence police pulled Guaido from his vehicle Sunday as he headed to a town hall meeting and briefly detained him.

The challenge for Guaido is to find a way to avoid being permanently arrested while keeping together a fractious opposition coalition, some of whose leaders are urging him to invoke an article of the constitution to declare himself interim president in direct defiance of the "illegitimate" Maduro.

Luis Vicente Leon, head of the Caracas-based polling firm Datanalisis, said such a radical approach is popular among the restive grassroots, exiles and their conservative foreign backers. But it won't necessarily loosen Maduro's powerful grip on Venezuela's institutions, oil wealth and especially the military — the traditional arbiter of political disputes.

"If he decides to do it, part of the opposition will say he's crazy, and if he doesn't, part will say he's a coward," Leon said. "Meanwhile, Maduro is waiting on the side to take advantage of the situation."

The architect of Guaido's meteoric rise is Leopoldo Lopez, Venezuela's most popular opposition leader, who is muzzled under house arrest and considered by government opponents to be a political prisoner.

At a time when many had written off the National Assembly, which was stripped of its last bit of power after the government set up the rival constitutional assembly in 2017, Lopez maneuvered behind the scenes for his Popular Will party to assume the presidency of the gutted legislature.

He then tapped Guaido, serving his first full term as a lawmaker, who rose to the helm of their party in Venezuela after eight more senior politicians sitting on Popular Will's national board were exiled since 2014.

Guaido has been a loyal acolyte of Lopez for years, standing beside him at a 2014 news conference when the activist announced a strategy of anti-Maduro unrest. What was called "The Exit" bitterly divided the opposition because it came less than a year into Maduro's presidency, when support for his rule was still strong.

The two talk a half dozen times each day, and not a single speech or move isn't coordinated with Lopez first, said one ally, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the internal proceedings.

Because Guaido was unknown, Leon said that he hadn't even measured Guaido's approval ratings, like he does numerous other politicians. But he plans to start doing so this week.

Critics say Guaido lacks a political vision, pointing to his rambling debut speech as the legislature's president, which was full of rhetorical barbs aimed at the "usurper" Maduro but short on specifics on how to get out of the malaise.

Still, others see his youth and relative inexperience as breathing life into the beaten-down opposition, making Maduro's frequent diatribes that it is dominated by elitist relics from Venezuela's pre-revolutionary past harder to stick.

Guaido told The Associated Press in a recent interview he doesn't fear running into the same fate as his political allies. He pointed to scars on his neck caused by rubber bullets fired during 2017 street demonstrations against Maduro.

"I still have projectiles lodged here," he said.

Guaido has endured hardships for much of his life. At age 15, shortly after Maduro's mentor, the late Hugo Chavez, assumed the presidency and ushered in a socialist overhaul, Guaido and his family survived a torrential mudslide that killed thousands and left many more homeless in the port city of La Guaira, a short distance from Caracas and home to the capital's airport.

"We are survivors," he said. "If they take Juan Guaido prisoner, someone else will emerge, because our generation won't give up."

Like Lopez, the wiry Guaido prides himself an athlete and is a devotee of his hometown's Sharks — a perennial loser in the Venezuelan baseball league. He and his wife, a fellow activist, have a daughter named for Francisco Miranda, a precursor to Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar.

While in congress, Guaido earned a reputation as a hard worker and consensus-builder while serving as the head of the comptroller commission that investigates allegations of government corruption.

Now he is drawing attention on the international stage. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the presidents of Colombia and Chile have each called him in recent days to offer support.

Luis Almagro, the head of the Organization of American States, went even further, recognizing him as Venezuela's interim president — a title Guaido himself has been careful to avoid embracing. "You have our support," Almagro tweeted.

And on Saturday, the U.S. State Department issued a statement explicitly calling for a new government in Venezuela.

But for the frontal assault on Maduro's authority to succeed, Venezuelans fearful of taking to the streets again after past uprisings ended in violent crackdowns and bitter divisions must be prepared to risk it all again.

To that end, Guaido urged during Friday's rally for Venezuelans to join him in a nationwide demonstration on the historically fraught date of Jan. 23 — the anniversary of a 1958 popular uprising that overthrew military dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez.

"The constitution gives me the legitimacy to carry out the charge of the presidency over the country to call elections," Guaido said. "But I need backing from the citizens to make it a reality."

Indonesia, Jan 14 (AP/UNB) — Navy divers have recovered the cockpit voice recorder of a Lion Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea in October, Indonesian officials said Monday, in a possible boost to the accident investigation.

Ridwan Djamaluddin, a deputy maritime minister, told reporters that remains of some of the 189 people who died in the crash were also discovered at the seabed location.

A spokesman for the Indonesian navy's western fleet, Lt. Col.  Agung Nugroho, said divers using high-tech "ping locator" equipment had started a new search effort on Friday and found the voice recorder beneath 8 meters (26 feet) of seabed mud. The plane crashed in waters 30 meters (98 feet) deep.

The device is being transported to a navy port in Jakarta, Nugroho said, and will be handed over to the transportation safety committee, which is overseeing the accident investigation.

"This is good news, especially for us who lost our loved ones," said Irianto, the father of Rio Nanda Pratama, a doctor who died in the crash.

"Even though we don't yet know the contents of the CVR, this is some relief from our despair," he said.

The 2-month-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta on Oct. 29, killing everyone on board.

The cockpit data recorder was recovered three days after the crash and showed that the jet's airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four flights.

If the voice recorder is undamaged, it could provide valuable additional information to investigators.

Navy chief Rear Adm. Harjo Susmoro said the voice recorder was found just 50 meters (164 feet) from where the data recorder was located. He said the voice recorder's signal, designed to last 90 days following a crash, would've stopped in about 15 days.

The Lion Air crash was the worst airline disaster in Indonesia since 1997, when 234 people died on a Garuda flight near Medan. In December 2014, an AirAsia flight from Surabaya to Singapore plunged into the sea, killing all 162 people on board.

Lion Air is one of Indonesia's youngest airlines but has grown rapidly, flying to dozens of domestic and international destinations. It has been expanding aggressively in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing region of more than 600 million people.

Khartoum, Jan 14 (Xinhua/UNB) - At least 14 people were killed on Sunday in a traffic accident in western Sudan, an official of Sudanese North Darfur State said.

The accident took place on the Western Salvation road in Um Kadada on the border between North Darfur and West Kordofan State, Mohamed Osman, commissioner of Um Kadada, said in a statement.

Osman added that an unknown number of the injured people were transferred to a hospital near the accident site to receive treatment.  

He explained that the accident occurred when a passenger bus coming from the Sudanese capital Khartoum collided with a broken truck parked on the roadside.  

Sudan is among countries with the highest death rates in traffic accidents, mainly due to careless driving, crumbling roads and poor vehicle scrapping system.  

Sudan's Interior Ministry recently said that it was working on new plans to reduce traffic accidents, including installation of radars to monitor speed on highways.

Gaza, Jan 13 (Xinhua/UNB) -Israeli war jets carried out on Saturday night intensive airstrikes on several facilities and posts that belong to Islamic Hamas movement and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip, security sources said.

The sources said that the Israeli war planes hovered over the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave and then started to fire air-to-ground missiles at various targets such as training posts and lookout posts that belong to Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades.

The sources added that while the Israeli war jets were striking on military targets in the Gaza Strip, Israeli army artillery stationed on the border between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel fired several shells at military lookout posts close to the border.

Paramedics who rushed to the places which were targeted by the Israeli missiles said that severe damage was caused to the militants posts, but no injuries were reported.

The Israeli airstrikes on Gaza military facilities came after unknown militants fired rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel. No injuries or damage were reported and no one claimed responsibility for the rockets attacks.