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October 20, 2019: National Current Affairs
1. Manmohan agreed to be at Kartarpur event as common man
• Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has announced that former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh has accepted his invitation to attend the Kartarpur corridor inauguration ceremony, scheduled for Nov 9, albeit as a common man rather than as a special guest.
• `He is welcome even as a common participant,` the foreign minister said while talking to the media on Saturday.
• Mr Qureshi said Prime Minister Imran Khan would inaugurate Pakistan`s part of the corridor, facilitating pilgrimage of 5,000 Indian Sikhs everyday to their holy place. India was initially reluctant to open the corridor but due to public pressure from the Indian Punjab, New Delhi decided to arrange a ceremony related to the corridor the same day, he said, adding that the arrangements made by Pakistan were way better than those being finalised by India
2. Pak-Indonesian Sea Thunder exercise concludes
• A seven-day bilateral exercise, Sea Thunder-IV-2019 between Pakistan Navy Special Services Group and Indonesian Navy Special Operation Force (SOF) was successfully concluded.
• ‘Sea Thunder’ is a series of bilateral exercises which is conducted annually between Pakistan and Indonesian navies.
• This exercise, being 4th in the series, continued for seven days, according to a press release issued by Pak Navy officials on October 19, 2019.
• It stated that the aim of the exercise was to strengthen military relationship, improve coordination and interoperability between Special Operation Forces, exchange professional expertise and experiences of counter terrorism operations between the participating forces.
3. UAE offers Pakistan access to its labour market database
• The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has offered to Pakistan access to its labour market database, which would help boost export of Pakistani workforce to the Gulf state.
• The offer was extended by UAE Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation (Mohre) Nasser Bin Thani Al Hameli during a meeting with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistan and Human Resource Development Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari on the sidelines of the 5th ministerial session of Abu Dubai Dialogue.
• The initiative would provide Pakistan updated information of job opportunities in the UAE`s labour market, besides enabling it to train the workforce as per market demand.
4. Alvi to attend Naruhito`s enthronement ceremony
• President Dr Arif Alvi would attend the enthronement ceremony of Japanese Emperor Naruhito on Tuesday (Oct 22).
• President Alvi will leave for Japan on October 20, 2019 (today) on a five-day trip.
• The ceremony in Tokyo is being attended by heads of state and government, rulers, and senior officials from around 170 countries.
• Some of the key participants of the event are Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, Jordan`s King Abdullah, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan.
• Royal families of the United Kingdom, Spain, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Bhutan would also attend the event.
5. KP`s top healthcare regulator quits over dept`s `unwarranted interference`
• Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Care Commission Dr Mohammad Rehman on October 19, 2019 stepped down saying he`s unable to stay put as the `unwarranted interference` of the health department has brought the commission`s working to a standstill.
• The development comes over a week after a member of the commission`s board, Gohar Javed, quit.
• In the letter of resignation sent to the chief secretary, Dr Mohammad Rehman complained about the `extreme highhandedness, immaturity and incompetence of the people at the helm of the health department and said the commission failed to hire the most essential staff.
6. PIA to operate 13 flights on new routes
• Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), the national carrier, will operate 13 flights on new international routes during current month.
• The official said that two mores flight routes will be functional from Karachi to Toronto and will bring the airline’s total number of flights to Canada to five.
• An additional seven flights will be added to the Jeddah route, bringing the total number of flights to 42 per week from Pakistan to Jeddah.
• From October 28, there will be two weekly flights between Quetta and Jeddah, while there will be two flights per week from Multan to Riyadh and Dubai. He said that the airline has also resumed flights from Islamabad to Kuala Lumpur on October 14. The airline is also aiming to increase the number of flights from Islamabad to Birmingham. The PIA will also start direct flight operation for America soon
October 20, 2019: International Current Affairs
7. Johnson defiant as MPs vote for delay in Brexit
• British MPs voted on Saturday to demand Boris Johnson delay BREXIT while they further consider his EU divorce deal but the prime minister defiantly insisted Britain will leave on Oct 31.
• In a day of high drama in the House of Commons, MPs declined to give their backing to the agreement Johnson struck with the EU this week until the legislation needed to ratify it has passed.
• In doing so, they triggered a law requiring Johnson write to EU leaders by the end of the day asking to delay BREXIT, to avoid the risk that Britain crashes out in less than two weeks.
• Outside parliament, tens of thousands of people marching to demand a new referendum that might reverse BREXIT erupted into cheers at the vote.
8. Chile imposes emergency after riots over fare hikes
• Residents of Chile`s capital awoke on October 19, 2019 to a ravaged city as burned-out buses, bikes and garbage littered the streets after a day of violent protests that prompted the government to declare a state of emergency and call out soldiers to maintain order for the first time in decades.
• The stunning spasm of unrest was triggered by an increase in metro fares but reflected a much broader anger over economic and social conditions, including a yawning gap between rich and poor in a country considered one of the most stable in Latin America.
9. India building world`s biggest face recognition system
• India is trying to build the world`s biggest facial recognition system to immediately detect a suspect, says an official announcement released to the international media.
• The proposed database the Automated Facial Recognition System, aims to `modernise … information gathering, criminal identification, verification and its dissemination` across the country.
• India has asked IT companies across the world to send their proposals to the National Crime Record Bureau in New Delhi.
• India hopes that the project would enable law enforcement agencies in its 29 states and seven union territories to access a single, centralised database
10. Egypt unveils biggest ancient coffin find in over a century
• Egypt on October 19, 2019 unveiled the details of 30 ancient wooden coffins with mummies inside discovered in the southern city of Luxor in the biggest find of its kind in more than a century.
• A team of Egyptian archaeologists discovered a `distinctive group of 30 coloured wooden coffins for men, women and children` in a cache at Al Asasif cemetery on Luxor`s west bank, the Ministry of Antiquities said in a statement on October 19, 2019.
• `It is the first large human cof fin cache ever discovered since the end of the 19th century,` the Egyptian Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Enany was quoted as saying during a ceremony in Luxor.
• The intricately carved and painted coffins, three thousand years old, were closed with mummies inside and were in `a good condition of preservation, colours and complete inscriptions`, the statement added
