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October 20, 2018: National Current Affairs
1. Qatar urged to fulfil 100,000 jobs promise
- Prime Minister Imran Khan on October 19, 2018 asked Qatar for early fulfillment of its promise of hiring 100,000 Pakistani workers.
- Mr Khan said this during a meeting with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani, who called on him to convey the greetings of emir ofQatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on assumption of the office of prime minister and to express the desire for stronger working relationship with the new government.
- Qatari minister conveyed the keen desire of the emir to work with the new leadership in Pakistan for further strengthening close and cordial relations between Pakistan and
- Qatar.
- FM Al-Thani had in a meeting with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last month offered 100,000 jobs for skilled and semiskilled workers from Pakistan.
- The prime minister recalled the growth in Pakistani exports to Qatar and hoped for further growth in bilateral trade.
- The trade between the two countries had increased by 104 per cent to about $1.6 billion in 2017 from $782 million in 2016.
2. Army wins gold medal in UK contest
- An 11-member Pakistan Army team won gold medal for the fourth consecutive time in the world’s toughest Cambrian Patrol competition held in Wales, UK.
- The Pakistani team comprised a battalion of Northern Light Infantry, the brave soldiers of Gilgit-Baltistan.
- As many as 134 teams from 31 countries participated in the two-week competition, which started on Oct 8.
- Cambrian Patrol is a mission and task-oriented patrolling exercise of 48 hours during which participants cover 60 kilometres, carrying a weight of 25kg
3. Progress on FATF requirement termed unsatisfactory
- Asia-Pacific Group’s team will visit Pakistan again in March-April for another ‘on-site mutual evaluation’
- A delegation of the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) has expressed dissatisfaction over Pakistan`s progress to comply with international best practices against money laundering and counter-terror financing.
- The APG delegation shared its final findings with the authorities of all relevant agencies, highlighting deficiencies in law, regulations and mechanisms and weaknesses of various institutions, and with this pace Pakistan was unlikely to get out of the grey list of the Paris based Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
- The visiting delegation`s October 19, 2018 meeting was the culmination of its long consultations with the ministries of interior, finance, foreign affairs and law, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), National Counter-Terrorism Authority, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Federal Board of Revenue, National Accountability Bureau, Anti-Narcotics Force, Financial Monitoring Unit, Central Directorate of National Savings and provincial counter-terrorism departments.
- The APG delegation told these authorities that it would submit its draft report on its findings to Pakistan by Nov 19. The country was asked to submit its response to the findings within 15 days after the receipt of the report on the basis of which the APG would submit its interim report to the FATF in Paris.
4. France lends support to Belt & Road Initiative
- At a time when some major countries are overtly or covertly opposing China`s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient routes of Silk Road, France has declared its support for China`s gigantic programme.
- Talking to Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Defence Production retired Lt Gen Abdul Qayyum, French Ambassador to Pakistan Marc Barety on October 19, 2018 said: `France supports the Chinese BRI concept and is ready to invest in the subsequent phases of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) provided transparency is ensured.
- The remarks came amidst reports suggesting that the United States, Australia, Japan and India were considering establishing a joint regional infrastructure scheme as an alternative to China`s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative in an attempt to counter Beijing`s spreading influence.
- The ambassador also showed keen interest in the defence sector, but expressed his disappointment that French competing companies could not win any of the three tenders floated for radars, submarines maintenance and mobile bridges which were won by the companies from the US, Turkey and China, respectively. He pointed out that the submarines, for which the tenders for maintenance were floated, had been provided by France.
October 20, 2018: International Current Affairs
5. Kabul asks Afghan Taliban to take part in talks
- The Afghan consul general in Peshawar, Mohammad Hashim Niazi, on October 19, 2018 declared talks the only way forward for peace in his country and asked the Afghan Taliban to take a shot at power in Kabul by contesting elections and not by using force.
- The attack, whose responsibility was claimed by the Afghan Taliban, had killed provincial police chief Abdul Razik, intelligence chief Abdul Mohmin andgovernor Zalmay Wesa.
- `We condemn the tragic killing of our top officials. We call on the (Afghan) Taliban for peace talks.
- The Afghan problem can be resolved by talks and not by force,` the Afghan consul general.
- The envoy, who assumed the office recently, said the Afghan government had appealed to the Taliban militants time and again to come forward for talks strongly feeling that the use of force won`t resolve problems and rather, it deteriorated the situation in Afghanistan.
6. Chinese economy grows at slowest pace since 2009
- China`s economic growth cooled to its weakest quarterly pace since the global financial crisis, with regulators moving quickly to calm nervous investors as a years-long campaign to tackle debt risks and the trade war with the United States began to bite.
- Chinese authorities are trying to navigate through numerous challenges, as the trade war fears have sparked a blistering selloff in domestic stock markets and a steep decline in the value of the yuan versus the dollar, heightening worries about the growth outlook.
- The economy grew 6.5 per cent in the third quarter from a year earlier, below an expected 6.6 per cent rate, and slower than 6.7 per cent in the second quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics said on October 19, 2018.
- It marked the weakest year-on year quarterly gross domestic product growth since the first quarter of 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis.
7. Giant galaxy super cluster found lurking in early Universe
- Scientists have discovered a primitive `supercluster` of galaxies forming in the early Universe, just 2.3 billion years after the Big Bang.
- The structure, nicknamed Hyperion, is the largest and most massive to be found so early in the formation of the Universe, which sprang into existence around 13.7 billion years ago. Its titanic mass is one million billion times that of the Sun.
- `This is the first time that such a large structure has been identified at such a high red shift, just over two billion years after the Big Bang,` said Olga Cucciati, a researcher at the Astrophysics and Space Sciences Observatory in Bologna and lead author of a study detailing the discovery.
- Redshift is a measure of the changing wavelength of light travelling away from an observer.
8. China to launch lunar lighting in outer space
- China is planning to launch its own ‘artificial moon’ by 2020 to replace streetlamps and lower electricity costs in urban areas.
- Chengdu, a city in southwestern Sichuan province, is developing “illumination satellites” which will shine in tandem with the real moon, but are eight times brighter, according to China Daily.
- The first man-made moon will launch from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan, with three more to follow in 2022 if the first test goes well, said Wu Chunfeng, head of Tian Fu New Area Science Society, the organization responsible for the project.
9. 150m-year-old fish fossil found
- A 150-million-year-old fish fossil with piranha-like teeth is the oldest flesh-eating fish ever discovered, Australian researchers said on October 19, 2018.
- The fish, which lived in the age of the dinosaurs, was found alongside its prey – other fish with chunks missing from their fins – in limestone deposits in South Germany, the researchers said in a statement.
- “We have other fish from the same locality with chunks missing from their fins,” said James Cook University researcher David Bellwood.
- Features of the newly described fish such as its tooth pattern and jaw mechanics also suggest a mouth equipped to slice flesh or fins, with “the possibility that the early piranha-like fish may have exploited aggressive mimicry in a striking parallel to the feeding patterns of modern piranha,” according to the study, which also involved Germany’s Jura-Museum. The latest findings were reported in scientific journal Current Biology.
October 20, 2018: Sports Current Affairs
10. Abbas masterclass propels Pakistan to series victory over Australia
- Medium pacer Mohammad Abbas took his maiden ten-wicket haul in a match to fire Pakistan to a 373-run win over Australia in the second Test here at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on October 19, 2018.
- Abbas followed his 5-33 in the first innings with figures of 5-62 to wreck Australia for 164.
- The victory, after Australia were set a 538-run target, allowed Pakistan to wrap up the two-match series 1-0 after Australia fought back to draw the first Test in Dubai last week.
- It was Australia`s heaviest defeat against Pakistan, beating the 356-run hammering at this same venue four years ago.
- It was Abbas, 28, who destroyed Australia with a haul of 17 wickets in the series -becoming the first Pakistani fast bowler to take ten wickets in a Test since Mohammad Asif did so against Sri Lanka at Kandy in 2006.
- Abbas had jolted Australia with four wickets off just 23 balls while Yasir Shah finished with 3-45 to give Pakistan their tenth series win on the neutral venues of the UAE.
- Pakistan were forced to play their home matches in the UAE since the terror attack on the Sri Lankan team bus in Lahore in March 2009.