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4 Sunday, December 16, 2018 National KARACHI: Head office: 509, Land Mark Plaza, I.I Chundrigar Road, Karachi, Pakistan. Ph: +9221-32214988- 32214990, Fax: +9221-32214989 messengerdaily@yahoo.com, editor@dailymessenger.com.pk Chief Editor: Muhammad Taqi Alvi Associate Editor: Ali Razavi - Editor Special Reports: Muhammad Rafique Rajpar Hyderabad Bureau Chief: Abbas Kassar - Islamabad Bureau Chief: Hameedullah Khan ISLAMABAD –– LAHORE –– RAWALPINDI –– KARACHI Minxin Pei (Dragonomics) Western leaders and institutions should distinguish between state-sponsored activities and legitimate, mutually beneficial cultural, civic, and educational exchanges. Since the Cold War ended, the West has invested huge amounts of resources in efforts to induce political liberalization in China, including through programs to promote the rule of law, civil society, transparency, and government accountability. The results have been disappointing. Far from becoming more democratic, China has lately been backsliding toward hard-line authoritarianism. And now it is investing resources in efforts to do some inducing of its own in the world's democracies. China's influence-peddling in the West has been the subject of media reports and think tank studies, and has elicited the concern of high-profile politicians, from US Vice President Mike Pence to former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. China's "influence operations," they argue, include cultivating ties with Western politicians, establishing Confucius Institutes around the world to promote Chinese language and culture, expanding the global reach of China's official propaganda networks, and donations to and exchange programs with academic institutions. How should Western liberal democracies confront a China that is taking a page from their own playbook, as it exploits their openness to advance its ideological and geopolitical objectives? For starters, Western leaders and institutions should distinguish between state-sponsored activities and legitimate, mutually beneficial cultural, civic, and educational exchanges among private citizens and entities. To be sure, the Communist Party of China's sophisticated "United Front" operation - which focuses on neutralizing opposition to its policies and authority, inside and outside China - often relies on private citizens to achieve its objectives. Private actors also have informal incentives to curry favor with China's rulers by behaving in CPC-friendly ways. As a result, even ostensibly independent or private activities can carry political and reputational risks for Western organizations, which may be accused of acting as "agents of influence" for China. Richard N. Haass (Geopolitix) To be precise, there is no solution of any sort. There is, however, a set of policies that, if adopted, would help leaders manage the challenges. It was not all that long ago - just a few years, as hard as that it is to believe - that Europe appeared to be the part of the world most closely resembling the end-of-history idyll depicted by Francis Fukuyama at the end of the Cold War. Democracy, prosperity, and peace all seemed firmly entrenched. Not anymore. Parts of Paris are literally burning. The United Kingdom is consumed and divided by Brexit. Italy is led by an unwieldy left-right coalition that is resisting EU budget rules. Germany is contending with a political realignment and in the early phases of a transition to a new leader. Hungary and Poland have embraced the illiberalism seen across much of the world. Spain is confronting Catalan nationalism. And Russia is committing new acts of aggression against Ukraine. In what by historical standards constitutes an instant, the future of democracy, prosperity, and peace in Europe has become uncertain. Much of what had been widely assumed to be settled is not. NATO's rapid demobilization after the Cold War looks premature and precipitous. There is no single explanation for these developments. What we are seeing in France is populism of the left, the result of people having difficulty making ends meet and rejecting new taxes, whatever the justification for them. This is different from what has fueled the rise of the far right across Europe: cultural defensiveness amid local and global challenges, above all immigration. The European Union, for its part, has gradually lost its hold on the public imagination. It has been too remote, too bureaucratic, and too elite-driven for too long. Meanwhile, renewed Russian aggression may simply reflect President Vladimir Putin's judgment that, having realized large political returns on his previous military "investments" in Ukraine and Syria, he had little to fear or lose from further actions. Europe's political class deserves its share of responsibility for today's growing disarray. The EU introduced a common currency without a fiscal or banking union, making it all but impossible to conduct a coherent economic policy. The decision to put the UK's continued EU membership to a popular vote, while allowing a simple majority to decide the issue and failing to spell out the terms of departure, was misguided. Likewise, opening Germany's borders to a flood of refugees, however pure Chancellor Angela Merkel's motives, was sure to trigger a backlash. Most recently, French President Emmanuel Macron did himself no OPINION West must handle China with care OPINION But that does not mean that Western entities should reject outright any opportunity for cooperation with Chinese entities and individuals. So while the West must exercise vigilance, it should avoid overreaction. A donation from a Chinese state-owned enterprise to, say, a Western academic or cultural institution must be handled with extraordinary care, if not rejected outright, because it could compromise the recipient's reputation or constrain its freedom. But a gift from a wealthy Chinese businessperson should be welcomed, as long as it is transparent and includes no conditions that would infringe on the recipient's mission. In fact, transparency is one of the most powerful mechanisms for protecting Western democratic processes from Chinese influence operations. A shared code of conduct for dealing with China would also help to ensure that democratic values are upheld in any deal or collaboration. Upholding these values also means that Western governments must take care to avoid another kind of overreaction: targeting their societies' own citizens of Chinese origin. Given China's long record of exploiting its diaspora for economic and political gain, some in the West will be tempted to look upon all ethnic Chinese with suspicion, exposing them to discrimination and potentially even subjecting them to surveillance. But allowing ethnic Chinese to be harassed, intimidated, or punished for exercising their civil and political rights - say, by making political donations or speaking out on issues that matter to them, including those related to China - would be a grave injustice. Western institutions benefit from unparalleled resilience, thanks to the liberal-democratic values that underpin them. They cannot be easily subverted by an authoritarian regime, no matter how many cultural exchanges or language institutes it builds. In fact, what is most notable about China's efforts to spread its influence abroad is not their success, but the ease with which they are exposed. Portraying them as a genuine threat to the world's democracies not only betrays the West's own insecurity, but also gives China more credit than it deserves. - Minxin Pei is a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and the author of China's Crony Capitalism. Europe is crumbling, can it find common ground? favors by backing down to the "Yellow Vest" protesters and offering compromises more likely to fuel additional demonstrations and exacerbate his country's budget predicament. We should not assume things will get better. It is only a matter of time before France's far-right National Rally (formerly the National Front) and political parties across Europe figure out how to combine economic and cultural populism and threaten the post-World War II political order. Italy's hybrid populist government is a version of just that. The UK will remain torn over its relationship (or lack thereof) with the EU no matter what comes of Brexit; and it is entirely possible that a post-Brexit UK might come under serious strain itself, given renewed calls for Irish unity and Scottish independence. There is no formula for dividing power between Brussels and capitals that would be acceptable to both the EU and national governments. Meanwhile, it is far from certain that Putin is content or done with his aggression against Ukraine or conceivably others. Moreover, in a world of increasing inequality, violence within and between countries, and climate change, the pressures posed by immigration are more likely to worsen than fade away. And economic dislocation is bound to intensify in a world of global competition and new technologies that will eliminate millions of existing jobs. Why this matters should be obvious. Europe still represents a quarter of the world's economy. It is the largest constellation of democratic countries. The last century demonstrated more than once the cost of a breakdown of order on the continent. Alas, just as there is no single cause that explains Europe's increasing disarray, there is no single solution either. To be precise, there is no solution of any sort. There is, however, a set of policies that, if adopted, would help leaders manage the challenges. A comprehensive immigration strategy that balances security, human rights, and economic competitiveness is one such policy. A defense effort that focuses more on how money is spent than on how much is needed would go a considerable way in buttressing Europe's security. Moreover, deterrence should be strengthened by bolstering NATO and further arming Ukraine. Weaning Europe from Russian natural gas makes sense as well, which implies halting the Nord Stream II pipeline that is meant to bring gas directly from Russia to Germany, bypassing Ukraine. And additional retraining programs are needed for workers whose jobs will disappear as a result of globalization and automation. Teachers protest against ban on casual leave R A W A L P I N D I : Teachers community from district Rawalpindi has voiced strong protest over imposition of ban by education department on availing casual leave by them. 2 casual leave every month and overall 25 casual leave during entire year were granted to teachers to deal with health and death related matters and urgent works. According to media reports, education department Rawalpindi has given verbal orders to school headmasters to stop granting casual leave to the teachers because monitoring teams have started surprise raids to check attendance of teachers and the casual leave is adversely affecting the ranking of teachers. Headmasters have informed the teachers that only district education authority will grant casual leave. QUETTA: Members of Balochistan Education Employees Action Committee lodge a sitin protest in favor of their demands in front of Balochistan Assembly. Daherki people deprived of train facility DAHARKI: Daherki city, the economic hub of Ghotki District, lacks train facility since long time. This journey issue not only affect citizens and people of nearby areas but also hits business community hard. Many businessmen have been compelled to Encroachment on 300 acres of land removed near Larkana LARKANA: Encroachment on 300 acres of Sindh forest department’s land was removed in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan with the help of heavy machinery on Saturday. All standing crops were destroyed from Bahman Plot near Larkana. The police and forest department officials supervised the removal of the encroachment. Vegetables and wheat crops have been grown on the land by the habitual land grabbers. However, Range Forest Officer Karim Bux Mangrio and District Forest Officer Muhammad Ali Unar did not disclose the names of occupants. They told newsmen that forest department lands were being retrieved from the encroachers on the directives of the apex court. They said standing crops, such as wheat and vegetables, were recently sown in the encroached land, which had been destroyed with the help of heavy machinery and tractors. They said that the forest department lands would now be taken over with the help of police as they also had received such directions to get the state land evacuated from the influential land grabbers, adding no one would be spared in this connection. It must also be mentioned here that millions of acres of land and forests of Katcha area had been forcibly occupied by influential Sardars, Pirs and landlords having strong political support who are also involved in deforestation on massive scale which also need to be removed on priority basis as they have also been selling forest wood which has destroyed ecosystem. travel by bus to Lahore, Karachi and Faisalabad for business. It is pity that only two trains have stop at Daherki Railway Station and this is why the businessmen of the city are using buses for long journies for business purpose, which is not safe journey. CHITRAL: Around 85 families have shifted to lower Chitral from Rerioveer due to water shortage while the remaining families are also weighing options to migrate. Furthermore, 200 families have also migrated from Morilusht area to Chitral City due to looming water crises. Chitral district is the worst-affected by the climate change where people are facing severe water shortage despite the fact that it is home to dozens of glaciers, natural streams and a river. Today, 200 children on snow-capped mountains area at Rerioveer of Chitral A businessman, Chaudhary Raza Ashraf have appealed to Minister Railways Shiekh Rasheed Ahmed that trains’ stops should be restored here besides establishing online booking offices so that people of this region could take a sigh of relief. staged a protest demonstration against water shortage and appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of the issue. The children of various schools at Rerioveer in upper Chitral were holding banners and placards inscribed with demands for construction of irrigation channels, safe drinking water schemes and forestation to control climate change in the Chitral Valley. The protesting children said their parents had no source of income to feed families but were bearing their school expenses. “They used to do farming and sell dry fruits but due to IBD police register FIR against man for threatening a woman ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad police have registered an FIR against a man after a video of him threatening a woman with a gun and verbally abusing her went viral on social media. Officers at the Ramna police station say the footage is old and the suspect is currently in China. In the video, the man is seen waving a pistol at the woman and hurling abuses at her while she begged for forgiveness. The man has been identified as Wasif Abbasi. The case was filed at the Ramna police station in Islamabad by a friend of the woman’s. The woman says that Abbasi fooled her and wanted to marry her. When she refused to meet him, he threatened her. When she found out he was already married, she refused to meet him, igniting his anger. When she cut off communication with him he began threatening her life. Now she is too afraid to go to university. Woman, daughter beaten, injured over petty issue PAKPATTAN A woman and her minor daughter was beaten and injured under undisclosed circumstance in Pakpattan area on Saturday. According to details, the victim woman lodged a complaint with the local police that a local resident Muhammad Ashraf along with a sub-inspector of Pakpattan City police station and his team broke into her house in Mohollah Kokanwala and started beating her and her minor daughter. The man snatched her daughter from her and threw her on a burning stove, leaving her with burn injuries. The police team also took the victim woman to the police station and threatened her for negative consequences. Later, the police allowed her to leave. The victim woman and her daughter were taken to the District Headquarters Hospital Pakpattan where they were under treatment till the filing of this story. 85 families migrate to lower Chitral due to water scarcity climate change, they have lost their livelihood,” the students said, adding that all springs had gone dry and agricultural lands barren in upper Chitral. The protesting students appealed to the Prime Minister Imran Khan to allocate funds for construction of irrigation and drinking water channels in their respective villages. Local elders said that Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, during his visit to the district, assured them that he would ask authority concerned to resolve the issue of water shortage. But nothing has happened as yet, they complained. HYDERABAD: Inundated road by overflowing sewerage water creating problems for commuters, showing negligence of concerned authorities.
Australia recognises west Jerusalem as capital of Israel SYDNEY: Australia now recognises west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Saturday, but a contentious embassy shift from Tel Aviv will not occur until a peace settlement is achieved. Canberra became one of just a few governments around the world to follow US President Donald Trump’s lead and recognise the contested city as Israel’s capital, but Morrison also committed to recognising a future state of Palestine with east Jerusalem as its capital. “Australia now recognises west Jerusalem – being the seat of the Knesset and many of the institutions of government – is the capital of Israel,” Morrison said in a speech in Sydney. Australia warns citizens ahead of expected Jerusalem move Both Israel and the Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital. Most foreign nations avoided moving embassies there to prevent inflaming peace talks on the city’s final status – until Trump unilaterally moved the US embassy there earlier this year. “We look forward to moving our embassy to west Jerusalem when practical, in support of and after final status of determination,” Morrison said, adding that work on a new site for the embassy was under way. In the interim, the prime minister said, Australia would establish a defence and trade office in the west of the holy city. COLOMBO, SRI Semasinghe, a legislator LANKA: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned on Saturday, his son and a party lawmaker told Reuters, seven weeks after from Rajapaksa’s party, told Reuters. The announcement came shortly after the Supreme Court banned Rajapakse, 73, President Maithripala and his purported government Sirisena appointed him in controversial circumstances. from exercising the powers of the office they His son Namal claimed since October. Rajapaksa, also a lawmaker, A day earlier, the said his father would make a special statement at 0830 GMT “He just signed the Supreme Court opened the way for potential impeachment proceedings against resignation letter in front of President Maithripala party members,” Shehan Sirisena ruling that he broke “Furthermore, recognising our commitment to a twostate solution, the Australian government is also resolved to acknowledge the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a future state with its capital in east Jerusalem,” he added. Morrison first floated a shift in foreign policy in October, which angered Australia’s immediate neighbour Indonesia – the world’s most populous Muslim nation. The issue has put a halt on years-long negotiations on a bilateral trade deal. Canberra on Friday told its citizens travelling to Indonesia to “exercise a high degree of caution”, warning of protests in the capital Jakarta and popular holiday hotspots, including Bali. Morrison said it was in Australia’s interests to support “liberal democracy” in the Middle East, and took aim at the United Nations he Sri Lanka's newly appointed PM Rajapaksa resigns - party lawmaker, son By SJA Jafri Bureau Chief Australia MELBOURNE: The 860 Melbournians who stripped off in the name of art for a nude photo shoot during the heart of Melbourne's winter will today see the works they took part in. supermarket The naked men and Woolworths women joined a series of photo shoots in July by internationally renowned photographer Spencer Tunick. The final four selected images taken during the Return of the Nude photo shoots are being released today, and participants will receive limited edition prints at a gathering in Prahran, in Melbourne's inner south-east. A virtual reality video and a mobile app showing the staging of the photographs will also be released. The photo shoots sparked controversy when giant initially denied Tunick access to one of its Prahran carparks. The company said it was concerned about the impact on its customers at a weekend, but a compromise was reached when organisers rescheduled the shoot for a Monday morning. The photo shoot went ahead in streets around the busy retail strip, Chapel Street, with participants describing it as a "beautiful, respectful" experience. Tunick, who currently lives in New York's Lower Hudson Valley, will not be in Melbourne for the release but in the past, he has praised Melbourne and the photo shoot participants who braved the wintry conditions. "Chapel Street reminds me of the East Village in New York, Sunset Strip in LA, and San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury, but all combined into one juggernaut," he said. the law by dissolving parliament last month. A seven-judge bench unanimously agreed that Sirisena violated the constitution when he dissolved parliament last month to prevent Rajapakse suffering a humiliating defeat on the floor of the House. NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar's president has turned a blind eye to widespread atrocities perpetrated against the Rohingya Muslims, describing the current year as “auspicious” for Rakhine state, the epicenter of the Rohingya crisis. In a statement on Saturday, Win Myint congratulated the “ethnic brothers and sisters” on the 44th anniversary of the Rakhine National Day and falsely claimed that “2018 has been an auspicious year.” He praised an agreement reached between Myanmar and Bangladesh to repatriate the Rohingya refugees and the arrangements made to receive “those displaced people who have gone over to the Bangladesh side.” “I wish to urge all Rakhine ethnic nationals and citizens to participate... (in the) transformation of Rakhine State into a beautiful and happy state,” Myint said at the end of his statement. The Myanmarese president was appointed to his position in March by the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has faced international condemnation for her silent and mishandling of the Rohingya crisis. The Rohingya Muslims, who had previously been based in Myanmar’s northwestern state of Rakhine, were subjected to a campaign of killings, rape, and arson attacks by the military, backed by the country’s majority Buddhist extremists, mainly between late 2016 and August 2017 in what the UN has concluded Spencer Tunick's Melbourne nude Truck crash kills 20 mourners in Nepal photos released in vivid colour KATHMANDU: At least 20 people have died when a truck carrying mourners returning from a funeral ritual plunged around 400 meters onto a river bank in central Nepal, police say. Fourteen others were injured as the vehicle veered off an unpaved narrow road in a hilly area around 70 kilometers north of the capital Kathmandu on Friday. Police retrieved 18 bodies at the site. One person died while being taken to hospital and another during treatment, police official Bhimlal Bhattarai said. "Bodies were found scattered on the river bank and slope and we are still searching the incident site because the total number of people on board is still not known," said Bhattarai. Authorities are yet to confirm the cause of the crash, but the police said excessive speed on the narrow road could be one of the reasons. said was a place Israel is ‘bullied’. The Jerusalem decision could help the embattled Australian PM – who faces the prospect of an election drubbing next year – with Jewish and conservative Christian voters and win him friends in the White House. The opposition Labor party slammed Morrison for putting “self-interest ahead of the national interest”. “Recognising West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, while continuing to locate Australia’s embassy in Tel Aviv, is nothing more than a face saving exercise,” shadow minister for foreign affairs Penny Wong said in a statement. “This is a decision which is all risk and no gain,” she said, adding it puts Australia “out of step” with the international community. Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv last May prompted tens of thousands of Palestinian protesters to approach the heavily-protected Israeli border. At least 62 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire that day. 11 die after eating 'toxic' rice at Indian temple MYSORE: Eleven people have died after eating rice that had likely been contaminated with a toxic substance at a Hindu temple ceremony, a health official says. Another 29 people were critically ill and undergoing emergency treatment across various hospitals in Mysore, a city in the state of Karnataka. "11 people have died so far and 93 others are hospitalized. Out of them, 29 are on ventilator support," said K. H. Prasad, the health officer for Chamraj Nagar district where the temple is located. "It is likely that some toxic substance got mixed with the rice. The samples have been sent for forensic testing," Prasad told AFP. The patients were being treated for vomiting, diarrhea and respiratory distress, Prasad added. LOS ANGELES: Harvey Weinstein bragged about sleeping with Jennifer Lawrence after another actress rejected his advances, a lawsuit has alleged. The latest allegation against the film producer emerged in court documents on Friday, with an unnamed woman claiming he forcibly performed oral sex on her. Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex. According to the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles, Weinstein pushed the unnamed actress to the ground during a meeting at his office in 2013 before sexually assaulting her. When she rejected his advances, Weinstein is alleged to have asked, "Do you even want to be an actress?", adding: "I slept with Jennifer Lawrence and look where she is; she has just won an Oscar." Lawrence issued a statement on Friday denying she had had a sexual relationship with Weinstein. "My heart breaks for all the women who were victimised by Harvey Weinstein. I have never had anything but a professional relationship with him. This is yet another example of the predatory tactics and lies that he engaged in to lure countless women." The latest accuser, listed in legal documents as Jane Doe, is suing both Weinstein and The Weinstein Company, the film studio he founded with his brother Bob. She alleges sexual battery and discrimination. Sunday, December 16, 2018 International 5 Harvey Weinstein bragged about sleeping with Jennifer, lawsuit alleges Israel's Chief of General Staff traveled to UAE twice last month: Report JERUSALEM: The president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) says the chief of staff of the Israeli military, Gadi Eisenkot, secretly traveled twice in November to the United Arab Emirates, where he met with senior officials, as a number of Arab countries in the Persian Gulf region are warming their relations with the Tel Aviv regime after clandestine contacts. Mort Fridman said the 58-year-old Israeli commander-in-chief met with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy ANKARA: Turkey´s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart Donald Trump agreed Friday to "more effective coordination" between their countries´ operations in Syria, according to Turkish presidential sources, after Ankara threatened to launch a new offensive in the war-torn nation. The two leaders spoke by telephone and "agreed to ensure more effective cooperation on the subject of Syria", according to the source. The conversation came after Erdogan on Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan besides a number of high-ranking Emirati military officials, Israel’s Arabic-language MAKAN Wednesday warned Turkey was planning to launch a new operation within the "next few days" against the 33 public television network reported. The senior AIPAC official further noted that an agreement on the sale of Israeli military hardware to the UAE was struck during the meeting. Erdogan, Trump agree ´more effective´ coordination on Syria was genocide. The brutal campaign forced some 700,000 Rohingya to flee their homeland since August 2017 and seek refuge in neighboring Bangladesh. Many of the displaced Rohingya are either living in squalid camps or just across the border in a plot of land known as the “no man’s land.” The Rohingya Muslims, who have lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship and branded illegal emigrants from US-backed Kurdish People´s Protection Units (YPG) militia in northern Syria. Ankara views the YPG as a "terrorist offshoot" of the Kurdistan Workers´ Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and is considered a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies. But the YPG has spearheaded the United States´ fight against the Islamic State group under the banner of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance. During their phone call, Erdogan shared with Trump "Turkey´s legitimate security concerns caused by the presence and actions of the terrorist organisation PKK/PYD/YPG", the source said. Earlier on Friday at a speech in Istanbul, Erdogan said he is "determined to bring peace and security to areas east of the Euphrates" River in Syria´s north. Washington´s support of the Kurdish militia has strained relations with Turkey over the past couple of years. Myanmar praises violence-hit Rakhine for ‘auspicious’ year Bangladesh, which likewise denies them citizenship. Their former communities in Myanmar have been razed. Report say Buddhists have been shuttled and settled there in newly-built structures to repopulate the area. In late October, Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to begin to return hundreds of thousands of the Rohingya refugees who fled last year. But the refugees are not willing to return, citing serious security concerns.
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