Author: ALJAZEERA

Vienna says its national has arrived in Doha after mediation by the Qatari government helped secure his release.The Taliban has released Herbert Fritz, an 84-year-old Austrian far-right nationalist, who was arrested in Afghanistan last May. The Austrian government said in a statement on Sunday that Fritz arrived in Doha, Qatar earlier in the day after mediation by the Qatari government helped to secure his release. Fritz was arrested last year after defying Austria’s long-standing warning against travel to Afghanistan, which in 2021 returned to the rule of the Taliban. “I think it was bad luck but I want to visit…

The United States has called on Israel to stop attacking Palestinian police officers in Gaza.The administration of US President Joe Biden has called on Israel to stop attacking Palestinian police officers in the besieged Gaza Strip. The demand comes as the Israeli military is destroying infrastructure from the north to the south, including hospitals, schools, roads, communication networks and the water system. The widespread destruction is part of a deepening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza – with tens of thousands of people starving and heavy fighting continuing to take lives. Why is Israel systematically targeting all arms of the Palestinian Authority…

Deir el-Balah, Gaza – Blood all over his face, and his eyes swollen, Ramadan Shamlakh arrived at a hospital after passersby found him struggling to walk southwards from northern Gaza. The 21-year-old man said he had endured beatings, a stripping and a war crime – he was used as a human shield – by Israeli soldiers when they raided his family home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City on Tuesday morning. His story, and his desperate escape on foot to the south, came as the Israeli army renewed its ground military operations in the neighbourhood in the east of…

Begum is now effectively stateless and will likely stay in a detention camp in Syria for the foreseeable future.Shamima Begum, the British national who travelled to Syria as a schoolgirl to join ISIL (ISIS), has lost her latest appeal attempt to regain citizenship stripped by the United Kingdom. The Court of Appeal ruled on Friday that Shamima Begum was lawfully deprived of her British citizenship. The court said it could be argued that the decision to strip the 24-year-old of her citizenship may be “harsh” but it could also be argued that Begum is “the author of her own misfortune”.…

The overall expansion of North Field from 77mtpa currently to 142mtpa by 2030 represents an 85 percent increase in production.Qatar has announced new plans to expand output from the world’s biggest natural gas field, saying it will boost capacity to 142 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) before 2030. The new North Field expansion, named North Field West, will add a further 16 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year to existing expansion plans, Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said at a news conference on Sunday. “Recent studies have shown that the North Field contains huge additional gas…

Lawyers representing Palestinians file criminal complaint against the chancellor and other top politicians as Germany remains committed to Israel.Berlin, Germany – A group of lawyers is filing a criminal complaint with the German federal prosecutor against senior German politicians, including Chancellor Olaf Scholz, accusing them of “aiding and abetting” the genocide they say is being committed by Israel in Gaza. The case against several members of the country’s Federal Security Council, which directs national security policy and authorises weapons exports, was announced on Friday. In addition to Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Economics Minister Robert Habeck, Finance Minister Christian Lindner…

No let-up in Israeli bombings in central and southern Gaza as Israel uses starvation as a weapon of war.Here’s how things stand on Sunday, February 25, 2024: No let-up in Israeli attack A two-month-old baby, named Mahmoud Fattouh, died of malnutrition in al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, the Wafa news agency reported. No let-up in Israeli bombardment in central and southern Gaza as at least eight Palestinians were killed in an attack near a busy market in Rafah. An Israeli attack targeting a home caused a large fire in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza. Hussam Abu Safiya, head of Kamal…

With the gaze of much of the world fixed on the carnage unfolding in Gaza, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin continues to expand his country’s reach in Africa. Russia, in the form of the private military contractor (PMC) Wagner, has been a growing presence in Libya since at least 2018, when the group was first reported to be training troops under renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar, leader of the Libyan National Army, forces belonging to the eastern of the country’s two parliaments. But, following the death of Wagner’s founder and former Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin, after his failed coup in Russia…

Framework of the agreement includes a six-week pause in fighting that could see an exchange of captives and increase in aid.An Israeli delegation is soon expected in Qatar to continue talks on securing a pause in the war on Gaza that could see captives released. The talks began last week in Paris and were attended by the chiefs of Israel’s spy agency Mossad and domestic security service Shin Bet, along with mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt. The Israeli delegation returned from the French capital, with Israeli national security adviser, Tzachi Hanegbi, saying during a televised interview late…

Qatar tells the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that it rejects the “double standards” when international law applies to some but not to others during a hearing on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. “Some children are deemed worthy of protection while others are killed in their thousands,” senior Qatari diplomat Mutlaq al-Qahtani said on Friday in The Hague. “Qatar rejects such double standards. International law must be upheld in all circumstances. It must be applied to all, and there must be accountability”. Al-Qahtani added that Israel had implemented an “apartheid regime” to maintain the “domination of Jewish Israelis over…