A Pakistani cabinet minister says Islamabad will continue to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar under a 15-year agreement, despite the severing of diplomatic ties with Qatar by Saudi Arabia and some other countries.
Shahid Khaqan Abb
A Pakistani cabinet minister says Islamabad will continue to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar under a 15-year agreement, despite the severing of diplomatic ties with Qatar by Saudi Arabia and some other countries.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the federal minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, said Qatar and Pakistan last year signed a $1 billion agreement, under which Qatar's Liquefied Gas Company Limited will sell LNG from 2016 to year 2031 to state-run Pakistan State Oil.
He said since no sanctions have been imposed on Qatar by the United Nations, Pakistan and Qatar were bound to abide by the agreement.
Qatar has released an initial report into the alleged hack of its state-run news agency, an incident which helped spark a diplomatic crisis between the energy-rich country and Arab nations.
The Qatari Interior Ministry said late Wednesday that the website of the Qatar News Agency was initially hacked in April with "high techniques and innovative methods."
It said hackers installed a file and then published a fake news item attributed to Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, just after midnight May 24.
The ministry did not say who it suspected carried out the attack. It also thanked the FBI and the British National Commission for Combating Crime for assisting it in its investigation.
The alleged fake news item, which had Sheikh Tamim making controversial comments on Iran and Israel, immediately was picked up by Saudi and Emirati media, laying the groundwork for the crisis that began Monday (05.06.2017.)
Kuwait's emir has traveled to Qatar and met that country's leader as part of his efforts to mediate an end to a crisis that's seen Arab nations cut ties to the energy-rich country and attempt to isolate it.
Kuwait's Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah was met planeside by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, when he arrived on Wednesday night.
The two held talks, though details of their discussions were not released. Sheikh Sabah earlier Wednesday traveled to Dubai where he met with Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who also serves as prime minister and vice president of the UAE.
Sheikh Sabah also has traveled to Saudi Arabia in his efforts.
It said hackers installed a file and then published a fake news item attributed to Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, just after midnight May 24.
The ministry did not say who it suspected carried out the attack. It also thanked the FBI and the British National Commission for Combating Crime for assisting it in its investigation.
The alleged fake news item, which had Sheikh Tamim making controversial comments on Iran and Israel, immediately was picked up by Saudi and Emirati media, laying the groundwork for the crisis that began Monday (05.06.2017.)
Kuwait's emir has traveled to Qatar and met that country's leader as part of his efforts to mediate an end to a crisis that's seen Arab nations cut ties to the energy-rich country and attempt to isolate it.
Kuwait's Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah was met planeside by Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, when he arrived on Wednesday night.
The two held talks, though details of their discussions were not released. Sheikh Sabah earlier Wednesday traveled to Dubai where he met with Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who also serves as prime minister and vice president of the UAE.
Sheikh Sabah also has traveled to Saudi Arabia in his efforts.
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The EU design legislative reform package includes two texts amending Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 (the Community Design Regulation) and, in parallel, recasting Directive 98/71/EC (the Design Directive) to align the design protection system in the EU with the digital age and make it more accessible and efficient for applicants. In terms of digitalisation, the update of the requirements for representing designs will allow applicants to file new digital design types (e.g. by using 3D printing technologies). In terms of efficiency, the reform package aims to make application procedures cheaper and simpler and registration procedures faster, while also ensuring greater predictability and legal certainty for stakeholders looking for design protection in the EU. Within the European Parliament, the files were assigned to the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), with Gilles Lebreton (ID, France) as rapporteur. The EU design legislative reform package was published in the EU's Official Journal on 18 November 2024; the two texts entered into force 20 days after their publication in the Official Journal. The Community Design Regulation will apply from 1 May 2025 (with a few articles applying from 1 July 2026), whereas Member States will have to transpose the Design Directive into their national legal systems by 9 December 2027. Fourth edition. The 'EU Legislation in Progress' briefings are updated at key stages throughout the legislative procedure. Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP
Road safety has improved significantly in the EU, with the number of road fatalities falling by more than 60 % in the last 20 years. However, improvements in road safety fell short of the EU goals of decreasing the number of road deaths by 50 % between 2001 and 2010, and by an additional 50 % between 2011 and 2020. Directive (EU) 2015/413 facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road safety-related traffic offences – the Cross-border Enforcement (CBE) Directive – is one of the pillars of the policy framework to improve road safety in the EU. It aims to help improve road safety by tackling the relative impunity of non-resident drivers. The revision, announced in the European Commission's sustainable and smart mobility strategy in 2020, seeks to address key shortcomings in existing rules. According to Commission estimates, 40 % of cross-border offences are committed with impunity, either because the offender is not identified or because the fine is not enforced. The Commission tabled its proposal to revise the CBE Directive on 1 March 2023 as part of the road safety package. In the European Parliament, the file was assigned to the Committee on Transport and Tourism (rapporteur: Kosma Złotowski, ECR, Poland). Following interinstitutional negotiations, the Parliament and Council negotiators reached a provisional agreement on the final wording of the text on 12 March 2024. The Parliament approved the agreed text on 24 April 2024. The Council adopted the new rules on 16 December 2024 and the final act was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 30 December 2024. Fourth edition. The 'EU Legislation in Progress' briefings are updated at key stages throughout the legislative procedure. Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP
Irregular migration is hard to define and to measure. Several EU datasets provide indications of a range of aspects of irregular migration, such as attempted irregular crossings of EU external borders, detected irregular stays, loss of regular status and removals of irregular migrants. However, these datasets are often incomplete, inconsistent, and insufficient to capture the complex issues of irregular migration and return. Despite its shortcomings, data on irregular migration is highly consequential for EU policy making and contributes to the ongoing politicisation of migration in the EU. For example, the widely shared figures showing increasing numbers of people crossing into the EU irregularly, and scores of irregular migrants unwilling or unable to return to their country of origin, fuel a narrative of a long-standing migration crisis in the EU. Such figures also trigger renewed efforts to reinforce EU measures seeking to deter, criminalise, and return irregular migrants. By identifying relevant EU datasets on irregular migration and return and discussing key gaps and limitations, it can be concluded that the available data provide only a partial and sometimes misleading picture of irregular migration in the EU. New official data sources, expected to be available in the future, may alleviate some of the existing issues. However, these need to be complemented with additional indicators and approaches that focus on other important dimensions of migration and return policies, such as compliance with fundamental rights, efficiency, and policy coherence. Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP
In recent years, the European Union has faced a significant number of asylum applications, with over 513 000 applications received in the first half of 2024 alone. Women and girls make up a substantial proportion of asylum seekers, with one in three asylum-seekers being female. In international law, the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention is the main instrument regulating asylum. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Istanbul Convention provide a framework for protecting the rights of women who seek protection. The EU has developed a common European asylum system that has gradually incorporated gender-sensitive elements in legal texts such as the Qualification Directive, the Asylum Procedures Directive and the Reception Conditions Directive. These directives offer special protection to vulnerable individuals, including women and children. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has played a crucial role in advancing a gender-sensitive approach in EU asylum law, acknowledging the specific experiences and circumstances of women and other vulnerable individuals seeking protection in the EU. The CJEU has recognised gender-based violence as a form of persecution and grounds for asylum or subsidiary protection. It has also acknowledged the importance of considering the individual circumstances and experiences of asylum seekers, particularly women and girls, who may face persecution or harm owing to their adherence to certain values or lifestyles. This aligns with a more gender-sensitive approach in EU asylum law and policy in recent years. Nevertheless continued progress is needed to address the human rights challenges faced by women and girls in asylum procedures. Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP
Evolving from informal police cooperation in the 1970s to a fully fledged European Union (EU) agency, Europol has seen its mandate continuously strengthened in recent years. In 2016, the agency was given a new legal basis (Regulation (EU) 2016/794), which strengthened Europol's data management and protection rules and provided for enhanced scrutiny: (i) political scrutiny – by a new parliamentary oversight body made up of representatives of the European Parliament and Member States' national parliaments; and (ii) scrutiny of its data processing operations – by the European Data Protection Supervisor. Furthermore, the regulation reformed the framework for Europol's cooperation with partners such as third countries and international organisations, which also allowed for a strengthened role for the European Commission and the European Parliament. In 2022, on the basis of Regulation (EU) 2022/991, Europol was given new powers to cooperate directly with private parties, process large and complex datasets and take on a larger role in research and innovation. In 2023, the Commission proposed further changes to Europol's mandate that would strengthen its role in fighting migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings. Europol's mandate is to support actions by EU Member States' law enforcement authorities and ensure their cooperation for the purpose of preventing and combating serious crime affecting two or more Member States, terrorism, and forms of crime that affect a common interest covered by a Union policy. The agency is empowered to tackle more than 30 forms of serious crime and related criminal offences, including terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking, sexual abuse and exploitation, and trafficking in arms and ammunition. To fulfil its objectives, Europol carries out a series of tasks, including the core activities of acting as the EU's criminal information exchange hub and providing operational support and expertise to Member States' criminal investigations. Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP
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