Biden says Israel has agreed to stop Gaza attacks for Ramadan as Hamas mulls draft truce proposal

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US President Joe Biden walks to Marine One. (AFP)

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Biden says Israel has agreed to stop Gaza attacks for Ramadan as Hamas mulls draft truce proposal

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People find their way through a rubble-covered alley, following overnight Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 25, 2024, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)

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This picture taken from Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip shows Israeli armoured personnel carriers moving out of Gaza on February 26, 2024, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. (AFP)

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Palestinians mourn as they bury their dead following overnight Israeli air strikes, at a cemetery in east Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on February 26, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant Hamas movement. (AFP)

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Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, shelter at a tent camp, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, February 26, 2024. (REUTERS)

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President Joe Biden eats ice cream at Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, in New York, as Seth Meyers watches. (AP)

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Updated 27 February 2024

Reuters

February 26, 2024 22:46

Biden says Israel has agreed to stop Gaza attacks for Ramadan as Hamas mulls draft truce proposal

Under proposed deal, hospitals and bakeries in Gaza would be repaired, 500 aid trucks would enter into the strip each day
Hamas would free 40 Israeli hostages in exchange for 400 Palestinian prisoners

Updated 27 February 2024

Reuters

February 26, 2024 22:46

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said Israel has agreed to halt military activities in Gaza for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as Hamas studied a draft proposal for a truce which includes a pause in fighting and a prisoner-hostage exchange.
The draft proposal, which a senior source close to truce talks in Paris told Reuters would allow hospitals and bakeries in Gaza to be repaired and 500 aid trucks to enter the battered enclave every day, is the most serious attempt in weeks to end the conflict which erupted in October last year.
Ramadan is expected to begin on the evening of March 10th and end on the evening of April 9th.
“Ramadan is coming up, and there’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan, as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,” Biden said during an appearance on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers.”
He also warned that Israel risked losing international support due to the high death toll among Palestinians, adding that Israel had committed to make it possible for Palestinians to evacuate from Rafah in Gaza’s south before intensifying its campaign there to destroy Hamas.
Biden, whose remarks were recorded on Monday and broadcast on Tuesday, said there was an agreement in principle for a ceasefire between the two sides while hostages were released. He said he hoped to have a ceasefire in the conflict by the following Monday.
“There are too many innocent people that are being killed. And Israel has slowed down the attacks in Rafah,” Biden said, adding that a temporary ceasefire would jumpstart a process for Palestinians to have their own state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a two-state solution.
Under the draft proposal, the exchange of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages would be at a ratio of 10 to one, the senior source said.
The draft also states Hamas would free 40 Israeli hostages including women, children under 19, elderly over 50 and the sick, while Israeli would release around 400 Palestinian prisoners and will not re-arrest them, the source told Reuters.
Mediators have ramped up efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, in the hope of heading off an Israeli assault on the Gaza city of Rafah where more than a million displaced people are sheltering at the southern edge of the enclave.
After Hamas killed 1,200 people and captured 253 hostages on Oct. 7, Israel launched a ground assault on Gaza, with nearly 30,000 people confirmed killed, according to Gaza health authorities.

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Updated 5 sec ago

AFP

January 24, 2025 15:14

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 after ousting US-backed government in Afghanistan
The Afghan rulers say the court should ‘not ignore the religious and national values of people’

Updated 5 sec ago

AFP

January 24, 2025 15:14

KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Friday an arrest warrant sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its leaders was “politically motivated.”
It comes a day after the ICC chief prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women — a crime against humanity.
“Like many other decisions of the (ICC), it is devoid of a fair legal basis, is a matter of double standards and is politically motivated,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry posted on social media platform X.
“It is regrettable that this institution has turned a blind eye to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their domestic allies during the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan.”
It said the court should “not attempt to impose a particular interpretation of human rights on the entire world and ignore the religious and national values of people of the rest of the world.”
The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 after ousting the American-backed government in a rapid but largely bloodless military takeover, imposing a severe interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on the population and heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives.
Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister Mohammad Nabi Omari, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, said the ICC “can’t scare us.”
“If these were fair and true courts, they should have brought America to the court, because it is America that has caused wars, the issues of the world are caused by America,” he said at an event in eastern Khost city attended by an AFP journalist.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should also be brought before the court over the country’s war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ attacks in October 2023.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister and three top Hamas leaders in November last year.
Afghanistan’s government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under sharia, but many of its edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders.
It is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from education.
Women have been ordered to cover their hair and faces and wear all-covering Islamic dress, have been barred from parks and stopped from working in government offices.
ICC chief Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”
Khan said Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”
“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” Khan said.
ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants, a process that could take weeks or even months.
The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results.
In theory, this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional arrest warrant applications for other Taliban officials.

Topics: Haibatullah Akhundzada

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Updated 36 min 59 sec ago

AFP

January 24, 2025 11:17

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women

Updated 36 min 59 sec ago

AFP

January 24, 2025 11:17

Kabul: Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Friday an arrest warrant sought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its leaders was “politically motivated.”
It comes a day after the ICC chief prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women — a crime against humanity.
“Like many other decisions of the (ICC), it is devoid of a fair legal basis, is a matter of double standards and is politically motivated,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry posted on social media platform X.
“It is regrettable that this institution has turned a blind eye to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their domestic allies during the twenty-year occupation of Afghanistan.”
It said the court should “not attempt to impose a particular interpretation of human rights on the entire world and ignore the religious and national values of people of the rest of the world.”
The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 after ousting the American-backed government in a rapid but largely bloodless military takeover, imposing a severe interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on the population and heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives.
Afghanistan’s deputy interior minister Mohammad Nabi Omari, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee, said the ICC “can’t scare us.”
“If these were fair and true courts, they should have brought America to the court, because it is America that has caused wars, the issues of the world are caused by America,” he said at an event in eastern Khost city attended by an AFP journalist.
He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should also be brought before the court over the country’s war in Gaza, which was sparked by Hamas’ attacks in October 2023.
The ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, his former defense minister and three top Hamas leaders in November last year.
Afghanistan’s government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under sharia, but many of its edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders.
It is the only country in the world where girls and women are banned from education.
Women have been ordered to cover their hair and faces and wear all-covering Islamic dress, have been barred from parks and stopped from working in government offices.
ICC chief Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”
Khan said Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.”
“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” Khan said.
ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants, a process that could take weeks or even months.
The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results.
In theory, this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional arrest warrant applications for other Taliban officials.

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time

Updated 46 min 36 sec ago

SHEHAB SUMON

January 24, 2025 14:26

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time

Azharul Islam Khan’s clips about plants earned him a million followers on social media
He introduces them to indigenous Bangladeshi flora species and basics of plant medicine

Updated 46 min 36 sec ago

SHEHAB SUMON

January 24, 2025 14:26

DHAKA: When Azharul Islam Khan’s father gave him bougainvillea stems to grow, it marked his first experience tending to plants — a lesson that 40 years later would shape his social media fame in Bangladesh.

Khan was just 14 when his adventure with botany began. Unfamiliar with how to properly water the colorful ornamental vines, he lost two of the stems he tried to grow, but another two survived and blossomed.

“One was red, and the other was white. It was very inspiring when the two branches stayed alive, and I felt amazed,” Khan told Arab News at Zinda Park in Dhaka, surrounded by various tree and flower species, many of which have been featured in his online classes.

The classes are unlike traditional botany courses. Khan keeps his videos short and simple, focusing on the knowledge that he believes everyone should possess to understand plant life, know the basics of botanical medicine, and appreciate biodiversity.

His classroom is open to all, regardless of their academic background, and more than 1 million people have followed him on Facebook since he started regularly sharing his clips in 2023.

The videos often go viral and many have gained millions of views.

A pharmacist by training and profession, Khan also holds a degree in botany from the University of Dhaka.

“I like nature and plants and trees from my childhood. It’s my passion ... and I learned it from my father,” he said.

“When I see a plant, a flower, how it blooms, how it survives, it is amazing. When I walk and observe the flowers and plants growing, I feel pleased. And it is very important not only for me. It is very important for all the people ... Plants always support our wildlife. If wildlife remains alive, then us, humans, we will remain alive.”

In 2023, Bangladeshi researchers published a red list of plants, which showed that over the past few decades the country has lost seven flora species. Some 127 are currently endangered and 262 are considered vulnerable.

Khan believes that 30 of them are nearly extinct.

“If we don’t take special care of these species, within a very short time they will disappear in our country. So, we need to take care of these plants,” he said.

“We need indigenous plants ... local plants are very important for local nature.”

His videos spread awareness on the importance of various species for the entire ecosystem and for the individual lives of his students.

“I want to make them learn how to grow plants, how important it is for human life,” he said.

“I am trying to do this for the nation, for the future generations, for Bangladesh.”

The videos find appeal among his followers as they offer practical knowledge too.

“I watch brother Azhar’s videos regularly. The best part is that his videos are short — one and a half minutes, two minutes, or three minutes long. I like this style very much,” Mohammad Zakir Hossain, a shopkeeper from Narayanganj, told Arab News.

“Many plants grow all around us. But we have no idea about the benefits of these plants. I came to know about their medicinal values and their names. It’s a great gain for me.”

Topics: botany Bangladesh

US arrests, deports hundreds of ‘illegal immigrants’ — Trump press chief

Updated 24 January 2025

AFP

January 24, 2025 13:41

US arrests, deports hundreds of ‘illegal immigrants’ — Trump press chief

538 illegal immigrant criminals arrested, “hundreds” deported by military aircraft
Trump had promised crackdown on illegal immigration during election campaign

Updated 24 January 2025

AFP

January 24, 2025 13:41

WASHINGTON: US authorities arrested 538 migrants and deported hundreds in a mass operation just days into President Donald Trump’s second administration, his press secretary said late Thursday.
“The Trump Administration arrested 538 illegal immigrant criminals,” Karoline Leavitt said in a post on social platform X, adding “hundreds” were deported by military aircraft.
“The largest massive deportation operation in history is well underway. Promises made. Promises kept,” she said.
Trump promised a crackdown on illegal immigration during the election campaign and began his second term with a flurry of executive actions aimed at overhauling entry to the United States.
On Thursday Newark city mayor Ras J. Baraka said in a statement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents “raided a local establishment... detaining undocumented residents as well as citizens, without producing a warrant.”
The mayor said one of those detained during the raid was a US military veteran, “this egregious act is in plain violation” of the US Constitution.
An ICE post on X said: “Enforcement update ... 538 arrests, 373 detainers lodged.”
New Jersey Democratic Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim said they were “deeply concerned” about the Newark raid by immigration agents.
“Actions like this one sow fear in all of our communities — and our broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics,” they said in a joint statement.
Trump has vowed to carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history,” impacting an estimated 11 million undocumented migrants in the United States.
On his first day in office he signed orders declaring a “national emergency” at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area while vowing to deport “criminal aliens.”
His administration said it would also reinstate a “Remain in Mexico” policy that prevailed during Trump’s first presidency, under which people who apply to enter the United States from Mexico must remain there until their application has been decided.
The White House has also halted an asylum program for people fleeing authoritarian regimes in Central and South America, leaving thousands of people stranded on the Mexican side of the border.
Earlier in the week the Republican-led US Congress green-lit a bill to expand pretrial incarceration for foreign criminal suspects.
Trump frequently invoked dark imagery about how illegal migration was “poisoning the blood” of the nation, words that were seized upon by opponents as reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

With severe interpretation of Islamic law, Taliban restrict women’s lives in Afghanistan

Updated 24 January 2025

AFP

January 24, 2025 13:04

With severe interpretation of Islamic law, Taliban restrict women’s lives in Afghanistan

Many Taliban edicts are not followed in rest of Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders
Taliban first banned girls from public secondary classes in 2022 followed by universities the next year

Updated 24 January 2025

AFP

January 24, 2025 13:04

HONG KONG: The Taliban authorities that rule Afghanistan have imposed a severe interpretation of Islamic law on the population, heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives.
This week, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said he was seeking arrest warrants against senior Taliban leaders over the persecution of women, a crime against humanity.
The government claims it secures Afghan women’s rights under Sharia law, but many of the edicts are not followed in the rest of the Islamic world and have been condemned by Muslim leaders.
The United Nations has called it a “gender apartheid,” and no country has formally recognized the government since they swept to power in a lightning but largely bloodless military offensive in 2021.
Taliban authorities banned girls from public secondary classes at the start of the new school year in 2022.
A year later, universities were also closed to women.
The last options for education — midwifery and nursing — were banned from teaching women late last year.
Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls and women are barred from education and the move has been widely criticized by Muslim leaders — including the Saudi-based Muslim World League.
Taliban authorities have made it increasingly difficult for women to work in a bid to keep them segregated from men.
While they held positions throughout the civil service of the foreign-backed government ousted by Taliban insurgents, women have been mostly been fired, forced to stay home, and have had their pay slashed.
Officially, women can no longer work for NGOs and the United Nations apart from in education and health, although the ban has not been strictly enforced.
Women are allowed to work from home or in women-majority businesses, such as textiles.
Private businesses can employ women, but in offices that are supposed to be segregated.
In cities, where women once generally already wore modest clothing and headscarves, huge billboards and posters on shop windows order them to cover their hair, faces and their bodies with a long cloak and face mask.
Women rarely appear on television, and many journalists have been pushed off screen.
They are banned from public spaces such as parks and gyms, while baths and salons have been closed down.
Women traveling long distances must be accompanied by a male chaperone.
In one of the latest orders, women cannot sing or recite poetry in public, and their voices and bodies must be “concealed” outside the home.
The Ministry of Women’s Affairs was shut down and their offices taken over by the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Taliban authority’s morality police.

Topics: Afghan women afghan women's rights Afghan Taliban

Biden says Israel has agreed to stop Gaza attacks for Ramadan as Hamas mulls draft truce proposal

Biden says Israel has agreed to stop Gaza attacks for Ramadan as Hamas mulls draft truce proposal

Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of blocking aid to Palestinians in violation of a UN court order

UN voices alarm as Israel says preparing for Rafah invasion

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time

Bangladeshi influencers promote tree planting to fight record heat

Moving mango trees to Dubai, Bangladeshi farmers take wing in Middle East

US arrests, deports hundreds of ‘illegal immigrants’ — Trump press chief

US arrests, deports hundreds of ‘illegal immigrants’ — Trump press chief

With severe interpretation of Islamic law, Taliban restrict women’s lives in Afghanistan

With severe interpretation of Islamic law, Taliban restrict women’s lives in Afghanistan

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Biden says Israel has agreed to stop Gaza attacks for Ramadan as Hamas mulls draft truce proposal

Biden says Israel has agreed to stop Gaza attacks for Ramadan as Hamas mulls draft truce proposal

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Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Taliban reject ICC arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated’

Bangladeshi botanist builds online plant community, one viral video at a time

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US arrests, deports hundreds of ‘illegal immigrants’ — Trump press chief

With severe interpretation of Islamic law, Taliban restrict women’s lives in Afghanistan

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