Austria | Pakistan

Turning the house where Adolf Hitler was born into a police station has raised mixed emotions in his Austrian hometown. “It’s a double-edged sword,” said Sibylle Treiblmaier, outside the house in the town of Braunau am Inn on the border with Germany. While it might discourage far-right extremists from gathering at the site, it could have “been used better or differently”, the 53-year-old office assistant told AFP. The government wants to “neutralise” the site and passed a law in 2016 to take control of the dilapidated building from its private owner. Workers are finishing works at the birth house of former German dictator Adolf Hitler that is turned into a police station, pictured in Braunau am Inn, Austria on February 17, 2026. — AFP Austria — which was annexed by Hitler’s Germany in 1938 — has repeatedly been criticised in the past for not fully acknowledging its responsibility in the Holocaust. The far-right Freedom Party, founded by former Nazis, is ahead in the polls after getting the most votes in a nat...

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday termed his visit to Austria as of special significance, noting it was the first high-level visit in more than three decades and coincided with the 70th anniversary of Pakistan-Austria diplomatic relations.

Pakistan and Austria on Monday agreed to further strengthen bilateral ties as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Chancellor Christian Stocker in Vienna. PM Shehbaz arrived in Vienna a day earlier on a two-day visit, with the Foreign Office (FO) noting that it marked the first visit by a Pakistani prime minister to Austria since 1992. PM Shehbaz and Stocker held a “restricted meeting” at the Federal Chancellery today, which was followed by delegation-level talks, a press release issued by PID said. The delegation talks included Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Special Assistant to PM Tariq Fatemi, and Foreign Secretary Ambassador Amna Baloch. The statement read: “Both leaders recalled the friendly and historic ties between the two countries and committed to work together more closely to further strengthen the bilateral relationship in diverse fields, including economic cooperation, trade and investment, tourism, hospitality, education, IT, healthcare and human reso...

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived on Sunday night in Vienna on two-day official visit to Austria from 15 to 16th of February.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Vienna on Sunday for his two-day tour of Austria, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. “The prime minister and the Pakistani delegation were warmly welcomed upon arrival at the Vienna International Airport, and a contingent of the Austrian Armed Forces presented a salute,” the statement read. PM Shehbaz announced his arrival in Vienna in a post on X, calling it a “city of history, culture and global diplomacy”. “I look forward to my meeting with Chancellor Christian Stocker to further strengthen the bonds of friendship between Pakistan and Austria,” the premier said, adding that their focus would be trade, investment and economic cooperation. He added that he was keen to meet the leadership of the International Atomic Energy Agency, (IAEA) the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the UN Industrial Development Organisation during his visit. PM Shehbaz said that these engagements aimed to “deepen our cooperation in peaceful nuclear energy, c...

Lando Norris won the Austrian Grand Prix from pole position in a McLaren one-two on Sunday after fending off championship-leading team mate Oscar Piastri in an early wheel-to-wheel duel and then withstanding intense pressure to the end. The Briton’s third victory of the season cut Australian Piastri’s Formula One lead from 22 to 15 points after 11 of 24 rounds, with the two McLaren drivers locked in an increasingly private title battle. Charles Leclerc completed the podium for Ferrari with teammate Lewis Hamilton fourth and George Russell, last year’s winner in Austria, fifth for Mercedes. Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen suffered his first retirement of the season, in his team’s home race, after a first-lap collision with Mercedes’s Italian rookie Kimi Antonelli. The Dutch driver stayed third overall but is now 61 points behind Piastri in the championship standings. “Tricky, hot, tiring,” said Norris after stepping out of the car at the finish of the 70-lap race on a sweltering Sunday. “A l...

Pakistan has condemned the shooting incident in the Austrian city of Graz earlier this week, where a gunman shot dead 10 people at his former high school before killing himself. A former student killed ten people and himself at a secondary school in Graz on Tuesday in the worst school shooting in Austria’s modern history, sending shockwaves through the country which declared three days of national mourning. In a statement, the Foreign Office said it was “deeply saddened by the tragic shooting at the secondary school in Graz that resulted in several casualties with many injured.” The foreign office extended “deepest condolences to the families and loved ones and wish a swift and full recovery for the injured.” “Pakistan stands with the people and government of Austria in this hour,” the statement added. Introvert, online shooting games Austrian police described the shooter as an introvert who had largely withdrawn from the outside world before he carefully planned the attack, Reuters reported. Police found dis...