Asia Saudi Arabia The General Authority for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises launched its e-Commerce Week, in which more than 40 public and private entities will participate to raise awareness of the importance of e-commerce and the impact on businesses
Asia Singapore The launch of the beverage container return scheme has been postponed by one year to give beverage manufacturers and retailers sufficient time to design and implement it
Asia Uzbekistan New tourism categories have been announced by 2025 - geological tourism, industrial and scientific tourism and military tourism - in a draft resolution on strengthening the tourism sector by the Agency for Strategic Reform
Asia Lebanon The US embassy in Lebanon has urged its citizens to leave Lebanon on 'any available ticket', amid fears of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah and a wider regional conflict
Asia Afghanistan Kimia Yousofi, who is 28 years old and lives as a refugee in Australia since Talibans are in power, ran for Afghanistan in the 100 metres at Paris Olympics and showed a sheet of paper with the words: 'Education, sport, our rights' written on it
Asia Bangladesh A group of 48 young entrepreneurs expressed solidarity with the student movement and its demands and produced a statement calling for the people's demands not to go unheeded
Asia Azerbaijan The International Olympic Committee apologised to Azerbaijan for the statements on Nagorno-Karabakh made by the France 2 TV presenter during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics
Asia Cambodia A government report shows opportunities to increase the participation of women in the Royal Armed Forces of Cambodia and, subsequently, in UN peacekeeping operations
Asia Qatar In order to improve the country's instant payment system, the Central Bank of Qatar introduced the 'Request Payment' function through its 'Fawran' service in line with the Third Financial Sector Strategic Plan
Asia Tajikistan The civil service has declined in the country, with almost 4,000 positions in government agencies currently vacant and the number of applicants decreasing significantly
Asia Turkey The results of Physical Activity Survey 2023 by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality reveal a significant increase in the number of people practicing physical activity throughout the city, with Küçükçekmece leading among the 39 districts
Asia Maldives A mega initiative is planned to be launched in September to have only local teachers in the Maldives education system
Asia Georgia Kutaisi has been nominated as one of the selected extraordinary destinations to visit in 2024 in the TIME magazine list