Asia

Laos, with Nepal, has been added the FATF ‘grey list’ in its latest update as the Financial Action Task Force said the countries would need increased monitoring, while the Philippines have been removed due to satisfactory on-site inspection

North Korean Tongnam Trading Company is openly advertising its joint venture operations in restaurants abroad, including in China and Cambodia, in violation of UN Security Council sanctions prohibiting such investments

1,2 million copies of the Holy Quran and its interpretations in 79 languages will be distributed to Islamic or cultural centres and offices of the religious attachés of Saudi embassies abroad, part of King Salman's specific programme

In supermarkets and grocery shops in the West Bank it is increasingly difficult to find bottles of Coca-Cola, focus of a boycott campaign against companies supporting Israel; Chat Cola, an alternative produced by Palestinian company, is gaining ground

An advanced electronic registration system for organ donation has been launched on Bahrain's national portal bahrain.bh upon initiative of the Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the Royal Medical Services and the Information and eGovernment Authority

The interim government's information advisor and one of the main leaders of the student movement, Nahid Islam, resigned from the cabinet to launch a new political party organized by activists of the July uprising

The Qatar Sports for All Federation has announced the calendar of tournaments and special events it organises during the month of Ramadan, which includes 66 events

The One Stop Shop was opened in the municipality of Liquiça; it is an initiative of the Government, through the Ministry of State Administration to modernise and improve the provision of public services to citizens

A fully electronic price monitoring system will be launched to curb price increases and improve price transparency of commodities in markets upon initiative of the Ministry of Trade and Industry

Value-added tax rate could be raised from 12% to 16% in a a package of amendments to the draft Tax Code submitted by Kazakhstan's Ministry of National Economy to the lower house of parliament to improve tax administration

Only one third of the teachers in private universities speak English at the required level, violating the obligation to teach English to foreign students, said the head of the department for monitoring the implementation of the resolutions

Workshop on Waterfowl and Wetland Monitoring was hosted by the Institute for Biodiversity and Environmental Research at the University of Brunei Darussalam, in collaboration with the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity and the National Parks Board of Singapore