Asia Pakistan The country's pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai received more than 550.000 visitors in the first 83 days of its opening, hosting more than 100 trade and thematic events, as well as daily cultural performances representing the country's different regions
Asia Lebanon Train/Train, a Lebanese NGO, wants to revive the days when there was a dense rail network with neighboring countries, hoping to get funding to restart travel between Beirut and Damascus
Asia Armenia The president hailed 'a new page' in ties with Saudi Arabia and thanked the Arab world for sheltering Armenians after genocide; there are fewer than 3 million Armenian citizens living in the country but worldwide diaspora is between 5 and 7 million
Asia United Arab Emirates A year after premarital sex was decriminalized, unmarried mothers can no longer go to jail for having a baby, but they do if they do not have documents for their children, which they can't get, being de facto trapped in a bureaucratic limbo
Asia Vietnam Nguyen Trọng Hieu, formerly a student at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, has received a research fund from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to develop a new generation solar battery project
Asia Nepal Feed Industry Private Ltd, buying chicken eggs from doorstep farmers across the country, is relieving poultry farmers from lack of easy market access for their products
Asia Oman The ongoing exhibition 'Sustainability and Job Opportunities', themed on the country's geological heritage, has been extended until 15 January 2022, given the large turnout of visitors
Asia Laos The government aims to attract 709 enterprises to Special Economic Zones (SEZs) over the next five years to create jobs for local people and generate more revenue for the state budget
Asia Japan Fashion mogul Yusaku Maezawa and his producer Yozo Hirano have returned to Earth after spending 12 days on the International Space Station
Asia Maldives Local fishermen have joined in a protest on the island of Kooddoo over concerns about delays in weighing fish and the scarcity of ice on the island
Asia Qatar Qatar Railways Company announced that the total number of passengers using the Doha Metro during the Arab Cup, hosted by Qatar from 30 November to 18 December 2021, exceeded 2,5 million passengers with an average of 130.000 passengers per day
Asia Turkmenistan The UN Development Program together with national partners evaluated the recently launched project for the conservation and sustainable management of land resources and high nature value ecosystems in the Aral Sea basin
Asia Uzbekistan About 6 million pieces of fireworks illegally introduced into the country, for an estimated value of 2,18 billion soums (US$200.000), have been confiscated by police