Europe

The UK has sought to salvage its agreement with Rwanda on funding for asylum seekers by signing a new treaty with the country, while ministers hope the revised pact will be a 'model for collaboration' on immigration control with EU states

Housing is becoming increasingly expensive in Switzerland: rents rose in almost all municipalities in the third quarter, with the strongest rise in the Zurich area

A major exhibition has been open at the Hamburger Kunsthalle to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840); Berlin and Dresden will also be dedicating thematically independent exhibitions next year

Employees of the provincial Agriculture Payments and Interventions Agency centres will begin an indefinite general strike starting 21 December, announced the Agrostar Federation, affiliated to the National Trade Union Bloc

A bill on post-flood reconstruction and development was voted for reconstruction after the August floods; to help fund the effort, corporate income tax is being raised and a tax on bank assets introduced over a five year period

Colak Franchise Consulting Group announced the launch of the Croatian Franchise Exchange, a portal providing access to almost 100 franchise systems in the country

Local authorities are considering whether to continue paying teachers during the strike, with teachers going on strike as of 22 January; the city of Tallinn has decided to continue paying teachers even during the strike

Hundreds of young people, teachers and parents showed interest in a campaign to promote higher education in Bulgaria, which toured Skopje, Bitola and Strumica involving 12 higher education institutions

According to data published by the Czech Statistical Office, in the first three quarters of this year the Czech population increased by 54.700 to 10,88 million; the reason behind the increase being foreign immigration, mainly from Ukraine

In an important environmental action, more than 1.500 Finnish artists joined in a petition calling for greater protection of forests

The subsidiaries of Gloster Infocommunications, Gloster-Minero IT and FF Next Technologies, have signed a cooperation agreement with the German Red Cross to develop special software for electronic data recording of bone marrow and stem cell donors

Damage to homes and infrastructure in Grindavík could amount to 10 billion Icelandic kroner ($71,4 million), according to Iceland's director of natural catastrophe insurance