Asia Myanmar Peace talks with several smaller ethnic armed organizations have been promoted by Myanmar’s military government as evidence of ongoing national reconciliation; Critics argue the discussions exclude many of the country’s most powerful resistance groups
Asia Kyrgyzstan Hundreds of vendors in markets across the country demonstrated to protest the government's plan to introduce a new taxation system as of 1 January, which will increase taxes, demanding that the previous system, based on a fixed annual amount, be retained
Asia Iran Behrouz Chamanara, a language professor at the University of Kurdistan, was fired in September, shortly after the local intelligence office rejected his qualifications; Chamanara declared that dismissals are used to 'impose silence' in universities
America Canada As nations agreed to a landmark deal to create a global climate damage fund on the first day of climate talks at COP28, Canada pledged its own support with a contribution of $16M; other countries have pledged between $10M and $100M US
Europe Lithuania One week after the first winter snowstorm brought chaos across Lithuania with traffic jams, accidents, power outages the situation is fully restored and authorities signal that airports coped very well with minimum or no disruption to aviation services
Africa Benin In order to open and operate a party venue in Benin, formal authorisation is now required, following a decree setting out the conditions to be met, including having adequately sized parking spaces and meeting sanitation requirements
America United States Sandra Day O’Connor, retired Justice and the first woman to serve on Supreme Court (associate from 1981 to 2006), died yesterday 1 December 2023 in Phoenix at 93
Africa South Africa A decline in the number of people living with Aids-HIV was recorded in a study conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council, with 12,7% of the population infected with the virus compared to 14% in the last survey conducted five years ago
Europe Portugal The President of the Government of the Azores, José Manuel Bolieiro has called for early regional elections, following the rejection of the archipelago's budget for 2024 as he considers the presentation of a new budget to be pointless
Oceania Palau Twenty-three Palau High School students experienced what it means to produce, publish and tell a story as journalists during a six-day workshop conducted by members of the Palau Media Council as part of a project called "Nurturing Future Journalists"
Europe Norway Norwegian government officials are back in court, trying to fend off another legal challenge to their refusal to stop oil and gas exploration, sued by local environmental organisations demanding an immediate halt to the development of more oil fields
Asia North Korea The US, South Korea and Japan have imposed new sanctions on North Korea over the country's recent launch of a military reconnaissance satellite
Asia Cyprus The government and US Oil&Gas Company Chevron have agreed on the terms for developing the Aphrodite gas field in block 12 of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone; the government had initially rejected proposed amendments submitted by the company
Africa Uganda A 70 years old woman, Safina Namukwaya, gave birth to twins in Kampala after in vitro fertilisation treatment; the woman commented this as a 'true miracle' and the hospital emphasised not only the medical success, but the 'resilience of the human spirit'