Africa Somalia New EU VISA restrictions make it more difficult for Somalis to travel to the bloc; the recently approved measures intensify an ongoing dispute with Mogadishu over the return of Somalis living irregularly in the EU
Asia Kazakhstan The country's locomotive fleet of 1.880 units has a wear level of 52%; 133 new locomotives were purchased this year
Africa Zambia The third International Conference on Public Health in Africa 2023, which will attract over five thousand delegates from all over the world, is scheduled for 27-30 November 2023 in Lusaka, organised by the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention
Africa Tunisia With Jonathan Lourimi running bobsleigh, the country will be represented for the first time at the Winter Youth Olympics, at the 2024 Gangwon Games in South Korea
Africa Central African Republic Established in 2018 to investigate and prosecute serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed from 2003, the Special Criminal Court is now subject of controversy with victims believing it has not fully fulfilled its role
Europe Albania The European Court of Human Rights held the Albanian state responsible for the killing of three people by the National Guard during opposition protests in 2011 and for failing to adequately investigate their deaths
Asia Taiwan The Ministry of the Environment has announced the introduction on 1 April 2024 of a set of regulations requiring local mobile phone suppliers to set up recycling facilities and assist users in these practices
Europe Slovenia A bill banning flavourings in electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco has been adopted; smoking lounges will also be banned, though through a five-year transition period
Africa Algeria The country has appointed Abdelfetah Daghmoum as its new ambassador to Spain, after almost 20 months of diplomatic friction caused by Madrid's reversal of course on the Western Sahara issue
Africa Tanzania The French oil company TotalEnergies would not respect the sanctity of hundreds of graves in a controversial project to build a heated pipeline from the oil fields of Uganda to a port in Tanzania, according to GreenFaith's complaint
Europe Moldova Metropolia, the country's main Orthodox Church and canonically subordinate to the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate, rejected the request for transfer to the Romanian Patriarchate submitted by a group of priests from the capital, Chisinau
Europe France French police recorded an average 15% year-on-year increase in domestic violence incidents between 2019 and 2022, with numbers doubling between 2022 and 2016, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior's statistics unit
Oceania Tuvalu The Universal Periodic Review Working Group of the United Nations Human Rights Council reviewed the human rights situation of Tuvalu for the 4th time on Wednesday, 8 November 2023, at a meeting in Geneva, after December 2008, in April 2013 and in May 2018
Europe Serbia The old Sava bridge, iconic symbol of Belgrade, could be demolished in a plan by the Serbian authorities that has aroused strong opposition; refusal to fully disclose the agreement with a Chinese company to build another bridge has raised further doubts