America Panama A tanker paid a record $5,3 million for priority passage through the Panama Canal before the number of daily transits will be reduced due to the El Niño weather phenomenon; rainfall deficits and drought deplete water reserves needed to operate the canal
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 Mauritius Bhamini Sreekeessoon, a PhD student in electrical and electronic engineering at the Université des Mascareignes, is conducting innovative research that could soon see the island generate electricity from ocean waves
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
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
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
Europe Belgium Belgian DJ Charlotte De Witte has been voted 'best techno DJ' in the world by the British magazine DJ Mag for the fourth year running
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 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
Asia Cyprus The government is taking “steady steps” to modernise and strengthen the National Guard, Defence Minister has declared, stressing Cyprus’ defence forces are passing through a “particularly difficult period”
America Nicaragua Miss Nicaragua, Sheynnis Palacios, has won the 2023 Miss Universe contest, becoming the first ever Central American to win the title
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
Asia Azerbaijan Chingiz Farzaliyev, Azerbaijani artist and professor, director of the National Art Museum of Azerbaijan, was awarded the 'Sharaf' Order for outstanding services to the development and promotion of Azerbaijan's fine arts
Europe Hungary A "national consultation" has been launched by the government to "protect" the country from EU policies, including Ukraine's potential membership; the taxpayer-funded poll, entitled "National Consultation on Defending Our Sovereignty", has no legal weight