Asia Philippines An Air Quality Index has been issued amid temporary haze from Indonesian forest fires; The Health Department advised residents to wear masks, limit outdoor activities, and remain indoor if possible
Oceania Solomon Islands The country has over 15.000 job seekers and less than 4.000 new jobs created per year, according to data from the National Provident Fund report
Asia Indonesia The government will provide drinking water to the community as a preventive measure against the drought caused by the El Nino phenomenon; National Disaster Mitigation Agency has already mapped areas potentially prone to drought and forest fires
Europe Hungary Hungarian beer, one of the oldest sectors of the domestic food industry, is gaining popularity in Asia: in 2014, China accounted for 0,71% of Hungarian beer exports, while in 2021 it reached 10,6%
Europe Slovakia Almost 7.000 km of non-productive areas, 4 times the length of national borders, have been created with new Common Agricultural Policy reform: farmers participated in subsidy that encouragse environmentally friendly practices like shrubs between sown land
Europe Czech Republic The world-famous Czech writer Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, passed away on 11 July in Paris at the age of 94; in April, he had transferred his personal archive of 4000 books and 25 boxes of notes to Moravian Library in Brno
Europe Finland Faced with a decline since 2006 in the results of the country's young people for the Programme for International Student Assessment, the new right-wing government has said it will adopt minuses, including a law banning the use of mobile phones in schools
America Saint Lucia A task force has been set up to prevent the entry into the country of the banana disease Tropical Race 4 - also known as 'TR4' and 'Panama Desease', which is becoming deadly, in a proactive approach by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security
Asia China Six people have been killed in an early morning knife attack outside a kindergarten, said Lianjiang city police and Chinese state-run media; other mass stabbings have been reported in recent years, often targeting children in or outside schools
Africa Kenya A total of 100.000 motorcyclists will use electric bikes within 6 years thanks to a project launched by Kenya Commercial Bank and UN Institute for Training and Research to reduce carbon emissions from the transport sector in Nairobi
Europe Luxembourg Luxembourg remains the country with the lowest defense spending relative to gross domestic product in the North Atlantic Military Alliance at around 0,72%, despite government's efforts to increase it and reach the agreed 2% in 2014
Africa Morocco Protection of intellectual property and targeted support to the various components of Morocco’s economic fabric were emphasised in Geneva at 64th meetings of Assemblies of Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organisation WIPO
Asia Afghanistan University professors, women's rights activists and religious clerics in Afghanistan have launched a campaign - 'Education of Afghan Girls' - with the aim of opening schools and universities for girls in the country
Asia Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has denied that Malaysia is a secular state, saying the concept of secularism, where there is a total separation of state and religion, is "not acceptable", not only to him as a Muslim, but to all Malaysians