Asia Laos New rules for intellectual property protection wereintroduced, allowing businesses to protect industrial designs internationally through a single application under the Hague System; It simplifies registration and administrative procedures, reducing costs
Europe Kosovo The Emergency Council of the Kosovo Football Federation yesterday visited football pitches damaged by recent floods in the country
Africa eSwatini UN human rights chief Volker Türk condemned the "brutal killing" of a prominent pro-democracy activist in the country, which is one of the world's few remaining absolute monarchies
Asia Indonesia The island of Bali welcomed the first group of Chinese tourists on Sunday with a charter flight
Europe Iceland The country yesterday commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Eldfell eruption of 1973, which took place on Heimaey, the largest and only inhabited island of the Westman Islands
Europe Greece A total of 17.801 e-cars were circulating on Greek roads in 2022, with 7.498 new e-car registrations in the period January-November 2022, accounting for 7,6% of all new registrations in the country
America Jamaica At the Jamaica China Goodwill (JCG) Infant School in Olympic Gardens, St Andrew, a $9 million library has been set up to encourage children to read and to improve literacy at the institution
America Peru Over 200 students protesting against the government’s handling of the coup attempt have been arrested; the EU has responded condemning Peru’s actions for excess of violence against its citizens
Asia Laos The Lao national identity card system is now back online, after it was down for five months: now citizens can once again have their identity cards issued
America Chile The government has extended its state of emergency in the Viña del Mar area for another month as over 300 households still remain affected from the wildfires, providing them with further humanitarian and financial aid
Asia Georgia More than 20 million GEL (EUR 13.5 million) will be allocated to disaster-stricken populations in January, in line with the government's order to allocate funds to municipalities for measures to eliminate the consequences of the recent natural disasters
Asia Kyrgyzstan In 2022, fines of 1,7 million soms (18.000€) were imposed for violations of land and water laws
Asia Lebanon The hit Israeli series Fauda topped Netflix's viewing charts in Lebanon, where much of the plot of the fourth season took place
Africa Algeria The country is 'ready to win' the African Nations Championship, the biennial men's football tournament it hosts until 31/01; diplomatic crisis between Algiers and Rabat over Western Sahara has led to the exclusion of Morocco, the defending champion