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
Africa Ghana Africa's largest photo library recently opened in Accra; the Dikan centre, crowdfunded by filmmaker and photographer Paul Ninson, has a collection of more than thirty thousand photo books
Africa Sierra Leone The just approved Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Act states that 30% of government and private sector jobs in the country will be reserved for women
Asia Qatar The Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra will present its most famous opera, 'Scheherazade', evoking 1.001 symphonic tales, at 7.30 pm on Saturday at the Opera House in the Katara Cultural Village
Europe Ukraine Nobel laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk declared that "stopping arming Ukraine is like leaving a woman alone in a lift with her rapist"
Oceania Australia The country risks being placed on a human rights blacklist for failing to comply with prison monitoring obligations under a UN anti-torture treaty
Asia Afghanistan UN Deputy Secretary General, Ms. Amina Mohammed, was in Kabul for a four-day visit to urge the government reconsider and reverse the bans on women's participation in public life; she believes progress is being made
Europe Slovakia The country may hold snap elections in September; President Zuzana Čaputová has given the parties until the end of January to find a new majority or decide on a new election date
Europe Bulgaria Bulgarian President Rumen Radev denounced as a hate crime the attack on the secretary of the Bulgarian cultural club 'Tsar Boris III' in Ohrid, North Macedonia
Europe Netherlands War in Ukraine and growing numbers of migrants coming to the Netherlands have increased the urgency to create new housing, the Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning wrote in an action plan sent to the House of Representatives
America Suriname The country has successfully restructured its debt with India, meaning that all the money for technical assistance and credit lines that was blocked can now be used for the government’s implementation of community programmes
America Bolivia As numerous reporters were harmed during recent protests from the opposition, the government promised to provide the necessary legal support to all local reporters in order to protect the country’s right to freedom of press
Asia Qatar Al Rayyan International University College, in partnership with the University of Derby in the UK, has added a new world-class MBA programme
America Ecuador Evidence against President Guillermo Lasso’s relatives being involved in corruption has caused the government to hold a new investigation of all public entities, with help from the Interpol in order to detect all people possibly involved in corruption