Asia Syria Germany's Ministry of Transport lifted the landing ban and normalized passenger traffic with Syria from 27 July 2026, thus opening to direct flights Düsseldorf-Damascus today 29 July, Berlin Brandenburg-Damascus and Cologne/Bonn-Aleppo on 1 August
Africa Rwanda The Tour du Rwanda, considered Africa's most important cycling race, has begun its 2023 edition and will take place in different parts of the country until 26 February
Asia Japan Famous Japanese manga and anime creator Leiji Matsumoto, whose real name was Akira Matsumoto, has died at the age of 85; Matsumoto was known for his epic science fiction sagas, including Galaxy Express 999, Queen Emeraldas and Space Battleship Yamato
Asia Kazakhstan The country granted citizenship to more than 22.000 people last year, reported the Ministry of Internal Affairs; 17.676 applicants were kandas, a term referring to ethnic Kazakhs returning to Kazakhstan
Europe Bosnia and Herzegovina One of the greatest obstacles to the exercise of the journalistic profession is represented by the so-called SLAPP, specious lawsuits that seek to silence or limit the work of journalists and activists fighting for civil rights
Asia Laos FAO, through its Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases, started two-week training courses on animal quarantine management in Sing district, border area with China, to accelerate safer livestock trade and improve exports
Asia Singapore Singapore and India launched a real-time link to facilitate cross-border funds transfers between bank accounts or e-wallets, using mobile phones by linking Singapore's PayNow service to India's unified payment interface
Europe Iceland Icelandic writer Sjón has been awarded the Swedish Academy's Nordic Prize 2023 for his significant contribution to Nordic literature
America Ecuador Cocaine bricks mixed with gravel and cement for building houses have so far helped get rid of approximately 61% of the drugs confiscated in recent years, an innovative method implemented by Ecuador to use its tons of confiscated vegetal material
Africa Seychelles The Chagossian community should be included in any negotiations about the future of the island, rather than just the UK and Mauritius government, said the chairperson of the Seychelles Chagossian Committee
Africa Burkina Faso MSF said that following the attack in which two staff members were killed on 8 February 2023 in the Boucle du Mouhoun region, all activities in the country will be suspended in order to analyse the risks to which the teams are currently exposed
Asia Maldives The new academic year 2023-2024 will start on 6 August, according to the calendar published by the Ministry of Education; the second school term will begin on 7 January and end on 13 June 2024
Oceania Tuvalu Project Digital Nation is underway and involves digitising Tuvalu's islets, species, traditional songs, recipes, language and it is thought the government may enter the metaverse and be administered virtually
Oceania Papua New Guinea A mission is underway to rescue an Australian professor and three local researchers held hostage by an armed group in Papua New Guinea; he was captured while he was on a field study trip in the remote highlands at an unspecified date