Asia Bahrain 394.000 visitors have been registered in state-run heritage sites in January-August 2026, with the Bahrain Fort accounting for 246.409, nearly two thirds of the total, and foreign visitors prevailed with the presence of 187.567 people
Africa Somalia Deqa Dhalac, a Somali immigrant to the United States and the first Muslim woman elected to the South Portland City Council in 2018, has been elected the city's first black mayor
Asia Cyprus Alexandra Attalides, elected to the House of Representatives for the Greens, was named Anticorruption Champion by US Secretary of State on Dec 9th anti-corruption day, together with activists from countries such as Bulgaria, Malawi, Thailand yesterday
Europe Portugal Regional authorities in the Madeira Islands have expanded a marine protected area to create what they said is the largest fully protected marine reserve in Europe and the North Atlantic with a total area of 2.677 km²
America Belize Prime Minister John Briceño launched the National Digital Agenda 2022-2025, which includes the digitalisation of governmental documents, such as birth certificates, passports, national IDs
Asia South Korea Samsung Electronics has promoted a swath of young executives in their 30s and 40s as part of its ongoing efforts refresh its rigid corporate culture; the tech giant said a total of 198 executives were promoted in its year-end executive reshuffle
Africa Sierra Leone President Bio said Statistics Sierra Leone will conduct a two-week count of everyone starting today; it will also collect administrative, demographic, social and economic information on all households and individuals
Africa Libya The Central Bank of Libya has announced a unification plan to end years of division between eastern and western banks; the completion of the international financial review for the central bank will be held in July
Asia North Korea To address its national energy crisis and economic challenges, Pyongyang has signaled a growing interest in using renewable energy while the nuclear program has so far been destined to develop weapons, not to generate power
Asia Syria Aiming to facilitate humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people, the USA took action to let NGOs deal with elements of local government despite American sanctions, and gave them wider latitude in their activities
Africa Kenya Chief Justice Martha Koome, speaking at the Kenya Editors Guild annual convention, has urged the media to be neutral when reporting on politics as the country heads to next year's elections
Asia Laos The $5.9 billion railway connecting Vientiane and Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, has been officially inaugurated with Buddhist monks blessing the first of the bullet trains, though it’s unclear when a regular service will begin
Oceania Papua New Guinea The PM says the country has the potential to become a huge producer of green products for the world, with 19 gigawatts of power already estimated from the hydroelectric potentials of Purari, Kikori and Stricken and geothermal projects in West New Britain
Europe Moldova An international campaign against gender-based violence, with 16 days of activism and information, ends today in the country, were violence against women is widespread and usually severely underfunded