Asia Syria Hundreds of Kurdish students in Hassakeh and Kobani refused to enter their classrooms as the 2026–27 school year began, protesting a decision that reduces Kurdish-language instruction to three periods per week, demanding the decision be reversed
Asia Kazakhstan In an agreement, the first of its kind in Central Asia, obtained after threatening Facebook with blocking the 3,2 million local users, the country gained access to FB's internal content reporting system, thus being able to remove content deemed harmful
Europe Sweden There are at least 38.000 genitally mutilated girls and women living in Sweden, according to an estimate by the National Board of Health and Welfare, sounding the alarm about the dangerous lack of knowledge within the health sector about this problem
Asia Bahrain Bahrain's Jews worship in public for the first time since 1947, when synagogue was destroyed in disturbances at the start of the Arab-Israeli conflict; at the same time, Hindu law is evoked to grant divorce to Indian couple
Europe North Macedonia The immediate political future after PM Zoran Zaev resigned on Sunday presents 3 options: the existing parliament majority led by the Social Democrats in power with a new PM, a new opposition-led majority, or snap general elections
Europe Portugal Many service providers - telecoms, water, electricity, gas, waste disposal and even passenger transport - are now obliged to offer customers toll free or reduced-cost phone lines for customer service
Europe Switzerland According to the latest Global Tobacco Industry Interference IndexLink, an index measuring the impact of lobbying, the tobacco lobby's political influences are very powerful, with the country ranking second to last, just ahead of the Dominican Republic
Asia India Diwali 2021, the Hindu Festival of Lights, is celebrated today by 966,3 million people, around 78% of the population
Africa Zimbabwe Government will cover the costs of the funerals of eight elders of the Vadzizi VaJeso Apostolic sect - which mixes Christian and traditional belief - who drowned last weekend during a ceremony that would determine who would baptize the congregation
Africa Madagascar The World Food Programme has reported that successive years of extreme weather events have plunged thousands of people in the country into what officials have described as the world's first climate-induced famine
Asia United Arab Emirates National online portal records 5,2 million visitors in Q3 2021: authorities announced a 50% increase in the UAE national portal users in Q3 of 2021 as compared to the same period of 2020
Asia Brunei Commercial building owners who cut or waive commercial tenants’ rent will be eligible for annual building tax relief of up to 50%; the manoeuvre aims at alleviating the financial burden of businesses hit by the impact of Covid-19 second wave
Oceania Vanuatu The country is among 27 that are seeking to become members of the International Maritime Organization's Council election in Category C, grouping states with special interests in maritime transport or shipping
Africa South Africa Damon Galgut, a 59-year-old novelist and playwright, has won yesterday the Booker 2021, one of Britain's most prestigious literary prizes for English-language writers; the author urged people to listen more to his continent, which has so much to tell