Asia Nepal Kathmandu Metropolitan City has renewed efforts to enforce a long-ignored ban on public smoking; An awareness drive with fines is underway and though past attempts failed, the city says strict enforcement is vital for public health and pollution control
Asia India Nearly 30% of private cars taking the Delhi-Chandigarh highway have chosen the FASTag annual pass, though much more expensive than the average toll, a higher percentage compared to other areas; 1 million users are expected this year
Asia Uzbekistan The Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR has commenced developing an oil field in Uzbekistan and 'very promising' feedback is expected with one or two years, Uzbekistan announced in a trilateral meeting with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan
Asia Georgia Tbilisi Mayor and Secretary of the ruling party Kakha Kaladze accused foreign powers and organizations of tentative interference in internal affairs: pressure, misinformation, political manipulation would destabilize Georgia and undermine its sovereignty
America Costa Rica The FLAIR system, a news technology for marine conservation, identifies and tracks sharks in real time with image segmentation and recognition models, drastically reducing analysis time from 20 hours of manual annotation to around one for a 5-minute video
Asia Myanmar Ministry of Information signed a $3 million-per-year lobbying contract with Washington-based DCI Group; The deal comes amid the transition to a nominal civilian interim government, though military chief Min Aung Hlaing remains in powe
Europe Germany A central Berlin street with an unfortunate name referring to 'moros' has been renamed after Anton Wilhelm Amo, a Black German Enlightenment philosopher, who in 1734 became the first Africa-born scholar to receive a European doctorate
Europe Czech Republic Registration period for Czech expats wishing to vote by mail in the upcoming parliamentary elections has closed and first figures report over 24.000 people listed; it is the first time that citizens abroad can vote and it follows a reform passed in 2023
Asia Vietnam Plans have started for the evacuation of over half a million people and all boats are ordered to stay ashore as Vietnam braces for an intensifying Typhoon Kajiki
Africa Tunisia Members and backers of Tunisia's largest trade union rallied in support of the organisation, which has faced mounting pressure from President Kais Saied; it was the largest demonstration recently held in the country, denouncing a rollback of freedoms
Africa Madagascar Madagascar assumed the Chair of Southern African Development Community at the 45th meeting of Heads of States and Government held in Antananarivo, themed Advancing Industrialisation, Agricultural Transformation, and Energy Transition for a Resilient SADC
Africa Ivory Coast The Independent Electoral Commission is keeping its doors open with full service schedule over this weekend to favor the reception of candidacy files for the upcoming presidential election scheduled for 25 October
Africa Uganda In Murchison Falls national park a revolutionary approach is making oil exploration compatible with wildlife needs, with latest technologies minimizing noise, light, vibrations, environment impact
Africa South Sudan Residents of Juba are raising alarm after heavy rains left harvested rainwater appearing black in color, prompting health and environmental concerns as dark, almost charcoal-colored rainwater pooled in containers and drainage ditches across the city