Oceania Marshall Islands The fish aggregation devices FADs that fishing boats use to make catches easier, lately equipped with satellite communications gear to pinpoint location, are now being built by drug cartels that wrap packs of cocaine and radio transponders to trace troves
Asia Saudi Arabia Rayyanah Barnawi, the first Arab female astronaut, was officially recognised for her pioneering space flight by Guinness World Records; she said 'this trip does not just represent me, but rather the entire Arab world and all Saudis'
Asia Maldives The State Electric Company has planted more than 36.000 trees in the three months since the project to plant 500.000 trees over the next five years was launched in June
America Jamaica The Marcus Garvey in Schools project, which aims to bring children to an understanding of their history and cultural heritage, has been extended to 23 primary schools
Asia Nepal A mountain village in Solukhumbu is set to generate electricity from a perennial river near Mount Everest by 2026, becoming the highest in the world, after the government approved an environmental impact assessment study for the energy project
Asia Oman The first race of the 22nd annual camel races for 2024-2025 season will start on Friday and continue for 3 days with 89 laps in the Barka and Adam fields in an event organised by the Oman Camel Racing Federation in cooperation with the Royal Camel Corps
Europe Liechtenstein 'Google Street View' now completely covers the country, after Google's camera car was on the road in Liechtenstein in August
Europe Netherlands The Court of Rottdertam sentenced a man for the first time in history for sexually assaulting a woman in the street; the law was amended to make it a punishable offence on 1 July
Europe Malta The Maltese archdiocese's shareholding in APS bank has been diluted to around 55% in 2022, compared to the 79% it previously owned, and the Catholic Church intends to continue 'withdrawing' from Maltese banking sector by further diluting its shareholding
Europe Lithuania Almost 87% of the heat produced in Vilnius will be ‘clean’ thanks to the activation of the most powerful heat pump in the Baltic States, within the territory of Vilnius Power Plant 2, operated by Vilniaus Šilumos Tinklai
Asia Cyprus The north’s Gecitkale, or Lefkoniko, air base “may be used” by the Turkish air force if tensions continue to rise in the Middle East and if Turkey gets involved in the tensions in the region, the north’s air traffic controllers’ trade union chairman said
Europe Belgium 23 out of 29 Belgian banks held up well to a recent stress test on the guarantee of customer deposits in case of failure, with six banks failing to provide sufficient information to the federal government
Africa Angola The two recently enacted laws on the offences of vandalism of public property and services and national security, which have been strongly criticised by national and international human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, are causing controversy
Europe Denmark House insurance prices of Denmark's three largest insurers have risen by over 20% in the past year; association of insurance companies Forsikring & Pension says the increase in rates is due to extreme weather