Hong Kong
Bill regulates apartments
Hong Kong lawmakers passed a bill on Friday mandating a minimum size, an exclusive bathroom and other standards in subdivided apartments - a common living arrangement in one of the world’s least affordable cities. About 220,000 people live in dwellings created by dividing regular apartments, including migrants, workers, students and young professionals. Some of the spaces have a toilet bowl next to the cooking area.
Iraq
Oil exports to resume
Iraq will resume exporting oil from the country’s northern, semi-autonomous Kurdish region through Turkey’s Ceyhan port after exports had been halted for more than two years, officials said on Friday. The resumption, which starts on Saturday, is a step toward boosting Iraq’s oil revenues and stabilising the relationship between the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdish region, even as disputes over revenue sharing and field management persist.
Mali
French diplomats expelled
Mali’s ruling junta has declared an end to counterterrorism cooperation with France and expelled five French Embassy employees, according to a confidential letter seen by The Associated Press on Thursday, amid diplomatic tensions between the countries.
A note dated September 17 from Mali’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the French Embassy in the capital, Bamako, said the five staff had been declared “personae non grata” and announced ”the cessation of all international cooperation in the fight against terrorism."