On Thursday, Greece’s parliament adopted a bill allowing same-sex civil marriage, a significant victory for LGBT rights supporters. The law allows same-sex couples to marry and adopt children. The bill was approved by 176 members of the 300-seat parliament, another 76 opposed the measure, two abstained from voting, and 46 were absent in the house. After the vote, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis tweeted that Greece “is proud to become the 16th (European Union) country to legislate marriage equality.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released a report on Thursday, saying that more than three-quarters of the 99 journalists and media workers killed globally in 2023 died in the Israel-Gaza war. The global total for 2023 is the highest since 2015 and represents an increase of nearly 44% compared to 2022 figures. According to the CPJ, if not for the deaths in Gaza, Israel, and Lebanon, journalist killings would have decreased globally year-on-year. Furthermore, targeted killings of journalists in direct reprisal for their work, which the CPJ counts as murder, continued in 2023, with the CPJ documenting journalist murders in nine countries worldwide.
Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal said on Thursday that India had rejected the demand for ‘data exclusivity’ with regards to generic medicine in its negotiations for a free trade pact with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) bloc. Data exclusivity protects a pharmaceutical company’s clinical trial data for a specific medicine, giving it a monopoly in the field. The Secretary reaffirmed that India would not oppose the interests of its generic pharmaceuticals business.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Nepal Rastra Bank signed terms of reference on Thursday to allow the integration of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and National Payments Interface (NPI). The integration will facilitate cross-border remittances between the two countries by enabling users of the two systems to make instant, low-cost fund transfers. The RBI stated that the official launch of the linkage or start of operations will be announced at a later time.
Two Chinese fishermen, accused of trespassing, drowned during a pursuit by Taiwan’s Coast Guard near the Kinmen archipelago on Wednesday. Despite frequent Chinese activity in the waters close to Kinmen, the deaths are considered unusual. The Kinmen archipelago is nearer to China than Taiwan’s main island and is claimed by China as part of its territory. The Taiwan Affairs Office of China strongly condemned the incident and urged an investigation, stating that such a tragic event during the Spring Festival deeply affects the sentiments of compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
South Korea’s presidential office asserted on Thursday that the country’s decision to establish diplomatic ties with Cuba would deliver a “political and psychological blow” to North Korea. The North relies heavily on a limited number of Cold War-era allies for its diplomatic standing. These remarks came after the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s announcement on Wednesday night that it had agreed to initiate ambassador-level relations with Cuba, a move seen as significant in the context of regional diplomacy.