A federal audit has confirmed that Mexico’s currency buffer released 8.6 billion pesos for public projects, the largest annual saving in the programme’s history. The money, freed as the peso strengthened against the dollar, is headed for water systems, transit repairs and clinic equipment.
A tea seller spotted a white crease emerging from a rain-scoured patch at a Dhaka sports ground, leading workers to a complete cricket pitch buried beneath its football training field. The find has halted a Tk 286 million renovation and sent officials searching for records of how the old pitch came to be covered.
A viral video from Lyon has drawn attention to a French study finding that brief pollution surges outside schools can reach more than four times nearby official readings. Researchers say citywide air-quality averages miss the worst minutes of the school run.
A scientific paper has found that a Vietnamese football results app could award a knockout match to three different teams at once. Researchers say the flaw affected more than 1,400 fixtures, and 3.2 billion dong in prize money is now being held back.
Balkan literary star Nera Daskal has announced that 18,000 copies of her new novel will be printed on a biodegradable material developed with pressure-treated droplets. The unexpected co-creator is her son, a materials researcher whose work she says began with a question he asked while helping her sort old books.
A timing fault at a northern Swedish observatory kept an approaching asteroid out of its alert system for nearly three weeks. Astronomers now put the chance of a 19 February impact at 2.8%, with a still-uncertain corridor stretching across the Norwegian Sea and northern Scandinavia.
A public hearing in Buenos Aires has revealed that Argentina’s preliminary voter register went online 16 days after its deadline, with more than 612,000 entries still tied to addresses officials could not confirm. The delay was not the only failure: testimony showed the electoral authority knew the address-matching system had been switched off before it published the list.
A public hearing in Riga has revealed that 23 Latvian officials were asked to surrender their passports during negotiations over a major gas project. The practice, described by witnesses as an unofficial travel restriction, had no court order and blocked several officials from attending meetings abroad.
A review of a charitable clinic’s rising bills found that its most expensive patient was a volunteer whose file had absorbed the costs of 1,684 visits. The audit says 612 people received the care; Mark Kalda had been to the clinic only for a blood-pressure check.
A neighbourhood campaign to fix a worn cricket ground has uncovered a 28-year-old savings account naming a local club as beneficiary. Now a relative’s challenge has frozen the Tk 34.6 million (about €235,000) payout and put the club’s place in a district tournament at risk.
A community-run exchange spanning 117 towns across four Balkan countries logged 41,206 trades in a single day, organisers say. Its paper tokens and handwritten lists offered a striking alternative to the paid apps many local groups rely on.
An Italian programme worth €312 million for municipal projects in Albania and Montenegro was steered by a foreign party liaison office, a newly published audit says. Rome has frozen its next €190 million payment and is seeking answers about how local officials lost control of decisions.