Already an IT hub, the western city of Lviv tries to ride out the Russian invasion and hopes for a boom when it's over. The industry and the talent that it produces are pillars of Ukraine's plans for economic recovery in a postwar world, but times are tough as the war rages on further east.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 30 that he was expecting Chinese President Xi Jinping to make a state visit to Russia in spring 2023, in what would be a public show of solidarity from Beijing amid Russia's war in Ukraine.
Romanian prosecutors asked a Bucharest court on December 30 to extend by 30 days the arrest of ex-kickboxer and Internet personality Andrew Tate, prosecutors from the anti-organized crime unit said in a statement.
Three Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack late on December 28 in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, intelligence officials told RFE/RL.