The toll tax on Vientiane-Vangvieng expressway was hiked to keep up with the value of kip reducing against the US dollar.
Laos Gets Highest Votes as Fan Favorite at Miss Universe Pageant
Miss Universe Laos has topped the list of the 71st Miss Universe contestants based on fan votes.
7-Eleven launches a stylish and practical collection of 8 Sanrio characters Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Containers to usher in the Year of the Rabbit

Celebrate Chinese New Year with 7-Eleven’s Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Containers
A new year means new surprises! So 7-Eleven has incorporated some all-new design elements inspired by the unique geometric patterns and colours created by a kaleidoscope. Flower motifs and a different Sanrio character adorn each of the eight glass containers. The mixture of colourful floral patterns will be sure to brighten up your home and bring an abundance of blessings to all during the festive season!
The Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Containers come in two different shapes – rectangular or round – and are ideal to store a variety of different items. They are made from high quality, food-grade borosilicate glass and are temperature-tolerant from 0°C to 100°C. In addition to the embossed decorative lids, each container has a cute silicone vacuum valve designed in the shape of something linked with the featured character. To reheat food quickly and easily in the microwave, simply lift the valve and put the glass container straight in without having to remove the lid completely. The rectangular container has a capacity of about 800ml and comes with a removable and washable divider so you can conveniently separate food inside. The lid also features a detachable leakproof silicone rubber ring to keep food fresher for longer and prevent the contents from spilling out making these multifunctional containers ideal for soup and more!
The round Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container has a capacity of about 300ml. Each set includes a pair of round containers. Compact and practical, they are perfect for storing a variety of items including festive treats such as New Year cakes, candies, melon seeds, candied lotus roots, nuts and more to share with your friends and family over the holidays!
Special Limited Edition Chinese New Year Box Set Pre-order for yuu Members
7-Eleven has also launched a special Limited Edition Chinese New Year Box Set that can be exclusively pre-ordered by yuu Members. There are two styles to choose from – the Bright & Blessed New Year Set and Abundant Fortune New Year Set. Each box set includes four selected Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container styles and two packs of ten Lai See Packet sets featuring Hello Kitty and Minna no Tābō. yuu Members can pre-order and redeem a Special Limited Edition Chinese New Year Box Set with 88,000 yuu Points and choose their favourite style. Quantities are limited to 100 boxes per style (200 boxes in total). The pre-order period is from 11 January (12 noon) to 12 January 2023 (2 days in total). The pick-up period is from 18 January (7am) to 31 January 2023. Quantities are limited, while stocks last!
Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container product details:
Rectangular Leakproof Glass Container size: Approx. 7cm (height) x 19.5cm (length); approx. capacity 800ml
Round Leakproof Glass Container size: Approx. 7cm (height) x 10cm (length); approx. capacity 300ml
1. Hello Kitty This festive red glass container features Hello Kitty and includes a silicone vacuum valve in the shape of a sweet juicy apple! |
2. My Melody
Have fun this Year of the Rabbit with My Melody and this cute container in light pink – her signature colour! |
3. Kuromi
Kuromi has a mischievous side and likes to cause trouble. But she’s promised to be on her best behaviour this year and her purple container will be sure to put a smile on your face! |
4. Pompompurin
Everybody loves Pompompurin. He’s cute, cuddly and yellow just like his favourite cream caramel pudding. Take him home today and have a sweet new year! |
5. Cinnamoroll
Cinnamoroll is back at 7-Eleven having just celebrated his 20th anniversary. Spend a happy new year and share blessings together with him and your loved ones! |
6. Ahiru no Pekkle
This orange container features the cute, round and snow-white Ahiru no Pekkle alongside auspicious fish motifs to bring you good luck and prosperity this New Year! |
7. Minna no Tābō
Ranked one of the most popular Sanrio characters in Hong Kong, Minna no Tābō returns to bring you joy and celebrate the Year of the Rabbit with you!
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8. Little Twin Stars
Little Twin Stars Kiki and Lala are inseparable. Chinese New Year is a time for togetherness so join them and enjoy the holidays with your family and friends! |
PRODUCT INFORMATION:
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Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container Collectible Programme details:
Stamp distribution details: Redemption details: Exclusive yuu Member Offer 1 – Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container Redemption: Exclusive yuu Member Offer 2 – Special Limited Edition Chinese New Year Box Set Pre-order: |
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1. Bright & Blessed New Year Set
This vibrant red box set includes four bright and colourful Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container styles and two types of Lai See Packets featuring Hello Kitty and Minna no Tābō to wish one and all a lucky and prosperous Year of the Rabbit! The set includes the following four selected Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container styles: |
2. Abundant Fortune New Year Set
This stylish purple box set includes four pastel pink and blue Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container styles and two types of Lai See Packets featuring Hello Kitty and Minna no Tābō to share abundant blessings over the festive season. The set includes the following four selected Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container styles: |
Customers can select the Bright & Blessed New Year Set or Abundant Fortune New Year Set. The Bright & Blessed New Year Set and Abundant Fortune New Year Set each include a selection of four Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container styles. Styles of the Best Wishes Leakproof Glass Container inside either box set cannot be selected.
This offer is applicable to 7-Eleven stores in Hong Kong and Macau (excluding Inspiration Lake Recreation Centre and Team Disney, Hong Kong Disney Resort stores and Hong Kong Disney Resort Food Kiosk).
* Transactions at Inspiration Lake Recreation Centre, Team Disney, Hong Kong Disney Resort stores and Hong Kong Disney Resort Food Kiosk are excluded.
#Excluding the purchase of cigarettes, milk powder, diapers, collectible programme redemption items, online game cards, mobile prepaid sim/mobile sim cards/value-added coupons, Octopus cards/products, Macau Pass cards/products, gift cards, prepaid cards, admission tickets/tickets/stamps, and plastic shopping bag charges. Also excluding payment for the following services including but not limited to: Octopus last 10 transactions printout, prepayment, Pin-On-Receipt, bill payment, donation, top up (including but not limited to Octopus, Macau Pass/MPay, Alipay, WeChat Pay, Tap & Go, TNG, and other e-wallets), fax & photocopying, mobile phone charging services, parcel pick-up and return, locker services, parking fee payment, Inspiration Lake activities, self-service laundry etc. For more details, please visit our website.
Hashtag: #7Eleven
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
Schoolgirl in Thailand Killed by Knife Attack
A schoolgirl from Roi Et Province, Thailand was killed after a man stabbed her on a school bus on Friday.
10 events that shook the financial world in 2022—according to OctaFX

The year 2022 has been dominated by two major issues: the extreme rise of geopolitical tensions and record-high inflation in most industrialised economies.
Both domains are intertwined and can be basically split up into ten key events.
They are listed in order of importance and priority, although all of them have been strikingly crucial for the unfolding of 2022’s economic, financial and political narratives and disruptions—Forex being, of course, just one of them.
- The FED’s unprecedented rate hike marathon
More like a chain of events rather than one single event, the U.S. interest rate hikes pace has been faster than at any time in recent history—raising them by as much as 375 basis points in just 11 months (from <0.25% in January to 4.50% in December. In turn, higher borrowing costs have damaged the appeal of non-yielding assets such as gold and crypto (at one point, XAUUSD was down 22% from y-t-d high to y-t-d low; BTCUSD was down 67%) and put a downward pressure on traditional risky assets such as stock indices (for example, S&P 500 is more than 15% y-t-d). In addition, the risk-off mentality has spurred the U.S. dollar, particularly against the weakest currencies that lack monetary support. For example, at one point, USDJPY was up as much as 30% from the y-t-d low to the y-t-d high.

2. Record-high inflation in the U.S. and beyond
One of the many reasons for inflation was heavy supply chain disruptions, accompanied by a lingering effect of fiscal stimulus. In addition, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused another surge in inflation by increasing the uncertainty around energy and agricultural suppliers.
3. Europe faces an energy shock
With gas and electricity bills nearly doubled in all EU capitals compared to a year before, the problem remains serious. Almost all other energy products and the shares of utility companies in Europe were affected, and a mid to long-term solution is far from being found. More on that later.
4. Eastern Europe as a warzone
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a new, uncertain era in international relations has begun. Navigating these collisions as they manifest on the financial market has become more and more an investor’s occupational risk. Global commodity prices have not remained untouched, boosting inflation and forcing the European Union and the continent as a whole to reexamine its energy policies. The latter sprang directly out of the unparalleled series of sanctions the EU imposed on Russia.
5. Crypto winter started early that year
Long before the FTX fallout ever appeared on the horizon, the bear was already wandering around, forcing the crypto market trend downwards, with bitcoin at times falling by a whopping over 70% since December 2021. The cryptocurrency market was just a marker for an overall motto of ‘risk being out of fashion’ in the general investors’ sphere, as falling equity valuations have illustrated for a prolonged period of time. Then, in November, came the FTX collapse, giving the financial trends another main nail in the coffin of institutional trustworthiness. Around 8–10 billion U.S. dollars worth of funds have disappeared from the platform—one billion belonging to its retail community—lost almost overnight. Approximately a million people have lost their money. Not even FTX’s billionaire investors were spared: over thirty of them reported considerable financial losses.
6. Tensions around Taiwan
With the Ukraine war already in full swing, an August crisis around Taiwan was on the brink of turning into an active warzone, as well—with the U.S. and China most probably turning out to be direct war parties. This has been circumvented. Not thanks to the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi who visited Taipei despite clear warnings of Bejing to abstain from such a visit. But sanctions against China’s technological companies were administered by the U.S. nonetheless, with China going on military and economic high alert.
7. The rise of protectionism and de-dollarisation of the global trade flows
Towards the year’s end, news broke that China and Saudi Arabia had agreed to trade oil in Chinese yuan, moving Bejing’s national currency further into world reserve status. China is a founding BRICS group member, and Riyadh expressed an intention to join the network on numerous occasions. Russia, in an effort to combat sanctions, chose to only offer its energy exports to ‘unfriendly nations’—meaning, Western ones—in exchange for rubles.
At the same time, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration passes legislation to protect itself from inflation and to combat it by basically creating unprecedented incentives for European industry to migrate to North America. Especially the advantageous U.S. energy prices offered are causing the industry exodus of the old continent. A move that caused widespread perplexity among the EU’s leaders—France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Schulz being at the forefront of this European confusion.
8. Sanctions against Russia create risks for EU economies—the future of the eurozone is highly uncertain
An outright news war has been waged on whether the Western sanctions on Russia have shipped the desired effect. But one thing during the course of a total of nine EU sanctions packages became apparent: it had a more negative impact on its own economies than much of the European elite had previously anticipated. What first started to look like a stern and decisive blow for Russia from the EU—with Russian stocks plummeting by 33% and the ruble going down to 140 currency units per U.S. dollar in March—soon turned out to have an economic boomerang effect. Russia’s economy and its national currency managed to stabilise and the sanctions on its energy have been in a constant process of adaptation—like strengthening and expanding energy partnerships with China, Turkey, and India further in non-U.S. dollar trade deals.
On top of the EU natural gas price cap to be introduced on Russian exports, the U.S.-based Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has threatened to leave Europe if Brussels were to stick with a said price cap. A stable natural gas supply from Russia is now a thing of the past either way after the explosion of the Nord Stream II natural gas pipeline infrastructure in September.
9. Record gold-buying by central banks
After Russia’s gold and foreign exchange reserves were frozen in the aftermath of the February invasion, investing in U.S. Treasuries looks less safe than previously. Therefore, central banks across the board were and still are looking for alternatives. Also, neither China nor Japan is buying that many U.S. bonds anymore, which is a trend reversal in global financial dynamics, as well.
10. U.S. midterm elections
The November midterm elections brought forth a divided government, suggesting meagre expectations of structural reforms to address long-term problems or provide effective fiscal support should the economy weaken further. In the immediate aftermath, fears were rampant that the forked election results might impact the U.S. dollar’s rally that has been going on because of the 2022 interest rate hikes until that moment. Fears that proved investors right just a few more days along the line, since the greenback retreated from multi-decade highs occurring just mere weeks prior.
An honorary mention should be the dramatic stand-off between the OPEC+ group and the U.S. when the crude oil price reached 100 U.S. dollars per barrel. The ‘NOPEC bill’ by the USA served as a disciplining response to OPEC+’s cutting oil production by two million barrels a day. Crude oil was rising because U.S. shale production has plateaued, while spare capacity in OPEC countries has reached its limits. In an attempt to bring down soaring petroleum prices, the U.S. started to release crude oil from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Total releases from SPR this year totalled more than 211 million barrels, putting the inventories at their lowest levels since 1984.
That is not to say there were no other important events for the Forex world in 2022: but if distilled to just a list of ten, these are the OctaFX experts’ picks for the past year.
Hashtag: #OctaFX
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About OctaFX
OctaFX is a global broker providing online trading services worldwide since 2011. It offers commission-free access to financial markets and a variety of services already utilised by clients from 150 countries with more than 12 million trading accounts. Free educational webinars, articles, and analytical tools they provide help clients reach their investment goals.
The company is involved in a comprehensive network of charitable and humanitarian initiatives, including the improvement of educational infrastructure and short-notice relief projects supporting local communities and small to medium enterprises.
On a side note, OctaFX has also won more than 50 awards since its foundation, including the 2021 ‘Best ECN Broker’ award from World Finance and the 2022 ‘Best Global Broker Asia’ award from International Business Magazine.
Element 25 inks pivotal manganese supply deal with Stellantis
Element 25 Ltd (ASX:E25) managing director Justin Brown sits down with Proactive’s Elisha Newell to discuss a pivotal agreement with global carmaker Stellantis. The offtake and financing deal covers high-purity, battery-grade material from Element 25’s Butcherbird Manganese Project in WA. Brown said the upstream investment was “a fantastic endorsement from one of the world’s largest automakers” and supported the company’s plans to become a globally significant, long-term supplier of battery materials.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
World-Class Design Meets Cutting-Edge Innovation in TUMI’s Spring 2023 Collection

The iconic Alpha Bravo collection stays true to its utilitarian roots with rugged styling and unmatched durability. Embodying the “go anywhere, do anything” attitude of the original line, key pieces this season include the Navigation Backpack, Platoon Sling and the Compass Crossbody, an on-trend flap silhouette that’s just as comfortable on urban treks as outdoor expeditions. Bravo continues to leverage its military-inspired heritage with a new capsule collection that reimagines the great escape for the modern nomad. Inspired by Australia’s deep connection to the outdoors, this capsule focuses on functional styles used to explore the wild terrain beyond our city’s borders. Made in a durable lightweight nylon incorporating sustainable materials, versatile styles like the Expedition Backpack are fully equipped for any adventure.
Reflecting TUMI’s ongoing commitment to sustainability, the relaunch of the beloved women’s Voyageur collection incorporates recycled materials into core designs, highlighting TUMI’s dedication to making products of exceptional quality and unparalleled durability. The collection has also been redesigned to focus on versatility and enhanced functionality, allowing clients to personalize their bags with TUMI+ travel accessories like the Charm Pouch, Small Organizer, Modular Accessory Pouch, and more. This season’s assortment includes redesigned best-sellers like the Celina Backpack and the Valetta Tote (which comes in multiple sizes), as well as fresh, on-trend silhouettes reimagined for women on-the-go including the Adelaide Hobo Crossbody and the Loha Slim Hip Bag.

Keep things simple with the minimalist Harrison collection. Clean silhouettes and pared-down details offer a balance of contemporary and timeless style. Each piece delivers major functionality. This season, the William Backpack, Bradner Backpack and Osborn Roll Top Backpack are the perfect solution for compact and lightweight everyday use, while best-sellers like Gregory Sling offer a modern take on the classic sling. All are available in Reflective color.

Another highlight of the Spring 2023 season is the launch of the TUMI | McLaren 60th Anniversary Collection, a commemorative collaboration in their signature Papaya colorway. A seamless integration of lifestyle, fashion and technology, TUMI’s ongoing collaboration with McLaren flourishes with new seasonal pieces like the Torque Sling, Velocity Backpack and Aero International Expandable 4 Wheeled Carry-On, designed to accommodate the needs of premium clients on the go. Packing cases and portfolios will also be added this season.
Finally, color makes its mark in hardside collections, virtually guaranteeing that TUMI luggage continues to stand out from the crowd. New colorways this season include Lilac, Coral and Mist in the 19 Degree collection, Dark Denim in the 19 Degree Aluminum collection and Blaze Red in the TEGRA-LITE® collection.

Shop the full Spring 2023 collection via TUMI.com and at your nearest TUMI store.
Keep up with TUMI on Instagram and Facebook
Hashtag: #TUMI
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About TUMI
Since 1975, TUMI has been creating world-class business, travel and performance luxury essentials, designed to upgrade, uncomplicate and beautify all aspects of life on the move. Blending flawless functionality with a spirit of ingenuity, we’re committed to empowering journeys as a lifelong partner to movers and makers in pursuit of their passions. The brand is sold globally in over 75 countries with approximately 2,000 points of sale.
For more about TUMI, visit TUMI.com
Tearlach Resources Expands Lithium Portfolio.; Rock Tech Lithium Co Founder and Lithium Experts Lead Tearlach Resources.
Tearlach is a company where the world’s leading lithium experts have come together on a quest to discover “Super Lithium”. Most investors don’t know that super lithium is the lithium that is actually needed for batteries.
Tearlach resources is led by Paul Chow who is co-founder and former CEO of Rock Tech Lithium, which is one of the most successful lithium companies.
Tearlach Resources is also led by Lindsay Bottomer who is co-founder of the Oyu Tolgoi mine in Mongolia which is one of the world’s largest copper mines.
Tearlach Resources was recently publicly listed in USA, Canada and Germany and the shares of this company are available for purchase in Germany (ISIN CA8779052080 WKN: A1JUY9).
It is also listed in the United States under OTC: TELHF and in Canada on the TSX.V: TEA
The company now owns 5 lithium projects in Canada.
The US military has recently announced that it will be funding Canadian mining projects amid tensions with China.
It illustrates how Canadian mining is becoming the nexus of a colossal geopolitical struggle. Ottawa just pushed Chinese state-owned companies out of the sector, and the US is now moving public funding in.
In addition to the US military funding Canadian energy metal mining companies, Canada’s Québec government has revealed that it is in talks with Tesla about the automaker investing in the province.
A representative for Pierre Fitzgibbon, Québec’s economy minister, confirmed that the official met with Tesla executives in California recently.
“The minister met with Tesla executives during a mission in California last month. They discussed Quebec’s place in Tesla’s supply chain.”
Thus, Canada is quickly becoming the hottest area for energy metal mining.
The pedigree of the board is one that would only associate themselves with Top tier projects. The Projects are all located in an area where there have been massive lithium discoveries.
To learn more about the company please visit The Financial Stars Research reports below in German and English.
For German
Dieser Super-Lithium-Börsengang explodiert im Wert! – 28.11.2022 (wallstreet-online.de)
For English
A “Superlithium” Stock That Is SURGING (thefinancialstar.com)
Hashtag: #TearlachResources
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.