New Year's Day

Those whose passport appointments were delayed until the new year due to the intensity despite paying the fee last December will be exempt from the hikes made on Jan. 1, Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has announced.

The move came after many citizens filed complaints via the Presidential Communications Center (CİMER).

The top-selling tuna at Tokyo's traditional New Year auction sold for more than $270,000 yesterday, nearly double last year's price, breaking a pandemic trend of slumping demand.

Michelin-starred sushi restaurant Onodera Group and Japanese wholesaler Yamayuki forked out 36.04 million yen ($273,000) for the

212-kilo bluefin tuna in the auction at Tokyo's Toyosu fish market.

Natural gas in Europe continues to fall in price at the start of the new year, falling below €70 per megawatt-hour (MWh) for the first time since the beginning of the military invasion of Ukraine, which Russia launched on February 24, 2022.

Here are the highlights of events related to the war in Ukraine over the past 24 hours:

With drones marked "Happy New Year", Russia attacked Kyiv on New Year's Day

Slovenians saw in the arrival of 2023 in the warmest weather on record with temperatures in some parts of the country exceeding 15 degrees Celsius on New Year’s morning. The night was exceptionally balmy, at well over 10 degrees.

Citizens in many parts of the country, especially in Istanbul, the capital Ankara and western province of İzmir, have welcomed the new year with various events, while a group of people in the southern province of Antalya celebrated the arrival of the new year by entering the sea at a temperature of 10 degrees.

New Year's celebrations swept across the globe, ushering in 2023 with countdowns and fireworks — and marking an end to a year that brought war in Europe, a new chapter in the British monarchy and global worries over inflation.

"We are launching Highway 'Europa' around the New Year, but without the last layer of asphalt." This was stated by the Minister of Regional Development and Public Works, Ivan Shishkov.

People across Asia prepared Monday for muted Lunar New Year celebrations amid concerns over the coronavirus and virulent omicron variant, even as increasing vaccination rates raised hopes that the Year of the Tiger might bring life back closer to normal.

Kosovo entered the new year burdened with most of the problems it had entering 2021 - the stalled dialogue with Serbia, the visa issue with the EU and the disputed Association of Serb-majority Municipalities.