Author: Fbiz

In Greece’s grinding economic crisis, a home for abused children is now taking in those whose parents are struggling to feed them. It is perhaps the darkest sign of economic devastation in Greece, where traditionally strong family ties are starting to crumble after years of depression. A quarter of Greece’s workforce is unemployed and a …

It could be a Hollywood screenplay. Juliana Armelin and her husband Paulo Siqueira decided to radically change their lives in 2010, quitting jobs in Sao Paulo’s financial sector and moving to a farm seven hours away to start growing coffee. Seven years later, they clinched for a second consecutive year Brazil’s most prestigious coffee award, …

Airbnb expects to maintain its rapid growth in Africa this year and double its customer numbers to 1.5 million, its Chief Executive Brian Chesky and regional head told Reuters on Friday. The number of people using the online room rental service on the continent rose by 143 percent to about 765,000 guests in 2016 from …

Foreign tourism to the United States, which supports millions of American jobs, is slowing, possibly because President Donald Trump sought controversial travel restrictions on some Muslim-majority nations. Online searches for flights to the United States are down in most major nations, not just those hit by restrictions. Jim Randle reports some travel experts say the …

Carmakers and suppliers gave widely differing timelines Thursday for the introduction of self-driving vehicles, showing the uncertainties surrounding the technology as well as a split between cautious established players and bullish new entrants. Chipmaker Nvidia, facing direct competition with the world’s top chipmaker after Intel’s $15 billion deal to buy Mobileye, an autonomous driving technology …

Latin American countries are becoming more reliant on costly fuel imports amid floundering efforts to bolster domestic oil output and expand refinery capacity. Incomplete reform projects and budget cuts that have stalled investments are aggravating the situation for many Latin American countries. For refiners in the United States, it is a bonus: They have in …

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is headed Friday to his first G-20 meeting of the world’s top financial leaders in Germany with a message that the new administration of President Donald Trump won’t tolerate any countries that try to devalue their currencies to gain an unfair trade advantage. The U.S. ran a trade deficit of …

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe says foreign companies that comply with his indigenization law are guaranteed security. His comment is a deviation from his earlier promise that he would revise the policy, which analysts repeatedly have said scares away investors. At the official launch Thursday of an $82-million cement manufacturing plant by a South African company, …

Banks could revolutionize the fight against human trafficking and modern slavery by reporting suspicious transactions and other financial activity that ring alarm bells, according to a report on Wednesday. Financial institutions hold data on traffickers and their victims that could play a vital role in combating trafficking — as long as they also collaborate with groups …

The remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are seeking a way forward on the trade pact, they said on Wednesday, as some emphasized the need for deals to address concerns about workers’ rights and other issues. The TPP, which originally covered some 40 percent of global gross domestic product, was effectively torpedoed in its …

President Donald Trump plans to re-examine federal fuel economy requirements for new cars and trucks. The requirements were a centerpiece of president Barack Obama’s strategy to combat global warming. But Trump appears to be making good on a pledge to car company CEOs to reduce “unnecessary regulations.” Here’s what’s happening:   What are CAFE and …

The United States has the world’s largest stock of robots, and the number is growing fast. A report published Wednesday by Redwood Software and the Center for Economics and Business Research said investment surged to $86 billion in 2015 as more, better and cheaper robots were deployed. The authors, whose firms are based in the …

Asia needs to make extra efforts to defeat hunger after progress has slowed in the last five years, including promoting so-called “smart crops” as an alternative to rice, the head of the U.N. food agency in the region said. Kundhavi Kadiresan, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Asia, said the region needs …

Niagara Falls, whose most famous thrill-seekers have gone over the brink in barrels, wants to be the place the rest of us go for outdoor adventure, too.   A new marketing effort launched Tuesday rebrands the American shore of the falls as a natural playground to be explored on foot, bike, boat or helicopter.   …

Brazil’s top public prosecutor asked the Supreme Court to open 83 new investigations into senior politicians on Tuesday, reportedly including five ministers and leading lawmakers, in a dramatic escalation of a graft probe threatening the government. Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot also requested that the Court send 211 other requests to lower courts based on much-anticipated …

Activity in China’s real economy has improved with the business environment much better than at the same time last year, the statistics bureau says. “Based on key indicators from January and February this year, we feel that the vitality of the real economy has been boosted, [and] its results have improved. With a further push …

U.S. President Donald Trump this week will unveil a budget expected to massively increase military spending while slashing other federal programs. The proposal, set to be released Thursday, will offer the most detailed look yet at how Trump intends to move ahead with his so-called “America First” policy. The budget will likely face significant opposition …

U.S. chipmaker Intel agreed to buy driverless technology firm Mobileye for $15.3 billion on Monday, positioning itself for a dominant role in the autonomous-driving sector after missing the market for mobile phones. The $63.54 per share cash deal is the biggest technology takeover in Israel’s history and the largest purchase of a company solely focused …

Vietnam will test U.S. President Donald Trump’s openness to one-on-one trade deals as it starts nudging Washington for an eventual agreement to replace its role in the defunct Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Official media outlets in Vietnam say Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told an American business delegation last week he was ready to visit …

The risk of a steep slide in China’s economy has reduced, the head of a government research center said on Sunday, adding the country had moved through an “L-shaped” pattern of slowing to now “horizontal” growth. China’s economy grew 6.7 percent last year, according to the government, the slowest pace in 26 years. The country …

On Feb. 19, 2016, at a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, then-candidate Donald Trump gave a stump speech in which he railed against American jobs moving to Mexico: “We lose our jobs, we close our factories, Mexico gets all of the work,” he said. “We get nothing.”    That same day a law …

Sharing services are a growing trend in 21st economies. In London, the Spacehop website provides a marketplace where people who have unused living spaces can meet those looking for short-term work places. VOA’s Faiza Elmasry has more. Faith Lapidus narrates. …

Nigerian Abdulhakim Mohammed has just graduated in architecture but, like many people ranging from unemployed locals to foreign investors and Africa’s richest man, he has decided the future lies in rice farming. The reason is that domestic rice prices have more than doubled in the last two years due to an import ban and a …

Iran’s supreme leader criticized the country’s slow pace of economic recovery on Thursday despite the lifting of sanctions and called on President Hassan Rouhani’s government to champion greater self-sufficiency, state TV reported. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s criticism comes ahead of Iran’s presidential election in May, when the pragmatist president is expected to seek re-election. “Of course …

China on Thursday defended its handling of 38 trademarks it recently approved provisionally for President Donald Trump, saying it followed the law in processing the applications at a pace that some experts view as unusually quick. Democrats in Congress were critical of Trump after The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the potentially valuable trademarks had …

U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Wednesday that substantial negotiations to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement likely will not get started until the latter part of this year and could take a year to complete. Ross, speaking to Bloomberg Television, said U.S. legal notification requirements with partners Mexico and Canada create some …