Category: Business

The exiled former leader of the Maldives said Monday that this year's presidential election could be the last chance to extricate his country from increasing Chinese influence, which he described as a land grab in the guise of investments in island development.   Mohamed Nasheed…

Australia has filed a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization that accuses Canada of placing "discriminatory" rules on the sales of imported wine. Canada is Australia's fourth-biggest wine market. Officials in Canberra say rules in Canada unfairly discriminate against overseas wine. An official protest…

Iran's supreme leader has ordered the Revolutionary Guard to loosen its hold on the economy, the country's defense minister says, raising the possibility that the paramilitary organization might privatize some of its vast holdings. The comments this weekend by Defense Minister Gen. Amir Hatami appear…

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister urged global oil producing nations on Sunday to extend their cooperation beyond 2018, but said this might mean a new form of deal rather than continuing the same supply cuts that have boosted prices in recent months. It was the first…

Afghanistan's arts and architecture were once the pride of Asia. However, more than four decades of war have left many of the country’s traditional crafts on the verge of extinction. Now a Britain-based organization, Turquoise Mountain, is working to preserve Afghan heritage in the capital’s…

Donald Trump, the presidential candidate, would not like the way Trump, the president, is crowing about today’s unemployment rate. He’d be calling the whole thing a “hoax.” Trump raised a red flag about declining jobless numbers during his campaign, denying President Barack Obama any credit.…

Imagine if cigarettes were no longer addictive and smoking itself became almost obsolete; only a tiny segment of Americans still lit up. That's the goal of an unprecedented anti-smoking plan being carefully fashioned by U.S. health officials. But the proposal from the Food and Drug…

Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet said it would launch a second-hand business this year, becoming the first big brand to announce plans to tap into a fast-growing market for pre-owned premium watches. The company told Reuters it would launch the business at its outlets in Switzerland this…

Foreign investors in Vietnam will welcome a fairer, more predictable set of business practices as the government pursues the heads of local firms over corruption, analysts believe. Some foreign companies might review their own books to ensure clean accounting, as prosecutors investigate executives in Vietnamese…

Widow Ahatho Turuga lost 20 of her goats to drought early last year, but the shopkeeper is planning to reinvest in her herd once she has saved enough money. "I think I will start with four goats and see how it goes," she said, rearranging…

Turkey’s main business lobby on Thursday called on the government to end the state of emergency as parliament extended it for a sixth time since it was imposed after an attempted coup in 2016. Emergency rule allows President Tayyip Erdogan and the government to bypass…

Nigeria moved closer to turning the first part of a long-awaited oil industry bill into law after the lower house passed the same version of the legislation approved by the Senate last year, a lawmaker in the House of Representatives said on Thursday. It is…

Wall Street roared upward Wednesday, with investor enthusiasm sending all three major stock indices to record finishes, and the Dow to its first close above 26,000 points. The blue-chip Dow gained 1.3 percent to close at 26,115.65 — just eight trading sessions after breaking the 25,000…

Financial crime fighters at the U.S. Treasury are "aggressively" pursuing virtual currency platforms that lack strong internal safeguards against money laundering, a top official told a Senate panel on Wednesday. With more criminals using the emerging asset class to store and transmit their ill-gotten gains,…

In a modest apartment near a Caracas slum, nutrition professor Nancy Silva and four aids spread rich, dark Venezuelan cocoa on a stone counter to make chocolate bars to be sold in local shops that cater to the crisis-hit country's dwindling elite. Like some 20…

El Salvador is discussing a deal with Qatar under which Salvadoran migrants facing the loss of their right to stay in the United States could live and work temporarily in the Middle Eastern country, the government of the Central American nation said on Tuesday. Last…

Car dealerships in Mexico City have kicked off the new year offering "clearance sales" and free insurance as 2017 models collect dust on their lots, a reminder that consumer nerves over high interest rates could slow the economy ahead of elections. The first drop in…

Ethiopian Airlines says it has finalized an agreement with Zambia to re-launch the southern African country's national carrier. The partnership with Zambia comes as Ethiopian Airlines is opening new routes and hubs and is acquiring new aircraft. In a statement Tuesday, the airline said it…

Bitcoin slid as much as 18 percent on Tuesday to a four-week low, as fears of a regulatory crackdown on the market spread after reports suggested it was still possible that South Korea could ban trading in cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin’s slide triggered a selloff across the…

A Brazilian court on Monday ordered the world's largest iron ore miner Vale SA to repair environmental damages its operations caused in land belonging to a community of descendants of escaped slaves in northern Brazil. Federal prosecutors announced the ruling in a statement that said…

The European Union's trade tsar has no idea what Donald Trump will tell his audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos next week, but she is clear what the EU's message to the U.S. president will be. America is shooting itself in the foot…

Indigenous women in Latin America must be at the center of efforts to adapt agriculture to deal with the threat of climate change and help tackle hunger and poverty, said a top U.N. food official. Jose Graziano da Silva, head of the Food and Agriculture…

Crude oil prices reached a 30-month high this week. But the government agency that analyzes and disseminates energy information says the rally may have run its course. The Energy Information Administration predicts U.S. crude prices will stabilize to about 55 dollars a barrel for West…

Following an outcry over a significant disparity in pay between co-stars, Mark Wahlberg agreed Saturday to donate the $1.5 million he earned for reshoots for All the Money in the World to the sexual misconduct defense initiative Time’s Up. Wahlberg said he’ll donate the money…

Tunisia plans to increase aid for poor families by $70.3 million, after nearly a week of protests over austerity measures, an official said Saturday. "This will concern about 250,000 families," Mohamed Trabelsi, minister of social affairs, said. "It will help the poor and middle class."…

Deadly traffic accidents are more than just individual tragedies. They're a drag on economic growth in developing countries, according to a new World Bank report. The study is among the first to show that investing in road safety in low- and middle-income countries would raise…

For Illinois farmer Garry Niemeyer, it’s a slow time of year, spent indoors fixing equipment, not outdoors tending his fields, which now lie empty. All of his corn and soybeans were harvested in what has turned out to be a good year. “This is the…

The United States Department of Agriculture reports record harvests of corn and soybeans in the United States in 2017, with stocks overflowing at elevators and storage bins across the country. But as VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports, record yields don't necessarily translate into stronger bottom lines…