Features

  AP Energy-efficient upgrades can not only shrink your utility bill; they can increase the value of your home. Homebuyers are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of energy-efficient homes. In fact, they’re often willing to pay more for homes with “green” upgrades, says Sandra Adomatis, a specialist in green valuation with Adomatis Appraisal Service in Punta Gorda, Florida. Just ...

  DPA Mohammed Taha says he has the only “green mosque” in the whole of Egypt, and he looks around the flowerbeds where he grows spinach and Italian basil. Behind the caretaker with a prayer bump on his forehead, a yellow minaret rises up into the evening sky above Cairo. Taha’s rooftop garden in this place of worship is the ...

  Bloomberg What’s in your jeans? A rogue’s gallery of unpronounceable chemicals whose effects on humans are suspect. Perfluorochemicals, phthalates and azo dyes are among the substances that are widespread in making clothes. Under pressure from consumers demanding safer alternatives to harmful chemicals, American companies including Levi Strauss & Co. are taking a more European approach. The European Union has ...

  Bloomberg Get ready for some cashew sticker shock. The global popularity of the kidney-shaped nut has been growing faster than any other tree nut — even almonds. Demand jumped 53 percent since 2010, industry data show. Now the worst drought in a century for Vietnam, the largest exporter, is raising concern that supplies will be even tighter in a ...

  Bloomberg Millennials’ seemingly unquenchable thirst for coffee is helping to push global demand to a record just as supplies are tightening. Americans are becoming java junkies at an earlier age, and young adults are increasing their daily consumption at a fast enough pace to make up for declines by older folks. The result: Demand in the US, the world’s ...

  Krefeld / DPA A visit to the Ascot tie and cravat factory in Krefeld, Germany is like stepping back in time, the very building giving the impression of a sobriety alien to today’s start- ups. Silence and concentration reigns among the workers on the factory floor, where only the rattle of the sewing and knitting machines — some of ...

  KAMPALA / AP Ivan Kiryowa repeatedly checked the balance on his phone, nervous sweat on his cheeks, as he waited for money from a friend. Thirty minutes later, $150 had landed in his account and he sauntered into a hardware store, where he bought bags of cement. “Mobile money is convenient for many of us who rely on our ...

  Addis Ababa / AFP Surrounded by the rubble of her former neighbours’ homes, Getnesh Amare hangs her laundry in the shadow of the high-rise offices and hotels taking over the once insalubrious centre of Ethiopia’s capital. “They have come many times to force us to move quickly. I’m not happy, but it’s a must. I have to move,” the ...

  Rosh Haayin / AFP An Israeli firm says a super-efficient engine it has created could drastically reduce fuel consumption and help power an auto industry revolution as manufacturers search for environmentally sound alternatives. Industry analysts, however, question the reinvented internal combustion engine’s chances of success at a time when purely electric car technology is advancing and attracting investors. The ...

  Subang Jaya / AFP Collectors and music fans wearing the t-shirts of obscure rock bands brave the tropical heat outside a record store near Malaysia’s capital, waiting to get their hands on new cassette tapes. No, this isn’t a flashback to the 1980s, but an event marking recent International Cassette Store Day, an annual celebration of a music format ...