Bloomberg A Japanese startup is entering the equity-research business in a bid to challenge the dominance of securities firms by using computers to crunch vast troves of information and predict companies’ earnings. Nowcast Inc., a financial-technology venture formed last year out of the University of Tokyo, will begin providing automated earnings estimates of consumer goods makers as soon as …

  DPA The lanes, squares and bridges of Venice are crammed with people — the Italian city’s hotels play host to 10 million people each year, and that’s not including the 14 million day-trippers. But Venice itself only has a population of 260,000 people. Tourists come to experience the beautiful cobble-stoned streets, the waterways plied by gondolas, the romantic light. …

  AFP Faith Lawson carefully backs a large silver pick-up truck through cones placed on the red soil of a military camp in Ghana’s capital, Accra. As she checks her mirrors and slowly reverses, 14 young women standing in military formation look on. Two months ago, the 24-year-old had never even gripped a steering wheel and was frightened by the …