ROME / Reuters With scorching summer temperatures and little rainfall, the barren scrublands around the port of Aqaba in Jordan, one of the world’s most arid countries, might seem ill suited to cultivating cucumbers. Yet a Norwegian company is planning to set up a solar-powered, 20 hectare (50 acre) facility that promises to grow a variety of vegetables without …

  Bloomberg Banks are marketing what could be one of Canada’s first nonprime residential mortgage-backed securities deals since the global financial crisis. National Bank of Canada has held discussions with investors about a bond backed by a pool of residential mortgages just below prime-credit quality, Derek Norton, MCAP Corp.’s chief executive officer, said. The so-called alt-A mortgages are originated by …

  Reuters As Southern Co. opens a review of its troubled nuclear reactors following a bankruptcy filing by contractor Westinghouse Electric Co., the Trump administration has 8.3 billion reasons to be worried. Southern is financing the reactors with $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees approved under President Barack Obama’s initiative to build the first new nuclear plants in the US …