Classic Layout

Where oranges even grow on streets!

  Valencia i / DPA When winter descends on Europe, Valencia’s famous oranges appear in supermarkets everywhere. While many are cheap, Spaniard Gonzalo Urculo advises orange-lovers to be on their guard. “The really cheap ones don’t taste of anything, they’re neither sweet nor juicy,” he says. Six years ago, together with his older brother Gabriel, the 30-year-old took over his ...

Read More »

Undersea spies ready to nab oyster bed raiders

  Boufféré / AFP Electronic spies come in all shapes and sizes, but none is as funny looking as an oyster impersonator called the Flex Spy now infiltrating the waters off western France. Looking for all the world like the bivalves it is protecting, the plastic imposter is fitted with a circuit board that allows it to snitch on thieves. ...

Read More »

China clamps down on online video-streaming services

  BEIJING / AP Chinese authorities are clamping down on streaming video over social media amid a proliferation of online-only television content and live-streaming. The State Administration for Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television is requiring social media platforms like WeChat and Weibo to obtain licenses to broadcast video or audio, while also demanding that content distributed over social media ...

Read More »

Aussie property boom spurs real estate loans

  Bloomberg Australian real estate loans are bucking a slump in the syndicated lending market and have nearly quadrupled in 2016 from last year, buoyed by continuing demand for residential and commercial assets. Asian banks are taking notice. Fifteen syndicated loan deals for constructions, land development and property acquisitions worth $3.37 billion were signed so far this year, the highest ...

Read More »

Australia records biggest job gain this year

  Bloomberg Australia’s economy recorded its biggest monthly jobs gain this year, led by full-time employment, while a higher participation rate also signaled a healthier labor market. Employment jumped 39,100 from October, more than double economists’ forecast for a 17,500 gain October jobs gain was upwardly revised to 15,200 from 9,800. Jobless rate rose to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent; ...

Read More »

Mongolia battles to reduce pollution

  Bloomberg If you think air pollution in China has been bad, just look at Mongolia. Levels of particulate matter in the air have risen to almost 80 times the recommended safety level set by the World Health Organization — and five times worse than Beijing during the past week’s bout with the worst smog of the year. Mongolian power ...

Read More »

Hydroelectric engineers find potential in centuries-old mine

  MINEVILLE, N.Y. / AP Some look at an abandoned, centuries-old iron mine in New York’s Adirondacks and see a relic. An ambitious group of engineers sees the shafts in Mineville as a new way to provide a steady flow of electricity in a growing market for renewable energy. They are pitching a plan to circulate some of the millions ...

Read More »

China to cut solar, wind power prices as project costs fall

  Bloomberg China is reducing the amount of money it pays to newly completed solar and wind power generators for their electricity, in order to reflect declines in construction costs, the country’s price regulator and economic planner said on Monday. The nation will cut tariffs paid to solar farms by as much as 19 percent in 2017 from this year’s ...

Read More »

Algeria to rejuvenate aging oil wells

  RHOURD NOUSS / Reuters Algeria has launched a programme to rejuvenate its ageing oil and gas wells and boost production as part of efforts to address a crash in oil earnings, a senior Sonatrach manager told Reuters. Low prices have slashed the OPEC member’s energy earnings roughly in half, with revenues expected at about $35 billion in 2016 compared ...

Read More »

Israel Oks ‘Facebook law’ against web incitement

  Bloomberg Israeli courts could demand that companies such as Facebook Inc. remove content deemed as incitement, under a bill that that will head for parliamentary approval amid concerns about free speech. The law would give Israel the tools “to have content liable to lead to murder and terror removed immediately,” Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said via text message ...

Read More »
Send this to a friend