Switzerland / AFP Carole, a scientist from Zurich, recently received a dream message on her phone: she will receive 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,500, €2,300) a month for the next year, no strings attached. The 30-year-old ethnologist, whose last name has not been revealed, could be the first of many in Switzerland to receive such monthly cheques in the mail. ...

LONDON Sitting on the sun-dappled terrace of the House of Lords, watching the Thames flow, Lord Nigel Lawson explains that the June 23 referendum, which he hopes will withdraw Britain from the European Union, was never supposed to happen. It is, he says, the fulfillment of a promise Prime Minister David Cameron expected to be prevented from keeping. Going into ...

  2015 saw record worldwide investment and implementation of clean energy such as wind, solar and hydropower. This might have been driven by strategic sustainable development plans that aim to reduce dependence on fossil energy, with an ultimate goal set on the reduction of CO2 emissions. Prompted by environment awareness and sustainability plans, many countries have started to opt for ...

  John Brandon SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Get ready to take some Tylenol VR, folks. We might need that (totally made-up) medication someday if a Forrester prediction comes to fruition. Analysts are saying there could be as many as 52 million headsets sold by 2020, made up mostly of the recently released HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. The Forrester ...

  Earlier this month Greece’s government announced the formation of a privatization “superfund” to sell off state-owned assets, including the Greek railways, postal service and a number of utilities. Its scope – the sale of 50 billion euros in state assets – comes a close second in scale to the privatizations of the 1980s in Britain under Margaret Thatcher. The ...

  Bloomberg Canadian bankers are calling on the government to take further steps to cool surging housing markets in Toronto and Vancouver. The heads of National Bank of Canada and Bank of Nova Scotia said mortgage down-payment requirements should be boosted to tame the market, joining the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which said on Wednesday measures should be ...

  Bloomberg Australia’s Victoria state is “very confident” the winning bid for a 50-year lease to operate the Port of Melbourne, which is valued at between $4 billion and $6 billion, will exceed the book price, state Premier Daniel Andrews said. “All the market expectation, all the commentators talk about us exceeding the price that we’ve booked, and we are ...

  Bloomberg Sydney’s home values posted the biggest rise in 10 months in May, as lower mortgage rates and a partial easing of lending standards revived buyers’ appetite. Prices in the nation’s largest city climbed 3.1 percent in May, the fifth straight month of gains and the most among state capitals, according to research firm CoreLogic Inc. The increase, the ...

  Bloomberg Apartment owners with properties in San Francisco and New York tumbled after landlord Equity Residential said new leases in those cities — two of the most expensive U.S. rental markets — are falling short of revenue expectations. Essex Property Trust Inc., a real estate investment trust focused on the West Coast, slid 3.7 percent for the biggest decline ...

  Bloomberg Developers are in preliminary discussions to re-stoke urban development on vacant land west of the Piemonte at Ontario Center shopping center. The area — north of Citizens Business Bank Arena and south of Fourth Street in Ontario — had been planned as a 24-hour hub of activity filled with residents who would be drawn to the restaurant and ...