Now that South Africa’s highest court has relaxed the nation’s laws on marijuana, local entrepreneurs are trying to cash in on the popular herb. Among the latest entries to the market: several highly popular cannabis-laced alcohol products, which deliver the unique taste, though without the signature high. Marijuana activists say …

Place names in Arlington County have never been a simple matter. A major fight broke out when National Airport was named for Ronald Reagan in 1998. A fight continues over whether to name a park next to the airport for Nancy Reagan. And in the 1920s, the Postal Service refused …

Land laws mean nothing unless communities can prove their ownership, researchers said Thursday, calling for better tools to map the land and stave off conflict over property. From South Africa to the Amazon rainforest, battles over land and who owns it are unleashing unprecedented conflict and labyrinthine legal cases as …

Ethically driven businesses are becoming increasingly popular and profitable but they can face threats for shaking up the existing order, entrepreneurs said on Social Enterprise Day. When Meghan Markle wore a pair of “slave-free” jeans on a royal tour of Australia last month, she sparked a sales stampede and shone …

As world leaders land in Papua New Guinea for a Pacific Rim summit, the welcome mat is especially big for China’s president. A huge sign in the capital, Port Moresby, welcomes Xi Jinping, picturing him gazing beneficently at Papua New Guinea’s leader, and his hotel is decked out with red …

Climate change, steel and migration have emerged as sticking points in the final communique that world leaders will issue at the end of the Group of 20 summit in Argentina later this month, an Argentine government official said on Thursday. Those issues were the “most complicated” areas of discussion, said …

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman expects to get new loans from the International Monetary Fund as early as December, once parliament passes a budget of stability that refrains from making pre-election populist moves, he said Thursday. Securing IMF assistance will also unlock loans from the World Bank and the European Union. Groysman also said Ukraine was in negotiations with …

Business leaders expressed growing alarm Thursday as a draft Brexit agreement seen as the only chance of preserving some stability in U.K.-EU trading threatened to unravel, sending stock prices and the pound plunging. Just 12 hours after British Prime Minister Theresa May announced that her cabinet had agreed to the …

Argentine lawmakers approved an austerity budget for 2019 on Thursday, cutting social spending and raising debt payments to meet conditions for expanded financing from the International Monetary Fund. The budget approved Thursday by the Senate projects a 0.5 percent slide in GDP and a 23 percent inflation rate by the …

The International Monetary Fund said Thursday its executive board will meet in the “coming weeks” to discuss the failure of the Venezuelan government to provide updated figures on its troubled economy. Spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters that IMF officials have held recent conversation with Venezuelan officials about the issue, but …

The fate of Turkish state-owned Halkbank bank is threatening to reopen U.S.-Turkish wounds just as both sides have been working to rebuild ties.  Ankara is voicing growing frustration over U.S. deliberations over penalties for Iranian sanction-busting by Halkbank. Turkey’s Haberturk newspaper Wednesday cited a U.S. official who said investigations into Halkbank are …

U.S. automakers and parts suppliers on Thursday urged the Trump administration to end steel and aluminum tariffs on Mexico and Canada and warned that potential U.S. national security tariffs on automotive imports would lead to widespread job losses. In testimony at a U.S. International Trade Commission hearing on the deal …

When U.S. President Donald Trump asked Saudi Arabia this summer to raise oil production to compensate for lower crude exports from Iran, Riyadh swiftly told Washington it would do so. But Saudi Arabia did not receive advance warning when Trump made a U-turn by offering generous waivers that are keeping …

European banks and firms which engage in a special European Union initiative to protect trade with Iran will be at risk from newly reimposed U.S. sanctions, the U.S. special envoy for Iran warned on Thursday. It is “no surprise” that EU efforts to establish a so-called Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) …

China’s Ministry of Commerce says high-level trade talks between officials from the world’s two biggest economies have resumed.  But whether or not Washington and Beijing will be able to strike a deal and avoid a looming sharp hike in tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods remains uncertain.   Commerce ministry …

A U.S. congressional commission said Wednesday that China appears to have relaxed enforcement of sanctions on North Korea and called on the Treasury Department to provide a report on Chinese compliance within 180 days. In its annual report, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said the Treasury report should …

Safety is the biggest concern for women using public and private transport in five of the world’s biggest commuter cities, according to a global poll released Thursday as improving city access for women becomes a major focus globally.  A Thomson Reuters Foundation survey of 1,000 women in London, New York, Mexico …

The United Kingdom and the European Union have agreed on a deal that will give London’s vast financial center only a basic level of access to the bloc’s markets after Brexit.  The agreement will be based on the EU’s existing system of financial market access known as equivalence — a …

This is part of “Ocean Shock,” a Reuters series exploring climate change’s impact on sea creatures and the people who depend on them.  A priest in a white robe swung an incense burner, leading the way for thousands of marchers as they crammed into a winding cobblestone alley decorated with …

The Trump administration is adding new names to a list of Cuban tourist attractions that Americans are barred from visiting.   The 26 names range from the new five-star Iberostar Grand Packard and Paseo del Prado hotels in Old Havana to modest shopping centers in beachside resorts far from the …

The ride-sharing and delivery company Uber continues to lose money, with growth slowing as it prepares to go public some time next year. The San Francisco-based company announced it lost just over $1 billion from July through September, a 20 percent increase from the previous quarter. Uber’s revenue rose 38 …

Britain’s Theresa May scrambled Wednesday to sell to her Cabinet a draft Brexit divorce agreement British negotiators concluded after months of wrangling with their European Union counterparts. But the 500-page draft remains a source of deep dispute within Britain’s ruling Conservative party and also in the country’s parliament, which will …

Several hundred private cargo planes in the United States deliver millions of packages per year. The FedEx superhub in Memphis Tennessee works around the clock to get parcels delivered to customers and hopefully – on time. VOA’s Lesia Bakalets traveled to Memphis to learn what part of day is the …

With chronic shortages of basic goods afflicting her native Venezuela, Veronica Perez used to drive from supermarket to supermarket in her grey Chevrolet Aveo searching for food. But the 54-year-old engineer has abandoned the practice because of shortages of something that should be abundant in a country with the world’s …

Tesla co-founder Elon Musk and Mexico’s tequila producers could be headed for a collision after the agave-based drink’s industry group opposed the flamboyant billionaire’s efforts to trademark an alcoholic drink dubbed “Teslaquila.” One of the world’s richest people and chief executive of Tesla, Musk is known for ambitious and cutting-edge …