Steeped in centuries of traditional tea drinking, Afghanistan is getting a little coffee buzz for a change. Hikmat Sorosh has more on this popular new trend from the Afghan capital, Kabul, in this story narrated by Michael Lipin, with additional reporting by Khalil Noorzaie in Herat. …

China is rushing to complete billions of dollars in construction deals ahead of an international conference for its One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project next month. The agreements in several countries are aimed at creating a picture of success for the project, which has become a cornerstone of Chinese President …

At first glance, U.S. President Donald Trump and Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen may have little in common. Yellen is an academic economist and veteran of Democratic administrations who is committed to an open global economy, while Trump is a real estate mogul with an electoral base suspicious of the …

President Donald Trump plans to revive the hobbled Export-Import Bank of the United States, his office said, a victory for American manufacturers like Boeing and General Electric which have overseas customers that use the agency’s government-backed loans to purchase their products. Trump first told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday …

Zimbabwean entrepreneurs could soon use movable assets, including livestock and vehicles, to secure loans from banks, according to a bill brought before the country’s Parliament this week. The southern African country’s economy is dominated by informal business following the formal sector’s contraction by as much as 50 percent between 2000 …

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his administration would not label China a currency manipulator, backing away from a  campaign promise, even as he said the U.S. dollar was “getting too strong” and would eventually hurt the economy. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump also said he …

Russia is struggling to source gas turbines for two new power plants it is building in Crimea, Russian Energy Ministry Alexander Novak said Wednesday. European Union sanctions bar European individuals and companies from providing energy technology to Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The Black Sea peninsula has …

Former Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes, the moving force behind organizing last year’s Olympics, is being investigated for allegedly accepting at least 15 million reals ($5 million) in payments to facilitate construction projects tied to the games. Paes is one of dozens of top politicians implicated in a sweeping …

The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president last year raised the specter of economic recession in Mexico, sent the country’s peso into a tailspin, and threatened local industry such as car making. But four months on, Mexican automobile output is accelerating fast, unemployment is at a nine-year low, and …

The sculptor of Wall Street’s “Charging Bull” says New York City is violating his legal rights by forcing his bronze beast to face off against the “Fearless Girl.” Artist Arturo Di Modica said Wednesday that the new neighboring statue changes his bull into something negative. He says the bull’s message …

United Airlines Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz took to the airwaves Wednesday in an attempt to quell the outrage over Sunday’s forced removal of a passenger, vowing that kind of incident “will never happen again.” Facing mounting pressure, Munoz was much more contrite in an interview with ABC News, apologizing …

President Donald Trump told a group of chief executives Tuesday that his administration was revamping the Wall Street reform law known as Dodd-Frank and might eliminate the rules and replace them with “something else.” At the beginning of his administration, Trump ordered reviews of the major banking rules that were …

United Airlines saw its stock price decline by 4 percent or more after a viral video showing a passenger being dragged off a flight and injured sparked outrage in the U.S. and several nations. One airline analyst says he has never seen such a “parade of incompetence.” …

South Asian migrants powering the construction boom in oil-rich Gulf countries are often illegally made to pay for their own recruitment, adding to hardships of poor working conditions and wages, according to an investigation released Tuesday. Millions of migrants seeking a way out of poverty by working in Gulf nations …

“No one should ever be treated this way,” reads part of a new public statement issued Tuesday by United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz, following Sunday’s incident when a passenger was bloodied after being dragged off an overbooked United airliner at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. “I continue to be disturbed by what …

China Southern Airlines has flown its inaugural Guangzhou to Mexico City flight, via Vancouver, the first route operated by a domestic Chinese carrier to the Latin American nation, the Mexican government said on Tuesday. China’s interest in Mexico, including tourism and investment, has been on the rise in recent years. …

The Senate’s top Democrat said Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns is going to make this year’s promised overhaul of the tax code “much harder.”   Sen. Chuck Schumer says Trump is opening himself to second guessing about his motives for supporting different policies and …

With its colonial mansions, landscaped gardens and ornate fountains, the town of Petropolis, a traditional haunt of Brazil’s last monarch Dom Pedro II, retains a grandeur that has not faded since he was forced into exile in 1889.   But beneath the opulent surface of the former summer imperial capital, …

When they are not tending to international affairs, diplomats based in Havana can be found these days stewing in interminable queues at gas stations and concocting ways to increase the octane in fuel as Cuba’s premium gasoline shortage takes its toll. Cuba sent around an internal memo last week advising …

The airlines are getting better at sticking to their schedules and are losing fewer bags. Their customers seem to be complaining less often. Those are the findings of an annual report on airline quality being released Monday by researchers at Wichita State University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.   The researchers …

India and Bangladesh signaled deepening ties Saturday as New Delhi committed a $4.5 billion line of credit to Dhaka for development projects, and the two countries signed their first-ever pact on defense cooperation.  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an additional $500 million in credit for Bangladesh to buy military …

March was a disappointing month for job seekers, with the U.S. Labor Department reporting that the private sector added only 98,000 jobs last month. But one industry is looking beyond the job numbers and toward distant shores as President Donald Trump meets for the first time with Chinese President Xi …

Kostas Argyros’s unpaid electricity bills are piling up, among a mountain of debt owed to Greece’s biggest power utility. His family owe 850 euros to the Public Power Corporation (PPC), a tiny fraction of the state-controlled firm’s 2.6 billion euros ($2.8 billion) in unpaid bills.​ Argyros picks up only occasional …

A torrid summer and devastating fires across central Chile’s wine belt have forced an earlier harvest this year, but there are no signs that volume or flavor will be affected, local industry experts said on Thursday. High temperatures can lead to excessive sugar and alcohol in the grapes and the …

Serbian President-elect Aleksandar Vucic likes to use the past to explain the future. In 1947, as Josip Broz Tito was consolidating Yugoslavia, he built a railway through Bosnia that linked Serbs, Croats and Muslim Bosniaks, friend and foe after World War II. “Tito wasn’t stupid,” Vucic told Reuters. “People had …