Greek lawmakers have approved reforms on budget cuts, retirement benefits and acceleration of privatization in exchange for financial assistance from international lenders, reported Reuters. The Greek Parliament met conditions for the next tranche of financial assistance. Simple majority of the Parliament voted to reform the electricity market, and transfer public assets to the sovereign wealth...

China is probably the most dynamic country in the world. Nevertheless, very few people realize how fast its infrastructure is growing. Over the next 10 years, the country plans to relocate 250 million people (equal to total number of Indonesian population) in fast-growing mega-cities. In order to implement the process, China has invested billions of dollars in large-scale infrastructure projects....

The first debate of the US presidential candidates brought victory to Democrat Hillary Clinton. According to a national survey, former Secretary of State was supported by more than half of respondents, that is, 11% more than gained Republican Donald Trump. A survey among African-Americans and Hispanics showed the most significant break. Most of women also felt that Clinton was more convincing....

First two Iranian banks (Bank Melli Iran and Ayandeh Bank) started to issue credit cards in accordance with the rules of Islamic banking, portal Presstv.ir reports. Islam forbids to lend money on interest, therefore loan granting in the Western sense of this definition is not possible in Iran. Up to the present moment, Iranian banks has produced only debit cards. Owners of the new cards may use...

Swiss commodity trading companies Vitol and Trafigura are suppling dirty diesel fuel and gasoline with high content of toxic substances in the African countries. They are realizing the fuels through a chain of controlled gas stations. This states a report "Swiss Commodity Traders Flood Africa with Toxic Fuel" published by Swiss non-profit association Public Eye. The main actors here Swiss Vitol...

Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA) coordinates efforts of British banks and bank card issuers and fights against fiscal fraud. Recently, the organization reported that number of such crimes in the UK increased by 53% in this year. More than 1 million cases of various financial fraud were detected in the first six months of 2016, which means that fraudsters attacked every 15 seconds. Number of frauds...

American billionaire George Soros is going to invest $ 500 million in start-ups and social projects founded by refugees and migrants. He wrote in a column in The Wall Street Journal: "I'm going to invest in start-ups, established companies, socially significant initiatives and business projects created by migrants and refugees. My main task is to help migrants and refugees arriving in Europe, but...

When the era of cars without drivers firmly gains a foothold, the world will see terrible consequences. It is not about increased number of accidents, which many fear, but the employment problem, which is sure to come, writes analyst Wolf Richter on Wolf Street blog site. According to the analyst, scale of this problem is enormous. He uses official data to predict that there are about 4.1 million...

Government of Cyprus announced its intention to lower financial requirements to investors as part of its program Citizenship-by-Investment. Now, an individual investor may invest € 2 million, compared to previous € 5 million, to become the citizen. Government of Cyprus intends to make local passports more accessible and more attractive for foreign investors. It announced significant changes to...