The Trade and Investment Facilitation (TIF) activity, funded by The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has launched an export promotion initiative to assist 15 Lebanese wineries to conform with regulatory and market requirements to export wines to the state of Texas in the United States.

The launch event, entitled “Wine from Lebanon: Exporting Lebanese Wine to the United States”, was held in the presence of USAID Lebanon Mission Director Eileen Devitt, the Minister of Economy and Trade Amin Salam, representatives of the 15 wineries, and other stakeholders in the wine industry. 

Major global stock markets fell Friday ahead of data on U.S. employment costs that might influence Federal Reserve decisions on interest rate hikes to cool inflation.

London and Frankfurt opened lower. Tokyo and Seoul advanced while Shanghai and Hong Kong declined.

Filipe Orfao, a 37-year-old emergency room nurse in Lisbon, voices grievances that have long been heard in Portugal.

The familiar gripes include a tradition of low pay, a public service career structure that thwarts ambitions to get ahead in life, the nagging enticement of going to work abroad instead of staying at home, and politicians' broken promises of improvement, especially for health workers like Orfao who have weathered the coronavirus pandemic.

In a classroom in northern Iraq, Zhiwei Hu presides over his students as a conductor would an orchestra. He cues with a question, and the response from his students resounds in perfect, fluent Chinese.

The 52-year-old has been teaching the cohort of 14 Iraqi Kurdish students at the behest of the Chinese consulate in the northern city of Irbil.

Toyota is working with Japan's space agency on a vehicle to explore the lunar surface, with ambitions to help people live on the moon by 2040 and then go live on Mars, company officials said Friday.

The vehicle being developed with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is called Lunar Cruiser, whose name pays homage to the Toyota Land Cruiser sport utility vehicle. Its launch is set for the late 2020's.

Cyprus welcomed Thursday a "landmark" European Union decision to approve a 657-million-euro ($733 million) grant for the construction of a subsea electricity cable integrating it with Greece and Israel.

U.S. lawmakers were studying proposals Wednesday to jumpstart high-tech research and manufacturing, boost competition with China and ease a global shortage of crucial computer chips. 

German-owned luxury car brand Bentley said Wednesday that its first all-electric vehicle will be ready by 2025, as it unveiled major investment on becoming a fully carbon zero company.

The stock market is losing crucial support from the Federal Reserve. Omicron is causing havoc at businesses around the world. And Russia just might be preparing to invade Ukraine, creating more uncertainty and raising the prospect of even higher oil prices.

No wonder investors are freaking out — and selling stocks.

Prime minister Najib Miqati chaired Wednesday a Cabinet session to continue studying the draft law of the 2022 state budget.

Cabinet will reconvene on Thursday morning, the National News Agency said.