The Metro Orlando, Florida area had the seventh highest rate of home foreclosures in the United States in 2008 with one in every 18 household receiving a formal default notice from a lender. In the four-county metro area, consisting of Orange, Seminole, Osceola and LakeCounties, that means that 46,843 properties had foreclosure filings taken against them. That’s three times the rate in 2007 and 5.5...

The Transportation Ministry of the Netherlands has issued a construction permit for a new wind turbine farm in the North Sea. This will be the largest such facility located in Dutch waters so far, and is part of the country’s plan to generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity from offshore windmills by 2020.   The new wind farm is being developed by Ireland’s Airtricity Ltd. It is planned to generate 260...

A new, state of the art film studio is under construction in South Africa, and it is hoped to draw increasing numbers of actors, producers and directors to the country to shoot their movies. Cape Town Studios is being constructed 25 kilometers east of Cape Town on 200 hectares of ground near lush vineyards. The new studio will rival anything in Hollywood or Bollywood, according to news reports.   The...

Italy’s national flag airline, Alitalia, begins 2009 with a new set of owners and a slimmed-down workforce. The bankrupt airline, which some had expected to simply disappear, was sold in December, 2008 by the Italian government to a €1.052 deal to the Italian Air Company. In January, Air France-KLM purchased a 25 percent stake in the company.   Alitalia merged with Air One, another Italian airline, in...

The European Parliament marked the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the euro as a bastion of economic stability in the region. EP President Hans-Gert Pottering noted that the adoption of the euro has acted as “a stabilizing factor.” He also said that “The common currency has protected us from the worst consequences of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.”   When it came into...

The European Central Bank (ECB) today cut their main interest rate, from 2.5% to 2.0%, as widely expected. The move has weakened the Euro this afternoon, good news for anyone sending money to Italy, France, Spain and elsewhere in the Eurozone. However, anyone needing to buy Euros for overseas property purchases or importing goods, should not get carried away. Analysts were expecting a minimum of 0.5% cut,...

The Telegraph Travel Awards 2008 and their poll of over 25,000 readers have placed Greece in second place in their Best European Country ranking - only falling short to the ever-popular Italy - and in turn staking its claim as a growing destination of choice amongst the British.Greece's ranking ahead of the golfing paradise of Portugal and the traditional British holiday destination of Spain is a sign that...

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The Abu Dhabi Golf Championship takes place this weekend, January 15 – 18, 2009 at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club. This will be the fourth annual Championship, which is part of the PGA European Tour. Germany’s Martin Kaymer is the defending champion, having won his first tour title last year over Henrik Stenson and Lee Westwood.   Kaymer said he was glad to be back in the UAE at a press conference for the...

The government of Poland has revised its growth forecast downward for the 2009 year, but it still expects the economy to grow throughout the year. The finance ministry has updated its estimated growth rate to 3.8 percent for the year, which is still much faster than the European Union as a whole.   “In 2009, Poland's GDP growth will not be lower than 3 percent," said deputy finance minister Katarzyna...