When South Africa rolls out the red carpet to host the 2010 FIFA (Federation of International Football Association) World Cup, executives in the travel, tourism and sport industries are hoping it will change the perception of the African continent as a future destination for business and international sporting events.

The group of women farmers calling themselves the "Pankop Women Farmers Forum" didn't set out to own a million-dollar exporting business.

With high layoff numbers, many employees are fearful of what the new year will bring. Seventy-four percent of workers, according to a Vault.com survey that questionned 436 employees, say their companies have eliminated positions and 58 percent of respondents predict more cuts will be coming soon.

The question facing investors in February was what it will take to change the stubborn trends of global financial markets. Emerging market stocks, including those in Africa and the Caribbean, are trying to stabilize in the wake of government efforts to increase money supply and boost lending.

From Jan. 28 to Feb. 1, heads of state, policymakers, and the chief executives of leading corporations, financial and academic institutions, think tanks and social nonprofits met in the moutain resort of Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, to discuss possible solutions to the world problems.

The credit crunch is not new for Black women businessowners. "When you are a Black person, you are used to dealing in crises," says Phillis Shearer Jones, president and chief executive officer of Elan International L.L.C., an international development and conference and event-management firm in suburban Washington, D.C.

If the current financial news has your head spinning, you're not alone. Every day seems to bring new statistics, for better or worse. One pundit says get out of the market, another says stay the course. For some people, all the ups and downs are simply paralyzing.

Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence, a national not-for-profit provider of business ressources and community support for women entrepreneurs, launched a yearlong nationwide business-growth marathon to bring women entrepreneurs together to network online and compete in a race to grow their businesses.

As the credit freeze and the economic recession deepen, major lenders are making it harder for small businesses to secure loans even though they obtained money from the federal government last year trough the Troubled Assets Relief Program to do precisely that.

Credit freeze or not, banks have to do a far better job of satisfying small-business customers, industry executives say.

Michale J. Garner, Nolan Jones, Thomas Jones, Shanel Odum, Robert C. Newton and Yolette C. Ross.

Every once in a while a company comes along that "kicks it up a notch" and leverages the awesome power of the Internet to solve some long-standing problems for entrepreneurs. Here are two cool, new Web sites that you should know more about.

The spacious homes with manicured lawns spreading block after block in north-west Atlanta's collier Heights were the very picture of mid-century American suburbia. The Black families who moved into them were not.

Many of us have heard about the benefits provided by dietary supplements and other natural products, but knowing what to use and when to take it can be confusing at best.

A visit to the 369th Historical Society in Harlem offers a broad view of African-Americans who participated in U.S.-engaged wars.

Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self - The Black Girl next door: A memoir - It's all love: Black writers on soul mates, family and friends.