India's Rajya Sabha backed a major tax reform on Wednesday that seeks to transform the country into a common market, though opposition benches urged Finance Minister Arun Jaitley not to overtax businesses and consumers.

In early October 2008, then Business Minister Shriti Vadera called a secret meeting of bankers and government officials on the top floor of Standard Chartered's City of London headquarters to address Britain's biggest peacetime crisis. The collapse of Lehman

UK interest rates have been cut from 0.5 percent to 0.25 percent and the Bank of England has signalled that they could go lower if the economy worsens.

Ford Motor Company on Thursday announced the recall of 830,000 cars and vans in the United States and Mexico for the replacement of faulty side-door latches.

AirAsia, Asia's biggest budget airline, will kick off the sale of its leasing unit this month, seeking to cut debt with a deal that could value the business at about $1 billion, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday that the top priority for his reshuffled cabinet was the economy and that he would do his utmost to lift the country out of deflation.

US consumer spending rose more than expected in June as households bought a range of goods and services, suggesting consumption will likely remain strong after surging in the second quarter.

Indian manufacturers of finished steel goods are urging New Delhi to end tariffs on cheap imports of the alloy from China, Japan and South Korea, worried the protectionist measures may cost them billions in lost overseas sales.

Japanese police arrested four people Wednesday in connection with a multi-million dollar bank heist, including a member of a group affiliated with the country's biggest organised crime syndicate.

Oil edged higher to $42 a barrel on Wednesday after hitting its lowest since April the previous day, supported by an industry report showing a fall in U.S. inventories and a weaker dollar.

Australia's central bank dropped interest rates to a new record low Tuesday after a recent run of soft inflation readings, with some economists forecasting further cuts ahead.

Euro zone business activity expanded a touch faster than expected last month as the region appeared, so far, to have largely shrugged off Britain's vote to leave the European Union, a survey found.

Diamond Cement Ltd yesterday launched the company's new brand: Diamond Coastal+.

It was only when Aye Aye Nge's pharmacy burned down for the second time that she thought about taking out insurance, a novelty in impoverished Myanmar where most people either can't afford to buy premiums or don't trust those selling them.

Ride-hailing service Uber could be banned in Taiwan after authorities accused it of operating illegally, with officials saying Wednesday a

Nearly 120,000 units of digital currency bitcoin worth about $72 million was stolen from the exchange platform Bitfinex in Hong Kong, rattling the global bitcoin community in the second-biggest security breach ever of such an exchange.

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Wednesday unveiled a new Galaxy Note smartphone with a curved screen and iris-recognition technology, seeking to build on the sales momentum that has helped it roar back to surging profit growth.

Two Sri Lankan economists told a summit attended by President Maithripala Sirisena and his finance minister on Tuesday the government's economic policies were destabilising and inconsistent, one calling its price controls "supreme idiocy".

Marking an end to the long and tumultuous debate on goods and services tax, India's Rajya Sabha yesterday approved a crucial constitutional amendment clearing the way for its biggest tax reform since independence. The Lok Sabha had already passed the key bill.

STANDARD Chartered reported an underlying pretax profit of $994 million in the six months to end-June, as cost-cutting, steady income and fewer bad loans helped the bank return to the black after a billion dollar loss in the second half of 2015.