Oil prices rebounded in Asia Tuesday but nagging worries about excess supplies kept them below 2016 highs after data showed Iran and Iraq increasing output.

Australia on Tuesday unveiled a further push to crack down on tax avoidance by multinational companies, imposing a 40 percent penalty rate on firms that shift profits offshore.

China and Japan's economies are expected to slow sharply over the next two years but Asian growth will remain strong as domestic demand takes up the slack from weak global trade, the IMF said Tuesday.

One of Saudi Arabia's most powerful firms, the Saudi Binladin Group, has laid off 77,000 foreign workers, a Saudi daily reported on Monday, citing an anonymous company official.

Japan wants to work with countries in the lower Mekong river basin and will help them improve infrastructure and bolster development with 750 billion yen ($7 billion) in aid over three years, its foreign minister said on Monday.

Greenpeace charged Monday that a massive US-EU trade deal would place corporate interests above the environment and consumer safety, as it released classified documents from the negotiations.

Oil prices fell about 2 percent on Monday as production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was close to all time peaks and record speculative buying in global benchmark Brent sparked profit-taking on last month's outsized rally.

Iran and South Korea have decided to triple their annual trade volume to $18 billion, President Hassan Rouhani announced on Monday after meeting his South Korean counterpart Park Geun-Hye.

With their country gripped by an economic crisis, Venezuelans lost half an hour of sleep Sunday as their clocks were set forward to save power on President Nicolas Maduro's orders.

US oil services companies Halliburton and Baker Hughes announced Sunday they were calling off their massive multibillion-dollar proposed merger that had met strong resistance from regulators.

The political stalemate that has left Spain without a government since unconclusive December elections hasn't damaged the economy as official data released Friday showed the economy expanded at a healthy pace in the first quarter.

The eurozone's economy grew far beyond expectations in the first quarter of 2016, finally surpassing pre-crisis levels after eight years, as cheap oil and credit made itself felt.

The United States named Germany, China and three other East Asian countries on Friday to a new "monitoring" list of trade partners with excessive current account and trade surpluses.

British telecoms operator Vodafone has picked Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA), Kotak Investment Banking and UBS as joint global coordinators of its Indian unit's IPO, people familiar with the matter said, kicking off its long-awaited listing plan.

The yen hit an 18-month high on Friday as investors bet the Bank of Japan might be done adding stimulus to the economy, while stocks in Europe and on Wall Street headed lower as earnings disappointed.

Germany's federal and local governments reached agreement on Friday with public sector workers on a pay rise, settling a dispute that grounded hundreds of flights during a warning strike two days earlier, sources said.

South Asia's clothing and textiles industry can create millions of jobs for the region's working-age women, boosting economic growth and helping improve children's health and education, a World Bank report said.

After 17 years of helping climbers reach the roof of the world, Argentinian Damian Benegas won't be returning to Everest this year, frozen out of the business by cheaper and some say dangerous operators.

Google is likely to face its first European Union antitrust sanction this year, with little prospect of it settling a test case with the bloc's regulator over its shopping service, people familiar with the matter said.

Even a small country could be a very promising market for Bangladesh if it has deep diplomatic relations with that country.