India's bid to compel producers to export millions of tonnes of surplus sugar will fail without significant subsidies or at least penalties for failing to comply, trade and industry sources said on Friday.

Spending among Japanese households rebounded in August, data showed Friday, offering a glimmer of hope after a string of weak figures, but economists warned the world's number three economy was still headed for recession.

Death toll of Bangladeshi Hajj pilgrims from the Mina stampede goes up to 43, while 92 more are undergoing treatment.

Net earnings of Gulf banks are expected to slide as government spending slows due to a dive in oil revenues, the Standard and Poor's ratings agency said Thursday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is planning to lay off hundreds of people at its headquarters in Arkansas as part of the retail giant's efforts to pare costs, people familiar with the matter said.

The International Monetary Fund voiced concern Wednesday about the global economy, weakened by China's slowdown and facing a potential "vicious cycle" from a looming US interest rate hike.

Factories in Asia cut more jobs and throttled back output in September as domestic and export demand shrivelled, adding to fears that cooling growth in China and emerging markets will jeopardize an increasingly fragile global recovery.

Central bankers who led the charge to pull the global economy from a cliff during the financial crisis now risk becoming bit players, ill-equipped to snap the world out of sluggish growth and its addiction to cheap credit.

Ride-sharing giant Uber launched a petition that had more than 116,000 signatures by Thursday against proposed regulation in London that would force drivers to pass English language and map reading tests.

With a partnership to make one of Google's flagship Nexus smartphones, Chinese tech giant Huawei is gaining new prominence which could help its efforts to win broader global consumer appeal.

Hewlett-Packard Co said its board had approved the previously announced split of the company into two separate listed entities - computers and printers, and corporate hardware and services.

Kuwait will invite private investors, including foreigners, to take part over the next two years in nine infrastructure projects worth about $36 billion, under a new law designed to facilitate such deals, an official said.

Talks on the ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership remained stuck on a handful of tough issues including auto parts and drug protections as trade ministers moved to a second day of negotiations Thursday.

Technology titans Microsoft and Google on Wednesday announced that they have agreed to end all patent infringement litigation against each other.

Indians declared $500 million in black money, the government announced Thursday, a fraction of the total amount feared hidden, as a deadline for coughing up assets hidden from the taxman expired.

Profits earned by Chinese industrial companies declined at the sharpest rate in four years in August as costs kept rising and product prices kept falling, according to official data that adds to signs of weakness in the world's second largest economy.

Farmer Phub Zam, 55, is in a hurry. Monsoon rains have hit her farm in Bhutan's Paro valley and Zam is rushing to harvest her broccoli before crop is damaged.

The Indian government may consider reducing its stake in state-run lenders to 52 percent, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday.

Facebook Inc introduced a slate of new advertising products on Sunday, most of which are aimed at luring television advertisers onto the 1.5-billion user social network.

Not one Japanese company applied for a subsidy programme aimed at promoting more women to senior jobs, an official said Monday, an embarrassing blow for Tokyo's push to boost the economy with female workers.