The slump in Chinese growth and its nascent economic transition was the key factor in a sharp slowdown last year in global trade, the World Bank said Wednesday.

Toshiba Corp has granted Canon Inc exclusive negotiating rights for its medical equipment unit after a hotly contested auction, with a report putting Canon's offer at more than $6 billion.

German top-of-the-range carmaker BMW said Wednesday it clocked up record sales and profits in 2015 and would celebrate its centenary this year by increasing its dividend payout to shareholders.

Sri Lanka's government Tuesday announced a slew of emergency tax increases to help combat a debt crisis that has forced it to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

THE Bank of Japan (BOJ) is expected to cut next fiscal year's economic and price forecasts at a quarterly review in April, sources say, reflecting growing gloom in the bank after its most recent stimulus measures fell on stony ground.

CHINA'S labour regulations harm workers by reducing job opportunities, the finance minister said Monday as Beijing tries to restructure its economy while avoiding mass layoffs and social unrest.

WEAK oil prices pose a threat to Gulf Arab states' currency pegs against the dollar, but the energy-rich region is unlikely to abandon the policy yet, analysts say.

CHAT show queen Oprah Winfrey, actress Meryl Streep and singer Elton John called on Monday for world leaders to put girls at the heart of anti-poverty efforts as a new index revealed Niger was the toughest country to be a girl.

WOMEN are among the most excluded groups in India, with almost 43 percent of working-age women confined to domestic work, while many who do work outside the home face exploitation and low pay, according to the India Exclusion Report.

Russia's biggest carmaker Avtovaz, majority owned by Renault-Nissan, said on Monday its chief executive Bo Andersson is to step down.

China's foreign exchange reserves fell $28.57 billion in February, slightly less than expected and easing from January's slump, suggesting the central bank is scaling back its interventions to support the yuan as capital outflows slow.

She fled Cuba with her bourgeois family as revolution brewed, and later married into one of Europe's royal dynasties.

CareersClub Pty Ltd Australia has recently started its operations in Bangladesh and organised a workshop in collaboration with the business school of Independent University of Bangladesh on its premises.

Chinese telecommunications equipment giant ZTE said on Monday that it is facing US government restrictions, after a media report that the company allegedly violated US export controls on Iran.

One of India's best-known whistleblowers, who exposed dangerous practices in the generic drug industry in 2013, is taking the country's drugs regulators to court, accusing them of failing to enforce rules on drug safety in the $15 billion industry.

Farmer Ram Pal Singh voted for Narendra Modi's promise of "better days" in India's 2014 general election, but he won't be backing the prime minister again even after last week's budget promised more aid to the countryside.

New York announced Monday that the city's employment figures had risen to a record 4.29 million jobs with 249,000 jobs added since progressive Democrat Bill de Blasio became mayor two years ago.

Despite a raft of different measures by the European Central Bank to kickstart sluggish consumer prices in the eurozone, inflation in the single currency bloc turned negative in February for the first time in five months.

Four more foreign banks have been given preliminary approval to operate in Myanmar, state media reported Sunday, the latest government attempt to attract overseas investment to the emergent nation.

China's economy isn't headed for a hard landing and isn't dragging on the global economy, China's top economic planner said on Sunday, but uncertainty and instability in the global economy do pose a risk to the country's growth.