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 National People's Congress has set the country's growth target for 2016 in a range of 6.5 percent -7 percent.

"If you don't die by yourself, we'll help you," threaten the phone messages that Natalya, a 69-year-old Russian pensioner, has been receiving for months after falling further behind on her credit card payments.

US manufacturing appeared to stabilise in February, with production accelerating and new orders holding steady at higher levels, in another dose of good news for the economy after growth slowed in the fourth quarter.

The publisher of one of China's most respected business magazines, Caixin, said Wednesday it was seeking new investors following reports e-commerce giant Alibaba plans to take a stake in the company as it looks to expand its media empire.

India's transport minister Nitin Gadkari has cancelled a contract to build a $1.5 billion tunnel in the Himalayas, after opposition politicians alleged irregularities in the bidding for India's most expensive road project.

Federal prosecutors who uncovered a huge corruption scheme at oil company Petrobras are looking into whether Brazil's former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva received undue favours from engineering firms they are investigating.

Canada's economy slowed at the end of 2015 as exports saw a downswing and businesses curtailed investments, the government statistics agency said Tuesday.

The United States overtook France to become Germany's most important trading partner last year for the first time since the mid-1970s, official data showed on Wednesday.

Toyota Motor Corp announced an overhaul of its corporate structure on Wednesday as the world's biggest-selling carmaker seeks to streamline decision-making and improve the way it manages its production as output hits record highs.

Ifad Autos, an automobile dealer, will sell Indian Farmtrac-branded tractors and spare parts in Bangladesh.

Oil prices fell Wednesday as traders awaited the release of US crude inventory data, which are expected to show a further rise in stockpiles.

ITALY recovered a record 14.9 billion euros in unpaid tax in 2015, helped by a new "no questions asked" appeal to suspected dodgers to put their affairs in order.

AUSTRALIA'S economy strengthened last year supported by consumer and government spending, data showed Wednesday, with the better-than-expected figures raising hopes the resources-dependent nation is emerging out of a recent slump.

EUROPE'S largest aircraft manufacturer Airbus started construction Wednesday on a new facility to deliver wide-body planes in China, as it faces off against bitter US rival Boeing for market share in the world's second-largest economy.

JEWELLERS across gold-loving India started a three-day strike on Wednesday in a bid to force the government to shelve plans for a controversial excise tax announced in this week's budget.

New car registrations in Germany, a key indicator of demand in Europe's top economy, rose strongly in February, data showed on Wednesday.

Spain's unemployment queue inched up slightly in February, the government said Wednesday, due mainly to a rise in the number of jobless in the agriculture sector.

Prices in the euro zone fell in February, falling short of already depressed expectations and virtually ensuring another round of policy easing from the European Central Bank on March 10.

China said on Monday it expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in the coal and steel industries, or about 15 percent of the workforce, as part of efforts to reduce industrial overcapacity, but no timeframe was given.