Toyota said Wednesday that all its domestic parts plants would shut for a full day next week, expanding a production suspension that is set to be its longest since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

AT a stall in a Beirut exhibition hall, Syrian businesswoman Reem Abu Dahab displays her workshop's lacy pink and white nightgowns, hoping to attract increasingly elusive buyers.

OIL rose on Wednesday, paring earlier losses after fresh comments from Russia about its openness to talk with Opec over output cuts helped revive hope among investors that the world's largest producers could act to boost prices.

STATE-OWNED China National Chemical Corp. Wednesday offered $43 billion in an agreed takeover for Swiss pesticide and seed giant Syngenta, in what would be by far the biggest-ever overseas acquisition by a Chinese firm.

Barclays and Credit Suisse will pay $154.3 million combined to settle charges that they violated federal securities laws over their so-called "dark pools," the US Securities and Exchange Commission said Sunday.

European manufacturer of turboprop aircraft ATR said Monday it had signed a one-billion-euro deal with Iran Air for up to 40 planes after the dropping of US sanctions against Iran.

PLUMMETING oil prices have led to falling plane ticket prices -- and prospects for an even bigger bonanza of consumer-friendly fares in the coming months, airline industry experts say.

FRENCH car giant Renault opened its first car factory in China on Monday, the last major manufacturer to set up a plant in the country as it looks to tap into the world's biggest auto market.

OIL fell on Monday as weak economic data from China, the world's largest energy consumer, weighed on prices and an Opec source played down talk of an emergency meeting to stem the decline.

Japan's biggest banks tumbled in Tokyo share trading Monday as a drop in their latest earnings was compounded by fears that the Bank of Japan's new stimulus measures would hit their bottom line.

China's new home prices increased in January for the sixth straight month, a survey showed Monday, positive news for the key sector following a series of stimulus measures aimed at boosting lending.

Irish no-frills airline Ryanair said Monday that third-quarter net profit more than doubled on surging passenger numbers, and unveiled an 800-million-euro ($866-million) share buyback programme.

Chinese authorities have arrested 21 people on suspicion of defrauding around 900,000 people of more than 50 billion yuan ($7.6 billion), state media reported, after an online peer-to-peer lender turned out to be a giant Ponzi scheme.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal on Monday cut its full-year sales and profit forecast amid a slowdown in China and other overseas markets.

South Korea's exports, the main driver of the national economy, suffered their sharpest drop in more than six years in January, extending what is now a 13-month losing streak.

January updates on Asia's mammoth factory sector released on Monday showed the New Year began much as the old one ended -- with too much capacity chasing too little demand.

Mid-tier Chinese banks are increasingly using complex instruments to make new loans and restructure existing loans that are then shown as low-risk investments on their balance sheets, masking the scale and risks of their lending to China's slowing economy.

Nokia and Samsung are expected to settle their two-year patent dispute within days, with analysts forecasting a one-time payment of hundreds of millions of euros for the Finnish company.

With 360 villas and apartments around an artificial lake, swimming pools, a halal supermarket and a Muslim prayer area, the 'Sarajevo resort' is one of Bosnia's most ambitious residential projects to date.

Indonesia's biggest internet service provider blocks Netflix, upsetting its move into the country.