Visa Inc said on Monday it would acquire former subsidiary Visa Europe for 16.5 billion euros ($18.19 billion), with the potential for an additional payment of up to 4.7 billion euros.

HSBC saw pre-tax profit surge 32 percent year-on-year in the third quarter on the back of lower fines, the banking giant announced Monday, but revenue dropped in the wake of Asian market volatility.

China raised the central rate for its yuan currency by the largest amount in a decade on Monday, officials and reports said.

Activity in China's manufacturing sector unexpectedly contracted in October for a third straight month, an official survey showed on Sunday, fuelling fears the economy may still be losing momentum in the fourth quarter despite a raft of stimulus measures.

Nigeria looks set to unbundle a long-awaited oil law to speed up its passage through parliament, potentially unlocking billions of dollars in frozen investments.

China is considering relaxing limits to allow individuals to invest overseas in stocks and property, the central bank said, which would potentially unleash a flood of money if the government loosens strict capital controls.

Four major Greek banks must find up to 14.4 billion euros to survive potential economic shocks, the European Central Bank said

Honda Motor Co is confident it can achieve its 2015 sales target of 950,000 cars in China, but is cautious about increasing production in the world's No.2 economy given the uncertain economic outlook, Chief Executive Officer Takahiro Hachigo told Reuters.

Toshiba said Wednesday that it would sell its image sensor business to Sony, as part of a wider overhaul in the wake of a huge accounting scandal.

The US Food and Drug Administration warned Novartis AG last week after the Swiss firm was found in violation of manufacturing practices last year at two of its India drug-making plants, Novartis said.

Facebook chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday he believes India will be crucial to getting "the next billion online" and helping to alleviate poverty.

Apple said Tuesday that surging iPhone sales helped propel a sharp rise in quarterly profits, as the tech giant delivered a record 48 million of the smartphones.

The Federal Reserve is expected to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and may struggle to convince sceptical investors it can tighten monetary policy before the end of the year in the face of US and global economic headwinds.

EARLIER this month, an elderly homeless woman died in a crowded Hong Kong McDonald's restaurant. No-one noticed her for seven hours. The BBC's Juliana Liu spent a night in one 24-hour restaurant to meet the people the city has dubbed "McRefugees".

SINGAPORE remains the easiest place to do business, while developing countries stepped up their pace of business-friendly reforms in the past year, according to a World Bank report published Tuesday.

British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline on Wednesday posted rising third-quarter earnings and revenues, buoyed by sales of HIV drugs and its asset swap deal with Swiss peer Novartis.

Volkswagen has been pushed into loss by the mounting cost of its emissions scandal.

Facebook shares lifted Friday to an all-time high, crossing $100 for the first time, during a rally in the technology sector on Wall Street.

A programme to attract gold owned by households into a bank deposit scheme to monetise the precious metal could be ready in weeks, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday, a step aimed at cutting expensive imports.

The village sprang up in a matter of days -- neat lines of bright yellow houses that looked like something a child might have built with Lego bricks.