Ukraine said it had struck a gas deliveries deal with Norway's energy giant Statoil aimed at helping it avert the consequences of a cut in Russian supplies.
Panasonic is set to cut its chip division workforce in half, axing thousands of jobs as the electronics giant overhauls its battered balance sheet after record losses.
The developing world's rapid growth has sharply cut extreme poverty, created a new middle class and put the economies of Brazil, China and India on a path to overtake the globe's wealthiest nations.
An $85 billion dollar austerity time bomb was to detonate against the US economy Friday, as President Barack Obama blamed a Republican refusal to compromise for a failure to avert "dumb" spending cuts.
With the United States days away from billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts, anti-poverty campaigners fear that reductions in foreign aid could potentially lead to thousands of deaths.
Barack Obama may have the upper hand against Republicans in a high-risk new spending showdown, but a drawn-out clash would likely damage the economy and put his presidential legacy on the line.
For the first time since the mid-1990s, sales of the 100 biggest arms dealers excluding China declined in 2011 as the economic crisis prompted budget cuts.