At a sturgeon farm on a pristine lake near southern Dalat town, a worker hoists a large white fish out off the water. "It's an albino," says Vietnam's eccentric 'Caviar King' Le Anh Duc adding triumphantly, "Gold eggs!"

Not only are the eggs from the rare sturgeon -- Duc has just 40 albinos out of half a million fish -- an off-white 'gold' colour but they are also a money-spinner.

Israel's Bank Leumi Group has admitted to helping U.S. taxpayers hide assets and agreed to pay a $270 million fine to settle a criminal probe, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

From at least 2000 until early 2011, Leumi sent private bankers from Israel and elsewhere to meet with U.S. taxpayers and help them conceal assets at Leumi locations in Israel, Switzerland and Luxembourg. 

Cuba's nascent private sector is bracing for an influx of visitors should the U.S. embargo ease, but many businesses in the communist country appear unprepared for a torrent of tourists.

Currently, most hotels, guest houses and restaurants in Cuba are state-owned, though the number of private enterprises has grown in recent years.

Europe's main stock markets rose strongly on Monday in a renewed "Santa Claus rally" powered by a modest recovery in oil prices, dealers said.

In late morning deals in the British capital, London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares jumped 1.02 percent to 6,611.96 points compared with Friday's close.

Russia's central bank said Monday it had placed the troubled Trust Bank under supervision and would bail it out with 30 billion rubles (430 million euros, $525 million) to avoid bankruptcy.

It did not say if the problems of the lender, whose products are advertised by Hollywood actor Bruce Willis, were linked to the fall of the ruble, which has weakened Russia's financial system.

The first of four nuclear reactors being built by the United Arab Emirates will come on line in 2017 and the rest will be fully operational by 2020, an official said Monday.

"When they are fully operational in 2020, they will generate 25 percent of UAE power needs," the CEO of the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp (ENEC), Mohammed al-Hammadi, told an energy conference in Abu Dhabi.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) policies left healthcare systems in the African countries worst affected by Ebola underfunded and lacking doctors, and hampered a coordinated response to the outbreak, researchers said Monday.

Links between the IMF and the rapid spread of the disease were examined by researchers from Cambridge University's sociology department, with colleagues from Oxford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Deep recession, skyrocketing prices and a fragile banking system: although the ruble seems to have stabilized after its abysmal drop this past week, Russia still faces the heavy consequences of the turbulence.

For most Russians, the week ended with relief: after trading at unbelievable levels of 80 to the dollar and 100 to the euro, the ruble appears to have stabilized at around 60 and 73, respectively.

In a myriad of villages like Voskresenskoye, nestled deep in the Russian countryside, the monetary turmoil roiling the nation's large cities still seems a largely distant threat.

"This crisis is for the rich, for people who have dollars. We never had money here," said Tamara Boychenko, a 68-year-old retired resident of the village located in northwest Russia about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Saint Petersburg.

"Irresponsible" levels of output by producers from outside the OPEC oil cartel is among the main causes of the slump in prices, the United Arab Emirates energy minister charged Sunday.

"One of the main causes is irresponsible production by some producers from outside the organization, some of whom are newcomers," Suhail al-Mazrouei told an energy forum in Abu Dhabi.