Egypt's closure of tunnels used to smuggle goods into the Gaza strip has caused monthly losses of $230 million (170 million euros) to its economy, a Hamas official said Sunday.

The "closure of the tunnels caused heavy losses to the industry, commerce, agriculture, transport and construction sectors" of around $230 million monthly, said Hatem Oweida, deputy economy minister for the Islamist movement Hamas that governs the strip.

The United Arab Emirates agreed Saturday to give Egypt's military-installed government another $3.9 billion in aid after transferring $1 billion in July, the official WAM news agency said.

The UAE and other Gulf monarchies were staunch supporters of the July 3 overthrow of Egypt's first Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, and have vowed to help the interim government address the economic devastation wrought by two years of political turmoil.

McDonald's said Friday it was dropping ketchup king Heinz as a supplier of the key hamburger condiment, citing management changes at Heinz that put the company closer to rival Burger King.

McDonald's said it was ending a relationship of over 40 years as it axed Heinz from its supplier list.

The $5.1 billion that JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay hardly ends its legal troubles over mortgage securities it sold.

It's merely a down payment.

India's newest planned airline, a joint venture of the Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, expects to win swift regulatory clearance and be able to start flying by mid-next year, the carrier's chairman said.

Indian tea-to-steel conglomerate Tata will hold a 51 percent stake and Singapore Airlines Ltd 49 percent in the new venture, which was announced last month, as they seek to exploit one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets.

Caretaker Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi revealed on Saturday that he had received a message from the International Monetary Fund warning of the risks of an additional increase in Lebanon's budget deficit beyond 6 trillion Lebanese Pounds, the As-Safir daily quoted him as saying.

“Although the message did not request any action on Lebanon's part,” said Safadi but he explained that it held a high-tone warning that any failure to control the spending and deficit would lead Lebanon to the “abyss.”

Skewed data and the economic setback of the partial government shutdown face Federal Reserve policymakers as they review their economic stimulus program on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The broad consensus is that, in their first meeting with Janet Yellen as the official heir-apparent to chairman Ben Bernanke, the Federal Open Market Committee will opt again to wait for more evidence of economic strength.

Twitter raised the value of its initial public offering Thursday to as much as $1.61 billion as the popular messaging service moved a step closer to Wall Street.

The IPO suggests a market value for the social network of between $9.3 billion and $11.1 billion -- a conservative amount compared to estimates by some analysts in recent weeks.

Leaders of the 15-nation west African bloc ECOWAS meet Friday for a special summit in Dakar focused on moving the region towards a common market and a single currency by 2020.

While the economy will top the agenda, the Economic Community of West African States has said it will also discuss political tensions in Mali and Guinea-Bissau and the threat of a post-electoral crisis in Guinea.

Japan on Friday hailed a key inflation indicator touching a five-year high as proof its growth blitz, dubbed Abenomics, was winning the war on falling prices, but analysts warned consumer spending had yet to gain traction.

Stripping out volatile fresh food and energy prices, which have largely driven recent increases, prices did not fall in September -- deflation-plagued Japan's best result since December 2008.