Thousands of Bangladesh garment workers blocked roads and attacked factories outside the capital Dhaka on Saturday demanding a $100 minimum monthly wage.

The workers, many carrying sticks, walked off the job in dozens of garment factories, which make apparel for the world's top retailers such as Walmart, and protested for hours on highways in the major industrial areas of Gazipur, Mouchak and Ashulia.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden touted immigration reform and trade with Mexico during talks with President Enrique Pena Nieto in Mexico City on Friday, skirting a thorny spying scandal.

Visiting the southern neighbor four months after U.S. President Barack Obama, Biden sought to put the focus again on economic ties between the neighboring nations rather than security and the battle against drug cartels.

Unemployment rose in 18 U.S. states last month as many reported cutting jobs. Weaker hiring across states could add to worries about the tepid job market.

The Labor Department says unemployment rates fell in 17 state states and were unchanged in 15. Employers added jobs in 29 states, the fewest since March. And 20 states reported job losses, the most since March.

Britain's retail regulator says it has evidence that an underwear maker and three department stores colluded to inflate the price of a popular sports bra.

The Office of Fair Trading says it is investigating whether DB Apparel U.K. entered into anti-competitive agreements with retailers John Lewis, Debenhams and House of Fraser between 2008 and 2011 over the Shock Absorber bra.

Japan's Nissan Motor unveiled plans Friday to launch production in Myanmar, as international automakers compete for a share of the former junta-ruled country's fast-growing car market.

Japanese auto producers are ramping up production in Southeast Asia to offset sluggish sales in their domestic market and in recovering Western economies.

The European Union's poorest country Bulgaria will face the world's sharpest decline in working-age population in the coming decades, creating major economic challenges, the World Bank warned on Friday.

"Bulgaria is heading for the steepest drop in the working-age population of any country," the institution said in a new report presented in Sofia on Friday.

India's new central bank governor marked his first policy meeting Friday with a bold decision to hike interest rates, wrong-footing analysts and leading to sharp falls on the stock market.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) chief Raghuram Rajan, who had warned he was prepared to be unpopular, ordered a rise in the benchmark interest rate from 7.25 to 7.50 percent at a mid-quarter policy review in India's financial centre Mumbai.

German airline Lufthansa is ordering 34 new jets from Boeing and 25 from European rival Airbus as it updates its long-haul fleet to make it more fuel efficient and lower costs.

Lufthansa said the orders were worth 14 billion euros ($19 billion) at list prices.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will pay $920 million and admit wrongdoing in a settlement with U.S. and British regulators over the $6 billion "London Whale" trading loss last year that tarnished its reputation.

The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority fined the company $220 million, the British Securities and Trade Commission fined $200 million and required JPMorgan to admit wrongdoing.

Japan's trade deficit swelled to a larger-than-forecast 960.3 billion yen ($9.8 billion) in August, the 14th straight month of red ink, as imports outpaced growth in exports, customs data showed Thursday.

Boosted by higher fuel costs, imports rose 16 percent from a year earlier to 6.74 trillion yen ($68.7 billion) while exports climbed 14.7 percent to 5.78 trillion yen ($58.9 billion). The deficit was a quarter bigger than the 768.4 billion yen gap seen in August 2012.