Syria has signed major contracts with its main regional ally Iran to provide the war-torn country with food and medical supplies, state media reported on Tuesday.

The regime of President Bashar Assad is suffering an unprecedented financial crisis as a result of a 30-month conflict that has killed more than 110,000 people.

Kosovo has banned all imports from Macedonia, an official said Tuesday, in a deeping Balkans trade row after its neighbour limited entry of food products and slapped on border crossing fees.

"We are implementing a government decision which forbids any import of goods from Macedonia," a Kosovo customs spokesman Adriatik Stavileci told Agence France Presse.

French industrial output fell by 0.6 percent in July, following a 1.4 percent drop the previous month, official data said Tuesday, belying other indications that the economy is perking up.

The drop was more pronounced in the manufacturing sector at 0.7 percent in July from the previous month, including a 11.2 percent drop in car output, said the French statistics agency INSEE.

A multi-billionaire who bought U.S. cinema chain AMC Entertainment and has just acquired a luxury British yacht builder has taken top spot as China's richest man, according to Forbes magazine.

Wang Jianlin, head of conglomerate Wanda Group -- a private firm with interests ranging from property to retailing -- had estimated wealth of $14 billion, the magazine said on its website.

Oil prices dipped in Asian trade Tuesday as fears of a possible U.S.-led strike on Syria eased, with the United States appearing open to a Russia plan for Damascus to give up its chemical weapons.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in October, dipped $1.19 to $108.33 in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for October fell $1.02 to $112.70.

Hong Kong - Red Herring announced its Top 100 award in recognition of the leading private companies from Asia, celebrating these startups’ innovations and technologies across their respective industries. Transterra Media SAL was the only Lebanese company to receive the award this year, a press release said on Monday.

"From Hong Kong to Beirut and everywhere in between, this is for all of our journalists and the Transterra Media team,” said Mr. Jonathan Giesen, Co-Founder and CEO of Transterra Media.

Growth is picking up pace in most major rich nations but momentum is slowing or stable in emerging economies, the OECD said on Monday.

Economic growth is accelerating in the United States, Britain and the eurozone, while it is above trend in Japan, according to the OECD's index of composite leading indicators.

British bank TSB relaunched on Monday, ending its 18-year absence from the high street to become the nation's eighth biggest lender, its parent group announced.

Part-nationalised Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) had decided earlier this year to offload the 200-year-old TSB via a flotation, in order to meets EU concerns over its vast state bailout.

China became one of the world's top three investors for the first time last year as its foreign investment soared to a new record, the government said Monday.

The Asian giant's overseas direct investment rose 17.6 percent last year from 2011 to $87.8 billion, according to a statement jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Bureau of Statistics and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.

Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has warned against instability as a parliamentary committee prepares for a debate starting Monday on Silvio Berlusconi's expulsion from the Senate following his criminal conviction.

The case has put on edge an uneasy governing coalition made up of Letta's center-left Democratic Party (PD) and Berlusconi's center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party in what is the eurozone's third biggest economy.