French industrial production dropped for a second straight month in June, statistics bureau Insee said Wednesday, alarming analysts who had been looking for a modest increase.

Output fell 0.8 percent in June, after dropping 0.5 percent in May, with oil refining posting the largest single decline after strikes in France's oil industry.

Workers on Eurostar trains that operate across the English Channel are planning seven days of strikes over two weekends in August — a peak summer tourist time.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union says its members will stop work for four days starting Friday, Aug. 12. A second stoppage is planned for three days starting Aug. 27, which is the start of a bank holiday long weekend for the British.

Central bankers can't just "dial up growth" to stimulate economies, outgoing Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens said Wednesday, expressing serious reservations about the world's reliance on monetary policy.

Central banks, particularly in developed nations, enacted unprecedented monetary easing policies after the global economic crisis to kickstart growth -- including pumping huge amounts of liquidity into markets, cutting interest rates to ultra-low levels and buying up assets.

Oil prices extended losses in Asia on Wednesday after industry data showed a rise in US crude stockpiles, supporting oversupply concerns.

China's ambassador to Britain urged London on Tuesday to approve a Beijing-funded nuclear power plant as soon as possible, warning that relations between the two countries were at a critical point.

Iran said on Tuesday it would auction off property owned by billionaire Babak Zanjani, who was sentenced to death for corruption earlier this year.

A Norwegian minister on Tuesday expressed hesitations about Britain possibly returning to the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), putting a damper on London's chances of following in non-EU member Norway's footsteps after a Brexit.

France will supply 30 military helicopters to Kuwait in a deal worth over one billion euros ($1.1 billion) that French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian signed in the Gulf state on Tuesday.

Lower oil prices have pushed Kuwait into a rare budget deficit, ending 16 straight years of surpluses for the energy-rich Gulf state, the finance minister said.

The OPEC member recorded a budget shortfall of 4.6 billion dinars ($15.3 billion) in the fiscal year which ended on March 31, Anas al-Saleh said in a statement carried by the KUNA news agency late Monday.

The Indonesian capital's airport opened a new terminal Tuesday after years of operating at far above its passenger capacity.

Domestic flights for national carrier Garuda began operating in the morning from Soekarno-Hatta airport's steel and glass $560 million Terminal 3. Its international flights will shift to the new terminal next month.