Thailand has long served as one of the globe's main rice bowls, but chronic water shortages are pushing the country to move away from a grain that dominates its fields and has defined a way of life for generations.

Laddawan Kamsong has spent the past forty years coaxing rice from her plot in central Thailand, but she is tired of watching her farmland squeezed dry by increasingly severe droughts.

A truce appears to have emerged in the undeclared global "currency war", but analysts question whether central banks have really given up manipulating exchange rates to prop up their economies.

"The currency war is in reality a war between central banks who are battling to support their own interests and taken into account what their rival central banks are doing," said Sylvain Loganadin, an analyst at online foreign exchange broker FXCM.

Greece on Saturday demanded "explanations" from the International Monetary Fund after WikiLeaks said the lender sought a crisis "event" to push the indebted nation into concluding talks over its reforms.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he would write to IMF chief Christine Lagarde and reach out to European leaders, after the website published what it said was a transcript of a teleconference in which IMF officials complained that Athens only moves decisively when faced with the peril of default.

Franco-American firm Schlumberger, the world's largest oilfield services company, has completed  its merger with smaller rival Cameron International Corporation worth $14.8 billion.

U.S. authorities had given the clearance in November, the EU in February and the Chinese authorities gave their assent last month, paving the way for what Schlumberger  termed the sector's leading integrated industrial complex.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday it will take time for Iran to rejoin the global economy, as the country's leadership and citizens express unease that a sanctions windfall has been slow to materialize.

"It will take time for Iran to reintegrate into the global economy, but Iran is already beginning to see the benefit of this deal," Obama said at a meeting of world powers in Washington.

Spanish wind turbine maker Gamesa has asked French energy giant Areva to break their partnership to clear its takeover by Germany's Siemens, the Expansion financial daily reported Friday.

"The proposal on the table is to reach an agreement to amicably dissolve the alliance between Gamesa and Areva," the paper said, adding that consulting banks are looking at different options to unwind their respective stakes in a joint wind energy company created in March 2015.

Britain's minimum wage rises by 7.5 percent on Friday in a re-branding exercise by the Conservative government that has been denounced by critics as largely symbolic in an era of state austerity.

Around 1.8 million employees will benefit from the National Living Wage (NLW). 

Zaha Hadid, the world's most famous female architect who attracted plaudits for works of sweeping curves and controversy for huge cost overruns, died on Thursday at the age of 65, her company said.

Cyprus on Thursday concluded its multi-billion-euro bailout program with the European Union's rescue fund as it battles back from a financial crisis that ravaged its banking sector.

Israel's state-run electricity company on Thursday reduced the power supply to a Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank over a debt of $450 million, officials said.