Barclays on Thursday said it had agreed a deal to combine the majority of the British bank's Africa operations with Absa -- the lender's African subsidiary.

"This transaction will give us a platform from which we can further grow our Africa business to the benefit of customers, colleagues, shareholders and the communities in which we operate," Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins said in a statement.

China will allow transit passengers from 45 countries including the U.S., Canada and all members of the EU to spend up to 72 hours in Beijing without a visa from next month, city authorities said.

The move would "strongly spur the development of the tourism industry, speed up building of an international city (and) expand contacts with the rest of the world," the Beijing Tourism Administration said on its website.

U.S. auto giant General Motors (GM) said Thursday that its full-year sales in China, the world's biggest car market, will surpass last year's 2.55 million and set a new record.

In the first 11 months, sales of GM and its ventures in China surged 10.4 percent from a year earlier to 2.59 million vehicles, more than the total for the whole of last year, GM said in a statement.

Greece is seen as the most corrupt country in the EU, Transparency International said Wednesday, adding that crisis-hit nations are being held back by an inability to deal with graft.

Publishing its annual Corruption Perceptions Index, the Berlin-based watchdog ranked Greece 94th out of 176 countries.

Finland's economy has slipped into recession with a 0.1 percent drop in gross domestic product in the third quarter from the previous three months, as the export-dependent country continues to suffer from a drop in demand among European trading partners.

Statistics Finland said Wednesday economic output fell 1.1 percent in the second quarter. That puts Finland in recession, commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of quarterly economic contraction.

Britain's biggest retailer, supermarket Tesco, looked on course to withdraw from its struggling U.S. business Fresh & Easy as chief executive Philip Clarke on Wednesday said its presence would likely end.

"It's likely, but not certain, that our presence in America will come to an end," Clarke told reporters, as Tesco said it was launching a strategic review of Fresh & Easy, which may lead to a sale of the business.

Moody's ratings agency on Wednesday warned South Africa's banks that weak economic growth in tandem with their exposure to government securities poses a risk of serious trouble ahead.

Describing the operating environment for South Africa's banks as "challenging", Moody's forecast modest economic growth of three percent next year.

European Union finance ministers are trying to set up a united banking supervisor to better deal with future financial crises.

The 27 ministers hope to have a deal by the end of the year that will give the European Central Bank wide-ranging authority over banks. They remain divided over whether the ECB should oversee all banks or only the largest.

The leader of an anti-bailout party leading opinion polls in Greece has called for a delay in the repayment of rescue loans until the country emerges from its major recession, which is heading into a sixth year.

Alexis Tsipras, leader of the main opposition Radical Left Coalition Party, argued austerity policies pursued by the three-party coalition government would continue to weaken Greece's economy and leave the country more reliant on emergency loans from other eurozone states and the International Monetary Fund.

Car sales in Italy plunged by 20.1 percent in November on a 12-month comparison, continuing the downward trend of the past few months, the transport ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The number of new car registrations was 106,491 in November compared to 133,284 in November 2011, the ministry said. The fall was far sharper than the 12.06-percent year-on-year decline seen in October.