On an avenue in Maracaibo, the once-thriving heart of Venezuela's oil industry, the buses no longer run. Instead, people squeeze onto a dinky tourist train to take them home.

The Philippines on Wednesday lifted its ban on migrant workers heading to jobs in Kuwait, capping a diplomatic row sparked when a murdered Filipina maid was found in her employer's freezer.

Turkey's embattled currency the lira on Wednesday hit new historic lows against the dollar as investors took fright at comments by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggesting he wanted a bigger say in monetary policy.

The lira has lost nine percent in value over the last month alone as Turkey heads to snap presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24 amid growing concerns over the health of the economy.

Greece's creditors were back in Athens on Wednesday to tie up the loose ends of an agreed programme of reforms as the country's third and final bailout comes to an end. 

With a meeting of eurozone finance ministers set for June 21, teams of experts from the EU, the ECB and the IMF were scheduled to meet with the Greek government to discuss its privatisation drive, an overhaul of the civil service and the deregulation of the state-dominated energy market.

In the Turkish city of Gaziantep, home to around half a million Syrians who fled the civil war south of the border, hundreds of Syrian businesses are thriving in a boost both for the displaced community and their host country.

Global oil supplies could be hit by the decision by the US to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, and also by falling production in crisis-hit Venezuela, the IEA said on Wednesday.

Japan's economy slid into reverse for the first time in two years at the beginning of the year, hit by sluggish consumption and a winter cold snap, but analysts predicted the world's third-largest economy would quickly rebound.

Shanghai has granted BMW a license for self-driving car testing, setting up the German luxury brand to become the first foreign automaker to test autonomous vehicles on the road in China.

Preparatory work for the construction of a controversial Russian gas pipeline began off the German coast on Tuesday, said a consortium led by Russia's Gazprom, days ahead of a visit by German chancellor Angela Merkel to Russia.

The German economy grew slower than expected in the first three months of 2018, federal statistics authority Destatis said Tuesday, disappointing analysts' forecasts.