The Greek government, struggling to keep up its debt repayments,  announced on Tuesday that any dormant public sector accounts holding less than 100 euros ($109) should be emptied and the funds handed over to the central bank.

"It covers bank accounts which on March 15 held a total of 0-99 euros," the finance ministry said in a decree.

Africa has long been the El Dorado just over the horizon for airlines, but sustained economic growth and the emergence of a middle class on the continent may finally clear the obstacles from the runway.

"Today, Africa accounts for just a small portion of global air traffic: less than 3 percent of passengers when it has 15 percent of the world's population," said Bertrand Mouly-Aigrot, an air transport expert at Archery Strategy Consulting. 

Oil prices rose in Asia Wednesday on bargain-hunting following sharp falls in the previous session triggered by a strong U.S. dollar and continued concern over the global supply glut, analysts said.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for July delivery gained 44 cents to $58.47 while Brent crude for July gained 30 cents to $64.02 in afternoon trade. 

The world's poorest nations, the bulk of which are in sub-Saharan Africa, are receiving less than a third of development aid, and this support is waning, a non-governmental organisation founded by U2 frontman Bono said Tuesday.

World leaders should target the most disadvantaged nations when they adopt a new set of goals to eradicate extreme poverty this September, the advocacy group ONE said in a statement.

Charter Communications is nearing a $55.1 billion deal to buy out fellow American cable giant Time Warner Cable, which also has been courted by France's Altice, U.S. media reported Monday.

As part of the deal, Charter would pay about $195 a share for Time Warner Cable -- $100 in cash and the rest in shares -- The Washington Post reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the deal.

Thousands of Mexico City taxi drivers snarled traffic in the mega-capital on Monday in a protest demanding that the government ban U.S. ride-sharing service Uber.

In response, Uber fired back by offering free cab service "on a day so complicated to move" around the metropolis of 20 million people and four million vehicles.

Two oil companies announced Monday the temporary shuttering of their Canadian oil sands mines and the evacuation of hundreds of staff as a massive forest fire creeped close.

The combined Cenovus and Canadian Natural Resources Limited facilities account for 233,000 barrels of oil produced per day or 10 percent of the region's total upstream oil production.

"Is travel to Cuba for tourist activities permitted? No." That's what the U.S. Treasury Department website says. And yet Havana is loaded with Americans, from the Floridita bar, where they pose for photos with a bust of Ernest Hemingway, to the Rum Museum, where they swig rum samples after trudging through dim displays of old casks.

Sure, some Americans follow the rules on sanctioned travel — bringing supplies to Cuban churches or synagogues, for example, on a religious activities license. Others come on approved group tours known as "people-to-people" trips with themed itineraries like the arts.

Africa's overall economy should advance in 2015, expanding by 4.5 percent, showing resilience despite weak commodity prices and the devastating Ebola epidemic, an annual report published Monday said. 

And future growth could be spurred by the continent's population doubling to two billion over the next 35 years, repeating in Africa the economic boom seen in Asia's biggest countries.

The operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has jointly won a large power and water infrastructure contract in the desert state of Qatar, it said Monday.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp have been selected by a company backed by the Qatari government to build and operate power and water plants for 25 years, in a project worth some $2.5 billion.