The Syrian capital's tiny tourist train is returning puffs of hope to a city encircled by war with short trips to the greener suburbs of Damascus. 

The train, whose large yellow wagon and leather seats can hold 100 people, had stopped running since the 2011 outbreak of Syria's conflict.

Britain's state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group announced Friday that net profits sank by a fifth in the first quarter, after taking a charge against the disposal of its TSB retail division.

Earnings after taxation slid to £913 million ($1.40 billion, 1.25 billion euros) in the three months to the end of March, compared with £1.148 billion a year earlier, Lloyds said in a results statement.

Milan's Expo 2015 opens on Friday with hopes the six-month food-themed world fair will be a catalyst for economic revival competing with fears it will simply underline Italy's deep-seated problems.

The first global exhibition since Shanghai's groundbreaking hosting five years ago has been beset by delays which mean the site will be far from being fully completed when it opens to the public at 0800 GMT.

Japanese inflation picked up in March for the first time in 10 months, data showed Friday, but household spending tumbled in a worrying sign for consumer confidence. 

Core inflation, excluding volatile fresh food prices, hit 2.2 percent year-on-year, accelerating from the previous month for the first time since May 2014, and offering a sliver of hope for Tokyo's war on deflation.

China has for the first time overtaken the United States as Australia's largest source of foreign investment, according to official data, laying out Aus$27.7 billion (U.S.$21.8 billion) in 2013-14 as real estate purchases more than doubled.

The Asian economic giant's spending in Australia for the year ending June 30, 2014 far outstripped the Aus$17.5 billion from the United States -- which was the biggest investor for more than a decade -- and Canada's Aus$15.4 billion, the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) said in its annual report.

The European Central Bank said Thursday that its raft of different policy measures appears to have banished the spectre of deflation in the 19-country eurozone, where long-term inflation expectations are moving up again.

"After having reached low levels in mid-January, longer-term inflation expectations in the euro area have recovered. The decline observed over the previous two years has thus come to a halt," the ECB wrote in its latest economic bulletin. 

The dollar sank against the euro Wednesday after worse-than-expected data showed the U.S. economy nearly stalled in the first quarter, clouding expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike.

The early morning report from the Commerce Department sent the dollar tumbling against the 19-nation currency, at one point hitting a two-month low.

Moody's downgraded Greece's debt further into junk territory Wednesday, citing "high uncertainty" that Athens can reach a new agreement with official creditors in time to make upcoming debt payments.

Moody's cut the rating one notch to Caa2, just two steps above the level signaling that a default is imminent, and left the country on "negative outlook" for another possible downgrade.

The Bank of Japan held off more easing measures after a policy meeting Thursday, despite flatlining inflation that is defying a two-year-old stimulus, but analysts expect further loosening as the economy struggles.

In a widely expected decision, the central bank stood pat on its record easy money program, which is adding about 80 trillion yen ($672 billion) to the money supply every year in a bid to jack up prices and kickstart growth.

The World Bank sharply cut its outlook for war-torn Ukraine Wednesday, forecasting its economy will shrink by a massive 7.5 percent this year due to the conflict with pro-Russian separatists.

The international lender lowered its 2015 economic outlook from its previous estimate of a 2.3 percent contraction.