Japan has no plan as of now to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, its government spokesman said Tuesday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Japan is still seeking answers about how the regional financing institution would be governed.

The U.N. World Tourism Organization said Monday it was "confident" in Tunisia's ability to rebound as the Bardo National Museum reopened to the public after the massacre of 21 tourists.

"We have total confidence in Tunisia. We are confident that it will overcome the past and that it will move forward," UNWTO secretary general Taleb Rifai told reporters in Tunis.

French oil giant Total said Monday that it has sold its stake in a Nigerian oil field to a local company for $569 million (523 million euros).

Total's sale of its share in the onshore Oil Mining Lease 29 to Aiteo Eastern E&P comes after the French group made two similar divestment in Nigeria. The three transactions reached a sum of $1 billion.

Demand from China, rising domestic purchasing power, cheap land and labor have helped Brazilian giants earn themselves a healthy slice of the international food sector, as shown by the Heinz-Kraft merger.

HJ Heinz's owner 3G Capital, billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann's investment fund, will have a 51 percent stake of the new group under an agreement with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to create North America's third-largest food and beverage conglomerate.

Two major companies in a prominent $1.4 billion Asia investment fund managed by New York banking giant Morgan Stanley unexpectedly told securities regulators they will not file their financial statements on time and froze trading in their stocks, actions generally considered to be cause for concern.

The publicly traded companies, Tianhe Chemicals Group Ltd. and Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd., separately announced late last week that they would be unable to meet Hong Kong Stock Exchange deadlines because auditors have not yet signed off on their financials. Both companies pledged to cooperate with the auditors.

In Syria's northeastern province of Latakia, workers roll the country's first locally made cigars, a new product being launched despite the devastating civil conflict now in its fifth year.

The workers are employed by Syria's state-run General Tobacco Company, which has decided to branch out into cigars in a bid to create desperately needed jobs and boost revenue.

Russia is to sign up to the Chinese-led development bank AIIB, first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov said Saturday at an international forum in China, cited by Russian news agencies.

"I'd like to inform you that Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken the decision that Russia will participate in the capital of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)," Shuvalov said at China's Boao Forum, quoted by RIA Novosti state news agency.

Ratings firm Fitch cut Greece's credit rating Friday amid worries that the eurozone country is running perilously close to defaulting on its sovereign debt.

Fitch lowered Greece's rating by two notches to the high-risk level of "CCC" from "B," but said that nevertheless it expected the government would survive its cash squeeze.

The Federal Reserve is considering raising near-zero interest rates this year even though this may slow the U.S. recovery, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said Friday.

The Federal Open Market Committee is now "giving serious consideration to beginning to reduce later this year some of the extraordinary monetary policy accommodation currently in place," Yellen said in a speech in San Francisco, according to the prepared text.

Microsoft said Friday it has purchased the office mobile app LiveLoop, which allows multiple users to collaborate on PowerPoint presentations simultaneously.

The purchase is the latest by tech giant Microsoft, after recent acquisitions of other mobile apps for professional use.