The year-long conflict in east Ukraine has closed businesses across this industrial heartland, ramping up unemployment, crippling finances and leaving it ever more reliant on Moscow. 

Fierce fighting between government forces and pro-Russian rebels has ravaged a region that once provided 25 percent of the nation's exports and has shorn Kiev of a vital source of foreign currency, seeing the Ukrainian economy contract sharply. 

Oil prices fell in Asia Wednesday after Russia and Iran's foreign ministers claimed a breakthrough in talks over Tehran's controversial nuclear program that could ease sanctions on the crude producer. 

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery eased 15 cents to $47.45, while Brent crude for May fell five cents to $55.06 in afternoon trade. 

A new Greek bailout deal is possible before an end-April deadline but it will not come before Easter, EU president Donald Tusk said Tuesday.

Experts from the IMF and the EU are scrutinizing a list of economic reforms proposed by Athens in a bid to unlock another 7.2-billion euros ($7.8-billion) in loans to stave off possible bankruptcy.

Turkey's economic growth weakened last year to 2.9 percent, well down on 2013 and creating worries for the Islamic-rooted government ahead of June legislative elections, official data showed on Tuesday.

Gross domestic product increased by 2.9 percent in 2014 from the year earlier, well behind the government's official target of 3.3 percent, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) said on its website.

The euro drifted lower in Asia on Tuesday with investors following talks between debt-hit Greece and its international creditors as Athens looks to reform its bailout obligations.

In Tokyo, the single currency slipped to $1.0790 and 129.69 yen, from $1.0825 and 130.10 yen in New York, while the dollar was at 120.17 yen against 120.18 yen.

Oil prices fell in Asia Tuesday as dealers monitored last-ditch efforts between global powers and Iran to reach a deal on Tehran's nuclear program and ease sanctions imposed on the crude producer. 

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell 69 cents to $47.99 while Brent eased 55 cents to $55.74 in mid-day trade.

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.