Dutch group Philips, which has transformed itself away from some of its traditional businesses, reported an almost three-fold surge in third-quarter net profit on Monday.

The company also announced that later in the day it would begin to buy back its own shares under a program totaling 1.5 billion euros ($2.0 billion).

French energy giant EDF said Monday it had won a deal worth 16 billion pounds (18.9 billion euros) to build two nuclear reactors in Britain.

"This deal means £16 billion of investment coming into the country and the creation of 25,000 jobs," said British Prime Minister David Cameron in a joint EDF-British government press release.

Hundreds of people said Sunday they would stay camped out in central Rome in an unsanctioned protest to call for an end to austerity and evictions and for more affordable housing.

A delegation of protesters was set to meet Transport and Infrastructure Minister Maurizio Lupi on Tuesday to discuss their demands.

Britain has assuaged its hunger for economic ties with China after finance minister George Osborne came away from a trip to the Asian powerhouse with a range of investment deals.

From easing visa restrictions to building on recent currency cooperation and winning Beijing money for investment in British nuclear power plants, Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne can claim to have smoothed relations with the emerging economic power.

The recent U.S. government shutdown and debt limit showdown bruised the nation's economy and "can never happen again," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in an interview that aired Sunday.

"We took an economy that is fighting hard to get good economic growth going, to create jobs for the American people, and took it in the wrong direction," Lew said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program.

The approach of a new budget year in crisis-hit Greece has rekindled talk of more spending cuts, along with a renewed EU-IMF creditor push for a breakthrough in the country's clogged-up privatization program.

But after three years of effort, with paltry results, worries are growing on the wisdom of state asset sales made on the quick and on whether they will ultimately benefit Greeks themselves.

The Venezuelan government denied Friday it planned to devalue its currency, despite a shortage of dollars and euros that has fueled demand on the black market.

"A devaluation is not on the table," said Rafael Ramirez, the newly appointed vice president in charge of economic policy who has also long served as oil minister.

Shares of Internet search and advertising titan Google soared more than 13 percent to pass the $1,000 mark for the first time Friday after a strong earnings report.

The earnings demonstrated that Google was smoothly building its presence in the mobile area while advertising earnings rose all around, with particular help from Google's YouTube website.

Technical problems have hobbled the website design to sign up millions of uninsured Americans for health care, but they have largely been overshadowed by a 16-day government shutdown.

The government's healthcare.gov website launched on October 1 was supposed to spearhead President Barack Obama's sweeping health care reform, known as Obamacare.

Spain's banks reported Friday record high bad loans in August, revealing persistent balance-sheet weakness despite a eurozone-funded bailout.

Bad loans rose from the previous month by 2.0 billion euros ($2.7 billion), or 1.13 percent, to an unprecedented 180.7 billion euros ($247 billion).