OPEC member Kuwait said on Monday that oil prices are too high because of unrest in the Middle East and Japan's earthquake.

"Although we are enjoying high prices, we would like to see lower prices ... We would like to see a normal oil price," the CEO of national conglomerate Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC), Faruq al-Zanki, told reporters.

General Motors, the biggest overseas automaker in China, said Saturday its sales growth in the world's largest car market had slowed sharply year-on-year in the first quarter.

The U.S. auto giant said it sold 685,583 vehicles over the first three months of 2011, exactly 10 percent more than during the first three months of 2010.

Being a Hindu yogi once meant renouncing worldly pleasures for a life of solitary meditation, wandering the jungle in search of union with god.

Today, new-age yogis wander the globe from one retreat to another, stay in luxury hotels and preach to the converted masses through a headset microphone.

Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell announced Friday the sale of its refining and distribution activities in Chile to local oil company Quinenco for $614 million (433 million Euros).

"Shell today announced it has agreed to sell most of its downstream business in Chile to Quinenco for a total consideration of some U.S.$614 million," the group said in a statement.

Japan's car sales plunged nearly 40 percent in March following the tsunami and nuclear disaster, an industry group said Friday.

Automakers sold 279,389 cars in Japan last month, down 37 percent — the biggest ever year-on-year drop for March, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said.

Italian auto giant Fiat will increase its European market share in 2011 with the launch of new models in the second half of the year, Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne said on Wednesday.

"For 2011, we expect a general market improvement, with the exception of the European passenger car market, which will be negatively impacted by declines forecast for Italy and France," Marchionne said.

The time is right for China to move ahead on internationalizing its currency, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told finance mandarins Thursday at a brainstorming session for the Group of 20 leading economies on reforming the global monetary system.

Differences over exchange rate policies and other key issues were apparent at the meeting in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, with Sarkozy urging that China's currency, the yuan, become an international reserve currency, while U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the yuan must trade more freely before that can happen.

Italy's Versace luxury group said Tuesday it suffered a net loss in 2010 in the face of a restructuring plan but beat its own forecasts and banks on returning to profit this year.

"As expected, the company registered a loss in 2010," Versace said in a statement, without specifying the extent of the loss.

World markets were lower Tuesday, following a late-day slide on Wall Street and more bad news from Japan as it raced to stop a radiation leak from a nuclear power plant damaged in an earthquake nearly three weeks ago.

Oil prices extended losses below $104 a barrel amid territorial gains by Libyan rebels seeking to topple Moammar Gadhafi and restart crude exports from the OPEC nation. The dollar was lower against the euro and little changed versus the yen.

The world's highest hotel opened its doors in Hong Kong on Tuesday, housed in the city's tallest skyscraper and offering unrivaled panoramic views of the world famous Victoria Harbor.

Towering some 490 meters (1,600 feet) above the bustling, chaotic streets of the Southern Chinese city, the Ritz-Carlton Hotel is making a grand comeback after temporarily closing in 2008.