Japan racked up a 621 billion yen ($4.3 billion) trade deficit in July, as prices of imports surged, according to government data released Wednesday.

Japan's imports grew nearly 17% from a year ago to 10.2 trillion yen ($70.6 billion), while exports grew 10% to 9.6 trillion yen ($66 billion), the Finance Ministry said.

A flood of Chinese products into Indonesia has hit local manufacturers hard, prompting the government to look for ways to placate domestic producers while avoiding angering the country's biggest trading partner.

Garment makers — both home-based piece work producers and factories — have appealed for help as they lose market share to low-cost apparel and textiles from China. A surge of products bought online has added to the problem.

BMW is recalling more than 720,000 vehicles due to an issue with the water pump's electrical connector that could potentially lead to a fire.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that the recall includes some X1, X3 and X5 vehicles as well as some other models.

Specialist divers on Tuesday launched a fresh search for six people, including UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch and the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, missing since their yacht capsized off the Italian island of Sicily.

The European Commission said Tuesday it plans to slap five-year import duties of up to 36 percent on Chinese electric cars, unless Beijing can offer an alternative solution to the damaging trade row over state subsidies.

World stocks mostly rose Tuesday after Wall Street pushed closer to record highs following its roller coaster of a summer.

Global stocks were mixed Monday as investors pondered the upcoming meeting of the Federal Reserve, following Wall Street's best week since November that ended with a slight uptick in U.S. stocks Friday.

Libya's central bank said Monday it was resuming its operations following the release of a bank official who had been abducted earlier.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday noted that the electricity crisis of the past two days proves that the management of the electricity sector has been a “total failure” for the past 15 years.

“There is not a single indication that this management will change, and accordingly only one solution remains: involving the private sector immediately in the process of producing electricity and distributing it across Lebanon,” Geagea said.

The state-run Zahrani Oil Installations overnight started pumping five million liters of fuel oil on loan to the Zahrani power plant through the supply line that connects them, a day after Lebanon’s state utility Electricité du Liban announced that its power plants had exhausted their supply of fuel oil and would stop producing electricity.

In a statement, the Installations director general said the process started after “completing all the administrative, technical and legal files,” adding that EDL’s board of directors would meet Sunday and issue a statement announcing when the power plant would become functional.