Malaysia's central bank said Friday it has recommended that criminal proceedings be launched against a state-owned company linked to Prime Minister Najib Razak and which is at the center of a massive corruption scandal.

The statement by Bank Negara is the latest troubling development for Najib and the company that he launched -- 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) -- who have been under pressure to explain massive sums of money allegedly missing from overseas investments.

A Moldovan government official says work on a pipeline that will transport natural gas from Romania to the Moldovan capital will begin next year.

The pipeline, which is expected to become operational in May 2018, will help lessen the former Soviet republic's dependency on Russia. It is an extension of one running from the northern Romanian city of Iasi to Ungheni, a Moldovan town near the Romanian border.

An umbrella group of local and foreign banks in smog-hit Singapore has urged members to make "sustainable development" part of their lending requirements, stepping up pressure on companies linked to land-clearing fires in Indonesia.

The 158-member Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) on Thursday issued guidelines for the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, forest degradation and biodiversity loss among the criteria for approving commercial loans.

Oil prices extended their recent rally in Asia Friday on hopes that increasing demand and a decline in U.S. crude production would ease a supply glut that has depressed the market for more than a year.

The two main crude contracts hit a six-year low during the April-September quarter owing to a fears about an oversupply, China's economic slowdown and expectations for a U.S. interest rate rise.

German police swooped on Volkswagen's headquarters on Thursday, carrying away files and hard disks in their investigation into a massive pollution cheating scandal engulfing the auto giant.

Private apartments were also raided in Volkswagen's hometown of Wolfsburg and other cities, prosecutors told AFP, as police sought to secure documents and digital data that could point to those responsible for the deception of global proportions. 

The oil market drifted higher Thursday as investors digested an upbeat demand forecast from the head of the OPEC crude producers' cartel.

Brent North Sea crude for delivery in November added seven cents to stand at $51.40 per barrel just after midday in London.

Shares in Deutsche Bank managed to eke out gains Thursday even though the company said it would post a multibillion-euro loss in the third quarter and may scrap this year's dividend payment.

In an unscheduled statement late Wednesday, Germany's biggest bank said it expects to report a third-quarter net loss of 6.2 billion euros ($7 billion) because of a combination of write-downs and litigation costs. It also said its management board will recommend a reduction or possible elimination of the dividend for this year.

The government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras survived a no-confidence vote early Thursday morning, bolstering the left-wing leader as he gets down to implementing reforms demanded by creditors.

The governing coalition of the premier's left-wing Syriza party and the nationalist Independent Greeks (ANEL) used their 155-strong majority to pass the motion through the 300-seat parliament.

The dollar declined further against some emerging Asian currencies Thursday on waning expectations of an early rise in U.S. interest rates.

With last Friday's below-par U.S. jobs report muddying the Federal Reserve's plans for lifting borrowing costs by the end of the year, many higher-yielding, or riskier, units have benefited.

Russian gas giant Gazprom said Wednesday its TurkStream pipeline project with Turkey would be delayed as tensions between Moscow and Ankara peak over Russia's intervention in the Syrian conflict. 

"Given that there is no intergovernmental agreement, the timeframe will be postponed," Russian news agencies quoted Gazprom deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev as saying, referring to a deadline next year for building the first of four pipelines.