The U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to raise interest rates by the end of the year is not guaranteed, although it remains the expected course of action, the central bank's vice chairman said Sunday.

Last month, the Fed said it plans to raise rates later in 2015, assuming further improvement in the U.S. labor market and continued economic growth.

U.S. President Barack Obama took a dig at China Saturday as he defended the new TPP Pacific Rim free-trade deal, which excludes Beijing.

In his weekly address to the nation, Obama said the 12-country accord concluded this week after five years of negotiations features the strongest labor and environmental standards in history, which he said will level the field in international trade.

Thousands of people rallied Saturday in the German capital against the massive free-trade accord being negotiated by the European Union and the United States.

Responding to a call by a group of political parties, trade unions and environmental and anti-globalization groups, the demonstrators gathered at Berlin's main train station for a march through the city.

Iran on Saturday announced dates for a three-day oil and gas conference in London in February designed to attract foreign investors awaiting new contract terms to be unveiled next month.

Oil majors have expressed interest in returning to Iran as soon as international sanctions linked to its nuclear programme are lifted, but they are currently still barred from signing any deals.

Washington's use of its de facto veto at the International Monetary Fund to block reforms giving emerging countries a greater say is jeopardizing the IMF's credibility, its leader said Friday.

The IMF has been caught up in a protracted, politically charged battle over reforms intended to reflect the changing global economy by giving emerging giants such as China more weight at the Fund.

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.