Indonesia announced Friday it will grant a 30 percent stake of the Mahakam gas block to be shared between French Total and Japanese Inpex, while giving the majority stake to state-owned oil firm Pertamina in 2018.

Oil giant Total, along with Inpex, has been running Mahakam, a huge natural gas block offshore of East Kalimantan province, since 1967. Total has expressed it wanted to continue operating the block when the contract expires at the end of 2017.

The European Central Bank's decision-making governing council will hold an emergency session Friday to discuss a request from the Bank of Greece for an increase in liquidity to Greek banks, sources familiar with the matter told Agence France Presse. 

The council will hold a teleconference at around midday (1000 GMT) to discuss a possible increase in the Emergency Liquidity Assistance facility, as deposit withdrawals from Greek banks have accelerated in recent days, sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

The London Stock Exchange is considering forging a link with the Shanghai bourse like that between Hong Kong and the Chinese financial hub, state media reported Friday.

"We are working on it and trying to understand what might be involved," Nicolas Bertrand, head of equity and derivative markets for the London Stock Exchange Group (LSE), said in Beijing, according to the China Daily.

Crunch European talks to end the standoff over Greece's debt ended without a deal on Thursday, as the IMF warned Athens it would get no leeway to meet a payment at the end of the month and avoid default.

The clock ticked closer to midnight on the crisis after eurozone finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg failed to reach a breakthrough  on a reform deal that could avert  a catastrophic Greek exit from the euro.

U.S. lawmakers voted Thursday to give President Barack Obama fast-track authority to negotiate a major trans-Pacific trade accord, moving it closer to his desk after a dramatic defeat last week.

Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) narrowly passed the House of Representatives by 218 votes to 208 as a stand-alone bill, after congressional leaders uncoupled it from a worker-assistance program that crashed to defeat Friday when most Democrats voted against it in order to block the trade package.

Five years of austerity cuts may have saved Greece from financial collapse, but the life of ordinary Greeks took a decided turn for the worse.

Savagely slashing spending managed to reduce the state budget deficit and the public debt dynamic improved, but at the cost of soaring unemployment and poverty.

A major airline industry group said Wednesday it is backing off plans to introduce a standard size carry-on bag that would be smaller than some countries currently allow on planes.

The Geneva-based International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in a statement it was "pausing the rollout of its Cabin OK initiative and beginning a comprehensive reassessment in light of concerns expressed, primarily in North America."

U.S. technology giant Cisco announced Thursday that it will invest more than $10 billion in China in coming years to help the country "innovate and globalize".

Cisco signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning agency, to expand investment in China focusing on areas of innovation, equity investment, research and development and job creation, the company said in a statement.

The U.S. will put the image of a woman on an American banknote for the first time in over a century, breaking the lock that white male political heroes have on the greenback.

The U.S. Treasury announced Thursday that a yet-unchosen woman, likely "a champion for our inclusive democracy," will feature on the $10 note from 2020, replacing Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury.

Failure of talks between Greece and its creditors would have "extremely serious" consequences for Europe, France's finance minister warned Wednesday on the eve of a crucial ministerial meeting to discuss the crisis.

A breakdown in talks would be "very serious for Greece but also extremely serious for the European project," Michel Sapin told lawmakers.