A rising budget deficit, falling foreign exchange reserves and a sliding currency are adding to the woes of Egypt's fragile government even as it battles a raft of political and social problems.

It is against this background that Cairo is to resume talks on Monday with the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan, which many see as a prerequisite for the country's recovery.

Congressional leaders showed no signs of giving ground to resolve the next step in the financial crisis, with Democrats still talking about higher taxes on the wealthy and the Senate's top Republican suggesting that a crippling default on U.S. loans was possible unless there were significant cuts in government spending.

"It's a shame we have to use whatever leverage we have in Congress to get the president to deal with the biggest problem confronting our future, and that's our excessive spending," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Sunday.

Toshiba has boosted its stake in U.S. nuclear power plant builder Westinghouse Electric to 87 percent, the company said Monday, as it eyes atomic opportunities outside disaster-struck Japan.

The Japanese technology conglomerate said it paid about 125 billion yen ($1.42 billion) for a 20 percent holding in Westinghouse held by U.S.-based engineering firm The Shaw Group.

The number of vehicles sold in Japan last year jumped 26.1 percent from 2011, when the auto industry was pummelled by the quake-tsunami disaster, according to industry data on Monday.

Annual sales of cars, trucks and buses, excluding mini vehicles -- four-wheel vehicles with engines under 660 cc -- came in at 3,390,274 units in 2012, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said.

A German minister has told a news magazine that youngsters should learn in school more about how to manage their finances to avoid running up debt.

In a country that strongly advocated stepping up national budgetary discipline to fight the eurozone debt crisis, Germany's Consumer Affairs Minister Ilse Aigner told Focus news weekly that the lesson should begin in the classroom.

Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi reshuffled his cabinet on Sunday, reports said, in the face of an economic crisis and ahead of fresh talks with the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8-billion loan.

Ten new ministers were sworn in, including Finance Minister Al-Morsi al-Sayyed Hegazi, whose predecessor Mumtaz al-Saeed headed the IMF loan negotiations which stalled during political unrest in December.

Algeria and Turkey have decided to renew for 10 years from 2014 an agreement for Algeria to deliver four billion cubic meters of gas annually to Turkey, Energy Minister Youcef Yousfi said on Saturday.

The official APS news agency said it was "decided to extend the agreement by 10 years, with the possibility of increasing the volume of gas exported."

President Barack Obama warned Congressional Republicans on Saturday against playing a "dangerous game" with the economy as lawmakers prepared for a new battle over the national debt ceiling.

But the Democratic president also congratulated lawmakers for passing an 11th-hour deal that avoided the so-called fiscal cliff.

Nghiem Ngoc Thuy has been slinging coffees to thirsty Vietnamese for 20 years in her colonial-style villa with peeling shutters, and she and her customers aren't too worried that the imminent arrival of U.S. giant Starbucks will alter their time-tested coffee traditions.

Starbucks announced Thursday that it will open its first cafe in Vietnam early next month in Ho Chi Minh City as part of its strategy to expand across Asia, and plans to add more shops throughout the country.

Iranian state TV says the country has inaugurated its first natural gas storage facility.

The Saturday report says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened the facility at Sarajeh outside the central Iranian holy city of Qom. It said that the site can now store 1.5 billion cubic meters (2 billion cubic yards)but will increase the capacity to 3.3 billion cubic meters (4.3 billion cubic yards) in a second phase of development.