The EU's top trade negotiator Cecilia Malmstrom was headed to Washington on Monday to meet United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in an effort to breathe life into an attempt to strike a trade deal.

Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn will "vigorously" defend himself in a Japanese court this week after refusing to sign a confession in return for being released from custody, his son has told a French Sunday newspaper.

Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn is likely to appear in a Japanese court next Tuesday to hear the reasons for his detention, after his lawyers deployed a little-used article of the Constitution.

Turkish inflation dropped for the second month in a row, to an annual rate of 20.3 percent after hitting a 15-year high in October, official statistics showed Thursday.

Wall Street was heading for another rout early Thursday following a gloomy forecast from Apple and weak US manufacturing data.

Hiring by private U.S. companies surged unexpectedly in December, rising to its highest level in nearly two years as employers beefed up staffing levels in the holiday period, a survey showed Thursday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi played down concern over Africa's debts with Beijing on Thursday as he arrived in Ethiopia at the start of a four-nation Africa tour.

Iran's intelligence ministry said Monday it had arrested 11 "economic disruptors" who misappropriated some $400 million earmarked for essential goods and smuggled the money out of the country.

Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn will be spending the beginning of 2019 behind bars after a Tokyo court on Monday extended his detention through to January 11.

China's top court will rule on intellectual property cases for the first time from January 1, the government said, elevating the handling of an issue that has become a key complaint in the trade war with the U.S.