Payment systems giant Visa said Tuesday that a massive technical glitch earlier this month had affected 5.2 million card transactions, almost half of which were in Britain.

Visa, revealing the details in a letter to a British parliamentary committee that is probing the matter, said the "rare" disruption prevented many cardholders form making payments in Europe for 10 hours on Friday June 1.

A surge of construction in the Midwestern United States last month brought American homebuilding to its fastest pace since before the financial crisis, according to government data released Tuesday.

Most French companies hoping to keep doing business in Iran after the US imposes new sanctions on the country will find it impossible to do so, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Tuesday.

Beijing on Tuesday accused Donald Trump of "blackmail" and warned it would retaliate in kind after the US president threatened to impose fresh tariffs on Chinese goods, pushing the world's two biggest economies closer to a trade war.

A Russian government proposal to hike the state pension age to 63 for women and 65 for men had as of Monday seen more than 1.5 million people sign a petition against the move.

Hindered by strikes and outdated equipment, French air traffic control is responsible for a third of aviation delays in Europe, Le Parisien said Monday, citing a senate finance committee report.

Imports of US aircraft helped push Japan to a trade deficit in May, official data showed Monday, but experts said it was a temporary effect not linked to ongoing trade tensions.

Japan's imports rose 14.0 percent in May from a year earlier, according to finance ministry data.

Donald Trump dangled the carrot of foreign investment in front of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at their nuclear summit, but analysts say few will want to put money into one of the highest-risk business environments in the world.

The US president showed Kim a movie of bright lights, high-speed trains and soaring tower blocks -- pitching a future that could be possible if Pyongyang gives up its weapons.

Paris and Berlin are very close to an agreement on eurozone reform after months of divisions, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said.

Locals have always known that a vast deposit of gold sits underneath the cocoa trees and towering thickets of bamboo in the tropical jungle of Osun state in southwest Nigeria.