The U.N. on Sunday urged African nations to close a gender gap that is costing an estimated $95 billion (84 billion euros) a year in lost economic potential.

Shoddy, price-cutting renovations, in breach of local building regulations, could be partly to blame for the high death toll from this week's devastating earthquake in central Italy, according to a prosecutor investigating the disaster.

Four months after taking the helm of struggling Russian automobile giant Avtovaz, Renault executive Nicolas Maure has set his sights on returning the Lada maker to profit by 2018.

The government of South Sudan, whose economy has been ravaged by years of war, has adopted an ambitious budget for 2016-2017 of around one billion dollars, three times as big as the previous year's.

European stock markets stirred Friday at the end of a tranquil week as Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen indicated there was a case for raising U.S. interest rates.

Iran and South Korea are to start trading in euros, legally circumventing U.S. sanctions on dollar transactions with Tehran, a senior official announced Friday.

Oil prices fell Friday as OPEC's key producers cast doubt on the need to cut output, denting hopes of a deal to tackle a global supply glut.

When the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) rebel group announced this week it had called a ceasefire and was entering talks with the government, many hoped peace would be restored to the country's oil belt.

Private-sector loans in countries using the EU's single currency rose slightly in July, the European Central Bank (ECB) said Friday, in welcome news for the ailing eurozone.

Iran wants its pre-sanctions share of the crude market, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Friday, dampening the prospects of agreement on an output freeze at an OPEC meeting next month.

"Iran had no role in disrupting the stability of the oil market and after the (lifting of) sanctions we seek to revive our share in the global crude market," he said, quoted by the ministry's SHANA news service.