Moody's on Thursday cut its outlook on Barclays' financial strength rating to "negative" from "stable" after the British bank's top executives resigned this week over an interest rate rigging scandal.

"Moody's Investors Service has today changed the outlook on the C-/baa2 standalone bank financial strength rating (BFSR) of Barclays Bank Plc to negative from stable," the ratings agency said in a statement.

Russia is offering Cyprus more favorable conditions than the EU and IMF as the Mediterranean island seeks aid to shore up its banks, Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said Wednesday.

"The conditions offered by Russia are more favorable" because it does not "impose any conditions" and offers "a lower interest rate," Christofias, a communist, told the European Parliament.

Greece's new government formally takes office this week and looks set to push privatization so as to win favor and funds from EU-IMF creditors who are inspecting the country's strained finances.

The solvency of Greece ultimately depends on the team of European Union and International Monetary Fund auditors whose findings will help determine if the second 130-billion-euro rescue of Greece will continue.

A Spanish judge subpoenaed former IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato on Wednesday over his stewardship of a big Spanish bank that has been nationalized and is due to take a multibillion euro (dollar) bailout.

Rato is one of 33 former members of the board of Bankia SA named in a criminal probe that will be undertaken by Judge Fernando Andreu of the National Court. Anti-corruption prosecutors filed a complaint against Rato accusing him and others of falsifying the bank's accounts when it went public a year ago, among other alleged offenses.

Even as Japan begins cranking up its nuclear reactors again, Tokyo has launched a scheme it hopes will spark a green-energy revolution and put the country at the leading edge of renewables.

New rules oblige utilities to buy all electricity produced from renewable sources, including solar, wind and geothermal power, at above-market rates for the next two decades, in a bid to stoke "green" power investment.

A pooling of Eurozone countries' debt, in the form of Eurobonds, must be accompanied by increased budget control at a European level, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said in an interview Wednesday.

"We need a partial mutualisation of debt, but also more central control of national budgets," Monti told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Gas-rich Qatar's sovereign wealth fund plans to build luxury hotels in Malaysia, Paris, London and China named after Harrods, the world's famous department store, a report said Wednesday.

Under a $636 million plan Qatar Holding will partner a local Malaysian firm Jerantas to construct a hotel in Kuala Lumpur's golden triangle's shopping district of Bukit Bintang.

Iranian shipments of natural gas to Turkey have been resumed after being cut by an explosion targeting a pipeline in eastern Turkey, Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Tuesday.

Natural gas flow to Turkey resumed after maintenance on the damaged pipeline, Yildiz told Anatolia news agency.

A pipeline the UAE is building to pump oil from east coast terminals and bypass the Iran-threatened Strait of Hormuz will be fully operational in August, an Abu Dhabi oil official said Tuesday.

The Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, which will carry oil from fields in Abu Dhabi on the Gulf to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, is "approaching the phase of continuous operation," said Ali Jarwan, CEO of oil and gas producer, Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Co ADMA-OPCO.

“Malaysia's longest-serving Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has been named the recipient of 2012 Rafik Hariri U.N.-Habitat Memorial award, recognizing leadership, statesmanship and good governance, a press release said Tuesday.

The Award’s steering committee announced the winner on Monday in Paris after an international jury selected Mohamad over 13 other nominations from Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, United States, Canada, El Salvador, Nicaragua, India, Bangladesh, UK, Japan and the Philippines.