The chairman and chief executive of 7-Eleven convenience stores in Australia resigned Wednesday, following allegations that franchises systematically underpaid workers.
Media reports earlier this year uncovered evidence that many of the nation's 620 stores were exploiting staff, while a subsequent Senate inquiry heard some franchisees doctored payslips to cover up underpayments.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday urged Sweden to tackle hurdles to immigrants accessing jobs, saying people fleeing conflict and hardship to the Scandinavian state offered it a chance to secure its welfare model.
In a preliminary version of its annual report on the Swedish economy, the Washington-based institution highlighted the difficulties immigrants encounter in finding work.

India's central bank aggressively cut interest rates on Tuesday in a bid to kickstart economic growth, following a sharp drop in inflation.
Such a move is designed to lower the barriers to borrowing and investing, providing a boost to consumers and the economy.

Shares in mining giant Glencore crashed 27.5 percent in Hong Kong Tuesday, hammered by weak commodity prices as Chinese demand stumbled while a brokerage warned about the group's future.
The slump follows a near 30 percent dive in its London-listed arm and comes as an economic crisis in China convulses global markets, with stocks, commodities and emerging market currencies tumbling.

Volkswagen's top-of-the-range automaker Audi said Monday that 2.1 million of its diesel cars worldwide are fitted with the sophisticated software enabling them to cheat emission tests.
In Germany alone, 577,000 vehicles were affected and 13,000 in the United States, an Audi spokesman said.

The OPEC oil cartel has no plan to participate in an oil producers' summit proposed by Venezuela to support prices, Kuwait's oil minister said Monday.
The next meeting on OPEC's calendar is a twice-yearly ministerial gathering in December, Ali al-Omair told reporters when asked about the Venezuelan proposal.

Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said Monday it had scrapped its controversial offshore exploration in Alaska after failing to find sufficient quantities of oil and gas.
Shell announced that its Burger J well in the Chukchi Sea, off the northwest coast of Alaska, did not warrant further exploration, adding it would now stop its activities in Alaskan waters.

Swiss competition authorities said Monday they were investigating UBS, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and other major banks for suspected price fixing in the trade of precious metals like gold and silver.
The Swiss Competition Commission (COMCO) said it was probing whether seven banks had colluded to manipulate prices in the precious metals market.

With "sharing economy" services like Uber, Blablacar and Airbnb spreading among consumers, state tax collectors risk experiencing a revenue pinch as these new collaborative players capture market share from traditional businesses.
The so-called "Uberisation" of commerce is both rising in volume and spreading across an ever-larger number of sectors -- ranging from apartment, car and power tool sharing to money lending and food services.

The large open plan office with staff behind sleek computers looks like any newly-started modern business.
But Ethiopia's first online restaurant delivery service, Deliver Addis, must contend with major hurdles that would stall many entrepreneurs in more developed nations.
