The United States stepped up efforts to reinforce its economic might in the Asia-Pacific at a regional leaders' summit in Indonesia on Tuesday, amid warnings from an increasingly bold China.
The two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) event at a five-star resort on the tropical island of Bali is aimed at breaking down trade barriers among all 21 member economies, but rival agendas by the world powers have overshadowed the talks.

Japan's Mizuho Financial Group has declined an award it was set to receive for transparency after getting told off by regulators for lending money to gangsters.
Mizuho Bank, Japan's third-biggest, has been under fire since it came to light that it had processed hundreds of transactions worth about 200 million yen ($2.0 million) for "anti-social forces", a common term for Japan's yakuza mobsters.

The dollar edged up against the yen in range-bound Asia trade on Tuesday as market players grew jittery over the U.S. budget impasse.
The greenback was quoted at 97.06 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade from 96.68 yen in New York Monday afternoon.

China and the Asia-Pacific region need each other to prosper, President Xi Jinping said on Monday, insisting there was space for everyone to grow despite territorial disputes and tensions with Washington.
"China cannot develop in isolation of the Asia-Pacific and the Asia-Pacific cannot prosper without China," Xi said at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Indonesia.

Greece will emerge from a long recession next year with the economy growing by 0.6 percent, the draft budget presented by the government showed on Monday.
"We foresee the end of recession in 2014," Vice Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said.

Singapore state investment giant Temasek and Chinese oil group Sinopec aim to snap up a multi-billion-euro stake in Spain's Gas Natural, the Financial Times said Monday.
The two groups had contacted Spanish oil firm Repsol separately to say they were interested in buying its 4.7-billion-euro ($6.4 billion) stake in Gas Natural, the paper said, citing people close to the process.

The World Bank on Monday lowered its 2013 growth forecast for East Asian developing countries to 7.1 percent and warned that a prolonged U.S. fiscal crisis could be damaging to the region.
The estimate for this year's gross domestic product (GDP) growth is down from a forecast of 7.8 percent in April, and lower than the 7.5 percent growth recorded in 2012 and 8.3 percent in 2011.

The developing countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China recovered quickly from the financial crisis five years ago. Their spending helped keep a global recession from becoming a global depression.
Now they're stumbling.

Asian markets were weaker Monday after heated political rhetoric from the U.S. raised worries that the partial shutdown of the American government could bring the world's largest economy close to defaulting on its debt.
Japan's Nikkei index, the regional heavyweight, slumped by 0.8 percent to 13,915.90. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dipped 0.7 percent to 22,985.36. Losses weren't as steep on South Korea's Kospi, which fell less than 0.1 percent to 1,994.97.

The House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill Saturday that would assure retroactive pay to more than 800,000 federal workers furloughed during the current U.S. government shutdown.
Bitterly-divided lawmakers used a rare weekend legislative session to unite on the issue, the first significant coming together amid a federal work stop that has entered its fifth day, with no end in sight.
