Leaders from the BRICS emerging nations are expected to launch a joint development bank to rival western-dominated institutions at a summit beginning Tuesday.

The grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and hosts South Africa will meet in Durban to set up an infrastructure-focused lender that would challenge seven decades of dominance by the World Bank.

Iraq plans to hold an auction of gas exploration blocks open to international energy companies later this year, the fifth of its kind since 2009, a spokesman said on Sunday.

Baghdad will offer 10 exploration blocks in the auction, the date of which has yet to be finalized, oil ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told Agence France Presse.

The head of the powerful Orthodox Church in Cyprus said in an interview published on Saturday that he favored the debt-ridden island nation leaving the euro.

"It's not easy, but we should devote to this as much time as was spent on entering the eurozone," Archbishop Chrysostomos II said in an interview with the Greek daily Realnews.

The U.S. Senate reached a milestone early Saturday when it overcame partisan gridlock to approve its first budget resolution in four years, setting up a political duel with the Republican-held House.

The sweeping plan for fiscal year 2014, the first budget blueprint passed by the Democrat-led Senate under President Barack Obama since 2009, squeaked by by the narrowest of margins, 50-49.

Toyota Motor plans to raise domestic production during the April-September period by about 10 percent from its earlier estimate thanks to the recent weak yen, it was reported Saturday.

Toyota has already revised up planned output for April and May by 10 percent to between 13,000 and 13,500 vehicles a day and it now intends to keep production at that level through to September, the Nikkei business daily said.

Central Japan Railway Co. plans to provide Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. with technology for the running of its bullet train operations, including earthquake response measures, it was reported Saturday.

The companies will sign a contract within several months, Kyodo News said, quoting sources close to the matter.

German business confidence fell for the first time in five months in March, data showed Friday, as disappointing economic data, political gridlock in Italy and the Cyprus crisis dampened the business climate in Europe's top economy.

The Ifo economic institute's closely watched business climate index slipped to 106.7 points in March from 107.4 points in February.

Canada's Tory government pegged a return to a balanced budget and its re-election hopes in 2015 on a strong rebound in the economy on Thursday, after being dealt an unexpected slump in recent months.

"We have some tough times ahead," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told the House of Commons, promising that a "consistent, steady hand" will get Canada back on track.

Cyprus is scrambling to overhaul its banking sector to avoid financial meltdown, after the European Central Bank threatened to pull the plug on emergency funding for the island's lenders.

Cypriot politicians have until Monday to approve a "Plan B" bailout deal with the European Union and International Monetary Fund or face being choked from the ECB funds, which would likely cause teetering banks to collapse.

American lawmakers averted a feared government shutdown by approving a stopgap spending bill, but heated debate over future federal spending took shape as they clashed over budget plans.

A trio of key votes bookended the action in Congress Wednesday ahead of a two-week congressional recess, the most urgent one being on the so-called continuing resolution, a $1.2 trillion appropriations measure that will keep the doors of federal agencies open through September, the end of the fiscal year.