Global food prices rose six percent in July after dropping for three months, largely because of a hike in the price of grains and sugar, the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization said Thursday.

The FAO's Food Price Index, a monthly measure of changes in a basket of food commodities, was 12 points higher at 213 points but remains far off the record 238 points reached in February 2011, a statement said.

Japan's biggest bank said Thursday it had suspended a London-based trader over the widening interest-rate rigging scandal in Britain that has rocked confidence in financial markets.

"One trader has been told to be on stand-by at home," said a spokesman for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in Tokyo, adding that "we would like to withhold further comment".

Paraguay's new President Federico Franco is talking tough with Argentina and Brazil, threatening not to "give away" energy to his neighbors and instead use power generated by joint projects at home.

"When are Brazil and Argentina going to respect us? When the government tells them, 'Actually, we are going to use our own energy. Paraguay is changing its position. It is no longer going to give away its energy'," Franco said.

InterContinental Hotels Group on Tuesday announced a 39-percent jump in net profits for the second quarter to $121 million (97 million euros) on strong growth in China and the United States.

Following the strong results, IHG said it planned to return $1.0 billion to shareholders. The company's share price was up 6.84 percent to 1,733 pence in late deals on London's FTSE 100 index, which was flat.

Total foreign and domestic investments in Arab states rose slightly last year despite widespread unrest, the Kuwait-based Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp. said on Tuesday.

The investments, both private and government, increased by 1.2 percent to $496 billion in 2011 from $490 billion in the previous year, the organization said in a report without providing details on the foreign share.

A Chinese train maker said Wednesday it will sell components to German engineering giant Siemens, in what will be the first time Chinese high-speed train parts have been exported to Europe.

The deal, reportedly worth more than 11 million euros ($13.6 million), will see parts including some aluminum-alloy car bodies shipped to Europe, said an official with the state-owned China CNR Corporation Limited.

Standard & Poor's cut Greece's debt rating outlook to negative Tuesday, saying the worsening economy and political challenges could soon force another downgrade.

With Greece's sovereign credit rating already at junk-level CCC, S&P said Athens's lenders are likely to have to adjust their bailout financing terms or put up more money to avoid another downgrade for the country.

As Europe battles its never-ending debt crisis, Turkey, with its flourishing economy, is increasingly attracting the attention of German companies, as well as German-born Turks in search of a job.

The Turkish economy is the envy of the crisis-wracked Eurozone: its gross domestic product (GDP) has expanded by an annual average 5.4 percent over the past 10 years. Its public debt has fallen below 40 percent of GDP, much lower than the majority of European countries. And inflation, which was once dizzyingly high, is now under control.

Australia's central bank held interest rates at 3.50 percent for a second consecutive month Tuesday, saying previous cuts were still trickling through the economy despite a softer global outlook.

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Glenn Stevens said the world economy had cooled after rallying earlier in the year and global gross domestic product was now expected to grow "at no more than average pace" this year.

South Korea's cabinet Tuesday endorsed a bill which sets up a special fund to cover the huge cost of potential reunification with North Korea.

The bill calls for dividing the existing Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund into two accounts -- one for promoting cross-border cooperation and the other for covering unification costs, said the unification ministry.