Russia's central bank withdrew on Wednesday the licence of a popular Moscow bank where a cousin of President Vladimir Putin sits on the board.

Investigators said they suspected managers at Master Bank -- Russia's 75th biggest by total assets -- of money laundering and other illegal cash transactions.

Away from the glare of the media where airlines sign multi-billion-dollar contracts, makers of private helicopters and jets for VIPs are busy doing deals at the Dubai airshow and targeting a vibrant Middle East market.

The aerospace companies making and selling these aircraft for the rich, the powerful and for special services, say that customers' requirements are generally the same: Security, robust construction, and performance.

Virgin Australia chief John Borghetti on Wednesday lashed out at "offensive" allegations made by Qantas in an escalating row over foreign ownership, with reports that lawyers had been called in.

It follows Qantas chief Alan Joyce this week blasting what he called a "virtual takeover" of Virgin Australia by foreign airlines, claiming they were working to destabilize the national carrier.

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah opened the third Africa-Arab summit Tuesday by pledging $1 billion (740 million euros) in low-interest loans and the same amount in investments to African states.

Arab and African leaders gathered for the two-day summit in Kuwait City to review steps to promote economic ties between the Arab world, which includes wealthy Gulf states, and investment-thirsty Africa.

Foreign investment into China rose 5.77 percent on year in the first 10 months of 2013, the government said Tuesday.

Foreign direct investment (FDI), which excludes financial sectors, totaled $97.0 billion for January-October, the Ministry of Commerce announced.

Oil prices fell in Asia Tuesday as data showed global supplies were rising, while traders are also keeping an eye on talks between major powers and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, analysts said.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for December delivery, was down 13 cents at $92.90 in late morning trade while Brent North Sea crude for January slipped 47 cents to $108.00.

Arab and African leaders are to start a two-day summit in Kuwait on Tuesday to review steps to promote economic ties between wealthy Gulf states and investment-thirsty Africa.

It will be the first meeting of its kind since 2010, when leaders met in Libya prior to the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled longstanding dictatorships in North Africa and the Middle East.

Too many European banks survived the financial crisis, the head of Europe's banking regulator said in a newspaper interview on Monday.

"I'm convinced that too few European banks were dismantled and disappeared from the market," European Banking Authority (EBA) chief Andrea Enria told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview.

Britain's state-rescued Lloyds Banking Group has agreed to sell its asset management business Scottish Widows Investment Partnership Group to Aberdeen Asset Management for up to £660 million, it said on Monday.

The sale, worth the equivalent of $1.06 billion or 789 million euros in shares and cash, does not include Scottish Widows, the group's core life, pensions and investment business, Lloyds said in a statement.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has demanded the government halt what he described as a "virtual takeover" of Virgin Australia by foreign airlines, saying they were working to destabilize the national carrier.

Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad already own 63 percent of Qantas' main domestic rival and under a Aus$350 million (U.S.$328 million) capital raising announced last week, that could increase to as much as 72 percent.