President Barack Obama's pick to run the Pentagon says he will seek better use of taxpayer dollars but that Congress must bring stability back to the military's budget.

Ashton Carter, in prepared remarks for his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, acknowledges that the Defense Department must end wasteful practices that undermine public confidence even as he criticizes the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.

Turkey on Wednesday defended the seizure of an Islamic bank allied to an arch-foe of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the latest crackdown against US-exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Bank Asya has suffered major losses since last year after becoming embroiled in a bitter feud between Erdogan and his former ally Gulen, whom the president accuses of seeking to overthrow him.

With pro-Russians and ex-Communists in the cabinet, Greece's new hard-left government has sparked concerns of a strategic shift towards Moscow -- but Athens has its eyes firmly on Europe, experts say.

The main governing Syriza party no longer advocates Greece leaving NATO, but Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias has highlighted the country's historic ties with Russia and condemned the EU's "spasmodic" approach to Moscow.

Turkey's central bank, under pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to aggressively lower rates, on Tuesday rejected the option of an unscheduled rate cut as inflation slowed less than expected.

Erdogan and his allies have over the last weeks lambasted central bank Governor Erdem Basci for failing to radically lower interest rates to stimulate faltering growth.

Greece's radical new leaders flew into Rome Tuesday seeking to build support for new proposals aimed at ending a stand-off with the country's creditors and its European Union partners.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the leftist-dominated government in Athens would be making proposals for "a menu of debt swaps" that would avoid the need for any of the country's mountain of foreign debt to be written off.

Australia's central bank on Tuesday lowered its key interest rate by 25 basis points to a new record low of 2.25 percent, saying after a year-and-a-half on hold the cut was justified to spur growth.

The Reserve Bank of Australia said the economy was expanding at a below-trend pace and inflation was low, while unemployment had risen in the past year and was expected to climb further.

A Chinese solar energy tycoon has replaced e-commerce giant Alibaba's founder Jack Ma as the country's richest man with a fortune of $26 billion, a wealth survey showed Tuesday.

Li Hejun, founder and chairman of Beijing-based Hanergy, saw his wealth nearly triple from a year ago, according to the Hurun Report's Global Rich List 2015.

Suicides in Greece surged by a third after the country implemented an austerity program in June 2011, health investigators said on Monday.

After the measures were passed, the number of suicides leapt by 35.7 percent compared to preceding months, they said.

Union workers at nine U.S. oil refineries were striking Monday for a second day after contract negotiations with plant owners broke down.

But only one of the nine plants had curtailed production as a result of the strike, Bloomberg News reported. 

U.S. and EU negotiators began their latest round of talks Monday seeking to push through the world's biggest-ever free trade deal, which after nearly two years remain bogged down by public opposition.

The eighth set of talks on the controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Pact, or TTIP, take place in the face of attacks by activists and mixed signals from key governments, including Europe's biggest economy Germany.