Dutch electronics giant Philips is to buy back 1.5 billion euros of shares, the company said Tuesday, also raising its targets for 2016.

The company, increasingly focused on healthcare, said it wanted to push ahead with its restructuring program, including through job cuts.

The British government earned £3.2 billion from the sale of 6.0 percent of part-nationalized Lloyds Banking Group, it announced on Tuesday.

The coalition government had on Monday launched plans to sell part of its stake in bailed-out LBG, marking the lender's first crucial step towards a return to the private sector.

Oil prices fell further in Asian trade Tuesday on receding fears of a disruption in Middle East supply after a U.S.-Russia deal to avert a Western military strike on Syria, analysts said.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in October eased 83 cents to $105.76 in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for November declined 47 cents to $109.60.

Life is good for America's super wealthy.

Forbes on Monday released its annual list of the top 400 richest Americans. While most of the top names and rankings didn't change from a year ago, the majority of the elite club's members saw their fortunes grow over the past year, helped by strong stock and real estate markets.

International donors pledged 1.8 billion euros ($2.4 billion) to war-torn Somalia on Monday, European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said, at the end of a conference tasked with creating a "New Deal" for the country.

"We have commitments for 1.8 billion euros," Barroso said, about double what the European Union had hoped to raise at the one-day meeting in Brussels.

Asian markets rallied on Monday as fears over a military strike on Syria receded after the United States and Russia agreed a deal that will see the Assad regime give up its chemical weapons.

Trade remained cautious, however, ahead of a two-day meeting at the U.S. Federal Reserve where policymakers are expected to begin winding down the bank's stimulus program.

Faced with bitter opposition, former U.S. treasury secretary Larry Summers abruptly withdrew from the race to lead the Federal Reserve, potentially opening the door for the bank's first woman chair.

Sunday's surprise announcement came after weeks of speculation and no little ire over his bid to succeed Ben Bernanke, but his candidacy was ultimately felled by a lack of support from key senators.

Japanese automaker Nissan plans to begin producing small cars and trucks in Myanmar with its Malaysian partner as early as this year, the Nikkei business daily reported Monday.

Nissan Motor and Malaysia's Tan Chong Motor Holdings Bhd will jointly produce several thousand small passenger cars and pickup trucks a year in the Southeast Asian country, the newspaper said without citing sources.

Kosovo on Saturday lifted a ban on imports from neighboring Macedonia, further defusing a trade row between the Balkan countries.

"The decision (on the ban) of the import from Macedonia will be repealed from this midnight," (2200 GMT), the trade ministry said in a statement.

China's Xi Jinping at a regional summit signed a deal to build a gas pipeline through the impoverished ex-Soviet country of Tajikistan, Tajik television reported Saturday.

The pipeline will transport gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to China in as part of a huge supply deal.