Japan confirmed Monday the world's third-largest economy shrank in the three months to September, stoking fears the country was slipping into a recession and fueling speculation about fresh easing measures.

Financial turmoil in Europe, an export-denting strong yen and a diplomatic row with major trade partner China have hurt Japan's economy, dousing hopes it had cemented a recovery after last year's quake-tsunami disaster.

Oil giant Saudi Aramco said on Sunday that an August cyber attack on its computer network targeted not just the company but the kingdom's economy as a whole.

The interior ministry, which joined Aramco's investigation into the attack that affected some 30,000 of the firm's computers, said it was carried out by organized hackers from several different foreign countries.

A protest aimed at disrupting Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade talks in New Zealand turned violent Saturday as demonstrators attacked security forces, police said.

Two police officers were kicked "numerous times" and a woman was accused of stomping on a constable's head when protesters tried to force their way into Auckland's SkyCity building where the talks were taking place.

House Speaker John Boehner accused the White House on Friday of having "wasted another week" in talks to avert a fiscal crisis that could plunge the world's biggest economy into recession.

Holding a press conference to give a status update before the weekend as the clock ticks down to potential economic disaster, Boehner said there had been "no progress" and laid the blame squarely on President Barack Obama.

A Greek operation to buy back some of the country's huge debt at reduced prices to access additional EU-IMF financial aid has met the 30-billion-euro target set by the authorities, news reports said on Saturday.

Financial daily Naftemboriki said foreign debt-holders had offered to sell sovereign bonds worth around 15 billion euros ($19.5 billion) while Greek banks had contributed another 15 billion euros by the required deadline on Friday.

Canadian oil pipeline leader Enbridge announced Friday a $6.2 billion investment to update its North American network, promising to increase capacity and build a new pipeline to the U.S.

"This $6.2 billion investment rounds out our suite of major crude oil new market access initiatives for North American markets," said Enbridge chief Al Monaco in a statement.

The German economy, Europe's biggest, will not be able to escape the crisis and may even flirt briefly with recession early next year, but is well placed to rebound strongly, the Bundesbank said Friday.

The German central bank, in its latest updated twice-yearly forecasts, said there were "indications that economic activity may actually fall in the final quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013."

A surprise fall in the U.S. unemployment rate to 7.7 percent for November gave markets a boost in opening trade Friday, with the jobs data showing little impact from superstorm Sandy.

Minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 52.76 points (0.40 percent) at 13,126.80.

Syrian refugees wait in line for food at a Turkish refugee camp -- not crowding around an aid truck but queuing at an ordinary supermarket to pay for goods using electronic debit cards.

Under the experimental project launched by the U.N. World Food Program and the Turkish Red Crescent, thousands of refugees who have fled the conflict raging in their homeland now receive cards charged with aid credits rather than boxes of basic supplies.

Greece's economy shrank by 6.9 percent in the third quarter of the year, compared with the same period in 2011.

The national statistics agency says that the decrease was less than the 7.2 percent drop estimated in November, based on new data that wasn't available last month.