Even as Japan begins cranking up its nuclear reactors again, Tokyo has launched a scheme it hopes will spark a green-energy revolution and put the country at the leading edge of renewables.

New rules oblige utilities to buy all electricity produced from renewable sources, including solar, wind and geothermal power, at above-market rates for the next two decades, in a bid to stoke "green" power investment.

A pooling of Eurozone countries' debt, in the form of Eurobonds, must be accompanied by increased budget control at a European level, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said in an interview Wednesday.

"We need a partial mutualisation of debt, but also more central control of national budgets," Monti told the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Gas-rich Qatar's sovereign wealth fund plans to build luxury hotels in Malaysia, Paris, London and China named after Harrods, the world's famous department store, a report said Wednesday.

Under a $636 million plan Qatar Holding will partner a local Malaysian firm Jerantas to construct a hotel in Kuala Lumpur's golden triangle's shopping district of Bukit Bintang.

Iranian shipments of natural gas to Turkey have been resumed after being cut by an explosion targeting a pipeline in eastern Turkey, Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Tuesday.

Natural gas flow to Turkey resumed after maintenance on the damaged pipeline, Yildiz told Anatolia news agency.

A pipeline the UAE is building to pump oil from east coast terminals and bypass the Iran-threatened Strait of Hormuz will be fully operational in August, an Abu Dhabi oil official said Tuesday.

The Habshan-Fujairah pipeline, which will carry oil from fields in Abu Dhabi on the Gulf to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, is "approaching the phase of continuous operation," said Ali Jarwan, CEO of oil and gas producer, Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Co ADMA-OPCO.

“Malaysia's longest-serving Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has been named the recipient of 2012 Rafik Hariri U.N.-Habitat Memorial award, recognizing leadership, statesmanship and good governance, a press release said Tuesday.

The Award’s steering committee announced the winner on Monday in Paris after an international jury selected Mohamad over 13 other nominations from Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, United States, Canada, El Salvador, Nicaragua, India, Bangladesh, UK, Japan and the Philippines.

Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond has resigned with immediate effect over a rate rigging scandal at the British banking giant, the company said in a shock announcement on Tuesday.

Although Diamond had faced growing calls to step down, it was thought that he would ride out the storm due to the resignation of Barclays' chairman Marcus Agius on Monday.

Spain said Tuesday its jobless numbers tumbled by nearly 100,000 people in June, traditionally a bumper month for employment as the tourism season kicks in.

The number of people registered as unemployed fell by 98,853, or 2.1 percent, to 4.62 million in June from the previous month, the Labor Ministry said in a statement.

European aerospace giant Airbus will build its first airplane factory in the U.S., aiming to compete better against archrival Boeing in the battle to dominate the global aviation industry.

The Mobile, Ala., factory — due to start up in 2015 —is expected to employ 1,000 people when it reaches full production two years later. Airbus hopes the plant will lower costs and improve its chances of winning business from the U.S. military. Last year, Boeing beat out Airbus' parent for a major Air Force contract.

Egypt on Sunday signed an accord with the Saudi-based Islamic Development Bank for $1 billion in funding for the purchase of energy and food products.

State news agency MENA said the deal was signed by International Cooperation Minister Faiza Abul Naga and an affiliate of the IDB, but the mechanism of the financing was not specified.