Greek lawmakers are to vote on a package of tough salary and pension cuts Tuesday as part of measures needed to secure the payout of the debt-ridden country's second international package of bailout loans.

The parliamentary vote comes a day after the Standard & Poor's ratings agency downgraded Greece's credit rating to "selective default" over a debt write-down deal with private creditors that is an integral part of the second bailout.

TransCanada Corp announced Monday it would go ahead with building part of the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline between Oklahoma and the Texas coast that does not require U.S. presidential approval.

The company also said it will resubmit its proposal for the entire $7 billion pipeline project from Canada's oil sands of Alberta to Gulf Coast refineries that U.S. President Barack Obama rejected last month.

Venezuela's oil minister confirmed that it sent two shipments of diesel to Syria last year and said it would send further supplies "when required" despite Western-led sanctions.

The United States and the European Union have tightened sanctions in an effort to isolate Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime over its deadly months-long crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

U.S. auto giant General Motors is in talks to buy out five percent of France's biggest car builder PSA Peugeot Citroën, business daily Les Echos reported on Tuesday citing several sources.

Sources close to the negotiation said the deal was a so-called standstill agreement in which GM could not increase its stake in Peugeot without prior permission from the car group.

Oil prices fell below $109 a barrel Monday in Asia after a 14 percent gain this month that was driven by signs of an improving U.S. economy and fears of an Iran supply cut.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was down 86 cents to $108.91 per barrel late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.94 to settle at $109.73 in New York on Friday.

Business confidence in Italy fell this month to its lowest level since November 2009, an index from the Istat data agency showed on Monday, as the Eurozone’s third economy suffers through a recession.

The index fell to 91.5 points from 92.1 points in January, Istat said.

Israel's national rail company on Monday confirmed it has prepared a plan for the first railway system to operate in the occupied West Bank, at the request of the transport ministry.

A spokesman for Israel Railways said the company had put together the plan, which was first reported on Monday by Israeli daily Haaretz.

China has reached a "turning point" in its economic development, with the pace of growth likely to nearly halve in the next two decades, World Bank and Chinese government researchers said Monday.

The Asian giant must implement deep reforms to avoid a sudden slowdown in growth, such as scaling back its vast and powerful state-owned enterprises and breaking up monopolies in strategic sectors, the analysts said in a report.

Top economic powers at the G20 meeting in Mexico's capital this weekend were set to urge Europe to do more to tackle its financial crisis before they commit to new funding for the IMF.

The European Union is seeking to gain support for an additional $500 billion of resources for the International Monetary Fund at the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Mexico City on Saturday and Sunday.

On the cusp of trial over the catastrophic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, phalanxes of lawyers, executives and public officials have spent the waning days in settlement talks. Holed up in small groups inside law offices, war rooms and hotel suites in New Orleans and Washington, they are trying to put a number on what BP and its partners in the doomed Macondo well project should pay to make up for the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.

It is a complex equation, and the answer is proving elusive.