Hundreds of containers lie idle in the scorching sun that pounds Iran's southeastern port of Chabahar, a free trade zone crippled by decades of international sanctions.

But against the backdrop of nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers, authorities hope foreign investors will finally wise up to the "golden opportunity" of doing business in Chabahar, Iran's only gateway to the Indian Ocean.

Swedish furniture giant IKEA announced Wednesday that it would expand its online sales service to include home deliveries in all countries where it has stores.

Most of the company's national Internet sites currently only allow shoppers to check availability of items online, without offering deliveries, with the exception of some long-standing markets including Sweden, France and Canada.

New York's powerful banking regulator Benjamin Lawsky said Wednesday that digital currencies like Bitcoin pose a major challenge, but should not be stifled.

Lawsky, the outgoing superintendent of the state's Department of Financial Services, said finance industry watchdogs have to accept that cyber-currencies are here to stay, and could have "a profound impact" on payments technologies and the financial system over the coming decade.

Greece and its creditors failed to reach a breakthrough at crunch talks in Brussels Thursday despite saying they had made progress towards a deal that could save Athens from a possible euro exit.

Anti-austerity Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker in a bid to hammer out a reform plan that could unlock the final 7.2-billion-euro ($8.0-billion) tranche of Greece's bailout.

The global oil market should be "more balanced" in the second half of the year, Qatar's energy minister said Wednesday before an OPEC meeting widely expected to leave output unchanged.

"The last nine months or so have been particularly challenging for the oil industry," Mohammed Al-Sada said in Vienna ahead of Friday's semi-annual meeting.

During Monday's truce in anti-government protests, Renovat Ndayizeye was quick to try to reopen his stall in Jabe market in Burundi's capital. He has scarcely sold a single pair of shoes since demonstrations began weeks ago, and he is getting desperate.

"I haven't worked since the protests began, we are living on our savings, and now I have nothing," said the 26-year old salesman, surrounded by others who had taken advantage of a pause in the protests to reopen their small wooden shack shops.

They tower over their shrunken creations like gods. But in the face of an extended downturn after a decade-long property boom, China's miniature apartment builders are finally downsizing their ambitions.

China has experienced the most rapid urbanisation in human history -- it is said to have used more cement in 2011-2013 than the U.S. did in the entire 20th century, and built twice as many homes in the decade to 2010 as exist in Britain in total.

Turkey's agriculture sector, a key pillar of the domestic economy, is increasingly feeling the pinch in a troubling development for the ruling party that is counting on farmers' support in this weekend's legislative elections.

On a cattle farm in the district of Cubuk outside Ankara, Ozkan Ilhan surveys his 500 cows with pride but declares that the future of the sector is in danger under the policies of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Kuwait Oil Minister Ali al-Omair said on Tuesday he "strongly believes" that Gulf OPEC members support keeping the cartel's production ceiling unchanged at a crucial meeting this week.

In statements to the official KUNA news agency on arrival in Vienna, Omair said that OPEC's options were to "either to maintain or increase (the) production ceiling," ruling out cuts.

Greece said Tuesday it has made "difficult concessions" in a "realistic" reform plan it has put to its creditors as a critical repayment on its massive debt looms.

"Last night a complete plan was submitted... a realistic plan to take the country out of the crisis," Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told reporters in Athens.