Portugal's prime minister said late Friday that the government aimed to slash 30,000 public sector jobs as part of a sweeping package of spending cuts to satisfy international creditors.

In a speech to the nation, Pedro Passos Coelho also said that the full pension age would be pushed back from 65 to 66 years old and civil servants would be expected to work 40 hours per week instead of 35.

Australian cattle exporters said they had suspended live shipments to Egypt Saturday after abattoir footage shot by animal rights activists showed "horrific" mistreatment of cows.

The Australian Livestock Exporters' Council, the industry's representative body, said it had urgently halted shipments to Egypt after Animals Australia presented it with footage showing "vicious, cruel and clumsy" practices.

Japan and Turkey on Friday signed a long-awaited deal to build a sprawling nuclear power plant on Turkey's Black Sea coast, a milestone for the Japanese nuclear industry as it recovers from the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the $22 billion contract as a "very important step" that would transform bilateral relations with Japan into a "strategic partnership."

Emerging Asia needs to be on guard against "asset bubbles" as central banks globally loosen monetary policy, the Asia Development Bank's managing director warned on Friday.

Last month, Japan's central bank announced it would pump $1.4 trillion into the economy over the next two years, administering unprecedented financial shock treatment to end two decades of stagnation through bold monetary expansion.

International ratings agency Standard and Poor's has lowered its long- and short-term local currency sovereign credit ratings for Israel , while maintaining its foreign currency rating and predicting a stable outlook.

The local currency rating slipped from AA-/A-1+ to A+/A-1, while the foreign currency ratings remain at A+/A-1, S&P said on Thursday.

State-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland plans a return to the private sector next year following a massive restructuring program, it said on Friday as it also announced a swing back into profit.

RBS chairman Philip Hampton said that the Edinburgh-based bank hoped to begin offloading the government's 81-percent stake from the middle of next year or possibly earlier.

India's central bank cut its main interest rate by 25 basis points on Friday in the third such move this year, but said there was "little space" for further reductions to help the slowing economy.

After meeting in the financial capital Mumbai, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that the benchmark repo rate, at which it lends to commercial banks, would fall to 7.25 percent, as expected by most economists.

The Turkish Karadeniz power company, which leased the “Fatmagul Sultan” power vessel to the Lebanese government, announced on Thursday that the fuel it had received to operate the ship “was not convenient”, explaining the reasons for the barge's malfunction.

"Shortly after the production process had started, the results of tests conducted by international laboratories revealed that the fuel we have been receiving was not convenient,” a statement issued by the company said.

A Japanese-French consortium has won a $22 billion dollar contract to build a nuclear power plant on Turkey's Black Sea coast, a senior energy ministry official said on Thursday.

"An inter-governmental agreement is expected to be signed between the prime ministers of both countries on Friday," the official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

The head of France Telecom complained on Thursday of interference after the state blocked plans by U.S. Internet firm Yahoo! to buy a majority stake in French video-sharing website Dailymotion.

In an interview with business newspaper Les Echos, chief executive Stephane Richard said the firm's management -- and not the government -- should be deciding the strategy for Dailymotion, owned by France Telecom, which uses the brand name Orange.