After prayers at the Chantelle Abbey in Allier, central France, a marketing meeting between the abbey's nuns and their employees discusses the latest orders for its on-site soap and cosmetics products, the delivery destination: Germany.

The value of shares traded on Gulf stock markets plummeted this year, a report said on Sunday, in the latest sign of how the region's economies are struggling with the drop in oil prices. 

The United Arab Emirates' exchanges in Dubai and Abu Dhabi led the dive in liquidity levels, which measure the value of traded shares and are normally a reflection of the health of national economy.

EU anti-trust regulators have raided the offices of automaker BMW in Munich, the company said, in a fresh blow to the German car industry already hit by the Dieselgate scandal.

Total insured market losses from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and two earthquakes in Mexico this year came to around $95 billion, reinsurance group Swiss Re announced Friday.

The Zurich-based company estimated its own pre-tax claims burdens from three hurricanes and two quakes at some $3.6 billion (3.05 billion euros) in the third quarter.

Catalan separatists were flocking to withdraw cash Friday in protest at the central government and at banks who have moved their headquarters out of the Spanish region over its independence crisis.

The US Senate narrowly passed a 2018 federal budget Thursday, clearing the way for President Donald Trump's controversial tax overhaul that includes $1.5 trillion in tax cuts.

German industrial conglomerate Siemens plans to slash thousands of jobs in its power and gas division hit by a drop in orders, a German magazine report said Thursday.

Nissan said Thursday it was suspending all production destined for the local market, as Japan's number-two automaker grapples with a mounting inspection scandal that has already seen it recall some 1.2 million vehicles.

Start-up company Northvolt said Thursday it had picked its home country Sweden to build Europe's biggest factory for electric car batteries, rivaling Tesla's American "Gigafactory".

China's economy slowed marginally in the third quarter but is well on course to beat the government's annual target, cementing Xi Jinping's standing as he prepares to be handed a second term in power at a key Communist Party conclave.