German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces Wednesday a grilling by lawmakers investigating if her government shielded Volkswagen from regulators despite knowing the auto giant was carrying out emissions cheating.

With determination, perseverance and training, small and medium enterprises in Zahle have turned into professional businesses with new organizational structures and expanded their market with UK Aid support under the flagship project ‘INTAJ’ led by Mercy Corps.

Britain's economy will grow by 2.0 percent this year, sharply up on a previous forecast of 1.4 percent, finance minister Philip Hammond said Wednesday in his budget statement.

China's imports surged almost 40 percent last month, data showed Wednesday, fulled by higher commodity prices and strong domestic demand, bolstering hopes that the world's number two economy is getting back on track.

European stock markets held steady on Wednesday as London waited on Britain's budget and Frankfurt digested solid German data.

London stocks turned flat as dealers sat on their hands before the government's latest taxation and spending plans.

Kuwait is building one of the world's longest causeways to its remote north where it will pump billions into "Silk City", aiming to revive the ancient Silk Road trade route.

The oil-rich emirate is eager to inject life into the uninhabited Subbiya region on its northern tip that has been chosen as the location for Silk City.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing a second defeat in the House of Lords on whether to give parliament the final say on leaving the EU but her timetable for triggering Brexit by the end of the month remains on track.

The bill empowering May to start the exit process has already been held up by a week after peers voted on March 1 for an amendment guaranteeing the rights of European citizens living in Britain.

Brazil's recession hit the two year mark, becoming the worst in the country's history, after Latin America's biggest economy registered an eighth consecutive quarter of shrinkage, GDP figures showed Tuesday.

The government statistics office said the economy shrank 0.9 percent in the last three months of 2016. That meant an overall dip of 3.6 percent in 2016, following a 3.8 percent fall in 2015.

The U.S. trade gap shot up at the start of the year to hit its highest monthly level in almost five years, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The data showed trade was robust, with exports and imports  of goods and services hitting their highest levels for a single month since December 2014.

US energy giant ExxonMobil, Qatar Petroleum, Italy's ENI and France's Total have successfully bid for rights to explore for oil and gas off the coast of Cyprus, officials said Tuesday.

The contracts, part of the Mediterranean island's third licensing round, will be approved by the cabinet on March 17, Cyprus trade minister George Lakkotrypis told reporters.