The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan bill that is to allow Puerto Rico to restructure its $70 billion debt and avoid a massive default next month.

Locked in recession for more than a decade and increasingly unable to service its debt, Puerto Rico is blocked by U.S. law from getting formal bankruptcy protection, which would allow a court to force creditors to write off large amounts of its debt.

Britain's biggest retailer, supermarket group Tesco, said Friday it was selling its Turkish business as its international arm focuses on its operations in Central Europe and Southeast Asia.

Tesco, which is slowly turning around its performance after a record annual loss in 2014/15, said in a statement it was offloading also its mainly British restaurant chain, Giraffe, after only three years.

Crude prices dipped further in Asia on Friday on a stronger dollar, dampening a rally that saw the commodity hitting 11-month highs earlier in the week.

The losses were in line with a sell-off on equities markets from Asia to the Americas fuelled by worries about the state of the global economy.

The yen strengthened Friday in Asia as investors shifted into safer investments ahead of central bank meetings in the U.S. and Japan, while Britain's upcoming EU membership vote was also in focus.

Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos on Thursday urged economic powerhouse Germany to invest more in Europe and help stimulate growth in the lackluster European economy.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday called on allies to meet commitments made two years ago and boost defense spending as the alliance deals with a "challenging security environment."

Ukraine's central bank has eased some of its most draconian currency restrictions as the cash-strapped country slowly returns to economic growth after more than two years of war.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said late Wednesday that it was removing daily limits on the amount of local currency people can withdraw from their accounts.

Oil prices extended their gains to multi-month highs Thursday following another drop in U.S. supplies and the prospect of further disruptions to output from key producers Nigeria and Canada.

Oil prices held above $50 in Asia on Wednesday as traders awaited U.S. inventory data and the dollar remained weak, boosting demand for the commodity.

"The WTI crude oil price closed above the $50 mark for the first time in eight months, resulting in a cheerful rally in energy stocks," said Margaret Yang, an analyst at CMC Markets in Singapore.

Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull defended the corporate regulator Wednesday, saying it was "sinking its fangs" into suspected wrongdoers after it sued National Australia Bank over allegations of rate-rigging.