Oil prices dipped in Asia Monday on profit-taking following last week's rise and Iran's move not to join a proposed output freeze by crude producers.

At around 0620 GMT, U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in April was down 21 cents to $38.29 and Brent crude for May was down four cents at $40.35. 

Teachers at public schools in the West Bank were back at work on Sunday after suspending a three-week strike that challenged the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority.

British finance minister George Osborne warned Sunday of further spending cuts to come in the government budget to be unveiled this week.

The chancellor of the exchequer said he needed to find savings by 2020 equivalent to 50 pence in every £100 the government spends.

Federal Reserve policymakers will hold their finger away from the rate-hike trigger when they meet next week, analysts say, but chances are it could move a bit closer.

Meeting after the European Central Bank cut interest rates Thursday in the face of weakening eurozone economic growth and inflation, the Fed is expected to heed caution even as it sees good signs of strength in the U.S. economy.

The United States has long been a leader of the free-trade movement around the world, and President Barack Obama set major trade treaties at the center of his economic initiatives.

Which makes it all the more odd that free trade has become a certified villain among candidates battling to succeed Obama in the White House.

U.S. conglomerate 3M Company, maker of the ubiquitous Post-it note, has been sued by an American inventor who says he first conceived the sticky message products.

Alan Amron, 67, filed suit in a federal court in Florida seeking at least $400 million in damages and interest from 3M, according to court documents seen Friday.

The Canadian economy lost 2,300 jobs in February, with fresh losses in the oil-producing provinces raising unemployment to 7.3 percent, the highest level seen in three years, official data showed Friday.

The results fell short of analysts' expectations of 10,000 new jobs and unemployment holding steady at 7.2 percent.

The World Trade Organization on Friday ruled partially in favor of South Korea in its dispute with the United States over duties Washington imposes on imported washing machines.

The oil price may have finally bottomed out, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Friday, noting its "remarkable recovery" over recent weeks.

Recent sharp gains in the oil price, taking it to around $40 per barrel now from $28.50 in mid-January, do not necessarily mean that the worst is over, the IEA said in its monthly oil market report.

Colombia dismantled an international money laundering network Thursday with the arrest of 13 suspects, including five flight attendants, prosecutors said.

"Among the 13 arrested people are five (Avianca Airlines) flight attendants and eight individuals who were engaged in transporting to Colombia dollars and euros illegally obtained from Spain, the United States, Mexico and elsewhere," prosecutors said in a statement.