Crude prices edged down in Asia on Monday as worries about the ongoing supply glut offset news that the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela had held talks on stabilizing the beleaguered market.

A pick-up in the dollar also weighed on the commodity, with a drop in U.S. unemployment and improving wage growth fueling talk that the Federal Reserve could lift interest rates again next month.

Japanese stocks rallied as the dollar strengthened in holiday-thinned trade Monday, with most markets across Asia closed for the Lunar New Year holiday.

A report Friday, showing that the US jobless rate had fallen to an eight-year low and wage growth had picked up, fuelled speculation of another US interest rate rise next month despite the recent chaos on global stock exchanges.

Israel is looking to exploit its substantial natural gas reserves with two potential pipeline projects to Turkey and Greece, its Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz announced Sunday.

"If things improve with Turkey... gas could both be sold to Turkey, and to Greece via Turkey," Steinitz told Kathimerini daily.

Emaar Malls, the shopping and retail arm mostly owned by Dubai's Emaar Properties giant, said Sunday its annual profit surged 23 percent to $451 million in 2015, as rental income increased.

Net profit reached 1.66 billion dirhams ($451 million) in 2015, compared with 1.35 billion dirhams the year before, said the company which owns Dubai Mall -- one of the world's largest shopping centers.

France's southwestern Cahors region is a new frontier for foreign investors, from Argentine winegrowers doing the "Malbec tango" to potential investor "ambassadors" from China.

Cahors is the new go-to destination for foreign investors as wine-growing land is becoming scarce -- and therefore exorbitantly expensive -- in other French regions.

Greek farmers protesting against pension reforms heightened highway and border protests around the country on Saturday, piling pressure on the leftist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Farmers in Thessaly began a one-day blockade of the main highway between Athens and Thessaloniki despite compromise efforts by the government.

President Barack Obama on Saturday proposed doubling U.S. funding over the next five years for clean energy research and development, as part of his ongoing effort to tackle climate change.

In his weekly media address, Obama announced that he will send a budget to Congress on Tuesday which hits twice the current spending levels for clean energy research and development by 2020, declaring that "rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future."

Sri Lanka has made a formal request for an IMF bailout package to aid its struggling economy after a sharp slowdown in growth and with its budget deficit widening, officials said Saturday.

The International Monetary Fund confirmed the island nation had asked for assistance, but did not give details on the value of a potential program or say whether it would grant the request.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday urged Portugal to stick to its commitments on economic reforms, as concerns grow that the new Socialist-led government was easing off on budget discipline.

"The predecessor of Prime Minister Antonio Costa led Portugal through difficult times," she noted, urging Lisbon to "do everything to stay on this path" of reforms.

The China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), viewed by some as a rival to the World Bank, on Friday announced executive appointments including a treasury minister from Britain's former coalition government.

The bank, which started business in January, is already led by its president Jin Liqun, formerly a Chinese finance official who has also worked at the Asian Development Bank (ADB).