The world's poorest nations, the bulk of which are in sub-Saharan Africa, are receiving less than a third of development aid, and this support is waning, a non-governmental organisation founded by U2 frontman Bono said Tuesday.

World leaders should target the most disadvantaged nations when they adopt a new set of goals to eradicate extreme poverty this September, the advocacy group ONE said in a statement.

Charter Communications is nearing a $55.1 billion deal to buy out fellow American cable giant Time Warner Cable, which also has been courted by France's Altice, U.S. media reported Monday.

As part of the deal, Charter would pay about $195 a share for Time Warner Cable -- $100 in cash and the rest in shares -- The Washington Post reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the deal.

Thousands of Mexico City taxi drivers snarled traffic in the mega-capital on Monday in a protest demanding that the government ban U.S. ride-sharing service Uber.

In response, Uber fired back by offering free cab service "on a day so complicated to move" around the metropolis of 20 million people and four million vehicles.

Two oil companies announced Monday the temporary shuttering of their Canadian oil sands mines and the evacuation of hundreds of staff as a massive forest fire creeped close.

The combined Cenovus and Canadian Natural Resources Limited facilities account for 233,000 barrels of oil produced per day or 10 percent of the region's total upstream oil production.

"Is travel to Cuba for tourist activities permitted? No." That's what the U.S. Treasury Department website says. And yet Havana is loaded with Americans, from the Floridita bar, where they pose for photos with a bust of Ernest Hemingway, to the Rum Museum, where they swig rum samples after trudging through dim displays of old casks.

Sure, some Americans follow the rules on sanctioned travel — bringing supplies to Cuban churches or synagogues, for example, on a religious activities license. Others come on approved group tours known as "people-to-people" trips with themed itineraries like the arts.

Africa's overall economy should advance in 2015, expanding by 4.5 percent, showing resilience despite weak commodity prices and the devastating Ebola epidemic, an annual report published Monday said. 

And future growth could be spurred by the continent's population doubling to two billion over the next 35 years, repeating in Africa the economic boom seen in Asia's biggest countries.

The operator of the tsunami-crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has jointly won a large power and water infrastructure contract in the desert state of Qatar, it said Monday.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp have been selected by a company backed by the Qatari government to build and operate power and water plants for 25 years, in a project worth some $2.5 billion.

For years the Horn of Africa nation Djibouti was seen by foreign powers as a far-flung military outpost overlooking the Gulf of Aden.

Now the strategic port wants to capitalize on its key position on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, the gateway to the Suez canal.

Bring more Arab women into the workforce, invest in "bite-sized" infrastructure projects and get the private sector more involved in training young job seekers — these are the prescriptions of a leading Gulf entrepreneur for growing Middle Eastern economies and combating rampant youth unemployment.

Decision-makers long seemed paralyzed by the sheer size of the troubled region's economic problems, but attitudes have changed in recent years, said Omar Kutayba Alghanim, co-chairman of this week's regional World Economic Forum conference and a leader of private sector efforts to tackle youth unemployment.

The IMF urged Brazil to get its fiscal house in order to emerge from five years of low growth as South America's largest economy Friday unveiled a package of budget cuts in a move to kickstart a recovery.

Brazil has lost ground since a period of high growth largely fueled by Chinese-led demand for commodities came to an end and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts GDP will contract by around 1.0 percent this year.