Actavis Monday announced plans to acquire Botox-maker Allergan for $66 billion, creating a global pharmaceutical behemoth and likely ending the aggressive pursuit of Allergan by Canada's Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.

The combination creates a heavyweight in opthalmology, neurosciences and medical aesthetics that will be among the 10 biggest global pharmaceutical companies by sales, according to a joint Actavis-Allergan statement.

Britain's 12-month inflation rose unexpectedly in October, rebounding from a five-year low the previous month, lifted partly by the rising cost of computer games, official data showed Tuesday.

The annual rate accelerated to 1.3 percent in October from 1.2 percent in September, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.

Investors largely ignored the link-up between the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges Tuesday, a day after it launched to much fanfare and hopes of billions of dollars in daily cross-border transactions.

Officials have trumpeted the Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect as opening up China's closeted stock markets to the outside world and giving mainlanders a chance to enter the lucrative Hong Kong exchange.

Belgian prosecutors charged a subsidiary of British bank HSBC on Monday with fraud and money-laundering worth hundreds of millions of euros, mainly for diamond dealers in the industry's international hub of Antwerp.

Swiss subsidiary HSBC Private Bank SA (Suisse), which is wholly owned by the Asia-focused banking giant, allegedly helped hundreds of clients cheat the Belgian state, a statement from the prosecutors said.

Japan's economy unexpectedly slipped back into recession as housing and business investment dropped following a sales tax hike, hobbling its ability to help drive the global recovery.

The world's third-largest economy contracted at a 1.6 percent annual pace in the July-September quarter, the government said Monday, confounding expectations that it would rebound after a big drop the quarter before.

Authorities may need powers to regulate the fixed pay of bankers as well as their bonuses, the Bank of England governor said Monday amid concern the current pay regime does not deter misbehavior.

In the latest scandal to hit the sector, six global banking giants were slapped with $4.2 billion in fines last week for trying to manipulate foreign exchange markets.

A landmark trading link that is expected to see billions of dollars in trades between Hong Kong and Shanghai's stock exchanges officially launched Monday, but early figures show mainlanders holding back from piling into Hong Kong.

At the opening ceremony Charles Li, chief executive of Hong Kong's stock exchange, declared the tie-up a "historic" moment and hailed a "new era" of trade, while chairman Chow Chung Kong said it was a "breakthrough in the opening up of China's financial market".

Australia and China sealed a landmark trade deal hailed Monday as a "game-changer", abolishing tariffs in the lucrative resources and agricultural sectors as Canberra confronts a painful downturn in mining.

The pact, signed during a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping, was lauded by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott as the first Beijing had reached with a major economy and "the most comprehensive agreement China has concluded with anyone".

Government revenues in Kuwait dropped 4.4 percent in the first half of the fiscal year due to sliding oil prices, but the energy-rich emirate still reported a healthy provisional surplus.

Official figures posted Sunday on the finance ministry website put April-September public income at 15.1 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($52.1 billion) compared with 15.8 billion dinars in the same year-ago period.

Qatar, host of the 2022 football World Cup, pledged Sunday to introduce new legislation to replace the controversial "kafala" sponsorship system and improve conditions for migrant workers by early 2015.

The current law, which limits the rights of movement for foreign workers, would make way for legislation that was "currently under review," said the labor and social affairs ministry.