Iran's deputy oil minister, Ali Majedi, said Monday on that Pakistan must finance a controversial pipeline that would enable it to buy gas from the Islamic republic.

Majedi's remarks come after Pakistan's Oil Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi asked Iran to stump up $2 billion (1.45 billion euros) to finish the construction of the pipeline.

Austrian unemployment rose strongly in October due to weak export demand and seasonal factors, with the number of people out of work 11.8 percent higher year-on-year, government figures showed on Monday.

The unemployment rate in Austria, which has largely escaped the economic woes suffered by other eurozone members in recent years, rose 0.7 percentage points to 7.4 percent.

Australian banking giant Westpac on Monday posted a 14 percent jump in full-year net profit with all core divisions performing well, capping a bumper year for the country's major lenders.

The result in the 12 months to September 30 came in at Aus$6.82 billion (US$6.44 billion), compared with Aus$5.97 billion the previous year.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday welcomed a call from the nation's business leaders for Britain to remain in the European Union, ahead of a referendum in 2017.

EU membership is "overwhelmingly" in Britain's economic interests, but major reform is needed, the Confederation of British Industry said Monday in a key study published at its annual gathering in London.

Thirty Filipino workers expelled from Saudi Arabia returned home Monday and alleged they were abused amid a crackdown on illegal migrants there.

They were among an estimated 6,700 Filipino workers stranded in parts of the oil-rich Middle Eastern kingdom where an amnesty for undocumented foreigners ended over the weekend.

Iran's Oil Minister says Iraq has increased its crude oil exports to compensate for a fall in Iranian exports as a result of sanctions over Tehran's suspected nuclear program, calling the policy "not friendly at all."

Bijan Namdar Zanganeh is quoted by the semiofficial Mehr news agency Saturday as saying that Iraq's oil policies are to Iran's detriment.

Thousands of illegal foreigners, mostly unskilled workers from Asia, are rushing to leave Saudi Arabia before an amnesty expires on Sunday as they risk being fined or even jailed.

Nearly a million Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis, among others, have taken advantage of the three-month amnesty -- announced on April 3 and then extended for four months -- and left the country.

President Barack Obama's push to attract foreign direct investment to the United States holds promise, but political gridlock in Washington could throw a wrench in the effort, analysts say.

And, with some specifics still unclear, it remains to be seen whether his bid to lure international firms and create more American jobs will work out.

Indonesia's trade balance unexpectedly swung back to a deficit in September, official data showed Friday, in a setback for Southeast Asia's beleaguered top economy after recently shown signs of recovery.

The news of the $657.2 million deficit followed a small surplus in August and a string of other positive indicators, including easing inflation and an uptick in the manufacturing sector.

A loans-to-mobsters scandal that is gripping Japan's banking sector has widened after major lender Shinsei Bank admitted doing business with organised crime figures.

The country's finance minister on Friday lauded Shinsei after it admitted a day earlier that one of its subsidiaries made more than a dozen loans to the notorious gangsters, known as yakuza.