HSBC will slash up to 30,000 jobs worldwide over the next two years as part of a major cost-cutting drive, the global banking giant said on Monday, as it posted bumper profits.

"There will be further job cuts," HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver told journalists on a conference call after the group published its interim results.

The dollar climbed against the yen in Asia on Monday, after U.S. President Barack Obama announced an 11th-hour agreement to raise the U.S. debt limit to avoid default that is pending approval by Congress.

The dollar was at 77.45 yen in Tokyo at 05:00 GMT after briefly rising above the 78 yen level, from 76.73 yen in New York late Friday.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced Sunday that he and top lawmakers had reached an 11th-hour deal to avert a first-ever U.S. debt payment default that would have sown chaos across the world economy.

"I want to announce that the leaders of both parties in both chambers have reached an agreement that will reduce the deficit and avoid default, a default that would have had a devastating effect on our economy," he said.

The Philippines' largest Muslim guerrilla group has demanded the government halt any planned oil and gas explorations by foreign companies in vast southern areas they claim, warning Sunday that energy projects would complicate peace talks.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front refused to say what they would do if the government ignores their request.

European Central Bank head Jean-Claude Trichet has a chance this week to weigh in at length on the latest Greek rescue.

Trichet is sure to face questions on the landmark second bailout of Greece in the press conference that will follow the ECB policy-setting meeting that should see interest rates stay on hold.

Italy's former prime minister Romano Prodi on Saturday accused Germany of "egoism" over a massive sale of Italian bonds by Deutsche Bank and said Italy was in a far stronger economic position than Spain.

The former European Commission president also said that the high rates at which Italy is being forced to issue bonds because of market jitters meant that sweeping budget cuts approved earlier this month would be "in vain".

In a once-thriving village on the Pacific island of Niue, homes lie abandoned, their stucco-clad walls mildewed and crumbling as the jungle slowly reclaims them.

"These villages used to be bustling with people -- now you go there in the afternoon and there's no one," says the Niue Tourism Authority chairman Hima Douglas.

British pay-TV giant BSkyB offered its shareholders over £1.0 billion in payouts Friday as it moves on from a failed takeover bid and phone-hacking scandal involving Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

After posting bumper underlying annual profits, BSkyB said it planned a share buyback of £750 million ($1.22 billion, 857 million Euros) and dividend of £253 million -- moves seen as calming the waters after a recent share price collapse.

Crude prices fell on Friday, with the U.S. debt stalemate continuing to roil markets as a vote in the House of Representatives on a Republican debt plan was postponed.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, fell 52 cents to $96.92 a barrel.

A U.N. panel has approved more than $1 billion in compensation payments for victims of Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The U.N. Compensation Commission says the money will go to five companies and four government or international bodies. It did not disclose the identities of the claimants Thursday but said all are in Kuwait.