Leading British lawmakers urged the European Union on Thursday to remove preferential trade tariffs from Sri Lanka if it fails to address human rights concerns.

European privacy regulators want Internet search engines such as Google (GOOGL.O) and Microsoft's Bing (MSFT.O) to scrub results globally, not just in Europe, when people invoke their "right to be forgotten" as ruled by an EU court.

EE's German and French owners confirmed on Wednesday they were in talks to sell Britain's biggest mobile network operator to BT (BT.L) as part of a wider review of its options. Fixed-line operator BT said on Monday it was in talks with both Telefonica's (TEF.MC) O2 and a rival operator about buying a mobile business.

Impromptu talks between Saudi Arabia, fellow OPEC member Venezuela and oil powers Russia and Mexico yielded no agreement on Tuesday on how to address a growing oil glut, ending without any plan to cut output despite a collapse in prices.

The global economy will gradually improve over the next two years but Japan will grow less than previously expected while the euro zone struggles with stagnation and an increased deflation risk, the OECD said on Tuesday.

Crimeans should pay off their debts to Ukrainian banks despite now living under Russian law, a Russian central bank official was quoted as saying, marking a change in position by Moscow which had suggested ignoring any payment demands.

The central banks are finding it difficult to boost growth by increasing domestic demand and hence the need to depend upon foreign demand. The progressive rate cuts and monetary easing measures have led to massive falls in these currencies thereby helping these countries to increase exports.

The European Union's top official for digital markets said on Monday he was concerned that big tech companies may be abusing dominant positions, but he also said investigations into Google must not be rushed.

If the world's biggest central banks were actually coordinating a global monetary policy, they could scarcely do a better job of convincing financial markets right now.

EU lawmakers will likely vote on Thursday on a motion proposing the break-up of Google (GOOGL.O) and other Internet technology companies, increasing political pressure on the bloc’s antitrust regulators to take a stronger line on the group.