Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France's Areva have won a multibillion-dollar contract to build a nuclear power plant on the Black Sea, Turkey's prime minister has told a Japanese newspaper.

Global sales of tablet computers surged in the first quarter of 2013, led by Android-powered devices that outpaced gains by Apple's iPads, a research firm said Wednesday.

Seven people, including five suspects and two witnesses, were questioned yesterday as part of an investigation into alleged insider trading in the merger of MediaTek Inc. and MStar, according to the Taipei District Prosecutors Office.

Shares of Taiwan-based HTC Corp. came under pressure Thursday morning after the company proposed a NT$2 (US$0.07) cash dividend for each outstanding share for 2012, the lowest level since its listing on the local market in 2002, dealers said.

Visa Inc. said Wednesday that its net income slipped nearly 2 percent in the first three months of this year from the year before, when the company benefited from an adjustment to its income tax provision.

Concerns over the state of the U.S. and China economies, the world's two biggest, weighed on markets Thursday despite widespread expectations that the European Central Bank (ECB) will cut interest rates to a new low later.

The U.S. dollar was under pressure in Asian trade Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve opted to keep its easy-money policies in place on the back of lackluster economic data.

The price of oil stabilized near US$91 per barrel Thursday after a big fall as traders digested an increase in U.S. crude inventories that suggested weak demand for fuel.

The dollar eased in Asian trade Wednesday as dealers awaited the results of a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting later in the day while poor eurozone data also weighed on the currency.

Tokyo stocks closed 0.44-percent lower on Wednesday as the yen's strength and gloomy economic data from the eurozone offset positive sentiment after the S&P 500 closed at another record high.