The eighth Duke of Wellington died on Wednesday aged 99, a family spokesman said, six months before the 200th anniversary of his ancestor's famous victory in the Battle of Waterloo.

Arthur Valerian Wellesley died peacefully at his home surrounded by his family.

Asian markets mostly fell on Friday as a meeting between the eurozone's three biggest economies highlighted their differences on finding a solution to the region's debt crisis.

Traders remained nervous at the end of a week that saw fears over Europe deepen as the yields on Italian and Spanish bonds sat dangerously high and even Germany -- the bloc's pillar -- failed to sell all its bonds at auction.

Asian stock markets and the euro rose on Thursday as European leaders announced a deal to tackle the region's crippling sovereign debt woes.

After 10 hours of painstaking talks in Brussels, banks holding some of Greece's mountain of debt agreed to take a 50 percent "haircut" on their holdings, breaking a deadlock many hope will help end the two-year-old crisis.

Scientists tracking Happy Feet, the wayward penguin who became a worldwide celebrity after washing up on a New Zealand beach, said Monday they had lost contact with the giant bird.

Researchers said they had received no transmissions since last Friday from a satellite tracking device that was attached to the penguin after he was released into the icy Southern Ocean on September 4.

The euro fell further against the dollar in Asia on Monday as risk appetite was eroded by renewed worries over Greek debt and fears of a possible recession in the world's biggest economy.

The euro dropped to $1.4158 in Tokyo trade from $1.4203 in New York late Friday. The European common unit also eased to 108.60 yen from 109.09 yen.

Asian stocks put on solid gains on Monday, with Tokyo getting a boost from better-than-expected GDP figures that showed the country is on the road to recovery after its devastating tsunami.

Asia followed a positive end to Wall Street's week with green screens all over the region giving dealers hope after a turbulent few days during which they were battered by Eurozone debt fears and a U.S. credit downgrade.

Asian stocks rallied on Wednesday, part of a global uptick after the U.S. Federal Reserve pledged to keep interest rates near zero for at least two years.

Tokyo rose 1.05 percent, or 94.26 percent, to 9,038.74, Sydney added 2.64 percent, or 106.5 points, to 4,141.3 and Seoul gained 0.27 percent, or 4.89 points, to 1,806.24.

For decades, New Zealand has campaigned for museums to repatriate the mummified and heavily-tattooed heads of Maori warriors held in collections worldwide -- now it must decide what to do with the gruesome but culturally valuable relics.

New Zealand's national museum Te Papa has more than 100 of the heads, known as toi moko, in storage in Wellington, along with about 500 skeletal remains plundered from Maori graves as recently as the 1930s.