BUSINESS

Saudi Arabia on Thursday said it transferred an additional eight percent stake from oil giant Aramco to firms owned by the kingdom's PIF sovereign wealth fund, according to state media.

It's been two weeks since the lifting of tough sanctions on military-ruled Niger, but the pace of economic recovery is slow and the generals have shown no inclination to re-open the border with Benin and seek a diplomatic settlement with neighbouring nations.

Spanish fashion retailer Mango, founded 40 years ago in Barcelona, is ramping its global expansion despite economic uncertainties that have shaken some other global mass-market apparel giants.

Germany has been troubled by strikes for months as workers and management wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

German airline giant Lufthansa more than doubled its profits in 2023, extending a rebound from the coronavirus pandemic even as it faces fresh risks from a wave of industrial action.

China described the war in Gaza as a "disgrace to civilisation" and called on Thursday for an immediate ceasefire as the conflict stretched into its sixth month despite efforts by mediators to reach a truce.

Tests on generative AI tools found some continue to allow the creation of deceptive images related to political candidates and voting, an NGO warned in a report Wednesday, amid a busy year of high-stake elections around the world.

Travelling 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) by air between two capitals on the same continent does not seem like a challenge.

Equities fluctuated in Asian trade Thursday as investors try to assess the Federal Reserve's plans for interest rates after boss Jerome Powell indicated they would start to come down this year.

The EU's landmark curbs on how tech titans do business online kick in from Thursday, but just how far Brussels succeeds in bringing the giants to heel will hinge on bitter battles that still lie ahead.

New Zealand public broadcaster TVNZ said Thursday it plans to cut nearly 10 percent of its staff, a week after its free-to-air TV news rival said it was closing altogether.

Sticky inflation is expected to prompt eurozone rate-setters to hold borrowing costs steady again Thursday, as they await clearer signs of a sustained easing of consumer prices before beginning to cut.

A Chinese software engineer was arrested Wednesday for allegedly stealing artificial intelligence technology from Google while secretly working for two Chinese companies, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

The head of the federal investigation into a troubled January flight on a Boeing 737 MAX jet blasted the aviation giant on Wednesday for not providing key information quickly.

NYCB seeks a $1 billion capital raise amid financial woes and leadership changes.

Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who died in prison last month, predicted in previously unpublished testimony in 2020 and released on Wednesday that his death would change "nothing" and other people would stand in his place.

Elon Musk's SpaceX on Wednesday announced it was eyeing March 14 as the earliest date for the next test launch of its giant Starship rocket, with which it hopes to one day colonize Mars.

The EU is prepared to deploy its full arsenal to force big tech companies to change their behaviour online, the bloc's competition chief said Wednesday, the day before a sweeping new law comes into force.

The US Federal Reserve's progress in bringing down inflation is "not assured," the chair of the country's central bank told lawmakers in Washington Wednesday, on the first of two days of hearings in Congress.

Job gains in the US private sector picked up in February, payroll firm ADP said Wednesday, a sign that could give the Federal Reserve some pause as it mulls the timing of interest rate cuts.

European and Asian stock markets mostly rose Wednesday before a UK budget and Fed testimony and on the eve of a eurozone rate decision, while bitcoin and gold remained elevated one day after striking record peaks.

The widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny called on Wednesday for Russians to stage an election day protest against President Vladimir Putin by forming long queues outside voting stations.

In war-torn Sudan, where chaos and fuel shortages have ground normal motor traffic to a halt, people once more rely on donkey carts -- even for urgent trips to the hospital.

The boss of Tesla, SpaceX and X was one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015 along with Sam Altman but left the organization in 2018 and is now one of its most vocal critics.

Britain's Conservative government is on Wednesday expected to use a budget update to unveil tax cuts for millions of workers, in an attempt to woo voters before a general election.

In a field in the Kyiv region, Lyudmyla Martyniuk was standing by silos filled with grain that should be heading for export, but for a blockade on the Polish border disturbing a market already impacted by Ukraine's war with Russia.

A boom in internet sales has boosted the lower end of the art market and could ultimately doom showroom auctions, said the boss of sector-tracker Artprice, which published its annual report Wednesday.

US President Joe Biden called on Hamas on Tuesday to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal by the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, while the Palestinian militant group warned talks for a truce and hostage release cannot go on "indefinitely".

Poignant images of an anguished Shiri Bibas clutching her two red-headed boys as she was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 have turned her into the face of the Israeli hostages seized that day.