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  Moscow / AFP President Vladimir Putin on Thursday bade farewell to Andrei Karlov at a packed memorial ceremony in Moscow for the diplomat who was assassinated in Turkey by an off-duty policeman. Dozens of colleagues and relatives attended the ceremony for Karlov, the ambassador to Turkey whose death was labelled by Moscow as an act of terror while President ...

  Tokyo / AFP A rapidly-spreading fire engulfed more than 100 buildings and sparked evacuations in a northern Japanese city on Thursday, leaving two people injured and forcing authorities to mobilise the military. Aerial footage broadcast live on Japanese TV showed massive orange flames and thick grey smoke spewing out of buildings throughout much of the day in the city ...

  London/ AFP European equities drifted mostly lower on Thursday in quiet pre-holiday trade, with investors awaiting news on the fate of crippled bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS). Wall Street also eased at the opening, slipping further away from the elusive 20,000 target on the Dow index. “The long awaited 20,000 benchmark on the Dow isn’t breached yet ...

  Reuters Saudi Arabia’s stock market edged up on Thursday before the release of the kingdom’s state budget for 2017, while Egypt’s uptrend slowed. Other Gulf markets were mixed in modest trading volumes. The Saudi stock index added 0.4 percent. Much activity focused on second-tier stocks such as Saudi Printing and Packaging, which jumped 10 percent. Saudi Electricity climbed 0.7 ...

  Bloomberg The oil industry must brace for five energy “tsunamis” that threaten to drag prices as low as $10 a barrel in less than a decade, according to Engie SA’s innovation chief. The falling cost of solar power and battery storage, rising sales of electric vehicles, increasingly “smart” buildings and cheap hydrogen will all weigh on crude, Thierry Lepercq, ...

  RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it had successfully cut into its huge state budget deficit this year and will increase government spending in 2017 to boost flagging economic growth. The deficit shrank to 297 billion riyals ($79 billion) in 2016. That was well below a record 367 billion gap in 2015, and below the government’s projection ...

  Bloomberg Iraq said most international oil companies working in the country, along with the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, have agreed to cut crude output to fulfill an OPEC accord. Iraq is fully committed to delivering on OPEC’s Nov. 30 agreement to reduce supplies, Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi said on Thursday in Cairo at a meeting of the Organization of ...

  BLoomberg Malaysia’s state-owned energy company Petroliam Nasional Bhd signed an agreement to study two oil fields in Iran, joining international companies from Russia to France that plan to help boost the Persian Gulf nation’s oil and gas production. Petronas signed a memorandum of understanding to assess the South Azadegan and Cheshmeh Khosh oil fields, Gholam-Reza Manouchehri, deputy director of ...

  Bloomberg Exxon Mobil Corp.’s offer to raise its bid for InterOil Corp. to as high as $3.9 billion isn’t enough to pacify the deal’s most prominent opponent. InterOil founder Phil Mulacek, who left in in 2013 and remains the third-largest shareholder, said Exxon still isn’t offering shareholders full value for InterOil’s hydrocarbon reserves in Papua New Guinea. Exxon last ...

  Bloomberg Those looking for a bright spot in the global warming picture might want to pay closer attention to India. For several years, demand for electricity in the world’s second-most populous country has trailed forecasts, data compiled by India’s Central Electricity Authority show. While the reasons for the mismatch are complex, the gap raises the prospect that India won’t ...