Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced Wednesday a $5.0 billion share buyback even though competition from generics ate away at sales and earnings last year.

Taiwan's economy notched up its best performance in almost two years in the final quarter of 2016, with strong demand for electronics offsetting a plunge in mainland tourists, according to official data released Wednesday.

China's record imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in December, and the doubling in spot Asian prices in the past six months, appear to contradict the prevailing market view that supply is overwhelming demand for the super-chilled fuel.

India's sugar production may fall to 21.3 million tonnes for the 2016/17 crop year, the lowest in seven years and 9 percent lower than previously forecast, as drought has curtailed cane supplies in key producing states, a trade body said on Wednesday.

The operations boss of Airbus declared Tuesday that the European aerospace giant was entering a "dangerous phase" because of Brexit, which could complicate its free movement of staff and products.

Samsung Electronics' profits leaped in the fourth quarter, it said Tuesday, despite the humiliating Galaxy Note 7 recall that hammered the reputation of the world's largest smartphone maker.

An initial public offering from India's BSE Ltd, the country's second-biggest stock exchange, was well over-subscribed on the last day of the sale, helped by attractive valuations and expectations of robust growth for stocks in the coming years.

Apple Inc said on Wednesday it appreciates the open and constructive dialogue that it held with Indian officials, around the expansion of its local operations in the country.

The second unit of India's Kudankulam nuke plant—built with Russian assistance—reached 100 percent power level for the first time recently. Earlier it was operating at 90 percent power level.

Africa, famously short of new roads, ports and power stations, is increasingly leaning on its own sovereign investment funds to help fix its infrastructure gap.

The dollar tumbled to a seven-week low against a basket of currencies on Wednesday on worries that US President Donald Trump was focusing too much on protectionism and isolationism, and not enough on pro-growth policies.

A trade war between China and the United States would harm both countries, the overseas edition of the state run People's Daily said on Wednesday, reflecting concerns over the protectionist, and anti-China stance taken by new US President Donald Trump.

The German government on Wednesday maintained its growth forecast for 2017, even as a monthly survey showed firms increasingly nervous about the future in the face of global uncertainty.

The European Union urged China on Wednesday to make "concrete progress" in opening its markets to global investment, after Chinese President Xi Jinping decried protectionism in a speech at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Indonesia is interested in pursuing a bilateral economic partnership with the United States after the world's biggest economy abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) accord, an Indonesian official said on Wednesday.

Japan is cool to the notion of inviting China to join a pan-Pacific trade pact abandoned by US President Donald Trump, fearing such a step would boost Beijing's clout and water down what was meant to be the 'gold standard' for rules of trade.

Weakness in the oil and gas sector dented General Electric's fourth-quarter results, pushing revenues lower despite gains in other industrial divisions, the company reported Friday.

Global payments company Western Union will pay $586 million to settle a US criminal investigation that found it had a weak anti-money laundering program and looked the other way when employees collaborated in fraud.

Sri Lanka has failed to attract bids from international airlines to privatise its loss-making flag carrier, but will continue its efforts to salvage the company, a minister said Friday.

China's state-owned chemical corporation ChemChina has asked US anti-trust regulators to greenlight its $43 billion acquisition of Swiss seed giant Syngenta, a report said Friday.