The US stock market regulator has opened an investigation into the accounting practices of Chinese online giant Alibaba, a company document showed.

Austrian aircraft parts maker FACC said Wednesday that it has fired its chief executive of 17 years after cyber criminals stole some 50 million euros ($55.7 million) in a so-called "fake president" scam.

Indian flour mills have signed deals to import about 500,000 tonnes of Australian and French wheat this year for shipment between July and September as drought reduces domestic supplies, two trade sources said on Wednesday.

Royal Dutch Shell will cut a further 2,200 jobs, taking its target for layoffs to 12,500 by the end of the year, the Anglo-Dutch oil firm said on Wednesday, as it cuts deeper in the face of weak oil prices.

Microsoft announced Wednesday it would let go up to 1,850 employees and a Finnish union called it the end of the company's smartphone manufacturing business, bought from Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia.

US technology group Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it plans to spin off and merge its corporate services business in a deal valued at $8.5 billion (7.6 billion euros).

Oil rose toward $50 a barrel on Wednesday for the first time in seven months, driven by expectations that shrinking supply will help erode any overhang of unwanted crude, particularly after industry data showed a sharp fall in US inventories.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stepped up fund injections in the two months since Governor Raghuram Rajan pledged to gradually erase a cash deficit in the financial system, but commercial banks say it is still not enough for them to sharply lower interest rates.

For Zheng Ruifeng, the 25-year-old son of a wheat farmer from eastern China, acceptance at a technical school specializing in petrochemical engineering was a life-changing event.

US firms Netflix and Amazon face quotas for European movies and television shows under new EU proposals unveiled Wednesday that also aim to lift cross-border barriers for Internet shoppers.

FRANCE said Wednesday it has dipped into its strategic oil reserves due to blockades at refineries as power workers threatened to join gathering protests against a labour law reform.

Having quit his low-paid job with a contractor in Qatar, electrician Kurian Joseph scrabbles for work each day in his hometown in Kerala, a state that has one of India's highest unemployment rates.

The surprise departure of BP's exploration boss has turned the spotlight on an oil search strategy that, after years of spending cuts, is focusing mainly on expanding existing fields rather than venturing expensively into the unknown.

From the way it chooses smartphone components to the models it brings to market, Samsung Electronics has undergone a painful process of breaking from its past to reverse a slide in its handset business.

PAKISTAN plans to sell a 40 percent stake in its stock exchange in coming months, and Turkey's Borsa Istanbul has expressed some initial intent, the head of the bourse said on Monday.

BUSINESS growth across the euro zone dipped to a 16-month low in May but stronger showings from Germany and France suggest it is the smaller member countries that may be struggling.

Leaving the European Union would be economic self-destruction for Britain, shattering stability, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday, presenting a finance ministry report warning of recession, a tumble in the pound, and half a million job losses.

Hackers are probing the defences of banks in the Middle East, targeting employees with infected emails which gather information about the banks' network and user accounts, FireEye researchers said.

Nokia, once the world's top mobile phone maker, on Wednesday announced its return to the fiercely competitive handsets and tablets market years after being crushed there by Samsung and Apple.

Crude prices approached $50 Wednesday as escalating wildfires in Canada's oil sands region helped to reduce a global supply glut, while traders awaited key US energy inventory data.