France has slipped further into the red, the national statistics bureau said on Friday, only days after the country's public auditor warned of "worrying" debt levels.

Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn plans a news conference later Friday that would be his first since he was arrested in November on financial misconduct allegations.

He had scheduled a news conference in April during a previous release from detention, but he was rearrested instead and his lawyers released a video statement.

Greece on Thursday signed a lease with ExxonMobil and Total for the search and exploration of hydrocarbons off the island of Crete, joining an increasingly heated energy race in the Mediterranean.

Wall Street stocks rose modestly in early trading Thursday as markets awaited a key G20 meeting in the long-running U.S.-China trade dispute.

Canada's flagship airline Air Canada announced Thursday it has reached a deal to buy tour operator Transat for Can$520 million (US$396 million) in cash or Can$13 per share.

Asian markets rose Thursday as investors brushed off Donald Trump's latest dig at China and threat to impose more tariffs on the country's goods if crunch talks with Xi Jingping fail this weekend.

Before setting off for the G20 summit in Japan the president said in an interview that he had a "Plan B" in case the face-to-face shows no progress, adding he would "take in billions and billions of dollars a month and we'll do less and less business with them".

A French consumer rights group said Wednesday that it has launched a class action lawsuit against U.S. tech giant Google for violating the EU's strict data privacy laws.

The European Union opened Wednesday an investigation to determine whether U.S. semi-conductor giant Broadcom may be violating the bloc's competition rules and hurting rivals.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei said Wednesday that its 5G business has not been impacted by the recent US sanctions amid a prolonged trade war between the world's two largest economies.

More than 200 miners in South Africa on Wednesday marked one week underground as they hold a sit-in protest against alleged sexual harassment by a manager as well as a wave of sackings.