French energy giant Total is expected to abandon its search for oil and gas off Cyprus after failing to find any significant targets for exploratory drilling, Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis said Wednesday.

Total “has not found any geological structures or targets to continue its obligations” in the blocks it is licensed to exploit, Lakkotrypis said.

Non-OPEC oil producer Oman described as bad politics and bad business Wednesday the cartel's November decision to make no cut in output, which sent world prices crashing.

OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia said the decision was necessary to prevent the cartel losing market share after a sharp increase in U.S. shale oil production.

Oil prices are unlikely to fall further after a plunge of nearly 60 percent since June, Iraqi Oil Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Wednesday.

"Our estimate is that the prices (of oil) have reached the bottom. It is very difficult to drop lower than this," Abdul Mahdi told a conference in Kuwait.

A New York court Tuesday handed a four-year prison sentence to a Bitcoin exchange operator who sold virtual currency used to buy drugs on the Silk Road underground website.

Robert Faiella, 55, and an accomplice were charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and running an unlicensed money transmitting business.

Cheap fuel prices are doping the finances of airlines, but analysts say European giant Air France-KLM may still be forced to make further job cuts to cope with stiff competition and a sluggish economy. 

Despite the company's assertions that no decisions have been taken, the leaders of Europe's second -argest airline have for months seemed to be preparing the ground for the inevitability it will have to shed further staff. 

Toyota sold 10.23 million vehicles last year, it said on Wednesday, outpacing General Motors and Volkswagen to remain the world's biggest automaker, but a shaky outlook for 2015 could see it lose the title to its German rival.

The record worldwide annual sales figure beat Volkswagen, which logged sales of 10.14 million vehicles, and U.S.-based GM, which said it sold 9.92 million cars last year.

Kuwait has scrapped the commercial license of leading newspaper al-Watan, which has been highly critical of the government, citing its failure to comply with legally required financial terms.

Al-Watan, owned by a member of the al-Sabah ruling family, said on its website, which was still operating, that it had challenged the decision in court.

A court in New Delhi Tuesday ordered the government to unblock thousands of dollars of Greenpeace India's funds after they were frozen following accusations that foreign-funded campaign groups were hurting India's economy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government tightened controls on foreign fund transfers to Greenpeace India in June following an intelligence report accusing activist groups of "stalling development projects" by protesting against power projects, mining and genetically modified food.

Turkey's central bank on Tuesday pruned its main interest rate for the first time in six months, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to pressure the bank into relaxing monetary policy to boost growth.

The bank said in a statement after its latest monetary policy meeting that the one-week repurchase rate would be dropped to 7.75 percent from 8.25 percent.

Investment sentiment in Germany hit an 11-month high this month on hopes the European Central Bank is about to roll out its heavy anti-deflation artillery, analysts said on Tuesday.

The widely watched investor confidence index calculated by the ZEW economic institute jumped 13.5 points to 48.4 points in January, its highest level in 11 months, ZEW said in a statement.