Barclays bank chief executive Antony Jenkins announced on Friday that he would give up his 2012 bonus after a "very difficult year" at the lender, which has been plagued by the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

The announcement followed media reports that the crisis-hit lender was preparing to pay Jenkins a bonus worth at least £1.0 million ($1.6 million, 1.2 million euros) for last year.

NATO's secretary general is urging cash-strapped European nations not to use the alliance's drawdown of forces in Afghanistan as an excuse to cut defense spending.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a gathering of the world's top diplomats and defense officials Saturday that "we must build on what we have gained in operations such as Afghanistan — not cash in what some may perceive as the post-ISAF dividend."

U.S. markets pushed tantalizingly close to new records this week, a stunning rebound after the steep crash of 2008 wiped trillions of dollars of wealth from Americans' pocketbooks and retirement accounts.

The thrust past 14,000 by the Dow Jones Industrial Average Friday, the first time that level has been seen since October 17, 2007, underscored the spectacular recovery U.S. stocks have made despite the economy's slow growth.

U.S. employers added 157,000 jobs in January, and hiring was much stronger at the end of 2012 than previously thought, providing reassurance that the job market held steady even as economic growth stalled.

The Labor Department report Friday showed a jump in hiring in the final two months of last year, just when the economy was sputtering and facing the threat of deep government spending cuts and tax increases from the fiscal cliff. The department revised up the estimated job gains for November from 161,000 to 247,000 and for December from 155,000 to 196,000.

The Chinese automaker that bought Sweden's Volvo Cars in 2010 has acquired the British manufacturer of the distinctive London cab.

Geely Holding Group said Friday it bought Manganese Bronze Holdings out of bankruptcy court administration. Geely said it paid just over 11 million pounds ($17.5 million).

Official figures show unemployment across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro steady at 11.7 percent in December.

The rate reported by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, is a record high for the eurozone after November's original 11.8 percent estimate was revised down. Unemployment in the eurozone has been 11.7 percent now for three months.

Spanish bank BBVA said on Friday that its 2012 net profit had plunged by 44.2 percent to 1.676 billion euros ($2.283 billion) owing to provisions taken against potential losses on real-estate loans.

BBVA, the third-biggest Spanish bank by assets under management, emphasized however that its net banking income had increased by 15 percent to 15.122 billion euros.

Panasonic and Sharp racked up more than $11 billion in combined losses over the nine months to December as the embattled Japanese electronics giants warned Friday there was more bleeding to come.

Japan's battered electronics sector has suffered from myriad problems including a high yen, slowing demand for key export markets, fierce overseas competition and strategic mistakes that left companies' finances in ruins.

Sheikh Jawaan bin Hamad al-Thani, the son of Qatar's Emir, will be the first to own the priciest car in the world, the new Lebanese-designed Lykan Hypersport that was unveiled at the third Qatar International Motor Show.

Sheikh Jawaan chose black as the color for his new $3.5 million acquisition, that cultivated the title of the most expensive new car in the world, formally held by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sports.

Turkish exports to Iran almost tripled in 2012, in large part owing to gold sales, the Turkish statistics agency TUIK said Thursday as Tehran struggles with heavy international sanctions owing to its controversial nuclear program.

Iran took in 6.5 percent of neighboring Turkey's total exports, worth $9.9 billion (7.3 bln euros), to become its third-biggest trade partner, with gold shining as a key item of interest.