The U.S. Congress voted Thursday to end Cold War-era trade restrictions on Russia after it joined the WTO, but provoked Moscow's ire by attaching a measure targeting human rights abusers.

Following approval by the House of Representatives last month, the Senate voted 92-4 in favor of establishing permanent normal trade relations, or PNTR, with Russia by abolishing a 1974 law that required granting normal trade ties with Moscow only on an annual basis.

Apple CEO Tim Cook says the company will produce one of its existing lines of Mac computers in the United States next year.

Cook made the comments in part of an interview taped for NBC's "Rock Center," but aired Thursday morning on "Today" and posted on the network's website.

The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid fell sharply last week as a temporary spike caused by Superstorm Sandy has faded. Weekly applications have fallen back to a level consistent with modest hiring.

The Labor Department said Thursday that applications dropped 25,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 370,000.

Barclays on Thursday said it had agreed a deal to combine the majority of the British bank's Africa operations with Absa -- the lender's African subsidiary.

"This transaction will give us a platform from which we can further grow our Africa business to the benefit of customers, colleagues, shareholders and the communities in which we operate," Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins said in a statement.

China will allow transit passengers from 45 countries including the U.S., Canada and all members of the EU to spend up to 72 hours in Beijing without a visa from next month, city authorities said.

The move would "strongly spur the development of the tourism industry, speed up building of an international city (and) expand contacts with the rest of the world," the Beijing Tourism Administration said on its website.

U.S. auto giant General Motors (GM) said Thursday that its full-year sales in China, the world's biggest car market, will surpass last year's 2.55 million and set a new record.

In the first 11 months, sales of GM and its ventures in China surged 10.4 percent from a year earlier to 2.59 million vehicles, more than the total for the whole of last year, GM said in a statement.

Greece is seen as the most corrupt country in the EU, Transparency International said Wednesday, adding that crisis-hit nations are being held back by an inability to deal with graft.

Publishing its annual Corruption Perceptions Index, the Berlin-based watchdog ranked Greece 94th out of 176 countries.

Finland's economy has slipped into recession with a 0.1 percent drop in gross domestic product in the third quarter from the previous three months, as the export-dependent country continues to suffer from a drop in demand among European trading partners.

Statistics Finland said Wednesday economic output fell 1.1 percent in the second quarter. That puts Finland in recession, commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of quarterly economic contraction.

Britain's biggest retailer, supermarket Tesco, looked on course to withdraw from its struggling U.S. business Fresh & Easy as chief executive Philip Clarke on Wednesday said its presence would likely end.

"It's likely, but not certain, that our presence in America will come to an end," Clarke told reporters, as Tesco said it was launching a strategic review of Fresh & Easy, which may lead to a sale of the business.

Moody's ratings agency on Wednesday warned South Africa's banks that weak economic growth in tandem with their exposure to government securities poses a risk of serious trouble ahead.

Describing the operating environment for South Africa's banks as "challenging", Moody's forecast modest economic growth of three percent next year.