Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse more than doubled its net profit last year, but still missed expectations amid big legal charges, a results statement showed on Thursday.

In 2013, the bank saw its net profit balloon to 3.06 billion Swiss francs ($3.38 billion 2.50 billion euros), up from 1.34 billion a year earlier.

British mobile phone giant Vodafone announced on Thursday a drop in quarterly revenue as strains across its European operations offset solid progress in emerging markets.

Group revenue slipped 1.5 percent to £9.587 billion ($15.621 billion, 11.553 billion euros) in the group's third quarter, or three months to the end of 2013, compared with the equivalent period a year earlier, Vodafone said in a statement.

The European Central Bank sits down to its regular monthly policy meeting Thursday amid speculation that weaker-than-expected eurozone inflation data could prompt a cut in interest rates.

Data compiled by the EU's statistics agency Eurostat last week showed that eurozone inflation slowed to 0.7 percent in January from 0.8 percent in December, way below the ECB's target of just below 2.0 percent.

Sony on Thursday warned it would book a $1.08 billion annual loss and cut 5,000 jobs while exiting the stagnant PC market this year as the once-mighty electronics giant struggles to reinvent itself in the digital age.

The shock news comes a week after Moody's downgraded the firm's credit rating to junk, saying the maker of Bravia televisions and the PlayStation games console had more work to do in repairing its battered balance sheet.

Kuwait's parliament on Wednesday ordered probes into a $2.5 billion (1.8 billion euro) power plant contract and a deal with Airbus to purchase 25 aircraft and lease 12 others.

Twenty-one MPs out of 36 present approved a proposal to ask the parliament's legal committee to investigate "all deals" being undertaken by state-owned Kuwait Airways Company (KAC).

Eurozone private sector business activity in January showed the best performance since June 2011, fresh evidence that a modest recovery is gaining traction, a key survey showed on Wednesday.

Markit Economics said its Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for January rose to 52.9 points from 52.1 in December, the seventh monthly rise in a row.

A major international ratings agency expects the local government in Sochi, Russia, to struggle with the cost of maintaining the Olympic venues despite the massive state investment.

Moody's said in a report published on Wednesday that Sochi and the Krasnodar region have benefited from the government funding but are likely to be tight for money in the longer term.

The former head of a Greek bank at the heart of a criminal investigation into allegedly unsecured loans has been taken into custody after his return from neighboring Turkey.

Angelos Filippidis, Hellenic Postbank's CEO from 2007 to 2010, was arrested at Athens airport early Wednesday.

Indonesia's economy grew at its slowest pace in four years in 2013 because of a slump in commodity prices and a slowdown in consumer spending.

The Central Statistics Agency said Southeast Asia's largest economy grew 5.8 percent last year, the first time it has expanded less than 6 percent since 2009.

Sony is in talks to sell its personal computer business to a Japanese investment fund as part of the electronics giant's wider restructuring, reports said Wednesday.

The leading Nikkei business daily said Sony was looking to sell the division to Japan Industrial Partners for between 40 billion yen and 50 billion yen ($396 million to $495 million).