French oil giant Total will halt preliminary oil survey work off disputed Western Sahara, a region controlled by Morocco, due to disappointing results, a source said Monday.

"Total has informed the Moroccan authorities that it would not request a new extension of its reconnaissance authorisation in the Anzarane block," said the source.

Swedish telecoms giant Ericsson has reached a global licensing agreement with Apple that settles several earlier patent disputes between the two companies, Ericsson announced on Monday. 

The terms of the agreement are confidential, according to the Ericsson statement, but it "includes a cross license covering the patents on essential standards of the two companies (including GSM, UMTS and LTE standards) and provides certain other patent rights.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday named Google executive Michelle Guthrie as its new managing director, the first woman to hold the top post at the public broadcaster.

The former media and technology lawyer, who has held senior roles at Foxtel and BSkyB in Britain as well as Star TV in Asia, is charged with leading the ABC into the digital era after a stormy period of cuts and government criticism.

Portugal has sold the troubled small bank Banif to the local unit of Spain's Santander, the Bank of Portugal announced Sunday, for 150 million euros ($163 million) but with an injection of 2.3 billion euros in public funds.

"The deal will involve government assistance of 2.3 billion euros to cover future contingencies," the central bank said in a statement. 

Oil prices extended losses Monday with Brent hitting an 11-year low, fueling fears about the global economy, but most Asian stock markets recovered from early losses to rally in the afternoon.

However, with Wednesday's U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate rise now in the past, analysts said concerns about the global economy continue to keep traders cautious.

Malaysia's first Islamic-compliant airline Rayani Air began operations Sunday with its maiden flight taking off from the capital to the resort island of Langkawi, local media reported.

In-flight meals served on board its flights are completely halal, with alcohol consumption strictly prohibited.

It's a new dawn for transport, lodging -- and pretty much every service under the sun -- and it's all about "sharing."

The so-called sharing economy gained traction across the globe in 2015 as Uber upended the taxi business, Airbnb disrupted the hotel sector and a host of online and mobile startups let people moonlight as chefs or handymen.

The technology that drives the shadowy crypto-currency bitcoin is drawing interest from the established banking industry, which sees a potential to revolutionize the sector.

Although bitcoin and related virtual currencies are limited to a small set of transactions and are often associated with the underground economy, the so-called blockchain technology is gaining currency in the financial world.

Isis Pharmaceuticals is changing its name to avoid any unwanted association with the Islamic State extremist group, the California company said Friday.

It will now be called Ionis Pharmaceuticals, setting it clearly apart from the jihadists, whose acronyms include ISIS, IS and ISIL.

In just a week as Argentina's president, conservative Mauricio Macri has passed drastic economic reforms, drawing praise from foreign investors but angry protests from citizens afraid for their salaries.

The so-called "Macri-economic" shock treatment in Latin America's third-biggest economy saw the peso currency plunge by a third after he scrapped his leftist predecessor's dollar exchange controls.