German investor confidence soared in January to its highest level since the start of the war in Ukraine, a key survey said Tuesday, as lower energy prices and cooling inflation boost the economic outlook.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen took China to task over clean-technology industries on Tuesday, threatening investigations over Beijing's subsidies in the sector.

Ukraine's first lady will give a rare international address as the World Economic Forum's annual gathering in the snowy Swiss town of Davos gets into full swing on Tuesday, part of a push by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his government to acquire more foreign weapons to defend against Russia's invasion.

Security teams fanned out and snowplows cleared streets as Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska and hundreds of government officials, corporate titans, academics and activists from around the world descended on the town billed as Europe's highest for the traditional winter gathering in Davos. The COVID-19 pandemic torpedoed the snow-covered event each of the last two years, but a springtime iteration was held eight months ago.

World equities mainly rose Monday on growing global optimism as inflation slows and China reopens, while gas prices hit an 18-month low on receding supply fears.

The Joint Parliamentary Committees on Monday approved the capital control draft law and referred it to parliament for a final vote, Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab said.

“The discussion was beneficial and a final format of the law was adopted,” Bou Saab said after the session.

European investigators began questioning high-profile witnesses in Lebanon as part of a probe into Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh's wealth, a judicial official told AFP Monday.

France, Germany and Luxembourg in March seized assets worth 120 million euros ($130 million) in a move linked to a probe by French investigators into 72-year-old Salameh's personal wealth.

Bank of America's fourth-quarter profits rose slightly from a year ago, as higher credit costs and potentially bad loans more than offset the bank's sharp rise in interest revenue.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank said Friday that it earned a profit of $7.13 billion, or 85 cents a share in the three months ended Dec. 31, compared to a profit of $7.01 billion, or 82 cents a share, in the same period a year earlier. The results were better than analysts' forecast of a profit of roughly 77 cents per share, according to FactSet.

The German economy appears to have stagnated in the fourth quarter, the national statistics office said Friday, while Europe's biggest economy managed full-year growth of 1.9% — slowing somewhat from 2021 as the impact of Russia's war in Ukraine weighed on its performance.

Germany releases a preliminary full-year gross domestic product figure before full December economic data is available, and an official fourth-quarter number isn't due for a few weeks yet.

Caretaker Labor Minister Mustafa Bayram announced Friday that it has been decided to approve a hike of an LBP 1.9 million on the wages of the private sector and to increase the transportation allowance from LBP 95,000 to LBP 125,000.

The decision was taken in a meeting for the country’s Consumer Price Index Committee.

The United Arab Emirates has picked the head of its national oil company as president of this year's COP28 climate talks, prompting criticism from environmental activists.