Italy's antitrust watchdog has fined Apple and Amazon more than 200 million euros ($225 million) for cooperating to restrict competition in the sale of Apple and Beats branded products in violation of European Union rules.

An investigation found that provisions in a 2018 agreement between the U.S. tech giants limited access to Italy's Amazon marketplace to selected resellers, the Italian Competition Authority said Tuesday.

Stocks wobbled in morning trading on Wall Street Friday and major indexes were on track for a mixed finish to a choppy week.

The S&P 500 fell less than 0.1% as of 10:16 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 247 points, or 0.7%, to 35,630 and the Nasdaq rose 0.5%.

Thousands of farmers in central Iran joined a protest on Friday demanding authorities open a dam to relieve drought-stricken areas, state TV reported.

Several prominent actors and athletes have taken part in the peaceful demonstrations in the city of Isfahan, urging the government to intervene to aid famers increasingly suffering from droughts that have worsened over the years. The demonstrations began earlier this month.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh on Friday met with Prime Minister Najib Miqati and said he handed him “a report prepared by the BDO, Semaan, Gholam & Co auditing company.”

“The report was prepared at my request and it includes an auditing of my personal bank accounts and the accounts that have been mentioned in the press for the past year and a half and are the subject of judicial investigations,” Salameh said after the meeting.

Ahead of Christmas, a towering wooden screen — once blackened with soot from millions of worshippers' candles — is being restored to its gilded glory in the Church of the Nativity, built at the site where many believe Jesus was born.

But few visitors are expected to see it during the upcoming Christmas holiday season.

Global shares were mixed Thursday after stock indexes shuffled lower on Wall Street.

France's CAC 40 edged up nearly 0.2% in early trading to 7,167.47. Germany's DAX gained 0.2% to 16,275.17. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.2% to 7,277.41. The future for the Dow industrials was trading 0.2% higher, while the future for the S&P 500 added 0.3%.

The British government came under fire Thursday for scrapping a long-planned high-speed rail line to the northern English city of Leeds as part of a package of revisions that reduces costs by tens of billions of pounds.

Critics argue that the scaling back of plans will leave many parts of northern England at an economic disadvantage, and runs against Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson's stated ambition to "level-up" the country, by spreading prosperity away from London and other wealthy parts of southern England.

Turkey's Central Bank cut interest rates again Thursday, a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke out against high borrowing rates and raising increasing concerns about the impact of soaring consumer prices on families and businesses.

The bank's monetary committee announced it was reducing the policy rate to 15% from 16%, even as inflation runs at close to 20%. It was the bank's third interest rate cut in as many months.

The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday will auction vast oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico estimated to hold up to 1.1 billion barrels of crude, the first such sale under President Joe Biden and a harbinger of the challenges he faces to reach climate goals that depend on deep cuts in fossil fuel emissions.

The livestreamed sale invited energy companies to bid on drilling leases across some 136,000 square miles (352,000 square kilometers) — about twice the area of Florida.

Europe is short of natural gas — dangerously short. A cold winter could mean a severe crunch, and utility bills are headed higher, burdening ordinary people and weighing on the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to help fill European gas storages as energy prices soar — but supply shortages and political tensions have continued to rattle energy markets, keeping prices high. That's pinched businesses and forced them to pass along costs to customers already facing higher bills at home.