European gas prices dropped Thursday after Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the country's major natural gas company to pump more gas into EU storages.

Europe's gas prices have soared in recent weeks amid strong demand in Asia driven by the economic recovery from the pandemic and due to depleted European Union stocks from a cold winter.

Algeria will from now on deliver its natural gas to Spain exclusively through an undersea pipeline, ministers from both countries have reportedly said, after Algiers abandoned use of a line through Morocco.

In August Algeria cut diplomatic ties with its Maghreb neighbor Morocco which it accused of "hostile actions." 

A hike in the cost of wheat is alarming French households who fear a possible rise in the price of the prized baguette, seen by many as a barometer of the country's economic health.

Many boulangeries around France are putting up signs, warning customers that the long, crunchy staple could be going up in price by 3 to 5 centimes (4 to 6 cents), from its average of about 89 centimes (just over $1).

Coca-Cola Co. is getting its fizz back.

Revenue jumped 16% to $10 billion in the third quarter as stadiums, movie theaters and other venues reopened around the world.

President Joe Biden and China's Premier Li Keqiang will join an annual summit of 18 Asia-Pacific nations by video Wednesday in a region where the world powers have dueled over trade, Taiwan, democracy, human rights and Beijing's increasingly assertive actions in disputed territories.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will also speak at the East Asia Summit, a wide-ranging forum on political, security and economic issues organized by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Asian stock markets fell Wednesday after Australian inflation increased, highlighting global pressure for prices to rise, while investors looked ahead to U.S. economic growth data due out this week.

Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong all retreated.

U.S. regulators are expelling a unit of China Telecom Ltd., one of the country's three major state-owned carriers, from the American market as a national security threat amid rising tension with Beijing.

China Telecom (Americas) Corp. is required to stop providing domestic interstate and international service in the United States within 60 days, under an order approved Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC cited the danger that Beijing might use the company to eavesdrop or disrupt U.S. communications and "engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States.

Pakistan said Wednesday that Saudi Arabia will deposit $3 billion into its central bank to help bolster the cash-strapped fellow Islamic nation's shrinking foreign reserves.

Shaukat Tarin, Pakistan's top finance ministry official, also said on Twitter that Saudi Arabia will additionally supply 1.2 billion worth of oil to Pakistan on credit.

The global energy transition is perhaps nowhere more perplexing than in the Arabian Peninsula, where Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies are caught between two daunting climate change scenarios that threaten their livelihoods.

In one, the world stops burning oil and gas to cut down on heat-trapping emissions, shaking the very foundation of their economies. In the other, global temperatures keep rising, at the risk of rendering unlivable much of the Gulf's already extremely hot terrain.

Iran's president said Wednesday that a cyberattack which paralyzed every gas station in the Islamic Republic was designed to get "people angry by creating disorder and disruption," as long lines still snaked around the pumps a day after the incident began.

Ebrahim Raisi's remarks stopped short of assigning blame for the attack, which rendered useless the government-issued electronic cards that many Iranians use to buy subsidized fuel at the pump. However, his remarks suggested that he and others in the theocracy believe anti-Iranian forces carried out the assault.