IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said the fund would only support a "comprehensive program" for Lebanon that would tackle all the country's ills, including corruption.

Britain's energy regulator announced Thursday that a cap on energy prices is going up by a record 54% because of the soaring costs of wholesale natural gas, a change that will significantly burden millions of households already squeezed by rapidly climbing bills.

The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, known as Ofgem, said the new price cap — the maximum amount that gas suppliers can charge customers — will rise by 693 pounds ($940) per year in most parts of the U.K. starting in April. That will cause the annual bill for the average customer to go up to 1,971 pounds ($2,670).

Nintendo's profit for the nine months through December slipped 2.5%, as shortages of computer chips hurt production, the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises said Thursday.

Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. recorded a 367 billion yen ($3.2 billion) profit for the period, down from 377 billion yen the previous year. Its sales in the same period fell 6% to 1.3 trillion yen ($11 billion).

Turkey's annual inflation came in at nearly 49% on Thursday, hitting a nearly 20-year high and further eroding people's ability to buy even basic things like food.

The Turkish Statistical Institute said the consumer price index increased by just over 11% in January from the previous month. The yearly increase in food prices was more than 55%, according to the data.

Abu Dhabi's state-owned oil and gas company announced Thursday the discovery of between 1.5 to 2 trillion standard cubic feet of raw gas in an offshore area located in the emirate's northwest.

The discovery comes as Gulf Arab states continue to rely heavily on profits from oil and gas exports, despite rising global temperatures and climate change from burning fossil fuels. The United Arab Emirates, where Abu Dhabi is capital, was the first Gulf Arab state last year to join other countries around the world in pledging "net-zero" emissions targets within its borders — while maintaining fossil fuel exports abroad.

Not too long ago, Ehud Olmert was trying to lead Israel to a historic peace agreement. These days, the former Israeli prime minister is pushing a different message: legalize marijuana.

Olmert is among a group of former Israeli leaders and security chiefs who have found new careers in the country's tightly controlled medical cannabis industry. They hope not only to cash in on the local market, but also to clear the way for the country's major marijuana producers to export.

Inflation fed by high oil and gas prices hit record levels in Europe for the third month in a row, extending pain for consumers and sharpening questions about future moves by the European Central Bank.

The 19 countries that use the euro currency saw consumer prices increase by an annual 5.1% in January, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat reported Wednesday. The figure broke records of 5% in December and 4.9% in November and was the highest since recordkeeping started in 1997.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh on Tuesday issued a statement saying commercial banks can now purchase Lebanese banknotes in return for cash dollars based on the exchange rate of the Sayrafa platform.

Media reports said banks have in recent days been short on Lebanese pounds and were rationing the amounts given to clients.

Wall Street premarket trading pointed to a modestly lower open Tuesday on the heels of the market's worst trading month since early in the pandemic.

As traders prepare for another busy day of corporate earnings releases, futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each fell about 0.1% less than two hours before the opening bell. ExxonMobil, Alphabet, General Motors and Starbucks are among those reporting quarterly financial results on Tuesday.

Natural gas will remain an important energy source through 2050 and quantities of the hydrocarbon found off the east Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus could reach markets through a pipeline or by liquefying it for transport by ship, the head of ExxonMobil's Cyprus arm said Tuesday.

ExxonMobil Cyprus lead country manager Varnavas Theodossiou said "all energy sources remain important" for the next three decades "across a range" of scenarios set out under the Paris Agreement on climate change as the globe shifts to cleaner fuels toward achieving a zero-emissions goal.