China on Thursday put into circulation a new version of its 100-yuan banknote -- the highest denomination available in the world's second-largest economy -- with added golden touches that the government said was harder to forge.

The note, worth just under $16, retains its overall red colour, with Communist founder Mao Zedong on one side and Beijing's Great Hall of the People on the other.

British Prime Minister David Cameron faced claims of hypocrisy Thursday after he wrote to his local council complaining about cuts to services prompted by his own government's austerity savings.

Cameron voiced disappointment that libraries, museums and day care centres for elderly people were being cut in Oxfordshire, the county west of London which includes his parliamentary seat of Witney.

Russia's second-largest bank VTB said on Thursday it would not renew a sponsorship contract with athletics' world governing body but insisted the decision has nothing to do with the doping scandal engulfing the sport.

"It (the contract) has expired," VTB first deputy president Vasily Titov was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti state news agency. 

Oil prices rose in Asia Thursday, bouncing back from a sharp fall the day before but expectations of another build in U.S. crude inventories cast a shadow on the market.

Traders are waiting for the release later Thursday of data by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing the country's commercial stockpiles for an indication of demand in the world's top crude consumer.

Greek unions on Thursday kicked off a general strike against fresh austerity cuts, the first under the leftist government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

The strike against tax hikes and an upcoming pensions overhaul has shut down public services, hit ship and train transport and forced the cancellation of dozens of domestic flights.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran will probably sign a deal to buy Airbus aircraft during his visit to France starting Monday.

"We already use Airbus or Boeing planes today," Rouhani said, according to a transcript of an interview with broadcaster France 2 and Europe 1 radio, made available to AFP on Wednesday ahead of its airing.

Chinese Internet users spent billions of dollars in the planet's biggest online shopping splurge Wednesday, as "Singles Day" hit new heights, despite slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy.

The cumulative national bill for the day-long orgy of commerce dwarfed what Americans spent online over the five-day frenzy from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday last year.

Boeing said Tuesday that it had canceled a contract with the Britain-based supplier of a part for its new 737 MAX airliner, but confirmed the first deliveries of the planes for 2017.

GKN PLC was responsible for supplying parts for the thrust reverser, the device that slows the airplane on landing, but Boeing will "change the design of the 737 MAX thrust reverser inner wall," spokesman Doug Adler told Agence France Presse.

Shanghai stocks managed to lead a regional advance on Wednesday as more Chinese figures indicating weakness in the world's number two economy spurred hopes Beijing will unveil more measures to spur growth.

The broadly positive mood on trading floors also helped emerging currencies recover slightly against the dollar after rallying since Friday's U.S. jobs data ramped up expectations the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates this year.

Air links between Russia and Egypt will be cut for at least several months after last month's air crash in which 224 died, the Kremlin's chief of staff said Tuesday.

"It's for a long time. For how long, I can't say, but I think for several months, at least," the Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov told journalists in Helsinki, quoted by Interfax news agency.