The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday it would release 3.2 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in aid to Greece that had been frozen for months amid fears about the country's ability to surmount its debt crisis.

The IMF executive board approved release of the funds after completing two reviews of Greece's economic performance under an IMF loan program that is part of an international rescue also supported by the European Union, the institution said.

Egypt's prosecution on Wednesday accepted an offer by ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family to pay back gifts from the country's flagship newspaper worth millions of Egyptian pounds.

Mubarak, his wife Suzanne, his two sons Alaa and Gamal and their wives allegedly accepted gifts from al-Ahram worth 18 million Egyptian pounds (around $2.7 million) between 2006 and 2011.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed no change in Iran's staunch "cooperation" with Damascus, in talks with visiting Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi, reports said on Wednesday.

"We hope that the plots and enmities against the Syrian nation will soon end and peace and security can be established in the country," Ahmadinejad said at the Tuesday night meeting, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Turkey and France have agreed to resume talks on civilian nuclear energy at a time Ankara plans to build three plants within the next five years, French Foreign Trade Minister Nicole Bricq said on Wednesday.

"We met the (energy) minister to discuss Turkey's important projects in nuclear facilities," said Bricq after a meeting with Energy Minister Taner Yildiz. "France claims excellence in this field...so it is only natural that we have these discussions."

European auto sales plunged to the lowest point for 17 years in 2012, trade data showed on Wednesday, revealing the dire state of the sector despite the global strength of German automakers.

The figures came only hours after French manufacturer Renault announced the latest job cuts and restructuring in the European car industry.

China's super-rich suffer because of the pressures brought about by their fortunes and are less happy than ordinary millionaires, according to a survey by a leading wealth magazine.

"The richer you are, the less happy you are," concluded the poll of more than 500 Chinese millionaires by the Hurun Report, which compiles an annual list of China's richest people.

The World Bank's chief economist called on the United States Tuesday to end a series of political budget battles by undertaking structural economic reforms.

"It is time now for the U.S. to move on from fighting each fiscal fire successively," Kaushik Basu said in a conference call on the bank's latest economic report.

Japan's two biggest airlines on Wednesday grounded all their Dreamliners in the most serious blow yet to Boeing's troubled next-generation plane after an ANA flight was forced into an emergency landing.

The 787 Dreamliner has suffered more than a week of bad news that has prompted safety investigations by three national aviation regulators, although Boeing insists the highly fuel-efficient aircraft is safe.

The French auto industry was hit again on Tuesday when Renault said that it planned to cut its staff in the country by 7,500 workers by 2016 to become more competitive and prepare for the hiring of others with specific skills.

The company said that it would shed 5,700 jobs through natural attrition, with the balance coming from the extension of an early retirement program to all employees due to retire in three year's time, subject to an agreement with unions.

Once cogs in a dynamic industrial engine that helped power Syria's economy, the factories in a sprawling zone in the heart of battle-ravaged Aleppo now stand largely silent, the workers mostly fled.

In their place, thousands of people sheltering from the violence that has swept Syria's northern commercial capital since July, and from the severe winter weather that has brought misery to much of the Middle East.