Iran Air finalized a contract to buy 80 planes from U.S. firm Boeing, the official IRNA news agency said Sunday, as it seeks to renew its aging fleet despite sanctions.

President-elect Donald Trump shut down some of his companies in the days after the election, including four that appeared connected to a possible Saudi Arabia business venture, according to corporate registrations in Delaware.

News of the move comes days before Trump is expected to describe changes he is making to his businesses to avoid potential conflicts of interest as the U.S. president.

OPEC was on Saturday seeking to persuade other oil producers to lower production as part of a newly-struck global pact to stem a crude glut and lift painfully low prices.

The Vienna meeting, which includes major producer Russia, aims to nail down details on implementing the accord reached late last month.

US Senate Democrats late Friday dropped objections to a federal spending bill, ensuring the government does not slip into a shutdown over a fight about health benefits for coal miners.

After taking the debate right to the brink just hours before a midnight deadline to fund federal operations, Democrats eased their hard line and prevented a brief weekend funding lapse that could have embarrassed lawmakers the month before Donald Trump assumes the presidency.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks on Friday to step up efforts to boost the Turkish lira by converting more foreign currency, as the campaign launched earlier this month showed only limited effect.

G.W.R. Consulting, a company specialized in customer experience management and quality control across the GCC, Levant, and North Africa, held its first professional gathering at Le Gray Hotel in Beirut, Lebanon. During the event, an innovative service in customer experience measurement was launched aiming to drive businesses forward.

Russia's telecom operator on Friday said that it had blocked a series of cyber attacks on the country's leading banks this week, the latest to target the country's financial sector.

Rostelecom said in a statement that it "successfully thwarted DDoS (distributed denial of service) on the five biggest banks and financial organisations in Russia" on December 5.

France's central bank trimmed its growth forecasts for 2016 and 2017 on Friday, citing a deterioration in the global economy and Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

Former French budget minister Jerome Cahuzac, whose brief in government was to crack down on tax dodgers, was sentenced to three years in prison on Thursday for tax fraud and money laundering.

Greece's leading unions launched Thursday a general strike that shut down several key sectors in protest over planned new pay cuts and taxes called for by international creditors.