Israel will stop cutting power to Palestinian cities over unpaid bills and will deduct funds from tax money to prevent the debt increasing, a government official said Thursday.

The official also said Israel would connect water to a Palestinian city so that it can be inhabited, after a minister's objection had been overruled. 

Japanese motorcycle giant Yamaha will join the four-wheel market by launching small cars in Europe as early as 2019 to meet rising demand for energy-efficient vehicles, a company official said Friday.

The firm has been mulling manufacturing four-wheel vehicles for years, exhibiting a prototype 1,000 cc engine car and an electric-car battery at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show.

The EU said it has invited the Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers to Brussels on Monday for talks on resolving a bitter gas supply dispute which threatens deliveries to Europe.

Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom threatened on Tuesday to cut off deliveries to Ukraine, diverting deliveries instead to eastern parts of the country controlled by pro-Kremlin rebels.

UAE telecom giant Etisalat said Thursday its net profit surged 26 percent last year to reach $2.43 billion as the company saw a hike in subscribers after acquiring a Morocco operator stake.

The company said its net profit in 2014 after deducting royalty reached 8.9 billion dirhams, while revenues for the whole year surged also 26 percent to 48.8 billion dirhams.

Oil prices fell in Asia Thursday but losses were curtailed as dealers focused on positive elements of a mixed U.S. energy stockpiles report, analysts said. 

West Texas Intermediate for April eased 43 cents to $50.56 while Brent crude for April tumbled 31 cents to $61.32 in afternoon trade.

Loans to the private sector in the euro area, a gauge of economic health, fell year-on-year in January, but by less than in December, the European Central Bank said Thursday.

The volume of loans to private businesses and households declined by just 0.1 percent in January compared with the same month in 2014, a  lower rate than the drop of 0.5 percent recorded in December, the ECB said in a statement. 

Greece's finance minister hailed Thursday a "turn in the tide" following an extension of the stricken eurozone country's bailout but warned of problems ahead in meeting billions of euros in debt repayments.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told Bloomberg TV in an interview that 700 million euros ($795 million) was deposited at Greek banks on Tuesday, when Greece's creditors approved the four-month extension.

Consumer confidence in Germany is at its highest since late 2001, as rising optimism about the economy and income expectations persuade German shoppers to open their wallets, a poll found on Thursday.

"The escalation of the situation in east Ukraine, the ongoing tensions between the West and Russia and events in Greece are not leaving much of an impression on German consumers, who are increasingly optimistic," market research company GfK said in a statement.

The Lebanon Industry Value Chain Development (LIVCD) project, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), organized a closing workshop of the Mechanical Harvesting Program within the Olive Oil Value Chain.

The goal of the Mechanical Harvesting Program was to improve olive oil productivity at the orchard level, and decrease harvest and production costs for 1,000 olive oil producers across Lebanon.

International ratings agency Moody's said Tuesday it had downgraded all ratings for scandal-plagued Brazilian oil giant Petrobras.

Until recently, Petrobras had been considered one of the best and most prestigious businesses in Brazil. But Moody's dropped its unsecured debt rating from Baa3 to Ba2.