France's Prime Minister Edouard Philippe promised lower taxes and a business-friendly France at a global summit in Dubai on Sunday, seeking investment from the oil-rich Gulf region.

The latest volatility in global financial markets represents "necessary corrections", IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in Dubai on Sunday, in the wake of a Wall Street plunge.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde on Saturday urged Arab countries to slash public wages and subsidies in order to rein in spending, achieve sustainable growth and create jobs.

Global stock prices sank Friday after the Dow Jones industrials on Wall Street plummeted more than 1,000 points, deepening a week-long sell-off.

Markets followed U.S. stocks down after the Dow, coming off a record high, entered a correction — or a 10 percent decline from its latest peak — for the first time in two years.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed Chinese state councillor Yang Jiechi to Washington on Thursday as the world's two most powerful diplomats talked trade, drugs and North Korea.

Yang is in Washington for two days at a time when relations between the top powers are dominated by the North Korean nuclear stand-off and President Donald Trump's concerns about their trade imbalance.

The Dow dropped two percent at midday Thursday as Wall Street losses deepened amid concerns over higher Treasury bond yields and the prospects for more Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

Iran warned South Korea's electronics giant Samsung of "repercussions" on Thursday after its delegation to the Winter Olympics was excluded from a handout of free top-of-the-range smartphones to participants.

Exploratory drilling by Italy's Eni and France's Total have discovered "extensive" gas reserves off Cyprus, Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis said Thursday.

Germany's second-largest lender Commerzbank said Thursday that net profit fell by nearly half last year as it grapples with a costly restructuring.

Trader Afzal Baig tugs at his horse, frustrated by its stubborn refusal to take another step along a treacherous, snow-covered mountain pass that is peppered with the skeletons of those who have already failed the journey.