Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was released by Arsenal for nothing but now has a buyout clause of 100 million euros ($113 million) after joining Barcelona.

The 32-year-old Gabon striker's Arsenal contract, that ran through June 2023, was terminated this week after the north London club decided to cut ties with the player. It follows a series of disciplinary issues with one of the club's highest earners, who was stripped of the captaincy in December.

Inflation fed by high oil and gas prices hit record levels in Europe for the third month in a row, extending pain for consumers and sharpening questions about future moves by the European Central Bank.

The 19 countries that use the euro currency saw consumer prices increase by an annual 5.1% in January, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat reported Wednesday. The figure broke records of 5% in December and 4.9% in November and was the highest since recordkeeping started in 1997.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the U.S. and its allies of ignoring Russia's top security demands but said Moscow is willing to talk more to ease tensions over Ukraine.

The comments were his first on the standoff in more than a month and suggested a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine may not be imminent and that at least one more round of diplomacy is likely.

Turkish warplanes struck suspected Kurdish militant positions in Iraq and Syria early on Wednesday in a new aerial offensive which officials said aimed to protect Turkey's borders from terrorist threats.

A Turkish defense ministry statement said the strikes hit targets on Sinjar Mountain and in the Karacak region in northern Iraq, and the Derik region in northern Syria.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife attended a Lunar New Year's Day concert in Pyongyang where he received thunderous cheers from audience members and artists who praised him for heralding a "new era" of national power, state media reported.

The North's official media has been highlighting Kim's authoritarian leadership following a spree of missile tests in January, which some experts see as an attempt to pressure Washington over deadlocked nuclear negotiations after two years of pandemic border closures and economic decay.

Israel's prime minister has acknowledged that its Iron Dome defense system is too expensive and the country is speeding the rollout of laser technology to help protect it from rocket attacks.

Naftali Bennett told a security conference that the new generation of technology -- a "laser wall" -- will be unveiled within a year in southern Israel. Little is known about the system's effectiveness, but the system eventually is expected to be deployed on land, in the air and at sea and send a deterrent message to archenemy Iran and its proxies.

An Iran-flagged supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of condensate has docked at a Venezuelan port, with both countries facing U.S. sanctions, according to analysts and satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press.

The arrival of the oil tanker Starla comes as negotiations continue in Vienna over the Islamic Republic's tattered nuclear deal with world powers, which allowed for oil sales. In 2018, the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the accord under then President Donald Trump, sparking years of tensions across the wider Mideast that continue today.

Wall Street premarket trading pointed to a modestly lower open Tuesday on the heels of the market's worst trading month since early in the pandemic.

As traders prepare for another busy day of corporate earnings releases, futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each fell about 0.1% less than two hours before the opening bell. ExxonMobil, Alphabet, General Motors and Starbucks are among those reporting quarterly financial results on Tuesday.

Natural gas will remain an important energy source through 2050 and quantities of the hydrocarbon found off the east Mediterranean island nation of Cyprus could reach markets through a pipeline or by liquefying it for transport by ship, the head of ExxonMobil's Cyprus arm said Tuesday.

ExxonMobil Cyprus lead country manager Varnavas Theodossiou said "all energy sources remain important" for the next three decades "across a range" of scenarios set out under the Paris Agreement on climate change as the globe shifts to cleaner fuels toward achieving a zero-emissions goal.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government included hefty spending on roads, airports and other infrastructure in an annual budget presented to Parliament on Tuesday, looking to spur growth and improve its popularity just ahead of key state elections.

The budget for the coming fiscal year, which starts on April 1, calls for $533 billion in spending, up from $477 billion in the current year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in presenting it to lawmakers.