Twitter's shares jumped in early trading Thursday after it posted strong revenue growth last year and announced a $4 billion share buyback program. That's despite losing money in 2021 and falling short of Wall Street's expectations for user growth in the final quarter of the year.

Revenue increased 37%, to $5.08 billion, compared with 2020. But it reported a net loss of $221 million for the year largely tied to the settlement of a shareholder lawsuit.

U.S. markets were mixed ahead of the opening bell Thursday as investors awaited data on U.S. inflation and employment.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial were up a slight 0.2%, while futures for the S&P 500 declined by 0.1%.

Tesla is recalling nearly 579,000 vehicles in the U.S. because a "Boombox" function can play sounds over an external speaker and obscure audible warnings for pedestrians.

The recall is the fourth made public in the last two weeks as U.S. safety regulators increase scrutiny of the nation's largest electric vehicle maker. In two of the recalls, Tesla made decisions that violate federal motor vehicle safety standards, while the others are software errors.

Budvar, the Czech brewer that has been in a long legal dispute with U.S. company Anheuser-Busch over use of the "Budweiser" brand, has registered a record output for the second straight pandemic year.

Budejovicky Budvar NP, a 126-year-old state-owned brewery, said its output rose 4.6% to 1.8 million hectoliters (47.8 million gallons) in 2021, according to preliminary results released on Thursday.

Germany's foreign minister said Thursday that nuclear talks with Iran are entering a "final phase" and that, despite Israeli reservations, a return to a nuclear agreement would make the region safer.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock spoke at a joint press conference in Tel Aviv with her Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, during an official visit to Israel.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said Thursday that 12 people were injured by falling debris from an attempted drone attack on an airport in the southern Saudi region of Abha near the kingdom's border with Yemen.

The coalition statement said the people who were hurt included travelers and workers at the airport. Two of the injured were Saudi citizens, four were Bangladeshi residents and three were Nepali residents. There was also one person each from Sri Lanka, the Philippines and India hurt.

Roza Barakat's tormentors have been defeated, but the horrors she endured still hold her captive.

She was 11 years old when she was captured and enslaved by the Islamic State group, along with thousands of other Yazidi women and girls taken when the militants overran northern Iraq in their brutal 2014 campaign.

Liverpool will look to trim the deficit to leader Manchester City back down to nine points with a home win over Leicester in the Premier League. And Mohamed Salah is back to help the Reds after returning from the African Cup of Nations, where he lost in the final to Senegal on penalties. Salah might start on the bench at Anfield as Jurgen Klopp looks to ease his star player back in, but Sadio Mane — the scorer of the clinching penalty in the African Cup final — won't be involved at all. Leicester is looking to bounce back from beating humbled by second-tier Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup on Sunday. In the other game, Arsenal can climb to fifth by winning away at Wolverhampton

SPAIN

A building collapse in northwest Syria killed a woman and three of her children, while her husband and three other children survived, the opposition Syrian Civil Defense group said Thursday.

The collapse of the building Wednesday night on the southern edge of the city of Idlib came as northwest Syria has been witnessing weeks of rain and snow.

Britain's Prince William made his first official visit to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, where the future monarch is highlighting his passionate work around wildlife conservation and climate change.

The one-day visit by the Duke of Cambridge marks a significant milestone in relations between the U.K. and the UAE, a Western-allied Gulf Arab nation ruled by hereditary leaders. The prince is expected to meet with Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the son of Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.