Turkey is planning to build a bridge across the famed Dardanelles strait to help ease traffic congestion in Istanbul, a minister said, revealing the latest in a string of mega projects under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The straights, which separate Europe and Asia, were last bridged by Xerxes the Great, the Persian "king of kings" in 480 BC on his way to defeat the Greeks at Thermopylae.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Thursday raised $8 billion in a bond offering, the Wall Street Journal said.

The company announced one week ago that it planned to make the sale, with the intention to repay an $8 billion loan owed to banks. Maturities ranged from three to 20 years in the six-part deal, the Journal reported.

A bare 0.004 percent of the world's adult population controls nearly $30 trillion in assets, 13 percent of the world's total wealth, according to a new study released Thursday.

And perhaps unsurprisingly, the study by the Swiss bank UBS and luxury industry consultant Wealth-X said the concentration of money in the hands of the ultra-rich is growing.

Shares in Skymark Airlines soared 25.6 percent Friday on a report that the troubled Japanese carrier was in tie-up talks with Japan Airlines (JAL).

The Tokyo-listed stock skyrocketed 50 yen to at 245 yen ($2) after the leading Nikkei business daily's online edition said the firm was negotiating code-sharing with JAL on some routes.

European aerospace giant Airbus is poised to sign a deal to deliver 50 long-haul carriers to U.S. Delta Airlines in a contract worth $14 billion (11 billion euros) at catalogue prices, sources told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Under the terms of the deal, Airbus will deliver 25 A350-900s, the company's new long-haul carrier that this month received certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority, a source close to the negotiations said on condition of anonymity.

Growth in the eurozone has slowed to its slowest pace in 16 months as new orders dipped, survey company Markit said Thursday, raising pressure on policymakers to crank up measures to support the economy.

Markit's flash reading of its composite purchasing managers' index (PMI) for the eurozone in November came in at 51.4 points, down from 52.1 in October.

British financial regulators have fined state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland a combined £56 million for a series of IT failures that left customers unable to access services, they said Thursday.

The fines, worth the equivalent of $87.6 million or 70 million euros, occurred in June 2012 for failures at also RBS units NatWest bank and Ulster Bank.

Qatar Airways chief Akbar al-Baker on Wednesday took a swipe at legacy carriers which complain of competition from Gulf carriers, accusing them of being "inefficient" and protected by EU policies.

Legacy carriers "are screaming about the Gulf Three," Baker told an aviation forum in Dubai referring to his airline, Dubai's Emirates and Abu Dhabi's Etihad.

The Iraqi government transferred $500 million to the autonomous Kurdish region on Wednesday as part of a deal aimed at ending long-running oil and budget disputes, the finance minister said.

The move eases tensions between the federal and regional governments, paving the way for a lasting settlement as well as possible increased cooperation against jihadists they are both fighting.

Asylum seekers washing up by the thousands in recession-hit Sicily are boosting the local economy as hotels transform into immigrant centers, with help from state subsidies said to have caught the Mafia's eye.

Sofas and widescreen televisions in once opulent suites of the Villa Mokarta hotel in Salemi have been replaced with beds for up to eight migrants a room, their only possessions tatty rucksacks, trainers and the odd Bible or Koran.