The religious owner of a right-wing publisher on Thursday finalized the purchase of one of Israel's leading newspapers, Maariv, despite opposition from much of the daily's staff.

A spokesman for Shlomo Ben-Zvi, who publishes and serves as editor-in-chief of the conservative Makor Rishon newspaper, confirmed the deal.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has distributed $3.7 billion in aid to countries touched by the Arab Spring, most of it to Egypt and Jordan, a report by the International Monetary Fund showed Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's wealthiest country, has pledged nearly $17.9 billion in support for fellow Arabs since the pro-democracy revolt erupted in Tunisia in January 2010 and spread throughout the region, toppling and shaking authoritarian governments.

French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen said on Thursday it was in negotiations to sell 75 percent of its logistics subsidiary Gefco to Russian railway firm RZD for 800 million euros ($1.04 billion)

While RZD would effectively get control of Gefco under the deal, the head office of the logistics group is expected to remain in France and the company is expected to retain its current management team, including Luc Nadal as president, Peugeot said.

Bank of America plans to cut 16,000 jobs as part of a major restructuring plan by the end of 2012, when it would no longer be the largest U.S. banking employer, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The cuts will take the banking giant's total employment to 260,000, the Journal said, the lowest level since 2008, when the bank acquired failing mortgage lender Countrywide Financial and the Merrill Lynch investment bank.

Global giants the European Union and China meet at a Brussels summit on Thursday under pressure to bolster slowing economic growth and tackle tough international dilemmas.

With a new leadership to be named in Beijing within months, recession and mounting protectionist trade disputes form the backdrop to the summit, alongside diplomatic differences over Syria.

International credit agency Standard & Poor's on Wednesday affirmed mining-driven Australia's AAA rating with a stable outlook, but warned about its growing reliance on the Chinese economy.

Australia is one of only a handful of nations to hold the top rating, with its economy growing a solid 0.6 percent in the three months to June and 3.7 percent from a year earlier.

The Bank of Japan on Wednesday said it will extend its asset-purchasing scheme by 10 trillion yen ($128 billion) to boost the economy, following similar moves by the European and U.S. central banks.

The bank's announcement after a two-day meeting, which also saw interest rates kept at record lows, sent the yen tumbling against the dollar and euro, while the Nikkei surged to a four-month high.

The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank faces a $400 million budget shortfall, even if current donor pledges are met, the World Bank warned in a report on Wednesday, calling new funding "critical."

The 21-page report, prepared ahead of a meeting of international donors in New York next Monday, also accuses Israel of stifling Palestinian growth by impeding development in the West Bank's Area C, which is under full Israeli control.

President Dilma Rousseff has approved new tax incentives to boost innovation in the information technology and telecommunications sectors, the official Agencia Brasil reported Tuesday.

The measures, published in the Official Gazette, are part of the government's Brasil Maior ("Bigger Brazil") plan unveiled in August 2011 to strengthen the productivity and competitiveness of Brazilian industries.

Investors accepted negative interest rates again to lend money to the EU's bailout fund on Tuesday, according to the German central bank, which managed the issue.

The Bundesbank said in a statement that the European Financial Stability Facility placed 1.941 billion ($2.5 billion) euros' worth of six-month bills at a yield of minus 0.0181 percent, compared with minus 0.0179 percent at the previous auction in August.