Washington must give assurances that banks dealing with Cuba will not be punished under the U.S. trade embargo, which remains in force despite the restoration of diplomatic ties, an official said Thursday.

Cuba will make this argument Monday in Havana at a meeting of officials from the two countries to review how the process is going, said Gustavo Machin, deputy director of U.S. affairs in the Foreign Ministry.

A global oil glut that has sent prices tumbling is set to "shrink dramatically" later this year, as wildfires have disrupted Canada's output and demand in India soars, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday.

Demand for oil worldwide is set to grow at a "solid" rate in 2016, with India the "star performer" after making up nearly 30 percent of the global increase in demand in the first quarter of the year, the IEA said.

Global gold demand surged in the first quarter as investors seeking refuge from financial unrest swooped on the commodity seen as a safe haven investment, the World Gold Council said Thursday.

Total gold demand stood at 1,290 tonnes in the January-March period, an increase of 21 percent compared with the first quarter of 2015.

Nissan said on Thursday it is in talks with scandal-hit Mitsubishi Motors over a tie-up that could create one of the world's biggest auto groups, rivalling Toyota and Volkswagen.

Oil prices dipped in Asia on Thursday as investors locked in profits after the previous day's surge to six-month highs that was fueled by a surprise decline in US stockpiles.

A pinch of conservatism and a generous dose of populism spiced with a good handful of U-turns: Donald Trump's economic policy escapes classification as much as it fluctuates with the tides of public opinion.

But the pronouncements so far of the presumptive Republican presidential candidate have already stirred up concerns in Washington and on Wall Street, where people are anxious for more clarity on his thinking.

Reddish-brown sand dunes twist across the desert, their canyon-like ridges accentuated by late afternoon sun as a Saudi Aramco jet approaches the site of a remote gas plant.

The yen clawed back some lost ground Wednesday after it slid on Japanese officials' repeated warnings that they could intervene in currency markets to bring down the surging unit.

Having soared to 18-month highs against the dollar, the yen this week suffered its biggest two-day slide in several months.

Rui Nabeiro not only rose from humble beginnings to become one of Portugal's richest men, he has managed to survive the economic crisis while keeping his coffee business under family control in the small town where he grew up despite overtures from multinationals.

At 85, he remains at the helm of the Delta firm he founded in 1961 in Campo Maior, in the country's depressed east, as a small coffee-grinding business aimed at the Spanish market.

Strong ticket sales from the latest "Star Wars" film and "Zootopia" helped modestly lift Disney's second-quarter profit, according to results released Tuesday.

But revenues from Walt Disney Co.'s closely watched cable television division fell, perturbing investors who have been worried about the prospects for its ESPN network as the traditional cable television model comes under assault.