Reuters

With prospects for political progress bleaker than they have been for years and with world powers now distracted by the Ukraine war, violence has steadily been rising.

The U.S. official arrived in Cairo on Sunday on a three-day regional tour that coincides with an escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

The drugmaker is offering voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to all its employees at two sites near Hyderabad, a spokesperson for Sanofi's India unit told Reuters in an email.

India's annual pre-budget economic survey is likely to peg GDP growth at 6-6.8% for 2023-24, according to a source.

Asian shares traded cautiously and bonds nursed small losses on Tuesday as investors braced for an eventful week that includes central bank meetings, a slew of earnings reports and key U.S.

Oil prices steadied in early Asian trade on Tuesday after falling by more than 2% in the previous session on the threat of further interest rate hikes and continued Russian crude flows.

Flagship Adani Enterprises, which is facing a crucial test this week with a follow-on share offering, rose 3%, but was off initial gains of as much as 10% and significantly below the offer price.

Oil prices climbed in early Asia trade on Monday, supported by tensions in the Middle East following a drone attack in Iran and as Beijing pledged over the weekend to promote a consumption recovery which would support fuel demand.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged South Korea on Monday to increase military support to Ukraine, citing other countries that have changed their policy of not providing weapons to countries in conflict after Russia's invasion.

Israel appears to have been behind an overnight drone attack on a military factory in Iran, a U.S. official said on Sunday.

A private museum in the United Arab Emirates unveiled on Saturday a Torah scroll that survived the Holocaust, the latest sign of what Israel and its new Arab allies describe as a new approach to understanding Jewish history in the Middle East.

The U.S. Treasury Department's top sanctions official on a trip to Turkey and the Middle East next week will warn countries and businesses that they could lose access to G7 markets if they do business with entities subject to U.S.

On Thursday, the Pakistani rupee fell 9.6% against the dollar in the inter-bank market, the biggest one-day drop in over two decades, a day after foreign exchange companies removed a cap on the exchange rate.

Long-simmering tensions over the investigation have boiled over since Judge Tarek Bitar brought charges against some of the most influential people in the land, defying political pressure as he resumed his inquiry.

Air raid alarms sounded across Ukraine on Thursday as people headed to work. In the capital Kyiv, crowds took cover for a time in underground metro stations.

India, one of the world's fastest growing oil markets, has lagged major economic peers in Europe and Asia in the adoption of EVs but sales are now picking up and investment in the production of new autos and energy infrastructure is accelerating.

The gains, particularly on U.S. crude, were however limited by a 4.2 million barrel build in stocks at Cushing, the pricing hub for NYMEX oil futures, earlier this week.

Presenting a quarterly economic report, the bank's Governor Sahap Kavcioglu stood by previous year-end annual inflation forecasts for 2023 and 2024 of 22.3% and 8.8% respectively.

Islamic Jihad confirmed battling the Israeli forces as they carried out the unusually deep raid into Jenin's refugee camp, a militant bastion.

"The strike will go on until UNWRA accepts our demands," said Jamal Abdullah, head of the union representing workers paid by the agency in the West Bank.

The 2023 growth forecast is well behind an International Monetary Fund forecast of 2.7% that was issued in October and is due to be updated next week.

Ukraine will now push for Western fourth generation fighter jets such as the U.S.

U.S. crude inventories rose last week as demand for fuels tapered off, and while the increase was less than expected, crude stocks reached the highest level since June 2021, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.

Sales of U.S. military equipment to foreign governments rose 49% to $205.6 billion in the latest fiscal year, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.

Yevgeny Prigozhin made the request in a letter sent to Vycheslav Volodin, the hawkish chairman of the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament.

Officials and economists said the large size of recent deficits and a need to gain investor confidence was forcing fiscal caution on the government,

Crude oil prices rebounded on Wednesday as demand recovery hopes in top importer China following its exit from COVID-19 pandemic curbs provided support after prices dropped in the previous session on concerns about global economic growth.

G7 and other partner countries on Tuesday pledged to maintain their support for Ukraine's energy sector, including delivering equipment and other humanitarian aid during winter, the U.S.

The United States plans to test a spacecraft engine powered by nuclear fission by 2027 as part of a long-term NASA effort to demonstrate more efficient methods of propelling astronauts to Mars in the future, the space agency's chief said on Tuesday.