BUSINESS

Colombia's government on Wednesday blamed the ELN guerrilla group for unnecessarily prolonging the country's decades-old armed conflict by putting on hold ongoing peace negotiations.

The US Federal Reserve was divided in January over the risks of cutting interest rates too soon or too late, although most members voiced concern about moving early, according to minutes of the meeting published Wednesday.

HSBC's quarterly profit took a significant hit due to impairment charges on its investments in China's Bank of Communications.

US firm OpenAI debuted a tool last week that can generate highly realistic snippets of video from just a few lines of text, leading content creators to wonder if they are the latest professionals about to be replaced by algorithms.

The German Football League (DFL) on Wednesday dropped a huge cash injection deal with investors for a share of Bundesliga media revenues after widespread fan protests, a U-turn hailed by fanclubs as a "success" for supporters.

At least two people died on Wednesday and two more were injured when part of a bridge under construction crashed down on workers in the Netherlands, Dutch officials said.

The human cost of the war in Ukraine, two years after the Russian invasion, is in the hundreds of thousands but the exact toll is unknown, with both sides shrouding their losses in secrecy, and Russia covering up civilian deaths in areas it has conquered.

South Africa plans to hike taxes and increase spending on social grants ahead of a general election in May amid sluggish growth and high debt, the government said on Wednesday.

British telecoms giant BT Group announced Tuesday the sale of its famous BT Tower and that the building located in the heart of London will be transformed into a hotel.

HSBC said Wednesday it achieved "record profit" in 2023 as pre-tax gains soared by nearly 80 percent, with the banking giant also announcing further share buybacks.

An FBI informant charged with lying about US President Joe Biden and his son told investigators he received information about Hunter Biden from Russian intelligence associates, prosecutors said Tuesday in a court filing.

Asian markets were mostly down Wednesday, tracking US losses as investors await a key tech earnings report and Fed policy meeting minutes later in the day.

Anti-American allies Russia and Venezuela vowed to boost cooperation in oil and gas production and the "peaceful use of nuclear energy" at a meeting of foreign ministers in Caracas Tuesday.

Capital One's proposed merger with the US credit card specialist Discover has reshuffled the deck in a fast-growing sector in the United States, where cash is gradually disappearing from the landscape.

An Israeli ground offensive in Rafah would turn the southern Gaza city into a "graveyard" and heighten the looming risk of famine, leaders of global humanitarian groups warned on Tuesday.

Criminals have overtaken your computer network, they are threatening to leak your most sensitive secrets and your share price is tumbling.

The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution Tuesday calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, while circulating its own proposal for an eventual truce as President Joe Biden comes under pressure to dial back support for Israel.

To show or not to show at London Fashion Week? The programme provides also a venue to showcase at London Fashion Week, which could be for example at a hotel close to the main setting.

Walmart announced Tuesday it will buy smart television maker Vizio for $2.3 billion, boosting the retail giant's advertising venture as growth slows in its legacy business from the pandemic boom.

An international law enforcement operation has taken down dozens of servers and disrupted LockBit, "the world's most harmful cyber crime group" according to British authorities.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has vowed to bar US petroleum giant ExxonMobil from the waters off the oil-rich region of Essequibo, which Caracas claims from Guyana as its own.

South Korean hospitals turned away some patients and delayed surgeries on Tuesday as hundreds of trainee doctors stopped working in a protest against medical training reforms.

The glittering diamonds sparkle the same but there are key differences: mined natural gems are more than a billion years old, while laboratory-made rocks are new and cost less than half the price.

China's first domestically produced passenger jet was presented at Asia's biggest airshow, which opened in Singapore on Tuesday, as Beijing seeks to woo international buyers.

US banking giant Capital One announced Monday it will acquire financial services company Discover in a $35.3 billion all-stock deal combining two of America's major credit card firms.

Mainland China's shares fell on Tuesday as its central bank announced a record cut to a benchmark lending rate in a bid to boost its struggling economy.

China's central bank on Tuesday cut a key benchmark lending rate used to price mortgages, as Beijing seeks to boost its flagging growth.

Italy will again attempt Tuesday to secure justice for an Italian student kidnapped and murdered in Cairo, with the opening of a second trial of four Egyptian security officers accused of the brutal killing.

Ukrainian troops, reeling from losing a key town, now face "extremely difficult" conditions all along the frontline with Russia because of delayed foreign aid, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday.