The Turkish government has ordered the transfer of tens of billions of dollars worth of state assets to a sovereign wealth fund, in a huge shake-up of its holdings aimed at financing ambitious infrastructure projects.

The assets being transferred to the sovereign wealth fund range from wholly state-owned Ziraat Bank to the government's minority shareholding in flag carrier Turkish Airlines.

Morocco's government on Monday warned the European Union that its failure to fully implement an agriculture deal with Rabat would have severe consequences and could spur illegal migration.

The North African nation and the European Union signed in 2012 a multi-million-euro fishing and agriculture trade agreement.

Two decades ago, an influx of half a million migrants boosted Greece's economy. Today, the government and some experts hope a new wave of migrants will do the same.

Qatar Airways launched the world's longest scheduled commercial service with its inaugural flight from Doha to Auckland taking off eight minutes early on Sunday, a company spokeswoman said.

The thwarted attack near the Louvre museum on Friday will likely further tarnish the reputation of Paris, still reeling from a series of terror attacks, as a tourist destination.

European and U.S. stock markets advanced Friday on data showing a surge in new job creation in the United States last month, while U.S. bank stocks jumped on moves by President Donald Trump to roll back financial regulations.

President Donald Trump will on Friday move to roll back key reforms enacted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, in what the White House sees as an effort to cut damaging red tape.

Officials say Trump will sign two executive actions asking the Treasury and the Labor Department to look into ways of reforming rules that were designed to make markets safer and give consumers more protection.

Demand for gold rose in 2016 to a three-year high, aided by keen investment appetite for the precious metal, the World Gold Council said Friday in a report.

Total demand for gold -- whose twin drivers are jewellery and investment buying -- advanced two percent to 4,309 tonnes compared with 2015, London-based industry body WGC said in a report.

Facebook shares bounced Wednesday with word that profit more than doubled in the final quarter of last year, coming back down after a vow to spend heavily on the future.

Japan's public pension fund on Thursday denied a report it will invest in US infrastructure as part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's expected offer to President Donald Trump to help boost US employment.

The leading business daily Nikkei said, without citing sources, that the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the world's largest, will buy debt issued by US companies in order to fund the vast spending programme.