Saudi Arabia will send the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority $100 million to help alleviate its financial crisis, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

In a report late Wednesday, the agency said that president Mahmud Abbas received a call from Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf who "informed him of a decision by King Abdullah... to transfer $100 million (75 million euros) to the budget of the state of Palestine."

The Swiss National Bank said on Thursday it expected to post a profit of about 6.0 billion Swiss francs ($6.4 billion, 4.8 billion euros) for 2012 -- less than half of what it made in 2011.

In 2011, Switzerland's central bank, SNB, posted a profit of 13.5 billion Swiss francs.

The U.S. economy has picked up pace since November, with Christmas sales modestly stronger and New York and New Jersey rebounding from Hurricane Sandy, the Federal Reserve's Beige Book showed Wednesday.

But the survey of regional economic activity, important to setting monetary policy, showed manufacturing still sluggish, hiring and inflation still subdued and the stifling effect of the fiscal cliff fight still lingering.

Aviation regulators on Thursday grounded most of the world's 787 Dreamliner fleet until a fire risk linked to the plane's batteries can been fixed, deepening a crisis for its U.S. manufacturer Boeing.

Regulators in Japan, India and Chile followed the lead of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in ordering an indefinite halt to all operations, after a Japanese Dreamliner on Wednesday was forced into an emergency landing.

The International Monetary Fund said Wednesday it would release 3.2 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in aid to Greece that had been frozen for months amid fears about the country's ability to surmount its debt crisis.

The IMF executive board approved release of the funds after completing two reviews of Greece's economic performance under an IMF loan program that is part of an international rescue also supported by the European Union, the institution said.

Egypt's prosecution on Wednesday accepted an offer by ousted president Hosni Mubarak and his family to pay back gifts from the country's flagship newspaper worth millions of Egyptian pounds.

Mubarak, his wife Suzanne, his two sons Alaa and Gamal and their wives allegedly accepted gifts from al-Ahram worth 18 million Egyptian pounds (around $2.7 million) between 2006 and 2011.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed no change in Iran's staunch "cooperation" with Damascus, in talks with visiting Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi, reports said on Wednesday.

"We hope that the plots and enmities against the Syrian nation will soon end and peace and security can be established in the country," Ahmadinejad said at the Tuesday night meeting, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Turkey and France have agreed to resume talks on civilian nuclear energy at a time Ankara plans to build three plants within the next five years, French Foreign Trade Minister Nicole Bricq said on Wednesday.

"We met the (energy) minister to discuss Turkey's important projects in nuclear facilities," said Bricq after a meeting with Energy Minister Taner Yildiz. "France claims excellence in this field...so it is only natural that we have these discussions."

European auto sales plunged to the lowest point for 17 years in 2012, trade data showed on Wednesday, revealing the dire state of the sector despite the global strength of German automakers.

The figures came only hours after French manufacturer Renault announced the latest job cuts and restructuring in the European car industry.

China's super-rich suffer because of the pressures brought about by their fortunes and are less happy than ordinary millionaires, according to a survey by a leading wealth magazine.

"The richer you are, the less happy you are," concluded the poll of more than 500 Chinese millionaires by the Hurun Report, which compiles an annual list of China's richest people.