The Turkish lira took one of its biggest tumbles of the year on Wednesday over speculation that the central bank was about to cut rates in the face of soaring inflation.

Turkey's annual rate of inflation accelerated to 19.25 percent last month, above the central bank's policy rate of 19 percent.

Energy ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon on Wednesday agreed a plan to bring gas and electricity to crisis-hit Lebanon at a meeting in Amman.

Egypt's minister for oil and mines Tarek al-Molla said that his country would "be ready to transfer gas (to Lebanon) as soon as possible" via the transnational Arab Gas Pipeline.

Two splendid diamond bracelets that belonged to French queen Marie-Antoinette will go under the hammer in Geneva later this year, the auction house Christie's said Wednesday. 

The bracelets, coated with 112 diamonds in total, will be sold together and are estimated to fetch between $2-4 million when they go under the hammer on November 9.

Friends and family initially mocked one Jordanian family's new venture making soap from donkey milk. But now, a year on, the company is cleaning up as customers bray for more.

Atan Donkey Milk Soaps produces 100 percent natural soaps from its farm in Madaba, 35 kilometers (21 miles) southwest of Amman, where it keeps 12 donkeys, and a small manufacturing workshop in the Jordanian capital.

One of the main candidates to be Japan's next prime minister said Wednesday the country needs a new type of capitalism to address income and social gaps caused by the pandemic.

Former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida is the only announced candidate so far in the race to lead the governing Liberal Democratic Party and succeed outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Whoever wins the Sept. 29 party vote is almost certain to be the next government leader.

Shares slipped in Asia and Europe on Wednesday after a lackluster session on Wall Street, where weak jobs data and pandemic concerns weighed on sentiment.

Tokyo's benchmark rose after economic growth for the April-June quarter was revised upward to an annualized 1.9% from an earlier estimate of 1.3%.

The European Union moved Tuesday to force Poland to comply with the rulings of Europe's top court with plans to seek daily fines against the nationalist government in Warsaw linked to a long-running dispute over justice independence in the country.

The EU's executive branch, the European Commission, said that it wants the European Court of Justice to "impose financial penalties on Poland to ensure compliance" with one of the tribunal's previous legal rulings.

China's import and export growth accelerated in August despite disruptions due to the spread of the coronavirus's delta variant.

Exports rose 25.6% over a year earlier to $294.3 billion, up from July's 18.9% growth, customs data showed Tuesday. Imports rose 33.1% to $236 billion, up from the previous month's 28.7%.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans Tuesday to fulfill a election promise to grapple with the rocketing cost of the long-term care needed by Britain's growing older population.

To do it, he appears set to break another election vow: not to raise taxes.

The funds earmarked by the central bank for the subsidization of fuel “have run out,” an official source concerned with the file said on Tuesday.

“Banque du Liban has stopped granting permissions for subsidized importation,” the source told Annahar newspaper.