SAUDI ARABIA: OIL giant Aramco will invest billions of dollars in China’s downstream petrochemicals industry, including the construction of a new refinery, the company said in deals announced on Sunday and Monday.

The announcements came as the company posted a record profit of more than $160 billion (£129.7bn) in 2022.

MEXICO: Local media reports in Mexico say at least 37 people were killed after a fire broke out at the National Migration Institute facility in Ciudad Juarez near the US border.

Authorities said the fire broke out in the early hours of this morning.

There has been no official statement on the cause of the blaze, but local media is reporting that there had been a disturbance inside the centre just before the fire started. 

HUNGARY: Hungary’s parliament approved Finland’s bid to join Nato, putting an end to months of delays and bringing the Nordic country one step closer to becoming a full member of the Western military alliance.

The measure, passed on Monday with 182 votes for and six against, came after Hungary’s government had repeatedly postponed the vote.

FRANCE: France’s top court has ruled against extraditing 10 former far-left Italian militants who were convicted for attacks carried out in the 1970s and 1980s.

The two women and eight men fled Italy after their convictions and before they could be sent to prison. Now ranging in age from 62 to 79, they have lived in France for decades.

The crimes for which they were convicted include the killing of a Carabinieri paramilitary general and the kidnapping of a judge, both in 1980.