Africa in debt spiral as restructuring efforts drag on

• In 2022, African public debt stood at $1.8 trillion, a 183-percent jump from 2010, having grown at around four times as fast as economic output, according to UN figures.
• Private investors -- including investment funds and pension funds -- have in recent years risen to become the top lender to African nations.

ACRES 2024 concludes, deals worth $381 million inked

Alhokair Group wins $202m contract

• The contract was awarded a project by Alpha Facilities Contracting Co., an affiliate of Al Fanar Group, to provide catering services at a residential complex in NEOM.
• It is expected that the financial impact of this partnership will begin as of Q1 2024, which will contribute to strengthening the group’s business.

Fit at 40: the revolutionary Apple Mac in numbers

• The first Mac came with 128 kilobytes of memory space, one million times less than top-of-the-line MacBooks today
• Apple paid a whopping $800,000 ($2.5 million in today's money) to air the one-minute ad, seen by 77.6 million TV viewers

Do Kwon’s Terraform Labs files for US bankruptcy

• Kwon faces fraud charges in both countries related to the crash
• According to the filing, Kwon holds 92 percent of Terraform's shares

European Central Bank to signal no rush to cut interest rates

• The ECB is "in no rush yet" to change course and governors may not even discuss cuts at this week's meeting, Deutsche Bank economists wrote
• "We expect Thursday's ECB press conference to again highlight the exceptionally low possibility of a rate cut before the summer," agreed Unicredit in an analyst note

EU foreign ministers to meet Israeli, Palestinian diplomats

• EU ministers will first meet with Israel's FM and then with the PA's top diplomat Riyad al-Maliki
• A high-ranking EU official said there were no expectations of any breakthroughs

Wounded Gazans get medical care on French hospital ship

• French warship began treating patients in November, off the coast of the port of El-Arish, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of the Egyptian border with Gaza
• French doctor Marine, who is serving aboard the Dixmude said the warship has so far received 120 patients, all serious cases who needed long periods of hospitalization

Sony ends merger deal with Zee

• According to media reports, Sony had sent a termination notice to Zee and that a formal announcement was expected soon
• The reports said that Sony cited conditions of the merger agreement not being met as the reason for the decision

Trump closes in on Republican presidential nomination in New Hampshire

• The ex-president won a crushing victory over DeSantis in Iowa last week, with Haley trailing in third
• That makes New Hampshire make-or-break for Haley, Trump's one-time UN ambassador, who trails her former boss