South Korea's government began steps Monday to suspend the medical licenses of thousands of striking junior doctors, days after they missed a government-set deadline to end their joint walkouts, which have severely impacted hospital operations.

Nearly 9,000 medical interns and residents have been on strike for two weeks to protest a government push to sharply increase the number of medical school admissions. Their action has led to hundreds of canceled surgeries and other treatments and threatened to burden the country's medical service.

It's clear that China's efforts to build confidence in its slowing economy will top the agenda of its ceremonial national legislature, which convenes Tuesday in Beijing.

What remains unclear is how the ruling Communist Party can navigate toward stronger, sustained growth as China's workforce is aging, relations with Washington are fraught, and housing construction — a main driver of the economy — is in crisis.

The European Union leveled its first antitrust penalty against Apple on Monday, fining the U.S. tech giant nearly $2 billion for breaking the bloc's competition laws by unfairly favoring its own music streaming service over rivals.

Apple banned app developers from "fully informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services outside of the app," said the European Commission, the 27-nation bloc's executive arm and top antitrust enforcer.

Some members of oil cartel OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, and allied producers like Russia are again deepening their voluntary crude supply cuts.

Announcements from several OPEC+ countries extend reductions of some 2.2 million barrels a day, the secretariat for the multinational organization noted Sunday. Saudi Arabia led the pack by extending its previously-implemented cut of 1 million barrels a day through the end of 2024's second quarter.

The central African nation of Congo is offering 30 oil and gas blocks around the country for auction. It's a prospect that concerns environmentalists and some of the people who live near the drilling that has so far been limited to a small area near its far western border on the Atlantic Ocean.

The Associated Press visited Moanda territory, including two villages near drilling sites, and heard from residents who said air and ground pollution has hurt their crops and caused health problems. They say Perenco, the French-British company that began drilling in 2000, has failed to address those problems, and advocacy groups say they want to see changes before drilling expands.

Japanese stocks again set a record on Friday, after U.S. stocks climbed to all-time highs the previous day, European markets also went up ahead of euro zone inflation data.

The future for the S&P 500 was up 0.1% while that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.1%.

Local buses, subway trains and trams ground to a halt in much of Germany on Friday, at the peak of a week of walkouts by employees demanding better working conditions.

The Ver.di service workers' union called for a week of strikes lasting from Monday to Saturday, with the main day of walkouts on Friday. The union is being backed by the Fridays for Future climate activist group, which called on supporters to take to the streets for "good work and climate-friendly mobility."

The inflation that has ravaged the European economy eased again in February, falling to 2.6% as high interest rates, moderating oil and gas prices, and sluggish growth held back price increases in stores.

February's figure for the 20 countries that use the euro currency compares to 2.8% from January, the European Union's statistical agency Eurostat said Friday.

Beirut has long been renowned for its pivotal educational role in the Middle East. It stands as the city where the most prominent Arab rulers pursued their education, and it has always been home to a great number of schools and universities. The Lebanese, known for their profound love of knowledge, consistently invest everything they can to provide their children with a quality education.

Today, Beirut, as we like to call it “the classroom of the Middle East”, is hosting the second edition of SchoolTec, “The National Trade Fair for Educational Supplies and Solutions”, drawing hundreds of attendees, including principals, coordinators, teachers, academic and non-academic staff members, IT managers, procurers, and parents, eager to gain knowledge about the most prominent educational solutions, technologies, and services.

A coalition of civil society groups on Wednesday accused the Emirati hosts of a World Trade Organization meeting of "heavy-handed restrictions", saying some of its members have been detained at the talks.

Our World Is Not for Sale (OWINFS), representing more than a dozen civil society groups, said it has complained to the WTO following a series of incidents at the body's 13th ministerial conference in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi.