National Business

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia is signaling it isn't willing to pump more oil and won't push for changes to an agreement with Russia and other producers that has kept a lid on oil production levels.

The head of Chorus Aviation Inc. says he expects flying activity will move closer to pre-pandemic levels in the second quarter, despite being thrown off course by the Omicron variant over the past two months.

MONTREAL — MTY Food Group Inc. swung to a profit last year as fourth-quarter earnings jumped 24 per cent despite government-mandated restaurant closures.

VANCOUVER — Canfor Pulp Products Inc. is curtailing production at its Taylor Pulp mill in B.C. for a minimum of six weeks due to transportation problems that have hurt its ability to ship product.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans applied for employment benefits last week following three straight weeks of declines. Jobless claims rose by 23,000 to 248,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

TORONTO — When Wattpad Corp.’s co-founder thinks about the future of his tech company, he envisions using machine learning and data to tweak stories that will be streamed on car entertainment systems or through voice assistants like Alexa and Siri.

TOKYO (AP) — Japan announced Thursday it will ease its tough COVID-19 border controls by increasing the number of people allowed to enter each day and reduce quarantine requirements following criticism that its current policy is unscientific and xeno

The leader of the Federal Aviation Administration, whose agency has been criticized for its oversight of Boeing and handling of questions surrounding 5G interference with aircraft, said Wednesday he will step down March 31.

TORONTO — The head of Canada's largest private-sector union has taken a leave of absence to deal with some health issues. Unifor president Jerry Dias tweeted that his social media account will be quiet for a while.

TORONTO — Kinross Gold Corp. says it swung to a US$2.7 million loss in the fourth quarter as it was hampered by downtime at some of its operations. The loss compared with a US$783.3 million profit equal to 62 cents per share a year earlier.