British mobile phone giant Vodafone said on Tuesday that first-half net profits soared by 56.5 percent and raised its annual earnings forecast, adding it had agreed to sell SoftBank interests for 3.1 billion pounds.

Earnings after tax soared by 56.5 percent to 7.542 billion pounds (8.764 billion euros, 12.15 billion dollars) in the six months to September, compared with the outcome in the same part of 2009.

Rolls-Royce shares slumped over 3.0 percent in initial trades on Monday after Qantas said it had found oil leaks in engines made by the British group for the Australian airlines' Airbus A380 superjumbos.

Rolls dropped 3.21 percent to 572 pence, making it the heaviest faller in early trading on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was stable.

The United States economy created 151,000 jobs in October, much better than expected amid a weak recovery, while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 9.6 percent for the third consecutive month, official data showed on Friday.

The jobless rate matched expectations, while the number of new jobs was more than double the 60,000 forecast by most analysts.

The world's leading luxury car maker, BMW, reported a huge leap in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday as recovering global markets snapped up its saloons (sedans) and sports utility vehicles.

BMW said its net profit leapt 11-fold from the equivalent figure last year, to 874 million euros (1.2 billion dollars), and stood by its sales target for this year and profitability targets for 2012.

The oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico could cost BP 40 billion dollars, the energy group revealed on Tuesday with shock figures ramping up the bill by almost a quarter.

BP said it had taken an additional charge of 7.7 billion dollars during the third quarter, taking the company's total estimated clean-up and legal costs to 39.9 billion dollars (28.6 billion euros).

Emirates airlines on Monday posted a 351 percent increase in net profits in six months, reaching 3.4 billion dirhams (925 million dollars), on the back of growing customer demand, a statement said.

The Dubai national carrier said the net profits in the first half of its current financial year compared to 752 million dirhams in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Royal Dutch Shell announced Thursday that net profits rose seven percent to 3.463 billion dollars in the third quarter from one year ago, driven by higher output, rising oil prices and lower costs.

However the net profit figure, equivalent to 2.503 billion euros, also included a massive 1.442 billion dollars of impairments and writedowns on the value of assets, Shell said in a results statement.

Queen Elizabeth II formally welcomed the emir of Qatar to Britain on Tuesday for a trip aimed at boosting growing trade links and both countries' bids for the football World Cup.

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani shook hands with the British monarch upon their meeting in Windsor, west of London, as the military sounded a gun salute.

The British economy turned in surprisingly robust official growth of 0.8 percent in the third quarter on Tuesday, soothing fears of a double-dip recession a week after dramatic public spending cuts.

And on a 12-month comparison, growth was 2.8 percent, the Office for National Statistics said, the strongest 12-month reading since 2007.

Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil on Friday set the average subscription fee to private power generation in all Lebanese areas at LBP 350/kWh for the 5 amperes category.

Bassil noted that this measure enables citizens and municipalities to hold accountable the providers of private power generation in the country. However, he added that it also respects the rights of the providers.