Etihad Airways said it remains strongly confident of Airbus' A350 program despite cancelling its order for seven planes of the delayed stretched-body A350-1000.
"Etihad Airways has a great deal of confidence in the A350 XWB program and we retain attractive delivery positions for the -1000 derivative," said an airline spokesperson in a statement received by Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

Ratings agency Moody's said Monday that it has downgraded Alcatel-Lucent's rating by one notch, from B1 to B2, over concerns the global communications giant is on the verge of cash-flow problems.
"Alcatel-Lucent has been consuming cash from operations since the 2006 merger between Alcatel and Lucent Technologies," Moody's said in a statement.

Saudi tycoon Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has signed agreements with Bahrain to move his Rotana news and entertainment company from Cairo to the protest-hit Gulf state, the official BNA agency said on Wednesday.
The move comes as Prince Alwaleed plans to launch 24-hour news channel, Alarab in the first half of 2013 to compete with Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya and the newly-launched Sky News Arabia satellite news channels.

Mexican telecommunication giant America Movil, controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, on Tuesday announced an offer of eight euros a share for a 28-percent stake in Dutch telecoms operator KPN.
The price offered is 23.5 percent higher than the Dutch company's last listed share price, the company said in a statement, adding that it planned to make the offer by early June at the latest.

Boeing and Airbus suffered major order cancellations last month, with airlines dropping 25 787 Dreamliners and seven A350s, according to data released by the aircraft manufacturers on Monday.
With 25 cancellations of 787 Dreamliners by clients not named, against 19 orders so far this year, Boeing is in negative territory for its flagship aircraft built largely with composite materials that it says will use 20 percent less fuel than similarly sized aircraft.

Chrysler will recall nearly 120,000 vehicles in the United States to fix an electrical problem with the anti-lock brake and stability control, safety regulators said Monday.
The automaker found that the power distribution center in certain Dodge Charger or Chrysler 300 vehicles can overheat and blow a fuse.

Japan's Toshiba said Tuesday its full-year net profit dropped by almost half to $921 million on a strong yen and weak digital product sales, and last year's natural disasters in Japan and Thailand.
Toshiba said net profit was 73.7 billion yen in the fiscal year to March, down 46.5 percent from 137.8 billion yen a year earlier.

The Euro Disney theme park near Paris reported a 22-percent increase in its net loss for the first half of its financial year on Monday and warned it might have to take cost-cutting action.
Euro Disney, the biggest amusement park in Europe and celebrating its 20th anniversary, reported a net loss of 100.8 million euros ($130.6 million), an increase of 21 million euros from the loss for the first half 12 months ago.

The Arab Spring has resulted in a sharp drop in tourism in countries at the center of the turmoil, to the benefit of safe destinations in the region, experts say.
Major tourist destinations such as Tunisia and Egypt saw the numbers of visitors plummet because of uprisings last year that spread to other nations where confrontations with autocratic regimes turned deadly.

The International Monetary Fund Monday applauded Australia's plan for a budget surplus, saying it will help "rebuild fiscal buffers", in comments the government seized on as "a ringing endorsement".
Treasurer Wayne Swan is set to unveil one of the toughest budgets in years for the mining-powered economy on Tuesday, with deep spending cuts expected to meet a targeted modest surplus next financial year.
