Japan's Sharp said Thursday it will cut 5,000 jobs by March as it reported a quarterly loss and said it would remain in the red for the rest of the year amid losses at its struggling TV business.

The major consumer electronics maker said its net loss for the April-June quarter was 138.4 billion yen ($1.76 billion), compared with a loss of 49.3 billion in the same period a year ago.

Markets were hoping for strong action from the European Central Bank to quell the Eurozone crisis on Thursday when it holds what one analyst called its "most exciting meeting for a long time".

Last week, ECB chief Mario Draghi sent markets soaring with an unusually strong pledge to do "whatever it takes" to save the crisis-wracked euro, adding: "And believe me, it will be enough."

House prices in recession-affected Britain slid in July on an annual basis by the biggest amount in nearly three years, a survey by major home-loans provider Nationwide showed on Wednesday.

The average value of a home in Britain stood at £164,389 ($257,743, 209,051 euros) in July -- down 2.6 percent compared with the same month in 2011, the lender said in a statement.

German luxury carmaker BMW said Wednesday its net profits had dropped sharply in the second quarter of the year despite strong sales growth in Asia, especially in China.

Net profits came to 1.28 billion euros ($1.58 billion) in the second three months of the year, BMW said, a decline of 28.1 percent on the same period in 2011.

China's manufacturing activity picked up modestly to a three-month high in July as factory output rose, boosted by government measures to stimulate the economy, HSBC said Wednesday.

The British banking giant said its closely watched purchasing managers' index (PMI), which gauges nationwide manufacturing activity, posted a reading of 49.3 in July.

Millions of dollars in U.S. funds have been lost due to poor planning and workmanship in projects to help rebuild Afghanistan and billions more could be at risk, a U.S. watchdog said Monday.

The report by the special inspector general for Afghanistan, John Sopko, warned that handing over security to Afghan forces as the U.S. withdraws its troops would also likely cause the costs of U.S.-funded aid schemes to balloon.

The United States will this week host a meeting of some 16 nations opposed to a controversial EU carbon tax on airlines, aiming to draw up an alternative plan, a U.S. official said Monday.

"All of the countries who are part of this meeting... are opposed to the EU's application of its emissions trading scheme (ETS) to foreign carriers," a senior administration official said.

Germany's number-two bank Commerzbank early Tuesday announced the sale of its Ukrainian subsidiary Bank Forum for an undisclosed sum, but at a charge to the German bank of 286 million euros.

Commerzbank added in a statement it expected second quarter operating profits of 450 million euros against 55 million a year earlier, making an operating profit of one billion euros in the first half compared with 1.2 billion over the same period last year.

Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest lender, said Tuesday that its bottom-line profit was slashed nearly in half by the Eurozone debt crisis in the second quarter.

Deutsche Bank said in a statement its net profit amounted to 661 million euros ($811 million) in the period from April to June, compared to 1.2 billion euros during the same period last year.

A Tehran court has sentenced to death four people convicted in Iran's biggest-ever banking scandal, according to the national chief prosecutor on Monday, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.

The sentences came at the end of a trial of 39 suspects that started in February. The magnitude of the scandal was estimated at $2.6 billion when it came to light in September last year.