Prime Minister David Cameron said 2012 has been an "extraordinary year" for Britain in which the country "showed the world what we're made of" with the London Games and Queen Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee.

In his Christmas message, Cameron said the festivities were a good time to look back on the past 12 months.

Vietnam on Monday cut its key interest rates for the sixth time in 2012 in an attempt to boost an economy growing at the weakest pace in more than a decade.

The move comes as the communist-run economy struggles in the face of domestic banking sector turmoil, falling foreign direct investment and deepening financial troubles among state-owned companies.

Iran is engaged in a "smart economic war" with Western powers whose sanctions against its nuclear program are hurting some Iranians, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday.

"Targeted sanctions, which the enemies say are supposed to be crippling, have led to a drop in our oil" sales, Ahmadinejad said in a live interview on state television, referring to an oil embargo imposed by the European Union.

The U.S. industrial group General Electric said on Friday that it would buy the aviation activities of Italian engine maker Avio for $4.3 billion (3.3 billion euros), while Avio's space unit will stay with the company's present owners, the investment fund Cinven and aerospace company Finmeccanica.

A GE statement said that the acquisition would bolster its position in jet propulsion, and "will strengthen GE’s global supply chain capabilities as its engine production rates continue to rise to meet growing customer demand."

The IMF said Friday that France's growth outlook "remains fragile" and warned that it would probably miss its target of reducing its public deficit to three percent next year.

"Growth remains sluggish and the near-term outlook is subject to downside risks," it said, saying France's 2013 deficit would not fall below 3.5 percent, while growth will fall from 1.7 percent in 2011 to 0.2 percent in 2012.

The World Bank's arbitration unit has agreed to hear a complaint by Spanish oil firm Repsol over Argentina's expropriation of the company's former energy affiliate YPF.

On its website, the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes simply indicated that it had begun the arbitration process on Tuesday and the tribunal was "not yet constituted." Repsol filed its complaint two weeks ago.

Democrat and Republican lawmakers mulled their next move Saturday after leaving Washington for the Christmas holidays without reaching agreement on averting a year-end fiscal crisis that threatens Americans with stiff tax hikes and drastic budget cuts.

On Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama urged lawmakers to pass a scaled-down tax package to avert the so-call fiscal cliff.

The United States on Friday sanctioned four Iranian companies, including one accused of providing weapons to the Syrian regime's crackdown.

The Treasury Department said SAD Import Export Company shipped weapons to the Syrian Armed Forces on behalf of Iran's Defense Industries Organization, which it accused of being used by the government to "assist" the Syrian regime's crackdown.

Qatar has donated $20 million to Tunisia to compensate the families of those killed or wounded in the revolution, local media reported on Friday, as parliament moved closer to adopting a compensation law.

The donations, which will supplement an existing fund, was announced by Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali.

The race to find a replacement for Frenchman Pascal Lamy in the World Trade Organization's top post heated up on Friday with the disclosure that Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya and New Zealand had all added candidates to the list.

Indonesia has nominated its ex-trade minister Mari Pangestu, 56, hoping she would bridge the gap between developing and developed countries, presidential spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told AFP.