Ratings agency Moody's on Tuesday lowered the outlook on the EU's bailout fund from stable to negative, after threatening the triple-A credit ratings of three of the Eurozone’s major guarantors.

Moody's said its decision to lower the outlook on the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) reflected the changes in outlooks on Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. But it maintained the EFSF's triple-A rating.

Swiss engineering group ABB said on Tuesday that it has won a contract worth more than $100 million (82.7 million euros) to build a gas condensate plant in Oman.

The order was placed in the second quarter by Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), said ABB, which releases its half-year results on Thursday.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Tuesday that he hoped that Spain would not need a full bailout, but if so, it could require a boost to Europe's rescue fund or European Central Bank action.

"I hope it will not be necessary to intervene again," Fabius told France 2 television. "If we have to intervene, it could be (via) an increase of firewalls... or interventions by the (European) central bank."

As a Philippine property boom gathers pace, even Paris Hilton, Donald Trump and high-fashion house Versace are getting a piece of the action.

The good times are into their fourth year, fuelled by steady economic growth, Western firms offshoring jobs to the Philippines, the buying power of millions of Filipinos working abroad and low interest rates.

Moody's took the first step toward stripping Germany of its coveted AAA credit rating on Monday, cutting the outlook for Europe's largest and most pivotal economy to "negative."

Delivering a stark warning that no one is immune from the Eurozone’s rolling crisis, the ratings agency lowered Germany's credit outlook from "stable" to "negative."

Russia and a top Italian construction firm on Monday signed a deal worth 1.0 billion euros to build infrastructure for developing tourism in the violence-plagued Northern Caucasus region.

The deal, signed on the sidelines of a visit to Russia by Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, foresees the Italian firm Rizzani de Eccher investing 1.0 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to develop hotels and commercial infrastructure.

French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen has reached a deal to provide Japan's Toyota with light commercial vehicles for sale in Europe, the two companies said in a statement Monday.

The deal comes with Peugeot under fire in France after having announced earlier this month plans to cut 8,000 jobs and to close its historic Aulnay plant near Paris because of falling European sales.

Australia's mining boom will slow more sharply than expected and could be over within two years due to easing demand from China and falling prices, a leading economic forecaster warned Monday.

Mining exports to industrializing Asian nations, chiefly China, helped Australia weather the global crisis without entering recession and prompted Canberra to vow a budget surplus for the 2012-13 fiscal year starting July 1.

Greece returns to the EU-IMF operating table this week for a top-to-bottom appraisal that will determine whether its struggling economy will earn another cash injection to stay alive beyond the summer.

Auditors from the EU, International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank -- the so-called troika of Greek creditors -- return to Athens on Tuesday seeking answers from the government on how to bring troubled structural reforms on track.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle ruled out any renegotiation of Greece's budget austerity program in an interview published Saturday.

"I see desires emerging in Greece to renegotiate and substantially question the country's obligations to carry out reforms. I have to say simply, that will not do. It is a Rubicon that we are not going to cross," Westerwelle told the daily Bild.