Central Bank Governor Riyad Salameh opened on Monday the London Stock Exchange markets as part of his trip to England to take part in the Lebanon Capital Market Day conference.

He said at the event: “This development helps highlight the special investment opportunities that Lebanon provides.”

Swiss banking giant UBS was hit twice over on Monday for allowing a rogue trader to commit massive fraud, with British regulators imposing a nearly $50-million fine and Switzerland banning its investment bank from staging takeovers.

In yet another black mark for Swiss banking, regulators in Britain and Switzerland moved fast to punish UBS for failing to stop rogue trader Kweky Adoboli, who was sentenced last week to seven years behind bars in Britain for gambling away $2.3 billion (1.8 billion euros).

The U.S. Internet giant Amazon said on Monday that it would open a fourth dispatch center in France with the likely creation of 2,500 jobs, as it negotiates a tax dispute with the French government.

The facility would improve the handling of orders from customers in northern France but also in Europe and the world, Amazon said.

Catalonia's leader Artur Mas says the powerful region's economy can stand tall in Europe without Spain. But could Spain survive without Catalonia?

The prospect of an independent Catalonia of 7.5 million people lying to the northeast of Spain seems distant with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government vowing to block any referendum.

U.S. shoppers spent heavily online on the crucial Black Friday shopping day, for the first time topping a billion dollars in online sales in a single day, analysts and retailers said.

The four-day Thanksgiving holiday weekend is the kickoff to the U.S. holiday shopping season, and Black Friday has long been considered the critical day that turns retailers' books from red to black.

Share prices on the Egypt Exchange declined almost 9.5 percent by midday (1000 GMT) on Sunday, after President Mohamed Morsi assumed sweeping powers that sparked clashes and polarized the country's politics.

The main EGX-30 index shed 9.49 percent to reach 4,923.19 points, according to the Egyptian Exchange.

Dubai, famed for its mega-projects before it was hit by the global financial crisis, on Saturday announced a new development to open the world's biggest mall and a park larger than London's Hyde Park.

The ruler of the Gulf desert city state, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, announced the plan for a "new city within Dubai," according to an official statement, naming it after himself.

India's economy logged around 5.5 percent growth in the last financial quarter, the finance minister estimated on Saturday -- a rate that could boost calls for lower interest rates to spur activity.

India's once-booming economy has been hit by high interest rates, Europe's debt crisis that has slowed exports, and sluggish investment caused by domestic and overseas concerns about policy and corruption.

Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy has told judges he received no money from France's richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, amid allegations that his 2007 election campaign was illegally financed, a newspaper said Saturday.

"I have known the Bettencourts for 28 years and I am 57... They have never given me a sou (cent) and I have never asked them," Sarkozy said during a 12-hour hearing in front of investigating magistrates in the southern city of Bordeaux on Thursday, the Sud Ouest daily reported.

Walmart workers hailed their wage protest Saturday, saying their walkout on 'Black Friday' had shown the world's largest retailer their determination to fight against all odds.

Hundreds of protesters targeted Walmart stores across the United States on Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, accusing the bargain superstore of ripping off its own employees.