Business and consumer confidence in Europe slid in July, with Germany suffering the biggest fall as the Eurozone debt crisis threatened Spain, the European Union said on Monday.

The Economic Sentiment Indicator produced by the European Commission fell to 87.9 points across the Eurozone, down about two points on the previous month, the data showed.

Dubai-based real estate giant Emaar Properties said on Sunday it posted an 82 percent surge in net profits in the first half of 2012 as retail and hospitality grew, costs fell and a write-off was not repeated.

The developer of the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa, saw its net profit in the first six months rise to 1.22 billion dirhams ($332.4 million), compared with 671 million dirhams ($182.8 million) in the corresponding period last year, a company statement said.

Air France-KLM on Monday posted 895 million euros ($1.1 billion) in losses for the second quarter, as it set aside 368 million euros in provisions to meet restructuring costs.

The result marked deterioration from losses of 197 million euros during the same period last year, and underlined the need for its restructuring plan, the Franco-Dutch airline said.

Turkmenistan said Saturday that it would try to recruit international investors for a new gas pipeline project that would link Central and South Asia.

The energy-rich state plans to pitch the project to international oil and gas majors and financial institutions in the autumn, the Neitralny Turkmenistan newspaper reported.

India's Reliance Industries, led by tycoon Mukesh Ambani, could spend $2 billion to boost its aerospace and telecoms businesses, reports said on Saturday.

Quoting unnamed executives, the Economic Times said Reliance had lined up close to $1 billion to spend on its new aerospace operations over the next few years and would likely hire around 1,500 people for the division.

Mining giant BHP Billiton warned Saturday that it needed to reduce its cost base and slash non-essential spending as China cooled faster than expected, "significantly" impacting profitability.

BHP chief Marius Kloppers said weakening commodity demand due to Europe's financial turbulence and a slowdown in China was hitting the Anglo-Australian miner's bottom line and said there appeared to be little relief in sight.

Iran is expanding its insurance on its fleet of 47 oil tankers through a multi-billion-dollar line of credit as it seeks to get around EU sanctions crimping its crude exports, reports said on Saturday.

"Iran is ready to give total insurance for the transport of its oil... and the commitments by Iranian insurers are no different from those by Western insurers and therefore all risks and dangers are insured," Iran's OPEC representative, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, was quoted as saying by the state-run newspaper IRAN.

Spain's jobless rate neared 25 percent in June, officials said Friday, darkening the recession outlook despite relief on financial markets at a vow of support by the European Central Bank.

The unemployment rate rose in the second quarter to 24.63 percent and a huge 53 percent among the young, despite the start of the tourist season, figures from the national statistic office showed.

Air France is offering a massive bonus of up to six months' salary to pilots who agree to move to its new low-cost Transavia unit, a spokesman said Thursday.

A company source said that the sums being offered to pilots were as much as 60,000 euros ($74,000).

Moody's on Thursday downgraded the credit rating for the Italian region of Sicily to within one notch of junk status as the finances of regional governments in Italy and Spain rattle investors.

Moody's said it was cutting the rating for the autonomous region to Baa3 from Baa2 with a warning of a possible further downgrade due to "heightened budgetary pressures" that would increase due to the recession this year.