France on Friday unveiled shock fiscal action to plug a 37-billion-euro hole in public finances with the toughest package of tax rises and spending cuts the country has known in an economic downturn.

The 2013 budget adopted by President Francois Hollande's cabinet commits the ruling Socialists to an austerity program at a time when the economy is teetering on the brink of recession.

Spain is set to reveal how much trouble its banking system is in when it releases the results of audits of 14 lenders.

The results will also help the country decide how much money it will tap from a €100 billion ($128 billion) loan facility to prop up the country's financial sector.

One of the world's largest cruise ships, its foreign passengers primed for onshore spending, was supposed to dock in Egypt this month. The port call, however, was scrapped because of security concerns surrounding Mideast protests against a film made in the U.S. that denounces Islam's holiest figure.

Once again, Egyptian tourism, an engine of the national economy and a flagship of the regional industry, has taken a hit. It was another setback for a business that had plummeted in parts of the Middle East and North Africa last year during the uprisings known as the Arab Spring, then moved toward recovery this year.

Myanmar's garment and agriculture industries could be set for a revival after a U.S. decision to ease an imports ban, but observers warn against hopes of a sudden export boom for the impoverished country.

After decades of military rule that laid waste to Myanmar's economy, leaving many jobless and infrastructure in ruins, a wave of reform under a new regime is raising the prospect of a brighter future as the nation opens to the world.

Embattled national carrier South African Airways was thrown deeper into crisis Friday, after its chairwoman Cheryl Carolus and six board members resigned, local media reported.

Carolus told the Business Day newspaper that it was "with a lot of careful thought and consideration" that she had taken this "extraordinary" step.

Qatar has inked a deal with Jordan to give it a total of $1.25 billion as part of a Gulf Cooperation Council plan to back economic reforms, the state-run Petra news agency reported on Thursday.

Under the agreement signed on Wednesday, Qatar will provide Jordan with $250 million a year for the coming five years.

A Swiss court on Wednesday temporarily banned Credit Suisse, the country's second biggest bank, from handing confidential information about a bank employee to U.S. tax authorities.

The emergency injunction by a Geneva court was a twist to the acrimonious issue of tax evasion involving Swiss banks. Eleven banks are being probed by U.S. authorities as part of an investigation into tax dodging.

Lenders will pledge $1 billion for Myanmar when they huddle in Tokyo next month, a report said Thursday, as the one-time pariah nation is increasingly welcomed back into the world community.

The report came as the United States said it was lifting the last major sanctions on the country, which is rapidly opening up following years of isolation.

The United States and other G8 nations are expanding a program to lift 50 million people in sub-Saharan Africa out of poverty and hunger within the next decade, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

More than 60 companies pledging some $4 billion in private business commitments to help build seed, fertilizer or small-scale irrigation firms have joined the Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

The United States shrugged off on Wednesday European Union plans to take the U.S. back to the World Trade Organization over illegal subsidies to aerospace giant Boeing, accusing the EU of far greater handouts.

"On the one side we have $90 billion (70 billion euros) of illegal financing of Airbus by the EU and on the other side we have $3.0-$4.0 billion for Boeing," said Michael Punke, U.S. representative at the trade arbiter.