Airline industry group IATA warned on Monday global profits would more than halve this year owing to surging oil prices and the Eurozone crisis, with European carriers suffering losses of $1.1 billion.

Tony Tyler, head of the International Air Transport Association, also hit out at a controversial carbon tax scheme put in place by the European Union, lashing it as a "polarizing obstacle to real progress".

With an aim to foster the impact of their partnership in empowering youth in Lebanon, INJAZ Lebanon and HSBC held a press conference announcing the outcome of delivering their jointly developed program, “More Than Money” for the last two academic years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 in Lebanon, a press release said Monday.

The event was held at Ahlia School, Down Town, Beirut, marked by the attendance of François-Pascal de Maricourt, CEO HSBC, as well as, Rida Ayach, Principle Ahlia School, and Rania Jalkh Lteif representing INJAZ Lebanon.

Low-cost airline Norwegian has confirmed its order of 100 Airbus A320neo planes with a list price of $9.6 billion (7.7 billion euros), Airbus said Friday.

The order, initially placed in January, was part of a massive deal to acquire the latest fuel-efficient aircraft that will put Norwegian in a strong position to further erode the position of traditional carriers.

Sanctions-hit Iran on Saturday blasted fellow OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as oil quota "violators", accusing them of depressing global crude prices by over-pumping.

Iran's OPEC representative, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said Tehran had officially protested to the cartel that Saudi Arabia was "saturating the market" under pressure from the United States and the European Union, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Moody's warned Friday that a Greek pullout from the Eurozone could lead to downgrades of the Eurozone’s top-rated governments, including economic powerhouse Germany.

Moody's also said that an EU rescue of Spain's banking sector could force a cut to Spain's sovereign rating due to the "increased risk to the country's creditors."

Spain's weak banks need at least 40 billion euros ($50 billion) in new capital to strengthen against severe financial shocks, the International Monetary Fund said.

Stress tests performed by the IMF on the country's battered banking sector indicated the top two banks, BBVA and Banco Santander, were solid.

U.S. President Barack Obama called Friday for urgent, decisive action by Europe's leaders to beat back the economic crisis, as he urged Greeks ahead of elections to stay in the Eurozone.

Speaking as European officials worked on a huge rescue plan for Spain's feeble banks, Obama said he was confident EU leaders appreciated the severity of a crisis that weighs heavily on his prospects of reelection in November.

Shares in flagship Australian airline Qantas dropped below Aus$1 (98.5 U.S. cents) Friday for the first time since the carrier's float in 1995 after it was put on credit watch by Standard & Poor's.

The embattled airline's stock plunged as low as 96.2 cents -- a fall of more than nine percent -- after S&P put its BBB/A-2 investment-grade rating on credit watch negative following warnings this week of a huge profit slump.

Cyprus's Eurozone economy will shrink by 1.1 percent in 2012, the central bank forecast on Thursday, a more pessimistic outlook than the zero growth seen in December.

After suffering a year-long recession, Cyprus can only expect "anemic growth" of 0.4 percent next year, the bank added.

China's president pledged "selfless help" to Afghanistan on Friday and the leaders of the two nations agreed to upgrade their ties, as NATO-led forces prepare to withdraw from the war-torn country in 2014.

Hu Jintao told visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai that China would "continue to provide sincere and selfless help to the Afghan side" as it entered "a critical transition period".