Moody's on Wednesday cut its debt rating on Austria's three biggest banks -- Erste Bank, Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) and Bank Austria, an offshoot of Italy's UniCredit group.

The move was largely due to their exposure to the financial crisis in eastern Europe.

U.S. auto giant General Motors said Tuesday that its China sales for May hit a record 231,183 vehicles, despite a looming slowdown in the world's second largest economy.

GM's sales in the country surged 21.3 percent in May from the same month last year and rose 1.7 percent from April, it said in a statement.

Etihad Airways, one of the Gulf region's fast-growing carriers, said Tuesday it has bought a 3.96 percent equity stake in Virgin Australia.

In an announcement posted by Virgin on the Australian stock market, Etihad said it built its holding over recent weeks through on-market share purchases.

Before Europe launches common bonds or so-called eurobonds, it must first establish a real fiscal union, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in a newspaper interview Tuesday.

"The government has always said that before we start talking about joint debt management, we need real fiscal union," Schaeuble told the business daily Handelsblatt.

Australian flag carrier Qantas warned Tuesday its full-year profit could dive by up to 90 percent on the back of steep losses in its international arm, sending its share price plunging to all-time lows.

The airline said it expected underlying profit before tax -- its preferred measure of financial performance -- to be Aus$50-100 million (US$49-98 million) in the year to June 30, compared with Aus$552 million in the previous year.

German airline Lufthansa is planning to sell its onboard catering unit LSG Sky Chefs as it focuses more and more on its core airline business, the Financial Times Deutschland reported on Monday.

After already selling off loss-making units, such as BMI, Lufthansa has now turned its sights on profitable subsidiaries such as LSG Sky Chefs and its IT services unit, with plans to divest the catering unit particularly far advanced, the newspaper said without revealing its sources.

Europe's leading stock markets dropped sharply at the start of trading on Monday on growing concerns for the world economy illustrated by the Eurozone debt crisis, poor U.S. data and a slowdown in China.

With London closed for the jubilee bank holiday, the German blue-chip DAX stock index fell below the key psychological level of 6,000 points for the first time since January at the start of trade on Monday.

The United Arab Emirates economy grew by 4.2 percent in 2011 but is expected to expand at just three percent this year as oil prices decrease, the Gulf country's economy minister said Monday.

Gross domestic product jumped from 1.3 percent in 2010 to "4.2 percent in 2011," Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansouri told reporters.

Asian markets tumbled further on Monday as poor U.S. jobs data added to already weak sentiment caused by Spain's banking crisis and political uncertainty in Greece.

Dealers were also digesting a string of manufacturing figures from Asia to the United States that pointed to a global economic slowdown.

Sierra Leone on Friday launched a $3 million (2.5 million euro) project funded by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to help develop its tourism sector, officials said.

The head of the National Tourism Board, Cecil Williams said: "The fund will be used to formulate an eco-tourism policy and action plan for Sierra Leone and review the Development of Tourism Act."