The European Union began a nine-day battle over federal-style changes to save the Eurozone on Thursday with France presenting its policy on common budget control.

The European Central Bank cooled the air after shock action by central banks boosted markets, sending a strong message to EU leaders that it has no magic wand to shore up the Eurozone.

British energy group BP said on Thursday that it had agreed to sell its Canadian natural gas liquids business to Plains Midstream Canada ULC for U.S.$1.67 billion in cash.

The deal, equivalent to 1.24 billion Euros, comes as BP seeks to unlock US$30 billion to meet compensation costs linked to last year's Gulf of Mexico oil spill caused by a blast on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon platform.

Lebanese banks have adopted strict measures to ensure compliance with international sanctions against neighboring Syria and are scrutinizing transfers of existing Syrian clients, banking officials said on Thursday.

"Banks are taking extremely strong precautions to avoid bad surprises regarding people or institutions under sanctions," said one official who works at one of Lebanon's top banks. "No one wants to expose himself to pressure or problems.

Investors worldwide could soon be able to own a piece of New York City's most famous landmark, the legendary Empire State Building.

According to documents made public Tuesday, the owners of the 80-year-old skyscraper, which reigned as the world's tallest for more than four decades, are planning to list it on the stock market together with other properties.

India's economic growth slumped to a two-year-low 6.9 percent in the second quarter, data showed Wednesday, as it was hit by a string of rate hikes and a stumbling global economy.

The expansion in July-September was the weakest since the three months to June 2009 when the economy grew just 6.0 percent year-on-year as Western economies were emerging from the global financial crisis.

Eurozone finance ministers turned to the IMF for more help to keep the monetary union together late Tuesday after they missed their goal of boosting their own bailout fund to one trillion Euros.

With fears rising that Italy will need a bailout after its borrowing costs soared to record heights, ministers scrambled to tame a debt crisis threatening to break apart the 17-nation Eurozone.

Italy's fashion brand Prada saw sales increase 25 percent over the first nine months of the year, with Asia reconfirming itself as the main market for luxury goods, the group said Tuesday.

Prada Spa, which floated on the Hong Kong stock exchange in June, announced net profit soared 75 percent to 273.2 million Euros ($364.3 million) compared to the same period in 2010.

The parent companies of American Airlines and its regional affiliate American Eagle are filing for bankruptcy protection.

AMR Corp. and AMR Eagle Holding Corp. said Tuesday that they filed voluntary petitions to reorganize, saying it's in the best interest of the companies and its shareholders.

Italy saw its borrowing rates skyrocket in a big auction of bonds Tuesday as Premier Mario Monti put the finishing touches on his new lean government of technocrats, tasked with getting the country's enormous debt under control to avoid a catastrophic default.

Though Italy easily raised €7.49 billion ($10 billion), it had to pay more to investors to get them to open their wallets.

Europe is reeling from warnings it faces a "deep depression" if the eurozone collapses and that every EU nation's credit rating could be hit without firm action to resolve the debt crisis.

An updated growth report from the OECD on Monday said the crisis was now just one step away from plunging advanced economies into an abyss of recession and could trigger waves of bankruptcies.