The United States will this week host a meeting of some 16 nations opposed to a controversial EU carbon tax on airlines, aiming to draw up an alternative plan, a U.S. official said Monday.

"All of the countries who are part of this meeting... are opposed to the EU's application of its emissions trading scheme (ETS) to foreign carriers," a senior administration official said.

Germany's number-two bank Commerzbank early Tuesday announced the sale of its Ukrainian subsidiary Bank Forum for an undisclosed sum, but at a charge to the German bank of 286 million euros.

Commerzbank added in a statement it expected second quarter operating profits of 450 million euros against 55 million a year earlier, making an operating profit of one billion euros in the first half compared with 1.2 billion over the same period last year.

Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest lender, said Tuesday that its bottom-line profit was slashed nearly in half by the Eurozone debt crisis in the second quarter.

Deutsche Bank said in a statement its net profit amounted to 661 million euros ($811 million) in the period from April to June, compared to 1.2 billion euros during the same period last year.

A Tehran court has sentenced to death four people convicted in Iran's biggest-ever banking scandal, according to the national chief prosecutor on Monday, quoted by the official news agency IRNA.

The sentences came at the end of a trial of 39 suspects that started in February. The magnitude of the scandal was estimated at $2.6 billion when it came to light in September last year.

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.