Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Sunday hailed an emergency $100 million donation received from Saudi Arabia after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited the kingdom last week.

"Prime minister Salam Fayyad and the Palestinian people thank... King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz after he instructed the Saudi finance ministry to transfer $100 million to the Palestinian Authority treasury at the request of president Mahmud Abbas," Fayyad's office said.

Authorities in the West German region of North Rhine-Westphalia have bought data on German clients of a Swiss bank suspected of tax evasion, a report said on Saturday.

Tax authorities had acquired a computer disc with data concerning around 1,000 German clients of the private Coutts Bank, a subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland, the report in the Financial Times Deutschland said in its online edition.

The head of India's vehicle-to-steel conglomerate Tata Group says he still has high hopes for the Nano, billed as the world's cheapest car, despite a slow sales start.

"The fundamental economies of the Nano... will continue to establish itself in the Indian market with a wider sales and service network," Tata chairman Ratan Tata said in the firm's annual report released on Friday.

Credit card giants Visa and MasterCard agreed Friday to pay more than $6 billion to millions of merchants which had sued them for allegedly fixing card-use fees.

In a negotiated settlement to resolve the seven-year-old case, Visa agreed to pay $4.03 billion to settle the class-action lawsuit while MasterCard and banks that issue cards and were also part of the suit will pay $2.02 billion, according to documents filed in federal court in New York.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil signed on Friday a contract to lease power-generating vessels from Turkey.

The contract was signed between Lebanon and Turkey’s Karadeniz company and the first ship is expected to arrive in Lebanon after 120 days.

JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, said Friday that its loss from a highly publicized trading blunder had grown to $4.4 billion, more than double the bank's original estimate of $2 billion.

The bank also said that it was reducing its net income for the first quarter by $459 million because it had discovered information that "raises questions about the integrity" of values placed on certain trades.

The euro was under fresh selling pressure to fall below $1.22 in Asia trade on Friday after ratings agency Moody's on Friday downgraded Italy's government bond rating.

The common currency bought $1.2195 and 96.74 yen in Tokyo morning trade, from $1.2203 and 96.75 yen in New York.

Asian markets edged up Friday despite China reporting its economy grew at its slowest pace for more than three years, as investors expressed relief the figures were in line with expectations.

Official data showed expansion slowed to 7.6 percent in the second quarter, but the figures were cheered by some traders who thought they would encourage the government to take fresh moves to stimulate growth.

Seoul is considering an offer by Tehran to send crude on Iranian tankers to South Korea, officials said Friday, as a way to circumvent EU sanctions and resume imports of oil from Iran.

South Korea has been hit hard by the EU measures against Iran, imposed in the form of a ban on the provision of insurance cover for tankers carrying Iranian oil.

Oil prices are unlikely to change over the balance of this year but could come under pressure in 2013 as the global economy falters due to slower U.S. and Chinese growth, the IEA said Thursday.

The International Energy Agency, which advises developed countries on energy policy, said supply risks appeared to have put a floor under prices for this year even as global economic growth slows.