Online bargain hunter Groupon announced the appointment of former Google executive Margo Georgiadis on Thursday, saying she would oversee global sales, marketing and operations.

"Margo is a strong leader with a passion for helping small business owners and consumers," Groupon CEO Andrew Mason said in a statement. "We’re thrilled to have her on our team."

Airbus has made even bigger savings than expected when it launched cuts in the midst of crisis in 2007 and remains competitive despite the rise of the euro, the company which makes airliners said on Friday.

Senior director Fabrice Bregier told the Les Echos newspaper that "the targets have been well exceeded", and that the so-called Power 8 program had enabled the company to save "2.5 billion euros ($3.65 billion), which means as much extra profit, and 10 billion euros in cash."

Toyota said Friday it expects global production to ramp up again by mid-year and return to normal by the end of 2011 after Japan's quake-tsunami disaster caused auto parts shortages.

Many key component manufacturers in Japan are based in the worst-hit northeast regions, where facilities were damaged by the 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11 or inundated by the giant wave that followed.

The dollar was heavily sold across the board in Asian trade on Thursday as upbeat stock markets gave investors a renewed appetite for risk, dealers said.

As equity markets around the globe rebounded from big losses earlier in the week caused by Standard & Poor's outlook downgrade for U.S debt dealer sentiment also rose, although Washington's debt problems also played at role.

Nokia Corp. reported better than expected first quarter profits Thursday despite confirming that its market share around the world dropped below 30 percent for the first time in over a decade, as the world's top cellphone maker continued to lose ground to its rivals.

Though the Finnish company said its net profit for the quarter fell euro5 million to euro344 million ($499 million) a year earlier, the markets were impressed by the news that operating profit only fell 14 percent during the period instead of the anticipated 40 percent decline.

Apple nearly doubled its quarterly net profit on strong demand for the iPhone as sales of its iPad tablet computer dipped sharply.

Apple said Wednesday that net profit rose 95 percent in the second quarter of its fiscal year to $5.99 billion while revenue rose 83 percent to $24.67 billion, beating the expectations of Wall Streets analysts.

The price of gold topped $1,500 for the first time on Wednesday as a weaker dollar plus fears over high inflation and debt attracted investors into the traditional safe-haven precious metal.

Gold reached $1,505.65 an ounce at 0945 GMT on the London Bullion Market. It later traded at $1,503.60.

The increase in regional oil prices will stimulate the flow of liquidity in the Lebanese banking sector and thus assign a good sum of money for infrastructure projects, said a chief banker.

“The banking sector is liquid enough to be a strategic partner in Lebanon’s growth,” Simon Cooper, deputy chairman and chief executive officer of HSBC in the MENA region, told The Daily Star in an interview published on Wednesday.

The Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) concluded Wednesday in Amman a series of consultation meetings to discuss the first draft of its upcoming report on an Arab Green Economy, due to be released in October 2011. The AFED report will address the transformations needed to achieve desired economic, social, and environmental sustainability goals in Arab countries. The report will address the enabling strategies and development policies for navigating a green transition in eight sectors: energy, water, agriculture, tourism, waste management, industry, cities/buildings, and transportation. The Arab Green Economy report is the fourth annual report by AFED, and follows publication of three reports, Arab Environment: Future Challenges in 2008, Impact of Climate Change on Arab Countries in 2009, and Water: Sustainable Management of a Scarce Resource in 2010.

The consultation meeting in Amman was hosted by the University of Petra (UOP), under the patronage of its President H.E. Dr. Adnan Badran, Former Prime Minister of Jordan and Chairman of AFED Board of Trustees. Fifty officials, authors, experts, business executives and civil society organizations from Jordan and abroad addressed urban city planning, green buildings and tourism. They included H.E. Mr. Khaled Irani, Former Minister of Environment and Energy, H.E. Ms. Suzanne Afanah, Former Minister of Tourism, the report’s main editor Hussein Abaza, and a wide spectrum of participants from Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Oman, UAE, Morocco, United Kingdom, USA and Sweden. The meeting discussed specific strategies to institutionalize green practices that reduce energy and water consumption and enhance the quality of life, while promoting economic growth and employment.

Denmark's Noma restaurant was named best in the world for a second year running Monday in an international poll dominated by European establishments but with new entries from China, Peru and Russia.

The Copenhagen restaurant of chef Rene Redzepi was voted number one in the S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants 2011, a list compiled by more than 800 international restaurant industry experts for Britain's Restaurant Magazine.