Global food prices have eased from their July records but remain very high, putting more people in danger of hunger and malnutrition-related disease, the World Bank said Thursday.

"A new norm of high prices seems to be consolidating," said Otaviano Canuto, the World Bank's Vice President for Poverty Reduction.

The head of France's central bank on Friday hit out at Moody's, saying the agency had made a "factual mistake" when it took away the country's cherished AAA credit rating.

In making its decision, which followed a similar move by Standard & Poor's earlier in the year, Moody's cited structural problems with the economy that made it harder to compete globally and warned more cuts could be on the cards.

Tokyo on Friday approved $10.7 billion in fresh spending to help boost Japan's limp economy, just weeks before an election the ruling party is expected to lose.

The 880 billion yen ($10.7 billion) in spending was more than double a package announced in October as the country gets set for polls that are expected to usher in Japan's seventh prime minister in six years.

No matter how high-stakes budget talks between the White House and Congress end, experts say one thing is certain -- the Pentagon will suffer major cuts. The only question is what will get the ax.

The military had already been bracing for lean years even without the showdown over the U.S. deficit, which threatens deep across the board cuts in defense spending if an agreement is not reached by January 2.

Egypt's foreign minister says the political unrest roiling his country after President Mohammed Morsi seized more power should not affect Egypt's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a $4.8 billion loan.

Mohammed Kamel Amr told reporters in Berlin after meetings Thursday with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle that Morsi's move last week to grant himself near-autocratic powers — at least until a new constitution is adopted and parliamentary elections are held — was a domestic issue.

European Union foreign ministers say they have agreed to open free trade negotiations with Japan.

Cyprus' commerce minister Neoklis Sylikiotis, whose country holds the bloc's rotating chairmanship, says Thursday talks could start in the next few months. They are likely to last about three years.

Japanese industrial firms Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Thursday they would merge their thermal power businesses by 2014 as they take on global giants Siemens and General Electric.

The pair said they would set up a joint venture company that was 65 percent owned by Mitsubishi with the remaining 35 percent held by Hitachi, creating a combined firm with about 1.1 trillion yen ($13 billion) in annual sales.

Unemployment in Germany increased slightly in November, amid signs that the labor market is increasingly feeling the pinch from the eurozone debt crisis, official data showed on Thursday.

The jobless rate, both in raw and seasonally adjusted terms, was unchanged in November from October, but the adjusted jobless total increased slightly, the Federal Labor Agency said in a statement.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for a pre-Christmas deal with Republicans to avert a year-end tax and deficit crunch, as pressure mounted from the business world and stock markets fluttered.

U.S. lawmakers demanded urgent action to keep America from tumbling off the so-called "fiscal cliff," and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was to drive the point home Thursday when he meets members of Congress to discuss "a balanced approach to reduce our deficit," his office said.

Japanese industrial firms Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Thursday they would merge their thermal power businesses by 2014 as they take on global giants Siemens and General Electric.

The pair said they would set up a joint venture company that was 65 percent owned by Mitsubishi with the remaining 35 percent held by Hitachi, creating a combined firm with about 1.1 trillion yen ($13 billion) in annual sales.