Egypt will inaugurate on August 6 a "new Suez canal" shipping route aimed at speeding up traffic along the existing waterway, officials said on Saturday.

Dubbed the Suez Canal Axis, the new 72-kilometer (45 miles) flagship project would run part of the way alongside the existing canal that connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

U.S. lawmakers dealt a stinging blow Friday to President Barack Obama and his ambitious trade agenda, stalling a measure that would have given him fast-track authority to conclude a trans-Pacific trade accord.

The vote, in which two-thirds of the House of Representatives opposed a workers aid program in the trade package, marked a defeat for the president, who had personally come to Capitol Hill earlier in the day in a failed bid to persuade fellow Democrats to back him.

Taxi hailing app Uber plans to invest seven billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in China, the Financial Times reported on its website, citing a company email.

The paper said it obtained the message sent to Uber investors this week by its CEO Travis Kalanick.

European plane maker Airbus believes the United States will be the biggest customer for its A400M military transport jet, despite a fatal crash involving one of them during a test flight last month.

"By the next decade at the latest, the U.S. armed forces will be the biggest customer for the aircraft," Airbus chief executive Tom Enders told the weekly magazine WirtschaftsWoche in an interview.

Jose's scars are a constant reminder of the day gang members set him on fire for failing to pay their "war tax" -- a daily nightmare for bus drivers in Honduras.

Jose says he was never warned he had to pay the "tax," imposed on bus and taxi drivers, small-business owners and ordinary residents by the gangs that have carved up much of Central America and made it one of the most violent regions in the world.

Greece on Friday said it needed to clinch a deal with its EU-IMF creditors by June 18 to avert a default on its debt, as pressure mounts on Athens to give in to tough reform demands.

One of Greece's key creditors, the IMF, pulled its team out of negotiations on Thursday because of major differences, dampening earlier optimism from the Europeans that an agreement could be close.

Crews began flooding part of the widened Panama Canal for its first operational tests, the group responsible for the massive project said.

The five days of flooding to pour 5 million cubic meters of water into the lock began Wednesday, a day earlier than expected. 

The dollar resumed its uptrend against the yen Thursday after suffering a sharp sell-off in the previous session, with analysts tipping the greenback to extend its gains.

On Thursday, the dollar recovered some ground, buying 123.06 yen from 122.67 yen in New York trading. The greenback topped the 125 yen level, a 13-year high, earlier this week.

The World Bank warned emerging economies around the world Wednesday of a rocky road ahead as the U.S. moves toward tightening monetary policy and the dollar strengthens.

But the development lender's chief economist also urged the U.S. Federal Reserve to put off any rate hikes until next year so as to give more breathing room to the slow-growing global economy.

South Korea's outbreak of the potentially deadly MERS virus on Thursday forced the central bank to cut its key interest rate to ward off greater economic damage, as retailers report a slump in business.

And in what has become the largest outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outside Saudi Arabia, Seoul reported 14 new cases, including the first infection of a pregnant woman.