Rescuing Greece from economic collapse is in Germany's best interests, Chancellor Angela Merkel told Sunday's edition of the Bild newspaper, after German lawmakers approved billions of euros in international aid for Athens.

Helping Greece is "in Germany's interests because measures are always taken with all of the euro zone in mind for the benefit of all members, including Germany," she told the newspaper.

Ford Motor Company on Friday issued a recall of more than 89,000 vehicles in the United States and Canada amid concerns the engines could catch on fire.

The automaker said the voluntary recall affects SE and SEL models of the 2013 Escape and 2013 Fusion that are equipped with a 1.6-liter engine.

The governor of the United Arab Emirates central bank said Friday it intends to buy the sovereign debt of bailed-out eurozone member Portugal.

"Portugal has taken steps towards recovery. Ireland has successfully overcome the crisis and now the second country to do it in Europe will be Portugal," Sultan bin Nasser al-Suwaidi was quoted as saying in the Portuguese business daily Diario Economico.

Bulgaria is offering citizenship to foreigners ready to invest at least half a million euros ($650,000) in the Balkan country's ailing economy.

Under the newly approved amendments, the candidates would have to invest in a Bulgarian company involved in a high-priority investment project in industry, infrastructure, transport or tourism.

Another month, another record unemployment rate for the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro.

Figures released Friday by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, showed that the recession in the eurozone pushed unemployment in the currency bloc up to 11.7 percent in October.

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.