Iraq began pumping crude Saturday through a pipeline connecting the central Al-Ahdab oil field to export terminals in the south, Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said, adding that exports would begin August 1.

"The actual pumping into the pipeline began today with 40,000 barrels per day from the Al-Ahdab oil field," Shahristani told Agence France Presse, adding that within days the volume would increase to 60,000 bpd.

Japanese automaker Suzuki is getting increasingly frustrated with its larger partner Volkswagen and is eying deeper ties with Italian giant Fiat, German media said Saturday.

"The cooperation with Fiat has been going well in a climate of mutual trust for years," a senior Suzuki executive told the Automobilwoche weekly.

The United States runs a "very real" risk of losing its top triple-A rating if nothing is done to reduce the ballooning deficit, an official said Friday after debt talks collapsed.

Republicans in the House of Representatives abruptly closed the door on acrimonious negotiations with President Barack Obama on raising the $14.3 trillion U.S. debt ceiling.

Europeans are convinced that the International Monetary Fund is going to lend more money to Greece. The banks that hold Greek debt say it must.

But the global crisis lender, already heavily committed to Athens, is biding its time.

Greece's finance minister expressed "great relief" Friday in the wake of a second European bailout for the country's crisis-hit economy, and markets rallied on the news.

But Evangelos Venizelos also promised to press ahead with unpopular cost-cutting measures aimed at generating a primary budget surplus, starting next year.

An unsteady forklift dropped a container full of fine Australian wine worth more than $1 million, smashing most of the bottles. The winemaker says he's "gut-wrenched, shocked and numb" after the loss of his flagship shiraz.

Sparky Marquis of Mollydooker Wines lost a third of his Velvet Glove Shiraz production after the accident that destroyed all but one of the 462 cases bound for the United States.

Oil prices rose toward $100 a barrel Friday in Asia after European leaders reached an aid deal aimed at stanching Greece's financial crisis.

Benchmark oil for September delivery was up 53 cents to $99.66 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rose 73 cents to settle at $99.13 on Thursday.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Thursday that his foundation would provide more than $1 million to help thousands of Haitian students with their schooling.

"My foundation is going to make a grant of $1.25 million to the Haitian Ministry of Education to insure that 10,000 more children will be able to attend primary school, and get a big meal every day while they are there," Clinton said at a ceremony in which he was decorated by Haitian President Michel Martelly.

The Swiss franc, which has been trading at record highs against major currencies in recent weeks, has begun slowing down trade growth, customs authorities said on Thursday.

"The strength of the franc slowed growth," said authorities in a statement on Swiss trade performance in June and the first half of the year.

The Eurozone, having failed to contain a raging debt crisis for the past year, now faces stark choices for its future: a radical leap towards federalism or a step backwards in the European project.

Quarrels over crafting a new bailout for Greece -- technical disputes over debt restructuring or private sector involvement -- hide deep political divisions between nations over where to take Europe and the euro.