Turkey warned Saturday it would shun international companies involved in oil and gas drilling off the shores of the divided island of Cyprus.

"As it was repeated several times ... the companies which will cooperate with the Greek Cypriot Administration will be excluded from new energy projects in Turkey in the future," the foreign ministry said in a written statement.

Europe must support debt-riddled Greece as it struggles to undertake tough reforms under an international bailout program, a senior Treasury official said Friday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Obama administration has been following the discussions between Greece and the so-called "troika" of international lenders -- the IMF, the EU and the ECB -- "very closely."

With the world's largest oil reserves and the cheapest gas anywhere, you'd think Venezuela is a driver's paradise. Wrong. New cars are scarce and sellers of used ones -- even clunkers -- make a killing.

The counter-intuitive economics stem from rules imposed in 2003 by populist President Hugo Chavez that make it difficult for businesses to obtain hard currency and thus wildly expensive to import new cars and spare parts.

Japan's Sharp was dealt another blow Friday as Fitch slashed its credit rating to junk after the embattled electronics giant warned of a massive annual loss, and expressed doubts about its own survival.

The six-notch downgrade was in response to Osaka-based Sharp saying on Thursday it would post a whopping $5.6 billion yearly loss while admitting for the first time it had doubts about carrying on as a viable company.

State-rescued Royal Bank of Scotland on Friday posted a third-quarter net loss of £1.384 billion on massive accounting charges and warned it would likely face fines over the Libor rate-rigging scandal.

The shortfall for the July-September period, equivalent to $2.28 billion or 1.726 billion euros, compared with a net profit of £1.226 billion in the same part of the previous year, the bank said in a results statement.

A top Chrysler executive had a very public, colorful go at Donald Trump on Twitter Thursday after the billionaire accused the auto giant of wanting to ship American jobs to China.

"Obama is a terrible negotiator. He bails out Chrysler and now Chrysler wants to send all Jeep manufacturing to China--and will!" Trump tweeted, repeating an already-denied claim made by Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney.

The World Bank has approved an $80 million grant for Myanmar to support its reform drive, resuming assistance for the former pariah nation after a quarter-century absence.

The money is for infrastructure projects in villages in poor rural areas, the bank said in a statement Friday after its board of directors in Washington approved a new strategy for helping the country formerly known as Burma.

European stocks rose on Thursday when company results grabbed investors' attention before a new batch of US economic data, and after Wall Street kicked back into action after its hurricane shutdown.

In midday deals, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies added 0.52 percent to 5,813.48 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 advanced 0.52 percent to 7,298.01 points and in Paris the CAC 40 gained 0.55 percent to 3,448.23.

Greece is close to a deal with international creditors that would allow much-needed funds to flow to Athens, although many questions remain, a senior German official said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters before a meeting of the Group of 20 leading countries this weekend in Mexico, the official, who requested anonymity, said: "We are close to an agreement on Greece and close to an accord within the troika."

Cash earmarked for tsunami reconstruction work was diverted to unrelated projects, a Japanese government audit shows, as residents of the devastated northeast vent frustration over the slow pace of rebuilding.

Parts of the 14.9 trillion yen ($187 billion) were used to fund an array of unconnected works, including road-building on the southern island of Okinawa and boosting security for Japan's controversial whale hunt.