Bailed-out Greece is hoping to return to bond markets in the second half of 2014 -- but only if growth and a primary budget surplus permits, its finance minister said Sunday.

"We are preparing a return to the markets in the second half of 2014," Yannis Stournaras said in an interview published in the Realnews weekly.

The euro reached two-year highs against other major currencies on Friday after hawkish comments by a German central banker.

Near 2200 GMT, the euro traded at $1.3743, up from $1.3690 on Thursday after earlier peaking at $1.3893, the highest since October 2011.

The euro reached two-year highs against other major currencies on Friday after hawkish comments by a German central banker.

Near 2200 GMT, the euro traded at $1.3743, up from $1.3690 on Thursday after earlier peaking at $1.3893, the highest since October 2011.

President Barack Obama's administration on Friday urged U.S. lawmakers to swiftly restore unemployment benefits, criticizing a decision not to extend emergency aid to 1.3 million people looking for work.

A statement from the Director of the National Economic Council, Gene Sperling, said the move "defied economic sense."

U.S. oil prices Friday rose above $100 a barrel ahead of the Department of Energy's weekly release on the nation's oil inventories.

At around 1525 GMT, U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate for delivery in February rose 68 cents to $100.23 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. WTI last traded above $100 on October 21.

The Turkish lira plunged Friday to a new historic low against the dollar and the stock market also slumped as the political crisis in the country deepened.

The lira fell to 2.1467 to the dollar while the Istanbul stock exchange's BIST 100 index dropped by 3.76 percent around 0910 GMT Friday, after having fallen 2.33 percent Thursday and 4.2 percent Wednesday.

The dented metal pizza trays are packed away, so too the old blender that never worked when it was needed. Gone is the sweet smell of rising dough that infused Julio Cesar Hidalgo's Havana apartment when he and his girlfriend were in business for themselves, churning out cheesy pies for hungry costumers.

Two years on the front lines of Cuba's experiment with limited free market capitalism has left Hidalgo broke, out of work and facing a possible crushing fine. But the 33-year-old known for his wide smile and sunny disposition says the biggest loss is harder to define.

Fireworks will light up the skies above Riga when Latvia adopts the euro on January 1, but on the ground the feeling will be far from festive among those fearing the impact of the switch.

Polls show just a fifth of people in the austerity-weary nation favor the changeover while nearly 60 percent are opposed.

Britain will surpass France and Germany to become Europe's biggest economy by 2030, according to a study released on Thursday.

British research group the Center for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) predicts that Britain's output will outstrip France's by 2018 before displacing Germany by around 2030.

President Barack Obama Thursday signed into law the compromise U.S. budget bill recently negotiated by feuding lawmakers and a massive defense bill that takes a step toward ultimate closure of Guantanamo.

After signing the legislation while vacationing in Hawaii with his family, Obama praised the National Defense Authorization Act for allowing accelerated repatriation of detainees from the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.