San Francisco  - California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger warned Thursday of a "financial Armageddon" in the most populous US state and the world's eighth largest economy.

The warning came as lawmakers continue to stonewall his attempts to make up for plummeting revenues by cutting services and raising taxes. The state's budget director Michael Genest warned that California now faces a deficit of 42 billion dollars over the next two fiscal years. That's up from a prior 28-billion-dollar deficit projection as revenues continue to plummet.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama Thursday called on Congress to prevent a collapse of the country's automotive industry, but Senate Republicans were almost certain to block a legislative deal.

The House of Representatives approved a 14-billion-dollar emergency loan for the car industry Wednesday night, a move that would keep General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC out of bankruptcy at least for the coming few months.

Prague - The Czech budget gap in 2009 could reach 50 to 60 billion koruny (2.5 to 3 billion dollars), the CTK news agency reported Thursday citing Czech Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek.

Parliament's lower house Wednesday approved a 2009 budget with a deficit of 38.1 billion koruny (1.9 billion dollars), which relies on a growth of the country's gross domestic product by 4.8 per cent.

Washington, Dec 11 : With festive season round the corner and many families struggling with economic uncertainty, the joy of gift-buying and party-hosting may be lost, however, setting a budget can help people cope with the struggling situation, says an expert.

Dr William IsHak, medical director of the Adult Outpatient Psychiatry Service at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre said focusing on the meaning of the holidays could help ward off depression and anxiety triggered by financial stress.

"Keeping perspective on the purpose of the holidays is key," said IsHak.

"Remember that this is a time to express appreciation, love and togetherness, and that doesn''t have to mean spending the big bucks," he added.

New Delhi, Dec 11 : American companies plan to continue to implement their current strategies for sourcing some functions offshore despite the current worldwide economic slump and the financial downturn may even accelerate such plans.

These are among the findings of a study into the effects of offshoring trends on American competitiveness, as part of ongoing research by the Center for International Business Education and Research''s Offshoring Research Network (ORN) at The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Paris - After last-minute adjustments to secure EU approval, France on Thursday began implementing its bank bail-out plan.

Under the plan, the state will subscribe to subordinated five-year debt totalling 10.5 billion euros (13.75 billion dollars) issued by the country's six largest banks.

The debt subscription concerns the banks Credit Agricole (3 billion euros), BNP Paribas (2.55 billion), Societe Generale (1.7 billion), Credit Mutuel (1.2 billion), Caisses d'Epargne (1.1 billion and Banques Populaires (0.95 billion), the French Finance Ministry said.

In exchange, the French banks have committed themselves to increasing their loans to individuals and companies by 3 to 4 per cent by the end of 2009.