London/Paris  - The European Commission is blocking the French government's plan to bail out its six largest banks by insisting that state funds can not be used for commercial lending, Britain's Financial Times reported Friday on its website.

According to the report, EU Competition Commissioner Nellie Kroes has rejected pleas by French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde to approve the French
10.5-billion-euro (13.3-billion-dollar) plan.

The Financial Times quoted an unnamed EU official as saying, "We have to apply the same criteria to everyone ... support should be sufficient to offset the negative impact of the current financial crisis and no more."

Los Angeles  - Bargain-hunting shoppers crowded malls, superstores and high streets across America Friday as retailers sought to entice recession-hit holiday buyers with steep discounts.

The day after the Thanksgiving holiday usually marks the start of the most intense period of the holiday shopping season. It is known as Black Friday because historically shops put their profits in the black thanks to the huge influx of customers.

At Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, crowds were so large at one New York area store that an employee died after being knocked down by hundreds of shoppers hunting for bargains as the doors opened at 5 am, the New York Daily News reported.

Budapest  - The Japanese carmaker Suzuki is to lay off 1,200 workers, over a fifth of its workforce, at its Hungarian plant starting from December 8, the Hungarian state news agency MTI reported on Friday.

In the face of a drastic fall in orders, Suzuki has downscaled its production this year from a planned 300,000 to 282,000, while next year it plans to produce only 210,000 cars.

As a further blow to the Hungarian labour market, the Hungarian unit of Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn told MTI on the same day that it is to lay off a total of 1,500 workers.

Los Angeles  - Bargain-hunting shoppers crowded malls, superstores and high streets across the US on Friday as retailers sought to entice recession-hit holiday buyers with steep discounts.

The day after the Thanksgiving holiday usually marks the start of the most intense period of the holiday shopping season. But with the impact of the credit crisis hitting shoppers hard, most retailers are bracing for their worst season in years. Adding to the gloomy prognosis was the fact that there are few must-have gadgets or gifts this season.

Sofia  - Bulgaria should not take part in financing the European Union's emergency economic recovery package, a top official said Friday in Sofia.

"It is out of place to finance the European economy with Bulgarian money," the head of the parliamentary budget and finance committee, Rumen Ovcharov, told the private Nova television.

Hong Kong  - Christie's was preparing Friday to host its first wine auction in Hong Kong in seven years with a collection of blue-chip wines aimed at tempting the most cautious collectors to spend in the current economic downturn.

The collection includes 127 lots of rare and vintage wines from the reserve cellars of Chateau Latour, which are expected to fetch around 1.2 million US dollars when they go under the hammer Saturday evening.