Washington - The United States is admitting seven new countries to its visa waiver programme after finalizing security arrangements, President George W Bush announced Friday.

Within one month, citizens of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and South Korea, will be able to visit the US for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa.

Bush called it a "new chapter in the relationship between the United States and your nations."

Frankfurt - A tumultuous trading week on global share markets drew to a close Friday, with European bourses defying renewed volatility on Wall Street and holding on to gains run up during the day.

After closing down 5 per cent on Thursday, Europe's blue-chip Stoxx 50 index headed toward the end of the week up 3.8 per cent, at 2,219 points.

The close came despite the fact that Wall Street opened down as further data underscored the grim state of the US housing market, which is already in crisis.

London, Europe's leading stock market, headed into the end of week with a gain of about 2 per cent, while Paris's CAC 40 index edged up 0.91 per cent, following a 4.37-per-cent jump shortly after opening on Friday.

Frankfurt - European shares are ending a tumultuous trading week
Friday on a volatile note after a late surge on Wall Street and mixed
performance by stocks across Asia.

Budapest - The European Central Bank has agreed to lend Hungary up to 5 billion euros (6.8 billion dollars) to help ease credit conditions, the ECB said Thursday.

The accord will help Hungary's central bank provide extra euro liquidity in the East European nation, the Frankfurt-based ECB said in a joint statement with the Hungarian Central Bank.

Euro-denominated loans are a key source of finance in Hungary, which joined the European Union in 2004 but has not switched to the euro.

Hungary's currency, the forint, regained some of Wednesday's losses against the euro after the announcement.

Frankfurt - European shares plunged about 5 per cent in early trading Thursday after recession fears wiped out the big gains in stock prices run up earlier this week in New York and across Asia.

Europe's blue-chip Stoxx50 dived by 5.4 per cent to 2,129 shortly after opening as new gloomy US data helped fuel concerns about the prospects of a protracted and deep recession.

London's FTSE index slumped by 5.17 per cent as the trading got under way in Europe's premier stock market.

This was reflected across national bourses with Frankfurt's DAX index sinking 4.8 per cent and Paris' CAC dropping 5 per cent as the optimism earlier this week generated by global government action to address the crisis vanished.

Athens - Nearly half of all Greeks believe that there is nothing much people can do to reduce one's chances of contracting cancer, according to a recent study.

The study, carried out by the Athens Medical School and the Centre for Health Service Studies, found that nearly half of the 1,490 respondents interviewed were passive about cancer, saying there is nothing they can do to avert the threat of contracting cancer.

The findings, which were published in the Greek daily Kathimerini newspaper, came as researchers indicated a 25 per cent increase in the diagnosis of cancer over the past 10 years.