FRANKFURT - A FLURRY of data revealed the dismal contours of Europe's new economic landscape on Friday, with key economies in deep recession, weak growth in previously dynamic eastern states and a disaster zone in the Baltics.
The trend was set by Germany which posted a 2008 fourth-quarter plunge of 2.1 per cent in gross domestic product (GDP), its worst quarterly result in two decades, as exports and business investment buckled under the global crisis.
NEW YORK - INVESTIGATORS on Friday began to search for the cause of a commuter plane crash that killed 50 people outside Buffalo, New York, leaving a fiery scene of destruction.
Smouldering jet fuel at the scene held investigative teams at a distance while families agonised over what caused Continental flight 3407 to suddenly crash in Clarence Center late on Thursday after a flight from Newark, New Jersey.
SAN FRANCISCO - ONLINE retail giant Amazon has yanked from its virtual shelves a Japanese computer game that lets players simulate raping girls.
A 'Rapelay' videogame being hawked on Amazon by a third-party merchant was deemed inappropriate and the product's page taken down after it was brought to the California Internet firm's attention on Wednesday night.
HONG Kong action star Jackie Chan is donating antique wooden houses from China worth more than $100 million to Singapore's upcoming fourth university.
The structures, now sitting in a warehouse in Hong Kong, are from the private collection of gongfu king Chan, a lover of Chinese history.
