NEW YORK - US STOCKS dropped in an abbreviated session on Friday on concerns that Dubai's debt crisis could stall the global economic recovery from recession.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 154.48 points (1.48 per cent) to 10,309.92 as Wall Street returned from Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday.

PARIS - AIRBUS' long-delayed A400M military transport will make its first test flight during the week beginning December 7, 'weather permitting", the European planemaker said on Friday.

The A400M was to replace ageing military cargo carriers in several European air forces but its development has been dogged by a series of serious technical problems and its in service date has been pushed from 2009 to 2013.

NEW YORK - US STORES threw their doors open before dawn on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, but just how wide recession-hit consumers would open their wallets was another question.

Long lines of bargain hunters stretched in the dark outside New York discount retailer Target in Brooklyn and department stores in Manhattan. 'The deals are actually better than last year, more than 50 per cent off,' said Varere Jordan, a 42-year-old conductor on the city's subway trains who had been out since 5.00 am and bought a flat screen television for US$249 (S$346) from Target.