AP - Davey McKeever was down to his last bet slip of the night, crumpled in a sweaty fist, at the Shelbourne Park greyhound track. The remnants of McKeever's first unemployment check would rise or fall on the ironically named Nest Egg.

AP - Europe's stock markets plunged Friday after Wall Street opened a breathtaking 7 percent lower — below the 8,000 level — but they soon recouped some of those losses when the Dow Jones index made a partial comeback.

AP - NATO defense ministers Friday authorized their troops in Afghanistan to attack drug barons blamed for pumping up to $100 million a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.

AFP - The FTSE 100 index of leading shares plunged by almost nine percent on Friday after fresh falls on Wall Street, as investors continued to fret over the worldwide financial crisis.

AFP - US and European stock markets slid Thursday as jitters mounted over the widening global financial crisis despite drastic actions by authorities to contain the turmoil.

AFP - Lithuania's general election Sunday comes as storm clouds gather over the EU "tiger" economy, with a long-running boom tailing off and grinding inflation hurting voters.

Reuters - European stocks tumbled at the open on Friday, tracking plunges in Asian and U.S. equities as investors feared world governments' attempts to unlock credit markets would not be enough to ward off a global recession.

AP - The United States on Thursday pushed NATO allies to order their troops to target Afghanistan's thriving heroin trade in a bid to stem the flow of drug money to the widening insurgency against the troubled international military mission.

AP - European markets shed some early gains Thursday ahead of Wall Street's opening, but remained in positive territory, with British banking stocks in particular enjoying a strong rally in the wake of the government's 500 billion pound (US$865 billion) rescue plan.

AFP - The FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed down on Thursday as a mid-day rally on stepped up government support for banks ran out of steam just before the close of trade.

AP - Iceland suspended trading on its stock exchange for two days and took control of the country's largest bank — the third to be placed under its protective umbrella — on Thursday as it grappled with a banking crisis that is threatening to engulf the entire country.

AP - World stock markets swooned once more Wednesday as concerns about the state of the global economy outweighed a coordinated rate cut by top central banks aimed restoring confidence in the world's crisis-stricken financial system.

AP - Iceland plunged further into financial turmoil — and muddled into a diplomatic spat with Britain over its handling of the crisis — on Wednesday as the country's third-largest bank went into receivership and the government abandoned attempts to put a floor under its free-falling currency.

AFP - Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote to EU leaders Wednesday to urge them to follow Britain in guaranteeing loans between banks, proposing a "European-wide funding plan" to help ease the financial crisis.