Prague - The Czech Republic should not set a target for switching to the euro at a time of global financial meltdown, the country's central bank governor said Thursday.

"At a time when waters are raging not even a good swimmer would jump in," said Czech National Bank Governor Zdenek Tuma.

Speaking before parliament's upper house, Tuma said the country should not fix its currency, the Czech koruna, in the pre-entry exchange rate mechanism when financial markets and exchange rates are highly unpredictable.

Kiev - Ripples from the world financial crisis have shut down most Ukrainian preparation work for the Euro 2012 football championship, government officials said Thursday.

As much as 80 per cent of the infrastructure projects needed in the former Soviet republic to host the premier sports event have come to a complete stop for lack of funding or because of administrative difficulties, said Evhen Vilinsky, a spokesman for Ukraine's Euro 2012 preparation ministry.

New York - Lebanon and Syria have moved to fully implement a UN Security Council resolution to end decades of conflicts by establishing diplomatic ties, a UN special envoy in the Middle East said Thursday.

The council asked in 2004 that Syria end its interference, both military and political, in Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Syria ended the military occupation in
2005 following the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Berlin - A female legislator from the sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats was picked Thursday to become Germany's new minister of agriculture and consumer affairs.

Ilse Aigner, 43, was nominated by Horst Seehofer, who resigned from the post on Monday to become prime minister of the southern state of Bavaria.

"I'm very pleased," said Aigner, who like Seehofer hails from Bavaria and is a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU).

Rabat, Morocco  - A Moroccan appeals court Thursday let stand a ruling that would require the nation's largest newspaper and its publisher to pay record amounts of damages in a defamation case.

The ruling requires the al-Massae newspaper and its chief editor, Rashid Ninny, to pay damages of up to 6 million dirham (more than 700,000 dollars) to a group of four district attorneys. It is the largest damages ruling in Morocco's media history.

Madrid  - Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba held the Basque separatist group ETA responsible for a car bomb attack that injured 17 people Thursday in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona.

The vehicle exploded in a car park in the grounds of the University of Navarra in Pamplona, capital of the Navarra province which borders on the separatist Basque region.