Budapest  - The Hungarian forint continued its downward spiral, hitting a new record low of 317.45 against the euro in early trading on Friday.

Although in afternoon trading the currency firmed to around 313 against the euro, this latest dip is worrying news for one of the EU's most fragile economies.

The weakening forint is bad news for ordinary Hungarians, who face increasing monthly repayments on foreign currency mortgages and loans. The forint was trading at around 250 to the euro last summer, before Hungary was hit hard by the global financial crisis.

Budapest - The Hungarian forint fell to a record low of 312 against the euro on Wednesday morning, heightening concern over Hungary's ability to meet its external debt obligations and putting further pressure on Hungarians with foreign currency loans.

Finance Minister Janos Veres sought to dismiss fears that Hungary was on the brink of a sovereign default, saying that its central bank has over 20 billion euros (25 billion dollars) in its foreign currency reserves.

Budapest  - Several thousand mourners gathered in a Hungarian village on Tuesday for the funeral of a Roma father and son who were gunned down the previous week as they fled their burning home.

Csorba Csaba, 27, and his five-year-old son were shot with hunting rifles before dawn on Monday, February 23. It is suspected that the family home in Tatarszentgyorgy, 40 kilometres south-east of the capital Budapest, was first set ablaze with petrol bombs.

Although the motive for and precise details of the attack have not been proven, it is widely assumed to have been racially motivated and the case has become a symbol of rising racial tension surrounding Hungary's Roma minority.

Brussels  - The European Union should set up a fund of up to 190 billion euros (240 billion dollars) to keep the crisis-hit countries of Central and Eastern Europe from collapse, Hungary said ahead of an EU summit in Brussels on Sunday.

"Despite cautious economic policies, Eastern Europe is being affected disproportionately by the global financial and economic crisis ... Failure to react could cause a second round of systemic meltdowns that would mainly hit eurozone economies," a paper drawn up by the Hungarian government said.

Budapest - Hungarian police arrested two men in connection with the murder last year of a Roma couple in the the southern city of Pec, the locla media reported Saturday.

Budapest - The US-based circuit board manufacturer Jabil Circuit is to lay off 900 workers at its plant in Hungary, the firm revealed on Wednesday.

Jabil, which currently employs some 4,000 in Hungary, told the local news agency MTI that its decision was due to falling orders.

The news came the day after Hungary's official economic statistics office forecast that 105,000 jobs would be lost this year.

Of these, 12,000 will be in the automotive sector and 10,000 in construction. Anna Adamecz, a department head at Ecostat, said that 60 per cent of redundancies will be due to falling demand in export markets.