New York - The economic crisis has hit the personal computer market, with sales figures in the fourth quarter of 2008 stagnating for the first time in five years, two US research companies reported Thursday.

Sales figures compared by Gartner Inc to the previous years showed a slight quarterly increase of 1.1 per cent to 78.1 million units.

Meanwhile, analysts from IDC identified a shrinking of the market by 0.4 per cent in the quarter.

Kabul - An Afghan army corps commander and 12 other military personnel were killed when their helicopter crashed into a mountain due to bad weather in western Afghanistan on Thursday, an army spokesman said.

The M-17 helicopter was on its way from the western province of Herat to the neighboring province of Farah when it went down due to "bad weather," General Zahir Azimi, a defence ministry spokesman, said.

Amsterdam - Prices of Dutch residential real estate dropped by 1.8 per cent in 2008, the association of Dutch real estate brokers NVM said in its annual report published on Thursday.

An average Dutch home now costs 233,000 euros (306,930 dollars) compared with 246,000 euros (324,055 dollars) in the third quarter of 2008.

It is the first year since 1990 that the price of Dutch homes have dropped.

The NVM said prices fell by 2.5 per cent in the fourth quarter compared with the previous quarter.

The fall of Dutch home prices began in the third quarter (down 0.7 per cent compared with the second quarter).

Warsaw - Despite an economic slow-down that has hit much of Europe, Poles are spending some 12 per cent more on groceries, the daily Rzeczpospolita said on Thursday.

Polish spending on groceries and toiletries shot up by 11.7 per cent from December 2007 to November 2008, the daily said, citing market research company GfK.

Consumers in Germany, Britain and France have been pessimistic, with many opting for cheaper or domestic grocery goods, the daily said, but the slowdown has not yet been felt in Poland.

Lugano, Switzerland - Six people have been arrested in Switzerland and Brazil accused of running human-trafficking ring, police said on Thursday.

Kathmandu - Thousands of people demonstrated in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu Thursday, protesting crippling power cuts that have badly affected industries and businesses.

On Sunday, the government announced 16-hour power cuts across the country, saying electricity production and supply was just a third of the total demand.

About 5,000 people representing small-scale industrialists and operators of three wheeler electric vehicles known locally as Safa Tempos or "Clean Vehicles," locked up the main office of the government-owned Nepal Electricity Authority that distributes power.