Frankfurt - The world's bigg

Brussels - Acknowledging the extraordinarily adverse impact of the economic downturn on European Union governments' public accounts, the bloc's executive in Brussels on Tuesday granted France, Britain and three other member states more time to correct their swelling budget deficits.

France, whose budget deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio reached 3.4 per cent in 2008 and is set to hit 5.6 per cent this year, was given until 2012 to bring its deficit below the 3 per cent limit set by EU rules.

Valencia, Spain - A 39-year-old Spanish former breast cancer patient will become the world's first woman to give birth to twins after receiving a transplant of her own ovarian tissue, officials said Tuesday in the eastern city of Valencia.

Women who are treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy often experience precocious ovarian failure, health official Manuel Cervera explained.

Oslo - Remarks by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store further fuelled speculation that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is soon to be chosen for the post of secretary general of NATO.

After a speech Monday evening in Oslo, Store was quoted by the online edition of the Dagsavisen newspaper that the next NATO secretary general understands Norwegian, which "is good for Norway."

Speakers of Norwegian and Danish can understand each other quite easily.

Riga - Eastern European foreign ministers, meeting in the Latvian capital of Riga, congratulated Albania and Croatia Tuesday "on their imminent accession" to NATO.

The two countries are due to be granted membership at the NATO summit in the French city of Strasbourg and Kehl and Baden-Baden in Germany starting on April 3.

The foreign ministers also voiced approval of recent elections in Macedonia.

New Delhi, Mar 24 : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday criticised Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate L. K. Advani for calling him a weak leader.