Kampala  - Uganda said Friday that it is being hit by the global economic crisis and has lost an equivalent of 90 million US dollars in direct foreign investment since the financial slump began.

"The global economic crisis is drastically affecting developing countries and we are getting affected because we are part of the global village," Aston Kajara, deputy finance minister in charge of investment told reporters.

Jerusalem - Israeli President Shimon Peres on Friday in a New Year's message to the Iranian people sharply criticized the leadership in Tehran.

In an audio message broadcast partly in Farsi ahead of the Iranian news year's holiday of Nowruz, Peres accused the government of Iran of doing everything it could to harm Israel and its people.

Washington  - The final solar panel at the space station began unfurling, as planned, on Friday, the final event in the years- long expansion of the energy capacity of the orbiter.

The panel, installed Thursday during a spacewalk by astronauts from the Discovery shuttle, started unfolding at 1506 GMT.

"Everything looking good so far," said a NASA official in Houston in the live webcast on NASA TV. She said the process would take some time, and be halted midway to allow the device to "warm in the sun" - necessary to avoid sticking.

Geneva  - Africa is not immune to the world's financial troubles, the head of the African Development Bank said Friday, asking that at the upcoming G20 international economic conference the continent not be forgotten.

"For us, in the low income countries, the crisis is reaching us and hitting very hard," Donald Kaberuka, the bank's president, said.

The continent was witnessing contractions in all major sectors "much faster than we thought."

Bremen - International Torsten Frings will miss Werder Bremen's Bundesliga match against Borussia Dortmund on the weekend and seems likely to have to withdraw from the Germany squad for the World Cup qualifiers on March 28 and April 1.

The midfielder has an ankle injury that will force him to miss the game against Dortmund and makes him doubtful for the games against Liechtenstein in Leipzig and in Cardiff against Wales.