Sana'a, Yemen - At least nine people were killed and dozens were missing after floods from heavy rains hit eastern Yemen, officials said on Friday.

The officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that nearly 400 homes were destroyed in the south-eastern province of Hadhramout, some 900 kilometres from the capital Sana'a.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh declared Hadhramout a disaster zone.

Governor Salem al-Khanbashi told the state radio that fatalities were reported from different areas of Hadhramout, but accurate figures could not be gathered owing to the difficulties of reaching all the affected areas.

Berlin  - French plans to take stakes in strategic industries and shut out big foreign investors were criticized Friday in Berlin, in a new sign of Franco-German discord.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy had unveiled his plans the previous day and urged other nations to copy France's protective measures against sovereign wealth funds.

Riga - There was a sting in the tail of this week's trading on the small Baltic stock exchanges Friday when prices dropped sharply in response to big falls on the world's main exchanges.

All three Baltic stock exchanges were down significantly at the close of trading, crushing hopes that the worst of the financial downturn might be over in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Tokyo - Asian stocks, led by Tokyo and Seoul, plummeted for a third-straight day Friday on fears of a worldwide recession, defying an overnight rise on Wall Street.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost nearly 10 per cent of its value, tumbling below 8,000 for the first time since May 2003, on indications the global financial crisis was beginning to hit the nation's exporters.

New Delhi - India's benchmark Sensex on Friday crashed 11 per cent to end trading at a three-year low of below 9,000 as investors sold heavily after the central bank disappointed them by keeping key interest rates unchanged.

The 30-share Sensitive Index, which had lost 912 points in the last two sessions, crashed 10.92 per cent shortly after a credit and monetary review was announced by the Reserve Bank of India.

Valencia, Spain  - The low-cost airline Ryanair on Friday announced the closure of its base in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia, citing the refusal of the regional authorities to discuss a proposal for a joint promotion project.

The Valencia authorities had refused to "engage in constructive discussions in relation to the promotion of the airport and its routes across Ryanair's network in Europe," the airline said in a statement.