Frankfurt  - European shares opened sharply down Monday after a steep fall in stocks across Asia signalled another tumultuous week on global bourses.

After a wave of panic selling in Asia's stock markets, Europe's blue-chip Stoxx 50 slumped by 5.9 per cent in early trading to 1,994 points as recession fears deepen.

This came in the wake of big falls in opening trade across Europe's national bourses with London sliding more than 5 per cent, Paris' CAC 40 index cascading down by nearly 6 per cent and Frankfurt's key DAX dropping by 5 per cent.

Braunschweig, Germany - If you use a radio-controlled watch in Western Europe, or observe an airport clock, the chances are that both are being calibrated from a laboratory in the north of Germany.

When European clocks were set back by one hour early Sunday morning, ending summer time, the change was largely automated using signals from a bank of atomic clocks in Braunschweig.

The 45-year-old man in charge of them, Ekkehard Peik, is head of the Time and Frequencies Department at the German Agency for Physics Technology.

"Our system of clocks has never stopped," he says proudly.

It sometimes happens that one clock fails and has to be replaced, but the set keeps going.

Beijing - Asian and European Union leaders on Saturday called for the international community to act quickly and decisively at a conference on responses to the global financial crisis next month in Washington.

"Lessons should be learned from the financial crisis, the responsibilities should be clarified for governments, companies and supervision respectively," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told reporters at the close of the biannual Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).

Frankfurt  - European markets faced up to a Black Friday as a wave of panic selling triggered by growing recession fears sent shares and currencies into a dramatic tailspin.

Already under siege as profit worries have grown, shares across Europe spiralled down after the OPEC oil producing nations' cartel cut production raising concerns about increase energy costs as the world economy was engulfed by a sharp slowdown.

With Wall Street slumping by more than 4 per cent shortly after its Friday opening, investors in Europe continued to dump stocks leaving the blue-chip Stoxx 50 down 6.1 per cent at 2090 as European trading came to an end.

Beijing - Asian and European leaders plan to urge Myanmar's military rulers to be more tolerant toward opposition political parties and release political prisoners, according to a draft summit statement seen Friday.

The leaders attending the biennial Asia-Europe Meeting would urge Myanmar to "engage all stakeholders in an inclusive political process in order to achieve national reconciliation and economic and social development."

Beijing  - Asian and European leaders plan to call for new goals to fight climate change up to 2012 to be agreed by the end of next year, according to a draft summit statement seen Friday.

"Leaders welcomed the substantial progress made at the climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007," said the draft "chair's statement" from the biannual Asia-Europe Meeting, which opened Friday.

"They confirmed their commitment to securing an ambitious, effective and comprehensive agreed outcome now, up to and beyond 2012, by the end of 2009 on the basis of the Bali road map," said the draft, which is scheduled to be issued on Saturday at the close of the summit.