Budapest - No passengers will be checked in at Budapest's Ferihegy International Airport until at least 1 pm (1200 GMT), a spokesman for airport management said on Saturday as a strike by airport staff entered its fourth day.

"Only two members of passenger security staff out of three shifts due to start work on Saturday morning have taken up their posts," said Domokos Szollar, spokesman for Budapest Airport, the company that runs the airport.

He added that airlines must decide "at the own risk" whether or not to cancel scheduled flights.

Hungary's only major international airport was the scene of chaos since Wednesday morning when staff came out on strike, among them security workers.

Frankfurt - European shares opened sharply down Friday after the failure of the US car industry bail-out sent stocks tumbling in Asia.

With shares in major European bourses falling in early trading, Europe's blue-chip Stoxx 50 opened down more than 4 per cent at 2,379.99 points.

This followed a 2.8-per-cent fall in shares in Europe's leading market in London and a more dramatic 3.8-per-cent slump in Frankfurt, where the failure of the rescue plan for the crisis-hit US car industry sparked big falls in key German car stocks.

Paris - French-Dutch airline Air France-KLM said Thursday it had deposed a formal complaint at the European Commission over the sale of Austrian Airlines to the German carrier Lufthansa.

"The agreement concluded on December 5, 2008, between Austrian authorities and Lufthansa does not conform to the conditions that were imposed on Air France-KLM during the procedure of choosing a strategic partner (for Austrian Airlines)," the company said in a press statement.

Berlin - Europe is gearing up to mark a series of major anniversaries next year, defining moments both in terms of European as well as world history.

Besides the 70th anniversary of the start of the Second World War, which began when Hitler's troops marched into Poland on September 1, 1939, 2009 will also mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism across Central Europe.

Starting with democratic elections in Poland in June 1989, the year of change across Central Europe culminated in November of that year with the fall of the Berlin Wall. That event became a symbol of the end of the Cold War and Europe's post-Second World War divide.

Athens - The assassination of his father by Taliban militants forced 13-year-old Jahid to escape his home in Afghanistan.

But his long perilous journey toward asylum in Europe has left him and thousands others trapped for months in a makeshift camp in Greece's western port city of Patras.

Dumbfounded by the government's neglect and the European Union's tough immigration policies, Jahid's future lies in limbo.

London - An historic cushion-shaped diamond with a European royal history of more than 300 years was Wednesday sold for 16.4 million pounds (24.2 million dollars) at Christie's auction house in London.

The Wittelsbach Diamond, an extremely rare 35.56-carat greyish-blue diamond, was offered to the international market for the first time in 80 years.

It had been estimated to fetch a maximum of 9 million pounds.