Dubai, self-styled bling capital of the Middle East, nightclub hotspot for the teetotalling Gulf and home to the world's tallest building and biggest mall -- has gone pear-shaped. "It's gotten pretty ugly out there," analysts at Nomura Investment Banking wrote in a note this week, describing Dubai's property market as "A FULL-SCALE FRENZY IN WHICH SPECULATION WENT LARGELY UNCHECKED UNTIL IT WAS VERY LATE."

The result may be a new business model for the emirate, one based less on debt and speculation. Dubai's response is now being hammered out by a committee of business and government leaders charged with steering the emirate through the crisis and perhaps throwing its high-debt business model out the window.

Big developers have started firing staff and paring projects, banks like Emirates NBD ENBD.DU have blocked consumer credit to employees of companies at risk, and at least one major mortgage company has stopped lending altogether. "Lenders blinded by rising oil prices and borrowers spellbound by easy returns have helped build a mountain of private sector debt in parts of the region that HAS GENERATED AN ILLUSION OF EXCESS AND ABUNDANCE," Nomura said.

"The biggest question is what, as the owner of bank stocks, do you really own?" said Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Group. "It's tough to say this won't happen again." He added, "Financial institutions are leveraged companies, and ANY TIME YOU HAVE A HIGHLY LEVERAGED SITUATION, IT IS BASED ON FAITH AND TRUST."

After long insisting it was strong enough to weather plunging markets, Citigroup agreed on Sunday to its second U.S. government bailout package in two months. The bank is selling $20 billion of preferred stock, slashing its dividend and granting warrants. Citigroup will unload most of the potential losses from $306 billion of risky assets to taxpayers.

The flip-flop is the latest in a series by U.S. banks this year, whose assurances of safety and soundness have been followed soon after by bailouts and rescue financing. These episodes cast further doubt on statements made by banking executives and, investors said, could hurt the next financier that finds itself under the gun. AFTER CITI, IS BANK OF AMERICA NEXT?

Brigadier Gordon Messenger is every inch a military man, which makes it all the more surprising to hear him settle for something that sounds suspiciously close to second best. He would deny that characterisation of his words, but accepts there are limits to the Afghanistan project. The Afghanistan British troops leave behind - and no-one is willing to commit to any timeline other than to repeat the mantra that it will take "many years" - is going to be an imperfect state.

Parts of it may well remain beyond the reach of central government in Kabul, and some of those responsible for the mayhem of the last 30 years could well retain much of their power and influence, perhaps even their militia. It is a far cry from the beacon of democracy some had hoped for. "I don't think it will be recognisable in Western Europe, but Afghanistan will be something which will provide good enough security for the people. I THINK GOOD ENOUGH SHOULD BE WHAT WE LOOK FOR," THE BRIGADIER SAID. "IT'S NOT SECOND BEST, IT'S REALISTIC."

More than two-thirds of Britons think UK troops should leave Afghanistan within a year, a BBC poll has found. Defence Secretary John Hutton has said UK FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN WERE CRUCIAL TO BRITISH NATIONAL SECURITY. "Terrorism poses a direct threat to the security of the British people. So, let us not for one moment think that it does not threaten our way of life, our values of democracy and human rights," he said.

The worst-case scenario could put a net cost of £10,000 on each UK household, he says in a BBC News website article. The government said the costs of not acting on climate change would be higher than the costs of acting now. Mr Lilley says he does not oppose action to curb climate change.

"We all want to save the planet from overheating, just as we all want to save the financial system from meltdown," he writes in the BBC's Green Room series of environmental opinion articles. "We accept that both rescues may cost us a lot." But, he says, the Climate Change Bill, which is broadly supported by the Conservatives, may not represent value for money.

The government has published an impact assessment for the bill that puts its costs at between £30bn and £205bn between now and 2050. The benefits, it calculates, will lie between £82bn and £110bn. "WOULD YOU INSURE YOUR HOME WITH A COMPANY IF THEY CHARGED PREMIUMS WHICH COULD BE DOUBLE THE VALUE OF YOUR HOUSE?" asks Mr Lilley, who has held the posts of secretary of state for social security, and for trade and industry.

The magazine quotes an unnamed Israeli source at the Defense Ministry as saying, "WE HAVE BEEN WARNED OFF." IDF officials hinted in the past that a preemptive attack on Iran's nuclear installations might be timed to take place before the inauguration of US President-elect Barack Obama. Obama is slated to take office on January 20.

The request, reportedly relayed to Israeli officials by senior US counterparts, was likely to be reiterated on Monday during Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's last meeting with Bush with both leaders still serving as of heads of state.

THE UNPRECEDENTED PLEDGE OF FUNDS includes $3.18 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department's $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. FEDERAL RESERVE LENDING LAST WEEK WAS 1,900 TIMES THE WEEKLY AVERAGE FOR THE THREE YEARS BEFORE THE CRISIS.

When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight. Now, as regulators commit far more money while refusing to disclose loan recipients or reveal the collateral they are taking in return, some Congress members are calling for the Fed to be reined in.

"Whether it's lending or spending, it's tax dollars that are going out the window and WE END UP HOLDING COLLATERAL WE DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT," said Congressman Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican who serves on the House Financial Services Committee. "THE TIME HAS COME THAT WE CONSIDER WHAT SORT OF LIMITATIONS WE SHOULD BE PLACING ON THE FED SO THAT AUTHORITY RETURNS TO ELECTED OFFICIALS AS OPPOSED TO APPOINTED ONES."

It was the latest in a series of protests in the capital SINCE OCTOBER'S BANKING COLLAPSE CRIPPLED THE ISLAND'S ECONOMY. At least five people were injured. As crowds gathered in the drizzle before the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, on Saturday, Mr Torfason - a leading pop singer in Iceland and one of the key leaders of the protests - said: "They don't have our trust and they are no longer legitimate." THE VALUE OF THE ICELANDIC KRONA HAS BEEN CUT IN HALF SINCE JANUARY.

Four Nordic countries, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have pledged to lend the country a combined $4.6 billion to help revive its deflated economy. The loan would be the first by the IMF to a Western nation since 1976. Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old office worker, said: "I've just had enough of this whole thing. I don't trust the government, I don't trust the banks, I don't trust the political parties, and I don't trust the IMF. WE HAD A GOOD COUNTRY AND THEY RUINED IT."

ICELAND'S three biggest banks – Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir – collapsed under the weight of billions of dollars of debts accumulated in an aggressive overseas expansion, shattering the country's currency. Iceland's government seized control of all three institutions in early October.

A state of emergency has been declared and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has offered federal help. By Monday, more than 20,000 people had been forced out of their homes. Some have been able to stay with relatives and friends, while others have gone to public shelters. Civil defence officials said at least 45 people were known to have died.

In total more than a million people are said to have been affected by the flooding. "Santa Catarina is facing its worst weather tragedy," state Governor Luis Henrique Silveira told reporters. Heavy rain and flooding in Brazil have been known to lead to high death tolls in the past partly because homes are often constructed in dangerous locations that are vulnerable to landslides, he adds.

The proposals are announced under the Civil Rights section of their agenda presented at www.change.gov, the web site of the Obama campaign's self-described "Office of the President-elect." A section titled "Support for the LGBT Community" outlines the agenda for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered activists and quotes remarks Obama made on June 1, 2007. "While we have come a long way since the Stonewall riots in 1969, we still have a lot of work to do," Obama said, referring to riots which followed a police raid on a New York City gay bar.

According to the web site, President-elect Obama and vice-president-elect Joe Biden will support expanding crimes legislation such as the Matthew Shepard Act. They also back the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which they claim will "prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity or expression."

On the subject of adoption rights, the www.change.gov web site states: "Barack Obama believes that we must ensure adoption rights for all couples and individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation. HE THINKS THAT A CHILD WILL BENEFIT FROM A HEALTHY AND LOVING HOME, WHETHER THE PARENTS ARE GAY OR NOT." The Obama agenda further advocates the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask-Don't Tell" policy barring open homosexuals from serving in the military.

Imposed by the allies upon the newly independent Turkish state after the Great War, the Montreux Convention guarantees merchant vessels complete freedom to transport any goods at any time through the Bosphorus. THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT WATERWAYS IN THE WORLD TO NAVIGATE: its convoluted structure requires ships to change course at least twelve times. Four of these turns are blind corners - approaching vessels can't be seen until it is too late. It carries four times the load of either the Panama or Suez canals. Notorious for strong currents, whirlpools, whipping winds, and sudden dense fogs, it is booby-trapped with high-tension electric lines, suspension bridges, and a myriad of small craft which ply its length and breadth.

Every day, a 1.5m people commute by ferry from one side of Istanbul to the other, and every day, more than 2,500 vessels pass through the straits, including an average of 28 tankers, most of them carrying enough explosive material to turn these waters into an inferno. No one should be trying to navigate this passage without a skilled, experienced pilot - more than 85 percent of accidents on the straits involve unpiloted vessels - but nearly half of the ships from the post-Soviet states simply refuse to use one. BECAUSE OF THE MONTREUX CONVENTION, THE TURKS CAN'T FORCE THEM TO.

In the past five years, cargo traffic through the Black Sea has risen by nearly 500 per cent; the flow of oil from the port of Novorossysk has more than doubled. Monstrous vessels full of oil, dangerous chemicals, nuclear waste and liquid gas - often skippered by drunken incompetents - have been pouring down from the Caucasus. Many of these tankers are rustbuckets that shouldn't be at sea, let alone passing right through the middle of a city of 15m people. BECAUSE OF THE MONTREUX CONVENTION, TURKEY CAN'T BAN THEM.

A DISASTER IN THE BOSPHORUS WOULDN'T JUST CRIPPLE ISTANBUL: IT COULD TURN OFF THE LIGHTS IN MUCH OF EUROPE. Even a moderate oil spill could close the straits for months of clean-up, cutting off a substantial proportion of Europe's energy supplies and causing a worldwide economic crisis. The environmental costs would be incalculable. Most people have never heard of the Montreux Convention - but a moment's miscalculation in these foggy waters might very well make it infamous.

In recent months, PA security forces have deployed in the West Bank cities of Nablus, Jenin and Hebron, as part of a law-and-order campaign by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Bethlehem would become the next city on the list if the extra forces are allowed to remain. Diab al-Ali, a senior Palestinian security commander, said negotiations with Israel are continuing and that a decision is expected by the end of the week.

Abbas is trying to strengthen his grip on the West Bank and to reassure Israel and the international community that his forces can impose order and rein in militants. However, Israel retains overall security control, and IDF troops often carry out arrest raids despite the presence of PA forces.

The tension on the long-divided Korean peninsula has been escalating since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in February promising to invest heavily in the impoverished North on condition it moves to end development of an atomic arsenal. North Korea's KCNA news agency said the border closure was the first step "to be taken in connection with the evermore undisguised anti-DPRK (North Korea) confrontational racket of the south Korean puppet authorities."

The increasingly angry rhetoric follows an end to South Korean largesse to the North since Lee came to power. At the weekend, Lee made clear he would not back down in the face of threats by the North, which accuses him of trying to reignite war between the Koreas and warned last month it was ready to reduce its wealthy neighbor to rubble.

Years of on-off negotiations between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States are currently stumbling over demands the North allow verification of steps it has taken to disarm. Pyongyang is refusing to allow samples to be taken out of the country for testing.

In Zurich, UBS head office sits astride Paradeplatz - Parade Square to you and me. But in recent months, the Swiss have renamed it Piratenplatz - or Pirate Square - to signify what they believe is the daylight robbery that has taken place over the last 12 months. Not of their biggest bank, but by it. When the news began to trickle out that UBS was in big trouble because of its exposure to sub-prime mortgages, there was first surprise, then concern, and then finally, as the multi-billion pound extent of the losses became clear, fury.

UBS has thousands of small shareholders, mostly relatively well-off, mostly elderly, and none of them expecting the value of their shares to be cut in half in a few short months. "We know of course that investing money is a risk, but we didn't expect this. Now we want to know who was responsible," said Roby Tschopp, spokesman for one of the shareholder groups.

The Swiss know that UBS bosses earned among the highest salaries in Europe. Added to that were huge bonuses which they continued to award themselves even as the financial crisis unfolded. Marcel Ospel stepped down as chairman, and a new pay structure with fewer bonuses was announced. But Mr Ospel has so far declined to return the rumoured £10m bonus he received last year.

NINE OIL AND COAL-FIRED POWER PLANTS ARE TO CLOSE BY 2015 because of an EU directive designed to limit pollution and associated acid rain. At the same time, FOUR AGEING NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS WILL BE SHUT, further reducing the electricity available to homes and businesses. Analysts Capgemini warn that we will not have new nuclear power plants until around 2018. And they are concerned that the rush to build wind farms will not deliver the power needed to ensure the lights stay on.

Energy consultant for Capgemini UK, Alistair Green, said: "An energy gap is looming, which could lead to black-outs or so-called brown-outs." Brown-outs occur when the voltage in the system needs to be turned down because of a lack of electricity in the system, effectively dimming the lights. Mr Green said: "We are looking at the possibility of black-outs and brownouts within three to four years. We might get to a situation of rota disconnections, where all the domestic homes and businesses are cut off in an area of a town on a rota basis." He added: "Electricity is key to homeowners and businesses. This is a pretty frightening prospect."

They found women were more likely to believe in the supernatural than men, and were more likely to visit a medium. Nearly a quarter of the 3,000 surveyed by market researchers claimed they had had a paranormal encounter. Some 37 per cent said aliens and ghosts were the basis of their belief system.

Earlier this year reports released by the National Archives detailed UFO sightings logged by the Government. These included a fisherman who described being taken on to a spacecraft - only to be rejected because of his age. A survey last year highlighted concern over DECLINING MORAL STANDARDS - attributed CHIEFLY TO A RETREAT IN RELIGIOUS BELIEFS.