Habib, 34, is one of a new generation of rich young Afghans driving flashy cars and wearing designer labels who have made fortunes in Afghanistan's war economy since the US-led invasion 10 years ago. His shop is one of many signs that some in the Afghan capital are now very wealthy - although Kabul's mirrored glass malls and lavish mansions often sit on dusty roads dotted with children begging for money, highlighting wider, ingrained poverty.

And despite their wealth, many of the city's yuppies are worried that the withdrawal of US-led combat forces in 2014 will mean security declines and the economic boom turns to bust. "Not only me but every investor I know expects the bubble that created this economy will burst as soon as foreign aid is cut or when foreign troops leave in 2014," said entrepreneur Ahmad Lais.

Another young Afghan entrepreneur, car dealer Haji Zabiullah, echoed many of his wealthy countrymen by suggesting he could take his wealth elsewhere, for instance Dubai, if the economic and security situation gets too bad. "I might have to transfer my investments to another country if the Americans leave," he said. The vast majority of Afghans, who remain dirt poor and locked into a predominantly agrarian economy, do not have that option.

Instead, the country finds itself in a vicious circle - a death spiral, some would say - in which it is borrowing ever more to keep up on its existing debts, crushing growth in the process and thereby worsening its all-important ratio of debt-to-gross domestic product. Springing the debt trap would not be a miracle cure either: a manageable level of borrowing is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for Greece to start restoring competitiveness and resume growth after three years of economic contraction.

"If there was a deus ex machina tomorrow and you halved Greece's debt-to-GDP ratio overnight, there'd obviously be a huge benefit in terms of cash flow," said George Magnus, senior economic adviser to UBS in London. "So you can alleviate the financial stress on Greece quite quickly and effectively, but I don't think that in and of itself means the economy is going to grow," he said.

Lax lending by euro zone creditor nations, led by Germany, was as much to blame as unbridled borrowing by the currency bloc's periphery, economists Stephen King and Janet Henry at HSBC argued: "The solution lies in a much greater pooling of sovereignty over bond issuance and fiscal policy."

"Germany is a prolific saver and Greece is a prolific borrower. How do you manage that relationship so that the Greeks can borrow less and the Germans don't lend as much? That's ultimately the acid test about whether monetary union will work," Magnus said.

Putin said the new union would build on an existing Customs Union with Belarus and Kazakhstan which from next year will remove all barriers to trade, capital and labor movement between the three countries. "We are not going to stop there and are setting an ambitious goal - to achieve an even higher integration level in the Eurasian Union," Putin wrote in an article which will be published in Izvestia newspaper on October 4.

Putin wrote that he saw the way out of the global crisis through a regional integration, mentioning the European Union, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as examples. "These 'bricks' can assemble into a more stable global economy," Putin wrote.

Members of the Syrian National Council (SNC) said it would be an umbrella group for opposition groups inside and outside the country and a vehicle for democratic change. The council aims at "achieving the wishes and hopes of our people in overthrowing the current regime... including the head of this regime," according to a statement read by opposition figure Burhan Ghalioun at a news conference in Istanbul on Sunday.

The development came after another bloody weekend in Syria's six-month uprising which has left 2,700 dead, according to UN estimates. In one of the fiercest clashes of the insurrection, Syrian troops finally took control of the town of Rastan after five days of intense fighting with army defectors who sided with protesters. Syrian authorities said they were fighting armed terrorist gangs.

The Syrian opposition consists of a variety of groups with differing ideologies, including Islamists and secularists. The new council is the broadest umbrella movement of revolutionary forces formed so far. Ghalioun said that the council aims to present a united front for the opposition, and urged Syrians everywhere to support it. He said he was not worried about whether the international community recognised the council, although it would provide a single body with which other countries could coordinate.

The change, which is due to take place within weeks, has been made following claims the original form was 'discriminatory' and failed to include same-sex couples looking after a child. It has led to claims the official travel document is being turned into a 'PC passport'.

Campaigners for family values said the move 'denigrated' the roles of parents bringing up children in traditional families. Norman Wells, director of the Family Education Trust, said: 'Fathers and mothers are not interchangeable but have quite distinct roles to play in the care and nurture of their children. To speak of "parent 1" and "parent 2" denigrates the place of both fathers and mothers. Much as the equality and diversity social engineers might wish it were otherwise, it still takes a father and a mother to produce a child.'

The decision follows the revelation last month that details of the holder's sex could be erased from all passports to spare transgender people from embarrassment.

The latest shift follows lobbying from gay rights groups, who argue that the current passport application form fails to recognise same-sex couples who are both officially registered as a child's parents.

Mr Wells added: 'Like the Labour administration before it, the Coalition seems to be in Stonewall's grip. It is high time ministers started to represent the interests of the country as a whole and not capitulate to every demand made by a vocal and unrepresentative minority.'

"Part of my platform is, of course, the guilty must be punished and that we no longer let our children see their guilty leaders getting away with murder. Because it teaches children, you know, that they don't have to have any morals as long as they have guns and are bullies and I don't think that's a good message," Barr told Russia Today (RT).

"I do say that I am in favor of the return of the guillotine and that is for the worst of the worst of the guilty.

"I first would allow the guilty bankers to pay, you know, the ability to pay back anything over $100 million [of] personal wealth because I believe in a maximum wage of $100 million. And if they are unable to live on that amount then they should, you know, go to the reeducation camps and if that doesn't help, then being beheaded," Barr said with a straight face.

He reiterated that eurozone leaders had to take quick and decisive action. Mr Cameron said that, as 40% of UK exports went to the eurozone, it could not shield itself from the problem. The prime minister said the UK government had "a very clear view" of what needed to be done, and that it was pushing this with its partners in Europe and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

He said eurozone leaders had to strengthen the region's financial mechanisms, ensure the greater involvement of the IMF, and deal decisively with the high levels of sovereign debt. Mr Cameron added: "Action needs to be taken in the next coming weeks to strengthen Europe's banks, to build the defences that the eurozone has, to deal with the problems of debts decisively." He said these emergency measures were needed before any long-term plans of more economic coordination across the eurozone were introduced, such as a single tax system.

The wider fear is that Greece will ultimately default on its debt payments, and of the knock-on effect this would have on banks across Europe which own Greek government bonds. Some commentators also warn that Greece may ultimately have to leave the eurozone, plunging the region's economic and political systems into chaos.

They will do so before the private sector is ready to grasp the baton, and without stimulus from the trade surplus states (Germany, China, Japan) to offset the contraction in demand. Put another way, there is a chronic lack of consumption in the world. "This probably comes as a surprise to most people, gorged on propaganda about excessive debt and the need for retrenchment," said Charles Dumas from Lombard Street Research.

The inevitable outcome of one-sided austerity polices in the Anglo-sphere and Club Med is a self-feeding downward slide for the whole global system, a variant of 1930s debt-deflation. "Excess savers refuse to acknowledge that if world savings are demonstrably too high, healthy recovery depends on the surplus countries saving less," he said.

In Europe, policy is still on deflationary settings, with Italy and Spain having to tighten fiscally yet further to meet their budget targets.

The European Central Bank is overseeing a collapse in real M1 deposits in Italy of around 6 per cent, annualized over the last six-months. Michael Darda from MKM Partners said the ECB has made such a hash of monetary policy that nominal GDP for the whole eurozone may even start to contract. That is astonishing. If correct, there is no hope of averting a debt spiral in Italy and Spain. Any such outcome will test the EU's bail-out machinery to destruction within months.

Mr King's "disastrous collapse" is staring policy-makers in the face.

In Europe, French and Belgian government officials are due to meet on Monday to discuss the crisis enveloping Dexia as speculation mounts about a possible break-up of the Franco-Belgian lender. Last week, the cost of insuring Dexia bonds hit an all-time high of 900 basis points, nearly double the level just two months ago, meaning the annual cost to insure 10 million euros (8.59 million pounds) of the bonds is 900,000 pounds.

"The money ran out in June and what you are seeing now is the beginning of a new credit crunch, except this time it will be truly global, not Western," said one senior London-based credit analyst. Dexia, along with other European lenders, has been hard hit by the closure of the interbank lending markets and the continuing unwillingness of investors to buy the bonds of eurozone banks.

"Nothing is really working at the moment. None of the markets are functioning. Until Greece defaults it's hard to see any resolution," said one senior London-based credit analyst.

The dire forecasts came while inspectors from the International Monetary Fund, EU and European Central Bank, known as the troika, were in Athens scouring the country's books to decide whether to approve a loan tranche. Without that installment, Greece would run out of cash as soon as this month. The 2012 draft budget approved by cabinet on Sunday predicts a deficit of 8.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2011, well short of the 7.6 percent target.

The 2012 deficit is set to meet a nominal target of 14.6 billion euros, but at 6.8 percent of GDP it falls short of a target of 6.5 percent, because the economy will shrink further. "Three critical months remain to finish 2011, and the final estimate of 8.5 percent of GDP deficit can be achieved if the state mechanism and citizens respond accordingly," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

European officials are scrambling to avert an abrupt Greek bankruptcy, which would wreck the balance sheets of European banks, jeopardise the future of the single currency and potentially plunge the world into a new global financial crisis.

A smaller protest was held in Chicago's financial district where protesters held placards demanding "Jobs Not Cuts".

Protesters also turned out in Denver, gathering downtown before marching into the city chanting, "Occupy the streets."

All the protests were inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement which has seen hundreds of people camping out near the financial district in New York City and conducting marches calling for an end to home foreclosures and high unemployment.

It will be the first time Parliament has held a major vote on seeking the public's view since the 1975 referendum confirming the decision to join the Common Market. If MPs vote in favour of a referendum, the result would not be binding on the Government.

But, combined with growing public opposition to the increasing power of the EU, it would put enormous pressure on David Cameron to let the people decide the country's European fate. The Commons vote has been forced on MPs - and a reluctant Prime Minister - by public demand after the crisis in the eurozone, with desperate attempts to prop up the Greek economy, led to a surge in anti-Brussels feeling.

The decision to hold a debate was made after a petition, signed by more than 100,000 people demanding a referendum, was submitted to a new group of MPs given the job of making sure Parliament does not sweep controversial issues under the carpet. The Mail on Sunday has learnt that the Commons Backbench Business Committee will agree to grant a one-day debate on a referendum after Parliament returns next week.

Committee chairman Natascha Engel, a Labour MP, said: 'Given the crisis in the eurozone, this issue has become more relevant than ever. There is a clear majority of backbench MPs who want to debate this and we have to respond to that.'

At the heart of the gloom, of course, is the eurozone, with 90 per cent of those surveyed judging that the economy of the single currency area is getting worse. One wonders what planet the other 10 per cent are on. The eurozone is clearly sliding. The European Commission's economic sentiment indicator fell to 95 in September, from 98.4 the month before, plunging at a rate not seen since the Lehman Brothers collapse. German retail sales dropped faster in August than at any time since May 2007.

The eurozone - an economy second in size only to the US - is on the brink of a double-dip recession. This grim prognosis, though, is set against a more hideous backdrop - the danger of a "euro-quake". Greece will default. The only question is how the default is managed - indeed, if it is managed at all. A bungled Greek payment failure will spark "contagion", as spooked creditors pull the plug on some big eurozone government, leading to non-payment of wages and benefits, serious social unrest, and a single currency break-up.

We face the very real prospect of a major economic shock, the negative impact of which will be felt around the world.

Some members of Congress have objected to military chaplains performing same-sex unions, saying it would violate the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. The Pentagon says a military chaplain may officiate at any private ceremony, but isn't required if it would conflict with his or her religious or personal beliefs. The Pentagon also says Defense Department property may be used for private functions, including religious and other ceremonies such as same-sex unions, as long as it's not prohibited by state or local laws.

The group Occupy Wall Street has been camped out in a plaza in Manhattan's Financial District for nearly two weeks staging various marches, and had orchestrated an impromptu trek to Brooklyn on Saturday evening. They walked in thick rows on the sidewalk up to the bridge, where some demonstrators spilled onto the roadway after being told to stay on the pedestrian pathway, police said. Most of those arrested face disorderly conduct charges, while others were accused of resisting arrest.

Some protesters sat on the roadway, while others chanted and yelled at the police from the pedestrian walkaway above. Police used orange netting to stop the group on the roadway from going further down the bridge, which is under construction.

Seasoned activists said the ad-hoc protest could prove to be a training ground for future organizers of larger and more cohesive demonstrations, or motivate those on the sidelines to speak out against injustices. "You may not get much, or any of these things on the first go-around," said the Reverend Herbert Daughtry, a longtime civil rights activist who has participated in protests for decades. "But it's the long haul that matters."