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.

The market, considered a forward-looking gauge of the economy, appears to lack any catalysts for buying. The triggers of last week's massive stock losses continue to hang over the market, with no bailout seen for Detroit's three automakers and Citigroup Inc. shares plunging to all-time lows. And, that's just the start of it - even more uncertainty is expected to come in a week shortened by the Thanksgiving holiday. A stream of economic reports, the start of the holiday shopping season, and more clues about the job market will keep investors scrambling in the coming days.

One thing investors can expect is more volatility in a fractious market, where thin volume exacerbates the market's wild swings. Last week, the stock market slumped to lows not seen since 1997 on Thursday before recovering with a big rally the next day.

The treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp will also guarantee up to $306bn (£205bn) of risky loans and securities on Citigroup's books. The plan follows a $25bn injection of public funds in the bank last month. Last week the company announced 52,000 job losses worldwide, on top of 23,000 job cuts previously announced.

The action plan was announced after emergency talks over the weekend between the bank and the treasury department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Citigroup is the second-largest US bank and has operations in more than 100 countries. MANY ANALYSTS HAD CALCULATED THAT THE HUGE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION WAS TOO BIG TO ALLOW TO FAIL.

UPDATE:- ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Sunday she knew of no talks going on between banking giant Citigroup and the federal government for financial aid. Speaking to reporters traveling with President George W. Bush, Perino declined to comment on whether the president supported a federal rescue package for Citigroup.

Five armored vehicles loaded with al-Shabab fighters arrived in the central Somali coastal town of Harardhere this weekend, near where pirates are holding the massive oil tanker Sirius Star, said Ahmed Mohamed, a resident of the town. The fighters told residents they would battle the pirates because the tanker, which is loaded with 2 million barrels of oil, is owned by a Muslim country and should not have been taken, Mohamed said.

Another resident, Hassan Nor, suggested that the al-Shabab fighters' motive was to share in the multimillion-dollar ransom the pirates have demanded from the supertanker's owner. The al-Shabab militia is an offshoot of an Islamic party that ruled much of Somalia in the second half of 2006 and aims to impose Islamic sharia law in Somalia. It was forced from power by Ethiopian troops but continues to fight for control.

Nor said he could see the Sirius Star anchored offshore from his town. "The armed pirates have climbed on the top of the ship," Nor said. "They vowed that they will defend any attackers from the ship."

Record results from both its advisory and private banking operations enabled the bank to pay the bonuses to its 2,700 people in June. Unlike conventional investment banks Rothschild, whose chairman is Davide de Rothschild, has steered clear of proprietary trading, prime broking and other activities that have devastated rivals, although it still wrote off €96 million because of souring loans.

Rothschild's year-end of March means the bonuses were paid before the most serious setbacks to banks. Most investment banks pay out bonuses between January and May. Goldman Sachs is due to tell its staff the size of their payouts in the next three weeks. Alongside its pro-forma group-wide results, Rothschild unveiled a joint venture with Rabobank of the Netherlands, whereby the two sides will pool their staff and clients IN THE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE SECTOR.

Draft legislation sets out the fines payable by anyone who fails to comply. The Home Office also revealed the £30 fixed fee for the cost of the card is set only until 2010. Most people are likely to pay more when large scale issuing of cards begins in 2011 or 2012, it emerged. The personal details which must be kept up to date include name, address, nationality and even gender.

Special provisions have been made for people undergoing sex changes. Transgendered people will have two cards at the same time, one for their old identity and a new one for when they have completed their sex change. Fines will also apply if cardholders fail to report their cards lost or stolen, and will be enforceable by the civil courts.

The consultation document states fines are "not intended to be punitive or revenue raising". Officials stress card holders will usually have the fines waived if they agree to have their data updated when the errors emerge. They say the penalties are necessary to ensure the information on the database remains current

As if they haven't done enough damage. Thousands of subprime mortgage lenders and brokers - many of them the very sorts of firms that helped create the current financial crisis - are going strong. Their new strategy: TAKING ADVANTAGE OF A LONG-STANDING FEDERAL PROGRAM DESIGNED TO ENCOURAGE HOMEOWNERSHIP BY INSURING MORTGAGES FOR BUYERS OF MODEST MEANS.

You read that correctly. SOME OF THE SAME PEOPLE WHO PROPELLED US TOWARD THE HOUSING MARKET CALAMITY ARE NOW SEEKING TO PROFIT BY EXPLOITING BILLIONS IN FEDERALLY INSURED MORTGAGES. Washington, meanwhile, has vastly expanded the availability of such taxpayer-backed loans as part of the emergency campaign to rescue the country's swooning economy.

In April 2007, GOLDMAN SACHS purchased a controlling stake in Senderra Funding, a former subprime lender in Fort Mill, SC Goldman, which has received $10 billion in direct federal rescue money, converted Senderra into an FHA lender and refinance organization. The strategy appears likely to produce hefty margins. In September, Goldman paid 63¢ on the dollar in a $760 million deal with Equity One, a unit of Banco Popular, for a batch of subprime mortgage and auto loans. Through Senderra, Goldman plans to refinance at least some of the mortgages into FHA-backed loans. Because of the government guarantee, it can then sell those loans to other financial firms for as much as 90¢ on the dollar, according to people familiar with the mortgage market. THAT'S A PROFIT MARGIN OF MORE THAN 40 PERCENT.

The fighters from the Shabaab militia, a fundamentalist movement likened to an African Taliban, were reported to have turned up in the port of Haradheere in southern Somalia, close to where the tanker is currently anchored. Some reports said the Islamists, who have tried to impose brutal law and order on Somalia's warring clans, had the pirates themselves in their sights.

Other residents believed the Shabaab's motives were not altruistic. "There are many militiamen who have arrived in the town and they want to get a share from the pirates if the ransom is paid," claimed Ahmed Abdullahi, another clan elder. THE ISLAMISTS SAY THEY WILL ATTACK THE PIRATES FOR HIJACKING A MUSLIM SHIP."

The Shabaab fighters used to be the armed wing of the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist organisation that briefly brought peace to Mogadishu two years ago before being deposed by the weak but internationally-backed transitional federal government. During their time in power the courts union also virtually eradicated piracy.