Are the good days over in Dubai? On Wednesday, the government announced a debt standstill at its flagship holding company, Dubai World, whose troubled property unit Nakheel asked for an extension to May 30 on a December 14 deadline for $4 billion debt. Consequently on Friday, Asian and European markets took a hit. Japan had its biggest one-day decline in eight months, and Australia and South Korea's markets also plunged. On Friday, the Dow finished almost 155 points lower, after closing at a 13-month high on Wednesday. “The way Dubai has gone about its financial business has hugely damaged its standing,” writes the Financial Times. “Bankers and investors are furious, feeling they were led on the wrong path.” But some analysts said the declines were exaggerated by light trading over the holiday.

Yet more details have emerged on the already-insufferable Salahis, and it turns out that the couple that crashed the White House actually managed to greet President Obama himself. Speculation is swirling on how Michaele and Sareq Salahi managed to get past security and into the receiving line; the Secret Service has already released a statement calling the agency “deeply concerned and embarrassed” by the lapse, and that the couple “should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely.” The pair was photographed shaking hands with the president in the presence of dignitaries and other guests whose names were presumably on the list.

Officials have determined that in spite of a ban preventing the government from providing funding for the group, Acorn can still be paid for services rendered prior to the ban, largely because of the wording in a bill signed recently by President Barack Obama. David Barron, the acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, said that the decision was based on the bill’s use of the term “provide,” which does not imply that pre-existing contracts should be ignored and that such a reversal would lead to questions of constitutionality. Acorn has received $53 million from the government since 1994, but officials have tried to create as much distance from the group as possible in light of recent scandals. “We are pleased that commitments will be honored relative to Acorn’s work to help keep America’s working families facing foreclosure in their homes,” an Acorn spokesman said.

Tiger Woods has been injured in a car accident in Florida, though a CNBC reporter tweeted that the sports legend "is fine." He was taken to the hospital after he pulled out of his driveway, drove down the street, and hit a tree and fire hydrant at 2:25 a.m. Friday near his home in the Orlando suburb Windermere. The crash was not alcohol-related. CNN is reporting that according to the Windermere mayor, Woods has been released from the hospital. A CNN affiliate reports that Woods suffered facial lacerations. Woods was reportedly fighting with his wife before the crash; she pulled him out of his vehicle after busting out the back window with a golf club.

In a move that’s already garnering criticism from their Republican counterparts, Democrats are rushing to put together a bill for January that would devote billions of dollars to the creation of new jobs. The bill comes in response to a double-digit unemployment rate—an estimated 3.49 million jobs have been lost over the past year—that Dems say the stimulus legislation failed to address. Rep Betty Sutton (D-Ohio) called the results of the stimulus package “scattershot,” saying it served to create “a job here and a job there, trickled out over time.” Rep Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) said: “We have to create jobs, and we have to create them right away.” Another large spending package raises questions about the growing government deficit, and policymakers are looking into new ways to make ends meet, including a proposed 25-cent tax on stock transactions, a move Timothy Geithner has criticized. Regardless of cost, Democrats are determined to get moving on what could be a key issue in coming elections. "Democrats have to address the No. 1 concern of their constituents—and that is, by a long shot, jobs,” said a Democratic aide.

As island nations face more and more problems as a result of rising sea levels, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have teamed up to pledge $10 billion in aid to developing nations to help fight global warming. The high-profile promise, combined with new emissions goals from China and the U.S., has reportedly put pressure on India to commit to more concrete environmental measures. The plan was announced at the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad, which was attended by Queen Elizabeth II. England has already allotted $800 million to donate over the next three years. “What I feel the developing countries need to know is that we are absolutely serious that we would start now,” said Brown.

Shoppers came out in droves on Black Friday for holiday bargains. However, retail-industry insiders questioned whether the turnout would extend through the rest of the holiday season. Spending was reported to be selective, with "practical" products like GPS devices for under $100 and laptop computers for under $400 among the most popular. Flat-screen T.V.'s and the Zhu Zhu Pet hamster toy were also big sellers. The day began with customers lined up, some of them having waited all night. In fact, many Wal-Marts stayed open through the night. Best Buy and Target opened at 5 a.m., and Toys 'R' Us opened at midnight.

Transcripts have been released from the Northwest Airlines flight that temporarily terrified officials by going out of radio contact for more than an hour, overshooting its Minneapolis destination by more than 100 miles. In the transcripts, the pilots repeatedly explain that they “got distracted.” No actual reason is given for the distraction, though the pilots (both of whom have had their licenses revoked) said in interviews after the fact that they merely were caught up discussing airline business. The transcripts also indicate the fervent efforts on the ground to get in touch with the plane, a result of concerns over the possibility of terrorists on board.

Happy Thanksgiving, lobbyists! Now get out. The White House is instituting new rules for that could eject as many as thousands of lobbyists from positions on federal advisory panels. "Some folks have developed a comfortable Beltway perch sitting on these boards while at the same time working as lobbyists to influence the government," White House ethics counsel Norm Eisen told the Washington Post. "That is just the kind of special interest access that the president objects to." The move is by far the strongest effort yet from the Obama administration to curb their influence, affecting the approximately 1,000 advisory committees that advise federal officials on a number of policy questions. Lobbyists and some businesses warn that the government may lose valuable technical expertise from panel members ejected under the new rule.

Perhaps this helps to explain California’s budget woes? According to court papers obtained by TMZ, Arnold Schwarzenegger owes nearly $80,000 in back taxes—$39,047 from 2004 and $40,016 in 2005. An official tells TMZ that the lien is still active.

Four people are dead and one is injured after a man opened fire on a group of family and friends gathered for Thanksgiving in Miami. Two of the victims were the sisters of the suspected shooter, 35-year-old Michael Merihige, and one was a 6-year-old girl who was asleep in her bed at the time and had been scheduled to perform in The Nutcracker the next day. Police are still searching for Merihige, and the motives behind the violence are unclear. “It was a domestic disturbance. That’s all we know. What triggered the gunfire, we don’t know,” said a local police official.

After Michaele and Tareq Salahi instantly became the world’s most famous party crashers at President Obama's first state dinner, the question on everyone’s mind is how the fame-hungry couple managed to make it past White House security. Gawker offers a theory: The Salahis had help in the form of an old friend: Ambassador Arun K. Singh, the Indian Embassy’s polo liaison. The couple is tight with Singh, as Mr. Salahi is in the midst of organizing the 2010 America’s Polo Cup, a match between India and the U.S., and his statements after the White House dinner referred exclusively to the match. According to the site, the most likely explanations are that Singh either wrangled them an invite and forgot to put their names on the list (hence their car getting turned away), or that the Salahis were confident enough in the connection to show up uninvited.

On Thursday, China—the world’s largest greenhouse-gas emitter—announced that it will lower its carbon emissions relative to the size of its economy by as much as 45 percent by 2020. The Obama administration had pressed China hard for reductions, but an official tells The New York Times that China’s plan is “disappointing.” It focuses on “carbon intensity”—the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per unit of economic output—and even if China meets its goals, its overall carbon emissions will still grow. And, China is already on the path to meeting the reductions it set, so the “new” plan will not require any new sacrifices. On Friday, China's climate minister said that outside regulators would only be able to check if the country was making its emissions goals if the project has international financial support.

Franz Josef Jung, a labor minister in Angela Merkel’s Cabinet, has become the third German official to resign over the Afghan civilian deaths following an air strike in September. Jung was defense minister at the time of the strike, and famously refused to use the word “war” to refer to the conflict. After much consternation from political colleagues and the press, Jung said that he accepted “political responsibility” for the scandal, which led two other officials to resign on Thursday. “I decided to take this step in order to facilitate the unrestrained successful work of the federal government and to avert damage to the German military,” Jung said. Merkel had kind words for the departing minister, and said that “serving his country has always come first for him.”

If it seemed a foregone conclusion that the White House party crashers would get a reality show, well, it was: Before crashing the White House’s first state dinner on Tuesday night, Michaele Salahi was filmed for seven hours doing her hair and makeup by The Real Housewives of D.C. In fact, she and her husband Tareq tried to show up at the dinner with the camera crew, which was turned away. According to CNN.com, the couple has been named in at least 16 different civil suits in their Virginia county, and their winery filed for bankruptcy in February with $965,000 in liabilities. The Salahi couple is booked to appear on Larry King on Monday night.

For the first time in four years, the UN's nuclear watchdog agency voted to censure Iran for building a uranium enrichment plant in secret, while Iran said the "undue" rebuke would hinder its cooperation with the agency. The rebuke passed with Russian and Chinese backing, but it's unclear if those countries would back painful economic sanctions on the country. Iran says its nuclear facilities are for peaceful purposes only.

Glenn Beck may have some explaining to do after a sexist riff on fellow conservative Sarah Palin. Addressing a comment by Palin that she could see her and Glenn Beck, who she called "a hoot," possibly running for office together, Beck said on his radio show he wouldn't play second banana to the former Vice Presidential nominee. "Beck-Palin, I’ll consider," Beck said. "But Palin-Beck — can you imagine, can you imagine what an administration with the two of us would be like? What? Come on! She’d be yapping or something, and I’d say, 'I’m sorry, why am I hearing your voice? I’m not in the kitchen.'" Palin has been famously sensitive towards perceived sexism, recently criticizing a Newsweek cover of degrading her by showing her in running clothes. Will Beck be the next to feel her wrath?

Academy Award winning director Roman Polanski, arrested in September in Switzerland after fleeing the U.S. in 1978, will battle his charges from a much nicer location than prison after posting $4.5 million in bail Thursday. According to The Telegraph, Polanski—who admitted having sex with a 13-year-old girl—will have to wear an electronic tag to monitor his movements but will be able to move to his luxury home in a ski resort in Gstaad. Legal experts said Polanski's previous attempts to dodge justice made the move unusual and Interpol's Secretary General, Ronald Noble, warned that "Mr Polanski has given us more than 30 years of proof that he does not feel bound to respect any court decision with which he does not agree."

Wikipedia is often a battleground for contested information, and now Jimmy Wales, one of the site’s co-founders, is contradicting a new study that indicates a huge dip in the number of volunteer editors. “Our internal numbers don’t confirm all the claims made,” he said. “The new editors are replaced at about the same pace as existing editors are leaving.” The study showed that in the first three months of 2009, 49,000 volunteer editors left the site, a drop ten times higher than the year before. Wales sees this as a stabilization of Wikipedia’s rapid initial growth, pointing to finite numbers of potential editors. “You can’t keep growing forever, there are only so many people on the Internet,” he said. The site has also been criticized recently for a new process called “flagged revisions,” in which a group of select editors fact-checks any updates to the page of a living person before the information is published. Though it comes in response to a growing number of pranks and vandalism, the move has been criticized as a departure from the site’s core values. “There is a mythology that Wikipedia used to be a crazy anarchy, but that just isn’t true,” responds Wales. “We have an ongoing trend towards openness–which is getting more open.”

While gay marriage may have suffered tough defeats in California and Maine, the Washington Post notes that other benefits for same-sex couples are rapidly expanding on a number of fronts, lending new momentum to the gay-rights movement. In New York, state courts last week upheld new policies that grant spousal benefits to gay couples who married in another state or country. Federal judges in California also ruled last week to expand previously denied benefits to same-sex couples and a bill in Congress to provide benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees passed a key test in a House committee vote. "The picture on benefits and domestic partnerships has moved quite dramatically for same-sex couples, but marriage is the issue that has gotten all the attention and energy, so some of that progress has been eclipsed," Jane Schacter, a law professor at Stanford University, told the Post. "Certainly, there has been movement on marriage as well, but nothing as much as domestic partnerships."

Iranian authorities have confiscated the Nobel Peace Prize medal of human-rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi—a first in the 108-year history of the award, and also a sign of the Iranian government’s increasing intolerance of dissent. According to Ebadi, the government seized the award three weeks ago from a safety-deposit box and also demanded $410,000 in taxes it claims are owed on her $1.3 million prize. Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to win the prize, said, “Nobody is able to send me to exile from my home country.”