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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Just a year after the global downturn derailed Dubai's explosive growth, the city is now so swamped in debt that it's asking for a six-month reprieve on paying its bills — causing a drop on world markets Thursday and raising questions about Dubai's reputation as a magnet for international investment.

NEW YORK - Dubai's debt crisis rattled world financial markets Friday, raising concerns that some banks could further tighten lending and stall the global economic recovery.

NEW YORK - This was the sideswipe investors had feared.

LONDON - European stock markets rebounded Friday after Wall Street didn't fall as much as feared on the news that Dubai is having trouble handling its debt.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Debt-burdened Dubai insisted that it took into account market fallout from its appeal to delay paying creditors, but offered no specifics and did little to ease worries that dragged down global markets for a second day Friday.

RICHMOND, Va. - The bluish haze that has hung over the Third Street Diner's bar and booths for decades finally lifts next month as a new anti-smoking law takes hold in Virginia, a huge shift for a state whose tobacco habit dates to the Jamestown settlement some 400 years ago.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama and a top House Republican acknowledged in holiday messages Thursday the economic struggles facing Americans this Thanksgiving but offered starkly different recipes for relief.

FARMINGTON, N.M. - A New Mexico State University researcher is using tree planting to help arid, impoverished regions in the Four Corners region and Africa.

The nation's shoppers took advantage of deals on toys and TVs with some renewed vigor in stores and online on Black Friday after a year of concentrating their spending on basic necessities.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will commit the United States to substantial cuts in greenhouse gas pollution over the next decade — despite resistance in Congress over higher costs — when he travels to a major climate conference in Copenhagen next month.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fannie Mae plans to raise minimum credit score requirements next month and limit the amount of overall debt that borrowers can carry relative to their incomes, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fears of a possible Dubai debt default rippled through markets for a second day on Friday, but the exodus from stocks and rush to the safe-haven U.S. dollar slowed as investors discounted contagion.

CHICAGO - There's still family, turkey and football, but one Thanksgiving tradition is taking a hit this year. Millions of Americans are spending the holiday at home, saying the poor economy has made it unaffordable to hit the road or board a plane.

NEW YORK - When Lori Fowlkes first saw robotic Zhu Zhu Pets toy hamsters in September, she remembers her kids started jumping up and down and saying "Please! Please! Can we buy them?"

BUFFALO, N.Y. - New York's apple orchards are being carpeted with red as unpicked apples drop to the ground.

DUBAI/LONDON (Reuters) - World leaders expressed confidence in the global economic recovery on Friday despite fears about a debt default by Gulf emirate Dubai, while major banks played down their exposure to the debt.

After a Northwest Airlines plane flew past Minneapolis last month, air traffic controllers asked the pilots repeatedly for explanations about why they didn't heed radio calls, according to transcripts released on Friday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices settled down more than 2 percent at about $76 a barrel on Friday as fears of possible defaults in Dubai convulsed financial markets and boosted safe-haven demand for the U.S. dollar.

WASHINGTON - The dollar fell briefly to its lowest level in 14 years against the Japanese yen Friday but rallied against the euro and other currencies as Dubai's debt problems roiled currency markets.

HILLSIDE, N.J. - Former CNN host Lou Dobbs is seriously considering running for U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 2012 as a stepping stone to a possible White House bid — a congressional matchup that would pit one of illegal immigration's biggest critics against a champion for immigrant rights.

DOWNEY, Calif. - This city that once helped send men rocketing into the space now wants to help earth-bound motorists to become more fuel efficient.

NEW YORK - As stores prepare for hordes of Black Friday shoppers and mark down high-definition TVs and hot toys, they're also pushing deals on something more mundane — necessities like socks and diapers.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell more than 1 percent in a truncated session on Friday as a possible debt default by a Dubai state-owned conglomerate led to fresh concerns about the global financial system.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's top aides met frequently with lobbyists and health care industry heavyweights as his administration pieced together a national health care overhaul, according to White House visitor records obtained by The Associated Press.

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirate (UAE) has total debt amounting to $184 billion at the end of 2009, according to estimates by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, which said the region faces a heavy redemption schedule until 2013.

TORONTO - The Supreme Court of Canada said Friday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was entitled to close a store in Quebec in 2005, seven months after workers voted to become the first Walmart store in North America to unionize.

TOKYO - Toyota is slashing bonus pay for managers as the Japanese automaker tackles a massive recall in the U.S. and deep losses for the second straight fiscal year.

WASHINGTON - Beyond the noisy town hall meetings, Tea Party protests and sky-is-falling speeches characterizing much of the health care debate is a less visible, but no less intense push to broaden the face of the immigration reform movement.

BLANTYRE (AFP) - Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has charged the World Bank and the IMF with causing foreign exchange shortages by forcing the country to liberalise the economy, state media said on Thursday.

TOKYO - Japanese flocked to a large gymnasium in central Tokyo in recent weeks to see what for them was an unusual sight: senior bureaucrats being grilled over their budget requests for next year.