pimg src="http://www.gamasutra.com/db_area/images/news2001/21351/banjokazooiebogb.jpg" align="left" hspace="5"/[Every week, Gamasutra sister weblog GamerBytes' editor Ryan Langley passes along the top console digital download news tidbits from the past 7 days, including brand new game announcements and scoops through the world of Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and WiiWare.] For digital console downloads, this was a slow week for all concerned. But it's to be expected - we're right at the beginning of December. GamerBytes' pick of the week would be Banjo Kazooie .../pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GamasutraNews?a=LHRMO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GamasutraNews?i=LHRMO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GamasutraNews?a=zzdCO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GamasutraNews?i=zzdCO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GamasutraNews?a=ZinfO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/GamasutraNews?i=ZinfO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GamasutraNews/~4/474705965" height="1" width="1"/

Giving stuff away can be a useful marketing strategy, but it's no business model.

Ten pockets where home prices are rising and outpacing sales trends.

How--not if--seems to be the question in Washington.

"Women in the work place are very competitive with each other and that makes the glass cieling twice as thick," says Adriana Gascoigne. She is the founder of Girls in Tech, a 1300 strong organization that seeks to empower women in the technology industry.

Tech companies continue to be heavily male dominated and that's something that Girls in Tech hopes to change through networking, roundtables, and entrepreneurial workshops. And only women are invited.

"When women get together we can connect on a deeper level than if men are around," says Ms Gascoigne. "It helps to build to build confidence and it helps to create stronger relationships."

Men are allowed to some events such as dinners but they have to be a guest of a member.

A lot of women in tech tend to try to blend in, they dress in a similar manner to the men, and they behave in a similar way but this is a mistake she says.

"It is important to embrace feminity, to embrace girliness," says Ms Gascoigne. "Too many women think they need to be more like men to succeed. You don't."

Ms Gascoigne says she was lucky growing up, her parents encouraged her to be very self-confident, but that's not true for many women. Being in a heavily male dominated workplace can be intimidating.

It was this realization that led Ms Gascoigne to create the Girls in Tech organization.

The first meetings started with just five or six women getting together every other week. In March 2007 Girls in Tech was launched as an official organization.

In September 2008 Jessica Valenzuela and Davina Anthony were brought in as co-founders to help expand the organization. There are now chapters in New York, Los Angeles, and plans for chapters in Portland, Austin and London.

(Ms Gascoigne is the director of corporate communications at Hi5, one of the world's largest social networks.)

Please see:

» About Us : Girls In Tech :

Recent Girls in Tech articles:

» How To: Biz Dev in a Slow Economy

» Tune Out to Tune In

» Keeping your career UP in a DOWNTURN: Job Strategies for a Bad Economy

Here is an upcoming Girls in Tech event:

- - -

Please see:

Thoughtleaders: Where are the women in technology? Anita Borg Institute aims to shake things up

div class="image"a href="http://pixhost.ws/avaxhome/big_show.php?/avaxhome/99/fd/0009fd99.jpeg" target="_blank"img src="http://pixhost.ws/avaxhome/99/fd/0009fd99_medium.jpeg" id="external_img_654745"//a/divbr/ div class="center"bLotte Lehmann: Airs d'opéra (1927-1933)/bbr/ opera/classical | EACrip | FLAC + CUE + Doc | 216 MB | TT: 73:08 | RSbr/ iOriginals recorded: 1927 - 1933 | Remastered and published on CD: 1988/i/div

President-elect already has inspired national naming craze and county-wide holiday — what can he do for an encore?
• Congresswoman 'Flabbergasted' Over Obama Hang-Up

The Penn State senior who plays the Nittany Lion mascot will miss the Rose Bowl after being suspended for violating team rules.

div class="center"div class="image"a href="http://pixhost.ws/avaxhome/big_show.php?/avaxhome/a6/fd/0009fda6.jpeg" target="_blank"img src="http://pixhost.ws/avaxhome/a6/fd/0009fda6_medium.jpeg" id="external_img_654758"//a/divbr/ bIEEE Security Privacy 2008 November/bbr/ English | PDF | 92 pages | 5.8 MB/div

a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0003832"If I Were You: Perceptual Illusion of Body Swapping./a Expanding on a href="http://www.metafilter.com/64115/Video-Ergo-Sum"previous experiments/a, researchers discover how to induce a a href="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2008/12/the_bodyswap_illusion.php"quot;body-swapquot; illusion/a, whereby subjects perceive the body of another as if it were their own. br /

Federal prosecutors have dropped four counts of lying to a grand jury against Barry Bonds, leaving him to face trial next year on 10 counts of making false statements plus an addition obstruction of justice charge.

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/47153?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+School+accused+of+Mumbai+terror+role+opens+its+doorsch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Mumbai+terror+attacks+%28News%29%2CIndia+%28News%29%2CPakistan+%28News%29%2CTerrorism+-+international%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Saeed+Shahc7=2008_12_05c8=1129193c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Mumbai+terror+attacksc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FMumbai+terror+attacks" width="1" height="1" //divpAt first sight, they could be the grounds of an English public school, with neatly trimmed lawns and earnest young pupils walking between classes. But this is the site that India believes is the headquarters of the terrorist group responsible for last week's Mumbai attacks. /ppBoarding houses provide spartan accommodation, and orderly rows of trees line the sprawling site, just outside the eastern city of Lahore. Smartly turned-out pupils perform science experiments in the classrooms, peering into microscopes and connecting electric circuits. There is a farm, a swimming pool and a hospital. /ppIndia, and some western terrorism experts, believe this is the headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned Islamist group suspected of carrying out last week's Mumbai attacks. But according to the organisers of a tour of the site yesterday, it is simply the educational and charitable arm of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, an Islamic group that is legal in Pakistan but declared a terrorist organisation by the US./ppFollowing Pakistan's ban on Lashkar-e-Taiba in 2002, it is widely believed to have morphed into Jamaat-ud-Dawa, though the two claim to have no link./ppThe campus, set in countryside at Muridke, an hour's drive from Lahore, is the place that India would be likely to target if it took retaliatory military action over the Mumbai attacks. /pp"This is a residential and educational complex," said Abdullah Muntazir, Jamaat-ud-Dawa's spokesman, taking journalists around the Muridke site yesterday in a media charm offensive launched by the group. "You can see for yourself. This is all Indian propaganda."/pp"Jamaat-ud-Dawa speaks up very loudly against Indian conspiracies; we let the public know that India is the real enemy. That's why they always point at us."/ppThe carefully orchestrated visit took foreign and local journalists around the beautifully equipped school and hospital. The school follows the national curriculum, the headteacher, Rashid Mehnaz, said, taking pupils from around the country. The poor were given financial help, with richer pupils paying fees. Mehnaz condemned violence, saying suicide attacks were "absolutely wrong - it is forbidden in Islam"./ppA press conference and sumptuous lunch was laid on for journalists. However, the madrasa, mosque, and other facilities remained out of bounds, and once the official tour was over the media were no longer welcome. Although the group had said anyone was welcome to look around the site at any time, the Guardian's attempt to take up this offer after the tour was met with a heavy-handed response: burly young men arrived on motorcycles and circled, demanding that we leave. /ppGiven the attention that has suddenly been focused on Lashkar-e-Taiba, and on to the complex at Muridke, the invitation to visit may have been arranged after a prod from the Pakistani authorities. /ppCertainly there were plain-clothed officials present, who said they were members of "special branch" - often a euphemism for the Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency. They wanted to provide an armed escort back to Lahore, but why intelligence agents were there - and why an escort might be necessary - was unclear. Muridke is not in a dangerous part of Pakistan, and the offer was declined. /ppIt has long been said that the ISI has secretly backed Lashkar-e-Taiba, though the agency always rejects the accusation./pp"The Indian media is creating a hype, but I don't think they'll bomb us," said Muntazir. "If they did, it would be up to the government of Pakistan and the armed forces to deal with it."/ppHe said Jamaat-ud-Dawa was a peaceful group, but it had "supported" Lashkar-e-Taiba until that organisation was banned. He said that "morally", they still backed those who were fighting Indian rule in Kashmir. Lashkar-e-Taiba is the leading such group. "The [Kashmiri] freedom fighters are doing their job very well. Their cause is just," said Muntazir. "But I can't speak on behalf of Lashkar-e-Taiba."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/mumbai-terror-attacks"Mumbai terror attacks/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/india"India/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/pakistan"Pakistan/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/terrorism"Global terrorism/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Zq_LTmdsuXM6b-VPE7JkoUpXN4Y/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Zq_LTmdsuXM6b-VPE7JkoUpXN4Y/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/13396?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Canada%27s+PM+clings+on+to+power+as+parliament+suspendedch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Canada+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CNorth+America+Travelc6=Suzanne+Goldenbergc7=2008_12_05c8=1129183c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Canadac13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FCanada" width="1" height="1" //divpCanada's prime minister managed to head off the fall of his conservative minority government and cling to power yesterday after engineering the suspension of parliament./ppThe extraordinary decision by Canada's governor general, Michaeuml;lle Jean, to grant Stephen Harper's request to suspend parliament saved him from a confidence vote set for Monday that he was almost certain to lose. It also spares Canadians from going to the polls again, just weeks after elections in October./ppBut the reprieve for Harper takes Canada into uncharted constitutional territory and creates a political vacuum at a time of global economic crisis. It is also temporary. Parliament will resume in the new year and the government is due to introduce its budget on January 27./ppIn attempt to shore up his political prospects in the interim, Harper told reporters in Ottawa yesterday that his budget would include measures to help the economy, and that he would try to regain the confidence of the opposition. "Obviously we have to do some trust-building," he said./ppYesterday's decision brought angry protests from the opposition Liberal and New Democratic parties, which had called on Jean to refuse the prime minister's request to prorogue parliament. They accused her of disregarding the will of the majority in parliament. /ppCanada's crisis was provoked last week when Harper introduced an economic plan that included no stimulus measures but called for a three-year ban on strikes by civil servants and the abolition of public financing for political parties. The Liberal party leader, Steacute;phane Dion, accusing Harper of seeking to politicise the economic crisis, formed a coalition with the leftwing New Democratic party. The two also secured support from the separatist Bloc Queacute;beacute;cois to bring down the government. /ppAlthough Harper retreated on both measures, the opposition refused to back off, raising a political skirmish to yesterday's crisis proportions./ppDonna Dasko, one of Canada's best-known pollsters, said the move to scrap public financing was the tipping point for an opposition that had been demoralised by Harper's re-election. "It was so provocative," she said. "It was purely an effort to take away the modest public support that the political parties have."/ppAs tensions rose, Harper appeared on national television on Wednesday night vowing to block a coalition from coming to power. "Canada's government will use every legal means to protect our democracy, to protect our economy," he said./ppHe said his opponents were undemocratic and accused Dion of being allied with Queacute;beacute;cois separatists. Harper used the word "separatist" four times in the five-minute address./ppSpeaking after Jean's decision, the NDP leader, Jack Layton, said his party would vote down the government in January./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/canada"Canada/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/mq-CanhNnXhxaw8dOmh7uwCUw-4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/mq-CanhNnXhxaw8dOmh7uwCUw-4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/74821?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Zimbabwe+declares+cholera+emergencych=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Zimbabwe%2CCholera+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Chris+McGrealc7=2008_12_05c8=1129204c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Zimbabwec13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FZimbabwe" width="1" height="1" //divpZimbabwe has declared a national health emergency days after playing down an escalating cholera outbreak that has already claimed more than 500 lives. The move appeared aimed at winning aid from countries and organisations that have been isolating Robert Mugabe's regime. /ppBritain joined the EU and other international organisations in immediately pledging assistance. Gordon Brown said the UK was helping because the cholera outbreak showed that Zimbabwe was a failed state with a government unable to protect its citizens from disease. /ppOfficially, more than 560 people have died from cholera and about 12,000 have been infected after an outbreak triggered by years of neglect of water systems, resulting in open sewage running through some townships. Nearly half the deaths have been recorded in the capital, Harare. Doctors believe many more in rural areas have not been recorded. /ppThe World Health Organisation said the fatality rate - 4.5% of those contracting cholera - was more than four times greater than it normally is when managed with rehydration salts and medicines./ppThe epidemic has spilled over to South Africa, and the government there said it would hold an urgent meeting on the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, where millions of people are also facing severe food shortages, a teetering health system and rampant hyperinflation. /pp"There are very clear signs ... people are beginning to die of starvation. South Africa and SADC [the Southern African Development Community] can't just fold our arms," said a government spokesman, Themba Maseko./ppHowever, Kenya's prime minister, Raila Odinga, told the BBC that intervention should mean removing Mugabe from office. "Powersharing is dead in Zimbabwe and will not work with a dictator who does not really believe in powersharing. It's time for African governments to take decisive action to push him out of power."/ppThe chairman of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, Douglass Gwatidzo, said the state of emergency was overdue: "They should have done that two or three weeks ago when the figures of cholera-related deaths were still low. However, it's better late than never."/ppThe European commission has pledged more than $12m (pound;8m) to contain the outbreak. The International Red Cross and WHO are supplying drugs. /ppIn a statement released by Downing Street, Brown said: "The international community's differences with Mugabe will not prevent us [helping]. We are increasing our development aid, and calling on others to follow suit. For once we agree with the government of Zimbabwe: this is a national emergency."/ppThe state-run Herald newspaper quoted Zimbabwe's health minister, David Parirenyatwa, as appealing for help to get the main hospitals working again after staff stopped coming to work because their pay did not cover the cost of transport. /ppHowever Zimbabwe's economy continued its collapse under the weight of hyperinflation, which is officially put at 231m percent but is said by economists to be much higher./ppThe Zimbabwe dollar lost more than 60% of its value yesterday after the limit on cash withdrawals from bank accounts was officially raised to Z$100m. The expected flood of scarce cash on to the streets saw the value of a new Z$100m drop from pound;33 to pound;10 in minutes. /ppLong snaking lines formed outside banks long before opening time. Thousands of people waited patiently, but by the end of the day many had still not got their money./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/zimbabwe"Zimbabwe/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/cholera"Cholera/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/2gqOhSUrVvC-t0dqgs-031-4w1c/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/2gqOhSUrVvC-t0dqgs-031-4w1c/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/6401?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Israeli+riot+police+evict+settlers+in+Hebronch=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Israel+and+the+Palestinian+territories+%28News%29%2CMiddle+East+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Rory+McCarthyc7=2008_12_05c8=1129174c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Israel+and+the+Palestinian+territoriesc13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FIsrael+and+the+Palestinian+territories" width="1" height="1" //divpRiot police forcibly evacuated a house filled with dozens of Jewish settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron yesterday in the most public showdown between the government and the increasingly violent settler movement for more than two years./ppHundreds of police mounted a surprise raid on the three-storey house, which had become the latest symbol of defiance for Israeli settlers. Troops fired teargas into the crowds and dragged settlers from the house one by one. Around 30 people were injured, including one policeman who had acid thrown in his eyes./ppAlthough the house was emptied within an hour, the operation triggered broad settler protests across the occupied West Bank and in Jerusalem that continued into the night. In Hebron, masked settlers set Palestinian trees ablaze and attacked buildings. The Israeli military declared the southern West Bank a closed military zone, setting up roadblocks to prevent more settlers descending on the city./ppThe building, dubbed the House of Peace by the settlers and the House of Contention by the Israeli press, was home to 15 settler families, but their numbers had swelled as supporters poured in. Earlier this week there were riots between the settlers and Palestinians which left several people hurt on both sides. Settlers daubed a black Star of David on several graves in a nearby Palestinian cemetery as well as the word "revenge" on a Palestinian house. /ppYesterday morning the house was full mostly of young people, sitting on the cold concrete floors, praying in the hallways or playing football in the road outside. One poster read: "This land is our land."/ppThe settlers claim they bought the house nearly two years ago from a Palestinian for just short of $1m (pound;670,000) and said they had documents and videotape as proof. However, the Palestinian has since denied selling the building to the settlers. Last month, the Israeli supreme court said the house should be evacuated until the ownership dispute was settled./ppJust minutes before the raid, Nadia Matar, a prominent settler figure who had spent the past week living in the house, defended the project. "They were able to do what we have been doing since the beginning of Jewish history: to live in the land of Israel, to purchase land like Abraham did," she said. /ppThe house sits just outside the large Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba and, Matar said, was a strategic asset that linked the settlement to the centre of Hebron, the burial place of the patriarch Abraham./ppLike most in the house, she believes Israel has a biblical right to take all the land between the Mediterranean sea and the River Jordan. All Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are illegal under international law./ppMatar was one of the last to be dragged from the building and as she crouched in the dirt after being deposited by the four policemen who carried her out, she said: "Shame on the government for using all this force against us."/ppRuth Hizmi was one of the first to rent an apartment in the house and she lived there with four of her children. Her flat had bare concrete walls and floor, with electricity cables stretching across the ceiling and sheets of cloth dividing the bedrooms. /pp"We are citizens who are holding on to our country, the only country we have and they are giving it away. They are throwing Jews out of their homes," she said, just hours before the raid. /ppWhen the police arrived Hizmi was out collecting children from school but quickly returned, forced her way through rows of police and briefly back into the house before she too was carried out. /ppPolice will now occupy the building and prevent the settlers returning./ppFor the settlers, holding on to the house was also an act of defiance against the Yesha council, the traditional settler leadership, which has lost support among a younger, more hardline generation, particularly after Israel removed its settlers from Gaza three years ago. /ppHowever, there has been growing antipathy to the settlers within Israel itself. Yesterday, the left-leaning Ha'aretz newspaper described their actions in Hebron this week as "Jewish terrorism"./ph2Clashes/h2pstrongHebron/strong is the second largest and most contentious city in the occupied strongWest Bank/strong. It is home to about strong600 Jewish settlers /strongand strong170,000 Palestinians/strong. The settlers arrived just after the strong1967 war /strongand are protected by the Israeli military. They insist on a biblical right to live in the city - the burial place of the strongpatriarch Abraham/strong. As a result, strongPalestinians/strong are kept out of the city centre and their strongshops/strong strongclosed/strong, leaving the old commercial heart deserted. The city frequently witnesses strongviolent clashes./strong/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/israelandthepalestinians"Israel and the Palestinian territories/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast"Middle East/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/z7eLKqOoFLkEtVP8cPhow9jjFoI/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/z7eLKqOoFLkEtVP8cPhow9jjFoI/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/52950?ns=guardianpageName=World+news%3A+Downturn+hits+Dubai%27s+building+bonanzach=World+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Dubai+%28News%29%2CMiddle+East+%28News%29%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Ian+Blackc7=2008_12_05c8=1129180c9=articlec10=GUc11=World+newsc12=Dubaic13=c14=h2=GU%2FWorld+news%2FDubai" width="1" height="1" //divpDubai's multibillion-dollar building boom is grinding to a halt, with some of the Gulf emirate's most ambitious construction projects put under review as the global economic crisis hits home./ppMeraas, a government-owned developer, confirmed yesterday that it was looking again at the pace of its flagship $95bn (pound;64bn) Jumeirah Gardens project in the light of the worldwide downturn. /ppThe massive Dubailand hotel and leisure project, costed at $88bn, is also being reassessed, Khalid al-Malik, the chief executive of developer Tatweer, told the National newspaper in Abu Dhabi./ppAnalysts say falling oil prices and the rising cost of financing construction has forced Gulf developers to take stock, with Dubai forming a high-level government committee to prioritise projects./ppDubai was brazenly defying the credit crunch and plunging stock markets when the 12-year Jumeirah Gardens project was launched in October. The plans involved razing an entire district to make way for office and residential towers, a green area half the size of New York's Central Park and a canal system linked to the Arabian gulf./ppMeraas's original announcement of the project came hot on the heels of a plan by fellow state-owned developer Nakheel to build the world's tallest tower - more than 1km (3,280ft) high./ppIn six years of an oil-fuelled property boom, Dubai - the second largest member of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - has earned the distinction of having 25% of all the cranes on earth and more buildings under construction than Shanghai./ppBut Dubai's stock market has lost close to 70% of its value since the summer. Two of the UAE's largest mortgage firms, Amlak Finance and Tamweel, were nationalised last week./pp"The bubble hasn't yet burst," said Christopher Davidson, a Gulf expert at Durham University. "Dubai's free zones, real estate and tourism are all highly susceptible to a global downturn. Real estate is the flagship and if confidence has been knocked, which it clearly has been, it's in trouble. Now the confidence has gone, credit worthiness has taken a knock."/ppNakheel, the developer of man-made palm tree-shaped islands on which celebrities such as David Beckham have bought homes, announced earlier this week that it had cut 500 jobs -15% of its workforce - and was scaling back projects. /ppThough thousands of expatriate professionals are expected to lose their jobs, Dubai's optimism may not be entirely misplaced. A survey by a leading financial services firm this week predicted that the Gulf as a whole would escape recession, with a growth rate of 3.6% next year./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/dubai"Dubai/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middleeast"Middle East/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/SxMF3IEKa_uUoDPq_BO9ko50Vyk/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/SxMF3IEKa_uUoDPq_BO9ko50Vyk/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

President's younger brother says he is considering return to public office with run at Florida's seat in Senate pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/3wvelXwcuWboihebxS8vXKBA7i4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/3wvelXwcuWboihebxS8vXKBA7i4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/49712?ns=guardianpageName=UK+news%3A+They+drugged+her%2C+hid+her%2C+then+waited+to+claim+%26pound%3B50%2C000+rewardch=UK+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Shannon+Matthews+kidnap+%28News%29%2CCrime+-+UK+%28News%29%2CUK+newsc5=Unclassified%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Martin+Wainwrightc7=2008_12_05c8=1129198c9=articlec10=GUc11=UK+newsc12=Shannon+Matthews+kidnapc13=c14=h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FShannon+Matthews+kidnap" width="1" height="1" //divpThe mother of Shannon Matthews was told she faced a substantial jail term yesterday after she was found guilty of kidnapping her daughter, holding her drugged in a relative's flat, then calling police and making a series of tearful TV appeals./ppKaren Matthews, 33, will be sentenced after Christmas with her co-defendant, Michael Donovan, 40, who was found hiding with the nine-year-old in his flat 24 days after she failed to return from a school swimming trip in Dewsbury in February./ppThey triggered a pound;3.2m police hunt, the largest operation by West Yorkshire police since the Yorkshire Ripper inquiry./ppHaving acted out a plan which police believe may have been inspired by the search for Madeleine McCann, both were found guilty at Leeds crown court of kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice./ppBefore sending them down, Mr Justice McCombe told both that they faced "substantial custodial sentences". /ppOutside court, neighbours and police condemned the cruelty and waste of resources caused by a scam aimed at stealing pound;50,000 in reward money for finding Shannon. Julie Bushby, chair of the residents and tenants association on the Moorside estate where Matthews lived with her partner, Craig Meehan, said: "She's let us down. The tears she cried when she did those appeals on TV and when she gave evidence in court were crocodile tears. As for Michael Donovan, he's just weird."/ppDetective Superintendent Andy Brennan, who led the investigation, said: "Karen Matthews is pure evil. She started deceiving those closest to her from the very moment that Shannon was kidnapped. /pp"It is difficult to understand what type of mother would subject her own daughter to such a wicked and evil crime. She is a manipulative individual who has demonstrated a remarkable ability to lie. /pp"Michael Donovan is an accomplished liar. Following his arrest and during this trial, he has attempted to portray himself as a weak-willed individual who only acted under duress. We have never accepted this as an accurate reflection of his involvement in Shannon's kidnapping."/ppThe pair will be sentenced after psychiatric and social services reports which are likely to include events before the fake kidnap. The trial heard forensic evidence that Shannon had been given the sedative temazepam and the travel sickness tablets Traveleeze, both used to drug her at Donovan's flat, as early as May 2006 and on at least three occasions prior to the kidnap./ppFor 24 days, the hunt for Shannon Matthews was a repeat of the search for Madeleine McCann. Detectives abandoned murder inquiries to join the team and hundreds of local people took part. /ppThen, to the astonishment of even the hardened murder specialist heading the police inquiry, the woman at the heart of it turned out to be the kidnap's organiser. "Get Karen down here!" yelled Donovan as police dragged him from his flat in Batley Carr, a mile and a half from Shannon's home, after finding the girl hidden under a bed. "We'd got a plan. We're sharing the money - pound;50,000."/ppAt that moment, in Leeds, a mobile beeped for Brennan, who was explaining the lack of progress to members of the police authority. "We've found Shannon," was the message from Detective Constable Paul Kettlewell, one of five officers who broke down Donovan's door./pp"Where's the body?" asked Brennan, a veteran of more than 20 murder inquiries./pp"No, we've found her alive and we're on the way to the station," said Kettlewell./pp"It stopped me in my tracks," says Brennan. "I had to get straight over to Dewsbury to see her physically to reassure myself." He walked into a room where Shannon was playing with some toys, and she smiled and said hello. Brennan recalls: "I smiled back and said hello myself. That was all that needed to be said. We'd rescued a kidnapped, nine-year-old child and police work doesn't get any better."/ppDuring questioning, Karen Matthews and Donovan came up with six contradictory explanations and were branded, respectively, a "consummate liar" and a "pathetic inadequate" by QCs in court./pp"Basically, we've had two prolific liars who are giving wildly different views. Which one do you believe?" says Brennan. "But in the end, they've either got to knock down our evidence or blame one another. Blaming is what they did."/ppDonovan's wild cries as he was bundled into a police van by officers - who found a restraining leash in his flat and a set of "kidnap rules" to keep Shannon quiet - were soon borne out by events. Shannon was offered the chance to see her mother after her rescue, but turned it down. For her part, Karen told the officer who broke the good news to her: "I like the ringtone on your mobile" - then went shopping./ppMatthews was arrested after breaking down during a routine car trip with a police support officer, and babbling that she had asked Donovan, who is Meehan's uncle, to look after Shannon as part of a plot to get away from his nephew, but "everything went wrong"./ppIn court, the prosecuting counsel, Julian Goose QC, made effective use of film clips of Karen Matthews' tearful TV appeals, which he contrasted with evidence from neighbours and police liaison officers of her nonchalance when the media were not watching. In the middle of more than three hours of evidence punctuated by sobs, Matthews was read details of how she laughed and joked with her boyfriend immediately afterwards. It was, said Goose, a cruel charade./ppDonovan's defence, Alan Conrad QC, was equally scathing, urging the jury to draw the obvious lesson from Matthews' style in both the witness box and during the long search for her daughter. After the court had watched a TV appeal where she begged a supposed abductor: "If anyone has got my daughter, my beautiful princess daughter, let her come home", Conrad turned on her. "You can play for the cameras and play for the court, can't you?" he said, to more tears./ppThere were major weaknesses in the prosecution case: no forensic evidence to link Matthews to the flat where Shannon was imprisoned, and police doubted that Donovan had the wit to carry out a kidnap. But there was evidence the kidnappers desired a reward./ppDonovan spoke of planning to release Shannon and then "find" her in Dewsbury market, and a copy of the Sun with the reward money edging up to pound;50,000 was carefully folded in his flat./pp"I believe that they were going to hold out until they got to pound;50,000," says Brennan. "And though there's no direct evidence that this case mirrored the McCann one, you can see the possibility. Madeleine was still fresh in everyone's minds. A young, pretty girl was being looked for in Portugal, and Shannon was a photogenic girl missing here in Dewsbury. You can see why two and two was put together."/ppDonovan evaded the police search for three weeks because of his web of aliases. It was an extended family member who alerted the inquiry team, after Donovan rang him to ask if he had been interviewed by detectives. "Yes," he said. "Well don't put them on to me," said Donovan. The man rang the police who were, naturally, instantly suspicious./pp"We'd just got Donovan on our list, at 18th in the tally of suspects, some of whom were family members but the vast majority not," says Brennan. "We'd have called on him in the next few days but after that call, he became Friday's priority. Friday was March 14, the day that Shannon was found."/ppIn court, Karen Matthews sprayed allegations at her family, particularly Meehan's relations, suggesting that they were the real plotters. She was just the chosen fall-guy, she claimed, because unlike most of them she had no criminal record and "would get off lightly" if the scam failed./ppBrennan doesn't hide his scepticism, but says: "If any evidence comes to light suggesting others are involved, we will pursue it. If we discover anything more, we will deal with it, you can be sure." /ppThe story of Shannon Matthews may not be over yet./ph2Stranger than fiction?/h2pWidespread rumours that an episode of the TV series Shameless might have inspired the kidnap plot were dismissed by the head of the police inquiry, Det Supt Andy Brennan. "I'd have picked up that straight away," he said. "I was born in Gorton in Manchester where Shameless is made." /ppAn episode shown a month before Shannon disappeared involved the fake kidnap of a young boy, Liam Gallagher, in an attempt to claim a pound;500,000 ransom. The child was hidden a few doors away from his home, with a friend of his sister. Links between the programme, which attracted 2.5 million viewers, never came up in evidence either during the trial or in statements to police. Neither did the case of Madeleine McCann, which dominated headlines for months before Shannon disappeared./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/shannon-matthews-kidnap"Shannon Matthews kidnap/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/ukcrime"Crime/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Iknt4lWZBAakm_U74vLQ6cTJXXI/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Iknt4lWZBAakm_U74vLQ6cTJXXI/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/30502?ns=guardianpageName=UK+news%3A+School+closures+and+road+chaos+after+heavy+snowch=UK+newsc3=The+Guardianc4=Weather+UK+%28News%29%2CTravel+and+transport+environmental+impact%2CEnvironment%2CUK+news%2CTransport+UKc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CEthical+Livingc6=Helen+Carterc7=2008_12_05c8=1129110c9=articlec10=GUc11=UK+newsc12=Weatherc13=c14=h2=GU%2FUK+news%2FWeather" width="1" height="1" //divpHeavy snowfall caused traffic chaos and prompted more than 300 school closures in the north yesterday as central and southern areas of England were deluged with rain. /ppUp to 10cm (4in) of snow fell in north-east England and south-east Scotland as a wet weather front from the Atlantic met cold air which has been sitting over the country. /ppStrong winds caused drifting snow on higher ground, forcing roads to shut, or lane closures on dual carriageways. There were numerous road accidents in North Yorkshire and County Durham./ppAround 15cm of snow fell in the Scottish Borders, and hazardous conditions were reported on roads in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham and across Yorkshire. /ppConditions on the M62 across the Pennines at Huddersfield were appalling, and parts of the A1 in Northumberland were down to one lane. Police said the A66 transpennine road was closed westbound from North Yorkshire to Cumbria./ppIn Greater Manchester 86 schools in Rochdale were closed, 15 in Bury did not open, and nine in Oldham were closed. A Rochdale council spokeswoman said: "Decisions to close schools are not taken lightly, but health and safety has to be the priority." A further seven schools were shut in Bolton. In neighbouring Lancashire there were 70 schools shut for the day, and 34 were closed in Cumbria. /ppThe Met Office warned that there were frosty and icy surfaces in many northern and central areas. There was misery for air travellers, Leeds Bradford airport was badly affected, with 13 flights cancelled./ppLancashire police urged drivers to travel prepared with enough fuel for their journeys, de-icer and warm clothing as "even routine journeys can spell disaster if you are caught out by bad weather", said Inspector Phil Cottam, of the force's motorway unit. /ppThe army was mobilised to rescue 70 people trapped in their vehicles by heavy snow early yesterday morning, according to Lancashire police. They were called in when 50 vehicles got stuck on one of east Lancashire's busiest roads - the Grane Road. /ppThe road was closed between Helmshore and the M65 at Blackburn at around 7.30am as snow ploughs could not get through. Lancashire police and council workers assisted two army off-road vehicles to assist the stranded motorists. The road was re-opened after four hours./ppPolice warned motorists in certain areas to only make necessary journeys. The road between Greenfield in Oldham and Holmfirth had been shut after gritters failed to keep it clear./ppIn parts of east Lancashire and Bury many cars had been abandoned by motorists earlier in the week. William Hill said it had taken a record number of white Christmas bets for this time of year. /ppHills currently offer 2/1 for snow in Edinburgh, Aberdeen Glasgow and 4/1 for the major English cities./pp"White Christmas betting is normally a fun festive flutter, sadly it will be anything but fun for us should the forecast snow fall," said its spokesman, Rupert Adams. /ppOfficers in Greater Manchester and Merseyside are warning drivers not to leave their cars running while they defrost them. There have been 20 vehicle thefts reported in Greater Manchester since the cold snap began on Monday. /ppChief Inspector Chris Gloster, of Greater Manchester police, said: "People can be tempted to leave their car engine running on a frosty morning while they keep nice and warm inside their house. However, it only takes a few seconds for a thief to steal a car when the keys have been left in the ignition. /pp"It is not only high-powered vehicles that are targeted and so our advice to all drivers is to stay in their vehicle when defrosting and if at any time they need to leave the car to make sure they lock it, remove any valuables and take the keys with them." He said motorists may not be insured if the vehicle was left unattended with the keys in the ignition./ppTemperatures are expected to rise over the weekend./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/weather"Weather/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/travelandtransport"Travel and transport/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/transport"Transport/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ClqPLB8JZyFc8JXWJUF20dml4Hk/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/ClqPLB8JZyFc8JXWJUF20dml4Hk/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p