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As the crisis spreads, sovereign wealth funds are being called on to help rescue ailing institutions abroad and at home. Many have already done so: Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) invested in Citibank last year, followed by the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), which invested $5bn in Citi and Merrill Lynch. Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has invested in

Total has signed an agreement with Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) to take a 31% stake in onshore exploration Block 70 in Yemen’s Shabwa governorate. Bahrain-based Energy Alliance Company, which has an interesting set of Saudi and other Arab investors, has become involved in Eritrea.

Dubai has been exceptionally aggressive in opening up to foreign investment. With little oil wealth, and now evidently in a lot of debt, it has developed real estate, tourism and financial services to drive the boom. Observers have long noted this model is vulnerable to anything that might cause foreign investors to run away, perhaps a terrorist attack.

Maysan province provides a pointer to the evolution of politics and security under Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, in the Bush administration’s last months, where huge resources are needed to assist the traumatised, impoverished population in arguably Iraq’s most under-developed and wildest province.

The ‘hard stop’ armed takedown of a vehicle at a government checkpoint – a regular occurrence in 2004-05 – has become so rare that the unsuccessful 14 October attempt to stop a suspected terrorist vehicle in Eastern Riyadh was big news. The authorities seem to have the jihadist challenge under control, but Yemeni-based militants still pose a threat, as does potential ‘blow-back’ from Iraq

Gulf financial institutions have been exposed to US defaults, but on a relatively small scale. Worst-affected have been Dubai and Bahrain, with Qatar and Saudi Arabia apparently the least-affected. Foreign banks have slowed down their lending dramatically and local banks are having their international credit lines pulled, causing them to freeze inter-bank lending.

Despite the global financial downturn, Qatar Investment Authority remains busy. It led a capital injection of some $8.8bn into Credit Suisse Group. According to The Wall Street Journal, this boosts Qatar’s stake in the Swiss bank to around 10%, from just under 2%.

GCC policy-makers are taking decisive steps to shore up confidence, as local markets suffer from global financial meltdown, tumbling oil prices and wavering enthusiasm. In articles below, GSN talks to key GCC and international players about the regional impacts of a global crisis. Troubled institutions can expect support, but US banks

Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum’s daughters, Sheikha Latifa; Yorkshire press; purchase of champion Arab gelding

Egypt’s Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali has been selected as the new chairman of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), which sets the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) political direction and overall policy priorities. The chairmanship lasts for a term of up to three years.

Bank Markazi (Central Bank of Iran) governor Tahmasb Mazaheri has been replaced, at least on a temporary basis, by the bank's general secretary Mahmoud Bahmani, who is generally regarded as more malleable. Mazaheri had been increasingly isolated in his resistance to the president's high-spending populism since the departure, earlier this year, of Economics Minister Davoud Danesh Jaafari.

As Kuwait prepares for the 21 October start of the parliamentary session, Islamist assembly members are preparing to campaign for the amendment of Article 2 of the constitution to bring all legislation into compliance with Islamic principles.

Kaupthing stake; Eid meetings, greetings; Saudi meeting

With Ahmadinejad finding a second wind as Khamenei endorses nationalist populism, his conservative pragmatist rivals who now dominate the Majlis risk being outmanoeuvred as president and supreme leader unite in defying international opinion over the nuclear issue and continuing a high-spending domestic policy recipe that has fuelled surging inflation.

Recent data from the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund shows that Arab stock markets lost some $158bn in September, with the GCC’s bourses taking the brunt of the loss. A new Standard & Poor’s (S&P) report argues that the tightening in liquidity conditions in the UAE is only tangentially related to the global credit crunch and is being driven mainly by a host of country-specific factors.