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On one side of Bangkok, you’ll find the victims of Thailand’s worst flooding in half a century. They float down trash-strewn waterways, paddling washtubs with wicker brooms over submerged neighborhoods.

Just a few miles (kilometers) away, you’ll find something else entirely: well-heeled shoppers perusing bustling malls decorated with newly hung Halloween decorations, couples sipping espresso in the air-conditioned comfort of ultrachic cafes.

Although catastrophic flooding has devastated a third of this Southeast Asian nation and submerged some of the capital’s northernmost districts, the reality for the majority of this sprawling metropolis of 9 million people is that life goes on.

The desperate images of disaster contrast sharply with scenes of total normality _ from night-owls drinking cocktails in red light districts to tourists enjoying relaxing foot massages in faux-leather chairs downtown.

An exodus of thousands of Bangkok residents to nearby resorts and a government-ordered five-day holiday have left the notoriously congested city unusually easy to maneuver by taxi and three-wheeled tuk-tuk.

“It’s better, in a way,” Nicole Attwater of Sydney said Sunday, adding that she was happy to brave some flooding to see the Grand Palace, the gold-studded former seat of the Thai monarchy, with far lighter crowds than normal on a sunny morning.

“It’s a good time to come, because it’s quiet,” she said.

Most of Bangkok is dry, with little to indicate that anything is wrong _ except for the ominous walls of sandbags stacked around hotels and homes, and the apocalyptic predictions of everyone from expatriate bloggers to some members of the Thai government.

Yet, the threat of floodwaters sweeping through the city is still very real. Nationwide, 381 people have died over the last three months, and 110,000 more have been displaced _ 10,000 of them in Bangkok, according to government figures. The catastrophe has put hundreds of thousands of people out of work and cost billions of dollars in damage _ a bill that grows larger by the day.

Among items struck from tourists’ agendas: shopping for crafts at the popular Chatuchak weekend market and dinner cruises down the city’s Chao Phraya river _ all canceled due to the high waters. The river swelled to a record high level early Sunday, spilling into some neighborhoods and sparking fears it would flood the inner city.

Fears over worse-case scenarios and travel warnings issued by foreign governments have slashed visitors by half at sites like the Grand Palace and the giant gold-plated Reclining Buddha inside Bangkok’s Wat Pho temple complex.

But the biggest problem by far, said tour guide Keerati Atui, is the media, which he said has given the impression that most of Bangkok is under water.

“Look around,” he said, gesturing to lines of tourists streaming into the white-walled palace. “It’s dry. Everything here is normal.”

River water has lapped at the palace gates and even crept inside, but much of it has welled up through drains in the riverside neighborhood. One picture posted this week on Twitter showed a cameraman filming a television news anchor on a street beside the palace in ankle-high water. On both sides of the pair, the street was bone dry.

Heavy monsoon rains have pummeled a large swath of Asia since July. As floodwaters crept across Thailand, they first drowned neighboring provinces, then districts on the northern outskirts of Bangkok. Last week, advancing water forced the city’s Don Muang airport, which is used mainly for domestic flights, to shut down. However, the international Suwarnabhumi airport remains open, and the city’s skytrain and subway lines were functioning normally.

Nobody knows how far the water will go, but so far Bangkok’s defenses have mostly held.

Statements from government leaders have alternated from assurances the capital would be spared to dire warnings that nowhere is safe.

Panicked Bangkokians have stripped supermarkets and convenience stores of bottled water and dried noodle supplies in recent weeks as a result, but there is still plenty to drink. Both those items can be still found in street-side shops along the city’s temple-dotted riverside, where the mineral water is ice cold and the noodle soup is spicy and sprinkled with fish balls.

“A lot of people are overreacting, they’ve been hoarding too much stuff,” said Kwanpimol Pleegluay, a 48-year-old housewife. “They watch the news and see people in other flooded provinces and think that’s going to happen to them here.”

Kwanpimol was taking a casual stroll along the Chao Phraya with her husband over the weekend _ to see how high the river swelled. After peering into the water, she took his photo and chose one word to describe the scene: “Beautiful,” she said.

On the other side of the Chao Phraya, where the 200-year-old pagoda of the city’s famed Temple of the Dawn rises from the banks, 42-year-old monk Phramaha Abhin said he was not worried.

“The Lord Buddha taught us not to be negligent, we must always prepare,” said Phramaha, referring to newly laid protective layer of sandbags outside the temple, where he lives. “But he also taught us not to foolishly fear that which hasn’t happened yet.”

Many people in Bangkok and neighboring provinces see the flooding as something that should be accepted, not something to be angry about.

In Bangkok’s heavily flooded Thonburi district, a navy team evacuated a stranded pregnant woman whose water broke Sunday. Aorasa Wisetkoop looked anxious, but remained calm and held tightly onto her belly, while a rescue team lifted her into a boat.

“We had to get her to hospital,” rescuer Nitipat Mongolpradit said.

But along with every tragic and urgent incident in the inundation, there were images of Thais splashing in the floodwaters for fun.

When the river began flowing like a waterfall over a wall into Chantana Srisuwan’s wooden-shack kitchen, the 58-year-old pulled out a stack of aluminum pans, soaped them up and began washing them. “Why bother being troubled?” she asked.

“If we think we shouldn’t get wet, we’ll never have peace of mind,” she said, as a neighbor complained he could not sleep because his bed was submerged beneath encroaching waves. “If there’s no water, great. But if there is, we have to learn to live with it.”

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NATO has announced it will end its air campaign over Libya next Monday, following the decision of the U.N. Security Council to lift the no-fly zone and end military action to protect civilians.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Friday that the operation was “one of the most successful in NATO history,” one which was able to wind down quickly following the death of former Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi.

Monitoring air patrols are expected to continue until Monday to make sure there are no more threats to civilians.

NATO’s 26,000 sorties, including 9,600 strike missions, destroyed about 5,900 military targets since they started on March 31.

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BRUSSELS—European leaders are struggling for compromise on a crucial debt-fighting agreement, but it was unclear if their last-ditch meeting on Wednesday would produce an accord capable of calming financial markets.

With the future of the European Union possibly hanging in the balance, leaders have been trying to put aside national interests and craft the elements of a comprehensive, EU-wide plan to head off a financial meltdown across the continent.

Hours before EU leaders were set to arrive for the one-night Brussels summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel won vital parliamentary approval at home on plans to increase the eurozone rescue fund’s firepower.

The summit will look at a strategy to vastly increase the $600-billion bailout fund by offering government bond buyers insurance against possible losses and drawing capital from private investors and possibly sovereign wealth funds from such countries as China and Brazil.

In a speech to the Bundestag in Berlin, Merkel called for European leaders to recognize the urgency of Europe’s situation.

“We need to look to the future,” she told legislators. “If the euro fails, Europe fails.

“We need to overcome the acute crisis, we need to come to concrete solutions with regard to countries that are very much in debt, we have to tackle the mistakes made in the past so the crisis will not get worse,” Merkel said.

In another positive sign, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi appeared likely to at least partially meet EU demands for new austerity measures designed to rein in Italy’s massive public debt, which is contributing to instability on the continent’s financial markets. Berlusconi nailed down an overnight deal early Wednesday with his allies in parliament on emergency growth measures and pension reforms no fax cash loans.

But it remains unclear whether EU leaders can reach a detailed, concrete agreement Wednesday that would reassure investors or whether the accord will be a loosely worded plan for future action. Such a vague outcome might reignite the continent’s financial crisis.

The key issue of how to restructure Greek debt was unsettled on the eve of the summit. As of Tuesday, governments and banks remained sharply divided over the extent of the losses that would have to be accepted by holders of government bonds issued by Greece, the country that tipped the continent into a financial crisis.

Banks have been resisting pressure from governments for “voluntary” write-downs of about 60 per cent on their Greek bonds.

Also, there was troubling division on how to finance the expansion of the bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility. France had been pushing for the European Central Bank (ECB) to support the EFSF by providing it with loans that could raise the fund’s total capacity to the $1.5-trillion range. But Germany has rejected this approach.

In a compromise, leaders may agree that the EFSF be allowed to bail out debt-laden eurozone governments such as Spain and Italy by giving partial guarantees to investors or banks who buy more of the countries’ bonds.

But key elements on how the EFSF will operate and where it will obtain funds in future may require more discussion among EU officials over coming months.

The details of any agreement are expected to be announced Wednesday evening.

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Advancing floodwaters in Thailand shut down commercial flights Tuesday at Bangkok’s second airport, spilling across a complex housing the country’s flood relief headquarters in one of the biggest blows yet to government attempts to prevent the sprawling capital from being swamped.

The effective closure of Don Muang airport, which is used primarily for domestic flights, was sure to further erode public confidence in the ability of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s administration to defend the increasingly anxious metropolis of 9 million people.

Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, the country’s main international gateway, has yet to be affected by flooding and flights there were operating normally. Most of the city has been spared inundation so far.

Don Muang has come to symbolize the gravity of the Southeast Asian nation’s deepening crisis, which has seen advancing waters drown a third of the country and kill 366 people over the last three months.

The airport houses the government’s recently established emergency Flood Relief Operations Center, and one of its terminals has been converted into an overcrowded shelter filled with tents for about 4,000 people who fled waterlogged homes.

Somboon Klinchanhom, a 43-year-old civil servant who took refuge there last week, was preparing to move after authorities said the terminal had become too overcrowded and thousands of displaced people would be relocated to other shelters.

“I thought it would be safe and well-protected,” Somboon said of the airport, as she packed her belongings again.

Outside, ankle-high water rushed over sandbagged barriers and swamped roads within the airport compound.

The two main carriers based at Don Muang announced they were suspending operations and diverting flights to Suvarnabhumi. They are Thai Orient Airlines and Nok Air, which said it was halting flights until Nov. 1.

Capt. Kantpat Mangalasiri, the airport’s director, said Don Muang’s runways _ though not currently flooded _ would be closed until Nov. 1 to ensure safe aircraft operations.

Thai air force flights carrying relief supplies were continuing on a military runway that is still open, air force spokesman Montol Suchukorn said. He said floodwaters had breached the military’s air base, but the runway remains protected by flood barriers.

Last week, the air force moved 20 planes from Don Muang as a precaution.

The flood relief command will remain at the airport for now since it is still accessible by road, spokesman Wim Rungwattanajinda said.

He said the government expects floodwaters will sweep through the main parts of Don Muang by Friday, but would not rise above 3.3 feet (one meter).

The scene at the domestic terminal was chaotic as throngs of confused passengers struggled to leave or pulled up to the departure hall with luggage, unaware their flights had been canceled.

With parts of the main road heading to downtown Bangkok flooded knee-deep, taxis were in scarce supply. Some travelers waited hours for a ride as airlines scrambled to arrange special buses.

Don Muang, located on Bangkok’s northern outskirts, is among seven of the capital’s 50 districts that the government has declared at risk. Those zones, in the north and northwest, are all experiencing some flooding.

The latest added to the list is the northwestern district of Bang Phlat. Late Monday, Gov. Suhumbhand Paribatra warned residents there to move their belongings to higher ground after water from the Chao Phraya River crept in through a subway construction site.

On Tuesday, Yingluck’s administration declared public holidays on Oct. 27-31 in affected areas, including Bangkok. The Education Ministry also ordered schools in 12 affected provinces and the capital to close until Nov. 7 due to the floods.

Last week, Yingluck ordered key floodgates opened to help drain runoff through urban canals to the sea, but there is great concern that rising tides in the Gulf of Thailand this weekend could slow critical outflows and flood the city.

Late Monday, the flood relief center said water levels in the worst-hit parts of the country _ the submerged provinces north of Bangkok _ were stable or subsiding. But the massive runoff was still bearing down on the capital as it flowed south toward the Gulf of Thailand.

While neighborhoods just across Bangkok’s boundaries are underwater, most of the city is dry and has not been directly affected by the deluge.

Anxious Bangkokians, though, have been raiding stores to stock up on emergency supplies, and many have been protecting their homes and businesses with sandbags. Some have even erected sealed cement barriers across shop fronts.

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The Abu Dhabi company building a branch of the Guggenheim museum in the Emirati capital said Sunday it has temporarily dropped plans to award a major construction contract, raising questions about the future of the high profile project.

The state-run Tourism Development and Investment Co. said it recalled the tender for concrete work on the Frank Gehry-designed museum because it is reviewing its strategy for handing out jobs to contractors. It didn’t say when it would again seek bids.

The Guggenheim is one of the showcase museums TDIC is building on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island, a planned cultural district overlooking the Persian Gulf. The island is also slated to contain a national museum, performing arts center and a branch of the Louvre.

A spokeswoman insisted Sunday that the Guggenheim project is still moving ahead, but didn’t provide details.

TDIC has previously said it would open the museum by 2013.

Some preliminary groundwork for the 450,000-square-foot museum has been completed. The construction contract now on hold would have involved major work on the museum’s base and other parts of the building.

TDIC has not released the value of that deal free credit score.

TDIC is one of several companies set up by Abu Dhabi to diversify the economy and drive development in the emirate, which borders Dubai to the south.

The money-losing company relies heavily on direct cash infusions from the oil-rich Abu Dhabi government, but it also has turned to banks to fund some of its operations.

TDIC executives traveled to Europe and Asia over the summer to meet with potential investors about the possibility of issuing new bonds, but then put off those fundraising plans.

The Guggenheim project has been a flashpoint for controversy.

In March, more than 130 international artists and writers promised to boycott the museum unless authorities do more to protect workers’ rights at the site. That followed an earlier report by Human Rights Watch that outlined alleged abuses against migrant workers on the project.

TDIC has said it is committed to protecting workers’ rights and has taken on board many of Human Rights Watch’s recommendations.

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U.K. government borrowing in September fell by more than anticipated, official figures showed Friday, providing rare good news after a series of downbeat reports.

The Office for National Statistics said public sector net borrowing in September was 14.1 billion pounds ($22.2 billion), down on the 15.4 billion pound shortfall in the same month last year.

September’s figure was about a billion pounds better than the market consensus.

The agency also revised its August borrowing figure downward by 2 billion pounds.

The data leaves the government broadly on course to hit its full-year deficit target of 122 billion pounds, providing the economy doesn’t deteriorate further.

However, worries persist.

“We doubt that these figures fully reflect the recent slowdown in the pace of economic growth and therefore we continue to expect the trend in borrowing to deteriorate in the second half of the fiscal year,” said Samuel Tombs, U.K. economist at Capital Economics.

The statistics agency reported earlier this week that inflation had hit a three-year high of 5.2 percent. Unemployment was up to 8.1 percent in the latest report, while household incomes were growing at less than 2 percent a year; GDP rose just 0.1 percent in the second quarter.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at financial information company Markit, said the government may be forced to cut spending further to meet the borrowing target if the economy gets worse. However, he said this raises the risk that austerity measures “end up driving the deficit higher rather than reducing it.”

Concern about sagging growth has prompted the Bank of England to resume a program of buying up financial assets from the banks in the hope of increasing the money supply and getting them to lend more.

Earlier this month, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee unanimously voted to spend another 75 billion pounds ($118 billion) on the so-called program of quantitative easing. Between March 2009 and January 2010, it bought up 200 billion pounds ($315 billion) of assets.

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Stocks slid Thursday after reports that a meeting planned for the weekend between European leaders to fend off a credit crisis may be delayed. The reports overshadowed an unexpected recovery in manufacturing in the Northeast.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 63 points, or 0.5 percent, to 11,441 at 11:20 a.m. Eastern.

Investors are concerned that differences between the leaders of Germany and France may hold up an agreement on how to protect European banks from the likelihood of a default by the Greek government.

Officials from the 17 countries that share the euro are scheduled to meet at a summit this Sunday to discuss ways to contain the damage. A messy default by Greece could to huge losses for European banks that hold Greek bonds. If that leads them to pull back on lending to each other, investors fear it could cause another freeze in global credit markets like the one in late 2008 after Lehman Brothers collapsed.

The S&P 500 fell 7, or 0.6 percent, to 1,202. The Nasdaq lost 30, or 1.2 percent, to 2,573.

U.S. indexes had edged higher in early trading after the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said regional manufacturing was “showing signs of recovery.” Its index of manufacturing, shipments and new orders was far better than economists had forecast quick payday loan.

Other economic reports were mixed. The Labor Department said new applications for unemployment benefits dropped to 403,000 last week, a sign that layoffs are easing. On the down side, sales of previously-occupied homes fell 3 percent last month.

Several large companies reported earnings before the market opened. Union Pacific Corp., the nation’s largest railroad, surged after its earnings came in well ahead of analysts’ estimates. The company gained 5.3 percent after reporting that its income jumped 16 percent, more than analysts had forecast. It also said it expects the growth to continue. .

Southwest Airlines rose 3.2 percent after reporting income that was a penny per share higher than analysts predicted. AT&T Inc. lost 1 percent after reporting that the number of new iPhones activated last quarter was the lowest in a year and a half.

The New York Times jumped 4 percent after the company reported higher profits than expected.

Microsoft Corp. will report earnings after the market closes.

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Asian stock markets headed upward Tuesday, with investors emboldened by reports that Germany and France were moving closer toward resolving Europe’s debt crisis.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.6 percent to 8,789.83 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was 0.8 percent higher at 18,215.17. South Korea’s Kospi was 0.1 percent lower at 1,837.11. Benchmarks in Singapore, Australia and the Philippines were higher. Those in mainland China, Taiwan and Malaysia dropped.

The Guardian newspaper reported that France and Germany have agreed to expand a rescue fund. European officials are expected to take up the expansion along with a package of other measures at a meeting this weekend.

Wall Street rose sharply on the news business cards design. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.6 percent to close at 11,577.05. The S&P 500 index rose 2 percent to 1,225.38. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.6 percent to 2,657.43.

Concerns about a messy default by the Greek government have been the main cause behind many of the big swings on the world’s stock markets lately.

The fear is that a default would cause deep losses for European banks that hold Greek bonds. That could lead to a freeze in lending between banks and escalate into another financial crisis similar to the one that occurred in 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

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WATERLOO, ONT.

Libyan fighters fanned out in Tripoli neighborhoods Saturday to search for armed supporters of fugitive leader Moammar Gadhafi a day after a major gunbattle rocked the capital for the first time in two months.

Dozens of men combed apartment buildings for suspects and weapons in the Abu Salim neighborhood, which is home to the prison of the same name that became notorious for the abuse and killing of Gadhafi opponents. A day earlier, a gunbattle broke out in the area when a group tried to raise the green flag that symbolizes the ousted regime.

Revealing serious divisions within the revolutionary ranks, Saturday’s sweep of Abu Salim was being conducted mainly by a breakaway militia that refuses to answer to the main Tripoli military council.

It is one of many factions that have refused to put themselves under the umbrella of official revolutionary authorities, raising fears of vigilante justice as the North African nation faces continued fighting by loyalists of the fugitive leader.

One anti-Gadhafi fighter stomped on a green flag as others searched vehicles. Another showed off a box stuffed with bullets he said was found in a second-floor apartment in one of the residential buildings.

Abdullah Naker, the head of the so-called revolutionary council, called on all anti-Gadhafi forces to join them in the search and warned his men will fight anybody who gets in their way.

“All of Tripoli will be searched and we will reorganize our checkpoints and our guards in public and private institutions inside of Tripoli and outside of Tripoli,” he told reporters.

He said eight wanted men and 12 other suspects were arrested. He also alleged that teachers have been telling students that Gadhafi will return and said teams had been sent to stop the practice.

“We gave the military council a chance to prove themselves and they failed, and we will not leave things to chance,” he said.

A senior Interior Ministry official, Ibrahim al-Bargathi, said Friday’s skirmish started when a group of some 30 people, including eight women and some armed men, started walking with green flags. Local opponents began fighting with them, then revolutionary forces swarmed into the area from across the city, he said payday loans.

He said six people were injured and 14 were captured _ nine men and five women.

It was the first major violence in Tripoli between Gadhafi supporters and revolutionary forces since the then-rebels swept into the capital in late August and forced the longtime leader into hiding. The tensions suggest Libyans face grave challenges in trying to reconcile after months of bitter civil war.

The flare-up in Tripoli and fierce resistance on two other fronts have set back the new rulers’ stated goals of declaring total victory and establishing democracy. It also raised fears of a protracted insurgency as Gadhafi, the ruler for nearly 42 years, remains on the run.

The capital has been relatively calm since then-rebels swept into the city two months ago. But Gadhafi’s loyalists have control of parts of his hometown of Sirte and the desert enclave of Bani Walid and have fought off NATO-backed revolutionary forces besieging them for weeks. Gadhafi has tried to rally his supporters with several audio recordings issued from hiding.

The firefight in Tripoli began after Friday prayers. Witnesses said dozens of loyalists carrying green flags appeared on a square in the Abu Salim neighborhood, which has long been a pro-Gadhafi stronghold. Residents also reported fighting in several other areas known to still hold loyalists of the former leader.

Interim leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of the governing National Transitional Council, had hoped to declare liberation this week after what he expected would be the imminent fall of the holdout city of Sirte, Gadhafi’s hometown, 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast. That could allow the council to name a new interim government and set a timeline for holding elections within eight months.

The revolutionary forces control much of Sirte after launching a major push a week ago but still face heavy resistance.

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