Dispel the Illusion

They promised economic stability, order and prosperity. But instead the world's bankers have delivered chaos, debt and uncertainty - and then blamed the feeble governments that surrendered control of the global economy to them. In the first of three extracts from their new book, Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson explain how the reckless speculation of a super-rich elite has left us all the poorer.

A mother who decided to abort her son because he may have inherited a life-threatening kidney condition is overjoyed that he survived the procedure. Jodie Percival of Nottinghamshire, England, said she and her fiancee made the decision to abort baby Finley when she was eight weeks pregnant.

CAN "Adams, John" Associate Deputy Minister of National Defence and Chief of the Communications Security Establishment Canada ... CAN "Brodie, Ian " "Chief of Staff, Prime Minister's Office" ... CAN "Desmarais, Jr., Paul " "Chairman and co-CEO, Power Corporation of Canada" ... CAN "Edwards, N. Murray " "Vice Chairman, Candian Natural Resources Limited" ... CAN "Martin, Roger" "Dean, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto" ... CAN "McKenna, Frank" "Deputy Chair, TD Bank Financial Group" ... CAN "Prichard, J. Robert S." "President and CEO, Torstar Corporation" ... CAN "Reisman, Heather M." "Chair and CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc."

I accuse. The various federal and provincial human rights commissions of discrimination. Against me. Because for years now I have spoken out against same-sex marriage, the excesses of the gay community and Muslim extremism in my column as well as on my radio and television shows ... Yet as the B.C. Human Rights bunch takes on Maclean's magazine I am ignored. Why? It can only be because I am a Roman Catholic, half-Jewish, heterosexual, bald Conservative immigrant. It's offensive, unfair and horribly un-Canadian.

Father Alphonse de Valk ... now is warning of an educational agenda to be implemented in support of "gay" pairs. In a column at Catholic Insight, de Valk writes under the headline "Fascism has come to Canada" that the Department of Education in British Columbia plans in September to "introduce the mandatory teaching of SSM [same-sex marriage] from kindergarten to grade 12 in provincial schools. "It is a first for a province in Canada to claim the right to determine moral teaching in schools when the vast majority of its citizens reject it as unscientific and contrary to the common good," he wrote.

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Councils have used laws designed to combat terrorism to access more than 900 people's private phone and email records in the latest example of Britain's growing surveillance state. Town hall spies found out who residents were phoning and emailing as they investigated such misdemeanours as dog quarantine breaches and unlicensed storage of petrol. The news prompted fresh calls from civil rights groups for a reform of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November. The terms of the impending deal, details of which have been leaked to The Independent, are likely to have an explosive political effect in Iraq. Iraqi officials fear that the accord, under which US troops would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law, will destabilise Iraq's position in the Middle East and lay the basis for unending conflict in their country.

Saving the living has always been the No. 1 priority for a New York City ambulance crew. But a select group of paramedics may soon have a different task altogether: saving the dead. The city is considering creating a special ambulance whose crew would rush to collect the newly deceased and preserve the body so that the organs might be taken for transplant. The "rapid-organ-recovery ambulance," still in the early planning stages, could raise a host of ethical questions and strike some families as ghoulish.

Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home. The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States ... The scientists would not disclose where the study was done, only describing the location as an industrialized nation.

A priest is being investigated as a potential criminal under a federal "hate crimes" law for quoting from the Bible, and he's being targeted using a Canadian provision under which no defendant ever has been acquitted, according to a new report. Pete Vere ... has reported on the prosecution of Father Alphonse de Valk, a pro-life activist known across Canada, by the Canadian Human Rights Commission – "a quasi-judicial investigative body with the power of the Canadian government behind it" – at CatholicExchange.com. "What was Father de Valk's alleged 'hate act'?" Vere wrote. "Father defended the [Catholic] Church's teaching on marriage during Canada's same-sex 'marriage' debate, quoting extensively from the Bible, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and Pope John Paul II's encyclicals."

Brigitte Bardot was convicted Tuesday of provoking discrimination and racial hatred for writing that Muslims are destroying France. A Paris court also handed down a $23,325 fine against the former screen siren and animal rights campaigner ... French anti-racism laws prevent inciting hatred and discrimination on racial or religious or racial grounds. Bardot had been convicted four times previously for inciting racial hatred.

A shroud of secrecy will be drawn over the workings of the European Union under new proposals to limit access to documents and in some cases deny that they even exist, the European Ombudsman cautioned in a strongly worded attack yesterday ... Plans to withhold papers unless they are formally listed in a new register of documents would deny access to important material and break promises of transparency made under the new Lisbon treaty, the watchdog said.

Frank Kameny, a hero to the homosexual community who was integral in pressuring the American Psychiatric Association to reclassify same-sex activities as "normal," has written to a pro-family organization that he believes bestiality is fine, "as long as the animal doesn't mind." In a weekend letter to Americans for Truth, an organization dedicated to revealing the truth about homosexuality, Kameny also said there is no such thing as "sexual perversion."

The next two Sundays, a coalition of radical gay groups comprised of SoulForce, The National Black Justice Coalition, and Equality Riders have coerced two of the nation’s most influential leaders into a closed-door showdown ... Bill Hybels at Willow Creek Community Church and Rick Warren at Saddleback Community Church will meet with these folks on June 8 and 15, respectively. Although Hybels and Warren will undoubtedly defend the faith boldly, SoulForce and company have set up a symbolic media campaign designed to suggest that conservative churches are bending on their gay relationships and marriage prohibitions.

Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corporation and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, warned that financial pressures on US newspapers would see them "deteriorate tremendously". Speaking at the D: All Things Digital conference in California, he said newspapers will have to lower their profit margins from 30pc to 10pc, and publish stories people "want to read" rather than articles designed to win Pulitzer Prizes.

What is the most popular name for children born in the Italian city of Milan? The city's municipality reported what some may find a strange turn of events on the subject: The names Mahmoud, Ahmad, and Hamid are currently the most popular names given to infants born in the economic capital of Italy. The Saudi newspaper al-Watan reported that the reason for the names' newfound Italian popularity is due to the rising birthrate among the city's Muslim community.

The total tax bill of the average Canadian family has increased by more than 1,700 per cent since 1961, according to a new book, Tax Facts 15, released today by independent research organization the Fraser Institute. Canadians’ total tax bill now accounts for more of the family budget than food, clothing and shelter combined. In contrast to the jump in taxes, the average family’s expenditures on shelter increased by 1,063 per cent, food by 505 per cent and clothing by 455 per cent.

A Conservative member of Parliament, who promised earlier this year to spend his life promoting tolerance after a video surfaced of him making anti-gay remarks in 1991, was a no-show Saturday at Regina's gay pride parade. Gay groups said they were disappointed that Regina-Lumsden MP Tom Lukiwski didn't even respond to an invitation to attend the parade ... Markwart noted that the disappointment was heightened by their understanding that Lukiwski was in the Regina area this weekend.

Evangelists say they were threatened with arrest for committing a "hate crime" and were told they risked being beaten up if they returned. The incident will fuel fears that "no-go areas" for Christians are emerging in British towns and cities, as the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed in The Sunday Telegraph this year ... Mr Abraham said: "I couldn't believe this was happening in Britain. The Bishop of Rochester was criticised by the Church of England recently when he said there were no-go areas in Britain but he was right; there are certainly no-go areas for Christians who want to share the gospel." Last night, Christian campaigners described the officer's behaviour as "deeply alarming."