The woman said they had agreed for her to be the main parent, but the father, who donated sperm, said she had agreed to be the gay couple's surrogate. Ms Justice Russell said it was in the "best interests" of the one-year-old girl to live with her father.

The High Court case was heard in London and Birmingham earlier this year, but the decision has just been published. "The pregnancy was contrived with the aim of a same-sex couple having a child to form a family assisted by a friend," the judge said. "Therefore [the baby girl] living with [the two men] and spending time with [the mother] from time to time fortunately coincides with the reality of her conception and accords with [the baby girl's] identity and place within her family."

As the Greek economy teeters on the verge of bankruptcy, millions of panicking citizens have completely cleared their accounts - pulling more than €28 billion out of banks and pushing the total cash revenue held in the country's financial institutions to a 10-year low. The controversial introduction of mandatory cashpoint charges still requires approval by the European Central Bank but is expected to amount to €1 for every €1,000 transaction.

While the measure is unlikely to impact on day-to-day withdrawals, Greece hopes it will deter citizens clearing out their bank accounts. Clarifying that the charge will not apply to money paid in to a bank account, a senior finance ministry official told The Times: 'The surcharge is just one of a grab-bag of measures we are considering if things get tough.'

The official added that Greece is also considering a ceiling on bank transfers over €1 million in what could fire the starting pistol for capital controls if Greece does go bust over the coming months.

“I do not recall a time when the institutions of marriage and the family have faced such peril, or when the forces arrayed against them were more formidable or determined,” he writes in a letter distributed to his hundreds of thousands of supporters. “Barring a miracle, the family that has existed since antiquity will likely crumble, presaging the fall of Western civilization itself. This is a time for concerted prayer, divine wisdom and greater courage than we have ever been called upon to exercise,” he writes.

The author of staples to families around the world such as “Bringing Up Girls,” “Bringing Up Boys” and “When God Doesn’t Make Sense,” frequently has tangled with the Obama administration. At one point he described President Obama as the “abortion president” and warned America is heading toward “depravity.”

He also, amid his lawsuit against the administration over Obamacare’s abortion requirements, told the president he would refuse to obey any law that required him to participate in the killing of an unborn child. “I believe in the rule of law, and it has been my practice since I was in college to respect and honor those in authority over us. It is my desire to do so now. However, this assault on the sanctity of human life takes me where I cannot go,” he wrote in an open letter to the president.

“We are not simply ‘slouching toward Gomorrah,’ as Judge Robert Bork warned in his best-selling book; we are hurtling toward it,” he writes. “The old earthen dam that has held and protected the reservoir of Judeo-Christian values since the days of our Founding Fathers has given way.”

If the Supreme Court redefines marriage, he says, “an avalanche of court cases will be filed on related issues that can’t even be imagined today.” Religious liberty “will be assaulted from every side.” “You can be certain that conservative churches will be dragged into court by the hundreds,” Dobson writes.

“Their leaders will be required to hire people who don’t share the beliefs of their denominations and constituents. Pastors may have to officiate at same-sex marriages, and they could be prohibited from preaching certain passages of Scripture … Prison is also a possibility.”

“Consider an editorial published in the New York Times a few weeks ago,” Dobson writes. “It was written by liberal columnist, Frank Bruni, who insisted that Christians must be ‘made’ to change their church doctrines on sexual morality. He actually wrote, ‘Church leaders must be made to take homosexuality off their sin list.’”

Via The Jerusalem Post: But the main topic of conversation was Peres’s idea to create a UN-like organization he called “the United Religions.” Peres said the Argentina-born pontiff was the only world figure respected enough to bring an end to the wars raging in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. “In the past, most of the wars in the world were motivated by the idea of nationhood,” Peres said. “But today, wars are incited using religion as an excuse.”

Of all popes in recent history, Pope Francis has also embraced what have thus far been considered pretty “radical” views for the church, including everything from sexual ethics and and an open arms policy on gay rights to Darwinism. He even delivered a speech in March 2014 where he referred to Muslims as worshipping the “one God.”

If any pope was going to head up a one world religion, this one sure seems to toe every line. Wasn’t there a bit in Revelations about a one world religion as a signal of the end times?

Turmoil in Greece, and concerns that the country could default on its debt and be forced out of the eurozone pushed Greek activity to a 22-month low, according to Markit's latest manufacturing barometer.

The figures also suggested that the European Central Bank's €1.1 trillion bond-buying programme, which has helped to weaken the euro, has so far failed to lift France out of its chronic malaise.

French manufacturing activity contracted for the 11th consecutive month in April, with the rate of decline the fastest so far this year. Markit also said employment levels fell for a thirteenth successive month in April.

“The French manufacturing sector remains locked in reverse gear," said Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Markit. "Production levels were cut at an accelerated rate amid a steeper decline in new orders. This was despite a further fall in prices charged and the recent weakening of the euro, underlining the competitive challenge facing firms.”

Meanwhile, China's factories suffered their fastest drop in activity in a year in April as new orders shrank. The HSBC/Markit index reflected a marked deterioration in domestic demand, as new export orders showed tentative signs of improvement.

Her comments came just two months after European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker expressed his wish for an army commanded by Brussels, saying it “would help us to build a common foreign and security policy, as well as jointly assume the responsibilities of Europe in the world”.

Mrs von der Leyen, talking to her Dutch counterpart in The Hague, said international crises such as the Ebola outbreak and the swift advances by Islamic militant group Islamic State could have been countered better by a well-trained European army.

Juncker insists any Euro army would not be in competition with Nato. “Rather, a European army would bring an intensive co-operation in the development and the purchase of military equipment and bring substantial savings,” he said. Dutch defence minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert backs the idea.

In March, Mr Juncker said the EU needed its own army to address the claim that it is not ‘taken entirely seriously’ on the international stage. He said such a move would help send a message to Russia that the EU was serious about defending its values. Both David Cameron and Ed Miliband have insisted they will not sign Britain up to an EU army.

Mrs von der Leyen made her remarks following a meeting with her Dutch counterpart in The Hague last week. She spelled out her wishes for a continental force capable of reacting swiftly to a situation anywhere in the world. She said: ‘The European Army is our long-term goal’ she said ‘but first we have to strengthen the European Defence Union.’

In an article headlined “Why politicians rejected uranium projectiles for the Leo”, the Die Welt national daily newspaper calls for equipping German Leopard 2 battle tanks with uranium munitions to effectively combat Russian tanks.

The article begins by announcing, with obvious satisfaction, that the defence ministry has recently “recalled into operation 100 mothballed Leopard 2 tanks at a cost of €22 million, thereby increasing the country’s arsenal of combat tanks from 225 to 325”. The primary purpose of this “unusual measure” is allegedly to signal to eastern European countries that “the trend towards further reduction of Germany’s conventional military capabilities has been reversed”.

It’s no secret that the US is most certainly not the most loved country in the world because of its government’s long history of highly aggressive military actions, as well as its interference in the internal affairs of countless nations. But what we are seeing today is that an increasing number of nations are turning against the US and taking various actions to rid themselves of its presence and influence.

In a recent article entitled, “The Decline and Fall of the United States” David Swanson pointed out that, “Latin American nations are standing up to the United States. Some have kicked out its bases and ceased sending students to the School of the Americas. People are protesting at US bases in Italy, South Korea, England, and at US embassies in the Philippines, Czech Republic, and Ukraine. German courts are hearing charges that it is illegally participating in US drone wars. Pakistani courts have indicted top CIA officials.”

The US Embassy in Libya remains closed; not long ago the embassy in Yemen closed and we can expect others to follow suit in the future. Even if the US is the most powerful militarily, if the nations and people of the world no longer want its presence in their countries, there is little that Washington can do anything about it. The US government’s extremely aggressive military policies are making new enemies at an alarming rate.

Talk about a complete transformation: America, once the most respected nation in the world has now become the most feared and, according to independent international organizations who study and report on world opinion on key issues, it is viewed by a majority of the nations of the world as a great threat to world peace.

The central banks are planning drastic restrictions on cash itself. They see moving to electronic money will first eliminate the underground economy, but secondly, they believe it will even prevent a banking crisis. This idea of eliminating cash was first floated as the normal trial balloon to see how the people take it. It was first launched by Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University and Willem Buiter, the chief economist at Citigroup.

Their claims have been widely hailed and their papers are now the foundation for the new age of Economic Totalitarianism that confronts us. Rogoff and Buiter have laid the ground work for the end of much of our freedom and will one day with hindsight be considered the new Marx. They sit in their lofty offices but do not have real world practical experience beyond theory. Considerations of their arguments have shown how governments can seize all economic power and destroy cash in the process, eliminating all rights.

Physical paper money provides the check against negative interest rates for if they become too great, people will simply withdraw their funds and hoard cash. Furthermore, paper currency allows for bank runs. Eliminate paper currency and what you end up with is the elimination of the ability to demand to withdraw funds from a bank.

This is the ultimate Marxist state for now anyone with spare cash is the enemy of the Conservative Tony Abbott government. What I laid out at the Solution Conference is the ONLY way out of this nightmare.

It is time for people to start spreading the word and get behind changing the game plan while we still have a game in play. We have to stop this confiscation of all wealth and the continual borrowing and taxation. This will lead to the total destruction of Western culture for we are plagued by power hungry insane politicians who cannot see past their noses.

The new compulsory control is already provided for in the 2015 Australian budget. So that everyone who has any savings must pay taxes on on their savings. The measure is expected to serve as a global test balloon for Europe and North America will watch the outcome in Australia. If there will be no massive resistance of Australian savers, the rest of the world should expect this outright confiscation very rapidly.

The LA Times explains what water rationing would mean for the states:

“Las Vegas has long been at a disadvantage when it comes to Lake Mead water. A 1922 Colorado River water-sharing agreement among seven Western states — one still in effect nearly a century later — gives southern Nevada the smallest amount of all; 300,000 acre-feet a year, compared with California’s 4.4 million annual acre-feet. An acre-foot can supply two average homes for one year.

This summer, officials will make their projection for Lake Mead water in January 2016. If the estimate is below 1,075 feet, rationing kicks in: Southern Nevada would lose 13,000 acre-feet per year and Arizona would lose 320,000 acre-feet. California’s portion would not be affected.”

Note the last sentence – that California would not be affected. Keeping lawns green in LA is top priority.

“Between Lake Mead and Lake Powell, you have over 50 million acre feet in storage when they’re full,” explained Pat Mulroy, former general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority from 1991 until she retired in 2014. “To have them both go down to a quarter of their capacity is a pretty scary proposition,” she said.

Court documents have now revealed that Simpson, who was born in Illinois before moving to Phoenix and converting to Islam, was well known to the FBI. In 2010, he was convicted of lying to federal agents about his plans to travel to Somalia, where they suspected he planned to join a terror group.

'The defendant falsely stated to special agents of the FBI that he had not discussed traveling to Somalia, when in fact he had discussed with others traveling to Somalia for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad,' a complaint reads. A judge ultimately ruled it could not be proved that he was heading there to join a terror group - but court records reveal how he believed democracy was a threat to the Muslim way of life.

These are extremely direct, uncompromising questions. They sound like they were posed by some kind of renegade economist. To talk of financial markets being “very stretched”, to accuse Western policymakers of “colossal intellectual failure”, or state that quantitative easing is “just buying time, creating zombie banks and companies” is to be widely dismissed as rash – and I should know.

Yet the words quoted above were precisely those I heard last week in Frankfurt, from a series of distinguished panellists and audience members, as I took part in the 68th Annual Summit of the CFA Institute. The language was strong, and the analysis stark, but this was no marginal economics convention.

The atmosphere at this highly prestigious gathering, packed with senior decision-makers from the world’s leading endowments, pension and insurance companies, controlling over $5,000 billion (£3,280 billion) of investments between them, was decidedly unsettled.

I heard repeated concerns about the still fragile global recovery and dangers growth could unravel. There was disquiet, also, about the ultimate risks of mass money-printing – and, perhaps, even more alarm about what happens when such money-printing ends.