Known as "Dr Doom" for his negative stance, Prof Roubini argues that China is better placed than the US to provide a reserve currency for the 21st century because it has a large current account surplus, focused government and few of the economic worries the US faces. In a column in the New York Times, Prof Roubini warns that with the proposal for a new international reserve currency via the International Monetary Fund, Beijing has already begun to take steps to usurp the greenback.

China will soon want to see the yuan included in the International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights "basket", he warns, as well as seeing it "used as a means of payment in bilateral trade." Prof Roubini's warning followed the US government's latest economic data that showed producer prices in April experienced their biggest year-on-year drop since 1950, falling 3.7pc.

The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefit for the first time rose by 32,000 to 637,000 in the week to May 9. The increase meant the total number of people claiming benefits stood at to 6.56m, a record high for the 15th consecutive week in a row.

He said the Holocaust "must never be forgotten or denied". Israeli President Shimon Peres thanked him for his visit, calling it a "profound demonstration of the enduring dialogue" between Christians and Jews. He particularly highlighted the Pope's statement about the Holocaust never being denied, saying it carried "substantive and special weight. It touched our hearts and minds."

The Pope, in reply, described the "powerful impressions" he had gathered during his visit. Meeting Holocaust survivors at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem was "one of the most solemn moments" for him. "Those deeply moving encounters brought back memories of my visit three years ago to the death camp at Auschwitz, where so many Jews - mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends - were brutally exterminated under a godless regime." The "appalling chapter of history must never be forgotten or denied", he said.

During his visit, the Pope was criticised by commentators and politicians for failing to express sufficient remorse for the Holocaust and over his membership of the Hitler Youth as a teenager. HE REITERATED THE CALL FOR A TWO-STATE SOLUTION, AS ISRAEL HAD THE RIGHT TO EXIST, AND THE PALESTINIANS "HAVE A RIGHT TO A SOVEREIGN INDEPENDENT HOMELAND".

He also spoke about the wall built by Israeli authorities to separate Israel from Palestinian territories. "As I passed alongside it, I prayed for a future in which the peoples of the Holy Land can live together in peace and harmony without the need for such instruments of security and separation."

The move will speed up access to the vaccine which will be available regardless of whether a pandemic is officially declared. The number of confirmed swine flu cases worldwide has risen by more than 1,000 in 24 hours to reach a total of 7,520. The World Health Organization said 65 people have now died from the virus. Agreements were already in place to ensure two doses of vaccine for everyone in the UK - but only once a pandemic was underway.

Ministers announced the updated deal as warnings were issued about unlicensed websites selling the antiviral drug Tamiflu to worried members of the public. MarkMonitor found 52 sites selling the antiviral drug but only one carried the UK pharmacy logo, it said. The sites were set up at the height of the media coverage in late April. In the UK, the government has secured 50m doses of Tamiflu and the alternative antiviral drug Relenza.

He may yet get his job back, but he faces a very public wait to learn his fate. Shahid Malik is not the only MP who will come under close scrutiny in the coming days. The Conservative Andrew MacKay - who stood down as David Cameron's aide after revelations about his expenses - will put himself before a meeting of constituents to hear what they make of the stories about him.

The former Labour minister Elliot Morley has referred his own expense claims - which saw him suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party - to the Standards watchdog. There have been a number of complaints made to the police.

Its insulting description angered senior MPs and former Cabinet Ministers, Roman Catholic and Church of England leaders. It also offended disability campaigners, who have been trying to discourage the use of the word 'retarded' for years. Whitehall has banned the word for civil servants.

Many of those who are worried about gay adoption say that APPROVING SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS GOES AGAINST THEIR CHRISTIAN FAITH. Mike Judge, of the Christian Institute thinktank, said last night: 'Christians are tired of being marginalised. We don't expect everyone to agree with us but organisations such as the BAAF should try to avoid this kind of language.'

The 'RETARDED HOMOPHOBE' attack was published in a BAAF guide to adoption for homosexual couples. It was repeated in its newspaper Be My Parent, which advertises children who need homes. Would-be gay adopters were told: 'Most importantly, don't worry about society. CHILDREN NEED GOOD PARENTS MUCH MORE THAN RETARDED HOMOPHOBES NEED AN EXCUSE TO WHINGE, so don't let your worries about society's reaction hinder your desire and ability to give a child a loving caring home.'

There have been setbacks to the cause of gay parenting. In 2006, gay foster parents Craig Faunch and Ian Wathey were jailed for paedophile offences against boys at their home in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. The couple had been the first gay foster parents in Yorkshire. An inquiry found social workers had regarded them as 'trophy carers' and failed to respond to signs of abuse because they feared being accused of discrimination.

The word 'retarded' has been considered unacceptable for some years. Advice on 'disability etiquette' distributed to civil servants says it must be avoided in all circumstances. A spokesman for the British Institute for Learning Disabilities said: 'We have not used the term for at least ten years. It is not acceptable to us.'

Meanwhile, studies suggest that children tend to thrive best when they're brought up by married parents, with gay couples in third place after cohabiting heterosexuals. In the absence of more evidence, therefore, many feel it's best to play safe with children's welfare - placing them, where possible, with married couples. THIS IMPLIES NO BIGOTRY AGAINST HOMOSEXUALS. It is prompted only by concern for the child's best interests.

But that's not how the Government-funded British Association for Adoption and Fostering sees it. In its Pink Guide to Adoption for Lesbians and Gay Men, the association CONDEMNS ALL THOSE WHO SHARE THESE CONCERNS AS 'RETARDED HOMOPHOBES'. Leave aside the grossly offensive language - and the fact that, in that outrageous phrase, THE BAAF DISMISSES THE TEACHINGS OF EVERY WORLD RELIGION.

Doesn't this guidebook speak volumes about an adoption and fostering service which seems increasingly to put zealotry before the interests of the child? There have been countless cases in which married couples have been refused permission to adopt because they are considered too old or overweight, because they smoke - or even because they are thought too middle-class. Yet here is the BAAF, taking a leap into the unknown and gambling with children's welfare by ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING GAYS TO ADOPT, WHILE DEMONISING MARRIED COUPLES AND TURNING THEM AWAY.

Procedures have already been started against France, Greece, Ireland, Latvia and Spain. The UK and Hungary were already operating under the procedure prior to the onset of the financial crisis.

"It is vital that we apply the stability and growth pact …and devise an adjustment path to correct deficits and debts in a timely way," said economy commissioner Joaquin Almunia. "This is key to preserve the sustainability of public finances in the medium-to-long term," he added. Under the rules, EU member states are not allowed to run budget deficits in excess of 3 percent of their gross domestic product.

Following Wednesday's decision, the reports will now be handed to a committee of financial experts whose opinion is taken into account before the commission asks EU finance ministers to endorse corrective measures for the four states at their next meeting in June. The states then have six months to adopt the necessary measures aimed at bringing down their budget deficits within a specific timeframe, deficits largely caused by falling tax receipts and expansionary fiscal policies in 2008.

"WE CAN'T KEEP ON JUST BORROWING FROM CHINA," Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. "We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children's future with more and more debt."

Holders of U.S. debt will eventually "get tired" of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. "It will have a dampening effect on our economy." The president pledged to work with Congress to shore up entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare and said he was confident that the House and Senate would pass health-care overhaul bills by August. "MOST OF WHAT IS DRIVING US INTO DEBT IS HEALTH CARE, so we have to drive down costs," he said.

Worse, nobody at the Fed seems to have any idea what the losses on its $2 trillion portfolio really are. "I AM SHOCKED TO FIND OUT THAT NOBODY AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE IS KEEPING TRACK OF ANYTHING," Grayson says. Grayson asked Coleman if her agency had done any research into the decision not to save Lehman Brothers, which "sent shockwaves through the entire financial system," Coleman said it had not.

"What about the $1 trillion plus expansion of the Federal reserve's balance sheet since last September?" Grayson asked. "We have different connotations," Coleman replied. "We're actually conducting a fairly high-level review of the various lending facilities collectively." Translation: NOBODY AT THE FED KNOWS WHERE THE MONEY WENT.

Do you know what who got the $1 trillion or more in the Fed's expansion of its balance, Grayson pressed. "I do not know. We have not looked at this specific area at the particular point on that specific review," Coleman answered. What about the trillions of off-balance transactions since last September, Grayson asked. Coleman demurred again, saying the IG does not have jurisdiction to audit the Federal Reserve.

Coleman's answer: Not enough yet to even respond. "We are not in a position to say if there are losses." Grayson concluded, "I am shocked to find out that nobody at the Federal Reserve, including the inspector general, is keeping track of this."

NO LISTS OF PARTICIPANTS ARE DISCLOSED, no press conferences are held; spill the beans and you're out of the magic circle. Since BILDERBERG DOES NOT OFFICIALLY EXIST, it cannot deny anything and is therefore manna from heaven for the conspiracy theorist. Eurosceptics are convinced that the future development of the European Union was plotted here — EU commissioners have always been welcomed into the coven, with Peter "We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich" Mandelson a particular favourite.

The Bilderberg consensus is that national problems are best solved by an internationally oriented elite, that a global network of decision-makers should have a common language and that the boundaries are fluid between the monied and the political classes. And so there has been a natural bias towards inviting conservatives and market liberals. The only socialists invited are those who "understand money".

Ed Balls has taken part and the most indiscreet Bilderberger of all time was Denis Healey, the former Labour Chancellor and fierce Atlanticist. "TO SAY WE WERE STRIVING FOR A ONE-WORLD GOVERNMENT IS EXAGGERATED, BUT NOT WHOLLY UNFAIR," Lord Healey told the author Jon Ronson for his book Them: Adventures with Extremists. "Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldn't go on for ever fighting one another for nothing. SO WE FELT THAT A SINGLE COMMUNITY THROUGHOUT THE WORLD WOULD BE A GOOD THING."

Another way of viewing the club is that of Metropolitan Seraphim, the bishop of Piraeus, who said that the Bilderbergers represented a "CRIMINAL CABAL OF WORLD ZIONISM AND ITS EFFORTS TO SET UP A CRUEL WORLD DICTATORSHIP UNDER THE HEADSHIP OF LUCIFER". This line is quite common on the blogosphere, where the club's secrecy is taken as evidence of evil intentions.

Whether Lucifer will be down there on the sun-loungers remains to be seen. But what we have been able to establish from a World Bank spokesman, Alexis O'Brien, is that the organisation's president, Robert Zoellick, will be in Athens on unspecified business on May 14. And that US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's public schedule is mysteriously empty for the next two days. Jo Ackermann, head of Deutsche Bank, will be travelling "somewhere in Europe". Jean-Claude Trichet, head of the European Central Bank, will not be around until the end of the week. You get the drift. Something is going on. If only somebody would let us in on the secret.

Growers in South Australia have said they are "very frightened" that if heavy and regular rains do not fall over the next five months, hundreds of well-established vineyards will fail. Producers in the Riverland, Clare Valley and Langhorne Creek regions that surround the South Australian capital ADELAIDE HAVE BEEN HIT BY A SEVEN-YEAR DROUGHT, but also their location at the very end of the vast Murray Darling River system.

To reach their irrigation pipes, water must first travel through the populous New South Wales and Queensland farming regions, which consume 83 per cent of the basin's water. Inflows to the Murray Darling are at their lowest in 117 years and residents of Adelaide have been told their supply from the river, which the city relies on for 90 per cent of its water, can no longer be guaranteed.

Mr Arnold said the country needed regular drenching rains, of a least six inches, for the remaining growers to survive. He has admitted that is unlikely. "We are really heavily relying on a rain event to happen every couple of weeks for the whole winter and that's frightening, that's very frightening," he said. "But there's a lot of scepticism about whether it will rain again this year."

Representative Steve King, Republican, from Iowa said the bill provides protection for those with "sexual orientation" issues but then doesn't define the terms. SO HE SAID IT'S APPARENT THAT ALL OF THE 547 'PHILIAS' – OR AS HE DESCRIBED THEM "DEVIANCIES" – WOULD BE PROTECTED UNDER THE LAW. "Anything you can imagine, no matter how revolting it might be," King said. King also warned the bill provides federal money to have the Justice Department help local law enforcement agencies enforce their own "hate crimes" laws.

"A pastor might be preaching from Leviticus or Romans; that could be a direct violation of a city ordinance," he said. "Under Title 18 in the federal code, if you are shown to aid, abet, to counsel or to in some way influence one of those 'incidents,' you are as guilt as the principal," he said. "We could see pastors thrown in jail for a decade for the content of their sermons," he warned.

King said he read part of George Orwell's "1984" into the congressional record: "This is what was written in 1949: 'WE DON'T CARE ABOUT ANY OVERT ACTION, IT'S THE THOUGHT WE CARE ABOUT BECAUSE IF WE CONTROL THE THOUGHT, WE CONTROL THE ACTION,' That's where we are today," he warned.

"It is the biggest challenge of the 21st century," Mr Zardari told a press conference in Downing Street. "It is not a short term affair, it is a long term affair. It is challenging our way of life, THEY ARE TRYING TO CREATE A NEW WORLD ORDER." Mr Zardari also dismissed as "incorrect" a BBC survey which has suggested that only 38 per cent of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province is under government control.

The two men stood side by side after an apparent snub to Mr Brown when he visited Pakistan last month and was forced to hold a press conference with Yusuf Raza Gilani, the Pakistani prime minister, instead. In another reference to tensions with the West, Mr Zardari said he was asking for "ownership" of American unmanned drones which have been launching attacks on Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in Pakistan. The focus of the meeting was on fighting terrorism and Mr Brown promised £10m in additional aid to help those dealing with refugees fleeing the fighting in Pakistan's Swat Valley.

Every year millions of people visit Canterbury Cathedral, a haven for pilgrims since the Middle Ages. The city's place in literary history was secured by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. But Pride in Canterbury is concerned with more present-day issues. The local council, it says, has failed to 'send out signals' that gays are welcome. As well as the absence of a suitable bar, a play staged at the city's Marlowe Theatre presented a gay character in a 'stereotypical' way.

The group is awaiting the outcome of an official complaint to the local government ombudsman. Spokesman Andrew Bretell said: 'We do not believe the council wants a thriving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in our city. They're more interested in ticking their equality boxes than they are in dealing with the real issues.'

The nearest gay bar is 17 miles away, in Margate, he added. 'Unless they are sending out signals that they welcome gays, then they are not creating conditions where there is likely to be a gay bar. We are not trying to turn Canterbury into Blackpool or Brighton, but we do think it's important for the gay community to have a focal point – somewhere they can go to and see LGBT culture. The area doesn't send out an image that it's OK to be gay. We're trying to work with the council to do this and don't feel we have made big demands, but we have had no success.'

The credit rating agency said the industry is being propped up by hundreds of billions of dollars of government support, especially for lenders considered too important to the financial system to fail. While efforts to spur lending, take bad assets off banks' balance sheets, and restart the market for packaging and selling securities may help the sector, S&P said banks will have a tough time surviving absent a bigger capital cushion than regulators require.

"There's nothing to say that this banking crisis can't go on for another three or four years," S&P Managing Director Tanya Azarchs said. S&P on May 4 said it may lower its ratings for 23 U.S. banks and thrifts, including 10 that underwent stress tests, citing concern about the industry's capitalisation. It said the 23 companies had at least a 50 percent chance of being downgraded within 90 days.