Fifty people died and 200 were wounded when car bombs ripped through a bazaar and tourist hotels in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday in Egypt's worst attack in nearly a decade.

Shaken European tourists spoke of mass panic and hysteria as people fled the carnage, with bodies strewn across the roads, people screaming and sirens wailing.

The regional governor said two car bombs and possibly a suitcase bomb had rocked the resort that is popular with divers.

One blast tore the front off the Ghazala Gardens Hotel in Naama Bay, the site of most of the resort's luxury hotels, where people were feared trapped in the rubble.

The federal government has promised to spend $500 million over 10 years to address the socio-economic issues of the northern First Nations – which had been a barrier to the proposed Mackenzie Valley natural gas pipeline.

In a recent report, the Globe and Mail documented over $5.6 million in untendered contracts handed over to four top Progressive Conservatives in Ontario by the utility in a secret program to lobby the government to sell the company to waiting investors.

Only now do we find out how much Ontarians paid out to Tory insiders:

* Paul Rhodes, communications director of the Conservative election campaign and former spokesperson for premier Mike Harris, received $335,237 for 81 pages of “communications advice” (such as how the province had to privatize Hydro One immediately);
* Mike Courley, former deputy finance minister and advisor to then premier Ernie Eves, (on behalf of either himself or his corporate entities) received a total of $3.7 million for his services. What did Hydro One have to show for this expense? A one-page e-mail, discussing the best ways to put forward arguments in favour of privatization;
* Leslie Noble, co-chair of the Conservative election campaign, received $250,000 for “advice on privatization”. She produced a three-page e-mail and two slide presentations. In one slide presentation, Ms. Noble gave an insider’s view of who was pushing privatization in Harris’ cabinet, and who was not;
* Tom Long, senior Conservative strategist, received $1.3 million through two of his companies. From all accounts, all Hydro One received in return was a memo recommending the utility deliberately underprice its stock to make the privatization more successful for investors – robbing citizens and taxpayers of its value.

Ontario will forge ahead with deregulation of the hydroelectric market despite the threat of higher rates and problems experienced in Alberta and California, Mike Harris, the Premier, said yesterday.

"I've always believed monopolies are not in the best interest of taxpayers. They're expensive and they're inefficient. I believe in open, competitive markets, because they help keep costs low and they encourage innovation," said Mr. Harris. "We need to apply the same thinking to the electricity sector," he said in a luncheon speech to a business association in a Toronto suburb.

Deregulation has led to California being crippled by rolling blackouts due to power shortages, and in Alberta consumers are being hit by skyrocketing hydro bills. But Mr. Harris said Ontario's experience will be different.

The Independent Electricity System Operator, responsible for Ontario's energy system, is warning Ontarians that there could be blackouts if they don't reduce their use of electricity this week.

[Conservative] PEI Premier Pat Binns' government had lured WestJet to launch service in the province by providing about $500,000 in marketing and revenue incentives.