In a homily before thousands of pilgrims and the most senior figures in the church, Angelo Sodano, the dean of the college of cardinals, made a last-ditch attempt to banish infighting, as he extolled the virtues of unity amid diversity.

But even as preparations for the mass were being made, Cardinal Angelo Scola, the archbishop of Milan – and reportedly the hot favourite to be the next pope – suffered a blow. Anti-mafia detectives swooped on homes, offices, clinics and hospitals in Lombardy, the region around Milan, and elsewhere. A statement said the dawn raids were part of an investigation into "corruption linked to tenders by, and supplies to, hospitals".

Healthcare in Lombardy is the principal responsibility of the regional administration, which for the past 18 years has been run by Roberto Formigoni, a childhood friend of Scola and the leading political representative of the Communion and Liberation fellowship. Until recently, Scola was seen as the conservative group's most distinguished ecclesiastical spokesman.

The regional administration headed by Formigoni – a member of Silvio Berlusconi's party – collapsed last October amid a welter of accusations regarding alleged corruption and misconduct. The final blow came when one of his regional ministers was arrested, accused of buying votes from the 'Ndrangheta, the Calabrian mafia.

Scola, who has headed the Milan archdiocese since 2011, is regarded as the champion of a largely non-Italian faction that is challenging the entrenched power of the Vatican cardinals. He was close to the last pope, whose household was run by women members of Communion and Liberation.

David Cameron’s moves to legalise same-sex marriage raise “troubling” questions about the laws that determine which Royal children can succeed to the throne, a peer has said.

Parliament is debating the Succession to the Crown Bill, which is intended to update royal laws to ensure that a first-born daughter to the Duke of Cambridge becomes Queen. Peers have considered amendments to the law which would make clear that only Royal children born in “a marriage between a man and a woman” could be considered valid heirs to the throne.

Under the 18th Century laws governing the succession, only an “heir to the body” can succeed. That phrase was intended to mean direct biological descendents of the monarch. Some experts now argue that advances in artificial insemination mean that the term needs to be redefined. Lord True told the Daily Telegraph he was not opposed to gay marriage, but believes that Royal laws should be updated to take account of it.

He said: “What happens if we have a lesbian queen in a same-sex marriage who conceives using an egg implanted with donor sperm? The law should be clear, but this is a question that has not been thought through in the Bill.” “As same sex marriage becomes part of the settled life of our kingdom, as the Prime Minister intends, the law [on successions] will inevitably evolve.”

Five weeks ago, at a marathon 32-hour Brussels summit, David Cameron secured a reduction in long-term European spending plans, the first in the EU's history. The Prime Minister hailed the EU cuts as the implementation of long overdue austerity in Brussels at a time when national governments were cutting back on spending.

The European Parliament demands, which hold the spending deal hostage until MEPs agree, could cost the British taxpayer up to £1.7 billion in extra EU contributions in 2013 at a time of deep cuts to domestic public spending. "The European Parliament cannot accept the proposal from the member states without the fulfilment of certain essential conditions," said Martin Schulz, the speaker of the EU assembly.

Additionally, MEPs have demanded a "compulsory, legally binding and comprehensive revision" of EU spending cuts in 2017 that could restore expenditure by a vote of Europe's leaders, stripping Britain of its veto. The parliament is also seeking more "flexibility" in spending to allow the EU to go to the top of expenditure ceilings and to roll cash over from one year to another between 2014 and 2020.

Most controversially, and without any prospect of agreement, MEPs have demanded that the EU create new taxes to fund the Brussels budget. Martin Callanan MEP, the leader of European Conservatives, accused the majority of the parliament, which rejected the cuts by 506 to 161 votes, of "flying in the face of public opinion". "The European Parliament is engaging in the worst kind of posturing, which makes it look completely out of touch with reality," he said. "The EU budget deal was a reasonable compromise between many competing demands."

“Often the line is very fine between the two but Hollande must maintain the idea that he is more left wing,” said Eric Bonnet, a political opinion analyst at BVA polling institute in Paris. “The big challenge for Hollande is to give his supporters the feeling that what he does is different from Sarkozy, to reassure them on his policies.”

“His wings are clipped,” said Mathieu Plane, an economist at research institute OFCE in Paris. “As long as he must comply with very tough austerity measures, as long the economy is not expanding to give him some leeway on state measures, his margin for maneuver is minimal.”

With no immediate hope for an economic recovery, Hollande’s program for 2013 is looking very similar to his predecessor’s, infuriating his political allies and supporters.

These threats peaked last year with disorderly default, and when that wasn’t enough, with the collapse of the Eurozone. But now, the ultimate threat has been pronounced: War.

It wasn’t an idle thought by a wayward parliamentarian on the radical fringe but a well-articulated statement by Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker who was, until January, the President of the Eurogroup that manages the political aspects of the euro. And he’d picked Europe’s largest magazine, Der Spiegel, to make it.

In the state of California, factors such as a felony conviction or a history of mental health issues mean roughly 20,000 gun owners are holding onto their firearms illegally. Slowly but surely, though, Golden State police officers are prying them away. There’s more, though: backers of the program suggest this becomes a nation-wide practice, and are asking the White House to help make it happen.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris seized roughly 2,000 weapons last year, reports Bloomberg, as well as 117,000 rounds of ammunition and 11,000 high-capacity magazines. But as concerns escalate about a possible war against the right to bear arms in America, will other states soon follow suite?

In one of the first detailed studies of the virus - which emerged in the Middle East and has so far infected 15 people worldwide, killing nine of them - Dutch researchers identified a cell surface protein it uses to enter and infect human cells. The finding, published in the journal Nature, came as the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the 15th case of the virus, known as novel coronavirus or NCoV, in a male patient in Saudi Arabia who died on March 2.

Other cases have been in Jordan and Qatar, and in patients in Germany and Britain linked to travel in the Middle East. NCoV is from the same family of viruses as those that cause common colds and the one that caused the deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that first emerged in Asia in 2003.

The new Pope was born on 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires and later became its archbishop. He was born to a Piedmontese family, graduated as a technical chemist and then entered the novitiate of the Company of Jesus. He completed studies in the humanities in Chile and obtained a degree in Philosophy and Theology in Argentina. He was Professor and Rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel and vicar of the Patriarch of San José, in the Diocese of San Miguel.

In 1986 he completed a PhD in Germany, after which he returned to Argentina, where his superiors made him spiritual director and confessor in the Jesuit Church of Cordoba. In 1992 John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires, in 1997 he became coadjutor bishop and a year later he succeeded Cardinal Antonio Quarracino for six years, until 2011, when he became President of the Bishops’ Conference of Argentina.

He doesn’t have a chauffeur and preferred to use the metro to get around Buenos Aires. In Rome he prefers to get around on foot or use public transport. Those who know him well see him as a true man of God: the first thing he always asks people to do is pray for him.

In the pre-Conclave General Congregations, the new Pope spoke of Christianity as merciful and joyful. His favourite priests are those who work in the “villas miserias”, the slums of the Argentinean capital. Instead of driving people away with rigid doctrinal preachings, he tries to look at all possible solutions in an attempt to embrace those who are the furthest from the Christian community. The Church, he insists, must show the merciful side of God.

The Bundesbank said it had raised its risk provisions, or the money it sets aside to cover losses like a default on euro zone bond holdings, to €14.4 billion, or $18.7 billion, from €7.7 billion a year ago. The bank’s profit for the year, which it transfers to the German government, was little changed, rising to €664 million from €643 million.

“The crisis is not yet over despite the interim calm on financial markets,” Jens Weidmann, the Bundesbank president, said during a news conference. The decision to set aside further billions can be interpreted as a verdict by Mr Weidmann on European Central Bank measures he has long criticized, and which include purchases of Italian and Greek government bonds to try to keep those countries’ borrowing costs under control.

“New risks are continually being acquired and distributed among member nations,” he said as the bank presented its financial results for 2012. “This has left a clear mark on the Bundesbank’s balance sheet.”

The fact that the channel is owned and tightly controlled by the undemocratic and authoritarian Qatari royal family, that jails independent journalists who criticise the regime at home, seems to have gone unnoticed and ignored by many. But since the start of the Arab Spring, that is slowly starting to change.

According to an article that appeared in the German magazine Der Spiegel, many leading journalists and TV anchors have started to leave the channel in recent months. According to one of those that has recently left, the German based Aktham Sulimen, “Before the beginning of the Arab Spring, we were a voice for change... a platform for critics and political activists throughout the region. Now, Al-Jazeera has become a propaganda broadcaster.”

Since the Muslim Brotherhood has come to power in Egypt, Al-Jazeera has done all in its power to portray the group in a favourable light. Protests against the Brotherhood-dominated regime are presented as being led by violent thugs with no political grievances, while Morsi's poorly constructed and shallow speeches are given positive coverage.

Argentina, 300 miles to the west of the Falklands, has claimed the South Atlantic archipelago for almost 200 years and in 1982 invaded the islands only to be repelled in a 74-day war with Britain. British nationals first settled in the Falklands in the 19th century and three decades after the war for ownership of the islands, many still feel strongly about their fate.

"The Falkland Islands may be thousands of miles away but they are British through and through, and that is how they want to stay, and people should know we will always be there to defend them," Cameron said in televised remarks. "They want to remain British and that view should be respected by everybody, including by Argentina."

In a referendum on Sunday and Monday designed to send a defiant message to Argentina, all but three of those who cast their ballots on the islands voted to remain a British Overseas Territory.