The NPD, anxious to ensure that no one says the wrong things, is putting a great deal of emphasis on self-control at the moment. Because of the NSU's alleged killing spree uncovered in November and the public debate over what should be done about the NPD, the party is faced, once again, with the prospect of a possible ban. This makes it all the more important for the NPD to project an image of itself as a well-behaved and rational mainstream conservative party. Hence its self-portrayal as a "party that cares" about people in Germany - provided they are ethnic Germans, of course.

In the past, the NPD used the term "National Socialism" as a provocation. But Apfel doesn't like the term anymore, characterizing it as being "burned by history." Instead, the party now prefers the slogan "respectable radicalism." It describes the attempt to camouflage (but not necessarily dispense with) the party's unpleasant associations, so that ordinary citizens can identify with it more closely. The party is putting on its mainstream façade for ordinary people by engaging in social grassroots activities, but always in the hope that the national awakening of its fellow Germans will eventually follow.

"Tutoring, children's sports, providing advice on Hartz IV (welfare benefits) - wherever we see an area where the government isn't doing enough, we move in," says Peter Marx. He speaks with the soft, singsong-like inflection of people native to the western state of Rhineland-Palatine, an accent he took with him when he moved to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania a few years ago. Marx, the manager of the NPD's parliamentary group in the state, exploits the fact that the famous "blooming landscapes" that former Chancellor Helmut Kohl promised for eastern Germany never materialized in many places. If there were functioning civil-society structures in Western Pomeranian towns like Anklam or Ueckermünde, the right-wing extremists would be little more than an annoyance in the region. The fact that these structures are absent is what makes the party so dangerous.

Less than 72 hours after Christian Wulff announced his resignation as German president, Germany has found a successor. On Sunday evening, Germany's main political parties announced that they had agreed on a common candidate, Joachim Gauck. The former East German civil rights activist is now expected to be elected in a vote that is likely to be a mere formality.

Gauck's nomination came after a dramatic conflict between Merkel's conservatives and their junior coalition partner, the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP). Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) had originally opposed Gauck's candidacy, favoring former German Environment Minister Klaus Töpfer or the former head of the Protestant Church in Germany, Wolfgang Huber, instead.

The FDP leadership, however, announced on Sunday afternoon that it supported Gauck, the preferred candidate of the two main opposition parties, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens. The split between the two partners threatened to turn into a serious crisis within the coalition. Merkel, however, prevented further escalation by giving in to the FDP.

The other party leaders also had laudatory words for Gauck. SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel expressed the hope that Gauck could bridge the gulf between ordinary people and politicians, saying that Gauck was "not someone who gets involved in party squabbling." Green Party co-leader Claudia Roth described Gauck as a "moral authority" who would once again lend "respect and dignity" to the office of the president.

The European Union in January decided to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1 over its disputed nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at building bombs. Iran denies this. Iran's oil minister said on February 4 that the Islamic state would cut its oil exports to "some" European countries.

The European Commission said last week that the bloc would not be short of oil if Iran stopped crude exports, as they have enough in stock to meet their needs for around 120 days. Industry sources told Reuters on February 16 that Iran's top oil buyers in Europe were making substantial cuts in supply months in advance of European Union sanctions, reducing flows to the continent in March by more than a third - or over 300,000 barrels daily.

France's Total has already stopped buying Iran's crude, which is subject to fresh EU embargoes. Market sources said Royal Dutch Shell has scaled back sharply. Among European nations, debt-ridden Greece is most exposed to Iranian oil disruption. Motor Oil Hellas of Greece was thought to have cut out Iranian crude altogether and compatriot Hellenic Petroleum along with Spain's Cepsa and Repsol were curbing imports from Iran. Iran was supplying more than 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to the EU plus Turkey in 2011, industry sources said.

After Saturday's lavish ceremony, the Roman Catholic Church will have a total of 213 cardinals - including 125 who are under the age of 80 and could therefore take part in the conclave which will meet to elect a new pope once Pope Benedict dies. The Pope, who will shortly celebrate his 85th birthday, is visibly slowing down, says the BBC's David Willey in Rome.

Media reports speak of cardinals and their supporters jockeying for prominence as the Pope's strength declines. Seven Italians - many of them holding influential positions inside Church government - are among the new cardinals, our correspondent says, increasing the possibility that the next Pope could once again be an Italian. That reflects what will be a strong European presence among the 125 "cardinal electors", despite the fact that the regions of growth for Roman Catholic congregations are Africa and Latin America rather than Europe.

The consistory is taking place against a background of disquiet inside the Vatican, our correspondent adds. Confidential internal memos alleging corruption among top clerics and some laymen who advise the Pope have been leaked to the media. The Vatican spokesman said - using a colourful metaphor - that "wolves were on the prowl in the frescoed palace of the popes".

The case, to begin at an industrial tribunal tomorrow, comes amid growing concern among Christians at the “marginalisation” of religion in public life, and days after the Queen spoke up for the value of faith and its vital place in British society, while Baroness Warsi, the Conservative party chairman, said a “liberal elite” was attempting to downgrade the importance of religion in public life.

It involves a public sector employer at a time when Christian groups have expressed fears that state bodies - including the judiciary - are failing to treat them fairly. It will also will highlight long-running concern over the status of Sunday as a day of rest, which the Church has warned is being downgraded.

The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations, published in 2003, say employers must justify Sunday working as a “legitimate business need” and does not give a blanket right to Christians not to work. If they fail to treat staff fairly and proportionately, the employee may be able to claim discrimination, the rules add.

In the run-up to this Consistory it emerged that the Pope's current ambassador (nuncio) to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, had written to the Pope confidentially last March, alleging corruption, nepotism and cronyism inside the office where he worked. Nepotism is a word charged with heavy meaning inside the Vatican. For centuries popes were accustomed to appoint their own nephews as cardinals, sometimes when they were only in their teens.

Archbishop Vigano's letter was leaked by an Italian investigative journalist during a TV transmission on the independent Italian Channel La Sette. The Vatican has not contested that the letter is genuine. Another leak concerns attempts by the Holy See to combat suspicions of money-laundering by the Vatican Bank.

Published by the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, which has consistently reported on alleged suspicious transactions at the bank, the document bears the signature of Cardinal Attilio Nicora. He heads a new internal committee tasked by the Pope with helping the Holy See comply with international banking regulations, aimed at combating international financial crime. The letter suggests serious divisions of opinion inside the Vatican over how best to prevent it becoming a fiscal paradise, a tax haven for dodgy commercial operations run by nominees who have no right to hold accounts at the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).

Money clearly preoccupies the men currently running the Catholic Church. While promising to "improve the administration of the goods and resources of the Holy See" the committee called upon the world's 1.3 billion Catholic faithful to dig deeper into their pockets to continue funding the Vatican.

The TUC has accused Gove of failing in his legal duties by insisting that equality laws, which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, do not extend to the school curriculum. The TUC complains that the current situation sends mixed signals to the playground, because schools are legally obliged to condemn discrimination on sexual-orientation grounds but are free to use religious materials that equality campaigners claim is homophobic.

Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary, wrote to Gove in December expressing alarm that a booklet containing "homophobic material" had been distributed by a US preacher after talks to pupils at Roman Catholic schools across the Lancashire region in 2010. The booklet, "Pure Manhood: How to become the man God wants you to be", discusses a boy dealing with "homosexual attractions" which it suggested may "stem from an unhealthy relationship with his father, an inability to relate to other guys, or even sexual abuse".

The booklet, which claims that "scientifically speaking, safe sex is a joke", explains that "the homosexual act is disordered, much like contraceptive sex between heterosexuals. Both acts are directed against God's natural purpose for sex – babies and bonding." Referring to the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination against individuals, Barber said: "Schools now have a legal duty to challenge all forms of prejudice. Such literature undermines this completely."

A DfE spokesman insisted: "Any school engaging in the promotion of homophobic material would be acting unlawfully." But the row highlights a grey area over the teaching of sex education. A review intended to provide new guidelines on what was appropriate for schools to teach was kicked into the long grass when the last election was called. "It would certainly be helpful if there was clarity as to what is appropriate for young people of all ages," said Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay rights group Stonewall. "The water could no longer be muddied by people pushing age-inappropriate sex material on the one hand and fundamentalist anti-gay religious materials on the other."

The row comes at the end of an extraordinary week in which the role of religion in society has come under acute scrutiny.

His mother, Hayley White, 29, said she received a phone call last month to say her son had been at the centre of a ‘racist incident’. She was then summoned to a meeting with Elliott, his teacher and the deputy head of Griffin Primary School in Hull. Ms White, an NHS healthcare assistant, said: ‘When I arrived at the school and asked Elliott what had happened, he became extremely upset. He kept saying to me, “I was just asking a question. I didn’t mean it to be nasty” and he was extremely distressed by it all.’

Ms White claimed she was asked at the meeting to read a copy of the school rules and in particular its zero-tolerance policy on racism. ‘I was told I would have to sign a form acknowledging my son had made a racist remark which would be submitted to the local education authority for further investigation,’ she said. ‘I refused to sign it and I told the teacher in no way did I agree the comment was racist. My son is inquisitive. He always likes to ask questions, but that doesn’t make him a racist.’

Karl Turner, Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull East, last night insisted that the school and Hull City Council had a statutory duty to take racism seriously. ‘However, having spoken to Hayley, I’m satisfied that her seven-year-old son, Elliott, was not being racist in his remarks but just inquisitive,’ he said. ‘It seems the matter has been taken out of all proportion and common sense seems to have gone completely out of the window.’

Last year, it was revealed that teachers are branding thousands of children racist or homophobic following playground squabbles. More than 20,000 pupils aged 11 or younger were put on record for so-called hate crimes such as using the word ‘gaylord’.

The fake bonds and other securities were seized from a Swiss trust company during a joint operation by Italian, Swiss, and US authorities. The fake certificates signed "Chicago, Illinois, Federal Reserve Bank" were stored in trunks stamped with “Federal Reserve System, Treaty of Versailles” marks. The bonds were carrying the false date of issue of 1934.

The forgers were planning to use the fake certificates as collateral to secure loans in a number of Swiss banks, prosecutor of the southern Italian city of Potenza said as cited by Reuters. The investigation began over a year ago as a trivial probe into Italian mafia loan-sharking. However, after the Italian authorities uncovered an international network plotting a full-scale fraud, they called upon their Swiss and US colleagues. The US experts helped to identify the bonds as fakes. This is not the first attempt to defraud Swiss banks with fake US bonds, but the most ambitious so far.

The finding comes from a study conducted by Texas Forest Service urban foresters, who spent the last month surveying tree mortality in cities and towns across the state.

Findings:

• An estimated 5.6 million trees in urban areas were killed as a result of the drought. This figure may represent as much as 10 percent of the total number of trees that make up the urban forest.

• Because these dead trees are in populated areas, many are a safety issue and will need to be removed. The estimated cost to remove these trees is $560 million.

• Urban trees do more than just beautify your community. They also provide economic and environmental benefits like cutting your heating and cooling bill, cleaning the air you breathe and water you drink and boosting your property values. The estimated loss of economic and environmental benefits provided by these trees is roughly $280 million per year.

Rivers, reservoirs and underground stores are at critical levels with water firms warning restrictions could be imposed long before the summer. More than half the households in the country face curbs including hosepipe and sprinkler bans, according to water officials. Jim Dale, senior risk meteorologist at British Weather Services, said the highest populated areas such as the South, South-east and London are most at risk.

He said: “There has been a dearth of rainfall at the most vital time of the year when companies are building stocks for the spring and summer. Because these regions have been hit the worst, then it is a realistic estimation that half of the population will be affected by restrictions.”

He said there was little chance of rain in the next few weeks and water firms are “in trouble”. “The only escape is a very wet spring and summer,” he added. But Netweather forecasters said: “Rainfall amounts (in March) are expected to be below average in many parts. As we head into April, the current forecast suggests that rainfall will stay close to normal.” The Met Office said there was only a 15 per cent chance of getting “well-above average” rainfall in the next 10 weeks. Anglia Water spokesman John Clare said: “We need rain now.”

“We have had divergences of views but perhaps had I been in David Cameron’s position I would have defended British interests in exactly the same manner as he has,” Mr Sarkozy said. “There has never been a personal opposition between us.”

The two leaders acknowledged they recently had a strained relationship, after Mr Cameron refused to let Britain bind its finances closer to other European countries in the treaty. It was reported that Mr Sarkozy had called the Prime Minister an “obstinate kid” over Britain’s refusal to share taxation and spending policy with the rest of Europe. However both leaders were yesterday anxious to underline they are “friends” as well as colleagues and have got to know each other better since their disputes.

Mr Sarkozy said he now understood where Britain’s “red lines” lie when it comes to being part of Europe. He even said he “admired” Britain’s staunch defence of the City. In a show of unity at a meeting in Paris, Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy highlighted their common military goals by suggesting they could intervene in Syria if the country’s rebels “unite and organise” in a revolution.

Dealing with the Iranian nuclear programme is a “crisis coming down the tracks” which could lead to military conflict in the Middle East, the Foreign Secretary warns. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Foreign Secretary says that Iran is threatening to spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East which could be more dangerous than the original East-West Cold War as there are not the same “safety mechanisms” in place.

“It is a crisis coming down the tracks,” he said. “Because they are clearly continuing their nuclear weapons programme … If they obtain nuclear weapons capability, then I think other nations across the Middle East will want to develop nuclear weapons. And so, the most serious round of nuclear proliferation since nuclear weapons were invented would have begun with all the destabilising effects in the Middle East. And the threat of a new cold war in the Middle East without necessarily all the safety mechanisms … That would be a disaster in world affairs.”

Mr Hague repeatedly stressed that “all options must remain on the table” when confronting the Iranian regime, despite Liberal Democrat concerns that the Government may be dragged into another military conflict. He added that we “have to be concerned” that Britain could be in range of Iranian nuclear weapons – or that nuclear materials could fall into the hands of terrorists.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Iranian navy commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari in reporting Saturday's movement of the ships through the Suez Canal on Saturday. The destroyer Shahid Qandi and the Kharg supply ship were docked in Jedda two days ago, the AFP news agency reported.

The last time Iranian warships entered the Mediterranean was in February 2011, when the Kharg supply ship and the Alvand frigate passed through the canal and headed to the Syrian port of Latakia. Israel's navy was placed on alert in response, and the US expressed concern over the move as well.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak called for “tight, ratcheted up” sanctions against Iran to force the country to abandon its nuclear ambitions and said the political process had further to go before a military strike. “We’re still in the sanctions stage and we expect them to become even more tight,” Barak said at a press conference in Tokyo at the end of a four-day visit on Saturday. “I think there is consensus in most capitals of the world that Iran should not be allowed to turn into a nuclear military power.”

The German finance ministry is actively pushing for Greece to declare itself bankrupt and to agree a "haircut" on the bulk of its debts held by banks, a move that would be classed as a default by financial markets. Eurozone finance ministers meet on Monday to approve the next tranche of loans from the EU and the International Monetary Fund, designed to stave off national bankruptcy while the new Greek government puts the country's finances in order.

But the severe austerity measures being demanded have caused such fury in Greece, and the cuts required are so deep, that Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, does not believe that any government would be able to implement them. His pessimism has been tipped into despair with a secret European Commission, Central and IMF report that even if Greece made good on its promises, it would not be enough to reach the target of bringing total debt to 120 per cent of GDP by 2020.

"He just thinks the Greeks cannot do what needs to be done. And even if by some miracle they did what has been promised, he - and a growing group - are convinced it will not pull Greece out the hole," said a eurozone official. "The idea instead is that the Greek government should officially declare itself bankrupt and begin negotiating an even bigger cut with its creditors. For Schäuble, it is more a question of when, not if."

But the European Central Bank and the Eucopean Commission are, for now, lining up with Mrs Merkel to push for the rescue attempt to continue, fearful that the financial tsunami that would be unleashed if it failed would swamp the eurozone. Mr Schäuble maintains that since Greece is already regarded by the financial world as bankrupt, a formal bankruptcy would have no negative consequences for other euro members.