The heat wave is expected to last through the weekend. Cities in the region are opening cooling centres and officials fear the heat could delay air travel. Most large aircraft can operate in temperatures up to 52C, but readings as low as 47C could affect lift-off conditions. Temperatures in Death Valley in the California desert are forecast to reach 53C over the weekend. The hottest air temperature ever recorded on Earth, 57C, was marked there almost 100 years ago on 10 July 1913.

All that was lacking was a guru from McKinsey to design that reform of the curia which everyone expects from Pope Francis. And here he comes. His name is Thomas von Mitschke-Collande, he is German and was the manager of the Munich branch of the most famous and mysterious company of managerial consulting in the world. In matters of the Church, he knows his stuff.

Last year he published a book with a title that was hardly reassuring: “Does the Church want to destroy itself? Facts and analyses presented by a business consultant.” The diocese of Berlin turned to him to get its accounts back in order, and the German episcopal conference asked him to draw up a plan to save on costs and personnel. The proposal, which he welcomed enthusiastically, was made to him by Father Hans Langerdörfer, the powerful secretary of the German episcopal conference, a Jesuit.

Bergoglio is also a Jesuit, and by now his actions have made it clear that he intends to apply to the papacy the methods of governance typical of the Society of Jesus, where the superior general, nicknamed the “black pope,” has practically absolute power.

His reticence in attributing to himself the name of pope and his preference for calling himself bishop of Rome have made champions of the democratization of the Church rejoice. But theirs is a blunder. Pope Francis wanted his eight advisors to be chosen by himself alone, not by others - called to answer only to him, not to an elective assembly as well. Only the superior general decides, with direct and immediate powers. The assistants do not need to agree with one another and with him; they advise the superior general one by one, in the greatest freedom.

One effect of this system upon the reform of the Roman curia announced by Pope Francis is that no commission of experts has been installed with the task of elaborating a unified and complete project. The eight cardinals are asking separately for the contribution of persons they trust, of the most disparate profiles. In addition to the McKinsey man recruited by Cardinal Marx, at least a dozen of them have been consulted, from various countries. In early October the eight will be gathered around the pope. They will deliver to him a sheaf of proposals.

He will be the one to decide. Alone.

Prosecutor Nello Rossi says Monsignor Nunzio Scarano is accused of corruption and slander stemming from the plot and was being held at a Rome prison. He was allegedly asked by friends to bring back the money that had been given to financier Giovanni Carenzio in Switzerland. Scarano is supposed to have asked Giovanni Zito, a military official, to bring the money back by jet, avoiding customs.

Scarano was allegedly due to pay Zito a commission of 600,000 euros for the work. He paid only an initial installment of 400,000 euros before being arrested.

It is not just the death toll, but the extreme violence that is often brought to bear, that causes the greatest fear in the white community. But white nerves have not been soothed by the disturbing behaviour of Jacob Zuma, the ANC’s leader and the country’s third black president since Mandela.

At a centenary gathering of the African National Congress last year, Zuma was filmed singing a so-called ‘struggle song’ called Kill The Boer (the old name for much of the white Afrikaner population). As fellow senior ANC members clapped along, Zuma sang: ‘We are going to shoot them, they are going to run, Shoot the Boer, shoot them, they are going to run, Shoot the Boer, we are going to hit them, they are going to run, the Cabinet will shoot them, with the machine-gun, the Cabinet will shoot them, with the machine-gun...’

Alongside him was a notorious character called Julius ‘Juju’ Malema, a former leader of the ANC youth league, who is now Zuma’s bitter enemy and is reportedly planning to launch a new political party after Mandela’s death. Ominously, Malema, 32, who wears a trademark beret and has a fondness for Rolex watches, this month promised his new party will take the land from white people without recompense and give it to blacks.

The country's Cour des Comptes said the budget is likely to breach EU targets by a wide margin yet again this year, perhaps reaching 4.1% of GDP, risking a fresh showdown with Europe at a time when French support for the EU Project is already in freefall. The watchdog called for €28 billion in extra belt-tightening over the next two years to prevent a debacle, demanding a "particularly vigourous effort" to rein in unemployment benefits, housing aide, pensions and help for families.

President Francois Hollande has already angered much of his own Socialist base with plans to cut spending next year in absolute terms for the first time since 1958, but this may be just start of the battle. The Cour des Comptes said France is not even "halfway" through its fiscal squeeze. The warnings came as a blizzard of grim news dashed hopes for a rapid recovery from two years of slump. The data office INSEE said consumer confidence fell to 82 in June, the lowest since the series began 40 years ago.

A new report on French competitiveness as a country by Ernst & Young entitled "Last Chance" confirmed the worst fears of business leaders, concluding that the country is being left behind as foreign investment migrates to Germany and Britain.

The Al-Azhar cleric institution said in a statement: "Vigilance is required to ensure we do not slide into civil war," blaming "criminal gangs" who attacked mosques for street violence. Clashes linked to the political tensions have killed five and wounded scores in recent days in Egypt. The Brotherhood said all those killed were Morsi supporters, though this could not be independently verified.

The ancient Cairo academy, which traditionally maintains a distance from the political establishment, also urged opponents of Islamist President Morsi to accept his offer of dialogue rather than pressing on with plans for demonstrations. Opposition leaders dismissed Mr Morsi's offer as a repeat of suggestions they say have gone nowhere because the Brotherhood refuses to dilute its power.

Mr Morsi and the Brotherhood accuse loyalists of the old regime of being behind violence and of thwarting their efforts to reform an economy hobbled by corruption. Opponents accuse the Islamists, who have won a series of elections against a diffuse opposition, of seeking to entrench their power and impose Islam.

In three days of protests against him around the Nile Delta, gunmen have killed at least five Brotherhood members and set fire to several of its offices. The use of firearms is becoming more common on all sides. Activists who once chanted, “Peaceful, peaceful,” now joke darkly about the inevitability of violence: “Peaceful is dead.”

With a new wave of protests scheduled for Sunday, Egypt’s pre-eminent Muslim religious authority, Al Azhar, warned in a statement this weekend of potential “civil war.”

It revealed that this rate is much faster than the standard measure of inflation – recorded by the consumer price index – which increased by just 17%. The research found that families are having to cope with an "unprecedented erosion of household living standards" as the gap widens between the rising cost of goods and services, and their stagnant wages.

According to the report, in 2008 a single person earning £13,000 would have reached the minimum they needed to get by. If their wage had risen in line with average increases, they would now be earning £14,000 – which is roughly three thousand short of the £16,850 salary needed to cover the same basic standard of living today. A working couple with two children will now need to earn £19,400 each in order to maintain adequate living standards, the report found, while a single parent would need earnings of around £25,600.

Donald Hirsch, author of the report, said there is a "growing gulf" between what people expect their living standards to be, and their ability to achieve it. He added: "This year's report demonstrates how the price of a basket of goods needed for an acceptable living standard has risen far faster than average inflation. This has combined with low pay increases to create a widening gap between income and needs."

The landmark change is contained in the fine print of new official legal guidance drawn up for MPs and peers as the Government’s same-sex marriage bill is debated. It comes as part of a Government initiative to “clarify” what words will mean when gay marriage becomes law.

But critics described it as the vocabulary of “cloud cuckoo land”. It follows claims by opponents of the redefinition of marriage that universally understood terms such as father and mother might be simply deleted by bureaucrats on official forms. They condemned the system adopted in some countries such as Spain – where parents are sometimes referred to as “Progenitor A” and “Progenitor B” – as “Orwellian”.

A spokesman for the Coalition for Marriage, which campaigns against the change, said: “We always knew the Government would tie itself in knots trying to redefine marriage, and this shows what a ridiculous mess they’ve created. “This mangling of the English language shows what happens when politicians meddle with marriage. They’re in cloud cuckoo land.”

The Chinese-made transporter-erector launchers were first displayed at a military parade in Pyongyang last year as part of North Korea’s newest long-range strategic nuclear missile, the road-mobile KN-08 missile.

“On the basis of the information currently available, the panel considers it most likely that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea deliberately breached the end-user guarantee that it officially provided to China‘s Wuhan and converted the WS51200 trucks into transporter-erector launchers,” says the annual report of a UN panel of analysts, dated June 11.

Other analysts say the disguised launcher transfers are typical of Chinese covert arms proliferation efforts. Mr Fisher [a specialist on the Chinese military] said China has been promoting the “falsehood” that the trucks were sold for use in hauling lumber.

“The Sanjiang Group of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. designed the 16-wheel truck that was sold to North Korea for the specific purpose of transporting, erecting and launching large missiles,” Mr Fisher said. “That a North Korean nuclear missile that can reach Anchorage, Alaska, is being carried by a Chinese made TEL is not the result of some ‘violation’ of a contract, but of a deliberate Chinese policy to help North Korea become a nuclear missile state.”

“Russia is analyzing the situation,” [Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin] said. “We are creating a weapon that could be called a superweapon. This is a weapon that will allow us to see the enemy sooner than he will see us and to inflict a blow on him, in retaliatory measures, that will be irreversible for him.” He did not elaborate.

Moscow’s new high-technology arms program includes “fundamentally, new type” weapons, Mr Rogozin said. “We are moving to robotics we are moving to principles of fighting when one serviceman can fight for five people by using robotics and automated hardware.” Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 20 also disclosed that Russia, following the Chinese military, is building state-of-the-art space weapons that would “guarantee [for] Russia the fulfillment of space defense tasks for the period until 2020.”

“It includes systems of missile and air attack warning, means of target detection and destruction,” Mr Putin said. “Creating such a system needs detailed designing, effective construction and a careful analysis of threats and development plans for means of attack. And, of course, efficient coordination with other arms and services of the armed forces.”

By contrast, the Pentagon’s new guidance on nuclear weapons issued last week appears to ignore the growing Russian strategic nuclear threat. The guidance states that although Russia is modernizing its nuclear forces, “Russia and the United States are no longer adversaries.”

It also believes demand for energy may not fall as much as originally expected, as fewer households are insulating their lofts and switching to green appliances than predicted. Ministers are so concerned that factories and large businesses may be asked to switch off their power during energy emergencies in return for compensation from bill-payers.

"Without timely action there would be risks to security of supply,” Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary admitted. "If we didn't do anything, if we allowed this supply crunch to happen, we would see spikes in power prices and that would be very damaging for the consumer. This intervention is meant to keep the lights on, which it will, but it's also meant to protect consumers from those price spikes.”

The supply crunch is the result of Britain forcing old coal and oil plants to switch off in favour of new green wind farms and nuclear plants. Ministers are trying to encourage companies to spend more than £100 billion on new green energy infrastructure by offering huge subsidies. However, the new power stations will not have arrived in time to avert the possible squeeze in 2015.

Speaking on LBC 97.3 Radio, he sounded a much more tentative note about the idea of GM crops in Britain than either the Prime Minister or Owen Paterson, the Environment Secretary. “I think what you have got to do on this very vexed issue is just always be led by the science,” he said. “Be cautious, take cautious steps, don't obviously take risks, particularly where people have concerns about contamination between GM crops and non-GM crops. It is like a lot of these dilemmas, it is about getting the right balance.”

“I take a science-based precautionary approach. I would never say 'no' forever to new technologies - I don't think we should do that in life generally - but you have got to approach it cautiously.” Mr Clegg's answers suggest the Liberal Democrats are not entirely convinced about Mr Paterson's enthusiasm for expanding the growth of GM crops in Britain.

The Environment Secretary is currently battling to persuade officials in the European Union to lift current rules which only allow one type of GM maize to be grown in the UK. He wants EU regulators to approve a long list of new GM crops, including herbicide-tolerant maize and sugar beet. In a speech last week, Mr Paterson said GM crops are probably safer than conventional food and offer "wonderful opportunities to improve human health".

Asked if he “would feed his children a GM tomato” he said: “Yes of course – because they are bound to have eaten it already. There is nothing new about the idea of a GM tomato because it is available as tomato paste, as derivatives that have got into some soya products which will almost certainly have had GM in them. Millions of British citizens will got to the supermarket in the course of this week, they will buy products where the animal has been fed GM feed.”