Extreme summers are growing more common, says a top public health body, and it’s time to pay more attention to their hazards

Powell says officials 'lacks the skills for coping with a modern society'

Former PM puts case for job he is said to have wanted in the past

The BBC Director-General maintained that he has acted entirely properly over the Jimmy Savile affair despite acknowledging that he was aware that Newsnight had been planning an investigation into the entertainer before it was dropped.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the Syrian regime will have “more blood on its hands” if it doesn't immediately comply with cease-fire demands being issued by a group of 70 Western and Arab nations.

There is no proof that Bashar al-Assad's regime is using its heavy weapons to bombard Homs, the Russian Foreign Minister is said to have declared yesterday. Sergei Lavrov's comments on the besieged city came during a telephone conversation with the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, as the Syrian opposition reported dozens more dead and injured.

The US is all over the place in its country-by-country response to the Arab Spring. Here support for military action, there a slap access the wrists – and in some cases simply silence.

The boxes of the Palace Theatre are decorated with cherubs but on its stage the American comedian and reality-show star Kathy Griffin is busy stressing that her line

By Tom Mendelsohn

By William Shakespeare

The Foreign Office Minister replies to our leading article criticising the British consular service

Real Classy Affair

Sir: The bombings of US embassies in Africa have drawn attention to these useless, dangerous, expensive and potentially embarrassing institutions.