The volatile state of Jammu and Kashmir was plunged into chaos as its legislative assembly was dissolved amid claims of backroom deals, treason and a supposedly wonky fax machine.

Two coalition groups claimed they had faxed the governor of Kashmir with their arguments for taking power, but that the machine at his office was malfunctioning.

They both then took to Twitter and Whatsapp to try and make their cases, prompting the dissolution of the state assembly amid the confusion.

The state has been in a political limbo since a coalition between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of the prime minister Narendra Modi, and the regional People’s Democratic Party (PDP) collapsed in June.

On Wednesday, after local polls showed no clear winner in the state, the PDP and two other parties claimed an alliance with the Congress Party and regional rival National Conference Party (NC) provided them with enough seats to put them into government.

Withn minutes a rival party, the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference, said it also could form a government after its leader, Sajjad Lone, tweeted the governor.

However the governor, Satya Pal Malik, said that he dissolved the assembly because any government was unlikely to last long. “The coming together of such parties in a grouping is nothing but an attempt to gain power rather than to form a responsive government”, he said.

Kashmir is India’s only Muslim majority state and has historically had a strong movement for autonomy from Delhi, often taking violent forms. The main issues affecting its voters focus on terrorism and security, and its relations with India’s neighbour and rival Pakistan.

The BJP’ spokesman, Ram Madhav, accused the traditionally opposed PDP and NC of joining forces because they were “taking orders from across the border”, prompting a furious response from all the parties involved, with them saying the governor should fix his fax machine before listening to such incendiary statements

Omar Abdullah, the NC leader, held a press conference on Thursday in which he said: “I dare you to prove such allegations. You have insulted my patriotic people.”

Mr Madhav subsequently said he was speaking partly in jest, to which Mr Abduallah tweeted: “No, misplaced attempts at humour won’t work. You HAVE claimed my party has been acting at the behest of Pakistan.”

The current crisis paves the way for a fresh elections in the state amid speculation that it could be held with the national polls due early next year. As it stands, the state continues under presidential rule – a constitutional backup for such scenarios.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday denied claims that he had died and been replaced by a Sudanese impostor or a clone, breaking his silence on a rumour that has circulated on social media for months.

Mr Buhari, who is running for re-election in February, spent five months in Britain last year being treated for an undisclosed illness. One theory widely aired on social media – and by some political opponents – was that he had been replaced by a lookalike from Sudan called Jubril.

No evidence has been presented, but videos making the claim have still been viewed thousands of times on YouTube and Facebook.

"It’s real me, I assure you. I will soon celebrate my 76th birthday and I will still go strong," Mr Buhari told Nigerians in a town hall session in Poland, where he was attending a conference, when asked about Jubril.

"A lot of people hoped that I died during my ill health," he said, adding that those who spread the rumour were "ignorant and irreligious".

The presidency circulated Mr Buhari’s comments in an emailed statement entitled "It’s Real Me, President Buhari Responds to Cloning Allegation".

The rumour was first spotted on Twitter late last year, but has appeared across multiple platforms, fanned at times by opposition politicians. Social media users have claimed Mr Buhari can be seen writing with his right hand in one photograph and his left in another.

The rumour was further fuelled by a real-life event in May this year, when a Nigerian diplomat – Habibu Almu – was found dead in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Nigeria’s foreign ministry said on May 14 that Almu had been "stabbed to death" and that a Sudanese woman of Nigerian origin had been arrested.

Sudanese police said the killing did not appear to be politically motivated but conspiracy theorists have claimed the death was linked to an apparent cover-up of Mr Buhari’s death

Cold rain and grey skies mirrored the sombre mood of world leaders commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War in Paris on Sunday, in a reminder of the atrocious conditions endured by troops.

In a show of unity, more than 60 presidents, prime ministers and ­dignitaries, many of them holding black umbrellas, walked the last few yards to the Tomb of the Unknown ­Soldier at the Arc de Triomphe, after arriving in a fleet of buses.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said the grim weather was fitting for an occasion that was not a ­celebration of victory but a ceremony marking the end of four years of ­horrific bloodshed.

Donald Trump, the US president, who was criticised the previous day for cancelling a scheduled visit to a US ­military cemetery because of rain, ­arrived after the others in his armour-plated limousine, the “Beast”, because of security concerns. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, also arrived ­separately a few minutes later.

Mr Macron delivered a politically-charged speech warning of the dangers of rising nationalism and praising the European Union and the United ­Nations for their contribution to peace.

Afterwards he said he was delighted that so many world leaders had ­attended, but questioned whether the occasion would be remembered as “a symbol of lasting peace or the last ­moment of unity before world falls into disorder. That depends on us.”

Warning the assembled leaders that re-emerging “old demons” were to threaten peace, he said: “Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism.

“Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism.”

Mr Trump, who has proudly ­declared himself a nationalist, sat stony-faced, but smiled broadly as he exchanged a handshake with Mr Putin, who flashed him a thumbs-up sign.

The US president’s cordiality ­towards his Russian counterpart – ­despite alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election – has alarmed western European leaders who see Russia as a growing threat.

Feminist activists from the Femen group broke through the security ­cordon and staged a brief topless ­protest near Mr Trump’s car before ­being dragged away by police.

Despite a plea by Mr Macron for a strong EU, Europe’s deep political divisions were underscored by an independence day celebration in Warsaw, in which the Polish president and prime minister marched with far-Right groups for the first time.

The Paris event produced some unlikely pairings. It was attended by the presidents of both Serbia and Kosovo, which are struggling to normalise ­relations nearly 20 years after a Nato bombing campaign ended the conflict in Kosovo and paved the way for its ­independence from Serbia.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, spoke to Mr Putin for the first time since a Russian plane was shot down in Syria during an Israeli air strike.

French commentators criticised the lack of high-level British representation in Paris. Franck Ferrand, an author and broadcaster, said it was regrettable that “no British leader or member of the Royal Family has chosen to attend”. 

The UK was represented by David Lidington, the de facto deputy prime minister and Minister for the Cabinet Office.

Before Mr Macron spoke, teenagers read out letters written by First World War soldiers on the day the bloodshed ceased. One of them, from British ­officer Charles Neville of the Royal Horse Artillery, described streets “packed with wildly cheering civilians, chucking flowers at us and carrying on only like a foreigner can”.

After the ceremony and lunch at the Elysée Palace, dozens of leaders ­attended the inaugural meeting of the International Peace Forum, intended by Mr Macron to promote multilateral cooperation to resolve conflicts.

Mr Macron told the gathering that the allies had won the war, but not the peace, as they had failed to prevent the Second World War. 

Mrs Merkel denounced the “national vaingloriousness and military ­arrogance” that led to the “senseless bloodshed” of two world wars.

Mr Trump did not attend the ­session, instead visiting a US military cemetery in Suresnes, western Paris, where he paid tribute to the bravery and sacrifice of French and American soldiers, ­before flying home.

From strip joints to nightclubs and pizzerias, the Vatican is urging Catholic countries around the world not to allow deconsecrated churches to be used for profane purposes, in the first conference dedicated to the issue.

Falling congregations, a lack of clergy and crippling maintenance costs means that thousands of Catholic churches around the world are being decommissioned and turned into restaurants, pubs, cafes and even skateboarding venues.

More than 500 Catholic churches have closed down in Germany since 2000, while in Canada one fifth of Catholic churches were deconsecrated in the same period.

In the Netherlands, an estimated 500 churches are due to fall out of religious use in the next decade.

There is a danger that they will end up being used for “inappropriate activities”, as one delegate delicately put it at the conference, titled “Doesn’t God Live Here Anymore?”

“I know of a little church in northern Ontario that was turned into a strip club,” Paul-André Durocher, the archbishop of Gatineau in Canada, told The Telegraph. “It went up in flames, thank God. That’s one of the worst examples.”

In Prague, a church was turned into an ice cream parlour, while in Arnhem in the Netherlands, a deconsecrated church became a skateboarding hall.

In Asti in northern Italy a church has been turned into a bar called “Il Diavolo Rosso” – The Red Devil.

In 2005, a late 18th century Catholic church in Liverpool was converted into a nightclub, which is “still very much regretted by the Catholic community,” said Sophie Andreae, vice-chair of the patrimony committee of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales.  

“This is going to be a big issue in the future and that’s why guidance from Rome is so important.”

There was a scandal in Naples earlier this month when a former church was used for a Halloween party, with young women dressed in sexy witch outfits and leather mini-skirts sitting on the altar.

A fashion show held in a church in Florence also caused a stir. “Some of the models were rather scantily clothed,” said Monsignor Carlos Azevedo, one of the conference organisers. “People were a bit scandalised.”

In a message sent to the conference, held in a Catholic university in Rome, Pope Francis acknowledged a decline in the number of faithful and a dearth of priests but said that deconsecrated churches could be given “a new life”, preferably in service of the poor.

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, the Vatican body that organised the event, said that turning a former church into a pizzeria or something similar amounted to “blasphemy”.

“A museum would be fine, or perhaps a community meeting place,” he said.

Delegates from around the world, including Australia, the US, Spain, Nigeria, Poland and Ireland, spoke of growing secularisation, an over-supply of churches and the headache of what to do with them.

Dioceses complained of having little say over the future use of deconsecrated churches.

In the case of the church in Ontario, when it was first sold to a local businessman he wanted to turn it into a family restaurant.

But he went bust, the church was repossessed by the bank and the next buyer turned it into a strip club.

Some bishops, including in Britain, are looking at using covenants to lay down legally binding rules about what can and cannot be done with deconsecrated churches.

“The critical thing is that it carries forward so that even if the church is sold again, the covenant still applies,” said Ms Andreae.

While striptease clubs and bars are definitely out, the Vatican looks favourably on former churches being turned into social centres, soup kitchens, museums or bookshops.

“A church in my diocese was turned into a palliative care centre. That’s in keeping with the Church’s mandate,” said Archbishop Durocher.

At the end of the two-day conference, the Vatican is expected to issue guidelines for dioceses around the world on how to manage the sale of deconsecrated churches.

“Property laws differ around the world so it has to be tackled on a country-by-country basis,” said Monsignor Paul Tighe, the secretary for the Pontifical Council for Culture.

“But bishops need to explore what options there are for protecting churches when they are sold.”

It’s the bro-five. That moment when two like minded members of a brotherhood come together, outstretched hands colliding in a clasp somewhere between a high-five and a handshake.

If Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, had any nerves about how he would be received at the G20 summit – his first major trip since being implicated in the murder of a dissident journalist – then Vladimir Putin’s warm but calculating greeting would have put him at ease.

The opening session on Friday was freighted with symbolism and vivid reminders of the realpolitik at work in Argentina. For world leaders are assembling at a time of extraordinary geopolitical turbulence, setting up a string of contentious clashes.

A looming Brexit, the new round of hostility between Russia and Ukraine, global trade wars and the fall-out from the killing of Jamal Khashoggi have officials struggling behind the scenes to find a joint statement that would rescue the summit from failure.

So an awkward air hung over the traditional “family photo” of prime ministers, presidents and princes. MBS, as the crown prince is known, found himself on the periphery, visibly and diplomatically, with empty space to either side at stage left. Theresa May, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau placed themselves to the right, where they could be sure not to catch his eye.

Picture done, MBS exited quickly. He was alone again minutes later standing at his allotted seat in the conference hall. And alone he might have remained, were it not for Mr Putin who swept in with that beaming smile and bro-five to remind the world that a Saudi with massive reserves of oil and a need for military defence systems is never long in want of an ally.

For all the public posturing, the criticism of MBS, the lining up of governments alongside Ukraine after its gunboats were seized by Russia, the anger at Mr Trump for his unilateralist foreign policy, the merry-go-round still has to spin.

Mrs May will still meet the crown prince even if Number 10 is avoiding saying whether or not she will shake his hand. And Mr Trump may well talk to Mr Putin even if he issued a very public tweet cancelling a planned, formal meeting.

It is a two-track summit. One designed for public consumption back home and the other, more discreet, calculated to get business done.

The same old game of public perception and private diplomacy as world leaders dance around the issues and each other. Just perhaps more so as a new breed of populist leader ups the ante.

But in this age of social media and cameras in every pocket, it is not an easy line to draw. You can imagine the delight of the Saudi foreign office when it published a photograph of Mr Macron chatting happily with the crown prince on the sidelines.

And then there is Mr Putin. Already at odds with the West, condemned for the Salisbury poisoning and facing additional sanction for seizing Ukrainian naval vessels at the weekend, he can burnish his domestic credentials with another display of independence and an embrace of MBS.

If you already have blood on your hands, what difference does a bro-five with a man accused of ordering the murder of a journalist matter anyway?

The ultra-conservative and anti-immigration Vox has stormed into the Andalucian assembly in Sunday’s regional election, marking the first time a far-Right party has achieved parliamentary representation on any level in Spain’s recent history as a democracy.

The party that favours the end of autonomy in Catalonia and the expulsion of all immigrants who entered Spain illegally won 12 out of 109 seats in Andalucia’s parliament with 11 per cent of the vote.

“Vox was the party that led the political debate,” said the party’s secretary general, Javier Ortega.

“We put on the table the need to control our borders and end illegal immigration, end abusive levels of taxation and the need to put an end to ideological laws relating to gender.”

Despite running out narrow winner in the region it has ruled continuously for 36 years, the PSOE Socialist party of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez suffered a hugely disappointing result in Andalucia. The party’s all-time low of 28 per cent and 33 seats mean it will not be able to govern with a majority, even with the support of the Left-wing coalition Adelante Andalucia, which includes Podemos.

Spain’s main conservative opposition force, the Popular Party (PP), also lost ground, sliding six percentage points to just under 21 per cent, while the liberal Ciudadanos was the night’s only winner among the established parties, doubling its share to 18 per cent.  

Ahead of European and possibly a general election in 2019, Spain’s political scene appears more fractured than ever after the dramatic emergence of Vox on the extreme right of the spectrum.

Despite having seen its number of seats in the Andalucian parliament shorn from 33 to 26, the PP appeared to welcome the arrival of Vox on the political scene.

For the PP’s candidate for the presidency of the region, Juan Manuel Moreno, it was a “historic day” on which “Andalucia had chosen change”, saying he wants to lead a right-of-centre coalition including Vox and Ciudadanos.

“Ahead of this election we proposed change, now we guarantee change,” Mr Moreno told an ecstatic crowd of PP members in Seville.

Ciudadanos’ leader in Andalucia, Juan Marín, echoed the PP’s message. “There is a majority in the parliament for change; change has arrived in Andalucia,” Mr Marín said.

Ciudadanos’ national leader, Albert Rivera, challenged Spanish Prime Minister Sánchez to call national elections now that “the Andalucians have turned their back on you”.

The PP and Ciudadanos’ candidates have been careful not to describe Vox as far-Right, while also refusing to rule out accepting the support of the ultra-conservative grouping to remove the Socialists from power.

Andalucian President Susana Díaz blamed a low turnout of 59 per cent for her Socialist party’s small margin of victory, and asked all other mainstream political forces to freeze out Vox from the political scene.

“This phenomenon we have seen in other European countries is now present in the Andalucian parliament. I call on all the other political parties who consider themselves defenders of our democratic constitution to brake the extreme right,” she said.