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Church of Scotland to debate subject of gay clergy
The governing body of the Church of Scotland is to debate the controversial subject of gay ministers today.
The institution's General Assembly will consider whether to allow people in same-sex relationships to be ordained as ministers.
A theological commission was appointed two years ago to produce a report on the issue for the Kirk's annual gathering in Edinburgh.
– Kirk spokesmanOn one hand the report offers the Church a way of allowing the ordination of ministers in same-sex relationships who have entered into a civil partnership, while protecting both individuals and congregations who in conscience do not agree with the theological principles which underpin that choice.
On the other hand the report, while reaffirming its belief that homophobia is sinful, invites the Church to reaffirm its traditional stance that the only appropriate expression of sexual activity should be within marriage between one man and one woman.
The report does not make any recommendation and leaves the issue open for the members of the General Assembly to decide.
The ordaining of ministers in same-sex relationships has divided the Kirk since traditionalist members attempted to block the appointment of gay Reverend Scott Rennie in 2009.
Britain to blast first astronaut to space
Britain is putting its first man into space with details of his mission to be released later today.
As a member of the European Space Agency, the UK is sponsoring Major Tim Peake's upcoming mission to the International Space Station.
Watch Tim in basic training:
Previous Britons in space have paid to go as space tourists or became American citizens and were launched by NASA.
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Entire US neighbourhoods destroyed by tornadoes
Tornadoes ravaged the upper Midwest in the US yesterday after forecasters warned they would hit the area along with the weekend's storm.
According to the National Weather Service, 19 tornadoes struck Oklahoma, Kansas.
Entire neighbourhoods have been destroyed and cars and trucks were turned over.
A mobile home park in Shawnee was among the worst hit areas and reports said one person died when the twister ripped up the whole park.
Search and rescue operations were under way last night.
Dozens of counties in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri have been placed under tornado watches and warnings.
British father alleged to have killed his children is named
A British father is due to appear in court in France today, where he is expected to be formally charged with slitting the throats of his two young children.
Julian Stevenson, 47, is alleged to have killed his daughter, five, and son, 10.
He was entrusted with them for the first time since separating from his French wife.
It is thought she discovered the bloody scene when she arrived at his flat on Saturday afternoon and found her former husband standing on the stairway in blood-stained clothes
Reports suggested she had gone to his home, in Saint-Priest, to the south-east of Lyon, after he failed to return the children following the visit.
Stevenson was held after witnesses reportedly spotted him fleeing the area on roller skates and taken into custody on Saturday evening.
Report: 'Yahoo to buy Tumblr for $1.1 billion'
Blogging platform Tumblr has been bought by Yahoo Inc for $1.1 billion (£720m), according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian.
The deal would represent a major power shift in the technology business, according to the WSJ.
It is understood that former Google executive Marissa Mayer, now in control of Yahoo, secured the deal yesterday afternoon when it was approved by the board.
A press conference is scheduled for this afternoon in New York's Times Square, close to Tumblr's headquarters.
David Karp founded Tumblr in his bedroom in his mother's apartment in 2007 when he was 21.
It had 75,000 users in a fortnight and now there are roughly 110 million.
Sir Richard Branson is among investors who have poured $125m into the company.
'Gay marriage a tipping point' claim grassroot Tories
Bob Woollard, chairman of the Conservative Grassroots group which organised the protest letter to the Prime Minister said: "Same sex marriage is really a tipping point, a bellwether issue if you like - people have just said 'I've had enough, I'm off, I will never vote Conservative again'.
"Scores and scores and scores of people that we have all spoken to, probably hundreds of thousands of people have said: 'I've had enough, that's it now, we can't cope with this so-called modernisation agenda'."
But a rival letter, signed by more than 100 Tory activists, called for Conservative MPs to "deal with the Bill then move on together as a party".
The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill will be debated over two days, with its third reading - the final hurdle in the Commons - tomorrow.
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Gay marriage legislation returns to the Commons
The coalition's controversial gay marriage legislation returns to the Commons today with Tory MPs and activists deeply split over the issue.
The move has been championed by David Cameron but he has faced Conservative opposition at all levels from the grassroots to the Cabinet .
A group of more than 30 current and former local party chairmen warned that the plans would drive Tory voters to the UK Independence Party and make a Conservative election victory in 2015 impossible.
Two men charged over death of a Frenchman
Two men have been charged in connection with the death of a Frenchman four years after he went missing.
Police were called to a house in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, earlier this week after information received concerning 35-year-old Christophe Borgye.
A search of an outbuilding at the address in Hylton Court uncovered human remains thought to be those of the French national who was last seen in May 2009.
Dominic Kocher, 34, and Manuel Wagner, 25, both from Abbey Bank, New Abbey, Dumfries, have been charged with preventing a lawful burial and assisting an offender, Cheshire Constabulary said.
A third person, a 35-year-old man, who was arrested on suspicion of murder has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
A post-mortem examination has shown the cause of death to be blunt force trauma, Cheshire Police said.
Mr Borgye's family in France has been contacted and is being kept informed of developments.
Both men will appear at Chester Magistrates' Court later today.
Cameron issues warning to leaders of tax havens
David Cameron has written to the leaders of Britain's offshore tax havens stressing the need to "get our own houses in order" as he pushes for international action to tackle avoidance schemes.
In a message to 10 crown dependencies and British overseas territories Mr Cameron said he backed their right to be low tax jurisdictions but insisted that rules needed to be set and enforced fairly.
The move comes ahead of next month's G8 summit in Northern Ireland, where Mr Cameron will push for an agreement aimed at clamping down on tax evasion and avoidance.
He said he wanted the G8 to "knock down the walls of company secrecy" to reveal who really owns and controls firms.
Mr Cameron's initiative came as he prepared to raise the issue of corporate tax dodging with Google boss Eric Schmidt at a meeting in Downing Street.
The internet giant's executive chairman is a member of Mr Cameron's Business Advisory Group, which has its regular quarterly meeting today, just days after Google was given a mauling by a House of Commons committee over its tax affairs.
Report: 'Half of adults in welfare ghettos on benefits'
Britain is rife with welfare ghettos where more than half of its working age population is dependent on unemployment benefits, a new report claims.
In a study entitled Signed Off, Written Off, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) says that as many as 6.8 million people and 1.8 million children in the UK have been trapped into long-term poverty.
– Christian Guy, CSJ managing directorThe welfare ghettos trapping as many as 6.8 million people are a national disgrace.They represent years of tragic failure and indifference from the political class. People in these neighbourhoods have been consistently written off as incapable and their poverty plight inevitable.Their lives have been limited by a fatalistic assumption that they have little prospect of anything better.
Some British towns and cities contain welfare ghettos where more than half of working age residents depend on out-of-work benefits, according to the report.
