Summary: Voters in Scotland went to the polls on Thursday for a parliamentary byelection that Gordon Browns party is expected to win but which could dramatically dent the prime ministers standing if it is lost
Summary: Layoffs and less job security in the City of London financial sector drove more professionals to look for jobs in June but City salaries hardly moved from lofty yearago levels
Summary: For the Olympic movement the digital revolution is armed with a doubleedged sword it has lured the younger generation away from sport but could open up the Olympic experience to a far wider audience
Summary: The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams will join forces with Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a rally in Lambeth Palace later today to warn governments around the world that starvation disease and death will follow unless they keep their pledges to
Summary: The Roman Catholic Churchs top official on evangelisation issues Cardinal Ivan Dias told Anglicans meeting at the Lambeth Conference this week that the two Churches must work harder on the issues that unite them if both their mission efforts are to be eff
Summary: Frances parliament passed a law on Wednesday that will allow companies to bypass compulsory 35hour working week limits effectively burying one of the flagship reforms of the former Socialist government
Summary: US presidential candidate Barack Obama travels to Berlin on Thursday to give the only public speech of a weeklong foreign tour an outdoor address on transatlantic ties that is likely to draw tens of thousands
Summary: US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama made a surprise predawn visit to Jerusalems Western Wall on Thursday at the end of a trip aimed at showing his strong support for Israel
Summary: One of the emerging churchs foremost figures US evangelist Brian Mclaren challenged the Lambeth Conference earlier this week to speak the Gospel into the worlds everchanging cultures
Summary: A strong earthquake jolted northern Japan early on Thursday injuring more than 100 people trapping hundreds in halted trains and affecting production at some hightech factories
Summary: Ranks of Chinese paramilitary police swore to prevent terrorist attacks or political incidents disrupting the Beijing Olympics in a show of force at the Games main stadium a state newspaper reported on Thursday
Summary: Urgent talks to salvage a global trade deal made some progress in the early hours of Thursday ministers said but officials warned the mood was dark behind closed doors at the World Trade Organisation
Summary: Three Hong Kong children have jailed for more than three years for the armed holdup of a jewellery shop a newspaper said on Thursday with the court saying the stiff sentence was in the public interest
Summary: While besuited government officials slug it out at world trade talks in Geneva this week African peasant farmers watching their cotton plants grow hope any deal will allow them to farm their way out of poverty
Summary: A 900-member church in Southern California began filming its first full-length movie this week with the goal of impacting the lives of at-risk teens.
Summary: Federal prosecutors have decided not to seek criminal charges against the Rev. Al Sharpton over his chronic tax problems, his lawyers said Tuesday. The investigation was disbanded only after the government received a down payment Monday topping $1 million
Summary: Presbyterians grieved by the pro-gay actions of the highest governing body of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) plan to converge next month to look for a way forward. The meeting will provide a forum and analysis for PC(USA) leaders as they lament votes by
Summary: Democratic lawmakers are up in arms over a draft proposal by the Bush administration to uphold the rights of health care workers who refuse to dispense emergency contraception and birth control on moral or religious grounds.
Summary: Christian metalcore band Haste the Day has asked guitarist Jason Barnes to step down after months of spiritual searching by their close friend concluded with his loss of faith in God. The band acknowledged how the difference in belief had created a ?tear?
Summary: A woman who helped fake her husbands death in a canoeing accident was sentenced to sixandahalf years in prison on Wednesday for her part in a daring scam that deceived even the couples children
Summary: One Bank of England policymaker wanted to raise interest rates this month and another wanted a cut but the remaining seven chose to keep them steady as both inflation and economic growth prospects had worsened
Summary: Radovan Karadzic will conduct his own defence in the Hague tribunal and is convinced he will be cleared of the charges of genocide relatives and associates of the war crimes suspect said on Wednesday
Summary: A marine who survived after diving on a live grenade to shield his comrades while on a mission in Afghanistan is to receive Britains highest bravery award the Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday
Summary: The fiancee of England football player Emile Heskey was robbed at knifepoint after two men smashed their way into the strikers home in northern England the Premier League player said on Wednesday
Summary: Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga credited Gordon Brown on Wednesday with helping to start the process that resolved the east African countrys bloody crisis after its presidential election last December
Summary: The main militant group in Nigerias oilproducing Niger Delta said on Wednesday it would attack major oil pipelines in the next 30 days to prove it had not received payment from the government to end its campaign
Summary: Shopkeepers who sell knives to children under 16 are being handed pitiful fines rather prison terms the Liberal Democrats said on Wednesday as it emerged no one was jailed for the offence in the five years to 2006
