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The Church of England is facing a damaging rift over the appointment of gay bishops. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has given his backing to a deal intended to prevent a split between the Church’s traditionalist and liberal wings, by effectively preventing openly gay clergy from becoming bishops. However, last night the proposed Anglican Covenant stood on the brink of failure, after worshippers and clergy rejected it in votes up and down England. Two bishops voted against it. Supporters of Dr Williams said that a defeat would be a “devastating” blow to him after he staked so...

The Church does not "own" marriage nor have the exclusive right to say who can marry, a government minister has said. Equalities minister Lynne Featherstone said the government was entitled to introduce same-sex marriages, which she says would be a "change for the better". Her comments come as ministers prepare to launch a public consultation on legalising gay marriage next month. Traditionalists want the law on marriage to remain unchanged.

London, England-In yet another outrageous piece of social engineering from our coalition government, pensioners will be encouraged to downsize to smaller properties allowing local councils to rent their homes out as council houses and manage the tenancy. Local authorities will ‘help’ older people move from their homes into ‘more suitable accommodation’. Grant Schapps, the Housing Minister, who is a conservative member of parliament claims the scheme will solve a so-called ‘housing crisis’ as well as creating a system that will ‘permit access to various sources of wealth’ that are currently not being used to pay for care. Read that as...

A pensioner could be sent to prison after admitting illegally possessing guns and ammunition. Percy Hermitage, of Mead Court, Cannons Mead, Stansted, pleaded guilty to possessing an automatic-loading pistol with a barrel of less than 30 centimetres; a Saxby and Palmer .177 self-contained gas cartridge air pistol and a .22 double action revolver, without authority. The 85-year-old further admitted possessing a Victor .22 calibre rifle, two .22 calibre rounds of ammunition, as well as a hollow-point bullet without permission. Hermitage claimed to have had the weapons since the 1960s and although the offences attract a minimum five-year prison term, the...

Six children in Britain will be given jabs to delay the puberty on the NHS because they are convinced they were born the wrong sex. The injections - to be administered monthly - will postpone the physical changes of adolescence giving them more time to make decisions about their identity. It will also make any sex-change operation far easier should they decide to permanently swap gender. They suffer from a rare condition called gender-identity disorder (GID) that affects 1 in 4,000 Britons.

EXCLUSIVE  Sex swap teenager to enter Miss England contest   BY JENNA SLOAN Published: 14 Jan 2012   A TEENAGE transsexual has become the first sex swap patient to enter the Miss England beauty pageant. Jackie Green became the UK's youngest transsexual after an op in Thailand on her 16th birthday. The 18-year-old — who was born Jack but lived as a girl since age ten — was asked to enter by modelling scouts who had no idea of her history. The aspiring model, from Leeds, hopes to use the opportunity to speak out about bullying and transgender issues....

Two teenagers who spotted a five-year-old girl sleeping in a stolen car have told how they were arrested for 'doing the right thing' when they called police. Tyler Thompson and Connor Roderick were held in custody for four hours and had their DNA and fingerprints taken. Their clothes were also kept by police following the incident in St Helen Auckland, near Bishop Auckland, County Durham. Now Tyler,16, and 18-year-old Connor plan to submit a complaint to the authorities about their treatment. The teenagers were on their way to a shop to buy milk at about 10.15pm nine days ago when...

Milk Street Cafe, the restaurant whose business dried up in the face of the Occupy Wall Street barricades, is shutting down. Thursday will be the last day for the 23,000 square-foot eatery that opened at 40 Wall St. in June, the Daily News has learned. “It’s terribly sad,” Milk Street Cafe owner Marc Epstein told the News. Epstein blamed the barricades that remained in front of his restaurant even after the Occupy Wall Street protestors were removed from Zuccotti Park. “This is now the 12th straight week of the barricades,” he said. The restaurant owner, who operates an eatery and...

Defence cuts: Carrier 'fully operational in 2030' Britain may be without a fully operational aircraft carrier until 2030, according to a report published by the Commons spending watchdog. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) says two carriers being built will cost more, offer less military capability and be ready much later than planned. It says the Royal Navy will be without a carrier until 2020, which may not be fully operational until 2030. The PAC also says the cost of scaling back the carriers is not fully known. The committee said the adjustments made to the vessels meant just £600m cash...

EXCLUSIVE    Perv lags getting paid to do rehab Fury at paedo jail ‘bribes’   Courses ... inmates can even pick up the cash by not attending the sessions   JAILED paedophiles are being PAID to take courses inside to stop them offending. Under prison rules, sick inmates who attend "offender behaviour programmes" get wages the same as if they have a job in jail. They can even pick up the cash by NOT attending the sessions — if they show they were willing to go but there were no spaces available. Last night Lyn Costello, of campaigning group Mothers Against...

A male registered nurse and Vietnam war Army medic has sued the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, saying he was fired for disobeying a Muslim supervisor's order not to treat women wearing conservative Islamic dress. John Benitez Jr. ... was fired... 'not because of any performance problem, but was instead carried out because the clinic's conservative male Muslim clientele did not want a male treating female patients.'

A chef was stunned to find she was almost banned from buying two limes from a supermarket - because they could be classed as a weapon. Marisa Zoccolan, 31, popped into the new Asda supermarket close to her home in Wallsend, North Tyneside, to pick up some groceries, including the citrus fruits. But when she tried to pay for them at the self-service checkout, the message 'amount exceeded, authorisation required' flashed up. An assistant then came over and told her that more than one lime was deemed a weapon - because the citric acid could be squirted in someone's eye.Marisa,...

Navy frigate sent to Libya with four missiles A Royal Navy frigate was sent to the Libyan war zone armed with as few as four missiles, it has been disclosed. Royal Navy officers said HMS Westminster was “dangerously under-defended” when it was called on to patrol close to the Libyan port city of Benghazi in March. The warship can carry 32 Seawolf and eight Harpoon missiles but it is understood that military cutbacks left the Westminster and its crew of 190 with only a fraction of that capability. As Seawolf missiles — which are used to intercept incoming missiles —...

EXCLUSIVE Courts free 76% of teen muggers   SOFT courts are letting 76 per cent of teenage muggers go free, The Sun can reveal. Shock figures also show that fewer than 20 per cent of young burglars are locked up for raiding people's homes. Just one in ten young arsonists ends up behind bars, and a shocking 96 per cent of juvenile sex offenders go free. The bombshell statistics — obtained through The Sun's Freedom of Information requests — reveal just how lenient Britain's youth courts have become. Of the 72,841 crimes prosecuted in youth courts over the past...

Fears of ‘fuel deserts’ as retailers feel the strain. Petrol station numbers in the UK have tumbled to a record low, official figures reveal. From a peak of 21,000 in the nineties, there are now only 8,500 forecourts in the country, prompting concerns that some areas will become ‘fuel deserts’. The latest count shows that Fife in Scotland is the worst-hit area, with only 36 filling stations supplying more than 163,000 drivers – a ratio of one station to 4,538 motorists. SNIP The research was carried out by the retail wholesaler Palmer & Harvey, a supplier of convenience goods to...

Gay Couples To Be Allowed Civil Ceremonies In Church Homosexual couples will be able to take part in civil partnerships in church and other places of worship from next month, it will be announced. It is estimated that about 1,500 civil partnerships a year would take place in religious settings once the ban is lifted. By Andrew Porter, and Martin Beckford 01 Nov 2011 Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister, will say that the ban on the ceremonies in religious surroundings will be lifted on Dec 5. The move has been championed by David Cameron but is likely to be opposed...

Millions are being spent on the latest conservation wheeze – bat bridges, which enable the creatures to safely negotiate new roads like the last dualled section of the A11. The Patons were told they could possibly leave two thirds of the roof for the bats, and convert the remaining third for themselves. "Everywhere else in the English justice system there are checks and balances, there’s always a right of appeal, but this is a complete closed shop." Charlotte Paton Manchester Airport has had to build three large barns to accommodate thousands of Pipistrelle, Brown Long-eared and Brandt’s bats made homeless...

25million empty bedrooms across the country at a time when many are struggling to bu Older people should be taxed out of their family homes to free up space for younger generations, says a report backed by Labour. It argues that 'empty nesters' in their 60s are taking up too much room and should be 'encouraged' by a new 'land tax' to downsize to smaller homes. The call comes from the Intergenerational Foundation, a left-leaning think-tank that aims to 'promote fairness between generations'. Labour MP Tessa Jowell sponsored the report's launch in a Commons hospitality room yesterday, saying the current...

When I arrived in London in September it had been more than forty years since I had last spent any time in the city Police procedures mandate that Muslim officers be included on the scene in cases where Islamic “sensitivities” might be an issue. This is what London has come to. Halal food in all schools. No eating in front of your Muslim colleagues during Ramadan. Special accommodations for Muslims in public buildings. Officially sanctioned Sharia courts. And above all, no “racist” speech. Muslims may gather and scream “Death to those who insult Islam!” with impunity. But a non-Muslim who...

The BBC said it was up to producers and editorial teams to decide which date system to use PA The BBC has come under strong criticism after reports appeared in the media stating that it is encouraging the use of the secular date references Common Era and Before Common Era, over Anno Domini and Before Christ.Anger has grown following a recent article by Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens, who accused the Corporation of bowing to political correctness and attempting to “write Christianity out of our culture” after University Challenge presenter Jeremy Paxman used CE rather than AD in reference...