Bank of England policymakers remain divided on whether to provide more stimulus to the flat-lining economy, according to the minutes of their meeting in May.

Residents began returning home to their flattened Oklahoma town after a giant tornado killed at least 24 people, destroyed countless homes and reduced one elementary school almost entirely to rubble, killing seven children inside. Authorities said they were confident that all survivors and bodies had been found.

A massive tornado spanning a half-mile (800 meters) and clocking winds up to 200 mph (320 kph) devastated a town outside Oklahoma City, killing at least 24 people, including at least seven children, the state medical examiner's office said Monday. Rescuers continued to search the rubble for survivors.

Britain's gay marriage bill was set to pass a crucial parliamentary hurdle on Tuesday, after Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to strike a last-minute deal with the opposition to stop members of his own Conservative party wrecking the plans.

British Prime Minister David Cameron is committed to governing as part of a two-party coalition until the next national election in 2015, his spokesman said on Tuesday, days after Cameron raised the prospect of the alliance breaking apart.

A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan and clashes in the volatile south left 11 police officers dead, officials said Tuesday.

New attacks in Iraq killed seven people and wounded dozens on Tuesday, officials said, after a bloody day that claimed more than 100 lives across the country.

Three members of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group died of wounds sustained while fighting for control of a strategic Syrian town near the Lebanese border, activists said Tuesday, as the battle in the area raged for its third straight day.

U.S. home-improvement retailer The Home Depot reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings Tuesday and raised its full-year outlook thanks to the U.S. housing market recovery.

Seven people were arrested as violence flared up for a second night in a deprived neighbourhood outside Stockholm and showed signs of spreading to other parts of the city, police said on Tuesday.