A bill to legalise gay marriage in Britain passed a crucial hurdle in parliament on Tuesday, despite efforts by lawmakers from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party to wreck the plans.

For years Anita Zhang's neighbors joked that if a tornado ever bore down on her Chinese restaurant, folks could take refuge in its roomy walk-in freezer.

Official assurances about the improving health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, hospitalized in France in April, have failed to convince many Algerians, as analysts warn that hiding such details is harder than it was.

Good, bad or ugly, the 2013 elections are over; and now testing times are ahead for the new incumbents. It is the third coming for Nawaz Sharif, a remarkable turn of fortune for a leader who was ousted from power by the military at gunpoint in 1999 and convicted on treason charges.

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.