The international envoy Kofi Annan says the fighting in Syria is escalating alarmingly with sectarian violence on the increase and spilling over into Lebanon. Mr Annan's spokesman said UN monitors in Syria had confirmed that the army was using helicopter gunships against opposition fighters. He said Mr Annan was pushing countries with influence in Syria to put irrevocable pressure on the two sides to stop the killing. The British government said military intervention was not being considered and Syria should not be thought of in terms of another Libya.

A town in southern Yemen that became a stronghold for al-Qaeda militants has been recaptured by the army. The militants who occupied the town of Jaar more than a year ago withdrew during the night after fighting intensified.

The Church of England has warned of a serious clash with the British government over its plan to legalise gay marriage in England and Wales. Robert Pigott now reports.

The Church said that by opening marriage to gay couples, an institution defined for centuries as exclusively between a man and a woman would have its meaning hollowed out and be reduced to the level of a content-free consumerist agreement. It insisted that the age-old idea of marriage as being for procreation and the requirement for it to be consummated would not apply to same-sex marriage. The Church claimed that separate religious and civil marriages would therefore be created with differing understandings of their purpose and character.