New Hampshire

Gay bishop takes over as head of diocese

With three mighty thumps on the church door Sunday, V. Gene Robinson knocked and was welcomed into St. Paul’s sanctuary, where he officially became the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop.

Sunday’s investiture ceremony does not carry the same weight as Robinson’s consecration, which rocked the Episcopal Church in November. But it gave a capacity crowd of more than 600 the chance to welcome the new leader of the Diocese of New Hampshire with a standing ovation.

Robinson is the first openly gay man to be elected as a bishop in the national Episcopal church, as well as the worldwide Anglican Communion of which it is a part. His consecration drew protesters and triggered angry responses from many corners of the world.

Gaza Strip

Israeli raid kills 14

Israeli troops carried out their deadliest raid in Gaza in 17 months on Sunday, part of a surge of bloodshed ahead of a possible Israeli withdrawal from the coastal strip.

Fourteen Palestinians were killed and 81 wounded in more than six hours of fighting on the edge of the Bureij refugee camp.

Among the dead were three boys, ages 8, 12 and 15.

The Palestinian Authority denounced the raid as “state terrorism,” and urged the international community to intervene.

Salt Lake City

Boy Scouts rescued after avalanche traps them

A huge wall of snow collapsed and buried the entrances to a series of manmade caves where more than three dozen Boy Scouts and their leaders were sleeping during a winter survival camping trip, but everyone was rescued unharmed.

The Scouts had carved the caves deep into the snow on a ridge in northern Utah’s Logan Canyon.

After the 39 Scouts and Scout leaders went to sleep Friday night, wind gusting to 64 mph piled snow into a huge cornice hanging over the slope where the Scouts dug their caves.

The 500-foot cornice collapsed just before 4 a.m. Saturday, burying the entrances to the caves.

The avalanche was heard by a group of Scout leaders who were sleeping in a nearby trailer, and they used an emergency roadside telephone to call 911.

The Scouts, ages 12 to 16, were on an annual excursion from the nearby Smithfield and Nibley areas.