Suzanne Plunkett / Reuters

Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham, walks through Westminster in London on Thursday. A former oil executive and critic of corporate excess, he is expected to be named on Friday as the next Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans.

Updated at 5:55 a.m. ET: LONDON — A former oil executive whose father was a bootlegger in prohibition-era America and later a friend of the Kennedys, was on Friday named the new spiritual leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans.

Justin Welby, 56, the Bishop of Durham, who has risen quickly within the Church of England hierarchy since quitting the world of commerce in 1992, will be the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Church of England is known in the U.S. as the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Its Presiding Bishop is currently Katharine Jefferts Schori.

The change in leadership follows the resignation of the current Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, ending a turbulent era in which the Church of England has been sharply divided on issues such as same-sex marriage, female clergy and gay bishops.

Welby faces the near-impossible task of reconciling traditionalists and liberals among the church's 77 million worldwide followers.

Welby went to the same exclusive private school, Eton College, as British Prime Minister David Cameron, London mayor Boris Johnson and Princes William and Harry.

Read more on this story at ITV News

His late father was sent to America in 1929 as a teenager after his grandmother went bust in the financial crash.

"I remember my father telling me she gave him five pounds and put him on a boat," the bishop told the Mail on Sunday earlier this year. "He said he went to New York in 1929 and traded whiskey. When I was studying history, the penny dropped that Prohibition ended in 1933 and he had a lot of friends who had Italian ancestry, so he was bootlegging. He was illegally trading whiskey."

Bishop Welby added: "He went on to become successful in the whiskey business and must have met the Kennedys by moving in the right social circle."

Rowan Williams quits: could Anglican church have its first black spiritual leader?

Welby’s father introduced John F. Kennedy to his first mistress, a 21-year-old Swedish aristocrat, weeks before the future President’s marriage to society beauty Jacqueline Bouvier, the Mail on Sunday said.

Jonathan Wynne-Jones, the Chicago-based British journalist who first broke the story for the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph, told NBC News:  "It is an excellent choice. He is a very down-to-earth guy and self-deprecating.

"He is nobody’s fool, but many people felt intimidated by Rowan Williams’ intellect whereas I think Bishop Welby will prove to be an effective communicator."

Welby is widely reported to be against gay marriage but broadly in favor of the ordination of women bishops, two of the most divisive issues in the communion.

The Daily Telegraph said: "At a time when the Church is grappling with the aftermath of the banking crisis, he combines — almost uniquely — an understanding of the working of the City with that of life in the inner city, gleaned as a parish priest and Dean of Liverpool."

The new archbishop will earn about $120,000 a year. He will have lodgings in the Old Palace in Canterbury, southeast England, and the historic riverside Lambeth Palace in London. His tenure will last until retirement at 70 or until he decides to move on.

ITV News is the U.K. partner of NBC News.

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Bethany Clarke / Getty Images file

'Draped Seated Woman' by Henry Moore was sold to one of London's borough councils at a knock-down price in 1962 on the understanding it would be displayed in the area, which was notorious for its social deprivation and which had also been heavily bombed during the Second World War. It is currently displayed at a sculpture park in Yorkshire.

LONDON — A debt-stricken district of London is to sell a sculpture gifted to the local area by celebrated artist Henry Moore, prompting fierce criticism and raising questions over the future of other publicly owned artworks amid austerity cuts.

The mayor of Tower Hamlets — one of the poorest areas of Britain — decided late Wednesday to sell the 8-foot Henry Moore bronze statue "Draped Seated Woman" as the borough council tries to cut a deficit of $144 million.

It is thought the sale of the sculpture could raise up to $32 million for the council. Independent mayor Lutfur Rahman over-ruled the concerns of a committee of politicians to order the artwork be auctioned to the highest bidder.

Ian Leith, founder and deputy chairman of the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association, told the U.K.’s Guardian that the high-profile decision means other towns and cities might now be tempted to see artworks simply as financial assets.

"We fear that this is the beginning of local authorities wanting to realize the assets they have in their public sculptures," he told the newspaper. "But the danger is that we won't find out about these sales: There is no national audit of public art in England and no at-risk list.”

In the United States, at least four cities have declared bankruptcy as they struggle to make budget cuts.

Read more coverage of this story at ITV News

Among those criticizing the London decision was Danny Boyle, the "Slumdog Millionaire" film director and choreographer of the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony, who is also a resident in the east London borough.

Boyle told the Daily Telegraph: "The Moore sculpture defies all prejudice in people's minds about one of London's poorest boroughs. That alone makes it priceless to every resident."

Moore, who died in 1986, sold his sculpture to the council in 1962 at a knock-down price on the understanding it would be displayed in the local area, which was notorious for its social deprivation and which had also been heavily bombed during the Second World War. It sat in a public housing project in Stepney Green until 1997 when the project was demolished and it was loaned to a sculpture park in Yorkshire.

'Not insurable'
Heather Bonfield, the council’s interim head of culture, told a meeting on Wednesday night that displaying the sculpture in public parks in the area was no longer feasible because of the risk of vandalism and metal theft, making it "not insurable", according to a report in The Wharf local newspaper.

Tower Hamlets councilor Shahed Ali told ITV News the cash raised would be used for "services for local people, services that will make as big difference to our local residents."

"We have youth population that is the largest in Europe and the money will help address those needs," he said.

Slideshow: When the Olympics is your neighbor

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A diverse community in East London will welcome the world to Britain for the 2012 Olympic Games. Meet residents and hear how they feel about having a huge, world stage in their backyard.

Launch slideshow

Tower Hamlets was one of the six boroughs adjacent to the Olympic Park, which transformed a derelict former industrial wasteland in east London into the epicenter of the 2012 Summer Games.

Sharon Ament, director of the Museum of London Docklands which is in the borough, proposed a plan to host the statue – but her offer was rejected.

"We are hugely disappointed," she told ITV News. "Just because we’re going through really tough times financially, it doesn’t mean to say that the cultural, artistic and spiritual needs of the population shouldn’t be met."

Local member of parliament, Rushanara Ali, told the East London Advertiser: "The sculpture belongs to the people of the East End and should remain in public ownership and be available for everyone to enjoy as Henry Moore intended it.

"This is a betrayal of the East End’s working class heritage. The sale will only make a small contribution to the council’s budget."

In Sunday’s Observer newspaper, commentator and local resident Rowan Moore wrote: "'Draped Seated Woman' fulfills an ideal that nothing was too good for ordinary people, an ideal that modern local politicians are in danger of losing. To sell the sculpture as if it were a piece of real estate would … betray Moore’s generosity. It would raise the question why anyone should ever want to offer anything to a local authority again."

Local journalist and blogger Ted Jeory told NBC News the decision to sell the statue in order to keep funding for current local projects was a "vote-buying program" by Mayor Rahman, who is up for re-election in 18 months. "This is not about government cuts, it’s about his love of power," he said.

ITV News is the U.K. partner of NBC News.

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Stephane Mahe / Reuters

British cyclist Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France and an Olympic gold medal this summer.

LONDON — Tour de France cycling champion Bradley Wiggins was recovering in a hospital Thursday after being hit by a car while riding his bike in north-west England.

The 32-year-old British cyclist, who won his fourth gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics in July, was thrown off his bike after a white Vauxhall Astra Envoy pulled out of a gas station and collided with him, ITV News reported.

Police said he sustained broken ribs as well as cuts and bruises in the accident, but his professional sponsors Team Sky said "the injuries he sustained are not thought to be serious and he is expected to make a full and speedy recovery."

Read the full story at ITV News

The crash happened at about 6 p.m. local time on Wednesday (1 p.m. ET) in Wrightington, Lancashire, which is near to his family home in Eccleston.

The father-of-two, whose candor has made him one of Britain's most popular athletes, regularly cycles around the area's rural roads.

Gas station attendant Yasmin Smith told ITV News that the female driver of the car initially didn't recognize Wiggins.

"She was even more upset when the police told her who she had hit," Smith said.

Earlier, Smith told the Lancashire Evening Post newspaper: "[Wiggins] said he thought he had broken his ribs and while a lot of police cars arrived it was about 15 minutes before the ambulance got there by which time he was blue."

ITV News reporter Richard Gaisford said parts of the car were still visible on the ground at the scene of the collision early Thursday.

Lancashire Police said in a statement late Wednesday:  “Police were called to the scene of a road traffic accident at Crow Orchard Road in Wrightington at about 6 p.m. this evening. A cyclist has been involved in a collision with a white Vauxhall Astra car.

"The rider of the bike, a 32-year-old local man, was taken to hospital by ambulance with injuries not thought to be life-threatening. His family have been told."

ITV News is the U.K. partner of NBC News.

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Updated at 12:11 p.m. ET on July 26: LONDON - The Olympic flame has been carried past famous British landmarks and tourist spots including Queen Elizabeth II's home at Windsor Castle, the Scottish Highlands and the castle in north-east England where the "Harry Potter" movies were filmed.

The torch is nearing the end of a winding, U.K.-wide 8,000-mile itinerary that culminates in its arrival at the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London, on July 27 for the ceremony at which the queen will declare the Games open.

You can watch NBC video of its progress on the interactive map above. It has already been carried from Land’s End, at the far south-western tip of England, to Wales, Northern Ireland and across to Scotland.

More Olympic coverage from NBC News

It even briefly crossed the border into the Republic of Ireland on its route, which was designed to take it within an hour's journey of 95 percent of Britain's population.

Slideshow: Olympic torch carries the flame to London 2012

Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

Lit by the sun's rays in Greece, the Olympic torch takes a 70-day, 8,000 mile trip to London for the 2012 summer games.

Launch slideshow

However, some didn’t have to travel anywhere to see it: The queen carried an unopened umbrella as rain-sodden runner Gina Macgregor, 74, took the torch directly to her front door at Windsor Castle, in Berkshire on Day 53 of the relay.

Earlier that day, it was held aloft by Roger Bannister, the first runner to smash the four-minute mile in 1954. Bannister, 83, walked 30 yards along the same track in Oxford where he ran the mile in three minutes, 59.4 seconds on May 6, 1954.

Read more coverage of the Olympic torch relay at ITV News

The torch has seen its fair share of human drama, including a torchbearer in Yorkshire who paused to propose to his girlfriend.

And in emotional scenes last month, Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson -- the most seriously wounded British soldier to survive the war in Afghanistan -- was cheered and applauded by crowds as he bravely carried the flame 300 meters despite his crippling injuries.

American stuntman Nick Macomber carried the torch in a special hands-free carrier while using his free hands to control a jet pack on his back when the relay passed Britain’s National Space Centre in Leicester, central England.

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Beryl Renwick and Betty Smith with Simon Reeves attend the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2012 recognizing national and regional radio stations at Grosvenor House in London, Monday night.

LONDON - In the entertainment world, youth and celebrity are usually the key to success…but a pair of radio hosts with a combined age of 176 have been awarded top prize at an industry ceremony in Britain.

Beryl Renwick, 86, and Betty Smith, 90, were named Britain’s best radio entertainment hosts at the Sony Radio Academy Awards on Monday night.

Their weekly broadcast on local Yorkshire station BBC Radio Humberside has been going for six years and gathered a cult following.

Full story: ITV News

The elderly pair chat with co-host David Reeves about fashion, the war and their love of Michael Buble.

The judges said they were: “A joyous, entertaining double act. They give a voice to a sector of society unrepresented on radio, and do it with a joy that puts many of their fellow broadcasters to shame.

You can see the pair discuss their nomination in this BBC website video from April.

ITV News is the British broadcast partner of NBC.

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