Prospect Thursday morning news roundup

A train crash near the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela last night is reported to have killed almost 80 people, with a further 131 people injured. The accident is the worst Spain has seen for 40 years. Four people have died in hospital at the time of writing, with a spokeswoman for the central government in the north western region of Galicia warning that the death toll may rise further still. Britain's Foreign Office has confirmed that one of the injured is a British citizen.

The UK's economy grew by 0.6 percent in the three months to June, according to official figures. This is double the 0.3 percent growth in the previous quarter–data from the Office for National Statistics suggest. Output in the service sector, manufacturing and construction are all reported to have expanded.

The senior Chinese politician Bo Xilai has been charged with bribery, abuse of power and corruption today. Bo, 64, could appear in a courtroom within weeks, bringing to a head the country's biggest political scandal in 37 years. Bo has not been seen in public for 17 months. His political career began to unravel last year following allegations that his wife Gu Kailai had murdered British businessman Neil Heywood, an offence for which she was charged last August.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby has announced that he wants the Church of England to compete with payday loans company Wonga in order to compete them out of the market. He has told the company's chief executive that he wants to offer credit unions the opportunity to use church facilities to make it easier for people to access short term loans at lower rates.