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Yahoo has agreed a deal to buy New York-based blogging service Tumblr for $1.1bn (£723m; 857m euros) in cash.

Yahoo's chief executive Marissa Mayer said that as part of its promise "not to screw it up", Tumblr would operate independently.

David Karp, will continue as chief executive officer of Tumblr.

The deal is the largest made by Ms Mayer since she took the helm at Yahoo last July, and she described the acquisition as a "unique opportunity."

"On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo couldn't be more different, but at the same time, they couldn't be more complementary," added Ms Mayer.

Mr Karp, 26, who owns 25% of the privately-owned company he co-founded with Marco Arment in 2007, said he was "elated" to have the support of Yahoo.

"Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw from," he added. Mr Karp emphasised that neither its aims or team was changing as a result of Yahoo's purchase.

The $1.1bn price tag for Tumblr represents a significant premium on its $800m valuation when it last raised money from private investors.

Tumblr's 2012 revenue was just $13m, according to a report by Forbes magazine, leading analysts to suggest Yahoo had overpaid for the deal.

"Even if revenue was $100 million, it means Yahoo paid 10 times revenue," said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis. "Ten times is what you pay to date the belle of the ball. It's on the outer bands of M&A."

Tumblr combines elements of blogging with social networking, and its simple design has attracted millions of users since its launch.

According to its homepage, it now hosts 108 million blogs, with a total of 50.7 billion posts.

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A man has shot four people dead in a bank in southern Israel before turning the gun on himself, police say.

One person was injured, while a woman held hostage for about an hour was freed before the gunman killed himself.

Police initially described the incident as a robbery, but later said the man may have entered the bank with the intention of shooting.

Investigators think he was refused a settlement over a 6,000-shekel (£1,070) overdraft, Israeli media said.

"It appears that we are talking about a lone individual who came to the bank in the morning hours, sought cover for a debt, a loan, and did not get it," said Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch.

He told Army Radio that the man found he could not withdraw money from an automatic cash machine, and came back to the Bank Hapoalim branch in Beersheba with a pistol before opening fire.

Witnesses were quoted as saying the gunman had killed a security guard at the bank before shooting three people who were lying on the floor.

"He took a hostage, held her for close to an hour or more," Mr Aharonovitch said. "The moment the police forces burst in, he killed himself - shot himself and committed suicide."

Media reports identified the attacker as a Jewish man in his 40s formerly employed as a paramilitary border guard.

"We are not convinced entirely at this point that we are talking about a robbery or an attempted robbery," said national police chief Yohanan Danino.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a "great tragedy".

"It is not a common event in Israel," he was quoted as saying. "An attack like this must not [be allowed] to recur."

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