London, Sep 28 : Al-Qaeda terrorists have targeted 800 Muslim criminals they want to recruit for their “holy war” against Britain, say prison probation officers.

The officers believe that attempts have been made to convert one in 10 of the estimated 8,000 Muslims in the eight high-security prisons in England and Wales to al-Qaeda cause in the past two years, The Times reported.

The Ministry of Justice has begun a programme to persuade convicted terrorists to give up their cause. It is also trying to protect vulnerable Muslim inmates from violent extremists.

The ministry said this weekend that it had established a unit to tackle “the risks of extremism and radicalism in prison”.

London, Sep 28 : Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorist command has foiled an alleged plot by Islamic extremists to kill the publisher of a forthcoming novel featuring sexual encounters between the Prophet Muhammad and his child bride.

On Saturday, armed undercover officers arrested three men after a petrol bomb was pushed through the door of the north London home of the book’s publisher, The Times reported.

The Metropolitan police said the target of the assassination plot, the Dutch publisher Martin Rynja, had not been injured.

Undercover police was following the suspected terror gang and the fire was quickly put out after the fire brigade smashed down the front door.

London  - After more than 50 years on the British throne, Queen Elizabeth II is to buy her own private jet for 7 million pounds (13 million dollars), The Sun newspaper reported Saturday.

The queen is expected around Christmas personally to choose the interior design of the jet, which will seat 13 people and be for the exclusive use of the royal family.

The newspaper reported that the queen was heard to ask where her beloved pet Corgis would sit.

The royals normally fly in aircraft with high-ranking politicians and military officials, and often they have to hire planes at the last minute at huge cost to the British taxpayer.

London, Sept 27: Florian Seiche, HTC (High Tech Computers) chief, the designers of Google's G1 phone, has claimed that with its high-tech features, the new phone could make the personal computer obsolete.

Florian Seiche, whose company designed Google's answer to the iPhone, believes the personal computer will soon join the ‘dodo’.

Seiche insisted that the phone is set to transform the way we think about the internet, and could even kill off the PC.

Google’s founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched the G1 phone amid a frenzy of excitement in New York this week.

London, September 27: British children who are kept indoors for longer duration are more prone to online predators than their European counterparts, claims a new survey.

According to the study by co-author Dr Leslie Haddon, of the EU Kids Online project, worried parents, in order to safeguard their children against street dangers, are exposing their kids to dangerous online situations at home.

London - Britain's ailing Bradford & Bingley building society is about to be nationalized, media reports said Saturday, citing sources within London's financial district.

In order to avert a possible collapse, the country's eighth largest mortgage lender could be merged with Northern Rock, which was itself nationalized earlier in the year when it failed, the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail reported.

On a visit to the United States, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the reports were speculation and he would not comment on them.

Media reports earlier in the week had said that Britain's Financial Services Authority was seeking a buyer for Bradford & Bingley, the latest victim of the global financial crisis.