London, September 23: An international team of British and American researchers has achieved a significant breakthrough in understanding the Kondo effect, an intriguing phenomenon in fundamental physics wherein many particles collectively behave as a single quantum-mechanical body.

The researchers — including experts from University College London (UCL) and the IBM Almaden Research Center — point out that when a single magnetic atom is located inside a metal, the free electrons of the metal ‘screen’ the atom, causing a cloud of many electrons around the atom to become magnetized.

London, Sept 23 : Birmingham council officials have banned clowns from playing trumpets and saxophones, insisting it to be a breach of licensing laws.

The clowns from UK''s biggest travelling circuses, Zippo''s Circus, have been barred from playing musical instruments during their six-minute act in the circus.

The show organisers have been forced to pull all music from the act, leaving the circus with silent clowns.

Circus owner Martin Burton claimed the clowns were being picked on as other acts can use instruments and a live keyboard throughout was deemed legitimate.

The Licensing Act 2003 forbids the playing of any live music without a licence.

London, Sep 23 : A lesbian soldier has claimed that senior British Army officers ordered her to keep quiet about being pestered for sex by a male sergeant at Army stables.

Kerry Fletcher, a former lance bombardier in the Royal Artillery, is seeking 400,000 pounds in compensation from the Ministry of Defence over her experiences, The Telegraph reported.

An employment tribunal in Leeds has already found that she was the victim of direct sexual discrimination and harassment.

Fletcher, 32, described the sergeant, who cannot be identified until completion of the remedy hearing in Leeds, as a known womaniser.

London, Sept 23: A 14th-century recipe book compiled by King Richard II's master cooks is among several works being digitised for viewing on Internet.

The book is being put online for the first time to give modern-day chefs an insight into the delicacies of the Middle Ages.

Forme of Cury, written in1390, details more than 200 dishes that were cooked in the royal household.

Written in Middle English, it contains the instructions for creating long-forgotten dishes such as blank mang (a sweet dish of meat, milk, sugar and almonds), mortrews (ground and spiced pork).

London, Sep 23 : Famed novelist and former British spy John le Carré has said that Britons have been “stripped” of their civil liberties amid an “atmosphere of panic” over the threat from terrorism.

In a rare public intervention, the spy author criticised ministers for voting to extend the time limit that terror suspects can be held without charge to 42 days.

Carré’s comments come only weeks ahead of a key vote in the House of Lords that could see peers throw out the Government’s controversial 42-day proposals, The Telegraph reported.

The writer, who admitted he has a reputation as an angry old man, said he was furious that the Government had been allowed to get away with a sustained attack on civil liberties.

London, September 23: Princess Diana might have dazzled the world by dancing with John Travolta and Wayne Sleep, but as a teenager she complained that she danced like an elephant.

In a letter to her ex-nanny, Diana, seventeen at that time, wrote “watching me dance is like watching an elephant.”

It is one of four letters — never seen before — to Mary Clarke that are expected to fetch more than 10,000 pounds.

The letters shall go under the hammer on September 30 in Colchester.