London, August 19 : New research has shortened the timescale during which the mysterious bloating of dense, compact galaxies in the early universe happened.

In April, astronomers reported finding extremely compact galaxies as far back as 10 billion years ago, or 3.7 billion years after the big bang.

The galaxies contained the same number of stars as modern, blob-shaped galaxies known as ellipticals – but were two to three times smaller on average.

Now, according to a report in New Scientist, observations have turned up compact galaxies roughly a billion years later, when the universe was almost 5 billion years old.

London, Aug. 19 : Air passengers travelling to British airports will now have their faces scanned and identities checked by machines under plans to be announced.

Thousands of passengers are already being scanned in a trial being carried out at two airports.

However if the trials prove successful, ministers want the machines to replace most front line airport immigration officer over the next five years, reports The Telegraph.

As well as improving security, the government hopes the computers will cut passenger congestion. The machines take 13-15 seconds per passenger, while a human takes 20 seconds.

London, Aug 19 : Germany might be a fairly rainy and wet place, but water in the country is more expensive than anywhere else on the planet, according to a new survey.

At 1.50 pounds per 1000 litres, prices are four times as much as in America, and twice as much as in parched Australia.

Britons on average pay 1.18 pounds for the same amount, a little less than the Belgians.

"We have masses of water. It''s just that the water companies let everything leak into the rivers. Germans are being ripped off because our politicians are useless. Everything has been run wrong for 20 years," the Telegraph quoted one reader, as stating in Die Welt newspaper.

London, Aug. 19: A terror cell caught with details of bomb making and suicide vests may have been plotting to attack Queen Elizabeth and members of the Royal family.

According to The Telegraph, the cell, which included Britain''s youngest ever terrorist; was found with information about the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh along with the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Earl of Wessex and the Princess Royal.

Also on the list were Princess Michael of Kent, The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and The Duke and Duchess of Kent.

Aabid Hussain Khan, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, had compiled pictures, maps and details of the opening hours of official residences from information available on the Internet.

London - A double-decker bus collided with a car on a narrow road Monday evening near an amusement park in Staffordshire, veered down an embankment and overturned in a residential garden in a wreck that killed one man and left 70 other occupants of the bus injured.

The bus passengers were described as Lithuania, South African and Polish farm workers who had spent the day at the Alton Towers theme park. The dead man was not yet identified overnight.

At least two of the injured were airlifted to nearby hospitals after the accident, which occurred about 6 pm (1700 GMT).

Five people were hospitalized overnight with serious injuries, including two victims in critical condition.

London - Stallholders in the English town of Hexham have been ordered to mute the cries they use to advertise their wares, sparking an outcry at the ending of an
800-year custom, British media reported Monday.

The local authority in the town with a population of around 11,000 issued the order silencing centuries of tradition in response to complaints from office workers who said they suffered from headaches as a result.