London, Aug 9 : Sebastian Faulks’ ‘Birdsong’ and Eric Carle’s ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ are the top two publications of a dozen that booksellers must keep on their shelves at all times, says market research firm Nielsen.

The firm’s BookScan research of 1.8 million titles reveals that only 12 have appeared in the top 5,000 selling books every week for the last decade, making them the most consistent sellers.

Some books on the wide-ranging list might make the odd literary editor weep.

London, Aug 9 : When it comes to love, Brits sure like it kinky – a new survey has found that women in the UK are more likely to indulge in phone sex and one in three admit they have tried spanking.

The survey revealed that a quarter of men and a third of women have experimented with punishment sex play.

The UK Sex Report, 2008, also discovered a steamy 48 per cent said they’ve enjoyed phone sex – with 50 per cent of women and 44 per cent of men admitting they like talking dirty.

London, Aug. 9 : A deal that would establish a timeline for U. S. combat troops to withdraw from Iraq is not as close as recent reports would indicate, a senior U. S. official said on Friday.

"We don''t have a deal yet," the official from the U. S. Embassy in Baghdad said.

"Every time it looks like it''s in shape, it takes another twist and turn," the official said on the condition of anonymity because the discussions are ongoing.

London, August 9 : Japanese researchers have proposed an idea to use stretchy circuits made from rubber and nanotubes to create an “e-skin”, which will be flexible enough to completely cover a robot without limiting its movement.

"Without human skin-like sensitivity, robots cannot be used in everyday life. Imagine the danger if a robot did not recognise when it had accidentally bumped into a young child," New Scientist magazine quoted Takao Someya of the University of Tokyo as saying.

He has already developed a rubbery conductor, that can be stretched by 38 per cent without any drop in its conductivity. 

He says that a net of it was still working after being stretched by 134 per cent, though with a drop in conductivity.

London, Aug 9 : A hand-written letter from the wife of Sir Winston Churchill has been found by police during a drugs raid at a house in Mexborough, South Yorkshire.

British officers found the letter and three cheques mounted on a card inside a plastic sleeve with a quantity of heroin.

The note from Clementine Churchill thanks a woman for making a donation to a Red Cross fund of which she was the president.

Police want to trace the owner of the letter, which is dated 1942.

London, Aug 9 : Forget going green and turning off air-conditioners, the best way to combat climate change is eating kangaroos, at least that’s what a group of Australia boffins say.

According to a study, farming and consuming more kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep will reduce carbon gas emissions.

The scientific journal Conservation Letters says that the Australian icon produces far less methane than sheep and cattle. Methane is one of the worst causes of greenhouse gas and in Australia alone sheep and cattle produce 11 per cent of the nation’s total emissions.