London - Nationalized Northern Rock mortgage lender was Friday accused of being the "most aggressive" among British banks on the sensitive issue of home repossessions, a charge it immediately rejected.

A BBC report, based on information gained from charities linked to mortgage lending, said Northern Rock, Britain's fifth-biggest lender, was twice as likely as other banks to move to repossess a home.

"There's not a lot of flexibility being shown by Northern Rock," Chris Tapp, director of the charity Credit Action, said. "They are not giving people a lot of time, they seem to be moving for repossessions quite quickly as a resort."

London - The lavish gardens of Buckingham Palace, accessible only to those invited by Queen Elizabeth II, will be open to the public for the first time in their 200-year-history next year, it was announced Friday.

At 16 hectares, the space is the biggest private garden in the heart of London, open only to invited guests at summer garden parties and other celebratory events.

But from 2009, groups of up to 25 people will be able to book a tour on selected dates in April, May and June for 20 pounds (35 dollars) per head.

Attractions include a wisteria-clad summer house, a rose garden, a romantic lake, wild flowers and mature trees. The garden is home to 30 species of birds and a quarter of the total British list of moths and butterflies.

London, Oct 17 : The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) has warned that citizens and nations alike have increasingly become victim to cyber crime in the past year, costing tens of millions of dollars and threatening US security.

According to a report in New Scientist, FBI assistant director Shawn Henry said that as many as two dozen countries have taken an “aggressive interest” in penetrating the networks of US companies and government agencies.

London, Oct 17 : A British museum expedition has uncovered new evidence about the power of a Sudanese civilization that dominated ancient Egypt from 720BC to 660BC.

According to a report in the Telegraph, archaeologists have discovered that a region of northern Sudan that was considered a forgotten backwater was once actually “a real power-base”.

They discovered a ruined pyramid containing fine gold jewellery dating from about 700BC on a remote un-navigable 100-mile stretch of the Nile known as the Fourth Cataract, plus pottery from as far away as Turkey.

Other finds included numerous examples of ancient rock art and ‘musical’ rocks that were tapped to create a melodic sound.

London, Oct 17 : Astronomers have found two very different galaxies in the distant Universe involved in a spectacular collision, which reveal that colossal black holes were common in the early Universe.

New observations made with the Submillimeter Array of telescopes in Hawaii suggest that black holes that were thought to exist in many, if not all, galaxies, were common even in the early Universe, when galaxies were just beginning to form.

4C60.07 – the first of the galaxies to be discovered – came to astronomers’ attention because of its bright radio emission.

This radio signature is one telltale sign of a quasar – a black hole, spinning rapidly, feeding on its parent galaxy.

London, Oct 17 : A string of police raids in Britain and across the Continent has established a link between terrorism plots and hardcore child pornography.

The Times has discovered that images of child abuse have been found during Scotland Yard anti-terrorism swoops and in big inquiries in Italy and Spain.

Secret coded messages are being embedded into child pornographic images, and paedophile websites are being exploited as a secure way of passing information between terrorists.

British security services are also aware of the trend and believe that it requires further investigation to improve understanding of terrorists’ methods and mindsets.