London, Oct 15 : Winston Churchill approved millions of dollars in bribes to prevent Spain’s General Franco from supporting Germany in Second World War, according to a new book.

Churchill apparently convinced Spanish banker Juan March to act as a secret agent, organising payments of millions of dollars to Franco’s generals in return for Franco agreeing not to side with Hitler.

London, Oct 15 : China will transform itself into a working democracy in just over a decade, according to one of the country’s most influential reformers.

Zhou Tianyong, an adviser to the Communist Party’s Central Committee and one of its most liberal voices, said that “by 2020, China will basically finish its political and institutional reforms.”

“We have a 12-year plan to establish a democratic platform. There will be public democratic involvement at all government levels,” he added.

Zhou also predicted of “extensive public participation in policy-making, such as drawing up new legislation.”

London, Oct 15 : The British government’s effort to push ahead with a counter-terrorism plan has sparked an outcry, as the government’s terrorism watchdog expressed alarm over the measure to create a “Big Brother” giant database to keep a tab on the activities of Britons.

Counter-terrorism measures for a “Big Brother” giant database were first announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in February under the ‘Intercept Modernisation Programme’.

The government’s terrorism watchdog has condemned the plan to create a giant database holding information about every phone call, email and internet visit made in the UK, The Independent reported.

London, Oct 15 : The BBC "is in its last stages," according to John Simpson, one of the corporation''s longest serving news reporters, who is expecting the sack soon "in horrible circumstances".

While in front of an audience at Cheltenham Literature Festival, the corporation''s World Affairs Editor told the future was bleak for the BBC as the licence fee was being "chopped away", reports the Independent.

The 64-year-old predicted he would eventually be fired by the "so and so''s" at the top revealing: "I hate them pretty much anyway."

Simpson who has visited 120 countries later softened and admitted he was "sort of" fond of the ''magnificent outfit''.

London, Oct 15 : Using cheap lenses like those used in CD players, scientists have devised a new way to collide individual photons and atoms, which may revolutionise quantum networks, making them cheaper and easier to build.

Collision of single atom with a single photon is vital for operating many prototype quantum communications methods, including quantum networks and sending data using "spooky action at a distance".

The new technique uses cheap lenses to transfer data between light and matter.

And, according to physicists from Singapore and Germany, the new method that Quantum communications offers theoretically unbreakable security by encoding data into the quantum characteristics of photons.

London, Oct 15 : Islam should be treated more sensitively by the media than Christianity, according to the director general of the BBC.