London - British savers with too much cash to hide under the mattress have been buying up household safes to protect their wealth from the global market turmoil, the Times newspaper said Thursday.

One company said that sales had increased by a quarter, while another said that its staff had received calls from panicking investors who now wanted to keep their savings locked away at home.

London  - Local authority leaders in Britain were seeking urgent talks with the government Thursday after it emerged that up to 20 councils and London's transport operators have investments of hundreds of millions of pounds with Iceland-based banks.

The local councils, including some in Central London districts, want the government to protect their investments in the same way as it has pledged to guarantee savers' deposits.

London, Oct 9 : A new phase change material with the potential to change the design of future memory storage devices has been invented by scientists at Singapore ASTAR''s Data Storage Institute (DSI).

Phase change materials can modify their structure between amorphous and crystalline at high speed.

The materials, these days, are used to make Phase change memory (PCM), considered to be the most promising alternative to replace FLASH memory.

Usually, PCM is worked by changing phase change materials'' structure through applying an electric current. But now, phase change can be initiated by means of switching the new phase change materials by using magnetic fields, reports Nature.

London, October 9 : A painful and disfiguring disease called elephantiasis may be wiped out by 2020, say experts.

Also known as Lymphatic filariasis (LF), this disease is caused by parasitic worms and causes grotesque swelling of the limbs, breasts and genitals.

A World Health Organisation-sponsored drive is said to have delivered 1.9 billion doses of a simple cure since 2000, and pharmaceutical firms have reportedly offered drugs free, keeping costs minimal.

London - The London stock market rebounded in early trading Thursday, which saw the Financial Times Share Index rise by 3 per cent while banking shares were up again sharply.

The recovery was led by banks expected to tap the government for new capital pledged in a 50-billion-pound (87-billion-dollar) package Wednesday, and boosted by gains on Far Eastern markets as well as the global interest rate cuts.

Shares in Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) were up nearly 30 per cent Thursday, while Royal Bank of Scotland shares rose by 16 per cent.

London, Oct 9 : Secondary school pupils in Britain are abandoning books for the Internet, according to a new research.

Jonathan Douglas, the director of the National Literacy Trust, said that publishers must adapt titles to the demands of modern young readers who spend more time on the Internet if they are to succeed in persuading the next generation to read.

The typical eight-year-old reads nearly 16 books a year but, by the time they reach 15 or 16, this has dwindled to just over three books per year.