UK News: Householders flee as quake rocks Cumbria

BUILDINGS wobbled and the ground rumbled after an earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale shook Cumbria and neighbouring counties.

Residents went scurrying outside when the tremor struck just before 11pm in Coniston yesterday, lasting for up to a minute.

Top medic's flu warning

THE NHS risks being inundated with flu victims because of a "shockingly low" vaccine uptake, a senior doctor warned today. Professor Steve Field, the former chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, also said it was "ill-advised" not to have had a public awareness campaign about seasonal jabs.

UK 'trained elite police force accused of killings'

THE British government trained an elite police force in Bangladesh accused of extra-judicial killings and human rights violations, according to the latest cables revealed by WikiLeaks.

Members of paramilitary group the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were trained by British authorities in "investigative interviewing techniques" and "rules of engagement", according to wires from US ambassador to Dhaka James Moriarty sent in May 2009.

House prices set to fall

HOUSE prices look set to end 2011 two per cent lower than they started it but a shortage of homes on the market should prevent bigger price slides.

Property values are likely to continue falling during the coming months but a lack of supply should help to stabilise the market at some point during the first half of next year, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said.

Visit to the gents is no joke

LITTLE Britain stars David Walliams and Matt Lucas raised eyebrows while filming their new series - after nipping to the gents dressed as lay-dees. The duo filmed their forthcoming BBC1 comedy at a real airport and had to use the facilities while dressed as check-in girls.

Cambridge: Students from private schools are 55 times more likely to get a place at Cambridge or Oxford University than state school students who receive free school meals, a report by education charity The Sutton Trust claims.

Nottingham: Scientists have written what they believe is the world's smallest periodic table - on a strand of human hair. Experts at Nottingham University created the table, which is so small that one million of them could be replicated on a standard Post-it note, using a combination of an ion beam writer and electron microscope.