Around one billion stars in the Milky Way can be seen together for the first time in an image captured over a decade by astronomers.

Aston Villa have failed to extend Robbie Keane's loan period. The Irish striker will return to Los Angeles Galaxy after the match at Wigan on 25 February.

Those who know him only as the ribald host of the Golden Globes in Hollywood will be unaware that Ricky Gervais was once Britain's most strikingly prescient socio-political satirist. Long before last year's outbreak of "mong" warfare on Twitter, Gervais produced an uncannily accurate predictive metaphor for the Tory attitude towards the disabled, on view this week as the Welfare Reform Bill wended its contentious way through the Lords.

First, Brian Cox made science TV-friendly.

People-carrier that sacrifices oomph for economy

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David Beckham had a hand in both goals as the Los Angeles Galaxy beat the New York Red Bulls 2-1 to book their place in the MLS Western Conference final. The Galaxy led going into the game after a 1-0 win in the first leg and they finished the job at the Home Depot Center in LA.

Robbie Keane was yesterday revealed to be the fourth highest-paid player in America's Major League Soccer following his transfer to Los Angeles Galaxy. The 31-year-old Irish striker is being paid $3.4m (£2.2m) a year plus bonuses.

It is fair to say that Mark Everett - otherwise known as E, and the man behind Eels – has not always been known as the most cheerful of chaps. In his 2008 memoir Things the Grandchildren Should Know, he documents his rather tragic family history, events that have inspired a lot of the many downbeat moments found across Eels' nine albums.

This is very probably what we look like to the passing inter-galactic traveller.

Astronomers may have detected the most distant and ancient object ever seen, a massive explosion that lit up the early universe soon after its birth. When the blast, known as a gamma ray burst (GRB), detonated, the universe was less than 4 per cent of its present age and 10 per cent of its present size.