How to limit characters in activity list?

Hi,

maybe someone knows how to limit characters in latest activity list on index page? For example group description can be very long and whole description appears in the latest activity block. How can I limit display characters number?

I use this code for the latest activity:

<!-- latest activity -->
        <div id="index_box">
            <div id="lactivity">
            <a href="<?php echo $vars['url']; ?>mod/riverdashboard/" title="Home"><h2><?php echo elgg_echo("Latest Activity"); ?></h2></a>
            <div class="IndexBoxContent">
                <?php set_context('search');
                $content = list_registered_entities(0,8,true,false,array('object','group'));
                $content = elgg_view_layout('', '', $title . $content);
                echo $content;?>
                <a href="dashboard/latest.php"><span>more ...</span></a>
            </div>
            <div class="clearfloat"/></div>
        </div>

I don't want to limit group description in add form. Problem is in latest activity list or latest group list on index page - I would like to limit there description length. for example now is:

NEW GROUP
very long new group description here

I would like to have this:

NEW GROUP
very long new group descr.... read more

Problem is simple - if you have very long group description, your latest activity column also will be very very long.

Best regards,

web.take.away