General news

• New Year 2015: Google celebrates the end of 2014 with a fireworks Doodle on its homepage

  31-12-2014 23:14
  
  Google has celebrated the first day of 2015, with a colourful Doodle on its homepage.
  
  Read more

• Castle event off because of winds

  31-12-2014 23:11
  
  Hogmanay celebrations on Stirling Castle's esplanade have been cancelled due to high winds.
  
  Read more

• Things can only get better: shares end year with £46bn wiped off

  31-12-2014 22:56
  
  The stock market ended 2014 with a whimper, signing off a year which saw more than £46bn wiped off the value of Britain’s biggest companies.
  
  Read more

• Our New Year jargon guide: The words we'll miss in 2015

  31-12-2014 22:54
  
  Bedroom Tax joined Mansion Tax in the financial dictionary during 2014. Every year, new terms are created or adapted – the former Thomas Cook boss Harriet Green declared herself a landa (part-lion, part-panda) – while others disappear into obscurity. Goodbye to War Loan, for instance, now it is being redeemed.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Market Report: Hopes of a last-chance 2014 rally dashed

  31-12-2014 22:50
  
  Any hopes of a last-chance 2014 rally came and went by lunchtime as the half-day final trades of the year played out.
  
  Read more

• Sarah Hogg joins board of Times Newspapers

  31-12-2014 22:49
  
  Times Newspapers has appointed Baroness Hogg, the serial City director and former business editor of The Independent, to its board.
  
  Read more

• Golden era is over, former Aldi boss Paul Foley warns supermarkets

  31-12-2014 22:47
  
  A “golden era” for the UK’s supermarkets is over thanks to the discounters, which will double in size and take £1 in every £5 spent on UK groceries, according to the former boss of Aldi.
  
  Read more

• City Link Confirms Thousands Of Jobs Lost

  31-12-2014 22:39
  
  The administrators of courier firm City Link have announced 2,356 job losses after a bid to buy the company failed.
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• New Year 2015: At least 35 killed and 42 injured in Shanghai stampede

  31-12-2014 22:30
  
  At least 35 people died and 42 were injured during New Year celebrations in Shanghai when thousands of people stampeded.
  
  Read more

• New Year 2014: At least 35 killed and 42 injured in Shanghai stampede

  31-12-2014 22:30
  
  At least thirty five people have died following a stampede during Shanghai's New Year's celebrations, China's Xinhua news agency reported.
  
  Read more

• China New Year's Eve crush: At least 36 killed and 47 injured in Shanghai stampede

  31-12-2014 22:30
  
  At least 36 people have been killed and 47 were injured during New Year celebrations in Shanghai when thousands of people stampeded.
  
  Read more

• Hogmanay celebrations under way

  31-12-2014 22:29
  
  Hogmanay celebrations have got under way in Scotland's capital as thousands of revellers arrived to bring in the new year.
  
  Read more

• New Year 2014: from Sydney to Beijing, the best photos from celebrations around the world

  31-12-2014 22:25
  From Sydney to Hong Kong, spectacular fireworks displays have lit up skies across the world as it gradually turns 2015 in every time zone.
  
  Read more

• Thousands Of City Link Workers Lose Their Jobs

  31-12-2014 22:11
  
  The administrators of courier firm City Link have announced 2,356 job losses after a bid to buy the company failed.
  
  Read more

• The 2015 Climate change target: 192 nations, two weeks of negotiations – and one world to save

  31-12-2014 22:01
  
  In what is widely regarded as the last chance to save the world from the worst ravages of climate change, 192 nations have pledged to agree a global treaty at a two-week negotiating marathon in Paris at the end of 2015 – setting themselves the most ambitious political task in history.
  
  Read more

• VIDEO: Supermarkets cut petrol prices

  31-12-2014 21:55 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Four of the UK's major supermarkets are cutting the price of fuel from 1 January 2015 to take the price of petrol to a five-year low.
  
  Read more

• What to expect in 2015

  31-12-2014 21:47
  
  Outside fairly narrow bounds, prediction is a fool’s game. That does not mean, though, that we cannot look forward to what we hope for, and what we fear will transpire. Much that will happen is happening already: Ebola, Isis, a wobbly global economic recovery. We know that Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un will continue to provoke; and we know, too, that a lame-duck President Obama is in no position to do much about them or anything else. Even so, we may look enviously at the US as we undergo diz
  
  Read more

• New Year 2015 LIVE: Britain counts down to London and Edinburgh firework displays

  31-12-2014 21:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  BRITAIN prepares to ring in the new year with a series of spectacular firework displays.
  
  Read more

• Thousands of City Link jobs lost

  31-12-2014 21:07
  
  Nearly 2,400 job losses have been announced by the administrators of delivery company City Link.
  
  Read more

• 'Insurgent' parties gaining support from voters

  31-12-2014 21:02
  
  All the established parties at Westminster have had a poor 2014. Labour’s support has dropped by six points in our poll of polls, leaving the party barely any more popular than it was five years ago. It still has a lead over the Conservatives only because support for the senior coalition partner has edged down three points too.
  
  Read more

• Unhappy New Year for Cameron, Miliband and Clegg: They face most unpredictable general election in a generation

  31-12-2014 21:00
  
  Britain is heading for the most unpredictable general election in a generation as voters turn their backs on the established parties, the Independent’s latest poll of polls discloses.
  
  Read more

• Second man held over robbery death

  31-12-2014 20:59
  
  A second man has been arrested in connection with the death of a retired caretaker who was attacked during a robbery at his home on Christmas Day.
  
  Read more

• Dame Butler-Sloss: Abuse inquiry should not be run by victims

  31-12-2014 20:57
  Baroness Butler-Sloss, who stood down earlier this year as the head of the public inquiry into historical child abuse, has said that victims should not have too much influence over who runs the proceedings.
  
  Read more

• Walmart shooting: Campaigners urge parents to prevent guns falling into hands of children

  31-12-2014 20:50
  
  The purse in which Veronica Rutledge was carrying her small calibre handgun was a gift from her husband. Both were crazy about guns and the specially-designed purse he gave her last week on Christmas Day contained a zipper pocket for a weapon
  
  Read more

• A&E departments under 'intense pressure' on New Year's Eve

  31-12-2014 20:33
  
  A&E departments around the country reported intense pressures today ahead of one of the busiest nights for ambulance call outs.
  
  Read more

• Make divorce tougher on women, says leading lawyer

  31-12-2014 20:25
  
  A leading peer is calling for the divorce law to be tougher on women as she believes the current system teaches them to go out “and find a footballer.”
  
  Read more

• The Duke of Wellington: Military man whose valour during the Second World War upheld the traditions of his celebrated family line

  31-12-2014 20:15
  Arthur Valerian Wellesley, the eighth Duke of Wellington, fought the French and performed his duty for his country in Spain, just as his great ancestor did.
  
  Read more

• Rome Statute: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signs up, paving way for Israel war crimes probe by ICC

  31-12-2014 20:07
  
  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed the Rome Statute today as part of a move to join the International Criminal Court (ICC), a day after a bid for independence by 2017 failed at the United Nations Security Council.
  
  Read more

• Faith and free schools 'breed social and racial segregation,' warns leading campaigner

  31-12-2014 20:01
  Segregation between different classes and ethnicities in Britain is worsening due to increasing numbers of faith schools and the opening of free schools, a leading campaigner on social equality has warned.
  
  Read more

• Bright young things: 10 faces to watch in 2015

  31-12-2014 19:58
  
  Our critics choose the faces to watch in 2015,  from a soaring dance sensation to a feminist artist, a rising voice of radio and the new stars of stage, screen and music.
  
  Read more

• Cancer is 'best death' so don't try to cure it, says doctor

  31-12-2014 19:55
  
  Dying of cancer is the “best death” and we should “stop wasting billions trying to cure” it, a leading doctor has said.
  
  Read more

• Runner does 2,014km for charity

  31-12-2014 19:54
  
  A kind-hearted runner ended 2014 having run 2,014 kilometres in aid of her friend's childhood cancer charity.
  
  Read more

• Four 'chase and hold armed robber'

  31-12-2014 19:49 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Four people chase and hold an armed man who was attempting to rob a bank in south-east London, the Met Police say.
  
  Read more

• VIDEO: Experimental drug for UK Ebola nurse

  31-12-2014 19:38 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A British nurse infected with Ebola is receiving an unnamed experimental drug as part of her treatment, a doctor confirms.
  
  Read more

• New York police arrests tumble by two-thirds amid row with Mayor Bill de Blasio

  31-12-2014 19:28
  
  The number of arrests made by police in New York city has tumbled by as much as 66 per cent amid a bitter disagreement between officers and the city’s civilian leadership. The number of citations for traffic offences and minor crimes has fallen by as much as 90 per cent.
  
  Read more

• Who will be the stars of 2015? Featuring Harrison Reed, Kid Galahad, Max Verstappen and Borna Coric

  31-12-2014 19:26
  
  Dina Asher-Smith (Athletics) by Matt Majendie
  
  Read more

• Wigan owner Whelan banned and fined

  31-12-2014 19:25 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Wigan owner Dave Whelan is given a six-week ban and £50,000 fine by the FA for his comments on Jewish and Chinese people.
  
  Read more

• Car ploughs into front of shop

  31-12-2014 19:22 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A couple are "extremely fortunate" to escape serious injury when their car ploughs into the front of a shop in Coventry, the ambulance service says.
  
  Read more

• Pulis to be appointed West Brom boss

  31-12-2014 19:21 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Former Stoke boss Tony Pulis is set to be confirmed as the new West Bromwich Albion head coach.
  
  Read more

• Facebook’s newest feature has brought the internet down on its head

  31-12-2014 19:14
  There’s an image doing the rounds online which features a frosty looking Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey. “My dear,” runs the caption, “nobody cares about your Year In Facebook.”
  
  Read more

• Budget airlines spread wings and go transatlantic - reducing costs for holidaymakers

  31-12-2014 19:14
  
  Holiday costs to America will reduce for many travellers this year thanks to a new budget-airline route across the Atlantic and increasing opportunities for people to arrange their own cheap stopover flights via Iceland.
  
  Read more

• Man dies after lorry collision

  31-12-2014 19:12 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A 50-year-old man dies after a collision involving a recycling lorry on Bridge Street in Inverness.
  
  Read more

• Christmas Day robbery victim dies

  31-12-2014 19:10 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A 61-year-old man assaulted during a robbery at his home on Christmas Day dies in hospital.
  
  Read more

• New year, old you: Some alternative resolutions

  31-12-2014 19:07
  Hope you enjoyed the sausage rolls, the tumblers of Baileys and the Lidl five-bird roast while you could, because today marks the start of the annual self-flagellation that is the phenomenon of “New Year, New You”. Touted by magazines, breakfast television and well-meaning friends, we’re supposed to grab ourselves by the shoulders and force ourselves to become the person we know that we really should be – rich, thin, with loads of lovely friends. Last year, in my role as editor of Femin
  
  Read more

• Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers stinging attack on Germany's growing anti-Islamic protest movement

  31-12-2014 19:05
  
  Chancellor Angela Merkel used her New Year’s address to deliver her most outspoken attack to date on Germany’s growing anti-Islamic protest movement.
  
  Read more

• Witnesses claim French ‘terror’ suspect was victim of police brutality

  31-12-2014 19:01
  
  French authorities have rejected allegations that an apparent “terrorist” attack on a police station last month was a disguised case of police brutality.
  
  Read more

• Warning over abuse inquiry victims

  31-12-2014 19:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Baroness Butler-Sloss cautions against victims being given too much influence in the public inquiry into historical child sex abuse.
  
  Read more

• Rugby star is 'mystery' race runner

  31-12-2014 19:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Wales and British and Irish Lions rugby star Adam Jones is the mystery runner for the 2014 Nos Galan road race.
  
  Read more

• Walkers airlifted from Shetland hill

  31-12-2014 18:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Two walkers are airlifted to safety from Ronas Hill in Shetland after becoming lost in foggy conditions.
  
  Read more

• The formula for fame and fortune in South Korea? Teach maths

  31-12-2014 18:52
  
  Clasping his headphones and closing his eyes as he sings into the studio microphone while performing a duet with one of South Korea’s hottest actresses, Cha Kil-yong looks every bit the K-pop star.
  
  Read more

Follow @GeneralnewsUK on Twitter!