A professor who invented a forerunner of the world wide web is made a dame in the New Year Honours. Read more…

Childrenswear retailer Adams becomes the latest High Street chain to call in the administrators as consumer spending slows. Read more…

Festivities are beginning around the world to usher in 2009, with lavish fireworks displays in Australia and New Zealand. Read more…

The famous beards and moustaches of India - seen as representing the face of the country to the outside world - are under threat, a new book says. Read more…

Maria Sharapova is "hopeful" of being fit to defend her Australian Open title despite withdrawing from an exhibition event in Hong Kong. Read more…

A new raid by the Iranian authorities on an office of Nobel Peace Prize winner and lawyer Shirin Ebadi is widely condemned. Read more…

India's home minister says there is ample evidence on who carried out the Mumbai attacks and Pakistan is "in denial". Read more…

China's President Hu Jintao calls for talks with Taiwanese leaders to ease military and security tensions. Read more…

Two mergers between building societies are being completed on Wednesday although the sector says it is strong. Read more…

Opposition candidate John Atta Mills heads for the Ghana constituency which will decide the tight presidential run-off. Read more…

Women's clothing store chain Morgan goes into administration, the latest retailer to be hit by the consumer slowdown. Read more…

An international survey shows widely ranging web habits, with UK housewives spending the most leisure time online. Read more…

A Zimbabwe judge rules that 16 activists accused of organising military training must remain in jail. Read more…

The man accused of murdering three of actress Jennifer Hudson's family is indicted by a grand jury in Chicago. Read more…

A car bomb explodes near a Basque television station building in the city of Bilbao in northern Spain - no casualties are reported. Read more…

Sri Lanka win the first Test in Mirpur by 107 runs after bowling out a resilient Bangladesh for 413. Read more…

Asian shares see record falls in 2008 as the financial turmoil and economic slowdown ends the stock market boom. Read more…

The Russian gas dispute remains unresolved despite Ukraine saying it has paid Gazprom the money is owes. Read more…

Hollywood film actor Woody Harrelson weds his partner of 20 years at a ceremony in Maui, his spokeswoman says. Read more…

Broadway theatres have dimmed their lights in honour of playwright Harold Pinter, who died on Christmas Eve. Read more…

Rap star DMX pleads guilty to multiple charges in Arizona as part of a deal to settle three cases against him. Read more…

Do you remember the year's showbiz headlines? Read more…

2008's most memorable cinema moments Read more…

The former mayor of Vladikavkaz, in Russia's troubled North Caucasus, is shot dead in his car, local officials say. Read more…

Belgium's king appoints new PM Herman Van Rompuy, after a deal on a new government is clinched. Read more…