UK News

Gong Xi Fa Chi from the Exeter Daily as celebrations for Chinese new year 2014 get underway. The 15 day Spring Festival, this year marks the beginning of the Year of the Horse, the seventh animal of the Chinese zodiac. Legend goes that horses used to have wings and could fly, swim and run equally fast. A horse that served as the mount of the mythological Jade Emperor became so arrogant that it forced its way into the Dragon King's Palace after killing its guardian.

This infuriated the Jade Emperor, who had the horse's wings chopped off and imprisoned it underneath the Kunlun...

A rare, warm water Kemp’s Ridley turtle has washed up on Woolacombe Beach, North Devon.

The small dead turtle was reported to the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) on Tuesday 28 January.

Just 30cm in length, the creature is not the first Kemp’s ridley to be washed up along the UK coastline this winter. According to Dr Peter Richardson, MCS Biodiversity Programme Manager: "Two weeks ago, another Kemp’s ridley was discovered on a beach in Carmarthenshire by a woman out walking her dogs. In December, a Kemp’s ridley washed up alive in South West Wales but died shortly after....

MPs today said that Buckingham Palace should be opened to more paying visitors when the Queen is not in residence to fund improvements to the royal estate.

The influential Public Accounts Committee criticised the Royal Household for mismanaging its finances.

Chairwoman Margaret Hodge said there was "huge scope for savings" on the annual £31m of taxpayer funds given to the Queen to spend on official duties.

But a spokeswoman for the royals said spending was now more transparent.

The Sovereign Grant replaced the old Civil List and grants-in-aid system in 2012...

The UK economy has had its fastest growth since 2007,with UK GDP growing by 1.9% of in 2013 according to a report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). GDP used as the primary measure of a country’s economic growth, grew by 0.7% in the last quarter of 2013, down slightly on the 0.8% growth seen in the third quarter. While growth is at the highest it has been for several years it is still below pre-recession levels. Most of the main industrial areas of the UK also saw increased output in the last quarter with only the construction industry, which accounts for less 8% of GDP,...