Warmest year ever for UK

2014 was the hottest year on record for the UK. It was also the fourth-wettest.

Here in the UK the weather has been recorded in two ways. The whole country's weather has been recorded since 1910, but there are also records for central England which go back to 1659.

The records show that last year's average temperature was 9.9C, which is 1.1C more than the long term average. It was also hotter than the earlier hottest year.

The records also show that eight of the UK's ten hottest years have happened since 2002, and five of the six wettest years since 2000. Experts say this shows climate change is affecting the weather. 

Footballers in the news

There is always a lot of football news in the UK. But stories are not often as funny as this one. Phil Neville played 59 times for England and won six Premier League titles with Manchester United. But he has never made a cup of instant coffee before this week.

Neville, who is 37 years old, said he had to learn how to make coffee when a journalist came to his house to do an interview. He asked the journalist what he would like to drink, and the answer was coffee. Neville says he thought: "How do I do that?"

He rang his wife to ask how to do it. 

Oldest children can help their brothers and sisters to succeed

Researchers have found that oldest children who do well at school can help their younger brothers and sisters to do well too.

Having a big brother or sister is the same as having GBP 670 spent on you at school. The benefit is twice as much if the family are at the same school. The research team say the big brothers and sisters can help by teaching younger ones, helping with homework or gives important information by school. Younger children can also be helped by trying to do as well as their older brothers and sisters by doing similar things, or by trying to do well at very different things.

A new way to tell if people are lying

Lie-detector machines have been used for almost a hundred years. They usually check to see if people's hearts beat faster or if they sweat more as they are asked questions. Now researchers in Britain have found a new and better way to find out if people are telling the truth. They have created a special suit that detects how much people are moving as they answer questions.

Professor Ross Anderson of Cambridge University, who is helping to develop the new machine, says that old-fashioned lie detectors were right 60 per cent of the time. The new machine is 70 per cent accurate and in some tests more than 80 per cent accurate.