December 2006 in Britain and Ireland

• The oldest international rugby union stadium in the world, Dublin's Lansdowne Road, hosts its last game before renovation as Leinster defeat Ulster by twenty points to twelve. (RTÉ) (Irish Times)

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• Six people are killed when a Eurocopter AS365N crashes into the Irish Sea. The helicopter was ferrying workers from gas rigs in Morecambe Bay. (BBC) (The Times)

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• In her Christmas Message, the Queen calls for greater understanding between different generations. (BBC) (Speech in full)

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• The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, attacks the Government’s “shortsighted” policy on Iraq as placing Christians in the Middle East at risk. (BBC) (The Times)

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• Holiday travellers face chaos as thick fog leads to severe disruption at airports. (BBC) (Wikinews)

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• 2006 Ipswich [...] investigation: Suffolk police announce that Steven Wright has been charged with all five murders. (Suffolk Constabulary statement)
• Author J.K. Rowling announces that the final book in her Harry Potter series is to be titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (BBC) (Wikinews)

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• The €752 million, 5-kilometre Dublin Port Tunnel opens almost two years after its originally planned date. (RTÉ)
• The British Home Office announce plans to require foreign nationals living in Britain to have biometric ID cards. (Guardian Unlimited)

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• 2006 Ipswich [...] investigation: Police investigating the [...] of five women in Ipswich, Suffolk arrest a second man on suspicion of their murders. (BBC)

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• 2006 Ipswich [...] investigation - Police arrest a 37 year old man in Trimley St. Martin near Felixstowe on suspicion of the murders of five prostitutes. (BBC) (Guardian)

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• Operation Paget, the inquiry into the death in 1997 of Diana, Princess of Wales headed by Lord Stevens, a former chief of the Metropolitan Police, concludes that there were no suspicious circumstances and that the fatal car crash in which she died was a 'tragic accident'. (BBC)
• Prime Minister Tony Blair is interviewed by police investigating cash for honours allegations. (BBC)

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• Detectives in Suffolk are now linking the deaths of five young women whose bodies have been found in recent days in the Ipswich area. (BBC News)

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• Detectives in Suffolk investigating the murders of two [...] workers from Ipswich, reveal the body of a third prostitute has been found and a fourth has now been reported missing. (BBC News)

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• Suffolk police launch a double [...] hunt after the body of the second of two missing prostitutes is found in a brook near the town of Ipswich. (BBC News)

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• Six people are injured and several houses are damaged as a tornado hits the Kensal Rise area of North London. (BBC News)

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• A major fire and explosions at a firework factory near Ringmer, East Sussex, kills two members of the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and leaves nine others injured. Emergency services set up a 200 metre exclusion zone around the scene, but are unable to tackle the fire due to continuing explosions and risk from nearby acetylene cylinders. (BBC News)

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