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Singer-songwriter and The Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan has died aged 65, following ill-health and a recent hospital stay after being diagnosed with encephalitis. The musician, whose hits include 1987's Fairytale of New York and A Pair of Brown Eyes, had been unwell for some time. MacGowan also had well-documented problems with drugs and alcohol. His wife Victoria Mary Clarke said MacGowan "meant the world to me". Posting on Instagram, she wrote: "I don't know how to say this so I am just going to say it. Shane... has gone to be with Jesus and Mary and his beautiful mother Therese."

Let me begin this column by informing the reader that I am a freak for Christmas songs. I'm the guy who whistles "Jingle Bells" in the grocery store; who starts the Christmas CDs before Thanksgiving. And if you pull up next to me at a red light when "O Holy Night" happens to be playing on my car radio, you might very well hear me singing through two panes of crash-proof, side-windshield glass, my arms flailing un-rhythmically like the poor shlubs in the commercials announcing a new season of American Idol. To me, this is the hap-hap-happiest season of all....

Australian fans are delighted after the International Rugby Board gave the go-ahead for "Waltzing Matilda" to be sung before Wallabies' matches at the World Cup. Reuters Photo Australian Prime Minister John Howard led a chorus of dismay after the IRB ruled last month that only a country's national anthem could be sung before Cup games. But after considering a request from the Australian Rugby Union, IRB directors meeting on Friday decided to let Matilda rip at the tournament in Australia starting on October 10. "(We) recognise the importance and significance of Waltzing Matilda to the Australian nation," the IRB said....