The New Year is always a good time to reflect on the year that has passed. ALEX BRUCE-SMITH looks back on a year in London, from shopping to shandys in the sun.

As 2012 comes to a close, we look at the top stories dominating headlines back home in Australia, and what caught your interest here on AustralianTimes.co.uk.

The Guardian is set to expand its operation Down Under in a collaborative venture with not-for-profit news website The Global Mail, the Evening Standard has reported.

Home and Away has topped the list of Australians most searched for TV shows reveals Google statistics on the most searched for words in 2012. Also attracting Australia’s interest? How to “love”, what is “permeate”, and images of “troll face”.

Every year Google releases lists of the most searched for terms in its annual Zeitgeist report. This year’s lists shows Australia to be a country obsessed with celebrity and reality TV. Here are the full lists of search terms most Googled in 2012 by Australians.

Facebook has revealed the top mentions, songs and check-ins in Australia this year, with One Direction topping the list of the most talked about thing on the social media forum.

The object of initial interest, the royal fetus is all but forgotten as the amoeba of public outrage and opinion over the Royal prank call and the subsequent death of a nurse involved, shape-shifts faster than the media that created it.

Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy ruled out any A-League expansion for at least four years as he hailed the sport’s long-awaited multi-million dollar broadcast rights deal.

INTERVIEW I Ashleigh Lawrence talks to PAUL BLEAKLEY about filming in Bournemouth, honing her craft in LA and how ‘webisodes’ could be the making of young Aussie actors.

Allegations of a prevalent misogynistic culture in Australian media newsrooms continue to circulate, with UK based former Australian newsreader Jo Pearson confirming her similar experience in the “boys’ club” media world of the 1980s and 1990s. Do these attitudes still continue, and could the answer lie with the BBC?

A former Age photographer is suing the newspaper for job trauma, claiming it failed to provide a safe working environment.

The race that stops a nation in Australia has stumped the UK media, with coverage they claim demonstrates that Australia’s grandest event is “going to the dogs”.

TWEETS OF THE WEEK | Conrad Black, former owner of the Daily Telegraph, has labelled Murdoch a ‘psychopath’ and likened him to Stalin. Let’s find out what else people are saying about Rupert this week.

Former media magnate Conrad Black has labelled Rupert Murdoch a “psychopath” and compared the News Corp boss to Joseph Stalin.

It has suddenly dawned on me; the Leveson Inquiry won’t go on forever. But my cravings are only getting worse.

GO HARD OR GO HOME | I refuse to give in to the taunts. I’ll continue to talk the Australian way, because calling White Out ‘Tipp-Ex’ is just not cricket.

Australian punk paparazzi king-pin Darryn Lyons enters the new UK Celebrity Big Brother house, but no Charlie Sheen.

Veteran journalist Paul Lockyer is reportedly among three ABC employees killed when their helicopter crashed in remote South Australia.

An internal review into scandal hit News Corporation’s Australian arm is under way.