News Headlines - 05 January 2015

▽Queen and Prince Philip to visit Germany - Telegraph

The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, will make a state visit to Germany in June, it has been announced.
Buckingham Palace said they have been invited by Joachim Gauck, German's federal president, in their first visit to the country since 2004.
The royal couple will visit from Wednesday, June 24 to Friday, June 26.

▽The next tech frontier to conquer: Better batteries - CBS News

But some Stanford researchers claim to have overcome the problems, at least in theory. "In practical terms, if we can triple the energy density and simultaneously decrease the cost four-fold, that would be very exciting," said Yi Cui, a Stanford professor of materials science and engineering and one of the researchers, in a university news release. "We would have a cell phone with triple the battery life and an electric vehicle with a 300-mile range that cost $25,000 -- and with better performance than an internal combustion engine car getting 40 mpg."

▽BBC News - 2014 confirmed as UK's warmest year

Last year was the UK's warmest since records began in 1910, the Met Office has said.
It was also the warmest year in the Central England Temperature series, which dates back to 1659, and is the longest running record of its type.
The UK's mean temperature for the year was 9.9C - that is 0.2 degrees higher than the previous record set in 2006.

▽‘Ghost in the Shell': Scarlett Johansson Signs On to Star (EXCLUSIVE) | Variety

Johansson is set to star in DreamWorks’ adaptation of the popular anime pic “Ghost in the Shell.” Deadline Hollywood had reported that the actress had the offer to star but at the time she was still undecided about taking the role. Sources now say she has agreed to star in the pic.

▽U2's Bono may never play guitar again

Bono, the frontman of the Irish rock group U2 who was injured in a cycling accident last year, said on Friday his recovery has not been easy and he may never play guitar again.