A happy New Year to all readers of The First Post

The Mole packs up for Christmas

The editors - and the Mole - are taking a break and will be back on January 4

LAST UPDATED AT 12:22 ON Thu 24 Dec 2009

The editors of The First Post would like to wish all their regular readers a happy Christmas and a successful New Year. We are taking a break as of Christmas Eve and will not be posting new items until our return on Monday, January 4, when we will resume our full service of current affairs and sports coverage, including the popular Monday morning catch-up.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy two photo specials we are posting today:

The Noughties: a decade in pictures

Sport in the Noughties

Plus Alexander Cockburn's final column of the Noughties, in which he reflects on a decade overshadowed by 9/11.

Roll on 2010. ·