THE Salvation Army is warning that its North-East centres for the homeless could close unless it can raise £5m in donations. The organisation is to launch a national fundraising appeal on Saturday, to head off the threat to its services across the country
BOSSES at the beleaguered Friarage Hospital braved protestors at the NHS trust's annual general meeting and stressed the achievements of the last year. Chief executive Tony Bruce told a crowded meeting that despite the adverse publicity surrounding the
TOP GUN Kevin Phillips, who is struggling to reproduce the scintillating Sunderland form which made him the most lethal striker in Europe last season, blames an injury hangover for his current goal drought. The 27-year-old woke up in his French hotel
ABOUT 7,000 homes in the region were without power last night after spectacular lightning storms lit up the skies. Firefighters were called to the Hydro Polymers plant on the Aycliffe Industrial Estate, on the edge of Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, after
LABOUR MPs last night stepped up their battle to win the region a slice of vital government shipping orders worth over £1bn. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon is poised to announce whether shipbuilder Cammell Laird will share in a £1bn contract to build six
THE Government raised the prospect of petrol rationing last night after taking the first steps to use emergency powers to control fuel supplies. After a day in which garages saw chaotic scenes of panic buying, the Government announced it was prepared,
THE soldier killed in a swoop by Paratroopers on a jungle hideaway in Sierra Leone to free six captured British soldiers was named last night. Bombardier Brad Tinnion, of Harrogate, North Yorkshire who served with the Royal Artillery was killed during
A SECOND World War veteran has been reunited with the helmet he wore when he was shot down over Norway 58 years ago. John Morrison, 78, was a wireless operator on a Halifax bomber which took part in the attack on the Tirpitz in the Norwegian fjords in
GARDENERS and council staff are celebrating success in the North-East's floral awards for the sixth consecutive year. Yesterday, the winner of the Northumbria In Bloom Best City title was again announced as Darlington, sparking double celebrations in
WORK has begun to extend a Teesside business park which could lead to the creation of hundreds of new jobs. Ashtenne Holdings announced plans to put in a series of new roads and services at the Durham Lane Industrial Park in Eaglescliffe describing the
THE North-East has witnessed a spate of spectacular dragonfly and butterfly sightings which naturalists believe are the strongest indication yet that global warming is affecting the region's climate. Traditionally, most butterflies and dragonflies live
DETECTIVES investigating the murder North-East student Sara Cameron will tonight night issue a new appeal for witnesses to come forward. Finnish-born Sara was found murdered in a field just yards from her home in Earsdon, North Tyneside, on Friday, April
Britain's most unwanted dog is back in kennels after failing to settle with his new owners, it has emerged. Sandy, a 13-year-old wire-haired mongrel, found a new home after spending more than 11 years in a refuge in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear. The move
DARLINGTON boss Gary Bennett is backing his side to bounce back in tonight's tough test at Cheltenham. The Quakers suffered their first defeat of the season at Shrewsbury on Saturday, but Bennett said: "I don't think there is any reason to worry or panic
ONE NorthEast, the regional development agency, is often in the news for ambitious multi-million pound regeneration projects like Middlehaven in Middlesbrough and its property division is similarly going from strength to strength. Industrial and commercial
TAKE a peek through the keyhole of Number 11 Downing Street and you are likely to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer shovelling huge amounts of cash into a war chest. It's his fighting fund, or at least the Government's, and he is busy filling the chest
OVER the centuries, fortune tellers have used everything from tea leaves to offal to read the future. But now, one North-East restaurant is allowing customers to see what the future has in store over a pizza. Joegios Italian restaurant, in Front Street
NEWCASTLE United's new striking sensation Shola Ameobi is hoping to get another chance to make his mark on the Premiership after an impressive debut. The 6ft 2in, 18-year-old showed few nerves as he made an instant impression as a second half substitute
IT'S art with a heart week at a gallery where exhibits will be sold off to raise cash for a disabled group. The Glass Gallery, Medomsley Road, Consett, is holding a large scale sell-off of the work of 62 North-East artists to raise money for a local theatre
ONE of the region's fastest growing companies is taking its success South and has secured its first ever store in the capital. Men's retail chain The Officer's Club has exchanged contracts on a 3,500 sq ft flagship store right in the heart of London's
WITH seven children at home, when it comes to pots and plates practicality is the name of the game in Paul Costelloe's house. Not surprisingly, the emphasis in his first ever collection of homeware for the best known name in English china is on form and
EIGHT young people from the Tees Valley have become the first group to graduate from a unique programme of training. All eight undertook a modern apprenticeship scheme designed to give them skills and experience by working within voluntary and community
A TEENAGE drug addict's body was left in woodland after the people whose home he had taken drugs in discovered he had died in his sleep, a court was told. Damian Walsh's body was found by a man out walking his dog in a wooded area near Forest Drive, Colburn
HARTLEPOOL United yesterday made the trek to the south west to face Torquay, with manager Chris Turner insisting: "We fear no-one." Two wins in the last seven days, against Burnley in the Worthington Cup and Blackpool on Saturday, have laid to rest the
DARLINGTON boss Gary Bennett is backing his side to bounce back in tonight's tough test at Cheltenham. The Quakers suffered their first defeat of the season at Shrewsbury on Saturday, but Bennett said: "I don't think there is any reason to worry or panic
Read the latest news on the crisis, tell us your views and get access to background information about the issue here. Tony Blair today abandoned his tour of East Yorkshire and returned to Downing Street for emergency talks on the fuel crisis. He is holding
IF ONLY it were as simple as those manning the blockades appear to think, Gordon Brown could overnight knock a few pennies off the price of petrol. The protestors could go home happily and the rest of us could get on with our lives unconvenienced. But
CLEVELAND Police has been accused of "scraping the barrel" to find 14 disciplinary charges to levy against Robocop Ray Mallon. The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) last night revealed it will charge Detective Superintendent Mallon with 14 unspecified
GORDON Brown Associates, the Chester-le-Street-based legal firm, has helped a budding North-East entrepreneur to set up her own business. Susan Bland from Chester-le-Street has set up her own restaurant called Collins in the town. It has a special menu
WHEN North Durham teenager John Caulfield became the first member of his family to fly he did it with a difference - with no engine. John, 14, an air cadet from Stanley, experienced three launches in a Viking glider while visiting 645 Volunteer Gliding
A BUILDING supervisor has admitted being aware of work being carried out "on the side" by council workers. Robert Tippins, 53, lost his job of 25 years with Chester-le-Street District Council, in County Durham, as a result of the "private job" coming
TODAY'S trainees can expect to change career directions several times in a lifetime to face up to the challenge of a fast-changing business world. "You have to think of doing things differently and try to get a fresh perspective on life," said Jules Preston
THE Government was last night poised to take emergency measures to free up fuel supplies as hundreds of petrol stations across the country ran dry. Drivers brought chaos to roads around many garages as blockades of fuel depots by angry haulier and farmers
DRUG workers are meeting in the region today to formulate ways in which addicts can help in the fight against substance misuse. Organisers of a four-day conference at Durham University hope new procedures can be found to combat social exclusion of drug
A fortunate first-half goal from Paul Thirlwell stole the points for Sunderland in the FA Premier Reserve League Tyne-Wear derby at Kingston Park last night. Thirlwell challenged Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper in the 27th minute as they went for Tom
A report has identified more than 50 brownfield sites for possible housing development in the region. Naturalists have long been urging greater use of urban brownfield sites because they are concerned that wildlife has been hit hard by green field development
FORMER Scottish international striker Frank McAvennie was part of a four-man conspiracy planning to deal more than £110,000 worth of Ecstasy and amphetamines, a court heard yesterday. The 40-year-old former Celtic and West Ham United player was seen by
A MASSIVE 1,500,000 sq ft programme of office and factory development which will lead to the creation of 5,000 jobs in Tyneside and the North- East has been announced by UK Land Estates. The programme of new developments was be revealed as Secretary of
TEES Valley Training and Enterprise Council has become the first TEC in the country to hit the Government's target for workforce training and development. The Investors in People National Year 2000 Target was set by the Government in 1991 when TECs were
CHESTER-LE-STREET AC's Michael Openshaw ran the race of his life to finish second and lead the North-East team to victory in the AAA and Inter Counties 10K Championships at Bradford. The Durham City finance officer shrugged off the disappointment of not
Skipper Paul Ince was saved from a rollicking by Middlesbrough boss Bryan Robson yesterday because of the fuel crisis. Ince failed to make it for training on Teesside from his Merseyside home when he ran out of petrol. Garages in the North west are under
WHEN Tommy Moore felt the intense blast of heat on his face from Consett steelworks' final, strange cargo of molten metal he was thinking hard. And, as the final explosion of red dust shot up into the sky 20 years ago today, there's no doubt those thoughts
ANIMAL CRUELTY YOUR report (Echo, Aug 30), Tormented dog bit innocent boy, highlights again the need for your cruelty campaign (Animal Watch). A dog owner allows her dog to roam instead of taking it for walks and later seems more worried about her court
WORKERS from the tobacco industry in the region will today present a report to the TUC, claiming that thousands of jobs are at risk from new EU legislation. The will join colleagues from across the country at the TUC conference in Glasgow in a bid to
A NORTH-East firm certainly had call to blow its own trumpet this week when it picked up a national award. Musical instrument company, DGC Distribution, received its e-commerce honour from Tom Fleming of Government Office North East. The awards are set
A LITTLE dog pulls anxiously on its lead as the tide approaches. Blind and deaf, the hapless creature shivers and whimpers, sensing approaching death. Heartless owners have deliberately tied the Yorkshire terrier to the sea wall at Redcar knowing it will
IF YOU were asked to produce the most painful torment, what devilish scheme would you devise? You might, if you were really evil, gather the close relations of people killed or maimed in a terrorist atrocity and show them hours of video footage of the
HARTLEPOOL United yesterday made the trek to the south west to face Torquay, with manager Chris Turner insisting: "We fear no-one." Two wins in the last seven days, against Burnley in the Worthington Cup and Blackpool on Saturday, have laid to rest the
THE region is to benefit from Government cash to set up Internet centres. Prime Minister Tony Blair announced yesterday that a wave of Government-funded computer centres in shops, community halls and mobile Internet centres would help break down the digital
DRUG workers are meeting in the region today to formulate ways in which addicts can help in the fight against substance misuse. Organisers of a four-day conference at Durham University hope new procedures can be found to combat social exclusion of drug
TOP GUN Kevin Phillips, who is struggling to reproduce the scintillating Sunderland form which made him the most lethal striker in Europe last season, blames an injury hangover for his current goal drought. The 27-year-old woke up in his French hotel
IF ONLY it were as simple as those manning the blockades appear to think, Gordon Brown could overnight knock a few pennies off the price of petrol. The protestors could go home happily and the rest of us could get on with our lives unconvenienced. But
CRUTES, one of the North's leading law firms, is strengthening its Middlesbrough office with the appointment of assistant solicitor Fiona McReddie. From Great Ayton, Fiona is to work closely with the firm's Sunderland-based family law solicitor Colette
ONE of the most popular dates in the calendar for the North-East's huge army of leek growers went ahead in the rain last weekend. Dozens of the region's finest gardeners took their places at the annual leek, vegetable and flower show at Beamish Open Air
NEW European human rights laws could pave the way for hundreds of court challenges against jail conditions, campaigners have warned. A Prison Reform Trust report, published today, reveals a swathe of grey areas where prisoners could claim their fundamental
Highbury on Saturday. Admission £3, pie, peas and gravy £1.20 and a structure marked Grand Stand in two-foot letters, lest anyone doubt its architectural pre-eminence. It was not, of course, Highbury, London N5 - theatre of dreams to the more enlightened
BUSINESSES across the North-East are being urged to get in the pink and raise cash for breast cancer research. Next month is breast cancer awareness month and the Cancer Research Campaign plans to sell pink ribbons to mark the event. The ribbons can be
TWO schools in Stockton are set to close and be replaced by a new primary school run jointly by the Local Education Authority and the Church of England. Stockton council are set to agree to close Elm Tree Infant School on Bishopton Road West and St Mark's
AN innovative approach to the last-minute financial restructuring of a construction project will help provide a £600,000 purpose-built new office premises in Darlington for the Northern operating company of a national aggregates supplier without capital
