THIS week 15 years ago, a taxi driver was celebrating after winning the national lottery.

John Henderson, a father-of-three from Newcastle scooped £553,689 in the lottery draw just three weeks after his fellow cabbie, Bob Frazer won £14m.

He said Mr Frazer's good fortune had been the talk of the taxi drivers in the city since he won the jackpot.

Mr Henderson found out about the win after going to check his parents' house while they were away on holiday.

He said: "While I was there I decided to quickly get the lotto results on Teletext, we got to the second line and realised we had matched all six numbers."

Also, that week North-East police officers voted no to being armed with guns.

Forces backed a Police Federation survey that showed 78 per cent of officers did not want to carry guns on routine duties.

Chief Inspector Paul Rider, chairman of the Cleveland branch of the Police Federation, said: "The public perception is of the traditional unarmed British bobby patrolling the streets and the results seem to bear that out in terms of the feelings of police in the 21st Century.

"While there are occasions when police officers need to carry firearms, the strength of feelings against that shows that the majority of officers would still prefer to carry out routine duties unarmed."

PC Dave Robinson, secretary of the Durham branch of the Police Federation, said there was a danger of firearms breeding firearms.

He said: "I do not think the case has been made at this stage for all officers to be armed."

Meanwhile, a medieval manor was transformed as part of an Army presentation weekend.

Visitors at Seaton Holme, in Easington Village, County Durham, were given a glimpse into the modern Army during a series of displays and demonstrations.

Among the attractions that took place were an army obstacle course, paintballing, various weapons, and an armoured vehicle.

Invitations had been sent to schools and other organisations in the area alerting them to what was on offer.

Seaton Holme events co-ordinator Irene Haddick said the Army weekend had grown rapidly since the initial plans were pencilled in earlier in the year.