NVISAGE customer contact centre is giving potential recruits a better chance of a job with a new initiative to help develop IT skills. The company, which is creating 500 jobs in customer services and telesales on the Bracken Hill Business Park in Peterlee
A business centre is set to be built on the site of the famous Castle Eden Brewery in Peterlee. Beer production ceases on the site on December 31, when Castle Eden plans to transfer production to Cameron's Lion Brewery at Hartlepool. The takeover is dependent
CHEMICAL firm ICI faces an 18-month wait to pick up the proceeds from the sale of its 30 per cent stake in Huntsman International. ICI's agreement, worth £250m, with US-based Huntsman Corporation will help reduce a £3.1bn debt mountain. The UK company
GARMENT embroidery and screen-printing business Armstrong UK is doubling the size of its workforce. Armstrong wants to increase its workforce to 40 after moving to Henson Road, Yarm Road Business Park, in Darlington, from the Nestfield Industrial Estate
FIREfighters have been praised for saving 26 jobs this Christmas. Print firm boss Sean Maynard said that if it had not been for the prompt and effective action of Cleveland Fire Brigade crews last week, layoffs would have run into double figures and a
TROUBLED telecoms firm Marconi is selling its 50 per cent stake in Hotpoint-owner General Domestic Appliances in a £144m deal. The group is selling the stake to Italian firm Merloni Elettrodomestici, for £121m, while it will also receive a dividend of
Christmas is a time for magic and miracles, not to mention the mulled wine and mice pies but, according to one man, it's also a time for science. Christen Pears reports. RUDOLPH is female, Santa has diabetes and you need the telescope of the WM Keck Observatory
TRAIN companies were last night accused of delivering a "smack in the face" to beleaguered passengers by announcing a series of increases in ticket prices. Several operators said they would raise fares from the New Year - in some cases by as much as ten
THE mother of a boy stabbed 18 times by two schoolboy friends after they watched a violent horror film has reacted with disbelief that one of them may shortly be released on parole. Yesterday victim 16-year-old Ashley Murray and his mother Joanne said
MIDDLESBROUGH'S Premiership clash with Fulham has been postponed along with Darlington's third division encounter with Cheltenham at Feethams after heavy overnight snow. Despite the Riverside pitch being in a playable condition, Boro's game was forced
TONIGHT, Darlington songbird Zoe Birkett will make her bid to stay in the ITV Pop Idol competition. The 16-year-old will compete against nine other finalists in a festive edition of the show. Viewers will be asked to vote for their favourite performer
TEMPERATURES may have plunged as low as minus 32 but it was all part of an amazing Christmas gift to warm the hearts of ten North-East youngsters. Their dreams were well and truly fulfilled when the group of special needs youngsters journeyed to the Arctic
SUPER SUB Roddy Greene gets his big chance to shine aboard Exit Swinger (2.35) in the £100,000 Ladbroke Handicap Hurdle at Ascot this afternoon. As second jockey to Tony McCoy at Martin Pipe's all-conquering west-country stable, Greene normally has to
THREE revellers savaged by a police dog have been awarded tens of thousands of pounds compensation after their ordeal was captured on CCTV. Helen Tomlinson, 31, Ian Collins and Stephen Bendall, both 40, were all bitten by police dog Jake during a night
THE mysterious identity of a sailor, who sent a Christmas card to his best friend from the mighty HMS Hood, has been revealed. In The Northern Echo on Thursday, Joan Leyland, of Sedgefield, County Durham appealed for information about the card sent to
A FIREFIGHTER has been reunited with a three-year-old boy whose life he saved after the child was thrown through a car windscreen. Ethan Blackburn needed 260 stitches and nearly lost his life four times because of the head injuries he suffered in the
DARLINGTON last night admitted making a move for Oldham striker Carlo Corazzin. The Canadian international, who turns 30 on Christmas Day, is available for transfer from the Latics and Quakers boss Tommy Taylor made an approach earlier this week. Taylor
SUNDERLAND boss Peter Reid last night called on his players to "get that fire back in their bellies" as they go into a crucial, four-match holiday programme. The Wearsiders have been blowing hot and cold this season and were given a tongue-lashing by
SUNDERLAND manager Peter Reid admitted afterwards he didn't think a goal would come in this festive famine - but new boy Claudio Reyna spared his blushes with a scrambled match-winner. Until then most of the fans in the 48,013 crowd must have wished that
The Hartlepool fans who braved Arctic conditions to fight their way out of the north-east and make the journey south to Luton on Saturday will be glad that they didn't turn back for the warmth of home. After a first half with few highlights apart from
A TRIBUNAL in Newcastle is wrestling with a case that has a "sign of the times" written all over it. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Kristy Green versus Gillman and Soame - and there may be more to this case than simply sex discrimination - it is a
THERE is nothing remotely festive about the reception area at HMYOI, Deerbolt. There is an elderly bike, as if for a slow getaway, a green button above a sign saying "Do not press this bell" and, of course, a Mission Statement. Everyone has a Mission
THE sun-and-swimming-pools Los Angeles lifestyle seem a long way away as writer Dick Clement sits in a bus parked on a disused industrial site in the shadow of the Transporter Bridge. The rain is lashing down outside this makeshift rest room on the Middlesbrough
Letters from The Northern Echo PRINCE CHARLES PERHAPS Prince Charles is a little optimistic when he talks of being king. One should never count one's chickens. There is a similarity here between Edward, Prince of Wales, and Mrs Simpson and Charles, Prince
DETECTIVES investigating the murder of a woman, whose body was found dumped in a suitcase in North Yorkshire, are awaiting further details of a similar find in Hampshire yesterday. The body of a murdered man was left in a suitcase outside Basingstoke
MIDDLESBROUGH defender Ugo Ehiogu last night called for the rest of Steve McClaren's squad to take the pressure off star striker Alen Boksic. Top-scorer Boksic is beginning to come under fire from the Riverside faithful after a barren spell. Boro have
entrepreneurs have been sharing their successes with students and graduates embarking on new ventures. In an event staged by the University of Sunderland's Business School, Spirit of Innovation Awards winner Julian Peck, from Innoverce Products in Newcastle
WHILE September 11 is a date imprinted on most people's memories, Dave Mitchell has more reason than most for remembering the day of the World Trade Centre disaster. It was the day he had a blood test which revealed he was suffering from leukaemia, thereby
A trainee photographer claims she was sacked by an elite photo firm when it found out she had been a Page Three girl. Kristy Green had joined the company after deciding to give up her modelling career. She studied at college, and was hired by Gillman
RITCHIE Humphreys and Gordon Watson are ready to rekindle their blossoming Hartlepool United partnership this afternoon. The two strikers have not played together since the draw with Rochdale on November 30, and manager Chris Turner is convinced they
A FATHER who kidnapped his children from their mother and held them for almost a year after fleeing to Bangladesh has been jailed for two-and-a-half-years. Mohammed Miah, 42, told wife Husna Khanom Parvin, 35, he was taking their four children to Newcastle
UNLUCKY black cat Pheobe created some really bad kharma for owners David and Kate Mallender just as they were leaving for a fancy dress Christmas party. For the hippy-style couple - resplendent in wigs, flares and platform shoes - were hardly clad in
Chris Lloyd meets some survivors of a once-large community of families who moved into prefabs in Shildon after the war FIFTY-FIVE years ago, hundreds of North-East families were enjoying their first Christmases together in their first homes together as
WITH a loft conversion providing a pool room and space for a quick game of table tennis, and no bills to pay, this house is Tony Staveley's ideal home. Unfortunately, at 6ft he's just a touch too big - because this house is fit only for dolls. Mr Staveley
WHILE most people in the North-East will be spending Boxing Day recovering from the excesses of the day before, some hardy people will be taking a quick dip in the North Sea - and it is all for charity. Boxing Day dips, which have become a firm part of
North-East holidaymakers could benefit from more cut- price international flights from a local airport. Teesside International Airport is being looked at by no-frills airline Loco Flights, which has already announced plans to start flights to Malaga and
IT WAS a week when Newcastle United's Premiership title credentials were put to the test. According to most watchers games at Highbury and Elland Road would surely see Bobby Robson's pretenders to the throne find the going just that little bit too tough
