SUNDERLAND lost their first home game of the season when they went down 1-0 to Birmingham at the Stadium of Light tonight. It is the second successive defeat for the Black Cats, who lost 2-1 at Coventry City in their opening game on Sunday. Mikael Forsell's
A SCUBA diver has died after being swept out to sea off the North-East coast. The diver was in a group of three females who were walking across a causeway to St Marys Island, near Whitley Bay, at about 4.25pm this evening. All three, who were preparing
ENGLAND boss Steve McClaren is going back to his former employers at Middlesbrough to bring Boro assistant Steve Round into the national team set-up. Round, 35, will replace Sammy Lee, who left his England role earlier this week, and will work with the
DARLINGTON are expected to make a renewed offer for Boston United striker Julian Joachim after having a bid turned down earlier this week. Quakers remain keen to land the forward, who turns 32 next month, and are expected to table an improved bid before
WITH two further new faces in the Sunderland squad, Niall Quinn heads into his first game in charge at the Stadium of Light tonight insisting that four seven-figure bids have been launched for Premiership players. Left-back Clive Clarke penned a four-year
A COMPUTER expert who altered pornographic images of women to make them look like girls was warned he faces jail today. Stafford Sven Tudor-Miles, 38, admitted five counts of attempting to make indecent pseudo-photographs of children, one count of possessing
FOUR civil servants have been sacked and a further five disciplined after an investigation into claims that staff had sex in the toilets, jumped naked from filing cabinets and held breakdance competitions at the Rural Payments Agency office in Newcastle
TWENTY-five people were evacuated when a fire started by arsonists threatened to send the gable end of a three-storey empty building toppling onto surrounding homes. Residents of 11 properties in Holyrood Court and Pattison Court, Middlesbrough, will
TODAY is D-Day for an old council office block. A town hall report is recommending demolition of Middlesbrough Council's recently vacated Sandringham House. Staff were moved out of the block to other offices as the result of a review of office space
STAFF at a Durham area supermarket have raised over £2,000 for charity. Workers from the North Eastern Co-op in Brandon, near Durham, handed over the cash to Cancer Research UK yesterday. (mon) It was raised to in memory of Ann Allison, a 50-year-old
THE organisers of a horticultural show that was saved from the axe two years ago are hoping to boost attendance at this year's event with a craft fair. The Durham Horticultural and Craft Show, which will be held next month in County Hall, Durham, will
YOUNG carers from County Durham have won a national award for their work on domestic violence. Earlier this year, youngsters from Developing Initiatives Supporting Communities (Disc) Young Carers, a support service for young people who care for family
YOUNG carers from County Durham have won a national award for their work on domestic violence. Earlier this year, youngsters from Developing Initiatives Supporting Communities (Disc) Young Carers, a support service for young people who care for a loved
A LOCAL authority has received an award for its work in helping councillors improve their skills. Chester-le-Street District Council has been presented the North-East Charter for Member Development for its work offering training and development courses
GUIDED walks are being planned for people to hopfully enjoy a spell of summer sunshine. Visitors can explore three green spaces, with the first at Billingham Ecology Park with the countryside ranger on Sunday, August 13, between 2pm and 3pm. The short
WORK to repair a village street has failed to smooth relations between residents and North Yorkshire County Council. Householders in Lowlands Drive, a cul-de-sac of 17 houses at Leeming Bar, want the road properly resurfaced, instead of being continually
A CONVICTED paedophile has been found guilty of outraging public decency after simulating a sex act on a friend. According to a witness, Anthony Harrison dropped his trousers and bounced on the lap of his friend as they sat on a railway embankment in
A HOMELESS man living for three months in a car parked on a public recreation ground will be offered help to try and find a place to live before legal action is taken to evict him, a parish council has decided. The man has been living in a Vauxhall Cavalier
PLANS to extend a five-and-a-half mile nature trail at a cost of more than £200,000 are being considered by councillors. The Great Aycliffe Way runs round the north-west side of Newton Aycliffe and along Woodham Burn. The new route would start at the
A CHURCH leader says he is getting into the rhythm of a near 80-mile trek across his diocese. The Right Rev John Crowley, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Middlesbrough, is today approaching the halfway mark in his walk from Hull, through Hornsea, Bridlington
A KIND-HEARTED teenager has been rewarded for his hard work. Eighteen-year-old Craig Cummings, from Trimdon, has been crowned media student of the year at Darlington College. His devotion to his family and his coursework earned him the prize of Darlington
A COUPLE say "sharing a lot of laughs" is the secret to staying together for 50 years. Chris and Margaret Grant, from Scorton, near Richmond, will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary on Friday. The couple first met when Mrs Grant, 70, moved
A HISTORIC footbridge across the River Nidd is set to be restored. Conyngham Hall footbridge, in Knaresborough, is used by pedestrians to cross Nidd Gorge to reach the popular recreation areas of Horseshoe Field, Foolish Wood, Mackintosh Park and Bilton
A MAN went on a drunken rampage before picking up a knife and saying he was "going to kill somebody", a court heard yesterday. Darlington Magistrates' Court heard that Khalid Dowd, 22, had kicked open a stranger's door before going to his grandmother's
A GROUP of former Hummersknott School pupils entertained shoppers yesterday as part of a summer street art programme. The Black Shirt Jazz Band was formed originally as Hummersknott School's jazz band and has spent the past few years performing at school
THE governor of the Bank of England was the guest of honour at a business lunch in Darlington last week. Darlington Building Society hosted a visit to the North-East by the governor, Mervyn King. It held a lunch for local business leaders at which Mr
A DRUNKEN off-duty nightclub bouncer was sacked after attacking two people at the venue on his night off, a court heard yesterday. Gareth Lunt attacked a man and his partner after an argument on the dancefloor of Flares, in Darlington, on the night of
MOTORISTS have been warned to keep satellite navigation systems - and the suction pads which attach them to the dashboard or windscreen - out of sight. Opportunist thieves are smashing car windows when they see the pads, believing the sat-nav boxes to
Children in Eastern Europe are said to be happier and healthier than their British counterparts. But what could we do to improve our children's lives? It's been a bad week for children. A whole bunch of surveys and reports have proved that whether you're
FARMLAND prices in the second quarter of the year saw the biggest rise on record. Nationally, they rose by nine per cent, compared to the same period last year, with sales activity up 77 per cent to a near four-year high. Key reasons were farmers receiving
IN these difficult times of multi-cultural tensions, the need for bridge-building is greater than ever. And for English cricket to produce sporting heroes with Asian backgrounds is a timely development in which we should all rejoice. Sajid Mahmood was
FOOD and drink sales rose at their fastest rate for three years during last month's heatwave. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said strong demand for picnic food, drinks and fruit helped sales for the whole of the UK retail sector rise 3.4 per cent
DETECTIVES investigating the Dreamspace disaster have travelled to Liverpool and Scotland as part of their inquiries, it has been revealed. Investigators were looking into two previous incidents
A FORMER England international footballer hoping to net funds for children's charities in memory of his son. Colin Cooper, the veteran Middlesbrough defender, who is the club's new reserve team coach, says all proceeds from his benefit match with Chievo
A SCHOOLBOY who almost killed his best friend after they fell out over a girl was last night starting two-and-a-half years in custody. Jonathon Wilson, 15, of Hart Lane, Hartlepool, plunged a kitchen knife into the back of friend Paul Brown, 17, when
Result: Macclesfield Town 0 Hartlepool United 0 IF anyone at Hartlepool United had any illusions of grandeur about football in League Two, they were firmly broken last night. Pools went to Macclesfield and, in front of just 1,843 spectators played out
A BRAZEN car thief took only three hours to "trade" up from a Transit van to an Audi TT sports car. He sped off in the Audi after arranging a test drive at a garage - leaving a stolen Volkswagen Bora behind. Police said that the man grabbed the keys and
COCONUT QUEEN continued the excellent form of Ann Duffield's horses when scoring in decisive fashion at Catterick yesterday. The betting suggested the Constable Burton-based juvenile would have to play second fiddle to Mark Johnston's Carillon, but Coconut
DAKOTA RAIN (4.00) rates the top bet at Newcastle this afternoon in the £8,000 Tarmac Handicap. Trained just 20 miles south of the track by Richard Guest at Brancepeth, Dakota Rain was sent much further afield on his latest start when so nearly beating
PATIENTS in the region are being denied fair access to drugs and treatment because of wide variations in NHS spending, a report out today has found. The King's Fund charity said "serious questions" needed to be asked after its study revealed a postcode
A GEORGIAN mill which fell into disrepair after the estate on which it stood was sold, features in the latest series of the BBC Television programme Restoration Village. This week, comedian and presenter Griff Rhys Jones was filmed at Howsham Mill, near
AIRPORT CAR PARKING : I respond to your article, Airport's parking charges among highest in country (Echo, Aug 3), in which you claim that car parking charges at Durham Tees Valley Airport (DTVA) are the third highest in the country. The claims made in
Home (BBC2) True CSI (five) : Home is no longer where the hearth is. Once, the hearth was the heartbeat of family life as home life revolved around the flickering fireside. By the mid-1990s, only eight per cent of households had a working fireplace
Until I suffered a heart attack a little over a year ago I drank only whole milk. I regarded even that product,""pasteurised, homogenised, standardised,'' as an inadequate substitute for proper milk, with a deep head of cream. But life has many things
A MEAT factory worker was released last night after being questioned by police after a manager was found dead in an office.Detectives are investigating reports that, minutes before his death, Dennis Covell, had been involved in an argument with a colleague
Result: Accrington Stanley 0 Darlington 2SUMMER signings Micky Cummins and Martin Smith both recorded their first goals for Darlington as Quakers continued their impressive start to the campaign.The goals came in the opening half as David Hodgson's men
Yorkshire v Lancashire (County Championship) : Day One Anthony McGrath just pipped Darren Lehmann in the race to the 1,000 run mark at Old Trafford yesterday, but it was the Australian who went on to dig Yorkshire out of a hole by rattling up his fourth
With regard neither to modesty nor to lowly estate, yesterday's Eating Owt column suggested that what the Echo needs is a good obituaries column and that, upon eventual retirement, I might be just the chap to polish the memorial.It was wholly coincidental
MIDDLESBROUGH have entered the race to sign Wigan's unsettled defender Pascal Chimbonda. Tottenham have been chasing the Frenchman all summer but have been unwilling to meet the Latics' £6.5m asking price. Their failure to do so has infuriated Wigan
GLENN Roeder will step up his pursuit of Inter Milan striker Obafemi Martins this week after the Nigeria international handed in a surprise transfer request at the San Siro. The Newcastle manager, who travelled to the Latvian capital Riga yesterday ahead
HUNDREDS of insurance jobs were under threat last night after Zurich Financial Services announced plans to close its North-East call centre. Zurich said it was planning to close its office in Fenkle Street, Newcastle, which employs more than 500 people
THE man at the helm of the UK's largest car dealership last night raised the prospect of up to 200 jobs being created in the North-East at the former headquarters of the Reg Vardy empire. Trevor Finn, chief executive of Pendragon, which bought Reg Vardy
THE highest tides for the next ten years are expected to hit the region's coastline this weekend - putting homes at risk of flooding. Last night, the Environment Agency issued an alert for the North-East and Yorkshire, which could see tides more than
BEFORE I came to Darlington, I worked a year for a human rights organisation in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, a Zulu area of a country that was only recently celebrating "free" democratic elections and, in some respects, was still at war with its past
A THAI prostitute yesterday admitted managing a brothel, one of three smashed in a series of police raids in a North-East town last year. Woranut Brown ran the massage parlour, in Duke Street, Darlington, for five weeks in September and October last
WITH two further new faces in the Sunderland squad, Niall Quinn heads into his first game in charge at the Stadium of Light tonight insisting that four seven-figure bids have been launched for Premiership players.Left-back Clive Clarke penned a four-year
A BAKERY that supplied schools and hospitals across the region with bread and buns has been condemned for its filthy, insect-infested conditions.One food inspector was met by escaping fruit flies when he squeezed a lump of yeast at Riverside Bakery Limited
