A BOY aged 11 has been arrested on suspicion of arson after a fire left a man seriously ill in hospital. The 62-year-old victim suffered the effects of smoke inhalation after the fire in Wetherby Grove, Gateshead at lunch time today. He was
A SERIES of guided walks is to get underway next month. The four-month series of free walks is part of a series of events to promote Consetts town centre as a place to shop and visit. Walks, organised by Derwent Valley Partnership and Groundwork
A NORTH-EAST dance troupe made the final three of a televised dance contest, but just fell short of winning the title. Street dance crew Ruff Diamond made it to the end of tonight's live final of Sky1's Got to Dance competition. But the Hartlepool
OPERATION Cleansweep, Hartlepool’s long-running multi-agency improvement scheme, is to target its first industrial estate. The Longhill Industrial Estate, an area stretching from Burbank Street to Belle Vue Way and Mainsorth Terrace, will be given
THE FTSE 100 Index slid below the 6500 barrier yesterday as disappointing US economic indicators sent world markets into the red. Stocks were also suffering across Europe, with the FTSE 100 down 39.8 points to 6489.7, having closed above 6500 on
A ROUTINE training exercise turned into a real-life rescue for lifeboatmen. Redcar’s Atlantic 85 class lifeboat Leicester Challenge III had launched to carry out training when the coastguard contacted the crew just after 10am with information regarding
A YOUNG swimmer has her sights set on the Paralympics in Rio 2016. Twelve-year-old Megan Atkinson, from Peterlee, County Durham, suffers from achondroplasia, the same condition as London 2012 gold medal heroine Ellie Simmonds. She also shares
ACADEMICS from Kings College, Cambridge will visit a Teesside school tomorrow, Monday, March 18. The leading university men and women will talk to students aged 14 and 15 in their science class at St Peter’s College of Maths and Computing in South
A SINGLE, unemployed mother has published her first children’s book. Inspired by the likes of JK Rowling, who was a struggling single mother when she wrote the Harry Potter books, Natalie Potter, 30, of Norton, near Stockton, has self-published
A HANDBAG auction is taking place at the Hardwick Hall Hotel at Sedgefield, County Durham, to raise money for research into Multiple Sclerosis. More than £500 bags have been donated and will be auctioned off from as little as £1. The event takes place
Anglers have been reminded that rivers are off limits for coarse fishing until June 15, after the start of the close season. The Environment Agency has warned anyone breaking the rules may be prosecuted, as the rivers are closed off to allow fish
A LANDSCAPE photography workshop, covering the basics of composition, working with natural light and exploring manual settings, is being held at The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, County Durham. Inspired by the current Rokeby landscape exhibition
Police have discovered the body of a man in a city park early this morning. (Sunday, March 17) The man is thought to be in his late forties and the discovery was made at Heaton Park in Newcastle. Police enquiries are ongoing but there is not thought
A CARGO ship which ran aground near a lighthouse in a North-East wildlife haven could remain stuck for another fortnight if it is not shifted tomorrow, (Monday, March 18) an RNLI spokesman said. The 80m MV Danio was heading from Perth to Antwerp
FISHERMEN have solved the mystery of what happened to all the fish in their lake after finding a family of very fat otters. Ian Bouttell and Paul Atkinson say the return of a substantial otter population is causing problems for fishermen across
SOME of the region’s most successful business leaders gave up their luxurious homes for the night to sleep rough in a good cause at the weekend. The captains of industry from across the Tees Valley were joined by more than 100 others in a second
HUNDREDS of people around the region gathered this weekend to demonstrate against the controversial so-called bedroom tax. Protests took place in Durham, Darlington, Newcastle and York, with many bearing homemade banners and signs to voice their
TALENTED North-East actors will join forces with West End stars this summer for a musical spectacular that celebrates the region’s mining heritage. Spanning many generations, The Wind Road Boys explores the trials and tribulations of a family caught
Sunderland 1 Norwich City 1 SUBSTITUTE keeper Lee Camp ensured 10-man Norwich left Sunderland with a point on a day when the Canaries' luck deserted them. Chris Hughton's men were leading 1-0 at the Stadium of Light through Wes Hoolahan's close-range
A COUPLE have celebrated their platinum wedding anniversary. On Saturday, it was 70 years since Frank and Emma Roebuck, now 92 and 88, tied the knot. Mr Roebuck was serving with the Army Air Corp during the Second World War when they met at
YOHAN Cabaye misses out this afternoon as Newcastle United take on Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium. Cabaye injured his groin in the first half of Thursday night's Europa League win over Anzhi Makhchakala and has not recovered in time to line up
THE wonderful world of miniature railways was brought to life at a North-East museum over the weekend. Hundreds of train fans of all ages headed to Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon, County Durham, for its latest two-day exhibition
POLICE have pledged there will be no let-up in their quest to discover the truth behind the disappearance of university chef Claudia Lawrence. Four years to the day since she vanished, detectives have promised that one of the biggest and most intensive
DOZENS of sports cars roared into a North-East market place this afternoon during a run to welcome the driving season. The Tees Valley TVR Car Club hold a Cobweb Run each year, taking their vehicles out of the garage after the long winter and enjoying
TABLE SALE: Heighington Scouts will hold a coffee morning and table top sale in the village hall, from 10am-2pm, on Saturday, March 23. There will be bacon sandwiches, soup, a cake stall and tombola. Admission is £1, including refreshments. PRAISE
AN amateur boxing club is teaming up with a family hit by cancer to fight the disease with its first ever charity show. Spennymoor Boxing Academy has a strong tradition of hosting boxing dinners and shows throughout the 22 years it has been established
ORCHID enthusiasts gathered at a village hall this weekend for an annual display of their finest blooms. Organisers of the Darlington Orchid Society Annual Show, held at Sadberge Village Hall, estimated that more than 400 people from around the
RENEWED efforts are to be made to help rid one of the most spectacular landscapes in the country of unsightly overhead lines. The Yorkshire Dales National Park is in line for an estimated £3m windfall to hide the cables underground. Electricity
JANUARY buy Alfred N'Diaye has been left out of Sunderland's starting line-up to face Norwich City at the Stadium of Light today. The £3.8m arrival from Bursaspor has paid the price for the Black Cats' inconsistency and David Vaughan has been recalled
A NEWSAGENT has started a campaign to raise awareness of the work done by teenage delivery staff. Ali Malik, owner of Belmont Super News, Durham, employs a small army of 18 boys and girls, ensuring newspapers and magazines are delivered each morning
A BLACKSMITH shop in the North-East, thought to date from the 18th century, is to be brought back to its former glory. The Hetton Smithy, is one of the oldest buildings in Hetton-le-Hole and has been in continuous use as a blacksmiths throughout
A POLICE officer whose brave actions prevented a man from jumping off a 105ft high viaduct is to receive a national life-saving award. PC Michael Banks grabbed the distressed man in a bear hug and pulled him away from the edge of the Newton Cap
Alexander Technique practitioner Mark Blackburn will be running a class taking participants through techniques for improving posture, balance and helping your back. It will run at The Healing Clinic on Museum Street in York between 5pm and 6pm on May
A MAN who attacked two paramedics as they worked to save his life has been jailed. The ambulance crew members had been transporting Mark Dowe to Sunderland Royal Hospital after he cut his wrists in February when he started throwing punches.
AN inpatient service for people with eating disorders has won recognition for its work from a national charity. The regional adult inpatient eating disorders service at the Birch Ward in West Park Hospital, in Darlington, has been awarded the Beat
A FORMER businessman grew enough cannabis to make almost 7,000 reefers claimed the drugs were used to medicate his badly-injured girlfriend. Police found super-strength cannabis hidden all over Alexis Fisher's home in Reeth, near Richmond, North
THOUSANDS of birds filled the skies last night (Saturday, March 16), as a huge murmuration of starlings descended upon the small village of Bowes, in County Durham for the final weeks of their winter roost. In a scene reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's
MORE than 200 children took part in an annual swimming gala for Darlington’s smaller schools. Pupils from Bishopton/Redmarshall, Cockerton , Holy Family, High Coniscliffe, Hurworth, Red Hall, St Augustine’s, St Bede’s, St John’s, Springfield and
On Wednesday, March 20, to celebrate the release of tickets for the Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition in Durham City, a choir set up in honour of the priceless manuscript will give its first outdoor performance. Lizzie Anderson joins the singers for the
THE governors of an independent preparatory school have confirmed that it will close at the end of the academic year. Consultation on the future of Yarm at Raventhorpe School, in Darlington, began in January after pupil numbers fell to unsustainable
SHARP-eyed skywatchers in the North-East caught a glimpse of a comet flying through the night sky, more than 93 million miles from Earth. Comet PanSTARRS was pictured in the sky above Darlington during a break in the clouds on Friday night (March
A public meeting for people in Delves Lane to discuss concerns about crime with police officers is being held at Helen McArdle Care Home, Greenways Court, Delves Lane, Consett. It is on Wednesday March 20 from 6pm-7pm and the meeting will be attended
A COUPLE who met at a local dance are still proving the perfect partners after 50 years of marriage. Bill Garforth, from Newfield, near Bishop Auckland, met his future wife Anne at a dance in the town when they were both 17-years-old and the pair
Sunderland RCA manager Neil Hixon is thinking about resigning at the end of the season after a controversial penalty gave champions Spennymoor the points at the Brewery Field on Saturday. The RCA looked as if they would hold on for a point, until
An engineer has been hailed a local hero and compared to a national icon in his new homeland of China for raising thousands for charity. Zhang Yunyun of the Suzhou Daily newspaper writes for The Northern Echo about the impact made by John Johnson
