TEN years ago this week, Rupert Murdoch, one of the world's most powerful media barons at the time, was attacked with a shaving foam pie in the House of Commons yesterday.

The 80-year-old chief executive of News International was defended by Wendi Deng, his 42-year-old Chinese wife. Wearing a bright pink jacket, she launched herself at the assailant, landing a fierce right-handed slap before the man, who shouted "you naughty billionaire", was wrestled away by police.

Mr Murdoch had begun his evidence to MPs about the phone hacking scandal by saying it was "the most humble day of my life".

For long periods he appeared old and uncertain, while beside him his son, James, repeatedly said he had no knowledge of events that had led to the closure of the News of the World.

Also that week, high-achieving schoolboy said he is lucky to be alive after breaking his back in four places in a 20ft fall from a railway bridge.

Daniel Walker, was to become his secondary school's head boy in September, was walking to a friend's house to collect his science homework when he slipped and fell near Durham City on Sunday lunchtime.

Last night, the 15-year-old spent his second night in the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, after he broke four vertebrae in his lower back and fractured his pelvis.

Speaking from his hospital ward, he said: "I was very lucky. It could have been a lot worse. If I had landed on my head, I might not have been here."

Meanwhile, children living near the site of the world's worst nuclear accident enjoyed a holiday in the North-East.

Twelve youngsters, aged eight to ten, who lived near Chernobyl, where forests and farmland remain contaminated 25 years after the disaster, spent a day at East Durham College's campus at Houghall - one of a number of visits organised by Chernobyl Children's Life Line.

Charity spokeswoman Heather Smith said at the time:

"The children come from a town called Korosten, in the Ukraine, which is only 40 miles from the 1986 nuclear power plant explosion."