TERRITORIAL Army (TA) officers serving in Iraq are keeping up with news from home, thanks to The Northern Echo.

There are 115 TA soldiers from the North-East and North Yorkshire serving alongside full-time servicemen in Basra, Iraq.

They have all taken six months leave from their jobs in order to serve in the war-torn country.

The Tyne-Tees Regiment Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ian McFarlane, who has just returned to England after seeing his soldiers in Iraq, said the troops were receiving a steady supply of national newspapers, but they had complained to him that they were not getting any local news.

So when Lt Col McFarlane went out to Iraq, he ensured he took with him a plentiful supply of copies of The Northern Echo to keep the troops up to date.

He said: "We went to our local newsagents and we bought up all the local newspapers. When we visited the lads, we asked them where they were from and handed them out."

He said each edition was snapped up and read by the soldiers from cover to cover. They even studied all the adverts and house prices, in order to get a taste of life back home.

The TA soldiers are stationed at a palace in Basra and a logistics base at Shaiba and are due home in January.

Lt Col McFarlane said: "They haven't seen a cloud since July 1. But it is now approaching Iraq's version of autumn and the cool weather will bring some other problems, as it drops to below freezing in the evening."