CUSTOMS officers recovered bootleg alcohol and tobacco at 13 premises after a sweep of corner shops in east Newcastle and North and South Tyneside.

Seven teams of officers from HM Customs and Excise visited 83 shops during two days, seizing goods with a revenue value of £10,585, including 860 litres of spirits from one address. No arrests were made, but further inquiries are being made about two of the seizures. All items seized failed to carry the Fiscal mark, introduced in June 2001, to identify goods on which duty has been paid.

JAZZ NIGHT: Phil Mason's New Orleans All Stars will be performing with Christine Tyrrell at the Caedmon Hall, Gateshead Central Library, on Saturday, October 19, between 8pm and 11pm. Tickets cost £7.50 and are available from the box office on 0191-477 3478.

THEATRE COURSE: A free A-level course in theatre studies will be held at the Chester-le-Street Community Association's centre, on Newcastle Bank, on Wednesdays from 4.30pm. For further details call Linda on 0191-388 2826.

ROCK NIGHT: Rock band Receiver, whose repertoire includes material by U2 and The Police, will be performing at the O'Neill's Irish bar in Claypath, Durham, on Thursday. The music starts at about 9pm and admission is free.

MORE ROOM: Durham City Council is being asked to grant planning permission for a two-storey pitched roof extension at the side of a house in Kirkstone Drive in Durham.

DIABETICS MEET: Durham Diabetic Club will meet next Tuesday at 7.30pm in the diabetes centre at the city's University Hospital - formerly Dryburn - when the speaker will be a consultant chemical pathologist. Admission is free and all diabetics and their friends are welcome.

BUS BID: People who claimed to have been cut off after services were axed by Stagecoach in areas of Sunderland in the wake of the Metro rail extension to Wearside, are planning to start their own bus service. Sunderland South West Community Transport scheme is applying for charity status and hopes to apply for funding to set up its own services on routes no longer operated by Stagecoach.

GUEST GEORGE: Television news reporter George Alagiah returns to his alma mater to open a £3m student accommodation block on Monday. The BBC broadcaster is guest of honour at the opening ceremony for Durham University's 96-room building at Van Mildert College, in Elvet Hill, Durham.

WAR TALKS: David McClure will give a talk entitled Britain and War, What Does the Bible Say? at Rainton Gate Methodist Church in West Rainton, near Durham, on Saturday, October 19, at 2.30pm. He will then ask Will There Ever Be Peace on Earth? at Beda House, Clough Dene Road, Tantobie, near Stanley, at 6pm the same day. For more details call 0191-384 7704.