TRANSPORT chiefs tonight announced massive cuts to subsidised bus services in County Durham. Over 50 routes to and from rural locations are to be cancelled or altered to help Durham County Council avoid having an overspend of £600,000. The authority
A SECOND outbreak of a dangerous virus has been found in fish in the region after tests. Last month viral haemorrhagic septicaemia (VHS) was detected on a fish farm in the York region. It led to thousands of fish been killed at an unidentified trout
NIALL QUINN'S proposed takeover at Sunderland Football Club took a major step forward last night when it emerged an 'exclusivity agreement' between the two parties had been extended by another ten days. There are genuine hopes from both sides that
THE SKIES will come alive with colour when kites from all over the globe take to the air over the North-East in a fortnight. Sunderland City Council will be hosting the 21st Sunderland International Kite Festival _ a vibrant weekend of kites, music
A YOUNG child was saved from drowning at Castle Howard in a dramatic rescue by firecrews. The youngster struggling in the castle's Great Lake was pulled to safety by specially trained firefighters. Luckily it was all part of a staged rescue training
THE heartbroken mum who lost her nine-year-old son in a road accident last week has pledged to do everything in her power to persuade youngsters to wear cycle helmets. Young football fanatic Ryan Marshall lost his life as he cycled to his home in Bearpark
A policeman today denied grooming and sexually assaulting a teenage girl. Christopher Billinge, 25, pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual activity with a child and sexual grooming of the same 14-year-old. Billinge, of Wheelton, Chorley, will
A judge who jailed a retired police inspector for two years for causing the deaths of two men by dangerous driving said the pensioners Parkinsons Disease may have contributed to the crash. The families of Derek Ross and Alan Davenport, who died in
This week is National Cycle To Work Week which aims to encourage more people to swap petrol power for pedal power. Intrepid cyclist Paul White is keeping a daily diary of his efforts... Day 1 "PAUL will do it!" It's fair to say that cycling
A 20-year-old man today denied murdering a keen photographer who was stabbed to death as he strolled out to take pictures of snow-covered hills. The body of Lee Phipps, 31, was discovered on a path close to his home in South Shields, South Tyneside,
THE summer exhibition at a North-East museum is proving popular with art enthusiasts. Called Impressionist Women, Vive la Parisienne, the collection of works at the Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, looks at the portrayal of society women
I've selected Storm Bird as wine of the week on grounds of taste and bargain price. It has a pleasant garnet-red colour with a pronounced bouquet which has ripe blackberries to the fore. The taste is complex as befits a three grape combination. Blackcurrants
A STAUNCH royalist organised a garden party to honour the Queen's 80th birthday. Bernard Borman organised a party in the garden of his Leyburn home. A member of the Constitutional Monarchy Association, he said he was proud to hold the party for the Queen
TWO students with an eye on the theatre fell under the college spotlight after they won an annual award. Andrew Warner and Louise Best, of Northallerton College, won the John Dennis Award. It is given in recognition of students' contribution to the college
A DOZEN pensioners were mistaken for protestors when they walked half a mile with a banner to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their home. But they told inquirers that they had nothing to grumble as they paraded from Abbeyfield House, in Galgate, Barnard
AN animal charity is appealing for a new home for a springer spaniel whose former owner died. The National Animal Sanctuaries Support League at Great Burdon, near Darlington, is hoping someone will take Buster in. The six-year-old is temporarily with
STAFF at the Rainbow day nursery at the University Hospital of Hartlepool are celebrating winning a national award for quality care. The National Day Nurseries Association Quality Counts award is to show parents and carers the nursery is committed to
A FASHION model will swap the bright city lights for a leading rural event to show off a young designer's creations. Harrogate model Josephine Klime will step out in designs by Yorkshire Fashion Idol finalist Amy White at this year's Great Yorkshire Show
A COUNCILLOR joined shoppers at a town centre barbecue to highlight the importance of food hygiene. To mark national Food Safety Week, Councillor Steven Harker was at Darlington Borough Council's environmental health team barbecue in the Farmers' Market
FOOTBALL fans are being urged to pull on their shirts for the World Cup and for charity. To coincide with England's final group game against Sweden today, the Get Your Kit On campaign is being promoted around the country. Fans pay £1 to wear their football
A MIDDLEBROUGH voluntary organisation has been awarded £47,750 over the next three years to tackle anti-social behaviour and social problems on the Easterside estate. Greggs Trust, the charitable arm of bakery company Greggs, has made the grant to the
AN animal charity is appealing for a new home for a springer spaniel whose former owner died. The National Animal Sanctuaries Support League at Great Burdon, near Darlington, is hoping someone will be able to take in Buster. The six-year-old, liver-and-white
PUPILS from across Hartlepool took part in an inter-schools competition at the weekend aimed at promoting safe cycling. Teams from 31 primary schools showed off their skills during the Biketrax 06 event staged at Summerhill Country Park by Hartlepool
MORE companies have pledged their support for a modernised town centre. The Post Office and The Ladhar Group are the two latest organisations to sign up to the multi-million pound redevelopment of Thornaby town centre. They will bring a glazed cafe to
ARTISTIC pupils at a junior school are celebrating after their talents were recognised in a national awards scheme. Blue Coat CE Aided Junior School, in Langley Road, Durham City, has been received Arts Council England's Artsmark in recognition of its
A COUNTY Durham special needs school is hoping to share its outdoor services with the wider community. Villa Real School in Consett opened its doors to the public yesterday to demonstrate some of the activities it can provide. Two teachers are qualified
REDCAR and Cleveland Borough Council has announced another multi-million pound investment to continue its programme of modernisation and refurbishment of schools across the borough. The news comes after it received confirmation from Schools Minister Jim
PUB landlords could be made to pay towards security camera coverage of problem areas under new proposals. Hambleton District Council is reviewing its CCTV policy and looking to recoup costs. One idea is to make landlords pay towards extended monitoring
THE latest meeting of a group designed to bring police and the public together in the Bedale area has been postponed. The Bedale and villages partnership community group was to meet on Thursday at Bedale Hall. It will now meet at 7pm on Wednesday, July
AUTHOR Sheila Quigley is to visit some of her visually impaired fans during an event next month. The author of Run For Home, Bad Moon Rising and Living On A Prayer lives in Houghton-le-Spring, and will be meeting members of the Visually Impaired Group
BLACKFYNE under-14 football team is looking for players to join the squad for the coming season. The first outdoor trial of the takes place at 6pm on Wednesday, June 28, at Blackfyne School, Consett.
AN open day will be held next week to show people how to use the Internet to find work and gain new skills. The event, from 10am to 4pm next Tuesday, will be at Annfield Plain Library, near Stanley. First Steps and Skills4Life Online will help visitors
PEOPLE with memory problems can step back in time by visiting a new hospital library packed with 50-year-old memorabilia. The library, on the Ceddesfield Ward at Auckland Park Hospital, in Bishop Auckland, is stocked with books, newspapers, magazines,
A CRIMEBUSTING detective will head up a new team fighting organised and serious crime in North Yorkshire. Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway will set up a specialist team to deal with the county's most dangerous criminals. He will become head of major
TICKETS are still available for a concert in aid of Herr- iot Hospice Homecare on Friday. The Union Promotions Charity Gig will take place from 6.30pm in Hambleton Forum, Northallerton. Rock, punk and acoustic bands from the area between Bedale and Stockton
FUNDRAISERS at Barnard Castle School have been collecting money by the barrowload after they spent a week helping a good cause. Students staged several events, including a wheelbarrow race, in which competitors were pelted with water bombs. A non-uniform
A BUSINESS started by young students as a school project has ended up with a significant profit. The 16 to 18-year-olds running events management company Sixth Sense have generated a profit of almost £500 after organising three entertainment nights
MOTORCYCLISTS' movements are being watched to cut down on fatalities on North Yorkshire's roads. North Yorkshire Police are running a new course, part of which involves officers watching the way motorcyclists ride and giving them feedback. It comes after
DERWENTSIDE Primary Care Trust (PCT) is celebrating an award for improving the health of its workforce. The Working for Health award will be presented tomorrow to Wynn Griffiths, chief executive of Derwentside PCT, by Alex Watson, leader of Derwentside
VILLAGERS' dreams of transforming wasteland near their homes into a leisure facility for families have come true. In 1999, the High Grange Village Trust began its quest to create a haven for families, and felt the land in front of their homes presented
A 27-YEAR-OLD man was last night fighting for his life after suffering severe head injuries in an assault at the weekend. A police spokesman said the man was believed to have been in a disturbance involving up to 20 men and woman in Sunderland on Sunday
RYEDALE District Council's Liberal Democrat party has elected a new leader. Councillor Elizabeth Shields has stepped down after ten years in the role. She will continue as a committee chairman, but has handed leadership to Coun Howard Keal, who was elected
CAMPAIGNERS on either side of the debate over controversial proposals to transfer 4,500 council homes to a housing association are to take their case to residents later this month. Chester-le-Street District Council is to conduct a secret ballot of tenants
ARCHAEOLOGISTS say they are excited about a find at a North-East landmark they believe may shed new light on the Dark Ages. The historians say a Seventh Century sword discovered near Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, is the only one of its kind in the
A LEADING photographer has been invited to be part of one of the world's top art organisations. Keith Moss, from Brotton, east Cleveland, has been invited to showcase his work at the Saatchi Gallery, in London, which is famed for showcasing work by well-known
AN annual event which raises thousands of pounds for a cancer charity is to be staged this weekend. The 17th annual Stanley Fun Day will take place on Saturday, in aid of Cancer Research UK. The event, held in Stanley town centre, gets underway at 10am
A DURHAM City primary school was jumping for joy this week after its football team carried off the Ushaw Moor Aged Miners' Cup for the first time in 14 years. The last time St Patrick's RC Primary school, at Langley Moor, won the trophy was in 1992, so
THE number of knives being handed in under a weapons amnesty has slowed down, police said yesterday.Since May 25, 659 knives have been surrendered in County Durham and Darlington, but more than 370 of them were turned in duuring the first week.Only four
THE FIRST two performances by Sven's boys haven't gone to plan but I know we'll forget all about the disappointments of Paraguay and Trinidad with an all-important win over Sweden. We haven't beaten the Swedes for God knows how long - I should know -
I SPENT the morning of Father's Day celebrating and preaching at a Choral Mass in St Michael's and the afternoon conducting a rare Sunday wedding. So by teatime, all I was fit for was collapsing in front of cricket on TV and flicking through the Government's
A GROUNDbreaking North-East project to protect young people from the sex trade should be extended across the country, according to a leading children's charity. Barnardo's helped 2,075 children and teenagers escape the dangers of prostitution and exploitation
BRADFORD City manager Colin Todd is keen to take Middlesbrough youngster Adam Johnson to Valley Parade. Todd has been on the look out for a left-sided player since last season, despite signing Bobby Petta from Darlington. Todd has now switched his attentions
THE opportunity for experimentation is extremely limited during a World Cup finals and that is why tonight, when England take on Sweden in Cologne's Rhine Energy Stadium, Sven-Goran Eriksson must not waste his window of opportunity. Depending on what
And so to Cologne, a city that boasts more medieval buildings than any other in Germany but which reeks of a more modern, industrial age. In many ways, entering the capital of the North Rhine-Westphalia region is like being back in the North-East - only
THOMAS Butler has followed the lead of Darren Williams in wanting out of Hartlepool United this summer. After relegation to League Two, Williams submitted a transfer request, with the defender citing personal reasons for his move. And last night, Butler's
NIALL QUINN flew into the North-East yesterday evening to try to save his multi-million pound takeover bid for Sunderland Football Club. Last night, he and club chairman Bob Murray were understood to be in talks at the Cleveland Tontine pub, on the A19
JOHN Reid made clear yesterday that he still favours a single North-East police force as he officially abandoned plans to push through the merger by next spring. As expected, the Home Secretary scrapped the timetable to force four police merger orders
STAFF and pupils at a North-East school were yesterday coming to terms with their second tragedy in a matter of months. Daniel Purvis, a 15-year-old pupil at Hetton School, Wearside, died at the weekend when the stolen car he was travelling in overturned
A SHOPKEEPER has been criticised in court for selling a crossbow to a drunk who sparked a stand-off with armed police in a busy town centre. Anthony Howard, of High Northgate, Darlington, was yesterday jailed for a year after the drama, on Bonfire Night
A RETIRED butcher ran the gauntlet of animal rights activists as he exercised an ancient right to drive a flock of sheep across a London bridge. Bryan Cockburn, from Bedale, North Yorkshire, was one of 17 members of the Worshipful Company of Butchers
POLICE are appealing for help to trace a group of men who smashed a town centre window after England's first World Cup match. A group of up to 25 men were involved in the incident, in Skinnergate, Darlington, leaving shop staff inside "traumatised and
A 12-year-old boy who received a final police warning after he was accused of indecently touching a young girl yesterday had the caution overturned at London's High Court. The youngster, who is now 14 and from the Durham area, received the warning in
A Government minister who criticised a judge was forced into a humiliating climbdown last night. Redcar MP Vera Baird QC withdrew comments she made last week about the Recorder of Cardiff, Judge John Griffith Williams, getting "wrong" the sentence of
BUS SERVICES: ARRIVA managing director Steve Noble has confirmed (HAS, June 13) what we already knew - that local bus operators were driven off the roads so Arriva could plunder the most profitable routes and deny public transport to many people in rural
The case of Craig Sweeney, who sexually assaulted a three-year-old girl, has led ministers to reconsider a so-called 'Sarah's Law', under which paedophiles would be identifed to their neighbours. Women's Editor Sarah Foster talks to an advocate and an
HAT-TRICK seeking Hellvelyn (2.35) has the ideal credentials to maintain his 100 per cent unbeaten record by winning Royal Ascot's curtain raiser, the £80,000 Group 2 Coventry Sakes. Bryan Smart's strapping grey created a favourable impression when scoring
If wall-to-wall football on the television isn't enough for you, Chief Football Writer Scott Wilson recommends some titles from the game's latest literary crop. OFF THE RECORD by Michael Owen (Harper Sport, £6.99) MICHAEL Owen's autobiography has been
THE UK property industry could be criticised for not keeping up with its Euro neighbours when it comes to considering the environmental consequences of buildings. Half the greenhouse gas emissions in this country can be attributed to the energy used in
One of the most characteristic things about British boardrooms is that they are full of white faces. The lack of diversity has been most recently highlighted in the Business in the Community's Race for Opportunity survey, its sixth annual report on race
The North's largest business technology show took place last week. Deputy Business Editor Kate Bowman reports. IMAGINE you could move to a city where you could swap yourself for a younger, slimmer version that never ages and never gets tired. In this
We can all remember the good old days with their long, leisurely two-hour-plus-with-a-couple-of-pints Friday lunchtimes. Tales of boozy client lunches and pub-based "team-building sessions" were common practice, too. According to a recent survey however
A SALON is looking for youngsters to follow in the footsteps of Strictly Dance Fever star Darrien Wright next month. The Eye Candy hair and beauty salon in Darlington is holding its second Are You The Eye Candy of Darlington? competition to coincide with
THE recent volatility in the market reminds me of an old tale that demonstrates that valuations in the market can represent nothing like a true picture of a company's value. The story goes that some time in the early years of the 20th Century, there
DURHAM flew from Edinburgh to Southampton yesterday morning then spent the time they had gained studying video footage of Shane Warne's bowling. They are anxious to avoid a repeat of their struggles against Mushtaq Ahmed when they face the Australian
Matt Clarke will hold talks with David Hodgson this week, with the Darlington manager conceding the skipper's future is likely to be away from the North-East. While Hodgson is making no secret of his desire to retain the services of the 25-year-old,
TODDLERS pulled on their walking shoes yesterday to help raise money for a children's charity. The youngsters, from Jolly Tots Pre-School, in Darlington, took on a half-mile sponsored walk around Cockerton, under the watchful eye of nursery staff. They
FOOTBALL fans are being urged to pull on their shirts for the World Cup and charity. To coincide with England's final group game against Sweden today, the Get Your Kit On campaign is being promoted around the country. Fans pay £1 to wear their football
EASTBOURNE ACADEMY THE publication of the Expression of Interest for the proposed Eastbourne Academy once again raises some very interesting issues: 1. The 150 places available to children from other schools (on top of the 600 regular pupils). What happens
OUR columnist Peter Mullen disdainfully dismissed the current obsession with the World Cup in yesterday's paper. It was a wonderful article. "The majority of the pubs have brought in the big screen, and with it the noise and the sickening sentimentality
INTERNATIONAL law firm Eversheds has been re-appointed to regional development agency One NorthEast's (One) legal panel. The team at Eversheds' Newcastle office has retained its position to advice the agency on property and planning, and will now also
WAYNE ROONEY might have had the perfect excuse for being absent from "work" during the World Cup - but the region's employers need to ensure their own teams turn up for work throughout the tournament. Nick Poole, of Darlington law firm Latimer Hinks,
LAW firm Watson Burton has seen its best year, with turnover soaring by 42 per cent. The results rocket the firm into the top 100 of UK law firms in terms of growth. The practice is currently the fastest organically-growing commercial law firm in the
North-East networking initiative Women Into the Network (WIN), and founder Dinah Bennett, were presented with the Corporate Award at the CBI First Women Awards ceremony. The evening saw the UK's most pioneering businesswomen recognised for their achievements
APPLICATIONS for UK oil and gas exploration and production licences are at their highest level for 35 years. UK Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks said the record 147 applications by 121 companies pointed to a continuing strong interest in the North Sea. The
SUPERMARKET group Asda is threatening to use legal action to block a potential strike over pay. Workers in Asda depots across the UK - including Washington and Teesside - are being balloted on strike action over a lengthy collective pay bargaining row
A TRAINING scheme for the region's talented youngsters has attracted only five recruits out of the 24 needed - despite jobs worth £50,000 a year being up for grabs. The Tees Valley Production Technician studentship is backed by multi-national companies
PROPERTY investment group Dunedin is spending £1m upgrading Peterlee's industrial estates to attract more companies to the region. Dunedin, a private property company with offices in London and Edinburgh, last year bought Peterlee's north-west, south-west
INTERNET search group Infoserve last night vowed to press ahead with a stock market flotation on Friday that will help create up to 150 jobs in the region. Steve Barnes, managing director of the Leeds-based company, which employs almost 100 staff at a
A CONSERVATORY specialist has set up a showroom at a family-run garden centre. Economy Windows, based in Middlesbrough, has invested £150,000 in a site at the Cherry Hill Garden and Aquatics Centre, near Hemlington and Coulby Newham. The company has
ABOUT £5m has been invested in County Durham companies in the past year with the help of a service. Figures from the Business Support Network, which runs the Business Link service in the county, also show that about 800 jobs have been created or safeguarded
INTERNET retailer YooNoo launched its third website and generated thousands of orders in its first month. The business, in Stokesley, North Yorkshire, which specialises in selling electronic products via the Internet, has seen higher than expected orders
TEACHER Caran Masheder is leaving school behind her to concentrate on her cleaning business. The mother, from Middleton St George, near Darlington, has started a company called The Genie, offering homes and businesses a professional cleaning service.
MORE than a third of businesses have lost key financial information because of either a computer malfunction or vital paper work going missing, according to a survey. Research carried out by software provider KashFlow has highlighted the risks associated
A DATING events company aimed at bringing single people together has been launched in the region. Singles who Mingle has been set up by entrepreneur Pamela Ferguson, who sold her seaside coffee shop in Whitby, North Yorkshire, to fund the venture. The
IMAGINE the scenario: you've suddenly come into pots of money, want to buy a one-off supercar, but do not quite know how to go about acquiring one. Driving the dream is not as easy as you think - even those who have worked hard enough to afford a slice
Over the past ten years, Union Snack has maintained its position as the only pretzel manufacturer in the UK and grown turnover to £9m. As the Durham County firm celebrates its anniversary, Deputy Business Editor Kate Bowman reports on a decade of success
James Ramsbotham takes on one of the highest-profile jobs in the North-East next month. Business Editor Julia Breen meets the former Army officer. AS a young officer, James Ramsbotham worked in counter terrorism and went on to train recruits in jungle
TONY BLAIR last night paid tribute to former North-East MP Roland Boyes, who died at the weekend after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease.Mr Boyes, who was Durham's first Euro MP before he won the Houghton and Washington parliamentary seat in 1984
As The Northern Echo continues in its campaign to persuade Prime Minister Tony Blair to pardon more than 300 soldiers executed for cowardice during the First World War, Gavin Engelbrecht looks at how Private Herbert Burden came to embody the injustices.PRIVATE
In a warm and funny book, Allene Bowman Norris extols the joys of being a granny. She shares her experiences with Women's Editor Sarah Foster.IN chapter six of her book, Grannies Like Us, Allene Bowman Norris describes a trip. Like much of what she writes
FILM studio owner Pinewood Shepperton yesterday said revenues were on course to meet market expectations. Pinewood, whose studios were used for the making of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Basic Instinct 2, held its annual meeting. Chairman Michael
ENGINEERING company The Tanfield Group yesterday announced its first major order from the US.Tanfield's latest acquisition, cherry picker manufacturer UpRight Powered Access, has secured an order for 100 mast lift machines, worth more than $1m (£541,800
CONSTRUCTION output is expected to grow "firmly" throughout the rest of the year and into 2007, it was announced yesterday.Growth in the industry will see output climb two per cent higher by the end of this year and 2.7 per cent higher by the end of 2007
The North's largest business technology show took place last week. Deputy Business Editor Kate Bowman reports. IMAGINE a PC small enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Such devices were once a techie's dream. Last week, that dream became a reality when
Thompson Building Centres has bought nine trucks which will significantly improve the environmental performance of its 45-strong fleet. The Volvo FL models have been purchased from Volvo Truck and Bus, supplier of Thompson's skip wagons, crane trucks
Survey experts Eaga Homes has appointed JULIAN CORBRIDGE as sales manager. His role is to drive forward Eaga's new product, the Insight Home Survey, which allows customers to order and access their survey online. Mr Corbridge spent eight years running
MALCOLM PAGE, director of corporate resources at regional development agency One NorthEast, has been appointed chairman of the board of Norcare Enterprises, a new social enterprise arm of the region's largest supported housing organisation, Norcare.
Teesside quantity surveying practice Baker Mallett has promoted three of its regional associates, PETER MCTIERNAN, STEPHEN MITCHISON and JOHN COLE to national associates.
BUSINESS leaders in the North-East have been challenged to embrace the green revolution as a way of developing the region's economy. The comments came from a senior member of environmental organisation WWF after it published a report showing how well
A NORTH-EAST waste management company has helped fund research into birds that use one of the region's wildlife areas. Billingham Bottoms, in Billingham, Teesside, is an area of wetland including reedbeds originally established by chemical company ICI
The Centre of Excellence for Life Sciences (CELS), the organisation set up to drive growth in the region's healthcare sector, has made two appointments. KENNY LANG has been appointed director of business incubation and MIKE NICHOLDS as director of programme
CHARTERED accountancy firm Clive Owen & Co has promoted CHRIS BEAUMONT to partner. He joined the practice in 1996 as a qualified chartered accountant. Within two years, he was made manager of the owner-managed business department, providing support to
TAX advisor and business consultant ROB BARRIGAN is the new president of the Northern Society of Chartered Accountants. Mr Barrigan, 50, began his career at the Middlesbrough office of Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co (now KPMG) in 1977. A modern languages
Yorkshire Bank has appointed four partners to its financial solutions centre in Tees Valley. Business partner JOHN MARTINSON has had a 21-year career with Yorkshire in Teesside and North Yorkshire, previously as branch manager in Whitby. Fellow business
DAVE MATTHEWS, a senior manager at Deloitte, has been promoted to director. Mr Matthews, who joined the Newcastle office as a graduate trainee in 1995, has spent three years in the firm's offices in Sydney, Australia, and two six-month secondments in
l Loblite Electric, based in Team Valley, has appointed MIKE HODKINSON as national sales manager. The 47-year-old, from Arbroath, near Dundee, joins the manufacturer of weatherproof electrical products to develop the company's sales team. l Property
Property consultancy Stanton Mortimer has appointed LYNN NIXON as a valuer at its Northallerton office. Ms Nixon brings ten years' experience to the position.
Team Valley-based Responsive Engineering Group has appointed STEVEN SIMPSON as its new group finance director. He will be responsible for all finance, IT and administration across the group's four businesses - Streamline, Kingsway, Weldex and Pressex,
The Over 40s League annual do was held on the night the World Cup began. They reckoned FIFA had brought forward the kick-off to accommodate it. The presentations were held at Sunderland Catholic Club, where the sound system was kaput (as they possibly
SCHOOLS, councils and the Government are failing in their duties to keep children safe from paedophiles, according to a report published today. The investigation by education watchdog Ofsted found that neither headteachers nor councils could prove teachers
The plane carrying Sweden's footballers to Cologne was forced to abort its landing and take another loop around the airfield in the mother of all thunderstorms. The reaction of Sweden's players: ''It wasn't a big deal.'' They are hoping to take the same
SVEN-GORAN Eriksson is confident that Wayne Rooney will strike fear into the heart of defenders the length and breadth of Germany this evening - and help England end 38 years of Swedish heartbreak in the process. Seven-and-a-half weeks after breaking
JOBS at a North-East call centre are under threat after Royal & Sun Alliance yesterday announced plans to shed one-tenth of its UK workforce. The insurer, which employs about 650 people in Sunderland, said it was axing 1,000 jobs in the UK and a further
A social worker who advertised herself as an escort has been banned from working with vulnerable children. Yvonne Doyle, of Waldron Street, Bishop Auckland, County Durham, was suspended for two years from working as a social worker by the General Social
PENSIONER Roy Bird fell foul of the law when he offered what he said were free- range eggs for sale. In fact, the eggs came from caged birds and were bought from a supplier. Yesterday, Bird, 74, appeared at Northallerton Magistrates' Court, North Yorkshire
A RESTORATION and development firm that has seen turnover more than treble in six years has signed contracts with two football clubs. Hellens Sport, part of the Wearside Hellens group, has secured deals worth £650,000 with Gretna and Charlton Athletic
JANE Clarke has always loved food. Not in a gluttonous sort of way but just for the pleasure of it, and if you'll pardon the pun, it's served her well. A leading nutritionist, Jane is frequently in the papers and on TV. While she is an expert, it's her
