Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Tony Henderson on how the Northumbrian countryside has helped inspire one man to tackle a monumental task. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Dick Whittington Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Madness, the original and self-proclaimed Nutty Boys, are poised to raise the roof at the Metro Radio Arena on Thursday night... and you could be going to see them. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Good books about the North-East - or published in the North-East - are in no short supply as the region continues to inspire writers, photographers and publishers. David Whetstone chooses a few you will find in the run-up to Christmas. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
The Government is today set to reverse 20 years of bus deregulation by allowing local transport chiefs to seize control of services, The Journal can reveal. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
The North-East is to get millions of pounds from the Government to carry out medical research, it was announced yesterday. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Original artwork for a new children's book goes on display at the Durham Light Infantry Museum and Durham Art Gallery, Durham City, from December 19 to January 7. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Labour MPs in the North-East last night called on businesses in the region to increase pay rates if they want to attract the best talent. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Newcastle City Council leader John Shipley and managing director of Capital Shopping Centres Kay Chaldecott meet at Old Eldon Square on Thursday to toast the opening of two new restaurants - Strada and Wagamama. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
North Tyneside Mayor John Harrison will today seek backing for his plans to offer free meals to all primary school children. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
The Journal Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A full licence is being sought to allow drinking, dancing and live music in a Northumberland market place - where an on-street booze ban is in force. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Santa may live at the North Pole - but he certainly won't be dancing around it in quite the same way as some office staff this Christmas. Tara Brady investigates. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Villagers are urging a council to take the plunge and revive a former open air swimming pool site which they claim is a long-standing seaside eyesore. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
The Journal Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Thirteen people were arrested after police targeted revellers at a popular North-East nightclub. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Community wardens in Northumberland are stepping up their patrols to help protect traders and shoppers against criminals in the run-up to Christmas. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Three new public buildings, worth more than £10m, are being built in Newcastle and North Tyneside to give people access to council and health services in their communities. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Almost £2m in lottery cash will be sunk into a pioneering landscape scheme to help transform a lake. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Last week I wrote about Royal Marines, facing bullets in the notorious Helmand province of Afghanistan, who are not to be given the £3,000 they were promised for service in an overseas war zone due to an error by Royal Navy administrators. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
It's not uncommon for me to receive a letter from someone terrified that doctors will tell their loved one they are about to die. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Strictly Come Dancing has been a total joy and, by and large, I've agreed with the decisions. Until last week. To see EastEnders' Louisa Lytton (right) and Spice Girl Emma Bunting having to do a dance-off for a passage into the semi-final was galling. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Liz Hurley is under fire for designing animal print wear for children because it has "sexual connotations". I'm on record as deploring the sexualisation of children's clothes but I've never thought animal print particularly erotic. The one-piece swimsuits and little hooded cover-ups looked sweet to me and the children were obviously enjoying wearing them. There's enough sleaze around already. Let's not start seeing it where it doesn't exist. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
In my opinion, two wrong decisions were made in Britain's courts this week. In the first case, a man accused of a string of severe sex attacks on a woman with learning difficulties walked free from court. The reason? He is deaf and mute and understands very little English, so the prosecution decided to offer no evidence against him. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A course which helps mums and dads in Newcastle to become better parents has been given the thumbs up. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
When it teacher Jahn Douglas filled in at the maths department, she never expected romance to be in the calculation. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Family, friends, colleagues - and even criminals - mourned the premature death of County Durham detective Brian Roberts. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
There's been a very special delivery at a well-known Northumberland dairy farm. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A pub which promotes peace, understanding and friendliness has been targeted by masked raiders. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Police and Metro bosses yesterday hailed new figures that show crime is continuing to fall on the Tyne and Wear transport system. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Armed police were called after a man was shot in the legs yesterday. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
They are already the apple of many a fitness enthusiast's eye - and now an historic network of waggonways has won a national accolade. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A member of the jury which convicted former aircraft engineer Andrew Adams of murder 13 years ago remarked to fellow jurors that she "knew this case" and he and his co-accused were guilty, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
School meals staff in Northumberland are gearing up to cook festive lunches for 30,000 pupils. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
The plight of the red squirrel will be highlighted at a conference in Newcastle tomorrow. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Neil Nevens and his wife Sharon describe themselves as a "traditional" couple when it comes to household chores. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A conservative Euro-MP last night blamed party rules for provoking a split among activists in their top North-East target seat. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A former clothing company warehouse in Northumberland has been earmarked for an indoor racing circuit and training centre for young quad bike enthusiasts. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Councillors in the North-East are still too "male, pale and middle class" - and unlikely to be "gainfully employed", a leading North-East figure will warn today. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
An angry headteacher has slammed campaigners for dragging his school into the row over controversial plans to build a city academy. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A home Office expert who helped set up a national database for violent and sexual offenders yesterday admitted distributing child pornography. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A conman is facing jail after admitting swindling a pensioner out of thousands of pounds in a long-running scam. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Three teenagers whose behaviour has disrupted the lives of their communities have been given Anti Social Behaviour Orders after work by Northumbria Police. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Three-quarters of women still do most of the cooking and food shopping for their family - even if they work full-time, according to new research. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A police chief yesterday warned women to stay away from Ipswich's red light district as fears rose that a serial killer was targeting prostitutes. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
* Tania Nicol, 19. Vanished on October 30. Naked body found in pond at Copdock on December 8. Miss Nicol grew up on an housing estate on the outskirts of Ipswich, where she lived with her mother and brother, now 16. Neighbours did not realise that Miss Nicol was working as a prostitute. They remember her as a chatty smiling child who grew into a well-spoken, polite teenager. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
The father of Gemma Adams yesterday said he could only hope that detectives found the killer soon. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A number of women have either been killed or vanished in similar circumstances to Gemma Adams and Tania Nicol in East Anglia over the past 13 years. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A 13-year-old girl was snatched off the street and raped, police said yesterday. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A burglar who battered a deaf pensioner for just £1.06 was yesterday jailed for nine years. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Tributes were paid yesterday to an inspirational teacher who died after falling into the sea from the pier at Tynemouth. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A man appeared in court yesterday charged with the murder of a young father-of-two. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A county Durham academic was yesterday accused of taking part in a $3m (£1.5m) international conspiracy to smuggle military equipment to Iran. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A motorcylist was killed yesterday in mysterious circumstances on a busy Tyneside road. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A Tyneside soldier killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb may have survived if he been wearing better body armour, an inquest was told yesterday. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Could you be a Sofa Superstar? Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
The mystery of an abandoned campsite in a remote North-East forest was finally solved yesterday - when the sheepish owners admitted they simply ditched their belongings - after getting scared. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A british detective travelled to Hamburg yesterday to investigate the death of poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. German police have found evidence of radioactive polonium-210 in a car and apartment used by Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun. before he left for London on November 1 to meet Mr Litvinenko. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Anti-nuclear campaigner Martin and Wyness and his daughter Sophie, 13, were removed from the public gallery of the House of Commons yesterday after protesting at Trident's replacement. They unfurled a banner: "Sane Government Not More Missiles". Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
More than £120m in compensation has been paid to "unsuccessful" claimants over endowment policies after watchdogs intervened. The Financial Services Authority said that since July 2005 more than 100,000 rejected complaints had been reviewed and 75% went in the consumers' favour. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Banks charge customers £30 in penalties for a service that costs them just £4.50, a study for tonight's edition of BBC2's The Money Programme reveals. It found it cost banks no more than £4,50 when a cheque bounced and a maximum £2.50 to deal with unauthorised overdrafts - and customers are now threatening court action. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A bloodied baseball bat, a dead man with a hypodermic needle still in his arm and the bodies of two teenagers and a woman have been discovered in their apartment in Brooklyn, New York. Police believe the man killed the woman and her children one by one, before committing suicide. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Nicole Richie, star of The Simple Life, was arrested yesterday on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, authorities said. California Highway Patrol officers took the 25-year-old daughter of pop singer Lionel Richie into custody after she failed an on-the-spot test in Burbank, near Los Angeles. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A million British hay fever sufferers could benefit from an anti-pollen vaccine pill due to be offered to patients in the New Year. The tablet, called Grazax, contains a tiny quantity of grass pollen extract. From January it will be available on prescription only to UK patients who do not respond to conventional treatments. Studies have shown the pill can prime the immune system. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A birmingham Crown Court jury was discharged yesterday after failing to reach a verdict on PC Gopal Dehar, 34, accused of raping a woman at her home. He will hear next week if the prosecution wishes to press for a retrial. Dehar, of West Midlands Police, told the two-week trial he had not had sex with the woman, who had said she was raped after a date. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Tv star Ben Freeman will be rested from his role in Emmerdale after he was charged with raping a girl while on holiday in Barbados, a spokeswoman for the soap said yesterday. The 26-year-old, who plays Scott Windsor in the ITV1 soap, was arrested and charged with the rape of a 16-year-old British girl by police on November 29. An Emmerdale spokeswoman said Freeman, who has returned to the UK on bail of £25,000, had asked for a leave of absence to enable him to fight the accusations. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
A royal Navy warship travelled 200 miles to rescue a sailor who fell overboard while competing in a transatlantic yacht race. HMS Lancaster powered across the ocean to save the Belgian crew member in the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers. He was last night in the warship's sickbay on the way to Barbados. Read
Dec 12 2006 | Today's News
Ambulance bosses came under fire last night for arranging to send a helicopter 75 miles to a road accident while paramedics were having a meal break just four miles away. Read