A rescue mission has been launched to protect four historic landmarks.

In the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Shildon Engine House near Blanchland, Ninebanks Tower in Northumberland, Muggleswick Grange in County Durham and the remains of Whitesyke and Bentyfield Lead Mines near Alston, Cumbria, are all scheduled ancient monuments.

From left: Whitesyke and Bentyfield, Ninebanks Tower, Shildon Engine House and Muggleswick Grange

All four sites are currently on English Heritage's at-risk register but will be removed once the restoration work is done.

Highly-organised professional rustlers are being blamed after 150 sheep were stolen in three separate raids on remote farms in Northumberland.

Police have launched an investigation after farmers in the west of the county reported the animals had been taken from their fields between the end of November and last week.

Between November 25 and January 31 about 60 sheep were stolen from a farm near Kirkwhelpington, a further 60 were taken from land at Harle between December 1 and February 2 and another 30 disappeared from a farm at Bardon Mill sometime between January 21 and 31.

Wildlife Minister Huw Irranca Davies has accepted a petition signed by more than 200,000 people demanding an end to the killing of birds of prey.

The petition is the largest ever collected by the RSPB.

According to the RSPB's most recent annual Birdcrime report, published last August, Northumberland is the third worst county in England for illegal persecution against birds of prey.

Families in Northumberland have been spared a 25% increase in the cost of having their garden waste collected this year following a revolt by opposition county councillors.

It was planned to put up the annual charge for the service from £20 to £25 in March - to bring in an extra £60,000 and help the county council achieve tough budget savings.

Now the saving will have to be found elsewhere after Conservative and Labour councillors joined forces to defeat the move at a meeting in County Hall on Wednesday.

Plans to create a £3.5m centre of creativity for young people in Northumberland have come a step closer.

Designs for the Tynedale Creative and Media Skills Centre - next to Prudhoe Community High School - have gone on public display.

The centre will house state-of-the-art media production facilities in a leading edge building shared across the Tynedale Virtual College - a partnership of the four high schools in the area along with Northumberland College, Dilston College and Hexham Priory School.

It is part of a successful £4.6m bid to the Government for exemplar diploma facilities, which also includes a satellite residential skills centre at Ridley Hall near Haydon Bridge.

A cut-price travel scheme for elderly and disabled people who are too frail to use buses looks set to become a victim of tough council budget cuts in Northumberland.

More than 800 vulnerable pensioners across the county use the scheme, which allows them concessionary travel in taxis because they are unable to use other forms of public transport.

They use council-issued vouchers, tokens or passes to pay for taxi trips to the shops, GP and hospital appointments or to visit relatives and friends.

The Northumberland farming community is mourning the sudden death of former County Show director and ex-National Sheep Association (NSA) chairman David Smith.

Mr Smith, who was 62, died in hospital on Monday. He leaves a wife Margaret and daughter Rachel at his family farm at Threepwood, Haydon Bridge near Hexham

Julie Sedgewick, NSA regional secretary, said: "It was very much out of the blue. It's a big shock to everybody. He was a lovely man, he'd do anything for you. If there was a problem, he was always the one to help."

Northumberland Trading Standards is urging people in the county to fight back against the fraudsters this February by taking part in a major campaign.

The Scamnesty 2010 campaign runs from February 1 to 26 and will involve people dropping mail scams they receive through their letterbox into designated Scamnesty boxes which will be placed across Northumberland.

Online scams can also be reported via the virtual Scamnesty bin at www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/scamnesty.

A new campaign aimed at thwarting travelling criminals who prey on isolated properties will be launched in Northumberland on Monday.

It involves county council community wardens, Northumbria Police officers and Northumberland fire and rescue service personnel visiting farms and other remote rural locations in the Tynedale area on a regular basis.

The relaunched Farmwatch campaign also includes partners from the county's west area local multi-agency problem solving group (LMAPS).

Even the emergency services refuse to enter the crumbling shanty towns of one of South America's most volatile districts but, as Tom Mullen and Lisa Harper discovered, 18-year-old Naomi Todd is equal to the task of helping children there have a better life

Armed gangs, shadowy slums and the stifling tropical sun are no match for intrepid adventurer Naomi Todd.

At just 18, the school leaver has chosen to brave one of South America's most volatile districts - the slums or 'villas' of Argentina's capital city Buenos Aires.