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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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).

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.

More than 400 nest boxes have been put up for the birds in Northumberland in the last 10 years,

But the recent snow and ice has hit the birds hard, with 15 dead owls having been found so far.

Seven culling projects have received £24,000 and will soon begin in the North East - including several in strategic areas of Northumberland - in an attempt to save red squirrel populations from the grey onslaught.

The work will try to thin the number of greys so that the much-loved red squirrels have less competition and less of a chance of catching the dreaded squirrel pox virus.

The scheme, which replaces the Hill Farm Allowance (HFA), will be open for applications shortly from all farmers with land classified as a Severely Disadvantaged Area of the uplands.

Natural England, which administers the agri-environment schemes, is organising the events which include information on how and when to apply.

Householders in parts of Northumberland had to sandbag their properties as the Environment Agency issued flood warnings across the region.

Northumberland County Council worker Paul Charlton at the scene of a flood under the main line railway form Newcastle to Carlisle in Haltwhistle

Firefighters were called out by worried homeowners whose houses were at risk of flooding.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) has put forward the investment in the form of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

Northumberland's £7.5m allocation will be used to develop fire stations in Prudhoe, Haltwhistle and Seahouses.