A council has been urged by environmentalists to do more to reduce its energy consumption after a local newspaper probe revealed that its bill rose by 17 per cent last year.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Blytth and Wansbeck News Post Leader found that Northumberland County Council spent more than £4.4m on energy in the 2005-06 financial year – an increase of more than £650,000 on the previous 12 months.

ITV Wales' John Williams has been named as the Welsh Rugby Union Group's new head of communications.
He started his career in journalism as a reporter on the South Wales Echo in Cardiff and in the early-to-mid 1980s he was based in London as a staff reporter for the Sunday Mirror before getting into broadcasting.

A team from the Whitby Gazette made it through to the semi-finals of the North East Media Masters six-a-side football competition - the last newspaper left in – before losing to the eventual winners Sunderland.
The team comprised editor Damian Holmes, deputy editor Jon Stokoe, trainee reporter Carl Gavaghan, and ex-pro Whitby boss Lee Nogan as well as some other members of Yorkshire Regional Newspapers staff and friends, taking some big scalps along the way and only losing to Sunderland by a golden goal.

California has a new law making it a crime to take more than 25 copies of a free newspaper without permission, according to the Commonwealth Press Union.
The move comes after supporters of a mayoral candidate apparently removed copies of a newspaper endorsing their opponent in a recent election.

Visitors to the Exeter Express & Echo's website were able to send Christmas greetings with a series of e-cards featuring scenes from the city.
Editor Marc Astley saw the idea used by the Helsingin Sanomat, a daily newspaper in Helsinki, during a study tour of Finland, Sweden and Amsterdam, and decided to offer the service to Echo readers.

1,400 readers gathered for the Daily Post's Thousands of Voices Christmas concert at Llangollen, the paper's annual Christmas curtain raiser.
Guests enjoyed performances from acts which included Opera star Bryn Terfel and children from local schools.