SEPTEMBER

A MONTH of farewells on the political front as Labour prepares for major changes at the top.

Having come under intense pressure from party members, particularly supporters of Chancellor and would-be Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Tony Blair finally has to come out and confirm his departure.

However, the issue remains a bone of contention within the party and not even leaked news that he will have gone by the summer of next year (07) does not quell the protesting voices within the party. One junior minister and several government aides are among those who quit their posts in protest at what they see as continued vacillation from the PM.

Mr Blair responds by giving a rousing speech, his final one to the party's annual conference, in which he reminds the audience just what a brilliant orator he can be and leaves many people doubting Gordon Brown's abilities to be similarly inspiring. The Chancellor, for his part, gives a speech which is very prime ministerial in tone and deputy prime minister John Prescott announces his impending departure to conference.

As with so many months, September is overshadowed by the deteriorating situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, where 14 British servicemen die when their Nimrod plane crashes.

BBC Television's Panorama programme claims that corruption is rife in football, leading to widespread denials from leading figures within the game. The main victim is Newcastle United coach Kevin Bond, who loses his job but denies any wrongdoing and argues that he has been poorly treated by the club.

Top Gear television presenter Richard Hammond receives serious head injuries while filming in a high speed vehicle at Elvington airfield, near York. For several days his life hangs in the balance as the debate about such risky stunts rages. Eventually, he pulls through and his battle for life prompts many people to donate money to Yorkshire's air ambulance service, which flew him to hospital.

One adventurer not so lucky is Steve Irwin, the Australian naturalist best known for his antics with crocodiles, who is killed by a stingray barb through the chest while diving off Australia's northeast coast. Australia goes into a period of national mourning.

Pope Benedict XVI shows an astonishing lack of sensitivity when he sparks worldwide protests by saying that the prophet Mohammed has brought ''things only evil and inhuman''. He later says these were not his views but he was simply quoting a 14th Century Byzantine emperor. In the absence any 14th Century Byzantine emperors to rail against, Muslims launch protests around the world and the Pope has to make a humiliating apology.

Nestle announces it is cutting 645 jobs at its factory in York, one of several setbacks the chocolate industry in the city suffers during the year.

And finally...

FARMER Neville Nixon gets a real surprise when he decides to reduce his farming operations. A tractor he bought as a spare from a neighbour turns out to be a great rarity, one of only 100 ever produced. The machine owned by Mr Nixon, of Village Farm, Hunderthwaite, in Teesdale, County Durham, is revealed as international 444, one of a batch ordered by Pakistan in the early 1960s.

OCTOBER

THE killers of schoolboy Damilola Taylor are finally jailed as the ten-year-old's father criticises a "catalogue of failures" in efforts to bring those responsible to justice.

Richard Taylor also questions whether or not the eight-year youth custody sentences given to brothers Danny and Ricky Preddie is enough to deter others.

Danny, 18, and Ricky, 19, make a defiant gesture, lifting and crossing their manacled hands, as they are led out of court at the Old Bailey following sentencing.

The brothers had denied killing Damilola by jabbing his leg with a broken beer bottle in South London in November 2000, but were found guilty of manslaughter following a retrial in August.

On the global stage, the world takes another lurch into uncertainty when it emerges that North Korea has exploded a nuclear bomb despite calls from the global community to show restraint.

Already the subject of a vociferous campaign of condemnation by the US, North Korea initially appears impervious to the worldwide protests that follow its decision to press ahead with the test blast.

However, there is some hope that relations can be repaired as North Korea eventually moderates its hardline stance and talks begin to try to head the world away from yet another potentially devastating conflict.

The snooker world goes into mourning when champion Paul Hunter loses his long battle against cancer. A popular and talented player, his death brings forth fond tributes from some of the game's greats.

And finally

FURTHER confirmation that the world has gone mad comes when it is revealed that North-East council chief have set up a squad to stop children from collecting horse chestnuts.

The Newcastle City Council environmental services team uses a cherry picker crane to strip the trees before children can get to them.

The idea is to stop youngsters from hurting themselves collecting conkers where residents have complained there could be a problem.

However, North-East Conservative MEP Martin Callanan said: "Words fail me. It is the nanny state gone mad."

ends

NOVEMBER

IT'S one of the most amazing stories of the year as former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko dies after battling for life for several days.

The cause of his death is ingestion of a large dose of the radioactive substance polonium 210 and he blames Russian president Vladimir Putin for ordering his murder. Putin denies this but the incident lifts the lid on the shadowy world of Russian politics.

Prime Minister Tony Blair pledges to look carefully at a controversial decision to restrict access to dementia drugs. The independent advisory body set up by the Government to advise the NHS on which drugs should be funded, recommends that newly-diagnosed dementia patients will not be prescribed a range of effective drugs. Among those protesting against the decision are The Northern Echo and its readers, through the Don't Stop Dementia Drugs campaign, the Alzheimer's Society, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Nursing.

A Teesside oil worker is killed during a rescue attempt after being taken hostage from an Italian oil ship off the coast of southern Nigeria. David Hunt, 58, who lived in Middlesbrough, was one of seven foreign oil workers taken hostage from the supply vessel belonging to a subsidiary of Italian oil giant Eni SpA. He dies during a botched rescue attempt by the Nigerian Navy.

A difficult year for Darlington Borough Council continues as the authority announces that it will not be allowing supermarket chain Tesco to set up in the town centre.

There had been widespread condemnation of the council for considering the plans in secret and the authority's public consultation overwhelmingly rejects the proposal, after which it is dropped.

A North-East soldier becomes the second British servicewoman killed in action in Iraq. Staff Sergeant Sharron Elliott, 34, from South Shields, South Tyneside, dies with three colleagues when a bomb explodes as they patrol a river on Remembrance Sunday.

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death for crimes against humanity in Iraq after a long trial. Despite his defiance, the Butcher of Baghdad looks visibly shaken on hearing he will be hanged for ordering the slaughter of 148 Shias more than 20 years ago.

The Iraq conflict has political victims as well after a poor Republican Party showing at the elections for the US Senate and House of Representatives. With the Democrats seizing political power and isolating president George W Bush, he sacks defence secretary Donald Rumfeld. By the end of the year, the Bush and Blair double act are openly conceding that their venture into Iraq has been little short of a disaster.

A man is charged with murdering four members of the same family. Abigail Crampton, 12, five-year-old brother Steven, Funke Sobo, 36, a supermarket worker, and freelance photographer Yemi Sobo, 41, are all found dead from multiple stab wounds at their home in Kenton, Newcastle.

DJ Alan 'Fluff' Freeman, one of the early Radio 1 pioneers, dies after a long illness.

AND FINALLY

A FORMER soldier left with a badly scorched colon after launching a firework from his backside admits it was a "stupid" thing to do.

In his first interview since the Bonfire Night incident, the 22-year-old former Household Cavalry member from Sunderland says: "I suppose I've been lucky - as lucky as anyone who has blown two new holes in their backside ever can be. But I constantly feel like I've eaten the hottest curry in the world. I feel a real prize prat.

"I'm a grown man. I shouldn't be going around shooting fireworks out of my bum. I haven't stopped apologising to all the doctors and nurses for the trouble I have put them through.

"It's the soldier in me. I love that sense of danger, of doing something on the edge. All I can say is I'm paying the price now. I think I can safely say I won't be doing it again."

DECEMBER

THE month begins with the biggest UK police inquiry of its kind as Suffolk officers seek a serial killer who has murdered five prostitutes in the Ipswich area within a matter of weeks.

Never before has a force in Britain dealt with a killer whose rate of murders is so alarmingly accelerated and officers are brought in from all over the country to help the operation. Mark - you will need to add in the latest re arrests, charges etc

Lord Stevens, the former Northumbria Police chief constable, announces the results of his team's long investigation into the death of Princess Diana in a Paris road tunnel in 1997.

Despite numerous conspiracy theories, Lord Stevens says the death was nothing more than a tragic car accident caused by her drunken chauffeur going too fast.

Nevertheless concerns remain about the role of the paparazzi, who were pursuing the car at the time of the accident, which also killed Diana's lover Dodi Fayed. His father, Mohamed, predictably dismisses the report, sticking to his claim that the couple were killed in a secret service plot. But the number of people who believe him seems to be dwindling all the time.

Former Chilean dictator General Pinochet dies after a long illness. Baroness Thatcher says she mourns his passing - he supported Britain during the Falklands War - but most other people prefer to remember the many people killed during his cruel regime.

Victims of the Farepak saving scheme collapse, including many in the region, finally learn that they will get their Christmas hampers after all. The Government announces that 19,000 of the 23,000 hampers ordered before Farepak's collapse will be delivered, having been bought from administrators using money from the £6.8m Farepak Response Fund, a charity fund set up to help victims and backed by businesses and individuals.

A shock for rail operator GNER when the Government announces that the company's continuing financial difficulties mean that the contract to run the East Coast Mainline will have to be re-awarded.

Tony Blair becomes the first serving Prime Minister to undergo police questioning as officers pursue their inquiries in the cash-for-honours investigation.

Two firefighters die and several people are injured in a major blaze at a fireworks factory on an industrial estate near Lewes, East Sussex.

After a wait of almost 40 years, Newcastle United's footballers finally lift a trophy - not that anyone notices at first. The club wins the Intertoto competition after becoming the last section winners to still be in the EUFA Cup.

England's hopelessly out-played cricketers would kill for such a technicality as they lose the Ashes by surrendering the first three tests in Australia.

And it's a case of from Saltburn to Space as robotics expert Dr Nicholas Patrick, born in the east Cleveland town, becomes only the fourth Briton to leave the planet's surface. The 42-year-old is part of a Space Shuttle Discovery team sent to rewire electrical systems of the International Space Station.

And finally...

SANTA CLAUS is grounded after it emerges that he is not insured to travel on his sleigh.

Insurers of Hartlepool Round Table, which runs Santa's float around the town every Christmas, say their insurance policy does not allow him to sit on the sleigh. Instead, he has to find another way of getting around for the charity collection. A sign of the times indeed.