A group of young budding fashion designers from across Northumberland are to meet the man famed for making the world's most expensive dress.

Womenswear designer Scott Henshall will be at Northumberland College's main campus in Ashington tomorrow to give tips to students.

Scott, who is best-known for making a £5m dress and taking part in I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! in 2006, will meet and work with students taking part in a four-day fashion summer school, organised by the London College of Fashion (LCF) in partnership with the college.

Loved ones today begged for a missing man to contact them.

Andrew Merritt has not been seen since he left the Ashington home he shares with his wife Violet, on June 25, and relatives of the 47-year-old are now desperate to know he is safe.

It is not the first time Andrew, who is originally from Sussex, has gone missing - he once disappeared for eight years, and made no contact with his family. It was not until he returned that his family discovered he had been living in Wolverhampton.

A programme of summer fun is being arranged for youngsters.

Activities in Ashington will include youth clubs, cricket, water polo, beach games, tennis, badminton, racketball, bike clubs, street games, wave boarding, archery, golf, trampolining, dancing, deck sessions and dodgeball.

Ashington police neighbourhood inspector Richard Yeats said: "Staff from local youth organisations have produced a series of activities over the next two months to ensure that every child in the local community is catered for.

Green-eyed envy may have been the motive when a young mum plundered more than £8,000 from her own successful sister. Louise Whittle - never in trouble before - launched her unlikely crime spree after getting her hands on sister Emma's cheque book.

The unsuspecting victim never realised anything was wrong, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

But finally she found she could not draw cash on her ATM card even though her account should have been well in credit.

Fascinating memories of life on the home front and in foreign battlefields during the Second World War are showcased in a major new exhibition at a North East tourist attraction.

Northumberland at War tells the story of those who defended the county's towns and villages, toiled in the fields to produce food and were evacuated from their urban homes to the countryside as Britain's troops fought the enemy overseas between 1939 and 1945.

It recalls the experiences of people who served in the so-called Dad's Army local defence force and Women's Land Army, young wartime evacuees, Bevin Boys who laboured in North East mines, and even a German prisoner who worked on a Northumberland farm.

Just one extra 20-year-old train is being offered to ease overcrowding on North East commuter rail services.

Transport operator Nexus was pitching for extra trains to run between Newcastle and commuter hotspots like Hexham, Morpeth, Chester-le-Street and Sunderland.

But the Department for Transport (DfT) has offered just one Class 142 pacer train, a make of train built only between 1985 and 1987, for the whole of the Tyne and Wear area.

Blundering thieves managed to wreck four cars as they tried to hot-wire a vehicle.

The crooks tried to steal the parked vehicle in Newcastle's Central Station car park, but sparks caused a neighbouring car, belonging to a hairdresser and filled with bleach and aerosols, to explode.

Flames quickly engulfed four cars and police and fire crews were called to the scene where they took an hour to bring the blaze under control.

A would-be North East MP says he will campaign strongly for an end to the 'first past the post' electoral system if he is successful at the next general election.

Simon Reed, the Liberal Democrats' prospective parliamentary candidate for Wansbeck in Northumberland, says the current system for electing MPs means the votes of a huge number of people across the country can't make any difference to the outcome of elections.

Residents, businesses and organisations across Northumberland are being asked to have their say on a major review which will shape future car parking policy in the county.

County council bosses are undertaking the review in a bid to devise suitable management arrangements for all of the car parks that it owns or manages.

The exercise will also help county councillors decide whether to leave car parking free in Blyth Valley and Wansbeck, or introduce charges similar to those currently facing motorists in towns such as Berwick, Alnwick, Hexham and Morpeth.

A man arrested after the death of a 21-year drug user has been cleared of supplying the heroin substitute methadone.

Philip Murray was questioned by police following the death of Alexander Tams in March last year.

The 45-year-old, of Sycamore Street, Ashington, Northumberland, had denied supplying a Class A drug and was due to stand trial this week at Newcastle Crown Court.