A new international sports event is to be staged against the backdrop of one of the North East's most beautiful locations.

Former Olympic athlete and world record holder, Tynesider Steve Cram, yesterday unveiled plans for the Kielder marathon.

The event on October 17 will follow the recently-completed 26-mile Lakeside Way, a £3m multi-user track around the shores of Kielder Water in Northumberland. Steve, who had the idea for the event, has dubbed it Britain's most beautiful marathon.

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.

Farmers in Northumberland are being invited to a county council-led information event aimed at helping them to protect their property from burglars and thieves.

Organised by the authority's community safety team as part of the Farmwatch campaign, the event will be held at Bellingham fire station on Wednesday February 10 from 1pm to 3pm.

Farmers attending will be encouraged to enrol with the campaign, and will provided with signs, alarms and information about the scheme.

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.

Tyneside youngsters took a trip to a Northumbrian village yesterday to explore the rural world of their countryside counterparts.

The 235-pupil Richardson Dees School in High Street East in Wallsend (population 10,000) has twinned with the 45-pupil first school at Bellingham (population 845) so that the rural and urban children can learn about each other's worlds.

Tabbitha Garratt, age 10, from Wallsend

Richardson Dees teacher Bridget Lynch said: "Many of the children haven't ventured further than Wallsend before.

A soldier had to be airlifted to hospital after he was shot in the leg during a life-round training exercise.

The accident happened at the Otterburn firing ranges, Otterburn, Northumberland, at 6.40pm yesterday.

He was airlifted to the Royal Victoria Infirmary by helicopter from RAF Boulmer.

Trained members of the Tynemouth Volunteer Lifeboat Brigade were sent by the Coastguard to the hospital to guide it into the landing site.

It is believed that the soldier is a member of the 4th Regiment Royal Artillery, known as the North Gunners, who have been at Otterburn for months on training exercises prior to deployment.

This week's poll question is asking your view on the ongoing cull of grey squirrels in Northumberland.

A new set of culling projects were launched recently in the county, aiming to prevent competition and the spread of the deadly squirrel pox virus, a major cause of the reds' decline.

A recent study concluded that the number of grey sightings has risen despite widespread culling, though critics say the study was unable to give a true picture of grey populations. A second objection is that the practise is an unnecessarily cruel one.

A biking craze is sweeping across a Northumberland forest - and helping to restore its roots.

Ancient woodland is being aided in Kielder Water & Forest Park thanks to a new network of cycle routes.

The Forestry Commission has felled more than three hectares of overgrown Christmas trees on the estate along Plashetts Burn and is allowing the land to revert back to its historic roots with trees like alder and birch.

Ancient woods are defined as those which appeared on the earliest reliable maps, making them at least 400 years old.

Forest chiefs used some of the cash from a £900,000 investment in new bike trails specially earmarked for environmental improvements along the route corridor.

Pictured: Professional mountain biker Clive Forth on one of the new bike trails in Kielder Water & Forest Park

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.

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.