The nation was focused on the hunt for two ten-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, missing from their homes in Soham, Cambridgeshire. Their bodies were found and two people charged in connection with the murders.

The first clinic to offer single injections of vaccines against measles, mumps and rubella in York was inundated with inquiries from parents.

The body of Leeds man Nicolas Lightowler was pulled from the River Ouse. Police had been searching for him after the boat he was sailing was found empty near Nether Poppleton.

After two adjournments, two different, venues, nine weeks and £250,000 of public expenditure, the Coppergate Inquiry closed.

Anger met the decision to give jailed child kidnapper and paedophile Russell Bishop a heart operation in York District Hospital.

A cross between a lion and a pussycat was how North Yorkshire's new Chief Constable Della Cannings described herself. She is the first woman to hold the post.

Local bands were shocked when leading York live music venue Fibbers closed. It reopened under new owners.

Former England footballer Emlyn Hughes was banned from driving after being caught over the limit leaving York races.

In a brilliant publicity stunt, pro-hunt campaigners added a 160ft-high huntsman to the ancient White Horse carved at Kilburn.

Tony and Cherie Blair arrived in France for the start of their foreign holiday two days after she suffered a miscarriage.

A court ruling found Carlton and Granada were not liable for any of the £178.5 million debts owed to the Football League from the collapse of ITV Digital.