From the Evening News, 1993: A BOLTON father of two has been taken hostage in a bloody civil war raging in Angola.

Fifty-two-year-old Rodney Stephenson - known to family and friends as Ray - is one of 23 oil workers who have been held captive for more than two weeks by the Unita rebel forces. His family have heard nothing since he was taken, and are desperate for news that he is well.

Mr Stephenson, from Grange Road, Bromley Cross, is operations manager for Belgium oil company Petrofina.

25 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

February 4, 1978

IMMIGRATION into the UK fell sharply last year. An estimated 70,000 immigrants of all nationalities were accepted for settlement compared with 80,800 in 1976 and 82,400 a year earlier. The figures come three days after a Commons row and warning by Tory leader Mrs Thatcher that people were afraid of being "swamped" by immigrants.

AN attractive 18-years-old good-time girl may have been the seventh victim of a Jack the Ripper-style killer, police said today. The mutilated body of the girl was found in a timber yard in Huddersfield.

50 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

February 4, 1953

THE Minister of Food announced in the Commons this afternoon that the rationing and price control of chocolate and sugar confectionery ends today. Sweets rationing began on July 26th, 1942, with a weekly ration of two ounces.

A month later the ration was doubled for eight weeks, and then cut to three ounces per week. Sweets were taken off the ration on April 24th, 1949. A run on stocks in the shops began at once, and by the middle of that summer there was queueing for sweets, and many shops had imposed unofficial ration schemes. The official rationing scheme was re-introduced on Aug. 14th.

Since Dec. 30th, 1951, the ration has stood at 6oz. a week.

100 YEARS AGO

From the Evening News,

February 4, 1903

CONSIDERABLE excitement was caused in the neighbourhood of Gravel Hole Hotel, Manchester-rd., Great Lever, about 11 o'clock this morning, by the firing of a tar tank that was being used in connection with the improvements of the roads.

The liquid boiled over, and the tank was at once enveloped in flames. A second tank standing near was also set alight. For a distance of 40 or 50 yards, the roadway was alight with blazing tar. Sand was thrown on the burning mass, and water had to be used on the adjoining hoardings, which had also taken fire.

Fortunately, a large oil tank was removed at the outset. There were some hundreds of spectators, and the traffic was considerably interfered with, having to pass through dense clouds of black smoke.