City news in 250 words

ELBOW won best British Group at the Brit Awards last night. The Bury group beat Coldplay, Girls Aloud, Radiohead and Take That to the title. Collecting their prize from David Hasselhoff Guy Garvey said: “You will not believe how long it has taken to get this close to the Hoff - but it's worth it. This is really special. We love where we live and we love making music.”

A WOMAN FOUND BURNT and strangled made several allegations to the police about her former boyfriend, George Appleton, a police watchdog has revealed. One of the claims included that he sexually assaulted her. George Appleton's body was found six days after Clare Wood was killed in Blackfriars, Salford.

SALFORD COUNCIL is considering buying back Swinton Shopping Centre. The council sold the freehold on the mall for £3.2m in 2002. The complex is situated next to the Lancastrian Hall, which could be demolished to make way for a 'Gateway' centre for health and council services. Miller Developments have said that buying the mall would give the council control over the whole town centre.

CITY BOSS Mark Hughes has spoken out about Stale Solbakken claims that Manchester City's wealth could `destroy football'. Hughes suggested that if the Blues were to destroy football they would have done it by now after having had the benefit of money for the last six months. The two men will come face to face tonight as City take on FC Copenhagen at the Parken Stadium.