City news in 250 words

TRAM LINES are set to be disrupted over the next couple of months as work begins on replacing worn out tracks in Manchester. The track between Piccadilly Station and Portland Street will be first for replacement and a circular shuttle bus will replace trams running every ten minutes between Fairfield Street and Market Street.

A MANCHESTER PHYSICIST from the University of Manchester's School of Physics and Astronomy, is part of the team involved in the hugely anticipated switch-on of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. Final preparations are now being made to send two beams of particles around a 27km ring at 0.999999991 times the speed of light. Huge electromagnets will bend the beams and collide one into another. Click here to read Confidential's own theory behind the switch-on.

A MAN has had part of his ear bitten off during a night out in Manchester city centre. The 22-year-old was walking along Mosley Street in the early hours of Sunday when his attacker pinned him to the ground and bit off part of his left ear. Police have said the man was subjected to a sickening and entirely unprovoked attack.

CITY FANS must not expect immediate success from the club, according to manager Mark Hughes. Expectations are said to be high following last week's announcement that a takeover deal had been agreed with the Abu Dhabi United Group Hughes told skysports.com: “People will inevitably look at the Chelsea situation and compare our model to theirs.