The Nifty 250

Two African men have been injured in what is suspected to be racially-motivated attack in the early hours of Sunday morning. A group of men got out of a taxi and began to racially abuse the men on Halsbury Road, Kensington, leaving one of the victims with a broken jaw. The other man suffered minor injuries after managing to escape. Merseyside Police said in a statement they “will not tolerate hate crime”.

The remains of a Skelmersdale man taken hostage in Iraq have been handed over to the country's authorities. Jason Swindlehurst, who was kidnapped in May 2007, was working for a security company in Iraq when he and four contractors were seized. Another man’s remains, Jason Creswell, were also identified.

Referring to claims “one of the Jasons

had killed himself” in May last year, a neighbour said “none of us believed it”. Gordon Brown has called for other three hostages to be released.Liverpool FC co-owner George Gillett is to sell his stake in his Canadian ice hockey franchise Montreal Canadiens which could help ease financial pressure at the club. The deal is thought to be worth £332.9m, and comes just a month before Gillett and co-owner Tom Hicks have to repay £350m to RBS and Wachovia. It is also understood Hicks is looking to sell some of his major assets.

Thousands of people lined Liverpool’s waterfront on Saturday to watch the city’s first triathlon. In what has been hailed the “flagship event for the North West”, the competitors included three generations of the same family and the Lord Mayor.