The Nifty 250: News of the day in so many words

A £14M LUXURY HOTEL IS TO OPEN IN LIVERPOOL. International hotel giant InterContinental Hotels Group yesterday said the 151-bed development in Chapel Street will operate under its newest brand, Hotel Indigo, and will open for business in spring 2011. It will be built and owned by Crowne Plaza Hotel owner Simon Matthews-Williams company.

A HOSPITAL HAS BEEN FINED OVER THE DEATHS of two patients through legionnaires’ disease. Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, on the old Broadgreen site, pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety law. It stopped testing its water between 2006 and 2007, Liverpool Magistrates’ Court heard.

Both patients died in early 2007. The hospital was fined £35,000 and ordered to pay costs of £12,862.

DAVID CAMERON WILL END BIG GOVERNMENT and create a “responsible society” if the

Conservative party is elected. In his final conference speech before the general election, the Tory leader said he had the character, temperament and judgment to be Prime Minister. Cameron told Manchester delegates, “I know that today there aren't many reasons to be cheerful. But there are reasons to believe.”

PARENTS SHOULD SUPPLY ALCOHOL to their teenagers to prevent underage sex and anti social behaviour, a Liverpool John Moores University study has suggested.

University researchers questioned nearly 10,000 15 to 16-year-olds in the north-west and found that they got into trouble more when buying their own cheap alcohol, rather than getting it from parents.

“Carefully introducing” alcohol to children may help them “prepare themselves for life in an adult environment dominated by this drug,” said the study.