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

A £5M “CREATIVE" QUARTER is to be set up in the Baltic Triangle. The scheme, which its supporters say gives the city a "once in a lifetime" opportunity to develop creative and digital industries, will see four buildings off Jamaica Street refurbished. Funded by the Northwest Development Agency and the European Regional Development Fund, the quarter, in a triangle, will be a major part of Liverpool’s future economy, they say, housing over 60 businesses.

WAVERTREE MP JANE Kennedy is considering standing for a key Labour post that could provide a platform to topple Gordon Brown. Several dozen unhappy backbenchers, angry over the Prime Minister's leadership, are urging the Wavertree MP Jane Kennedy to bid for the chairmanship of the Parliamentary Labour Party. If successful, Kennedy would oversee

meetings where backbenchers can question the PM and point out the error of his ways. Asked if she would mount a challenge for the post, the former environment minister, said, "I'm not ruling it out.”

POSTAL SERVICES HAVE SEIZED UP ACROSS MERSEYSIDE as Royal Mail workers join the nationwide two-day strikes. They are among 120,000 members of the Communication Workers Union which has warned more strikes will follow if a deal is not reached over pay and working conditions.

FORMER SPICE GIRL Melanie Chisholm is to star in a West End production of Willy Russell's Blood Brothers. Mel C will make her debut alongside narrator Philip Stewart in at Phoenix Theatre in a run that begins next week.