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

A BEATLES ACADEMIC CENTRE MAY OPEN IN TWO YEARS at Liverpool Hope University. The Beatles, Popular Music and Society centre would be home to the globe’s leading researchers and historians from the world of music and popular culture.

IDr Mike Brocken, senior lecturer in popular music at Liverpool Hope University, says it would also be the epicentre for research into the Fab Four and their role in establishing Liverpool’s links with the wider world. If approved by university management, it could be based at its Everton-based Cornerstone arts campus in 2011.

LIVERPOOL BOAT SHOW PLANS will be officially unveiled today to more than 130 boating industry leaders at the city’s Maritime Museum.

Organisers claim the Liverpool Boat Show could become one of the most important events of its kind in Europe, with visions of it attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors when it is held at the Albert Dock in spring 2011.

MERSEY TIDAL POWER IS VITAL to help the UK go green, a new report has said. The Institution of Civil Engineers’ State of the Nation paper on low-carbon technology highlights the barrage harnessing tidal power scheme, developed by Mersey Docks owner Peel Holdings and regeneration organisation the Northwest Development Agency.

THE UNCLE of the Wavertree boy killed by an illegal pit bull terrier was today arrested by police on suspicion of manslaughter.

Christian Foulkes was detained by detectives this morning in the city following the death of John Paul Massey, four, who was savagely attacked by the 21-year-old's banned pitbull dog, called Uno.

He was taken to a police station on Merseyside and remanded in custody.