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

, the former Lord Mayor of Liverpool, has joined the race to replace outgoing Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle.

Cllr Rotheram, 48, Labour's enterprise and tourism spokesman on the city council, already represents Fazakerley, which sits inside the safe Labour seat.

The father-of-three is likely to be the local favourite for the seat where Labour has a majority of almost 16,000, if shortlisted. Unite union policy officer Chris Matheson, 42, has also officially declared his candidacy.

LIVERPOOL PASSPORT OFFICE workers joined civil servants nationally today in strikes to protest against cuts to redundancy pay.

Cutbacks would mean public service workers stand to lose up to a third of their final pay-off if they lose their jobs.

OZZY AND SHARON OSBOURNE will fly to Liverpool in October and lead the celebration for John Lennon's birthday. They were invited by Lord Mayor Councillor Mike Storey, to help mark what would have been the singer's 70th birthday.

Pete Price apparently received the news in a phone call from Sharon herself: "She said she is coming to Liverpool and it is something to do with what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday. Ozzy is a huge John Lennon fan."

NEARLY 1,000 SEX OFFENDERS are living within Merseyside communities, new figures from Merseyside Police have revealed. Some 399 are deemed high-risk.

Wirral and the north of Liverpool are the most prevalent areas for offenders with 323 and 373 of them in each area respectively.Knowsley is the lowest area for registered sex offenders with 63 living in the borough, and a further 14 in custody.