A MANCHESTER man who admits being a former al-Qaida recruiter was being questioned today by anti-terror police. 

MANCHESTER is ahead of London for sporting facilities, says 2012 Olympic Games' supremo Lord Coe. 

THE Spitting Image puppet of George Best is expected to sell for more than £5,000 at an auction next month. 

TICKETS for next week's Uefa Cup final in Manchester are changing hands for up to £1,500. 

A CAMPAIGN to support Manchester new children's hospital has raised a staggering £15m in two years. 

A SCOTTISH tourist got a bit of culture shock on a trip to Manchester when a fish pie he ordered came with gravy. 

A FAMILY has told of its delight after being reunited with photographs and keepsakes which were feared destroyed in a warehouse blaze. 

THE parents of gun siege barrister Mark Saunders have paid tribute to his "warmth, generosity and sheer energy for life". 

A WOMAN who slashed a friend in the shower in a jealous rage has escaped from a hospital secure unit. 

A MAN was rescued by firefighters after he got into trouble at a reservoir. 

A WOMAN was fighting for her life in hospital on Saturday after she was in a collision with a car. 

A BURMA campaigner who escaped the country's military regime is urging people to show their support for the devastated nation. 

ART WORK capturing Manchester derby day passion from the past are to help the stars of tomorrow flourish after being auctioned for a total £62,000. 

GREATER Manchester Police are to meet Rangers supporters in the run-up to the Uefa Cup clash taking place in the city. 

PAUL Burrell will not face a police investigation over allegations of perjury relating to the Diana inquest after the Met Police decided there was "insufficient admissible evidence" to prove that such an offence had occurred, Scotland Yard said today. 

A DERANGED lodger stabbed his landlord's girlfriend to death in front of her baby son. 

TRAFFIC jams are growing despite pledges from transport chiefs to cut congestion on the region's roads. 

MANCHESTER has “no realistic rivalâ€� outside London as a tourist destination, according to a new travel guide to England. 

AMONGST the hustle and bustle of a weekday lunch-time, a corner of the city paused to remember the British and Russian victims of the Second World War. 

THREE Manchester mothers who smuggled £340,000 worth of cocaine into the country in their undies have been jailed for five and a half years. 

A TROMBONIST from Stalybridge is bidding to be the BBC's youngest-ever Young Musician of the Year. 

FRIENDS of a woman whose body has been in a mortuary for six years have failed in a High Court bid for a fresh inquest. 

A TEENAGER brain damaged when he was kicked in the head on a bouncy castle has won his damages action against the couple who hired it. 

MANCHESTER-based TV talent show Soapstar Superstar is among the programmes that earned ITV a record £5.67m fine from media regulator Ofcom. 

CHESHIRE Detectives are hunting this man who is suspected of being behind a number of burglaries in the county. 

THE number of people at risk of losing their homes has risen nearly a fifth in the past year, figures showed today. 

AN inquest is set to open into the death of Cheshire-raised barrister Mark Saunders at the hands of police marksmen. 

THE Foreign Office is urgently trying to track down "a small number" of British nationals who are among those unaccounted for in cyclone hit Burma. 

STAR pooches Schmeichel and Ozzy are used to being at the heart of things in Coronation Street. 

TWO dangerous gangsters have been jailed for using a sub-machine gun to threaten a man in a Moss Side gym. 

LIKE most birthday girls, 105-year-old Fanny Billington wanted to invite her family to celebrate reaching the landmark. 

A NEW scheme giving people the right to choose to die by refusing emergency medical care, is being piloted in Greater Manchester. 

AN army of 600 plane spotters will descend on Manchester Airport as the enthusiasts stage their own "European" final. 

A HONEYMOON couple have told of their ordeal after being struck down by a mystery illness at a luxury hotel in Egypt. 

A WATER company dug up a road less than a month after it had been resurfaced by the council at a cost of £30,000. 

A CYCLIST is in hospital being treated for serious injuries after a road accident. 

FIRE-fighters who rescued six people from a burning house were forced to carry their equipment up a road blocked by parked cars. 

A POLICE officer found guilty of drink-driving in a police van responding to an emergency call has lodged an appeal against his conviction. 

JACK Straw led the tributes today as MPs across the party divide paid their respects at the funeral of long-serving Parliamentarian Gwyneth Dunwoody. 

ONE third of cust omers buying plane tickets online are being ripped off or misled, the European Commission has warned. 

CARROTS are traditionally thought to help people see in the dark. But a pioneering study is hoping to show that eating spinach and green vegetables could stop old people going blind. 

THE leader of England's Catholics has urged the faithful to treat atheists and agnostics with `deep esteem'.