A controversial businessman has walked free after a charge of murder against him was dropped.

Arran Coghlan, 39, was arrested in January after a man was found dead at his Cheshire mansion.
 

Manchester's election chief is to donate £4,000 of his fee to charity after a new report found polling-night chaos in the city was 'unacceptable'.

Huge queues at two polling stations in the closely-fought Withington constituency meant hundreds of people were turned away when doors closed at 10pm.

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has taken the pre-season rivalry with the Blues to new heights – after making a cheeky dig at the City boss as he signed into a new airport lounge.

Suave Italian Roberto Mancini was the first to sign the guestbook in the airport's new £1.7m executive lounge when he unveiled a plush new heated leather chair emblazoned with the City crest.

A teenager persuaded a mum not to jump from a bridge on to a busy motorway - by promising to give her the biggest hug in the world.

Emma Needham, 19, spent 60 terrifying minutes comforting the woman who was perched on a narrow parapet with her legs dangling over the M60 at Roman Road, Hollinwood, Oldham.

A convicted robber contacted detectives from prison to admit 75 more crimes.

Liam Souter owned up to stealing £128,000 worth of goods during a six-year burglary spree across south Manchester.

More than 40 fire-fighters are tackling a blaze at the Warburtons' factory in Bolton.

The fire – believed to have started in an industrial oven - began just before 3pm and seven crews have been sent to try to bring it under control.
 

A man who left a traffic warden feeling ‘humiliated and ashamed’ after spitting in his face has walked free from court.

Father-of-two Sabir Ali, 28, was given a suspended 14-week prison sentence at Manchester magistrates court for his ‘vile’ behaviour.

A solicitor is saying thank-you to the cancer hospital which treated him by scaling the equivalent height of Ben Nevis – on his office stairs.

Geoff Clarke, 62, who at age 28 lost his sight and his first wife, was diagnosed with testicular cancer last year and had to have chemotherapy when the disease spread.

The performance of Greater Manchester Police continues to improve – even though it remains near the bottom of a league table of similar forces.

The force is meeting five out of 10 performance targets, including public confidence, car crime and anti-social behaviour.

Drinkers were toasting their health today as a team of medics took over a pub.

Doctors and nurses from Salford Health Matters were dispensing advice – and pints – at The Hope in Eccles.

Two arsonists who set fire to 17 cars, causing damage worth £50,000, have been locked up.

Paul Lunn, 25 of Sundridge Close, Bolton, was jailed for four-and-a-half years and Zak Alldread, 18, of Lennox Gardens, Bolton, was locked up for three years, eight months.

A teacher who was suspended for a year after complaining about his school to the council and a cabinet minister has been sacked.

But Gary Day-Davies, 39, now intends to take Wentworth High School, Salford, to an employment tribunal, claiming unfair dismissal.

Two cartoonists who brought joy to successive generations of children have been awarded honorary doctorates.

Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall ran animation company Cosgrove Hall in Chorlton for three decades and created many delightful and quirky programmes such as Chorlton and the Wheelies, DangerMouse, Postman Pat and Count Duckula.

The new face of Manchester’s healthcare is revealed today as a £500m building project enters its final phase.

The entrances to the new children’s hospital, St Mary’s, the Royal Eye Hospital and the revamped Manchester Royal Infirmary are visible for the first time as the new central courtyard opens to the public.

An architect took his own life after struggling to cope with pressures at work, an inquest heard.

John McQuade, a landscape architect at Rochdale council, was found hanged by a belt at his parents’ home on Rathmore Avenue, Blackley, on January 10.

Three suspected illegal immigrants have been arrested and face deportation following a raid on a takeaway in Manchester.

Staff at Nice and Spice on Stockport Road, Levenshulme, were questioned by UK Border Agency staff following a tip-off. 

Transport leaders have told the government the need to ease overcrowding on Greater Manchester’s trains is ‘already overdue’.

Leading members of the Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority – and a cross-party delegation of MPs – met Transport Minister Theresa Villiers in Whitehall to tell her extra carriages were needed and the problem could no longer be ignored.

British courts will not simply lie down in front of every ruling made by Europe, top judges have said.

Lord Phillips, president of the Supreme Court, and his deputy Lord Hope said the court had asked European human rights judges in Strasbourg to ‘think again’ in relation to two cases over the last year.

A security blunder allowed a violent criminal to escape from prison and spend three months on the run.

David Patmore, despite once fleeing from court and being sentenced to 16 years for a  violent robbery, had his security status downgraded and was transferred to an open prison. He promptly walked out unchallenged from Sudbury Open Prison in Derbyshire on April Fool’s Day this year.

A woman from Wigan has appeared in court charged with concealment of birth after the remains of four babies were found at her former home.

Police found three of the newborn children last September at the former home of Bernadette Quirk in Harlow Close.
 

A thug who attacked a bus driver and two teenage girls has been jailed for two years.

Clinton Bogart, 20, of Hannet Road, Wythenshawe, pleaded guilty to attempted kidnap and two counts of assault.
 

A popular headteacher died on the last day of term just hours after a school leavers’ assembly.

Jacqueline Greenhalgh was rushed to hospital after falling ill at Alt Primary School. She suffered a brain haemorrhage and despite all efforts did not recover.

Detectives are investigating a robbery in Cheadle in which it is believed shots were fired.

Two masked men - both armed with handguns - stole a large amount of cash from the Post Office, at Old Rectory Gardens, today just after 9.30am.

The following road closures will be in place on Sunday for the Sky Ride cycle event in Manchester.
 

Police used sophisticated facial-mapping techniques to catch a gang of teenagers who attacked and robbed strangers during a
violent rampage, it has been revealed.

The nine-strong gang travelled to Rochdale from
Trafford armed with batons, knuckle dusters and spanners to avenge an alleged attack on the ringleader’s brother.

The funeral of one of Manchester's adopted sons, former snooker world champion Alex Higgins, is to take place in Belfast on Monday.

The fiery Ulsterman, found dead at his Belfast flat on Saturday, will be buried in his home city.
 

Metrolink bosses gave the green-light to the Coronation Street tram crash plot – five years after they put the brakes on a similar
storyline.

Disaster will strike as the soap celebrates its 50th anniversary later this year, with a number of characters killed and injured in a sensational accident.

Eleven cats almost drowned after being abandoned at an animal

sanctuary.

Two separate boxes of kittens and cats were dumped at the Animals in Distress sanctuary in Silver Street, Irlam.

A cleric who famously sheltered an asylum seeker at his Manchester church for two years has died.

The Rev John Methuen, who allowed Sri Lankan Viraj Mendis to stay in his Hulme parish during an epic deportation row, was 62.

The faithful can now get daily prayers sent directly to their iPhones after the Catholic Diocese of Salford joined the digital revolution by creating its own ‘app.’

It will deliver daily readings and thoughts. Father John Flynn, from the diocese, said that the app was about making Catholicism accessible to all.

The husband of Coronation Street star Vicky Entwistle will face a trial over claims he assaulted a man who asked to take her photograph.

Andrew Chapman, 47, appeared at Salford magistrates court accused of hitting the man on a train.

Salford bullfighter Frank Evans has insisted his sport is ‘still very strong’ despite a landmark decision to outlaw it in one region of Spain.

The government of Catalonia voted for a ban, making it the first area in the mainland to reject the controversial sport.

A review of a controversial decision to close three Greater Manchester maternity units will not include any new public consultation, the M.E.N. can reveal.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley promised to reverse the decision to end overnight maternity care at Bury’s Fairfield General when he was in opposition.

A jet was forced to turn back for an emergency landing at Manchester Airport when an engine failed just minutes after take-off.

Worried passengers were told by the captain of the Flybe jet – bound for Bournemouth – that the plane was experiencing ‘technical’ problems.

A controversial £3.5m sports complex at Heaton Park has been given the go-ahead.

The proposals – which include 12 five-a-side football pitches, six tennis courts and a climbing wall – sparked furious objections from thousands of people when they were revealed last year.

A  fund of up to £110m has been created to breathe new life into regeneration schemes across the north west, the M.E.N can reveal today.

The Evergreen project will see public sector cash lent to private companies to help bankroll schemes that will create jobs and stimulate the region's economy.
 

A bus driver has been sacked after he was caught on camera refusing to help a wheelchair-bound woman get off his single-decker.

Renu Duggal, 46, said the driver told her he could not operate an electronically-powered ramp because he had a ‘bad back’.

Cocaine worth half a billion pounds was smuggled into Greater Manchester during a ‘highly sophisticated’ operation, a jury was told.

The smuggling ring was only smashed when one consignment of the drug was swapped for flour by customs officers and then secretly followed to its destination, it was claimed.

Bosses at Manchester council may bail out a major clean-up operation at Sportcity after the project was among 25 which had funding dramatically axed.

Town hall chiefs are meeting today to decide whether to underwrite the £1.37m that the North West Development Agency has cut.

A trip to the doctor about a rash has probably saved the life of little Millie Kidd.

Unknown to anyone, the four-year-old was born with the arteries going into her heart the wrong way round.

Dozens of road workers and engineers face being made redundant as a council's highways budget is slashed by nearly £7m.

Bolton council plans to save £3.5m by cutting 68 highways jobs, reducing services and shifting from planned works towards 'reactive' repairs.

A young woman who claims she was molested by a health centre GP told a court how his treatment felt like a ‘sexual thing’.

Dr Raza Hyder, 40, is accused of sexual assault on the woman when she visited him complaining of stomach ache.

United new boy Javier Hernandez wasted no time in showing his charitable side after joining up with his new teammates in the States.

The Mexican met the Reds in Houston and headed straight for a local hospital.

A woman was saved from choking to death by a pub chef and customer who were given advice by paramedics over the phone.

Mary Greenhalgh, 79, turned blue and collapsed during a family meal out.

A mob of teenagers armed with a fearsome array of weapons attacked total strangers.

One victim, then 17, was left with brain damage after the nine-strong gang ‘mercilessly beat him’.

A burglar who stole an ‘irreplaceable’ collection of ancient Greek and Roman coins dumped them because he could not sell them.

Martin Lynch, 24, sneaked into a house on Neville Road, Kersal, Salford, through an insecure window and ransacked rooms in a bid to find anything he could turn into instant cash.

The head of a struggling secondary school has resigned – six months after it was told to improve.

Tim McCarthy, pictured, is standing down as principal of Stockport Academy from the end of this term, six months after Ofsted gave the school a notice to improve.

A soldier had a miraculous escape after he was thrown clear from an armoured vehicle which went over a landmine in Afghanistan, killing the driver.

Stuart McLean, a private in the 1st Battalion Mercian (Cheshire) Regiment, suffered just a broken nose, cuts and bruises and a dislocated right shoulder in the tragedy.

Tributes have been paid to the man who ‘transformed’ Manchester university.

Alan Gilbert, the university’s first president and vice chancellor, died at Manchester Royal Infirmary yesterday, aged 65. He had been battling heart problems after a bypass operation last year.

A young dancer died after suffering an extremely rare reaction to a common bug.

Emma Wilkinson, 19, died less than two weeks after falling sick with the Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV), which lies dormant in most people.

An Asbo that banned two feuding gang members crossing a bridge into each other's territory has been withdrawn.

The dispute between Paul Johnson, 33, of Gowerdale Road, Brinnington, Stockport, and Paul Galimore, 37, of Lingard Lane, Bredbury, Stockport, saw the pair hit with the bans.

A Greater Manchester hospital is the first in Britain to order a pioneering scanner which provides high-resolution images and increases the number of patients that can be scanned in one day.

The scanner, which will be brought in at Wythenshawe Hospital, uses new technology which allow better pictures and increased accuracy in diagnosis.

Dozens of multi-million pound schemes to regenerate Greater Manchester have been thrown into chaos after a quango decided to axe their funds.

The North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) sensationally announced it would not be providing cash for 25 projects that were expecting huge sums of money.

Transport chiefs have agreed to rethink their ban on disabled people taking electric scooters on trams.

Dozens of passengers have complained about the policy and eight MPs have signed a House of Commons motion calling for change. Now the M.E.N can reveal the ban is being reviewed.

The victim of a deadly stabbing attack was the nephew of a former mayor.

Josef Witkowski was found in a house in Walkden, Salford, with stab wounds and other injuries.

A United fan netted the woman of his dreams from 5,000 miles away – after she asked for football advice on Facebook.

Matthew Roberts was at home in Manchester when Jessica Garcia posted a note from Texas asking which ‘soccer’ team to support. The two struck up a conversation and within a week Jessica had booked plane tickets to visit her new friend.

Images have been released of two men police want to speak to in connection with a vicious assault on a pair of teenagers.

The male victims, aged 13 and 16, were walking along Bradford Road, Miles Platting when they passed a dark blue Vauxhall Vectra parked near Bargain Booze off licence.

A bride-to-be fears her dad will not be able to walk her down the aisle after he was seriously injured when a stag party’s minibus overturned.

The groom and best man were also among those badly hurt in the horrific crash on the M1 as the group headed back to Rochdale from Newcastle.

Thousand of pounds of equipment, including TWO pianos, disappeared from a school without a trace, according to an auditor’s report.

Laptop computers, electronic whiteboards, textbooks and music equipment went missing from Bishop Bilsborrow school when it merged last year with a neighbouring primary.

Homeless people are being given sun protection in a pioneering scheme.

People living on the streets have a higher risk of sunburn – and the long-term damage it can cause – because they are outdoors for most of the time.

Male doctors will look pretty in pink for a fortnight – to raise cash for a breast cancer charity.

The Manchester Royal Infirmary medics are swapping their white coats for pink shirts and wigs in aid of the Genesis Appeal and The Christie.

The green-fingered members of a home-watch group spent nearly £1,500 brightening up their estate with flowers – only for thieves to sabotage their efforts.

Days after people planted thousands of bulbs and put up hanging baskets on the Peel Estate in Wythenshawe, yobs stole several planters.

Greater Manchester’s top doctors are calling on Health Secretary Andrew Lansley not to scrap a ban on cigarette vending machines brought in by the previous government.

Health minister Ann Milton says she intends to review the new regulations which would also have prevented shopkeepers putting cigarettes on display.

A teenager serving life for his part in the alcohol-fuelled murder of father-of-three Garry Newlove has lost a bid to challenge his conviction.

Three judges at the Court of Appeal in London threw out an application for permission to appeal by 18-year-old Jordan Cunliffe, who was in the dock during the proceedings.

A hero dog which helped search for survivors of the Haiti earthquake has returned home – after spending six months in quarantine.

Echo, a seven-year-old Labrador, joined a team of 64 firefighters including 11 members of Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service who dashed to the Caribbean island following the disaster.

Buses and train stations across Manchester will be used to show work by the country’s top poets.

The poster campaign is the idea of students taught by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Three men at the centre of a Manchester terror scare have failed in their bid to sue police.

Sultan Sher, Mohammed Umer Farooq and Mohammed Rizwan Shiraf were among a dozen men arrested April 2009 following a massive anti-terror swoop. 

A reward of £4,500 has been offered to catch thieves who stole two bronze plaques from a war memorial.

Yobs wrenched the metal plates from the Angel memorial in Boggart Hole Clough, Blackley, two weeks ago.

A dozen town hall workers have been disciplined after an email featuring a naked picture of a child was sent around office computers.

The message, which included other images of youngsters which were also ‘unpleasant’ but not pornographic, was circulated around departments at Salford council.

Detectives are hunting a string of convicted robbers, drug dealers and a rapist who have disappeared while on licence.

The list of eight fugitives includes a woman convicted of false imprisonment and a sex attacker who has now been wanted for 18 months.
 

Police have launched three separate murder inquiries after a series of violent deaths.

Officers are investigating the stabbings of two men – in Gorton on Friday night and Salford early yesterday – and the death of a man in Manchester city centre on Saturday night.

A man is suing a golf club after a stray ball flew into his garden and hit him in the face.

Daniel Riley was sweeping his patio when the ball – which he believes came from a course next to his home – knocked him off his feet.

A man was stabbed 12 times in a frenzied attack after refusing to hand over his car keys to masked robbers.

The 21-year-old was knifed at his home on Astbury Crescent, Bridgehall. He was taken to hospital with stab wounds to his body but released yesterday.

Gillian Duffy, 66, said Labour leadership hopeful David Miliband would make a "great Prime Minister" after he dropped in at her Rochdale home for a cup of tea and a chat.

A chance meeting between Ms Duffy , a lifelong Labour voter, and Gordon Brown helped seal the fate of the former Prime Minister after he dismissed her as a "bigoted woman" in a remark picked up by a TV microphone.

The former owner of a takeaway that was dangerously wired up to next door's electricity supply has been ordered to pay nearly £10,000.

Wiring at New Sajan Sweet Centre on Stockport Road, Levenshulme, was so dangerous an electrical engineer described it as the worst he had seen in more than 26 years on the job.
 

Plans to build a £130m bypass to ease congestion on the north west's busiest A Road have been shelved by ministers.

The dual carriageway, the route of which was only unveiled in March and would have connnected the M56 at Bowdon and the M6 near Knutsford, had been described as ‘vital’ by campaigners.

Around 100,000 people admired the floral extravaganza at Tatton Park this year.

Visitors from across the region packed into the annual Royal Horticultural Society’s Flower Show at the Cheshire park over the last week – despite the rain.

A dentist has been remanded in custody after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in her home.

Roger Klein, 41, pinned the victim down on her bed and rubbed himself against her.

A pensioner died after a blaze at her home when a heat pack caught fire in her microwave.

Josephine Lloyd's death is the fifth linked to use of the increasingly popular packs.

Labour councillors have demanded an apology from a Liberal Democrat who publicly challenged Sir Richard Leese over his caution for assaulting his step-daughter.

Nineteen female councillors have written to Mary Di Mauro accusing her of ‘exploiting the personal suffering of every victim of domestic abuse’.

Twelve men were injured when their minibus crashed on the way home from a stag trip.

The group from Rochdale, all in their 20s and 30s, were hurt when the vehicle overturned on the M1, close to the junction with the M62 motorway near Lofthouse in West Yorkshire.

The fourth baby of quaduplets born prematurely has gone home to be reunited with her sisters.

Little Ellie has joined Lucy, Bethany and Millie and parents Gillian Holden and Marc Hanley at the family home in Bolton.

A millionaire businessman has paid £240,000 for Fred Dibnah’s steam engine – and says he will use it for trips to the pub.

Steam enthusiast Michael Oliver has ensured the famous Aveling and Porter engine will stay in the north west.

A GCSE pupil facing deportation over a row about his age is being helped by a former immigration minister.

Rabar Hamad escaped to the Britain two years ago after his family were killed in Iraq, telling border officials he was 14.

A business student converted his bedroom into a sophisticated cannabis farm.

Vasco Sabino, 21, used techniques that experienced drug officers had never previously come across.

Manchester council paid out £3,000 to a resident tormented by a nuisance neighbour, a new report has revealed.

It was compensation for a tenant who suffered three years of misery after a neighbour with mental health issues moved in next door.

A veteran of Britain’s ‘forgotten army’ in Burma has died aged 93.

Brian Smither was awarded six medals for his brave service during the Second World War.

Manchester's Northern Quarter has seen the light – after a popular art attraction was finally illuminated again.

The light tower on top of the Church Street car park was put up at a cost of £35,000 in 1999.

Marks & Spencer has started selling school uniforms for super-sized pupils in apparent recognition of Britain's childhood obesity crisis.

The new Plus schoolwear range caters for four-year-olds with waistlines of up to 23ins - a size usually worn by eight-year-olds. Campaigners said the move was simply commercial recognition that many pre-school children and younger pupils are overweight.