City news in 250 words: Thursday 4 February

MAN HIT BY TRAIN AT PICCADILLY causes travel chaos for thousands of commuters in morning rush hour yesterday. Platforms 13 and 14 were closed for four hours until 8.30am, after the 31-year-old man stepped in front of a freight train as it passed the platforms. British Transport Police are not treating the death as suspicious. All trains were cancelled or delayed with many trains stranded miles from Piccadilly.

AROUND 1,000 PASSENGERS WERE DIVERTED to Liverpool John Lennon airport last night as heavy snow closed a runway at Manchester Airport. The airport had to “suspend operations for an hour-and-a-half” while they waited for the snow to stop before they started to clear it. A spokesman for LJL airport said, “There were 11 flights diverted to us because of the snow. We are always happy to come to the aid of an airline if they need to divert their flight elsewhere.”

CASES OF MUMPS CONTINUE TO RISE in the North West among teenagers and young adults. Confirmed cases of mumps in the North West soared from 395 in 2008 to 1376 in 2009, with 900 of those cases involving people aged 15-24.

BANK SAYS ‘NO’ TO ID CARD after a customer used it to prove his identity. Darren McTeggart tried to use the national ID card to pick up a replacement credit card from a branch of Santander, in Market Place, Hyde, but was told it “was not on their list of approved IDs”. Santander have since admitted they made a mistake.

Daft American homily wisdom: ‘Never be photographed holding a cocktail glass.’

From Life's Little Instructions Calendar given to our Health and Beauty Editor as a gift.