Ex-Liverpool Newcastle and Manchester City star Dietmar Hamann dipsomaniac at the back of circle justice told

Court case: Former City ace Dietmar Hamman

Former Liverpool footballer Dietmar Hamann was so drunk behind the wheel of his car that he could not control the vehicle, a court heard today.

Hamann, 36, was stopped by police at junction six of the M56 near his home in Styal, Cheshire, at 12.15am on July 12 last year.

The ex-Germany midfielder, represented by celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman"s law firm, was charged with drink driving after positive breath and urine samples.

He braked so sharply at a red light that his Range Rover "lunged forward", Trafford Magistrates" Court heard. He appeared to be driving at excess speed and clipped the kerb three times, PC Michael Connolly told the court.

He said: "The defendant was weaving within the lane. When I stopped him I could smell alcohol on his breath. His eyes were glazed and he was unsteady on his feet. He was obstructive and quite abusive."

When PC Connolly asked Hamann whether he was carrying any sharp instruments, the star joked that he had a knife, the court heard.

"Yes, a knife, which is now in my car," said the footballer, who was released by Manchester City at the end of last season. The breathalyser reading was 62mg per 100ml of breath, while the legal limit is 35mg, so he was arrested and taken to Altrincham police station.

When he arrived he was slurring his speech, PC David Trigg told the court. He said he was desperate to go to the toilet but PC Trigg told him not to as he might not have enough urine left to provide a sample.

International: Hamann (left) in action for Germany against England

The officer discarded the first sample while the second was sent for analysis, as according to the rules, the court heard. But Hamann was not allowed to empty his bladder in between the samples, his lawyer Jon Oultram told the court.

This meant the two samples were effectively the same, which is against the rules, said Mr Oultram, from Freeman and Co, the law firm famous for finding unusual technical defences.

The urine sample came back positive, with a reading of 187mg per 100ml of urine, while the legal limit is 107mg. But Hamaan had not been to the toilet for more than five hours so it was effectively "old urine", Mr Oultram said.

Hamann, wearing a navy suit and brown leather shoes, told the court that he had drunk half a bottle of wine several hours before driving.

He said: "I do not think it is possible to hit big kerbs without causing damage to my car. My car is a big car and there is not too much space in those lanes to weave about.

"I just drove as I normally do. I did not slur and I was not unsteady on my feet."

The footballer said he found it difficult to hold his bladder at the police station. "Everyone knows how hard it is to stop when you need a wee," he said.

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Teachers dangling after student Sam Linton dies from asthma attack

Joanna Sugden , : {}

A headmistress and four other members of staff have been suspended from a school that faces possible legal action after a pupil died from an asthma attack.

Sam Linton, 11, was made to sit in a corridor at Offerton High School, in Stockport, struggling to breathe while no ambulance was called. His parents are considering legal action against the school and the council after Sam died in hospital two hours later in December 2007. An inquest jury found that the schools neglect had been a significant factor in his death.

A spokesman for Stockport council said yesterday that the five staff had been suspended while an internal inquiry is carried out. Evelyn Leslie, the head teacher, and Jan Ford, the teacher who told Sam to sit in the corridor, are among those who have been asked to step down during the inquiry.

Sam had been wheezing continually and using an inhaler on the day that he died but staff failed to call 999. He was left to wait in a hallway until two other pupils found him and raised the alarm. By the time his mother arrived Sams lips had turned blue.

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The three-week inquest at Stockport Coroners Court was told that valuable time was lost while Sam was made to sit in the corridor. The jury found last week that Sam died from natural causes but said that neglect at an individual and systemic level had been a significant contributory factor.

Sams father, Paul Linton, described the councils move as too little, too late. He told The Times: We are considering legal action against the school and the local authority.

I would hope that the head teacher doesnt get another job as a head at another school. Education-wise I couldnt fault the school but on the policy for looking after a child that was ill they get a big fat zero.

The jury found that staff had failed to implement the asthma policy, were not sufficiently trained to deal with asthma and that a healthcare plan was not in place. Information about Sams attacks was not shared among staff and they failed to monitor Sams condition on the day of his death, the jury said.

The school, which was judged unsatisfactory in its latest Ofsted inspection, refused to comment. A spokesman for Stockport council said that detailed evidence presented to the inquest and the verdict of the jury had led them to carry out an inquiry.

While it has been some time since Sams death there has not been a period of inactivity, he said. Immediately following Sams death, the governing body reviewed the handling of pupils medical needs relating to asthma and other medical conditions, and has adapted systems and practices at the school.

The council has decided three times not to hold a serious case review, saying that the case did not meet the necessary criteria.

Rough justice: Ferguson accuses FA of going easy on Liverpool Manchester United

James Ducker, Northern Football Correspondent & , : {}

Sir Alex Ferguson has stoked the fires prior to his teams Barclays Premier League diversion opposite Liverpool at Old Trafford tomorrow by accusing the FA of giving the Merseyside bar favoured treatment.

The Manchester United physical education instructor is mad that Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano, the Liverpool midfield players, transient disciplinary movement this deteriorate over incidents identical to the one that warranted Rio Ferdinand, the United defender, a four-match anathema for aroused conduct.

They [Liverpool] do all right, Ferguson said, witheringly, of the FAs preference not to assign Gerrard or Mascherano. They are propitious identical to that. Maybe one day we will get lucky.

He additionally pronounced that he was not astounded to see Liverpool struggling after claiming they overperformed last deteriorate and voiced small magnetism with the predicament of Rafael Benítez, their manager, who pronounced he was no longer on articulate conditions with the Scot after their open argument during the past campaign.

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Ferguson has called for an obligatory renovate of the FAs disciplinary section after plainly doubt the firmness and dismissing the ruling physique as dysfunctional.

Ferdinand was dangling after distinguished Craig Fagan, the Hull City forward, during a joining compare in January. Four months earlier, Mascherano avoided low mark for looming to set upon Jermaine Beckford, the Leeds United forward, in identical resources during a Carling Cup third-round tie at Elland Road.

The FA could not take movement opposite Gerrard for catching Michael Brown, the Portsmouth midfield player, with his forearm during Liverpools 4-1 win at Anfield on Monday since Stuart Attwell, the referee, pronounced he had seen the situation and deemed it enough usually to endowment a free flog to the afar team. Ferguson, though, seemed unconvinced.

He saw the elbow? Ferguson said, disbelievingly. You see, it goes on and on and on. I didnt design them to assign Gerrard simply since the a dysfunctional unit, the FA.

I dont think they know what they are doing. There is no coherence for a start, so you cant design to get coherence and I never design any. So Im not as well worried about it, to be honest with you. Theyll do what they wish down there. Its funny at times.

But I positively think if it was a Manchester United player, he would have been done, as was the box with Rio Ferdinand. There is zero you can do about it. You only blemish your head at a little of the decisions they take and consternation how they came to them.

Ferguson wants to see a four-man row of managers who are not in use at benefaction presiding over disciplinary hearings.

There are about twenty surplus managers around who have had a great experience of the game, he said. They could get involved.

I consternation if the value exploring the managers who dont have a pursuit at the impulse receiving over that dialect so we could may be have a physique of 4 sitting each Sunday assessing the TV issues of the weekend.

Ferguson referred to last summer that Liverpool would do well to repeat the form they showed last season, when they ran United close for the title, and his misgivings about Benítezs group have valid well founded.

It was an well-developed deteriorate [that Liverpool had], he said. I thought it would be formidable to grasp that again. That was only my opinion. Asked if they overperformed, he said: Yes. I think they did really well.

Ferguson has systematic Owen Hargreaves to dont think about about the World Cup finals and instead combine on winning behind his United place after the midfield player done his initial rival coming for eighteen months in the haven group on Thursday, in the arise of a stand in knee operation, and afterwards talked about the probability of creation Englands patrol for South Africa this summer.

I think we merit a little service, Ferguson said. Talking about World Cups . . . there is zero wrong with articulate about it, but he should be concentrating on United. And he will do that.

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Nigeria charges 49 with attempted murder over Christian villages massacres

Jonathan Clayton & , : {}

About 200 people have been arrested and 49 charged with attempted murder after massacres at 3 Christian villages at the weekend, troops in Nigeria pronounced yesterday.

The proclamation came as some-more sum emerged of the aroused coming out in the executive Plateau state whose capital, Jos, lies at the faultline in in between the countrys Muslim north and Christian south.

Up to 500 people were killed estimates of the series of victims talk about and scores some-more have fled their homes since the attacks by Muslim gangs on the villages of Dogo Nahawa, Zot and Ratsat.

Survivors told how mobs armed with machetes were watchful for them as they fled their blazing homes. The enemy asked people who are you? in Fulani, a denunciation used often by Muslims, and killed those who did not reply in that language. Women and young kids gimlet the brunt of the three-hour murdering debauch in the early hours of Sunday.

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A 20-year-old man who was in between those arrested claimed that he had acted to revenge members of his family. Ikechukwu Aduba, the states troops chief, claimed that a little of the assailants had been paid to lift out the killings but declined to give details.

A internal contributor at the stage told The Times that there was tragedy in in between troops and residents who hold that ministers are not focusing on their predicament since there is no one in assign at the top.

Thousands of Nigerians protested in the capital, Abuja, on Wednesday, perfectionist movement from the Government on issues trimming from crime to unemployment. Hundreds of women ready to go in black additionally demonstrated in Jos carrying Bibles, wooden crosses or branches of mango trees.

The Nigerian troops and troops are dominated by Muslims and internal Christian youths have reportedly taken security in to their own hands, defending themselves with knives, homemade swords, machetes and temporary bows and arrows and environment up barricades.

Jonah Jang, the states Governor, has blamed the military, that took carry out of security in January, for unwell to reply to his notice that movements of armed men had been reported by villagers prior to long prior to Sundays attacks. The internal armed forces commander in chief denied he had been sensitive of any programmed conflict on the communities.

Foreign governments together with the US and Britain, endangered about the change of al-Qaeda in countries adjacent the Sahara, and general rights groups have urged the authorities to safeguard that those obliged are brought to justice.

Goodluck Jonathan, the Acting President, has responded to made at home and general vigour by putting the security forces on high rapt to try to forestall disturbance from swelling to beside states.

He has frequency been seen in open since he was since the tip pursuit after Umaru YarAdua, went for diagnosis at a hospital in Saudi Arabia. He returned after his Vice-President was told to take over at the moment but is in no fit state to lapse to power.

Analysts fright that the narrow-minded violence, that is not nonetheless related to the countrys broader domestic rivalries, will fast mellow if there is a stability deficiency of leadership.

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Lewis Hamilton severs Formula One ties with father Anthony

Edward Gorman, Motor Racing Correspondent & , : {}

One of the majority in effect parent-offspring partnerships in veteran competition came to an finish on Tuesday with the proclamation by Lewis Hamilton that his father, Anthony, will no longer conduct his career in Formula One.

After discussions over a prolonged period, the McLaren motorist pronounced that he and his father had motionless that it would be a certain step for his father to be, as Hamilton Jr put it, only my father again. No deputy has been voiced and Hamiltons affairs will be rubbed by his group for now.

Hes got a lot of work on his hands and, for me, hes finished his job, Hamilton said. Our idea was regularly to get in to Formula One and be universe hold up and I couldnt have finished it but him.

He went on to compensate an romantic reverence to the man who has attended each competition his son has entered from go-karting to Formula One given he was 8. He has unequivocally been the majority implausible father and believer via my life, Hamilton said. Hes been there by the toughest of times; hes been there as my father and seeking out for my career business-wise.

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Hes regularly had my most appropriate interests at heart, hes regularly been there to guide me. The volume of bid and joining hes put in via my total career has taken all of him to be means to do that.

Although both men feel that the time is right to separate in commercial operation terms, it seems peculiar that Hamilton would select right away days prior to the opening competition of the deteriorate in Bahrain on Mar fourteen to have the announcement. Hamilton pronounced that he was assured that the issue would not destabilise his rave to what promises to be an unusually difficult season, but he certified that it will be bizarre not carrying his father around at each grand prix. Its going to feel weird, generally at the initial integrate of races, but I feel certain about it and hopefully in the destiny it will feel comfortable, he said.

Professional competition generally tennis has had a little hideous examples of relatives pulling their young kids to tellurian success and perplexing to manage, or money in on them, at the same time. It would be wrong to place Anthony Hamiltons attribute with his son in that category. Most important, his son has never given the sense that he is a racing motorist for any alternative reason than that he loves it.

Hamilton Sr recognized his sons unusual bent when he watched him racing radio-controlled cars on the patio of the familys legislature residence in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Later, he offering Lewis a deal: Do your schoolwork and I will assistance you with go-karting.

Anthony, who worked for British Rail, took on additional jobs to assistance to compensate for his sons early career and he and the family gathering the length and extent of Britain receiving him to competition meetings. The big mangle came when Hamilton sealed for McLaren at the age of 13, but given afterwards his father has played a vicious purpose in ensuring that he done it to Formula One.

If there are criticisms, they centre on the power of a attribute in between father and son that competence have at times done counts some-more flamable for Hamilton not slightest during the greatest predicament of his career at last years Australian Grand Prix when he was held lying to the competition stewards. At that point an design voice competence have helped him, but Hamilton Jr discharged that notion. It wasnt only emotions determining my father, he was judicious in his thought processes, Hamilton Jr said.

There are additionally questions over the understanding Hamilton Sr struck on his sons interest with McLaren at the finish of Lewiss initial stellar deteriorate in Formula One in 2007. It is believed that Hamilton is being paid in the segment of �15 million a year over five years by the Woking-based team, that was a little area less than the luminary salaries of the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, who was receiving home an estimated �25 million from Ferrari at the time.

The preference by Hamilton Sr to step behind and aspire to a portfolio of commercial operation interests, together with a motorist government association and a interest in a footballer government concern, outlines a watershed in his sons career. In his 25th year he will face the universe but possibly Ron Dennis, the former group principal of McLaren who left the racing group early last year, or his father to guide him on a every day basis.

Agents of changeAnthony Hamiltons depart will trigger a bolt between the worlds greatest bent agencies. Who will Lewis choose?19 Entertainment Founded by Simon Fuller, who detected the Spice Girls and right away manages David and Victoria Beckham, as well as seeking after Andy Murray, the tennis player.IMG Biggest and most appropriate well known of all the bent agencies. Ian Todd, the IMG International president, has worked with most of the greats, together with Tiger Woods.Mika Hakkinen McLarens two-times universe hold up has shaped an group with Didier Coton, his manager, and would suggest the insinuate government character with that Lewis is familiar.Words by Kevin Eason

Ed Miliband unveils loans intrigue for immature home improvements Environment

Under the scheme, loans for immature home improvements will be trustworthy to the property. Photograph: Denis Closon/Rex Features

The appetite and meridian shift secretary, Ed Miliband, currently voiced sum of a "green loans" intrigue to assistance people compensate for improvements to their homes to have them some-more appetite efficient.

The scheme, that would see loans sojourn trustworthy to the residence where insulation, solar panels or alternative immature record was installed, aims to overcome the monetary barriers and upfront costs people face when perplexing have their homes greener.

With the responsibility of immature record and people relocating residence on normal each 9 to twelve years, householders might not have a prolonged sufficient duration for profitable behind the loan prior to they move to safeguard they save some-more on their bills than the cost of the repayments.

Around 500 homes in Birmingham, Sunderland, Stroud and the London precinct of Sutton have been contrast out a £4m commander for the Pay As You Save programme.

In the pilot, homeowners finished repayments for immature technologies over a prolonged sufficient duration so payments are reduce than the likely assets on appetite bills, though the monetary packages additionally enclosed options in that they paid a small of the upfront costs.

The total residence appetite makeovers, that the supervision wants to hurl out to urge the appetite potency of the UK"s 22m homes, will yield a range of technologies together with insulation and small-scale renewables such as solar panels or belligerent source feverishness pumps to yield energy.

Miliband said: "Helping people save appetite at home can have it simpler and cheaper to keep homes comfortable and appliances running. It is additionally the most appropriate proceed to cut the CO emissions.

"This new proceed will concede people to compensate for home improvements after they have had them commissioned rather than before.

"More people will be equates to to get the work they wish done. That equates to less appetite used, that is great for the environment, and reduce bills, that is great for families, quite when we have cold continue similar to we did this winter."

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) has already been in discussions with a series of sectors together with sell and promissory note over how the loans can be delivered, whilst legislation will need to be introduced to concede for the loans to be trustworthy to homes.

Miliband, who is on vacation the Ecobuild muster on tolerable construction at Earl"s Court in London today, additionally voiced the follow-up intrigue to the CO emissions rebate aim (Cert) programme that requires appetite companies to assistance people have their homes some-more appetite efficient.

Until the use was outlawed by ministers, a small companies focused their efforts underneath the Cert intrigue on distributing energy-saving lightbulbs to households, that was a poor choice but that critics pronounced did small to cut emissions.

Albemarle set to enhance in UK pawnbroking boom

Robert Lea & , : {}

Albemarle Bond (AB), the pawnbroker, is formulation to stand in the series of outlets in the subsequent five years to 250 and in the meantime take value of short-term lets in deserted sell units to set up proxy guaranty shops.

Britains pawnbrokers are sepulchral given the cost of bullion $1,113 an unit last night has scarcely doubled given the commencement of the credit crisis. Harvey Thompson, ABs main rival, has identical enlargement plans.

AB, that additionally trades as Herbert Brown, yesterday reported a near-50 per cent enlarge in turnover in the 6 months to Dec 3, one of the darkest durations in the downturn for consumers.

Credit-constrained consumers who have been incompetent to convince their banks or label companies to supply the money that they need for their spending, have incited to the internal pawnbroker instead.

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Pre-tax increase on a guaranty loan book of �27.5 million in the duration rose 75 per cent to �10.8 million and City analysts envision that the association will strike jot down full-year pre-tax increase of scarcely �18 million.

AB is augmenting the halt division by twenty-two per cent to 2.75p, assisting the shares to climb 7p yesterday to 277p, fluctuating the run-up in the batch to 50 per cent given last spring.

Interest rates competence be high, but Barry Stevenson, the arch executive, claims a constant clientele.

For the majority part, the business come behind for the trinket they have affianced and they stay business and come behind again given they know they have a stretchable asset, he said. The repeat law is amazing. It is a really viable approach to get short-term cash.

Such direct for small loans sent ABs pawnbroking income up fourteen per cent to �13 million in the second half of 2009.

Matter of give and take

•Average Albemarle Bond contract is valued at �138

•A patron customarily has 6 months to retrieve trinket or it is sole or scrapped

•ABs normal emancipation time is seventeen weeks

•At an seductiveness rate of 7.9 per cent a month, the normal patron pays about �170 to retrieve goods