So many celebrations like Christmas and birthdays will now be marred because Heather's not here."We'll never see her get married or have children There are so many things we won't share together A big part of our lives is missing forever.". A football fan who claimed that being beaten by police had left him too upset to watch his favourite television programme, The Bill, won damages yesterday for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment. A football fan who claimed that being beaten by police had left him too upset to watch his favourite television programme, The Bill, won damages yesterday for unlawful arrest and false imprisonment. Paul Stevenson, 31, was charged with violent conduct after he became caught up in trouble when England were beaten by Germany in Euro 1996. The painter and decorator sued Nottinghamshire police after claiming two officers hit him with batons and he was bitten by Reg, the holder of the 1995 Police Dog of the Year Award.He was so badly traumatised by the arrest in a Nottingham pub that he can no longer bear to watch any police television programmes, including his favourite ITV police drama, or go to football matches, he said.The court was told by police that about 200 angry soccer supporters stormed out of the pub after England's defeat and that Mr Stevenson assaulted a sergeant, who was one of only eight officers on duty, by jumping on him and "kicking and swinging at him".The jury at Nottingham County Court decided that Mr Stevenson was unlawfully arrested, although they rejected his allegation that the police had concocted a case to bring a malicious prosecution.Mr Stevenson, of Bulwell, Nottingham, claimed that he was an innocent bystander and was attacked as he looked for his wife among a crowd of people who streamed out of the pub when the match finished.The police dog bit him just below the knee and the officers attacked him with batons, one of them grabbing hold of his head and pushing his face down on to the pavement, he said. He was held in police cells for two nights and officers stood outside taunting him by shouting "woof, woof," he said.Judge Oliver-Jones said the jury would consider today what damages were appropriate for injury to Mr Stevenson's legs caused by police batons..

The number of pensioners living in poverty has risen by almost 100,000 since Labour came to power, according to government figures. The number of pensioners living in poverty has risen by almost 100,000 since Labour came to power, according to government figures. The revelation comes as a London University report says that more than 26,000 elderly people die from the cold in London each year - more than Finland, which is twice as cold.The poverty statistics will increase the pressure on the Government to announce new measures to help Britain's pensioners and will fuel a revolt by Labour activists and trade unions at the party's annual conference in Brighton next week.The annual "poverty audit", to be published by the Department of Social Security tomorrow, will show that the number of pensioners living in poverty has risen by 98,000 since the 1997 general election.In the year before the election, 22 per cent of pensioners were in households with below half the average national income before their housing costs were included.The new figures will show that the figure rose by one per cent during Labour's first year in office, and remained steady in the 12 months after that despite the introduction of measures to help pensioners.This week's report will admit that pensioners, especially older women, are still at disproportionate risk of falling into the bottom half of the income distribution scale. They also suffer social exclusion through poor housing, poor health and lack of independence and access to public services.The report will be seized on by trade unions and Labour activists who are threatening to inflict an embarrassing defeat on the party leadership at the conference in Brighton. They are demanding that the basic state pension is raised in line with earnings rather than prices as at present.Ministers hope to stave off a defeat by offering last-minute concessions but they are likely to stop short of the campaigners' demands.Alistair Darling, the Social Security Secretary, is drawing up plans for a new tax credit aimed at helping elderly people who live on modest occupational pensions and who do not qualify for state benefits at present.Ministers will argue that the poverty figures are already out of date, saying they do not yet take full account of the minimum income guarantee for pensioners in 1999, which currently tops up their income to £78.45 a week.They will also say that the plight of pensioners will also be improved by the decision to increase their winter fuel payments to £150 a year and plans to bring in free television licences for the over 75s.The poverty audit is expected to show that 30,000 more people die in winter in Britain than would be expected given the average death rates during the rest of the year Most of the 30,000 victims are aged 60 or over.. Widespread incidents of racism in amateur football have been revealed by a study that found all black and Asian players questioned had been the victims of both physical and verbal abuse. Widespread incidents of racism in amateur football have been revealed by a study that found all black and Asian players questioned had been the victims of both physical and verbal abuse. The report, which has alarmed the Football Association, follows interviews with players at more than 2,000 amateur clubs.Researchers from Leeds Metropolitan University found that 50 per cent of African-Caribbean players had experienced physical violence on the pitch that they attributed to premeditated racist intent.Black players told the survey that racism was "part and parcel" of the amateur game and that they have come to expect "heat of the moment" verbal exchanges with white players to be accompanied by racial epithets.

But few white players acknowledged that racism was an issue in the amateur leagues - with just 12 per cent believing that abuse related to skin colour was an acceptable form of "winding-up" an opponent.The report found that the "vast majority" of players believed "that 'too much is made of this black/white thing, in football everyone is the same'." None of the white players had been the victim of racism.The research team interviewed players, referees and club secretaries from amateur teams in West Yorkshire.Three-quarters of the African-Caribbean players surveyed and half of the Asian respondents accused referees of failing to take action against those guilty of racial abuse.Geoff Thompson, the chairman of the FA, said: "Everyone has a right to participate in football without the fear of suffering racism, be it on the field of play or by the institutions governing the game."Speaking at Huddersfield Town's McAlpine Stadium, he launched plans by five local authorities in West Yorkshire to refuse to let pitches to clubs whose players are found guilty of racist behaviour.. The campaign for a "yes" in Denmark's referendum on the euro, trailing by 12 points in one opinion poll, was in crisisyesterday as the contest approached its final week. The campaign for a "yes" in Denmark's referendum on the euro, trailing by 12 points in one opinion poll, was in crisisyesterday as the contest approached its final week. In a sign of disarray among those backing the single currency, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the leader of the pro-euro Liberal Party, attacked the campaign tactics of his namesake and ally, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the social democratic Prime Minister.Although the two men are political rivals and have clashed before, the outburst is the latest blow to a cross-party political alliance that should have been assured of victory. With the support of the political establishment, the trade unions, the employers and all newspapers bar one Eurosceptic tabloid,the "yes" camp once lookedinvincible.But, after losing its poll lead before the summer, only to regain a narrow edge earlier this month, the "yes" campaign is again in the doldrums with no consensus on how to fight in the final crucial week.A succession of polls during the past 10 days has put them behind, culminating in yesterday's Gallup survey in the daily paper Berlingske Tidende, placing the pro-euro campaigners at 37 per cent and the "no' camp at 49 per cent.There is a chink of light for euro supporters. A second poll in the Politiken newspaper puts the two sides within two percentage points.

Most surveys show about 14-15 per cent of people have yet to decide and, of those, two-thirds are expected to back the "yes" campaign. Most observers still expect a close result.But the advocates of a single currency have been blown off course by the slump in the value of the euro, and by a "no" campaign that portrayed the euro as a threat to Denmark's generous welfare state. According to Hella Thorning-Schmidt, a pro-euro social democratic MEP, the drop in the value of the currency has come at the worst possible time.While currency movements are outside the control of Danish politicians, other weaknesses have been exposed as the pro-euro camp was caught off-guard by the "no" campaign's claim that the single currency threatened state pensions.As Ms Thorning-Schmidt put it: "We under-estimated the cruelty and ruthlessness of their attack We did not think they would go that far.". British Nato troops announced last night that they had foiled a Serb military plot to mount guerrilla attacks on targets inside Kosovo, in the run-up to Yugoslav elections due to be held this weekend. British Nato troops announced last night that they had foiled a Serb military plot to mount guerrilla attacks on targets inside Kosovo, in the run-up to Yugoslav elections due to be held this weekend. Acting on intelligence reports, the British forces cordoned off the market town of Gracanica, home to one of Kosovo's largest Serb communities. In an operation lasting several hours, they uncovered a cache of weapons and explosives, and arrested six men; three were later released.Bernard Kouchner, the United Nations administrator for the Serbian province, said the foiled operation was "an obvious attempt to destabilise Kosovo" by Slobodan Milosevic's government.