Man held over police shooting

Detectives hunting a gunman who shot at two policemen have arrested a man on suspicion of attempted murder.

A 20-year-old man was held when armed officers swooped on a street in Rotherhithe, south east London, at 8pm last night.

The suspect was being held at a south London police station today where he will be questioned about the shooting, close to Waterloo railway station.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "A 20-year-old man was arrested at 8pm last night following a proactive police operation in Rotherhithe.

"He is currently in custody at a south London police station on suspicion of the attempted murder of two police officers.

"He is also being held on suspicion of possessing a loaded firearm."

A man opened fire at two officers as he was chased along roads between Waterloo railway station and Southwark Underground station on 5 August.

Witnesses said the police dived for cover as the man turned and fired off two shots from a small black handgun.

There were initial fears that one of the officers was shot in the leg after he suffered a minor injury. continues here

Met 'can't explain' 15% rise in rapes

The number of women reporting sex assaults in London has risen dramatically, it emerged today.

New figures show reported rapes soared by 15 per cent in a year, with 2,180 recorded in the year to March compared with 1,904 in the year to April last year.

Commander Mark Simmons of the Met police told the London Assembly public health committee that the figure was still a serious underestimate as about 90 per cent of rapes go unreported.

But he said the Met had no idea why the numbers were rising. "Overall, violence is going down and there is no reason we can see for the number of rapes to have gone up. It is difficult to tell why the figures have gone up. We don't think more people are committing rape."

He added: "If these figures mean more people are coming forward to the police, then that is positive."

The figures emerged after Boris Johnson was accused of betraying women by back-tracking on a manifesto pledge to fund three new rape crisis centres.

His manifesto promised £744,000 a year - or £2.2 million overall - to pay for the scheme. The Mayor said the cash would come from cuts to Ken Livingstone's army of spin doctors but it later emerged that he had set aside only £233,000 a year in the budget.continues here

Middle classes leading the flight as 250,000 quit London

Nearly a quarter of a million London residents quit the city last year.

Another 200,000 left the increasingly packed and polluted South-East for lives in quieter parts of the country.

The exodus is powerful evidence of the phenomenon known in Whitehall as 'churn' - found in parts of the country where there has been both high immigration and high numbers leaving.

It has also been labelled 'white flight' after the desertion of American cities in the 1950s and 60s by whites heading for racially-segregated suburbs.

In Britain, the flight involves middle-class families of all ethnic backgrounds who are thought to be turning their backs on poor schools, poor transport, and high crime rates in major cities.

The figures, published by the ONS, found that 81,000 more people left the capital last year than arrived to live there.

However, the count of those moving in and out is based on NHS statistics for those registering for health care and with GPs and may underestimate true numbers of migrants arriving from abroad.

Many of those leaving headed towards the South-West, long a destination region for the retired, where the population grew by 28,600 over the year.

London has seen larger numbers of people leaving than new arrivals since 2001 - according to the official count. The rate of departure has held steady since 2005. continues here

Well would you live there, amongst it all, if you had the choice, of course, this should tell those in power quite strongly, the real views of whites and given that they are supposed to represent us, they should act on that, will they, I think you know the answer. Whites will keep on running, until there is no-where left to run to by then it will be too late, perhaps it is already, remember these whites are running from their capitol city, not just any city. Isn’t it time now to try nationalism, to give us just ten years of your time, ten years to turn things around, contest evil and return us to a natural state, or will you keep on relentlessly running both physically and metaphorically from the truth, the races were never meant to mix. 14