COPS SPOT UFO, RELEASED MoD X-FILE REVEALS...CROSSRAIL MAY BE SHELVED OVER CASH FEARS...ATTACKS ON PARKING WARDENS UP 4-FOLD...NORTON FOLGATE READY TO RAISE UDI’ FLAG...OLD COBBLED STREET FOUND BURIED 20FT DOWN

COPS SPOT UFO, RELEASED MoD X-FILE REVEALS

COPS on night duty spotted a UFO over East London, it has been revealed this week. Details have emerged for the first time since the sighting in 2000 in previously secret X-files released by the Ministry of Defence. The sighting was made by officers at the former Whitechapel police station who reported flashing white lights at 3.45am while on night shift in March, 2000, one of 200 previously secret sightings in Britain which can now be downloaded from the National Archives website.

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NORTON FOLGATE READY TO RAISE UDI’ FLAG

THE tiny enclave around Norton Folgate, between Spitalfields and Shoreditch, could soon declare UDI’ in a row with Hackney Council over plans to bulldoze The Light bar. Developers want the green light’ to tear down the bar and build a skyscraper. But campaigners have found the 200-yard Norton Folgate liberty’ linking Bishopsgate to Shoreditch may not have been scrapped when the Metropolitan boroughs were created in 1900 and may be outside borough jurisdiction.

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CROSSRAIL MAY BE SHELVED OVER CASH FEARS

THE Prime Minister could shelve the £16 billion Crossrail project for 10 years, even with Royal Assent this summer, a senior figure in the scheme has warned. A highly placed source in Crossrail’s management fears Gordon Brown will put the cross-London super tube’ rail link on hold amid increasing concerns about the credit crunch on the economy.

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ATTACKS ON PARKING WARDENS IS UP 4-FOLD

ATTACKS on parking wardens by angry motorists in the East End have quadrupled in just 12 months, Town Hall figures reveal. There were 12 in Tower Hamlets alone from January to April, the same as the whole of 2007 and double the whole of 2006. Now the Town Hall is warning it will prosecute anyone who attacks its staff.

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OLD COBBLED STREET FOUND BURIED 20FT DOWN

AN EARLY Victorian cobbled street more than 150 years old has been unearthed 20ft below the 2012 London Olympics park by archaeologists investigating the site of a 12th Century Knights Templar mill. The cobblestones are to be lifted up’ and preserved, then used in the huge park now being laid out as a legacy for East London.

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DAD BLAMES SON’S DROWNING ON MURDER’

THE father of a teenager who died despite being rescued from the Limehouse basin of the Regent’s Canal in East London is demanding answers over his son’s death. Grieving Azad Ahmed believes his 17-year-old Noobin Ahmed was murdered. Noobin died in hospital an hour after being rescued by police and Tower Lifeboat crew at 4am on Monday.

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NEW HOPE IN FIGHT TO HALT SKYSCRAPERS

MAYOR Boris Johnson’s new regime at City Hall has given hope to campaigners trying block the encroachment of City skyscrapers into the East End. His fledging Tory administration has ordered a review of the capital’s skyline’ to protect districts like Bethnal Green and Shoreditch on the City Fringe.’

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TENANTS STEAMED UP OVER HOT WATER’ HYPE

HOUSING bosses are facing rebellion from tenants in Clare House, near Victoria Park, who have been slapped with massive hikes in service charges by Old Ford Housing Association. The tenants have set up a committee to contest the new bills. One was billed £17 a week compared to £10 last year, totalling £900 for the year, with peak hour charges on top of that.

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SS ROBIN SAVED FROM SINKING BY RAIL CASH

THE world’s oldest complete steamship, SS Robin moored at West India Quays on the Isle of Dogs, has been saved from the scrapyard by a loan from Crossrail. The Robin’s trust can now carry out a rescue plan, thanks to compensation for a proposed station at the quay where it’s berthed.

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