2,000-strong prayer walk is not the end . Church and community leaders at last night’s prayer walk from Peckham to Brixton vowed that this will not be the end of their efforts to tackle street violence. More than 2,000 Londoners from local churches and community groups joined families of victims to take a strong stand against gun crime.

Pastor Nims Obunge, of Peace Alliance, said: “We all need to work together with criminal justice agencies to help vulnerable young people and keep guns off the street.” Dr R David Muir, Director of Public Policy at the Evangelical Alliance, said church and community leaders are already scheduling meetings with policy makers and politicians in the next few months to take the issue further. “The community is not going to let this drop,” he said.

“Police, politicians and parents must work together in order to provide both an effective legal framework as well as a moral framework to help vulnerable youngsters and families.”

The two-hour prayer walk from Peckham to Brixton was organised by a coalition of Black church and other Christian leaders after a series of gang-related killings.

It included passionate prayers and speeches from pastors, community leaders and political and police representatives, calling for unity to overcome the problems, expressing condolence to the victims’ families and asking God to forgive the perpetrators of the crimes.

The crowd could be heard singing in Peckham Square which prompted Home Office minister Vernon Coker to say as he addressed them: “I don’t think I need to make a speech, the speech was made with the singing that took place over there.

“You sang ‘we shall overcome’ because you know that if we stand together and work together that you really will overcome.” The walk was strongly supported by the Mayor of London’s office and the Metropolitan Police Service.

Cressida Dick, newly-appointed Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service, said ahead of the walk: “We’re here to say that we will do anything in our power to bring those who committed these crimes to justice and to prevent and reduce violence in our communities.

“We can only do that in partnership with people in those communities – in particular the people of faith and from the churches who can do so much to heal the communities and help people see a different way of living their lives.”

Lee Jasper is Director of Policing for the Mayor of London’s Office and Chair of the Metropolitan Police Service Operation Trident Independent Advisory Group.

He told the crowd: “All the police officers and Government grants in the world can’t solve this problem, only we as parents and people can solve this problem.”

Pastor Isaac Attram, father of Eugene Attram, 16, who was stabbed to death in Mitcham in November last year, urged fathers to talk to their children and gave this message to young people: ”You are the leaders of tomorrow; you have so much to live for. There's no need to join gangs; there's no need for you to kill yourselves.”

Tenants are risking more than one billion pounds in deposits held by their landlords, new research reveals - and with around twice as many black and minority ethnic households living in the private rental sector compared to white households, Shelter is urging tenants from BME communities to use a new scheme to protect their money. 

Last year, more than three-quarters of all tenants who had money withheld claimed it was retained by their landlords unfairly. With the average deposit now reaching £700 in England, losing a deposit causes financial hardship and in the worst cases, homelessness. 

But the new tenancy deposit protection scheme, which comes into effect on 6 April, requires landlords to protect tenants' deposits in one of three independent government-approved schemes. The scheme also provides a quick, easy way to resolve disputes without resorting to the courts. 

Shelter has produced a special red envelope to help tenants protect their money when they hand it over. The envelope sets out landlords' obligations under the new law and includes a handy receipt to prove the deposit was paid. 

Adam Sampson, chief executive of Shelter, said: "Anyone who uses our special deposit envelopes will show their landlord they know their rights under the new Tenancy Deposit Protection scheme.

"Deposits are often large sums of money - protecting this cash from being unfairly held back will help ensure tenants from BME communities do not find themselves out of pocket or worse, facing homelessness because they can't get the cash together for another deposit for a new rented home."

For further information visit www.shelter.org.uk

- Foreign Office issues travel safety advice -

An estimated 20,000 British nationals are expected to travel to the Caribbean this March to attend the 2007 ICC World Cup, in addition to the eight million Britons who visit the region each year.  The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is today launching the ‘Don’t Get Caught Out’ campaign to ensure that British nationals – whether they are following England, Scotland, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bermuda or the West Indies - receive the travel safety advice ahead of the tournament that will help them remain safe on their trip.

The TUC has welcomed today’s decision by the European Court of Human Rights that unions can expel members of the far-right BNP, and that this is not incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.

The case was brought by traindrivers’ union ASLEF, after the UK courts found in favour of a BNP member expelled from the union because of the incompatibility of BNP views and those of the trade union movement.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said, “This is an important and welcome judgement. The European Court of Human Rights has made the common sense decision that the right to freedom of association does not force unions to accept into membership people opposed to the basic principles of trade unionism. Instead it says that the European Convention’s provisions protect unions from excessive interference by government in deciding how they run their own affairs, including how they choose their members.

“We will need to discuss further all the implications of this judgement, including what changes now need to be made to UK law, but every union will welcome this clear decision that they can now expel BNP members.”