City news in 250 words: Monday 1 November

GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE are hunting a rapist who may have attacked two women in under an hour. In the worst of the incidents a 20-year-old woman was raped in Library Walk, the alleyway between Manchester Town Hall and Central Library in the early hours - shortly before 3am. The man is white, between 20 and 30-years-old with short hair. The rape victim is being supported by specially trained police officers and appealing for witnesses.

CHARLES ROLLS is being commemorated today to mark the centenary of his death in 1910. At 11am at the Midland Hotel - where Charles Rolls met Manchester-based engineer Henry Royce in 1904 to form the Rolls Royce company - a bronze statue of Rolls will be presented to Mike Magrane, the general manager of the Midland Hotel. A cavalcade of Rolls-Royce cars will then drive through Albert Square to MOSI (Museum of Science & Industry) on Liverpool Road.

MANCHESTER WILL SOON have new ‘artisan independent publisher’ – The Hidden Gem Press. The first title, to be published in June 2011, will be Hungry, The Stars and Everything by Emma Unsworth, the partner of Elbow frontman, Guy Garvey. The launch takes place at 6.30pm Thursday 25th November at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, The Engine House, Chorlton Mill, Cambridge Street, Manchester.

A VAST NEW SCULPTURE is to appear this week at the Imperial War Museum North on Trafford Wharf. Gerry Judah’s The Crusader is a seven metre web of war torn buildings and a response to global conflict.

Out of the window forecast: It’s a grim day, like a Norse saga in which warriors set off across a turbulent sea. Exactly like that actually.