Thousands of police officers are expected to join a protest march against cuts to public services today. Organisers hope 20,000 officers will parade through central London, with 16,000 wearing black caps to signify the number of jobs expected to be cut.

The Government was attacked today for "destroying" communities with its spending cuts and other policies as thousands of trade unionists, pensioners, students and activists took part in the annual May Day celebrations.

Police investigating the murder of a family of four today increased a reward for information leading to the prime suspect's arrest to £25,000.

How to bring history to life by misbehaving in the library

Researchers at St Andrews University have learnt about the lifestyle of medieval people through their reading habits by analysing well-thumbed book pages.

Love is "the price that had to be paid for bringing a child into the world," according to one character in David Park's new novel. Here, love is not an unalloyed joy, or a great benefit which happens to carry baggage. It is indivisible, negative as well as positive. Parents suffer unrequited love for their children, a wife tortures herself with fear of her husband's adultery, and a single mother finds that the past is not dead; it is not even past. Like Park's earlier novels The Big Snow and The Truth Commissioner, The Light of Amsterdam tells separate stories which touch and cross. Alan, Karen and Marion don't know one another, though their names seem to chime along with their stories. They are all middle-aged, living in Belfast, and travelling to Amsterdam in December 2005.

A four-year-old girl has been accepted into Mensa after achieving a score of 159 on an IQ test.

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a Neolithic portal dolmen, one of Western Europe's oldest ritual burial chambered monuments, in an isolated field in Wales.

Plans to introduce regional pay for public-sector workers risk discriminating against older teachers and those working in primary schools, a union warned today.

Children are going hungry, teachers and parents warn

School meal portions are being shrunk, leaving children to go hungry, teachers and parents have warned.

Most universities are forced to put new undergraduates through remedial courses to give them the basic skills they need, a conference will be told today.

On Saturday, Alton Towers unveils its new attraction for thrill-seekers, Nemesis Sub-Terra. Simon Calder gets a sneak preview of what's billed as an underground nightmare and finds that he's not as tough as he thought

For some 70 years the impact of Sir Alan Cottrell's work on the basic understanding of materials and its application to engineering structures, his academic leadership, his role of Scientific Adviser to the Government, and his contributions to safe nuclear energy, have been immense. He was the most influential physical metallurgist of the 20th century. Through his pioneering researches, and as an educator, he influenced countless students, scientists and engineers and will continue to do so. His papers and books are remarkable for their clarity.