More than 20,000 off-duty police officers took to the streets today as they warned that Government cuts are putting public safety at risk.

Up to 16,000 off-duty officers will don black caps representing each officer expected to be lost under the Government's budget cuts as they take to the streets tomorrow.

A campaign of “mass resistance” is needed against the Government's plans for regional pay for public sector workers, teachers heard today. .

Verica Barac, who died earlier this month at the age of 56 after a long battle with cancer, was Serbia's most prominent anti-corruption activist and headed the country's Anti-Corruption Council. Barac came to the council's helm in 2003, as a new pro-Western government began to recover from years of wars and international sanctions suffered during Slobodan Milosevic's decade-long rule. She exposed numerous corruption scandals, such as dubious privatisation deals made during the country's transition to a market economy.

Previously filthy watercourses are now teeming with fish, a new book reveals

Do governments learn nothing? Privatising roads will inevitably lead to putting profits for road company shareholders before infrastructure investment, as with utilities and railways. The 1989 water privatisation, meant to sort out 19th-century pipes and sewers, is still nowhere near completion after nearly 25 years.

Firms will be paid to maintain network – and tolls could be round the corner

University students staged a national walkout today to protest against the Government's plans for higher education.

The Chief Constables of two police forces today defended the "transformational" changes which could result following a meeting with private sector firms to discuss the possible contracting out of some work by the forces.

Liberal Democrats refused to fully endorse controversial reforms of the health service today in a blow to party leader Nick Clegg.

One of Steve Hilton's legacies is one he would not want to advertise to his new US friends: how he was personally involved in appointing Emma Harrison as the Prime Minister's back-to-work tsar. She resigned as No 10 adviser and chairman of A4e just over a week ago over allegations of fraud at the company. It is understood that Mr Hilton recommended her to Mr Cameron.

The Big Six exert a far tighter stranglehold on energy than their counterparts in other industries with large calls on household budgets. The results of this oligopoly are over-the-top prices, confusing bills and poor customer service.

Justine Greening, the ambitious Transport minister, said over the weekend that she would turn up at a specially convened meeting of Network Rail's board this Friday, to register a protest vote against the £20m bonus pool its executives had threatened to award themselves.

Britain's railways are at the bottom of the league for fares, efficiency and comfort compared with other European countries, according to a union-commissioned study today.