Renowned Nigerian writer and novelist Elechi Amadi has been kidnapped by gunmen in the Niger Delta region, say officials.

A villager who helped lead a global child abuse ring from his home in Staffordshire is jailed indefinitely.

What happened to the 1998 suggestion that registrars get more powers and become "secular vicars".

Mark Cavendish wins his third stage of this year's Tour de France after another brilliant sprint finish.

Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti threatens to sue a minister over remarks about her dealings with David Davis.

There are some who see a cycle of boom and bust as inevitable. But as Britain and much of the Western world faces up to a downturn, it's easy to look back into the past and find nasty decades.

Mike Baker considers why education has featured so little in the race for the US presidential nomination.

Humans in relationships with robots could be a non-starter thinks regular columnist Bill Thompson.

Your responses to Mike Baker's column on how management jargon has begun to dominate discussions of education.

Feedback on Mike Baker's column which questioned whether the new higher A* A-level grade would lead to greater diversity at top universities.

Sally Clark, who was wrongly convicted of killing her sons, died accidentally of alcohol intoxication, an inquest rules.

We live in a society saturated with sex, but disabled people can often feel they've not been invited to the party. Some feel prostitution might provide the answer. But is visiting a brothel the right thing to do?

A scheme to offer nations an economic incentive to protect tropical forests is vital in the battle against climate change.

New production plans for Harris Tweed cause concern within the traditional cloth industry.

BBC Europe editor Mark Mardell sympathises with French voters whose favourite candidate has no chance of making it to round two.

The bestseller lists are full of memoirs about miserable childhoods and anguished families. Waterstone's even has a "Painful Lives" shelf. Why are authors confessing their hurt so freely and do readers find morbid enjoyment in them?

Tory leader Nick Bourne says they will give every Welsh home £20 of light bulbs if they win the assembly election.

Some MPs are asking ministers too many questions and risk "debasing" the whole system, Jack Straw says.

Turkey is under pressure to reform a law banning "insults to Turkishness" since the killing of journalist Hrant Dink.

Your views on Mike Baker's discussion of Ofsted inspectors' ratings of schools in England.