Documents going back five centuries show that on 26 June 1284, Hameln lost 130 young souls.Now that they have been found, only one question remains: Who was the Pied Piper? "I have no idea," Professor Udolph admits "But he may have been a locator. They wore multi-coloured robes, just like the the musician in the story."The rats, by the way, returned to plague Hamelin several times down the centuries.- Imre Karacs, Bonn. A Russian who claims to have spied for Britain has turned himself in, to Russia's security services, allegedly because he was disgusted by the miserly and high-handed treatment he received from his handlers. Even today, there are little Hamelns in thePriegnitz and Uckermark, north of Berlin, and in the vicinity of Stargard, which now lies in Poland.The children, Professor Udolph says, were in fact young adults, hired by landlords in the east for their skills. After the defeat of the Danes in 1227, the area then inhabited by Slavs became ripe for conquest. Around the time of the Hamelin legend hundreds of thousands of young Germans were migrating from Lower Saxony and Westphalia to greener pastures in the east.They were recruited in their home towns and villages by "locators" - the medieval equivalent of head-hunters. Migrants, he says, tend to name their new settlements after their favourite hills and meadows back home.Sifting through the atlas, he found various versions of "Hameln", as the town is known in German, in areas colonised by Germans in the 13th century.

Thus were they led, in the year of 1284, out of Hamelin, into the mountains and beyond The mean parents never saw their offspring again. Only two of the children returned, and they could shed no light on the mystery. Moral: never cheat a rat-catcher. That is where the tale ended, until now. In this revisionist age someone was bound to add a new twist to the legend.

Previous research had placed the children variously in Transylvania or Moravia.Good idea, but wrong country, argues the latest in the long line of German scholars who have devoted their careers to the quest. The children of Hamelin, Professor Jurgen Udolph says, lived happily ever after in what is today's east Germany and Poland.Professor Udolph, who teaches linguistics at the same University of Gottingen where the Grimm brothers used to lecture, made his discovery while studying place names. Everyone who has read the Grimm brothers' fairy tales knows what happened next. The Pied Piper played a tune so enchanting as to lure all the children out of their homes. The rats were gone, the rat-catcher returned to Hamelin to claim his wages, but the tight-fisted townsfolk would not pay up. The building is now called the Winchester Centre and is still used by local community groups.He said: "I am pleased to see the radical spirit is still alive."The minister's tour of the estate was his first stop on a nationwide fact-finding tour of Britain's inner cities, which he has undertaken as part of his role as leader of the Government's social exclusion unit.Mr Mandelson was full of praise for the "stakeholder" approach taken by residents and Camden council to the project.- Fran Abrams,Political Correspondent. In the days long before he became Tony Blair's most loyal aide, even he had a short period of youthful rebellion. Mr Mandelson told a group of council estate residents about an episode when, as a sixth former in north London, he "occupied" a disused council building with friends and turned it into a youth club.The council tried to evict the young squatters, claiming the building was dangerous, Mr Mandelson recalled."It was derelict, but we just took the doors down and went straight in, as we had been told that we would have to move out of our previous building," the minister said."And once we had finished renovating it, I am pleased to say that Camden council did not have the face to turn us out," he said.He was speaking after local residents had shown him round a King's Cross estate which has been the focus of a pounds 46m regeneration scheme.

But, having considered the possibility, both she and Mr Cook decided not to pursue it.". Peter Mandelson has been called many things, but until now no one has tried to suggest he is any kind of a rebel. Yesterday, though, the minister without portfolio admitted that he had not always been quite so "on message" as he is now. But a Tory charge that Mr Cook's original diary secretary had been sacked to make way for Ms Regan was rejected by a spokesman for the Foreign Secretary. Following a weekend suggestion of impropriety, made by Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the last Tory Foreign Secretary, it was disclosed by the Prime Minister's spokesman yesterday that when Labour had taken office in May it was discovered that the Foreign Secretary's diary secretary, Anne Bullen, had been a personal appointment made by Douglas Hurd in November 1993.

She had been recruited from outside the Civil Service.Her contract had been extended by one year by Sir Malcolm in November 1996, but Mr Cook's spokesman said last night: "The decision not to renew her contract was taken three weeks after the election, when it became apparent that she was unwilling to develop a reasonable working relationship with the new government."It was alleged that Ms Bullen was a Tory party member, and the spokesman said it was hardly surprising that she did not get on with the new regime.There had been no question of Ms Bullen being removed to make way for Ms Regan, but he added: "After the decision was taken to replace Miss Bullen, Gaynor Regan was, for a short time, considered for the post."Having worked for several years as Mr Cook's personal assistant in Opposition, she was an obvious candidate. Robin Cook and Gaynor Regan, his partner and long-term constituency secretary, considered the possibility of her taking up a job as his official diary secretary, it was revealed last night. Today's tables show that many schools have improved dramatically since the publication of the first primary league tables last year. Nationally, just over six out of 10 pupils reached the expected standard in English and maths and nearly seven out of 10 in science. Results were up on last year by six, eight and seven per cent respectively.Last year's 10 lowest-scoring schools all move up the table Some have made huge progress.