Labour scored a double gain from Tories at Braintree District in the heart of Essex man territory in the latest council by-elections.

A 43-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a clergyman was found dead at a vicarage, police said.

Today's high temperatures led to speed restrictions on a busy rail commuter route.

A "pestered and harassed" woman voiced her concerns to police less than two weeks before she and and her toddler daughter were shot dead.

Flowers and cuddly toys have been left as tributes outside the house where a woman and her toddler daughter were shot dead.

A mother and daughter shot dead yesterday could have been saved by police, angry neighbours claimed as a double murder inquiry was launched.

Police had been aware of a man suspected of shooting dead a mother and child for two years, it emerged tonight.

On Monday, 14 February, we naturally had an article about declarations of love. John Walsh wrote about love letters. The article was illustrated with pictures of the writers Denis Diderot, John Keats, Victor Hugo and James Joyce – and what looked like a Victorian etching of a soppy-looking medieval monk, captioned thus: "St Valentine, a martyr for love."

The Government's report into global food production published last week calls for urgent action to stop food shortages. Clearly the issue of waste in the Western world is one which could be changed by changing the mindset of people. But for me, the first question to address is how this report reflects on food production here.

Nick Clegg faces a fresh crisis after his plans for sweeping reform of the House of Lords were savaged in a heated private meeting yesterday with peers.

Two young women who gassed themselves using toxic chemicals have died in a suspected copycat suicide pact, it emerged yesterday.

Police were investigating a suspected double suicide today after the bodies of two women were found in a flat.

Police investigating the deaths of a man and a woman in an apparent chemical suicide pact named them today.

A man and a woman found dead in a car in an apparent suicide pact left signs on the vehicle warning of toxic chemicals inside.