The IRS affair may have the greatest ramifications and strikes dark historical chords

The bells of Westminster Abbey rang out as the black hearse carrying Thatcher's flag draped coffin pulled out of Parliament. A few in the crowd began to clap but most remained silent as it sped off down Whitehall towards St Paul's.

No former American Presidents will be present after Bill Clinton, George Bush and his son George W Bush declined invitations

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will not be invited

Ruling family have held on to power in the face of two years of protests inspired by the Arab Spring

Boris Johnson was the perfect example of a modern politician because he “excelled at telling a leadership story” even if he didn’t do much in the way of actual leadership, Gavin Esler has told the Bath Literature Festival.

Chuck Hagel is set to be sworn in as Barack Obama’s latest Defence Secretary today, ending one of the most controversial appointment sagas in US history.

A Republican stalwart, now 80, has owned up to a 1970s liaison with the daughter of a colleague

He worked for Republicans and Democrats at the same time – a situation now unthinkable

The group was set up in 1871 to train Americans how to shoot. But in the 1970s it found a new target – politicians

1. The panel on the first ever Question Time on BBC1.

Walt Zeboski, who died on 12 November aged 83, was a photographer for the Associated Press who chronicled Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign and a succession of California governors.

Roger Wood was the debonair editor of the New York Post during the first decade of Rupert Murdoch's ownership. He had arrived in New York in 1975 just before Murdoch bought the Post for $30m in 1976. He was hired as executive editor in July 1977 and his Fleet Street background – he had been the youngest ever editor of the Daily Express, under Lord Beaverbrook – ensured a feisty portrayal of a city in decline, with debts mounting and crime rampant.