Dozens of reptiles,  meerkats and an otter among the dead after early morning blaze

Laws that affect only England should normally require the support of a majority of English MPs, a government-ordered inquiry recommends today.

I have never understood why MPs require research assistants (I never had one, nor claimed for one). The House of Commons Library has among its staff many scholars who will supply objective information, often very promptly. Working among gifted contemporaries covering other fields was Dr John Poole, who from 1966 until his retirement in 1990 was Head of the Science section of the Library. Indeed, he was the founding father of the provision of serious scientific fact to Parliament.

Such was his attention to detail in the cause of safety, he was known as 'The Ferret'

If ever there were unsung heroes, few can have been less recognised by successive British governments than the sailors of the Royal Navy and Merchant Navy who participated in the Arctic convoys, carrying desperately needed supplies to Murmansk in 1941.

Labour MP Eric Joyce has been charged with assault following a late night fracas at a House of Commons bar in which a Tory rival was allegedly head-butted.

More than 23 people have been taken to hospital following a chemical spill at a warehouse.

Sir Robert Horton had a forceful, dynamic management style which in 1990 propelled him to the top of British Petroleum, then the world's third-largest oil company. It was assumed he would develop into a titan of the industry. But his trademark vigour was accompanied by another trademark, that of imperious arrogance, which despite his undoubted talents led to his removal as chairman and chief executive within two years.

Further to your obituary of Sir David Jack (9 December), Fifers are famous for dogged determination, writes Tam Dalyell.