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A 14-year-old girl - named locally as Demi Pearson (main image) - was declared dead at the scene of the blaze in Salford before an eight-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl died in hospital. A three-year-old girl is also fighting for her life in hospital. The 35-year-old mother of all the children is also in a serious condition in hospital, but has not been told of her children's deaths. The fire is being treated as suspicious and police have launched a murder probe. Police erected screens around fire-ravaged house today.

Britain is bracing for its coldest night in nearly seven years as temperatures fall to -15C (5F) tonight after a chaotic 'Black Monday' saw more snow and treacherous ice causing travel chaos. Much of the country has been paralysed in the last 30 hours following the first serious snowfall of winter - with more than 2,000 schools closed and at least 4,500 homes remaining without power today. And the Trades Union Congress told employers not to force staff to make hazardous journeys into work, saying firms should give staff advice on what to do when snow, ice and a lack of public transport stops them getting in. Pictured: Snowy conditions in Danbury, Essex (top left), cars edge through floodwaters on the A20 in Aylesford, Kent (bottom left), people make their way through snow and sleet on Westminster Bridge in London (top right), a boy slides on an inflatable tube at Bradgate Park in Leicestershire (bottom right), and a ‘closed’ sign hangs on the gate of Cobden Primary School in Loughborough, Leicestershire, after snowfall (centre).

South Western Railways says its entire network has been disrupted due to a track-side fire, causing major disruption to journeys from Waterloo Station.The rail firm has confirmed that services could be delayed for up to 60 minutes or revised, and are advising passengers no to travel on its services. The fire affected the track circuits on three of the lines, causing three platforms to be taken out of use. The blaze led to a large build-up of trains in the area, with some passengers sitting on stationary trains for more than an hour.

Three people have been hurt after a house was blown to pieces by an early morning gas explosion that was so fierce it also damaged six neighbouring properties. An elderly man was dramatically pulled alive from the rubble (shown top and left) by rescuers, while the bedroom of a house next door was ripped away by the blast, injuring the couple living there (pictured before the blast, right). Jeanette Jasper, 79, is said to be in a serious condition in a major trauma centre in Coventry after she was crushed by a wall as she lay in her bed. Her husband John, 80, who was in the kitchen at the time of the explosion, has also been hospitalised. Pictures from the site, in the Birstall area of Leicester, reveal debris strewn across the street, windows blown out and door frames hanging off their hinges.

The public inquiry into the disaster (left) heard Scotland Yard is also looking at possible misconduct in public office and breaches of fire safety regulations. Members of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the tower's Tenant Management Organisation are reportedly being interviewed over the blaze. The possible charges emerged as the local council claimed it will buy homes for the estimated 100 families still without a place to live following the blaze. Sir Martin Moore-Bick (inset) hopes to deliver an interim report by next autumn.

Jacob Abraham (left) was found suffering from multiple stab wounds by his brother Isaac, 19, near a primary school in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire on Thursday night. Police are appealing for more information concerning the incident after a 14-year-old was arrested and released on bail over the weekend. Jacob had left his home earlier in the evening, having received a number of phone calls. Later, his brother Isaac, 19, went out to look for him when he did not come back. (Pictured right: Police and forensic officers examine the scene of Jacob's death)

Oliver Hall (left, before the infection, and right, in hospital), from Halesworth, Suffolk, died in hospital 24 hours after contracting the bacterial infection which mainly affects babies and children. His grieving parents, Georgie, 37, and Bryan Hall, 43, are now calling for all children to be vaccinated against the deadly strain of the disease. Their call piles further pressure on the Government to get all children protected and reiterates a landmark petition following the death of two-year-old Faye Burdett in 2016 which attracted more than 820,000 signatures. Vaccinations against meningitis B have been available for babies up to a year old on the NHS since 2015 but not for older children. (pictured inset with his brother Charlie)

In the early 1970s intricate model villages were a staple of many seaside towns up and down the country, with more than 60 attracting tourists from around the world. The decline of the domestic holiday resorts led to a vast number of them to close down in the 1980s and 90s since they were no longer profitable. The origins of the model village can be traced back to 7th century Japan when the Empress Suiko had a garden built with an artificial mountain depicting Mount Sumeru, the centre of the world in Hindu and Buddhist legends. The first recorded model village in Britain was in Hampstead, north London, at the private home of Charles Paget Wade. Keeping the tradition alive in Britain today is the iconic Bekonscot in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, Babbacombe Model Village in Torquay and Legoland in Windsor.

EXCLUSIVE: Matthew Dons, originally from Norwich, was diagnosed with bowel cancer last year. He struggled to explain his prognosis to daughter Jessica, 4 and son Edward, 8. The teacher had immunotherapy which has 'bought him time' and shrunk his tumours by half. Now he is appealing for help to raise another £30,000 for proton beam therapy.

A beaming President Vladimir Putin shook the hand of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad before declaring that their military alliance had been a victory for the Syrian regime. Speaking during a visit to a Russian military airbase near Latakia, northeast Syria, Putin announced that he has ordered a pullout of 'a significant part' of Russian forces from Syria after helping Assad defeat the 'most battle-ready group of international terrorists,' apparently referring to ISIS. Putin and Assad watched a parade by Russian troops and met with air force pilots (bottom right) before a sit-down meeting (top right) during the Russian president's flying visit.

Huge crowds packed a public memorial in Zagreb, Croatia for a service to remember war criminal Slobodan Praljak whose final act was to kill himself in front of UN judges (right). Public buses ran free of charge to the ceremony for the wartime military commander, who swallowed potassium cyanide last month during a court hearing broadcast live around the world. About 2,000 people filled the main concert hall (left) where the memorial was held, while hundreds more crowded into the building's entry and hallways to watch on giant screens.

North Korean state media has made another dubious claim about Kim Jong-un's 'superhuman powers' after insisting the overweight tyrant had climbed an 8,000ft mountain. Pyongyang media said the 33-year-old had managed to scale Mount Paektu - a sacred spot for North Koreans - after walking 'through thick snow' to reach the summit. But pictures show Kim wandering around on the snow-capped mountain with hardly a bead of sweat and wearing spotless and shiny shoes.

An investigation by Associated Press has found that rape of women and teenage girls by Myanmar's security forces has been' sweeping and methodical' with survivors recalling horrific tales, including such brutal gang rapes that pregnant victims have miscarried their babies and girls as young as 13 being abused at gunpoint. These sexual assault survivors, ranging in age from 13 to 35, from several refugee camps  in Bangladesh comes from a wide swath of villages in Myanmar's Rakhine state and described assaults between October 2016 and mid-September.

Stunning photos show indigenous Kamaiurá people diving underwater and swimming beneath a waterfall in the Amazonian basin in a remote part of Brazil. The Kamaiurá, whose name means 'a raised platform to keep meat, pots and pans', were first contacted by the outside world in 1884. Its population was ravaged by disease in the 1950s but the region was declared a national park by the Brazilian authorities in 1961 to prevent the spread of deadly epidemics.