A man arrested on suspicion of murder after three people, including a four-year-old girl, died in a house fire at a converted railway station has been released without charge.

Emergency services were called to the Grade II-listed property in Rushton, near Kettering, at about 22:30 GMT on Friday.

Northamptonshire Police has confirmed the other two people who died were a 23-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman. The victims’ next of kin have been informed.

The arrested man, 54, from Kettering, was held on Saturday but has now been “released with no further action”, police said.

Det Ch Insp Ruby Burrow, of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit said: “It is only right that an incident such as this is treated with the utmost seriousness.

“After rigorous examination of the available information, we do not believe there is any evidence of criminal wrongdoing at this point.

“As a result the arrested man has been released without charge and will now be supported by specialist officers as he continues to assist the investigation team.”

“This is a heartbreaking situation,” added Det Ch Insp Burrow.

“My thoughts, and those of everyone involved in responding to this fire, are with the people who died and those who love them.”

Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service sent crews from across the county to the scene. They remained there throughout Saturday.

Specialist fire investigators and investigation dogs are at the property to help police establish the cause of the fire.

“Due to the intensity of the fire we are managing a very challenging and dangerous scene, and are working to safely and respectfully recover the deceased to enable formal identification to take place,” added Det Ch Insp Burrow.

“An incredibly thorough and complex investigation is under way to make sure we get the answers that loved ones need and deserve.”

Villagers told the BBC they had been “traumatised” by the tragedy, with one saying “everyone is very sad”.

At a media conference on Sunday, Ch Insp Paul Cash said: “This investigation is well under way but remains in its early stages, and it will take time to fully establish what has happened.

“We know this incident has caused significant distress locally and our officers will remain in the area to provide reassurance and help where we can.”

Drone pictures show a large hole burned through the roof of the building, which is a 19th Century former station master’s house at the now-closed Glendon and Rushton railway station.

According to the Historic England website, it has been a Grade II-listed building since 1981, and is now believed to be a residential property.

After Friday’s fire, one person was taken to hospital by the East Midlands Ambulance Service. Three police officers also needed to be checked in hospital after breathing in smoke.

Mike Brightman, vice chairman of Rushton Parish Council, said it had been a “very sad day for the village, losing some of our residents in such a horrific way”.

The MP for Kettering, Rosie Wrighting, said she was “saddened by this tragic fire” and said her thoughts were with the “family and friends of those involved and everyone in the Rushton community”.

Four more people have been pulled from rubble nearly 60 hours after a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar on Friday, killing at least 1,700 people in the South East Asian country.

The survivors were rescued from a collapsed school building in the northern Sagaing region, from which a body was also recovered, Myanmar’s fire service said.

Hundreds of people remain missing, with search and rescue efforts under way in both Myanmar and neighbouring Thailand.

The death toll has risen to 18 people in the Thai capital, Bangkok, where 76 workers are still missing following the collapse of a high-rise building that had been under construction.

Friday’s earthquake occurred near Myanmar’s second-largest city Mandalay, along the Sagaing fault – with tremors affecting several other nations.

Although rescue efforts have been under way since Friday, and international aid is starting to reach Myanamar, there have been delays in reaching the worst-hit areas, leaving locals to attempt to dig survivors out by hand.

On Saturday night, an elderly woman was rescued in Myanmar’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw, after being trapped for 36 hours under the rubble of a hospital.

Footage showed her being carried on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance, surrounded by emergency workers.

Twenty-nine people were also rescued from a collapsed apartment block in Mandalay, the local fire authority said on Sunday.

The earthquake struck around 12:50 local time (06:20 GMT) on Friday, just 10km (6.2 miles) from the surface – meaning its effects at ground level were felt more strongly than a deeper quake.

A second earthquake struck 12 minutes later, with a magnitude of 6.4 and an epicentre 18km (11 miles) south of Sagaing, the regional capital, which sits near Mandalay.

Aftershocks have continued since. On Sunday a magnitude-5.1 tremor was recorded north-west of Mandalay.

In Bangkok, where soft soil made the shaking more intense, an unfinished tower block collapsed, burying many who had been working at the site.

Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Sunday that rescuers had detected signs of life under the rubble at the site, but cautioned that they were weak.

“Anomalies” have been found in the steel used in the building’s construction, and samples have been collected for testing, Thailand’s Industry Minister Akanat Promphan told the media on Sunday.

Families have been anxiously waiting for updates. One woman in Thailand, whose husband was working on the tower when it collapsed, told the BBC she would wait “for as long as it takes”.

International rescue teams have been joining the disaster effort, with several countries sending assistance to Myanmar. These include:

• China sending an 82-person rescue team
• A 51-strong team arriving from Hong Kong on Sunday
• India sending an aid flight carrying a rescue team and emergency supplies
• Malaysia’s foreign ministry saying it would send a 50-person team to support disaster relief operations
• The Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Ireland, South Korea, Russia, New Zealand and the US are also sending rescue teams
• UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy pledging £10m in aid to help “those most in need”

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s ruling military junta has continued bombing parts of the civil war-gripped country. The UN described the attacks as “completely outrageous and unacceptable”.

Pro-democracy rebel groups that are fighting to remove the military from power have reported aerial bombings in the Chaung-U township in the Sagaing region.

The military regime seized power in a coup in 2021, but it no longer controls many parts of the country, which are divided among rebel groups.

The National Unity Government, which represents the ousted civilian administration, said that its armed forces would begin a two-week pause in “offensive military operations, except for defensive actions” in areas affected by the earthquake from Sunday.

People in Myanmar could face further displacement when the monsoon season arrives.

Last year there was “severe flooding which damaged homes [and] sanitation facilities”, Lauren Ellery, of the International Rescue Committee, told BBC Breakfast.

“We are coming into monsoon season again in May, with rain starting in April,” she said.

France’s Marine Le Pen faces a make-or-break moment on Monday, as a judge rules on whether she should be banned from the next presidential election.

The hard-right leader, who is ahead of all her rivals in the 2027 race, will be in court at 10:00 local time (09:00 BST) for the verdict of a party-funding trial targeting her National Rally (RN) party.

At the trial’s conclusion in November, the state prosecutor demanded guilty verdicts for Le Pen and 24 others accused of using EU parliamentary money to pay party salaries.

But to general surprise the prosecutor also said that Le Pen’s punishment should be not just a €300,000 (£250,000) fine and prison term, but also ineligibility from running for public office for five years.

Crucially, he said the ineligibility should kick in straightaway – and not be suspended pending the appeal that Marine Le Pen is expected to file if convicted.

The three judges are not obliged to follow the prosecutor’s recommendations.

But if they do, it would mean Le Pen, who is 56, being barred from standing in a presidential election in which she is tipped as a potential winner.

“It’s my political death they are after,” she said in November.

Many French commentators – and not only those who support Le Pen – have warned of grave consequences for democracy if the judiciary is seen as interfering in the choice of the country’s leader.

“The justice system has the fate of Marine Le Pen in its hands… For her to be convicted for any wrong-doing is perfectly normal. But stopping her from running in the presidential [election] – that’s another matter entirely,” wrote veteran analyst Franz-Olivier Giesbert in the centre-right Le Point magazine.

“Is it not hazardous – not to say perilous – to give to judges the task of determining whether this or that candidate has the capacity to run for office?” said Bruno Jeudi, editor of La Tribune Dimanche newspaper on Sunday.

Marine Le Pen told the same newspaper: “Personally I’m not nervous. But I can see why people think I might be. The judges have the power of life or death over the movement. But I don’t think they will go so far as to do it.”

Various scenarios for the verdict are under scrutiny.

First, Le Pen could be cleared of blame in the EU parliamentary money affair. This is widely seen as unlikely.

Second, the judges could convict her but make the ineligibility not automatic. In that case, she would immediately appeal and the ineligibility would not apply until after a second trial (and conceivably a third to the high court of appeal).

That would leave her free to run in 2027, though with the handicap of a conviction for misuse of public money. However it is far from clear that a conviction would do her cause much damage, given the series of party funding scandals that have affected all French parties over the years.

Third, the judges could follow the prosecutor and order automatic ineligibility. In this case she would appeal, and the other parts of the sentence (fine and prison) would be suspended. However she would be unable to run in 2027.

Fourth, the court could give her a shorter term of automatic ineligibility – say one year – making it theoretically possible for her to run.

2027 would be Marine Le Pen’s fourth presidential race, and the one offering the greatest chance of victory.

A poll in the right-wing newspaper JDD Sunday gave her between 34-37% of the first round vote, well ahead of any of her possible rivals.

In the last two presidentials, she fell foul of the two-round system which allowed opponents of left, centre and right to rally behind a single candidate – Emmanuel Macron – to keep her from power.

But years of “detoxification” after she eclipsed her father Jean-Marie Le Pen at the head of the party have made the anti-RN vote far less cohesive than it used to be, while victories for the hard-right in other countries have helped lift the taboo of an RN government.

If Le Pen is barred from running, her logical replacement would be Jordan Bardella, the 29-year-old party president who was being groomed to be her eventual prime minister.

However party insiders admit there has been little internal preparation for what would be widely seen as a huge and destabilising political earthquake.

One result of Le Pen being declared unable to run in 2027 could be to weaken still further the minority French government of Prime Minister François Bayrou. With 120 members in the National Assembly, the RN has the power to vote with the left in a vote of no-confidence to bring the government down.

Until now, Marine Le Pen has held back her troops. She might feel less inclined to, if she feels she has been the victim of an establishment stitch-up.

An Anglican church in Dublin has been unable to reopen a historic crypt to the public since the remains of mummified bodies were damaged in an arson attack.

One of the damaged mummified bodies in St Michan’s Church of Ireland is that of a man, known as the Crusader, who died about 800 hundred years ago.

A 39-year-old man, Cristian Topiter, who had an address at Grand Canal House, Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6, was jailed for six years last month.

He had pleaded guilty to the 2024 arson attack which the church described as “an act of desecration and sacrilege”.

More than nine months after the attack last June, the crypt remains out of bounds to visitors and tourists.

The main entrance gates to the grounds of St Michan’s Church are closed and locked.

Inside the grounds, a heavy steel lid and a steel gate leading the crypt are also locked.

The church facilitated a visit to the site by BBC News NI.

“As a parish, as the vicar of the parish and as parishioners, we’re custodians of the whole church,” said Archdeacon David Pierpoint.

“Not just above the church, but what’s below the church, and it’s a rather heavy burden to bear.”

Speaking about the damage to the estimated 800-year-old remains of the Crusader.

He explained: “All his body has been charred, spine, his hands, one of his legs is completely missing, and there’s a huge amount of damage done to him.”

The vicar of St Michan’s said the damage caused to the remains of the Crusader and the remains of another man, who is believed to have been buried alive about 400 years ago, is “irreparable”.

The closure of the church for most of the past year has caused a significant drop in parish income because the church has had no option but to stop tour groups from visiting until the remains have been removed.

Thousands of people usually visit the church each year.

Archdeacon Pierpoint is hopeful the groups can return soon once permission is granted by the diocesan authorities and Dublin City Council for reinternment.

The vicar of St Michan’s says it’s important to reopen the crypts as soon as possible to ensure the church has sufficient funds to maintain the centuriesold church-

But, he said, it’s also important to allow visitors from home and abroad “to see the phenomenon of what this actually is”.

Most of the present St Michan’s building dates from the 17th Century, except for the 12th Century tower.

The arson attack last summer was one of several incidents in recent years during which the church and crypt were targeted.

In 2019, vandals broke in and decapitated the Crusader.

The skull was later recovered and reattached with the help of the nearby National Museum of Ireland, according to Archdeacon Pierpoint.

The crypt was also damaged during another break in, also in 2019, and the church said at the time that several mummified remains – including the 400-year-old remains of a nun – were desecrated.

The Church of Ireland crypts are also the resting place of Barristers Henry and John Sheares, two brothers who were leaders of the United Irishmen during the 1798 Rebellion.

The site includes a copy of their execution order issued by the English authorities in Ireland at the time.

All the mummified remains in the various crypts, apart from the Crusader are of people who died between 400 and 450 years ago, according to the Church.

Despite the current restricted access to the church grounds, St Michan’s remains open for worship every Sunday.

The first church on the site is believed to have been established in 1095, but the current church dates back to the 1680s with further renovations taking place between 1723 and 1725, in 1767 and in 1825.

It was restored in 1998.

The remains of many of Dublin’s most influential 17th, 18th and 19th Century families are also entombed in St Michan’s.

The limestone walls of the crypts and atmosphere within them is believed to have helped preserve the remains.

The church’s organ is housed within the case of an organ case constructed by John Baptiste Cuvillie around 1725.