Thirteen people have been found dead after a gas explosion in a Chinese coal mine and the status is unknown of 20 others still trapped, according to state media.
Rescuers worked through the night at the privately owned Jinshangou mine in the Chongqing region where the explosion occurred before Monday noon, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Two miners escaped earlier. Xinhua previously reported 15 deaths in the explosion, but Chongqing's Deputy Mayor Ma Huaping lowered the death toll early on Tuesday, saying only 13 bodies had been found so far.
Local officials did not answer telephone calls from the Associated Press news agency, and a person who answered the phone at the mine hung up when asked about the blast.
"We are still working all-out to search for the 20 missing miners, and will exert our utmost as long as there's still a ray of hope," Ma said, according to Xinhua.
Xinhua reported that the 400 workers trying to rescue more miners were being hindered by debris blocking some of the mine's passageways.
Gas explosions inside mines are often caused when a flame or electrical spark ignites gas leaking from the coal seam. Ventilation systems are supposed to prevent gas from becoming trapped.
The UK will defend itself in cyberspace and "strike back" against those who try to harm the country, Chancellor Philip Hammond will say today as he announces a new national cyber security strategy.
The strategy, running from 2016 to 2021, will be supported by a £1.9bn investment made in last year's Defence and Security Review. The amount is more than double the period covered by the previous strategy.
Three areas are identified by the strategy: defence, deter and develop.
Defence involves protecting critical national infrastructure in areas such as energy and transport, as well as Government websites, with automated techniques.
A "significant" chunk of the £1.9bn will go to the part of the "deter" strategy that covers "taking the fight to those who threaten Britain in cyberspace and relentlessly pursuing anyone who persists in attacking us".
Defence Minister Michael Fallon recently confirmed that the UK was using cyber weapons as part of the battle for Mosul against Islamic State. But the cyber security strategy goes one step further, promising that the UK will retaliate against cyberattacks.
A Russian group is also thought to be behind an attack which took TV5MONDE, a French TV station, off-air. GCHQ intervened to prevent an attack from the same hacking group in the UK, targeting the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, in 2015.
The "develop" strand of the strategy involves developing talent among students and researchers, as well as researching new cyber security technologies.
Mr Hammond said: "Britain is already an acknowledged global leader in cyber security thanks to our investment of over £860m in the last parliament, but we must now keep up with the scale and pace of threats we face."
In 2015, the Government's National Security Strategy identified cyber security as a 'tier 1' risk to the UK, the same level of risk as terrorism and global instability.
Senior members of the Democratic Party have said FBI director James Comey might have broken the law after he called for a probe into emails potentially tied to presidential candidate Hillary Clinton just days before the US election.
The emails, belonging to Clinton's closest aide, Huma Abedin, came to light during an investigation of her estranged husband, disgraced former New York congressman Anthony Weiner.
The FBI found the emails on computers it seized during an investigation into lewd messages Weiner is accused of sending to an underaged girl.
Nevada Democrat Harry Reid wrote a stinging letter to Comey on Sunday suggesting he may have broken the Hatch Act by informing Congress of the new emails. The Hatch Act prohibits FBI staff from using their position to influence an election.
"Your actions in recent months have demonstrated a disturbing double standard... with what appears to be a clear intent to aid one political party over another," Reid said, adding that through Comey's "partisan actions, you may have broken the law."
Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, called Comey's actions "extremely puzzling," while John Podesta, Clinton's campaign manager, said the FBI should have investigated the new trove of emails before announcing the review.
"To throw this in the middle of a campaign 11 days out just seems to break with precedent and be inappropriate at this stage," Podesta told CNN's "State of the Union" show.
The FBI had said in July that its investigation into Clinton's email practices had concluded with a recommendation of no criminal charges in the matter.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama said he did not believe Comey was secretly trying to influence the election outcome, the White House said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest also said he had no "independent knowledge" of how Comey had arrived at his decision to make public the FBI email investigation or "what factors were considered" in his decision to discuss the issue publicly.
However, Michael Hayden, a former director at the CIA, said Clinton bore responsibility for having used a private email server when serving as US secretary of state.
"The original email set-up was the sin," he told Al Jazeera. "Anyone with government experience views that email arrangement to be frankly inconceivable and all the subsequent explanations of it to be incoherent. Now we're here in this dark place."
Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said Comey's announcement was likely to improve Trump's standing in the election.
"This might encourage Trump supporters who had been thinking about staying home because they thought the race was lost. Following this announcement they might now go out and vote," she said.
Within minutes of Comey's announcement on Friday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump used Comey's letter to attack Clinton on the campaign trail.
He said the political system "might not be as rigged as I thought" now that the FBI has decided to investigate new emails found.
At a rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, Trump praised the FBI, saying: "I think they are going to right the ship, folks."
That is a new tune for Trump, who has repeatedly complained that the Washington establishment has rigged the political system against him.
In an average of national polls, Clinton is leading Trump at 48.0 to 44.9 percent.
The vast majority of convicted terrorists jailed over the past 15 years are now back on Britain's streets, a Sky News investigation has discovered.
Around three-quarters of the 583 people imprisoned on terror charges in the years since the 9/11 attacks have now served their sentences and been released from UK prisons, many still holding the same extremist beliefs that got them jailed in the first place.
Sky News has been told that around two-thirds of those released refused to engage with prison deradicalisation programmes aimed at addressing their extremist behaviour.
Image Caption:Armed police in central London. File picture
It comes as MI5's director general said today that police and intelligence services had foiled 12 terror plots since June 2013
The release of 418 terror prisoners, many from the al Qaeda generation of offenders, is posing an increasingly difficult challenge for police and the security services, which are already stretched to the limit dealing with the threat from Islamic State-related terrorism.
Among those released in recent years are three men who helped the four London suicide bombers plan the 7/7 attacks in 2005.
Image Caption:The 7/7 attacks in London killed 52 people
Seven men who formed part of the wider circle around the failed 21/7 plot two weeks after the London bombings are also free.
As are five people who plotted a dirty bomb attack in the capital in 2004.
Lord David Blunkett, who oversaw many of those terrorist convictions, said there now had to be a more robust programme to properly monitor those who were back in the community.
He told Sky News: "It's perfectly reasonable to say that once someone's served their sentence, if it isn't possible to reassess them, we should continue to monitor them outside prison.
"So, if there's any indication at all that they are reconnecting with organised terrorist groups, the intervention can take place very quickly rather than allowing them to commit another act and then having to try to pick them up again."
Omar Khyam, who led a plot to detonate huge fertiliser bombs at a Kent shopping centre and a nightclub, is among the two-thirds of terrorist prisoners who refused to engage with efforts to address their extremist behaviour.
As is Abdullah Ahmed Ali, the lead plotter in a terror cell which planned to blow up transatlantic airliners with liquid bombs.
Image Caption:Lord Blunkett was Home Secretary at the time of the 9/11 attacks
Our research reveals that 164 convicted terrorists have been released from jail in the last two years alone.
During that period, 104 were freed after serving sentences of between 12 months and four years, the range of sentence normally handed down to those supporting and encouraging terror groups or plots.
Some 24 were released from prison having served more than four years - and are likely to have played more of a part in terrorist planning.
Three were released in the last couple of years after serving life sentences for terror offences.
Hanif Qadir, a former jihadi who now runs a counter-extremism outreach programme said the prison deradicalisation scheme is "failing miserably".
He said: "There are experts out there that are equipped and able to tackle the problem but they are not the ones that are doing it in prison.
"At the moment the prison imams, God bless them, they're not adequate and they're not experienced enough to tackle the problem of radicalisation within prisons."
Image Caption:Five people who plotted a dirty bomb attack in London are free
Some of those who refused to co-operate with prison deradicalisation programmes have already gone on to reoffend.
Nabeel Hussain was jailed for his part in the 2006 liquid bomb plot. He was released from an eight year sentence, but is back in jail after he was caught trying to travel to Syria to join IS.
Abu Bakr Mansha, imprisoned in 2005 for a plot to murder a British soldier who had served in the Iraq war, was also freed. But he was locked up again for assaulting a group of youngsters in a religiously motivated attack.
Another man, Mizanur Rahman, was jailed originally for his support of a banned extremist organisation. He was released but then jailed again in September 2016, along with Anjem Choudary, on charges they invited support for IS.
Richard Walton, the former head of Scotland Yard's counter terror command, said that "very few" of those convicted of IS-related terrorism had reformed.
He told Sky News: "It's almost as if this particular version of Islam is so potent that once somebody is brainwashed with this ideology it almost feels like it is irreversible and there are very few examples from around the world where somebody has rejected IS ideology having subscribed to it before."
Many other terror prisoners are due for release in the UK over next few years.
There is understandable concern that a significant proportion continues to resist attempts to reform and may still be committed to violent extremism.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused Nigerian officials of sexually exploiting women and girls living in camps for victims of Boko Haram in the war-torn northeast.
HRW said in a report published on Monday that it documented 43 cases of women and girls in seven internally displaced persons' camps in Maiduguri, the epicentre of a seven-year battle with Boko Haram, who had been abused by camp leaders, policemen and soldiers.
"It is bad enough that these women and girls are not getting much-needed support for the horrific trauma they suffered at the hands of Boko Haram," said Mausi Segun, senior Nigeria researcher at HRW.
"It is disgraceful and outrageous that people who should protect these women and girls are attacking and abusing them," she added.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said in a statement that he was "worried and shocked" by the report and directed police to "immediately commence investigations into the issue".
"The welfare of these most vulnerable of Nigerian citizens has been a priority of his government," presidency spokesman Garba Shehu said, adding that the allegations raised by the HRW "are not being taken lightly".
Michael Douglas has told a London audience that his close friend and former co-star Val Kilmer has cancer.
The 72-year old actor was discussing working with Kilmer on the 1996 movie The Ghost And The Darkness when he said that "things don't look too good for him".
Douglas, famous for his iconic portrayal of fictitious Walls Street magnate Gordon Gecko, was diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2010.
Image Caption:Kilmer has denied several rumours he was suffering from cancer
"Val is a wonderful guy who is dealing with exactly what I had," he told the audience at London's Drury Lane Theatre on Sunday.
Actor Val Kilmer denied rumours earlier this year that he was battling with cancer.
On his Facebook page in February, Kilmer thanked fans for their support, but said he did not have a tumour.
This was taken last Friday when I was released from the hospital and on my way home. FREEDOM!!!! pic.twitter.com/VH5j4kOCvR
"I had a complication where the best way to receive care was to stay under the watchful eye of the UCLA ICU," Kilmer wrote, referring to the intensive care unit of the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Centre.
The actor, who has disclosed in previous interviews that he is a member of the Church of Scientology, also said in the message he was assisted by friends who know his "spiritual convictions" and have helped minimise what he called "gossip and silly talk".
The Batman Forever star later revealed he did have a tumour, but "was healed in a matter of days" last year.
Image Caption:Val Kilmer and rapper 50 Cent at the 2009 American Music Awards
A representative for Kilmer has not yet responded to Douglas' comments.
During the An Evening With Michael Douglas event, the actor also spoke about the difference between making films in the 1970s and "the quality of the work going on in television now."
"Streaming services like Netflix or HBO.. they're a real opportunity to do good work," he said.
Michael Douglas has told a London audience that his close friend and former co-star Val Kilmer has cancer.
The 72-year old actor was discussing working with Kilmer on the 1996 movie The Ghost And The Darkness when he said that "things don't look too good for him".
Douglas, famous for his iconic portrayal of fictitious Walls Street magnate Gordon Gecko, was diagnosed with tongue cancer in 2010.
Image Caption:Kilmer has denied several rumours he was suffering from cancer
"Val is a wonderful guy who is dealing with exactly what I had," he told the audience at London's Drury Lane Theatre on Sunday.
Actor Val Kilmer denied rumours earlier this year that he was battling with cancer.
On his Facebook page in February, Kilmer thanked fans for their support, but said he did not have a tumour.
This was taken last Friday when I was released from the hospital and on my way home. FREEDOM!!!! pic.twitter.com/VH5j4kOCvR
"I had a complication where the best way to receive care was to stay under the watchful eye of the UCLA ICU," Kilmer wrote, referring to the intensive care unit of the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Centre.
The actor, who has disclosed in previous interviews that he is a member of the Church of Scientology, also said in the message he was assisted by friends who know his "spiritual convictions" and have helped minimise what he called "gossip and silly talk".
The Batman Forever star later revealed he did have a tumour, but "was healed in a matter of days" last year.
Image Caption:Val Kilmer and rapper 50 Cent at the 2009 American Music Awards
A representative for Kilmer has not yet responded to Douglas' comments.
During the An Evening With Michael Douglas event, the actor also spoke about the difference between making films in the 1970s and "the quality of the work going on in television now."
"Streaming services like Netflix or HBO.. they're a real opportunity to do good work," he said.
