A Russian fighter jet has crashed after taking off from an aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean.
Russia's Defence Ministry said the fighter jet was a MiG-29 based on the Admiral Kuznetsov, which is currently near Syria.
The jet crashed due to a technical problem, according to the ministry, which said the pilot had ejected safely and was picked up by a rescue team. It also reported that the plane has been recovered.
The Admiral Kuznetsov arrived off the coast of Syria a week ago after sailing down past the east coast of England and through the Strait of Gibraltar. It was tracked en route by NATO warships.
Image Caption:The Admiral Kuznetsov off the coast of northern Norway in October
Defence analysts warned of a potential crash because the jets on board were not carrying out enough flying missions as they made their way to the eastern Mediterranean.
The Kuznetsov rarely leaves port so the pilots would be inexperienced taking off and landing on a carrier - one of the trickiest and most dangerous flying manoeuvres.
Moscow insisted flying operations would continue and the remaining jets on board would carry out missions over Syria, although the predicted, fierce assault of Aleppo has not started.
A Russian fighter jet has crashed after taking off from an aircraft carrier in the eastern Mediterranean.
Russia's Defence Ministry said the fighter jet was a MiG-29 based on the Admiral Kuznetsov, which is currently near Syria.
The jet crashed due to a technical problem, according to the ministry, which said the pilot had ejected safely and was picked up by a rescue team. It also reported that the plane has been recovered.
The Admiral Kuznetsov arrived off the coast of Syria a week ago after sailing down past the east coast of England and through the Strait of Gibraltar. It was tracked en route by NATO warships.
Image Caption:The Admiral Kuznetsov off the coast of northern Norway in October
Defence analysts warned of a potential crash because the jets on board were not carrying out enough flying missions as they made their way to the eastern Mediterranean.
The Kuznetsov rarely leaves port so the pilots would be inexperienced taking off and landing on a carrier - one of the trickiest and most dangerous flying manoeuvres.
Moscow insisted flying operations would continue and the remaining jets on board would carry out missions over Syria, although the predicted, fierce assault of Aleppo has not started.
Barack Obama says he "absolutely" has concerns about a Donald Trump presidency, in his first news conference since the US election.
And he advised Mr Trump to change some aspects of his behaviour.
"I think what will happen with the President-elect is that there are going to be certain elements of his temperament that will not serve him well unless he recognises them and corrects them," he said.
During their face to face meeting on Thursday, he said he offered Mr Trump "honest advice" and highlighted the importance of finding trusted aides for the White House.
"We had a very cordial conversation," he said. "Do I have concerns? Absolutely."
Mr Obama told Mr Trump he must reach out to voters who did not support him.
He told journalists he thinks Mr Trump will try to "send some signals of unity" to people who were alienated by what was a ferocious campaign.
And he urged the President-elect "to reach out to minority groups or women or others that were concerned about the tenor of the campaign".
Mr Obama said the job of President was a big challenge, and the Presidency was bigger than one person.
But he promised that he and his team will do all they can to help make the transition peaceful and smooth.
Mr Trump needed to be given the "rope and space" for a "reset", he said, reflecting on his own arrival in the White House during the economic crisis.
He said Mr Trump will have more "time and space" than he had to make "judicious decisions".
Mr Obama said that immigration was good for the American economy if it was orderly and lawful, and he would urge Mr Trump to think "long and hard" before he cracks down on young undocumented immigrants.
Following Hillary Clinton's defeat, Mr Obama said Democrats must accept the result, compete everywhere and show up everywhere.
He is about to leave for his last foreign trip, a week-long tour to Greece, Germany and Peru.
Mr Obama said he would be reassuring America's allies that Mr Trump supports NATO, despite comments made during the campaign that he wanted other countries to pay more towards it.
Meanwhile, there have been more protests against Mr Trump's election victory.
Six days after the vote, high school students walked out of class to stage protests in several US cities, including Los Angeles, Denver, Portland and Oakland.
Mr Trump accused some of being "professional protesters", but during an interview for 60 Minutes he said they were afraid because they did not know him.
The residents of the Iraqi town of Bashiqa - who number around 100,000 - were evacuated two years ago before the men of so-called Islamic State rolled in.
As a consequence, they relinquished control of everything they could not carry with them - like their homes and businesses and many of the things contained within.
In the hands of IS militants, entire neighbourhoods were converted into urban fortresses.
Shops and businesses were looted and church buildings, belonging to the region's Assyrian Orthodox community were turned into bomb-making factories.
Such activities were revealed after Kurdish fighters - called the Peshmerga - took control of the area this week.
The man in charge of the operation, General Bahram Arif Yasin, says 100 members of Islamic State have been killed.
But members of his 7th division continue to find militants hidden in houses, sheds and tunnels burrowed underground.
We got a chance to see one of these tunnels when a Peshmerga unit took us to a middle-class neighbourhood on the outskirts of town.
The homes on several streets have been adapted for combat - we saw a food pantry that had been used as an armoury with racks for machine guns, rocket-launchers and ammunition.
There were holes in garden walls for snipers and a living room kitted out as a medical clinic.
Curiously, we viewed a number of rooms full of dirt, excavated from a tunnel linking houses on opposite sides of the street.
Image Caption:IS rockets have also been discovered
This dank and claustrophobic space was far more than a mere passageway.
Coalition aircraft dominate the sky in and around Bashiqa and they have used overwhelming firepower to destroy dozens of buildings.
IS have improvised by moving underground - I saw a series of rooms where they worked, read, slept and prayed.
Earth from this complex was piled up inside for fear of giving away the location of their tunnel.
It was terribly ramshackle - soft earthen walls with a few wooden beams to hold it up - although they'd deployed woollen blankets and some plywood sheets as decoration.
More importantly, living and fighting below the surface did not seem to keep them alive.
Image Caption:A notebook containing information about insurgent weapons
My Peshmerga guide told me they knew there was an IS unit camped out here when they advanced on this position a few days ago.
"We came through (one) opening and they escaped out the other end. We went after them through the holes they had made in the houses.
"We caught them - there were five and we killed them."
With that he smacked his hands, grabbed his rifle and told me this gloomy tunnel would soon be no more.
MPs will today debate whether attacks on police dogs and horses should be punished as severely as assaults on officers.
It follows an attack on a German Shepherd police dog called Finn who almost died after he was stabbed in the head and chest while trying to catch a suspected robber.
Finn's handler, PC Dave Wardell, was stabbed in the hand during the attack in Stevenage in October.
PC Wardell's injuries amount to actual bodily harm in law, but Finn's wounds, which required a four-hour operation, are classed as criminal damage, a less serious offence.
More than 120,000 people have signed an online 'Finn's Law' petition, meaning it must be debated in parliament.
Another police dog was also badly injured after an incident in Swindon.
A man who had been holed up in a flat came out and attacked PC Neil Sampson but his German Shepherd police dog Anya managed to fight him off.
Mr Sampson, now retired, said the man came at him with the knife. He said: "I shouted at him to drop the knife and that I was a police dog handler. He kept coming so I set the dog.
"Some time during that she got stabbed in the chest. I was stabbed seven times, it was quite horrendous really. I am lucky to be alive.
"I've no doubt that she saved my life, and if it wasn't for her other police officers would have been injured."
The man was jailed for nine years after pleading guilty to two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent, but prosecutors were not originally going to bring any charges for the attack on Anya.
Mr Sampson insisted that they did and said: "This is happening to dogs or horses all over the country and there is no recognition.
"It was only when I said they have got to put the charge on there that they did."
Anya recovered and picked up a PDSA gold medal for her bravery
Hertfordshire police and crime commissioner David Lloyd told Sky News that the punishment for attacks on police dogs needed to reflect the seriousness of the crime.
"While I'm not calling for parity with the punishment given for killing a person, I think we have to show that attacks on police dogs will be punished."
Responding to the petition, the Government said attacks on police animals could already be punished with 10 years' imprisonment and that a change in the law was "unnecessary".
Alton Towers is making up to 70 staff redundant amid cuts following The Smiler rollercoaster crash.
The company confirmed at-risk notices had been sent to affected workers at the theme park, which employs 800 full-time staff and an additional 1,500 seasonal workers.
A spokesman for the park in Staffordshire said the move was "part of Alton Towers' continued recovery", and the cuts would fall across all the park's departments.
The job cuts comes after park operator Merlin Attractions was fined £5m at Stafford Crown Court in September for a "catastrophic failure" of health and safety rules over The Smiler crash in June last year.
Two teenagers - Vicky Balch, then 19, and Leah Washington, then 17 - needed leg amputations when the ride collided at 90mph with an empty carriage, 20ft (6m) above ground.
In court, a judge heard that ride engineers overrode the computer system which had correctly stopped the ride because they believed it was in error, leading to the crash.
Alton Towers said a consultation was underway and the jobs would go before the 2017 season.
The park is currently closed for this season and will reopen in March next year.
Merlin saw a £14m drop in revenue this year as a result of the crash, in which 16 people were injured.
An Alton Towers spokeswoman said: "As part of Alton Towers' continued recovery we have been looking at ways to improve our operating model.
"A detailed review of operations has been undertaken across the business to seek further efficiencies and increase flexibility.
"As a result of this review, Alton Towers Resort can confirm that it expects to make between 60-70 redundancies ahead of the 2017 season.
"Alton Towers will work closely with all those affected in order to support them through the consultation process and any subsequent requirement for alternative employment and job search activities."
Donald Trump has dismayed opponents by appointing the head of Breitbart News as chief strategist of his administration.
Stephen Bannon, who quit as executive chairman of the American news network to help Mr Trump's campaign, will also act as his senior counsel.
Launched in 2007 with the aim of being "unapologetically pro-freedom and pro-Israel", Breitbart News has evolved into a platform for the burgeoning 'alt-right' movement that is vociferously opposed to multiculturalism and political correctness.
Image Caption:Reince Priebus will be White House chief of staff
Former Goldman Sachs banker Mr Bannon holds a Masters in National Security Studies and an MBA from Harvard Business School, and he was an officer in the US Navy before joining Breitbart, where he hosted a radio show on its SiriusXM Patriot channel.
Mr Trump has also recruited the chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, to be his White House chief of staff, signalling a willingness to work with Congress to advance his agenda when he takes office in January.
Mr Priebus is a Republican Party operative with deep expertise of the Washington establishment that Mr Trump has vowed to shake up, and has close links with House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Mr Priebus will play a significant role in policy making and deciding what information makes it to Mr Trump's desk.
His appointment is seen as an olive branch to the Republicans who control both houses of Congress, to help Mr Trump pass the legislative agenda upon which he campaigned.
"I am very grateful to the president-elect for this opportunity to serve him and this nation as we work to create an economy that works for everyone, secure our borders, repeal and replace Obamacare and destroy radical Islamic terrorism," Mr Priebus said.
Commentators expect Mr Trump to consider Republican loyalist Newt Gingrich and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani for the posts of secretary of state and attorney general, while Sarah Palin is also being touted as a candidate for a role in his government.
America's Anti-Defamation League, which campaigns to fight "anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry", condemned Mr Bannon's appointment, describing the alt-right movement supported by Breitbart News as "a loose-knit group of white nationalists, unabashed anti-Semites and racists".
John Weaver, a Republican political consultant who was John Kasich's chief strategist, tweeted: "The racist, fascist extreme right is represented footsteps from the Oval Office. Be very vigilant America."
Former Barack Obama adviser Dan Pfeiffer noted: "Nation exhales because white nationalist only gets second most influential job in White House."
Mr Trump said: "Steve and Reince are highly qualified leaders who worked well together on our campaign and led us to an historic victory.
"Now I will have them both with me in the White House as we work to make America great again."
:: You can see more of Donald Trump's first interview as President-elect later today with special reports on Sky News at 4.30pm and 9.30pm.
