Four Chinese miners rescued after 36 days underground

Four miners have been rescued after 36 days trapped underground in a collapsed mine in China.

The gypsum mine in east China’s Shandong province collapsed on Christmas Day, killing one and leaving 17 missing. In the days that followed, rescuers detected four men 200 metres (660ft) below the surface.

The state broadcaster CCTV showed a miner being pulled out, surrounded by cheering rescuers in helmets and news crews. Medical staff rushed another miner along hospital corridors on a stretcher with his eyes covered.

Rescuers brought out the workers through two access tunnels they had drilled, and the first miner was pulled out in a capsule, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The collapse on 25 December was so violent it registered as a seismic event. Five days later, infrared cameras detected the four miners, weak with hunger, waving their hands. The miners told rescuers they were in underground passages that were intact, and rescuers began slowly drilling a route to save them. They sent food and clothes to the men through four small tunnels they drilled.

Eleven other people in the mine at the time of the collapse made it to safety or were rescued earlier.

Two days after the collapse, the owner of the mine, Ma Congbo, jumped into a well and drowned in an apparent suicide. Four officials in Pingyi county, where the mine is located, have been fired.

In 2010, 33 miners in Chile were rescued after being trapped for 69 days underground, including more than two weeks when no one knew whether they were alive.

China’s mines have long been the world’s deadliest, but safety improvements have reduced the death toll in recent years.

Zika in Texas? 'We have the perfect storm to allow virus to flourish'

Dr Peter Hotez gestured at three tyres dumped on the weed-ravaged, litter-strewn roadside by a boarded-up house on Worms Street.

To Hotez they were more than an eyesore – they signified a potential health hazard, the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes that could spread the Zika virus.

The World Health Organisation has warned that the virus is spreading “explosively” through the Americas, with one estimate that there could be as many as 4m infections across the continent over the next year.

At a special briefing in Geneva on Thursday, Margaret Chan, the WHO director general warned it was a threat of “alarming proportions”. Hotez, an eminent scientist and researcher who is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, agrees. “I’m quite convinced it’s going to be all over the Caribbean within the next few weeks. And then, where’s next?” he said. “Where we’re standing here in the Gulf Coast … Pretty much all of the Gulf Coast cities are vulnerable but Houston is the largest.”

It is less than 15 minutes’ drive from Hotez’s office in the world’s biggest medical complex to the Fifth Ward, a historic, mostly African American quarter just north-east of downtown Houston.

When he hears experts assert that Zika is unlikely to spread significantly in the US, his response is: go to the Fifth Ward and look around.

Broken window screens lie discarded a few feet away from the tyres. A block away, more tyres, a sofa, armchairs, drawers and a colorful variety of other household waste were piled in the street.

Hopes for peace in Syria look slim ahead of UN-brokered talks

Barring any last-minute delay, UN-brokered talks on Syria are due to get under way in Geneva – the third time the Swiss city has played host to diplomatic efforts to end the war and tackle the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. But prospects for a breakthrough are probably even slimmer than on the previous two attempts.

Staffan de Mistura, the UN envoy, cannot even be sure who will attend on Friday – and when. The Syrian opposition announced on Thursday night that its officials would not be coming until they received guarantees of an end to government airstrikes and sieges. Bashar al-Assad’s representatives are expected at the Palais des Nations, though they may not meet their enemies.

“We are serious about taking part ... but what is hindering the start of negotiations is the one who is bombing civilians and starving them,” declared Salem al-Muslet, the spokesman for opposition negotiators who were meeting in the Saudi capital of Riyadh.

Happy hour and drinks are still flowing in the Gambia, the newest Islamic state

It may be the world’s newest Islamic state, but on the Gambia’s beaches it was business as usual. Dreadlocked, muscular young men offered their company to middle-aged female tourists, the sweet scent of marijuana hung on the ocean breeze, bars advertised happy hour cocktails, and bared breasts turned pink in near-equatorial sunshine.

Few of those escaping the cold and damp of a northern European winter appeared to be aware of President Yahya Jammeh’s surprise proclamation last month that the tiny African country he has ruled with an iron grip for more than 20 yearswould henceforth be known as the Islamic Republic of the Gambia.

“Really?” said Linda, 49, with a hoot of disbelieving laughter. Turning to her holiday companion outside Solomon’s beach cafe, she added: “It doesn’t seem at all Islamic, does it, Chrissie? Quick, we’d better get another beer in before they close all the bars.”

Bears get a handle on opening car doors – but could it be their downfall?

William Hefner was on his honeymoon with his new wife Sara, driving back to their rented condo in the mountains above Gatlinberg, Tennessee, when he first saw the bear. At first, he said, he thought it was a huge dog nosing around. They followed it in the car; Hefner started videoing.

As he watched in amazement, the bear reared onto its hind legs, niftily pulled the handle of a parked car, and opened the door. “He walked up to the car and opened it like he owned it – hopped right in,” Hefner said. “He seemed like he knew what he was doing … It was a shock, it was hard to believe. But after your nerves calm down and you realise the animal isn’t gonna maul you, it was kinda neat, kinda cool to see that.”

Hefner is not alone. A quick search YouTube reveals dozens of such encounters caught on camera. Katie Baker, who lives in Turkey, California, a little way from Lake Tahoe, said a bear managed to open the rear door of her Toyota Rav4 and climb inside to eat the entirety of a 30lb bag of dog food that had been left in the car overnight. “He had opened the door without scratching it, there wasn’t even a mark,” she said.

Dolce & Gabbana fashion range celebrates same-sex families

The Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana appear to be trying to make amends for derogatory remarks they made last year about same-sex couples who have children with the release of a line of handbags and T-shirts celebrating gay and diverse families.

Gabbana’s Instagram account carried photographs of the new line, including a black handbag depicting two fathers and three children. Another photograph showed models wearing T-shirts with similar images, including of families with two mothers. The label used the hashtag #dgfamily.

The Dolce & Gabbana website is selling a T-shirt for €395 (£300) featuring an image of the two designers and their menagerie of pets with the #dgfamily hashtag.

It was a starkly different message than one that landed the pair – who used to be a couple – in hot water last year. In an interview in March with the Italian magazine Panorama, Dolce made inflammatory remarks about gay families, saying he was not convinced by what he called “synthetic children” and “wombs for hire”.

“We oppose gay adoptions,” Dolce said in the interview. “The only family is the traditional one.” He went on to describe children born through IVF as “children of chemistry, synthetic children. Rented uterus, semen chosen from a catalogue.”

The comments infuriated Elton John, who has two children born with the help of IVF and a surrogate. After initially calling for a boycott of the designers, John later said he forgave them after Dolce apologised.

“I’ve done some soul searching. I’ve talked to Stefano a lot about this … They are just kids,” Dolce told Vogue in August.

Photos of the new line were released days before Italian politicians are expected to vote on a proposal that would recognise same-sex civil unions and – in some cases – extend parental rights to couples in a same-sex union.

Angela Merkel outlines new rules on refugees in Germany

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, announces new measures on Thursday to tighten the rules around refugees and migration into Germany. Merkel proposes that refugees’ families would be prevented from joining them in Germany for two years. Merkel says she hopes refugees in Germany integrate with society