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A week after an apparent Ukrainian attack on a Russian military base in occupied Crimea, an arms store at another military facility has been hit by a series of explosions.
Blaming "sabotage", Russian officials said a fire triggered the blasts in the Dzhankoi area, another fire hit a power station and a railway was damaged.
A string of blasts last week destroyed Russian warplanes at a Black Sea base on the Crimean coast.
Ukraine has not admitted that attack.
However, presidential office adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has described the latest incident as "demilitarisation in action", indicating that the explosions were not accidental.
Crimea was seized from Ukraine and then annexed by Russia in early 2014.
Russia gave no indication of the kind of sabotage involved in Tuesday's attack.
The FSB security service said Ukrainian saboteurs had also blown up six electricity pylons this month inside Russia itself.
The attacks in the Kurchatov area, about 100km (60 miles) from Ukraine's north-east border, had affected the "technological process of functioning" of the Kursk nuclear plant, it added.
However, Rosenergoatom, the operator of the plant, has disputed the FSB account and attributed the lowered output "to a fault at a sub-station outside the territory of the nuclear power plant".
Russia's defence ministry said Tuesday's explosions in northern Crimea took place at a temporary ammunition storage site on a base near the village of Maiske at about 06:15 Moscow time (03:15 GMT). A Crimean Tatar leader, Refat Chubarov, called the explosions a "hit" that could be heard "far across the steppe".
The defence ministry in Moscow said there had been no "serious" casualties, but Russian-appointed regional head Sergei Aksyonov visited the site and said 2,000 people had been moved from a nearby village and two people had been wounded.
"One man has a shrapnel wound and one was crushed by a wall. Their lives are not in danger, fortunately," he said.
The spokesman for Ukraine's Air Force Command, Yuriy Ignat, said the explosions were caused by Russia "not observing fire precautions".
"We are of course satisfied by the fact, because Dzhankoi [where the explosions took place] was one of the locations where the enemy kept their helicopters and other equipment," Mr Ignat told a news conference.
When Russian forces unleashed the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, they used their bases on the annexed Crimean peninsula to capture large swathes of southern Ukraine.
Russian occupation has stretched across two southern regions in particular, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and Ukraine has vowed to launch a counter-offensive to recapture areas under Russian control.
After the Russian air base at Saky was hit last Tuesday, satellite images revealed significant damage, with at least eight warplanes destroyed. Although Russia said that incident was also accidental, there was little doubt the base had come under Ukrainian attack, because of the precise nature of the destruction.
The UK ministry of defence said the blasts had "significantly degraded" the aviation capability of the Russian navy's Black Sea fleet.
Reuters
The latest blasts in northern Crimea are reminiscent of a string of recent attacks behind Russian lines in eastern Ukraine.
Since June, Ukrainian forces have used US Himars multiple rocket launchers to hit as many as 50 arms stores, according to the defence minister. Bridges in the south have also been hit, jeopardising vital supply lines from Crimea to Kherson.
However, Russian media have suggested that drones are more likely to have been used in Crimea than missiles. The Kommersant website reported that a Russian military airbase also came under attack further south in Crimea on Tuesday, at Hvardiiske near Simferopol, possibly from a small drone.
The apparent ability of Ukraine's military to reach so far behind enemy lines is of significant embarrassment to the Russians. The explosions at Saky were visible from nearby beaches, while videos posted afterwards on social media showed streams of tourists leaving Crimea, across a bridge built across the Kerch Strait after the Russian annexation.
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The five men who appeared on Monday were led into court in a breakaway region of Ukraine handcuffed and with black bags over their heads.
According to Russia's Tass news agency, the three men facing a possible death sentence had all been taken in or near the city of Mariupol - the Ukrainian port city captured by Russian forces after months of sustained attack.
They are charged with attempting to "seize power by force" and "taking part in armed conflict as mercenaries".
All five men's cases will continue to be heard in early October, the judge said, according to Russian media reports.
Georgian National Legion
Family and friends of the Britons say they were not mercenaries and have called for them to be treated as prisoners of war in accordance with the Geneva Conventions.
The international treaties protect people who do not take part in fighting, like aid workers, and those who can no longer fight, like prisoners of war, against "acts of violence or intimidation".
Ex-serviceman Mr Harding, originally from Sunderland, had been fighting alongside Ukrainian forces since moving to the country in 2018. In July he appeared in a video appealing to Prime Minister Boris Johnson for help.
Mr Hill has been fighting with Ukraine's International Legion.
Mr Healy, from Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, had been volunteering in Ukraine as an aid worker according to the charity Presidium Network when he was captured at a checkpoint in April, alongside Paul Urey who died in July while being held by Russian-backed separatists.
Dominik Byrne from the charity called for the men to be treated humanely. "Dylan's family are very concerned and worried," he said.
"It's shocking to see them in what is a kangaroo court, which really that has no standing in international law at all.
"They're being treated totally against the Geneva Conventions and in a very hostile way, being transported without knowing where they are, so that's totally unacceptable."
Foreign governments have dismissed the trials as illegitimate, and will not negotiate with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
The Croatian Foreign Ministry said it "dismisses the indictment and does not consider it to be founded and legal".
The UK Foreign Office has previously said it condemned the exploitation of civilian detainees for political purposes.
The same court in June sentenced Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin to death. The Britons were captured while fighting for Ukraine were accused of being mercenaries.
Their families insisted they were long-serving members of the Ukrainian military and not mercenaries.
The UK and Ukraine have condemned the sentences for violating international laws protecting prisoners of war.
William Ruto has been declared the winner of Kenya's presidential election - moments after the main count was interrupted as scuffles broke out.
Mr Ruto is currently the country's deputy president and has beaten opposition leader Raila Odinga to the top job after winning 50.49% of the vote.
"I want to thank God for getting us to this point, I want to thank God that today we have concluded this election, " Mr Ruto said.
"There were predictions that we wouldn't get here, but because there is a God in heaven we are here, and I want to, in a very special way, to say, and to confess, that without God we wouldn't have been here."
Despite being sidelined by the president, he had told voters that the election was between "hustlers" like him from modest backgrounds and the "dynasties" of outgoing president Uhuru Kenyatta and Mr Odinga, whose fathers were Kenya's first president and vice president.
Mr Odinga has sought the presidency for a quarter of a century.
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In his acceptance speech, Mr Ruto also thanked Mr Odinga and emphasised an election that focused on issues and not ethnic divisions, saying that "gratitude goes to millions of Kenyans who refused to be boxed into tribal cocoons".
Image:William Ruto has been declared the winner of Kenya's presidential election
Earlier, chairs were thrown, bottles were smashed and a lectern was knocked over as chaos erupted in the main counting hall in Nairobi.
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Diplomats and international observers were whisked out as supporters of Mr Ruto and Mr Odinga clashed with police.
It descended into chaotic scenes after the deputy chairperson of the election commission, Juliana Cherera, and three other commissioners disowned the results.
"We are not able to take ownership of the results that will be announced," Ms Cherera told reporters before Mr Ruto's victory was revealed.
Amid fears that vote-rigging allegations could lead to outbreaks of violence, Ms Cherera also urged the parties to pursue any disputes through the courts.
The sudden split in the commission came minutes after Mr Odinga's chief agent said they could not verify the results and made allegations of "electoral offences" without giving details or evidence.
Two commissioners and the chief executive of the commission were injured in the scuffles and are receiving treatment.
People had been waiting at the centre for hours following several delays to the election result being announced.
The building was packed with party officials, who were being entertained by musicians calling for calm.
Ruto opponents say 'it is not over til it is over'
Last week, millions of Kenyans exercised their democratic rights and voted for their next round of political leaders.
But today as chairs and tables were flipped and flung across the national tallying centre in Nairobi, hopes of a smooth and successful electoral process were sadly shattered.
Shortly after four electoral commissioners disavowed the final results and labelled the tallying as "opaque", members of Mr Odinga’s Azimio party swung into action inside the centre.
Chairs were thrown, tables flipped and a lectern lifted and dashed from above. All hell broke loose as Azimio loyalists waved their arms in an X sign to a balcony of journalists.
Their rejection of the upcoming announcement was clear - even as anti-riot police cracked down on them.
Force was met with force as dissidents were trampled on and escorted out of the centre to the cheers of Mr Ruto’s UDA party members.
The frenzy gave way to an eerie calm and soon after William Ruto arrived to the cheers of his party and dizzied election observers.
A short ironic prayer on peace and healing introduced the IEBC chairperson Wafula Chebukati, who cut right to the chase.
Protests raged against the result in Mr Odinga’s Nairobi stronghold, Kibera.
In the port city of Kisumu, police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators. Celebrations roared in Mr Ruto’s hometown El-Doret and parts of the capital.
In his acceptance speech, Mr Ruto thanked his “worthy opponent” Mr Odinga and current president Uhuru Kenyatta, who he referred to as his “boss”.
Both men are yet to comment on the outcome.
The response came from Martha Karua, Mr Odinga’s running mate, who was set to become the first female vice president of Kenya.
“It is not over til it is over,” she tweeted.
I asked Mr Ruto about the tweet at a press conference shortly after his declared win.
“How will you respond to a contested election outcome?”
“This election to the best of our knowledge and understanding is over,” he replied.
Sir Salman Rushdie brought a stabbing attack that left him with "life-changing" injuries on himself, Iran has said.
The country's foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday that "Salman Rushdie and his supporters are to blame for what happened to him".
He added: "Freedom of speech does not justify Salman Rushdie's insults upon religion and offence of its sanctities."
Iran has no other information about Rushdie's assailant except what has appeared in media, Mr Kanaani said.
The author, 75, was attacked on stage before a speech in New York state on Friday. He underwent hours of surgery in hospital and was taken off a ventilator on Saturday.
Sir Salman spent nearly a decade in hiding after the publication in 1988 of his work The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider to be blasphemous.
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A fatwa, or religious edict, calling on Muslims to kill him was issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian leader, a year later.
It has been reported that the religious leader had never read Sir Salman's book.
While such edicts can be revoked, Khomeini's successor Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said later in 1989 that the decision about Sir Salman had been fired like a "bullet" that would "one day sooner or later hit the target."
He confirmed that the fatwa was still in effect as recently as 2017.
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1:00
Kathy Hochul condemns the attack on Salman Rushdie which occured as he was due to give a lecture in New York.
Sir Salman in 'critical condition' but off ventilator
Zafar Rushdie said his father remained in a "critical condition" but was taken off a ventilator on Saturday.
"Though his life-changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty and defiant sense of humour remains intact," he said in a statement.
Sir Salman was stabbed about 12 times, including in the face and neck, the Chautauqua County District Attorney's Office said.
One of the wounds in the facial area caused a puncture to his eye. Another, to the abdomen, caused a puncture of the author's liver.
There were also stab wounds to other areas of the abdomen and chest area.
Full statement from Zafar Rushdie
Following the attack on Friday, my father remains in critical condition in hospital receiving extensive ongoing medical treatment.
We are extremely relieved that yesterday he was taken off the ventilator and additional oxygen and he was able to say a few words.
Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humour remains intact.
We are so grateful to all the audience members who bravely leapt to his defence and administered first aid along with the police and doctors who have cared for him and for the outpouring of love and support from around the world.
We ask for continued patience and privacy as the family come together at his bedside to support and help him through this time.
Earlier on Sunday, in an update on his condition, his literary agent, Andrew Wylie, confirmed Sir Salman had been taken off the ventilator, saying: "The road to recovery has begun.
"It will be long; the injuries are severe, but his condition is headed in the right direction."
With his long black hair flowing beneath a traditional cap and over his masked face, a Taliban guard, machine gun in hand, indicated I should follow the doctor.
I realised then we were to have his company for the duration of our stay.
A peculiar development and an unusual experience, but one that was to be dwarfed by what we were about to see in the heart of Afghanistan's biggest and best children's hospital, in the centre of the capital Kabul.
"We have many wards that I need to show you," Muhammad Iqbal, the head of doctors, at the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital said, leading me up a series of stairs.
"The first wards are intensive care and critical care, follow me."
Image:'We have many wards that I need to show you,' Muhammad Iqbal told Sky News
We entered the corridors leading to the wards, groups of women - mothers - immediately covered their faces, moving aside or looking for somewhere to stand out of the way.
I could hear the crying children from down the corridor and as I peered through the windows of the wards, I was taken aback by the sheer number being treated.
The ward wasn't just full, it was bursting. Baby cots designed for one child had two or three squeezed in together.
Doctors and nurses buzzed around the room, checking vital signs and trying to soothe the crying babies.
I've seen such poor medical facilities in 20 years of reporting from Afghanistan, I assumed I couldn't be shocked. In the provinces of the country, basic medical care has been the norm for decades.
It wasn't the condition the children were being kept in, it wasn't really the numbers of children - many desperately ill - it was the fact that this is happening in the very best state hospital in the whole of the country.
Worse still was the testimony of doctor after doctor that they can't keep children with treatable diseases alive because even here they haven't got enough medicine, supplies or equipment to care for their patients properly.
Afghanistan is in the midst of a medical crisis that is worsening by the day, exacerbated by an economy in freefall, the freezing of the country's assets and the drying up of hundreds of millions of dollars of aid that flowed here for two decades, because the Taliban has taken control.
The Indira Gandhi hospital is testament to this.
There are more than 500 patients being treated at this hospital - they've room for 300.
The hospital nearly shut down last winter, but an injection of aid from the International Committee of the Red Cross provided much needed immediate relief and resource - but it's not nearly enough.
Ward after ward is the same, jam-packed with really poorly infants and children.
"Eighty percent of middle-class families used to go to private hospitals for treatment, now they came here, they can't afford to go anywhere else," Dr Muhammad Iqbal told me.
"There's a need for some good drugs you don't purchase from outside a hospital, this is the problem, our people are very poor.
"There's a need for ventilators, we don't have ventilators, CPAP machines, and this is a very [big] need for an ICU."
Image:Dr Salahuddin with the three children, Baheer, Mehrama and Sahar
In one cot, three children, Baheer, Mehrama and Sahar, all have cerebral palsy, along with other medical complications.
"This one is CP, this one is CP, this one is CP… three of them CP, cerebral palsy," their doctor explained pointing at each of their near lifeless bodies.
"It's serious," Dr Salahuddin adds.
Their chances of survival are low - there is no treatment for cerebral palsy available in Afghanistan.
Image:Muslimah, 16, and her brother Mansoor Ahmad
Aziz Ullah struggles to pick his 16-year-old daughter Muslimah up out of her wheelchair and place her next to her brother, who is one.
They looked for help and medical treatment in two other provinces, Zabul and Kandahar, before they came here.
"I'm worried for her," Aziz tells me in a gentle voice.
"The doctors told me the disease recently developed in her, this is my fourth child with this condition."
Like two of his children who have already died, Muslimah and her brother Mansoor Ahmad's chances of survival are already slim.
"The chance of [survival] is too low, I mean 80 percent chance of dying," Dr Sharif Ahmed Azizi explained.
"We can do nothing, no, because we don't have any facilities for these patients.
"For the poor patients we don't have any good resources for the patients, because from one side we have got more patients. I mean the load of patients is too high, from every side of Afghanistan comes the patients here, and the facilities too low."
I asked him how it felt to come to work every day knowing there is little they can do for children like Muslimah.
"Unfortunately, we can do nothing for these patients, for these kinds of patients… there is no other way."
Many of the children being cared for have serious illnesses that could be successfully treated.
Staring from her hospital bed into the distance, with her mother sitting next to her, 12-year-old Amina has cerebral meningitis.
They're struggling to keep her alive. It's not a lack of skill here, it's a lack of resources.
The hospital was spotless - and wherever we looked it was clear that the doctors, nurses and hospital staff were very dedicated.
But without the very basic resources it needs, it's on its knees.
At one point we were separated from Dr Iqbal, I went to see if he had been called to his office. I asked one of the staff if the senior doctor was there. After a few moments, he gestured for me to follow him inside another office.
Inside were two black-turbaned, long bearded men, clearly hardcore Taliban, sitting and talking.
I apologised for intruding and said I was looking for the senior doctor and prepared to make my exit.
"I am a doctor, in fact I am a specialist surgeon, and I am in charge here," one of the men said in perfect English.
"You are welcome."
Never make any assumptions in Afghanistan, I reminded myself.
Image: Dr Muhammad Haseeb Wardak is the hospital's president
Dr Muhammad Haseeb Wardak is the hospital's president.
He agreed to a quick interview, and I asked him if they needed international money to help with the hospital's problems.
"We are calling on the international community to increase their support to us and continue this support," he told me.
"[The United States] should unfreeze our money, this is our hope, our demand."
He added: "This hospital has been here for 50 years, and we want more facilities at the hospital, and we need more staff and equipment, so we can treat patients who come here from all over Afghanistan."
The impasse between the Taliban and the international community over human rights, particularly women's rights, continues to be a major sticking point. And it's at the root of much of the country's problems.
As we walked the corridors of the hospital, a woman grabbed us. She wanted help to buy baby formula for her seven-month-old daughter, Fatima.
Wearing the traditional blue Afghan burqa, she looked straight at me and begged for help.
That is unusual in today's Afghanistan - for a woman to engage so directly with a man, especially one accompanied by an armed Taliban guard, in a public place.
It indicates just how desperate she is.
Malnutrition across Afghanistan is out of control. This hospital has had to expand its malnutrition ward to treat more and more young patients.
Image: Safiya is severely underweight
The worst affected come here from all over the country - if they can make it.
Seven-year-old Safiya has just arrived with her family. They've travelled from Paktia province, around six hours drive from Kabul.
Safiya is severely underweight. Her face is skeletal - she struggles to sit up on the hospital bed.
But for the first time in weeks, the family has hope. Her condition is improving after just one day here.
"I am hopeful," her mother told me. "She is already much better than she was before we arrived."
But for many other parents in the malnutrition ward, there is nothing but despair.
With his mother weeping at his bedside, tiny two-year-old Shereen Khan lies motionless on his side. He has what appeared to be bed sores all over his back, and tubes attached to his nose.
His mother, Gulbashra, a cleaner from Helmand province, is terribly poor.
Choking back tears, she explains her little boy, her only child, got ill four months ago, but she had to leave him at home to go to work.
Shereen deteriorated, and she is keeping a constant vigil at his bedside, hoping he pulls through.
Like so many in Afghanistan, Gulbashra doesn't care who's to blame - she just wants her son to live.
A first victory of the season lifts Forest up to 10th on three points, while back-to-back defeats leave West Ham in 19th.
More drama on Monday?
A thrilling Matchweek isn't over yet, with Liverpool and Crystal Palace both looking to secure their first win of the season when they meet at Anfield on Monday.
Darwin Nunez will be hoping to earn a first Premier League start for the Reds after coming off the bench to produce a goal and an assist in last weekend's 2-2 draw at Fulham.
Antony Blinken has denounced Iranian state institutions for inciting violence against Salman Rushdie and then gloating about the author’s attempted murder as he remained in critical condition following an attempt on his life at a literary event.
The US secretary of state on Sunday directly linked the attack to Tehran’s rhetoric, in more pointed language than President Joe Biden used shortly after a man stabbed Rushdie.
“Specifically, Iranian state institutions have incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media recently gloated about the attempt on his life. This is despicable,” Blinken said.
Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses, first published in 1988, generated controversy for how it depicted the Islamic Prophet Mohammed. The book was banned in Iran and in 1989, the supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie. The writer went into hiding for years following the death threat.
He was attacked on Friday in Chautauqua county, New York at an event where he was scheduled to discuss the US “as asylum for writers and other artists in exile and as a home for freedom of creative expression”. Hadi Matar, 24, from Fairview, New Jersey, was charged with attempted murder and assault following the attack.
Biden on Saturday has expressed his shock at the assault, saying Rushdie embodied “essential, universal ideals”.
Iran Daily, a state-run newspaper, praised the attack as an “implementation of divine decree” on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.
The AP reported that Jason Schmidt, the district attorney for Chautauqua county, on Saturday suggested larger forces were at play in the attack.
“We understand that the agenda that was carried out yesterday is something that was adopted and it’s sanctioned by larger groups and organisations well beyond the jurisdictional borders of Chautauqua county,” Schmidt said.
When asked if Matar had any links to the Iranian government, the White House National Security Council directed the Financial Times to “law enforcement for what remains an ongoing investigation”.
The FBI said it was assisting local law enforcement and working with partners in the UK, as Rushdie is a dual citizen of the US and UK.
Rushdie’s son Zafar said his father was in critical condition in a hospital on Sunday, but had been taken off a ventilator and was able to say a few words.
“Though his life-changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty and defiant sense of humour remains intact,” Zafar Rushdie said in a statement.
Rushdie’s agent Andrew Wylie said the author “will probably lose one eye; the nerves in his arm were severed; and his liver was stabbed and damaged”, but on Sunday said the writer’s condition was “headed in the right direction”.
Police in Scotland said they were investigating a report of an “online threat” made to the author JK Rowling after she expressed support for Rushdie on Twitter.
The Harry Potter author said she felt “very sick” after hearing the news and hoped Rushdie would “be OK”. She shared screenshots of a message received in response that stated: “Don’t worry you are next.”
After sharing the screenshots she said: “To all sending supportive messages: thank you police are involved (were already involved on other threats).” A spokesperson for Scotland’s police said a report of an online threat had been received and officers were “carrying out inquiries”.
