Russian authorities have reportedly sent a 20,000-strong team to the Ural Mountains to help with the rescue and clean-up operation after a meteor struck the area.

China plans to build more than 20 dams along the country’s longest river by 2020, it announced today.

Engineers, military officials and former cosmonauts today celebrated the 50th anniversary of the launch of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik, which marked the dawn of the Space Age and sparked the race to land a man on the moon.