At least 44 people have been killed and a further 400 injured after a huge explosion hit a shipment of explosives in the north-eastern city of Tianjin, China. The blast is believed to have erupted in a warehouse at about 11.30pm local time yesterday (5.30pm in Britain). Videos of the explosion show flames lighting up the night sky and residents in nearby districts have been quoted as saying the blast shattered windows. Officials in the Chinese port city said 32 people remained in a critical condition today, while hundreds of others recover in hospital. At least nine firefighters are thought to be among those killed in the incident, with the Beijing News reporting that authorities have lost contact with 36 other firefighters dealing with the inferno.

These tiny villages are some of the nation's best kept secrets yet it's these classic hamlets, towns and beauty spots which are the pride of Britain. With undiscovered gems from the southern shores to the Welsh Marches, these secret spots offer everything that the British countryside has to boast about. With stunning scenery, incredible buildings and perfect Tudor pubs, these 20 idyllic villages are the perfect escapes. Above main, Tobermory, capital of the Isle of Mull, and Edensor in Derbyshire, inset.

Marie - who was given last week's Star Baker title by judges Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood - was eliminated from the BBC show last night after failing to turn her oven on in the second week of the show. She became the second casualty of the GBBO tent despite a strong start.

Stores in airports across Britain continued to ask travellers for their boarding passes - and failed to cut prices, despite Treasury ministers pleading for an end to the rip-off. Passengers have been left furious by the revelation that airport shops ask to see boarding passes only so they can avoid paying 20 per cent VAT on sales. Until now, it was widely believed they had to be shown for security reasons. In fact, the only purpose is to allow stores to escape paying the tax on any products they sell to people travelling outside the EU. Daily Mail reporter EMINE SINMAZ (left) found customers had to show a boarding pass at World Duty Free at London Heathrow Airport, while her colleague JAYA NARAIN (right) was told to show a boarding pass in a Boots at Manchester Airport - but the cashier relented when he refused

Vicki Smith, 45, (left and inset) from Tyne and Wear, thought she had met the perfect man. Little did she know her successful and 'shy' research scientist partner was really a secret bigamist who was still married to his first wife. Vicki learned that Dr Robert Marchmont, the man she had married in Scotland in 2006, was not, in the eyes of the law, actually her husband at all. Robert was still legally married to his first wife named Claire on their wedding day as since illegally married another woman, Lesley Kenneally (right).

Former heartthrob David Cassidy has now declared bankruptcy and in 2013 was charged with a DWI (inset). His own explanation is the messy aftermath of his break-up from third wife Sue Shifrin, 66 (right) - but that isn't the whole truth. A dark past with an abusive father and the death of his beloved mother have led to the implosion of one of the music world's brightest stars.

Newsreader Samantha Simmonds, above, appears on camera for a living but doesn't like how she looks in family photos. London-based Photographer John Godwin shows her how to look stunning from any angle, including a new technique called 'squinching' which apparently guarantees a better photo.

The unusual phenomena which sees snails thrown into the air is believed to have been caused by part of the beach collapsing and caving in at Orcombe Point, near Exmouth in Devon. As a result snails and carpets of foul-smelling seaweed have been shot into the air - but experts have warned tourists could find themselves covered in something far worse if the collapse hits an underground sewage pipe.

The four-bedroom house in the commuter heartland of Claygate, Surrey, has been put on the market this week, nearly three years after the brutal killing. Dad-of-two Saad, 50, and wife Iqbal, 47, were shot dead alongside her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, while they holidayed in Annecy on September 5.

EXCLUSIVE: The female doctor publicly harangued by Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho for rushing onto the pitch to tend to an injured player has been branded a 'cheerleader' and 'extremely naive'. Eva Carneiro, 41, has also been called a 'celebrity doctor' by her predecessor, Ralph Rogers (centre inset), following her very public fallout with Mourinho on Saturday. The spat began after she rushed onto the pitch to tend to an apparently injured Eden Hazard in stoppage-time against Swansea City in a Premier League match. But Mourinho was furious after Carneiro and head physio Jon Fearn ran on to the Stamford Bridge pitch - momentarily reducing the hosts to nine men after Thibaut Courtois had been sent off. Carneiro is pictured on horseback (centre), with Mourinho (top right) and undertaking the Ice Bucket Challenge (right).

General Karenzi Karake (right) and his mentor Paul Kagame are accused of orchestrating not just one murder, but massacres that took place after the Rwanda genocide (bottom left) was thought to be over, writes ANDREW MALONE. Not that this has caused Tony Blair to withdraw his previously assiduous support for Kagame, who has thanked the former British prime minister by allowing him the use of the president's two private jets to travel around Africa on charitable causes. Tony Blair's wife Cherie (top left) was hired to represent Karake after his arrest at Heathrow on June 20. One would assume her legal firm, Omnia Strategy, is being paid a lucrative fee. General Karake is accused of organising the brutal murder of Lincolnshire solicitor Graham Turnbull (top centre).

The former president plans to undergo treatment at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia. Carter said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon that doctors discovered during a recent surgery on his liver that the cancer had spread to other parts of his body.

The Old Village School Nursing Home in Bedfordshire was closed by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on Friday night after inspectors uncovered appalling neglect that put residents in immediate danger. But the watchdog only obtained a closure order from magistrates at 5pm that evening and the home had to be evacuated by midnight. The 57 residents - including younger adults with brain injuries - were moved to nearby care homes in ambulances. Anne Jeffreys (pictured), 87, was still in hospital last night after suffering heart problems during the move.

From the moment he was born, Howard Shulman was considered an outcast. A bacterial infection ravaged his face, leaving a gaping hole where his nose, lower right eyelid, tear ducts, lips, and palate would have been. His parents, unable to cope with their son's deformity, left him in the hands of the state and he spent the rest of his childhood in foster care. Almost 40 years later, after hundreds of painful operations, he is married, living in San Diego and has two stepdaughters. And, despite the heartbreak of losing his parents as a child, he has revealed in a new book how he tracked his mother down and confronted her.

Body-positive activists, bloggers, and models reveal the worst things strangers have said to them online. Many say that they have been called names, lectured about their eating habits, and told to kill themselves. One of these women, Lindsey Averillm from Florida (far left) told Daily Mail Online that her face was edited onto a picture of a whale by one awful troll, and several people even threatened to rape and kill her - just because she is comfortable in her own skin and wants other women to be, too. Stephanie Yeboah (second from left), from London, was lectured about her size. New York-based Substantia Jones (second from right) has received death threats, and Essie Golden (far right), who also lives in New York, was told she has the body of a retired stripper.

Mel and Margaret Grogan were married at St Margaret's Church, Whalley Range, Manchester, in 1973 and a family friend took photos. The snaps were then turned into slides, which the couple thought had been lost. But a few weeks ago Mrs Grogan, 73, was clearing out a cupboard at their Failsworth home when she discovered them.

A jellyfish-like creature observed floating off the coast of Angola has adherents of a parody religion shouting 'praise Flying Spaghetti Monster!' That's because the siphonophore--which was spotted 4,000 feet below the Atlantic by a BP oil rig's deep sea ROV--looks undeniably like the satirical deity. The workers who spotted the critter were so captivated by its countless appendages, that--after dubbing it Flying Spaghetti Monster--they sent the footage to the National Oceanography Center in Southampton, U.K. for a more scientifically sound identification.

Extremists from the Azov unit, a far-right neo-Nazi militia which is defending the port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, are teaching children as young as six how to fire guns in an attempt to entice them into the country's bloody conflict. Disturbing pictures have emerged from a military summer camp held on the outskirts of Kiev which show members of the voluntary group teaching so-called 'Azovets' how to behave as young fighters. The children - which include girls and boys, some as young as six - are seen loading their guns (inset), before taking part in exercises in which they crawl along the ground (left) and fire at the enemy (right). The camp comes under the command of Andriy Biletsky, who once admitted that the battalion 'do not like ceasefire at all'. The Azov men use the neo-Nazi Wolfsangel (Wolf's Hook) symbol on their banner and several members are white supremacists or anti-Semites.

The petrolhead part-time car dealer (pictured) has decided to get rid of a wealth of stunning and rare cars. Amongst the lot, which are to go under the hammer in Sussex, are a £2.9m valued 966 Ferrari 275 GTB/6C Alloy (top right), a £2.6m 1971 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spider (bottom left), a £375,000 1967 Jaguar XKSS 'Lynx' (top left), and a 1949 Jaguar XK120 'Alloy' Roadster (bottom right), also estimated to sell for £375,000. Although all eye-catching enough, one of the most interesting lots is a £350,000 replica Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (centre), which Evans bought in January 2012.

Three American men, whose partners lost unborn children, shared their heartbreaking stories with Cosmopolitan.com. And while all of the men admitted to feeling a huge sense of loss, they also revealed how their shared pain helped strengthen their relationships with their wives during such a devastating time.

This figurehead was carefully lifted from the sea in southern Sweden on this week by divers bringing up treasures from the wreck of the 'Gribshunden' (top right). The ship, which belonged to Danish King John, is believed to have sunk in 1495 after it caught fire on its way from Copenhagen to Kalmar on Sweden's east coast. The creature, carved at the end of an 11-foot-long beam, appears to be holding a person in its mouth. Researchers are hoping to bring more of the wreck to the surface in future.

Coby Persin, 21, is a YouTube star who performs pranks and experiments. The New Yorker chatted up three young girls, aged 12, 13, and 14, by pretending to be a 15-year-old who lived nearby. They all agreed to meet him when their parents weren't around, with one even climbing into his van

Mineola, New York, resident Dawn Ardolino Policastro (R), 40, offered to carry the baby of her identical twin sister Allison Ardolino Dinkelacker (L) after a battle with stage three breast cancer during her first pregnancy with son Dylan in 2009 made a second pregnancy too risky.

On a recent trip to a park in Naperville, Illinois, nine-year-old Lilly had some trouble leading two-year-old pup Layla (left) down the slide, and attempted to coax her. At one point she sat at the bottom of the slide (center). But when Layla wouldn't budge, Lilly decided to grab the leash, which had been dangling down. After a full pulls, a reluctant Layla comes sliding down (right) and owner Emily O'Brien, 23, managed to capture the whole thing on her cellphone.

A video by Canadian travel series Dating Beyond Borders sees pairs of men and women from different countries evaluate the attractiveness of several very different-looking men in photos, including body-builders, tattooed-hipsters and regular clean-cut guys.