Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India today, hoping to use the two nations’ decades-long friendship to push for deals in civilian nuclear co-operation, military hardware and trade expansion between the booming economies.

Eight Russian servicemen were killed in Chechnya when an officer drove a heavy truck out of a base without permission straight into a minefield.

Russia’s Pacific Fleet is reportedly sending two warships to the Persian Gulf next month ahead of possible US military action against Iraq.

Four-thousand Taliban troops are giving themselves up to an opposition commander, claims the Afghan Embassy.