Nine of the crew of an aged Russian nuclear submarine which sunk while being towed to a scrapyard in a gale in the Barents Sea died today.

Veteran Russian submariners are threatening to sue the producers of the new Harrison Ford blockbuster K-19: The Widowmaker, claiming it portrays them as heavy drinkers.

A note left by a dying officer on the Kursk says the nuclear submarine was sunk by the explosion of one of its own torpedoes, reports a Russian newspaper.