RUSSIA: A portly politician who somehow managed to get himself stuck inside a tank reportedly threatened to shoot bystanders who were standing around watching.

IT WAS daunting. The assembly of a 500km route over mountains, bogland, fields, across rivers and through towns and villages took years.

QUICK thinking by the parents of a woman targeted in a tiger kidnapping in Co Galway resulted in gardaí foiling the raiders, it emerged yesterday.