Incoming US president Donald Trump will seek a trade deal between America and a post-Brexit UK within weeks — despite IMF concerns his policies could be “quite destructive” for the world economy.

Nato’s chief said that Russia had built up forces on the border with Ukraine and sent more military hardware into eastern Ukraine, enabling pro-Russia separatists to launch attacks with little warning if they chose.

David Cameron must honour his commitment to restore spending on defence amid concerns that the West is looking dangerously weak in the eyes of Vladimir Putin, a former British armed forces chief has warned.

Outgoing US defence secretary Chuck Hagel has said he is worried about a potential division within Nato as countries in the north want to focus on the growing threat from Russia, while other alliance members in the south are more worried about the influx of foreign fighters from northern Africa.

A ceasefire between pro-Russian separatists and government forces in eastern Ukraine has been breached as mortar fire struck an apartment block in the rebel-held city of Donetsk.

Russian military forces have been spotted in both major rebel-held cities in eastern Ukraine, an official said, prompting Ukraine to declare it now has to fight the Russian army, not just the separatists.

European Union (EU) foreign ministers were today set to consider adopting a tougher stance on the Ukraine crisis amid increasing calls to beef up economic sanctions against Russia.

Pressure is mounting on Russia after it was accused of sending tanks, artillery and troops into Ukraine and Western powers said Moscow “outright lied” about its role and dangerously escalated the conflict.

Hundreds of trucks from a bitterly disputed Russian aid convoy to rebel-held eastern Ukraine rolled back across the border into Russia today.

Some of the trucks in a Russian aid convoy which entered Ukraine in a move denounced by Kiev as an invasion are reported to be returning to Russia.

President Vladimir Putin flew in to Crimea yesterday for the first time since it was annexed by Moscow, proclaiming as he marked the Soviet victory in the Second World War that incorporating the former Ukrainian territory had made Russia stronger.

A pro-Russia insurgency in east Ukraine has decided to go ahead with a referendum on autonomy despite a call from Russian president Vladimir Putin to delay the vote.

US reluctance to engage militarily with Russia in the past suggests it would be well-advised to back off and give the lead role in the Crimea crisis to a group of EU leaders, writes Anne-Marie Slaughter.

There will be no G8 summit in Russia this year, the British Prime Minister David Cameron announced today.

Nato’s top military commander said Russia had a large force on Ukraine’s eastern border and that he was worried it could pose a threat to Moldova’s separatist Transdniestria region.

Ukraine, warning it is “on the brink of disaster”, has put its military on high alert and appealed for international help to avoid what it fears is a possible wider invasion by Russia.

Iran and Russia have joined the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in condemning a rare Israeli air strike on Syria.

Syrian rebels are gaining ground and might win, Russia’s Middle East envoy said, in the starkest such admission from a major ally of president Bashar al-Assad in 20 months of conflict.

Serbia’s ambassador to Nato has taken his own life by leaping from a busy parking garage platform at Brussels Airport, officials said today.

Nato says that a man believed to be a member of the Afghan Local Police has turned his weapon on US-led coalition forces, killing two international service members.

Americans have paused to mark the 11th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, but some said it is time to move forward after a decade of remembrance.

Two suicide attackers, one driving a fuel tanker, blew themselves up near a US base in eastern Afghanistan today, killing at least 12 people.

An Afghan policeman has opened fire on Nato soldiers in the fifth such attack in a week, but this time no-one was killed.

A suicide bomber has blown himself up in a wedding hall in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 23 people including a prominent warlord-turned-politician and three Afghan security force officials, in an attack that deals a setback to efforts to unify the nation’s ethnic factions, Afghan officials said.

An airstrike by the US-led Nato coalition has killed eight members of a family in eastern Afghanistan, local authorities have said.

A human rights organisation has called on Nato to compensate survivors of airstrikes in Libya which it says killed dozens of civilians.

France woke to a new era today after electing Socialist Francois Hollande as president, a leftist pledging to buck Europe’s austerity trend and Nato’s timetable for Afghanistan.

An attacker wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on international troops today in southern Afghanistan, killing one, Nato said. Coalition forces returned fire and killed the attacker.

Hundreds of protesters carrying the bodies of two people killed in a Nato-Afghan raid have blocked a key road in eastern Afghanistan.

A Taliban leader and another insurgent were killed after they opened fire on Afghan and coalition troops during a night raid in the country’s east, Nato has said.

A member of an al Qaida-linked group who helped finance attacks against Afghan and foreign forces has been captured in northern Afghanistan, Nato said.

A man in an Afghan army uniform has shot dead two Nato troops inside a base in southern Afghanistan.

Protesters angry over the burning of the Koran by American troops lobbed grenades at a US base in northern Afghanistan and clashed with police and troops in a day of violence that left seven international soldiers injured and two Afghans dead.

The commander of Nato and US forces says that all Nato personnel are being recalled from Afghan ministries following an attack at the Interior Ministry in Kabul.

Two Western advisers have been killed inside the Afghan Interior Ministry, officials said today.

Nato’s top military commander said today that an investigation into this week’s Koran burnings at a US base in Afghanistan is pushing ahead and urged Afghans to be patient and exercise restraint.

US President Barack Obama has apologised over the burning of Korans at a US airbase in Afghanistan, where three days of protests have killed 14 people.

JOHN MENSAH scored, then saw red as 10-man Ghana held on to beat Botswana in their African Nations Cup Group D opener.

Russia has urged Nato to investigate civilian deaths in Libya from its bombing campaign, saying the alliance’s claim that there were no non-military casualties is untrue.

A man wearing an Afghan military uniform has opened fire on Nato and Afghan troops in the south of the country, killing two members of the US-led coalition, Nato said today.

France’s defence minister says he sees no need to extend Nato’s mission in Libya, now that Muammar Gaddafi is dead and a new government is in charge.