RUSSIA fought a deadly battle yesterday to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took to the air in a water-bombing plane to join the firefighting effort.

About 30 people have died in the last three days as massive forest fires wiped out villages and vast areas of woodland in Russia, state television reported today.

Two young women who had been kept underground as sex slaves for more than three years, during which time one of them gave birth twice and became pregnant a third time, have been freed by police, Russian news reports said today.

Five people were killed and about 30 injured in a bomb blast at an outdoor market in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan, officials said.