Visiting Putin basks in British sunshine

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin, formerly head of the KGB, arrived in Britain yesterday to a welcome fit for a tsar. At the start of the first state visit by a Russian leader since 1874, when Tsar Alexander II came to Britain, President Putin basked in the British sunshine.

Security around the Royal Family was tight following the weekend scare at Windsor Castle when a self-styled "comedy terrorist" gate-crashed Prince William's 21st birthday party.

The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales all turned out to greet the VIP visitor and were surrounded on London's Horse Guards Parade by armed police and the military.