Some parents would gasp at the thought of their children playing with a toy gun, but these Russian children are actually encouraged to take up real arms. Military sports club, ‘Berkut’, (meaning golden eagle), trains up tiny Vlads and Boris’, who dream of joining the elite units of the Russian army and fighting under the command of President Vladimir Putin. Pictured on their website brandishing a hand gun, is a young boy, dressed in military fatigues with his finger over the trigger. Children as young a five are sent on forced marches, given battlefield training, taught hand to hand combat, and how to use military equipment. 12 year olds are also taught to fire Kalashnikov assault rifles and other small arms. During the clubs regular camps some children are given the opportunity to parachute jump during their paratrooper training. The club based in Zhukovsky, Russia, claims to provide military training designed to develop the younger generation of the “motherland” - a term synonymous with the former Soviet Union and the communist rule of the last century.
Daniel Blore, 21, of Innage Crescent, Bridgnorth, stabbed his mother three times in the attack on January 11 this year, Stafford Crown Court heard .
A coroner stunned an inquest into a honeymooner who died abroad today by asking her husband if he was involved in her drugs death .
A lazy otter finds the ideal spot to soak up the sun and sleep off his lunch .
A photographer from the United Arab Emirates travelled to Pakistan where he captured the lives of local people in a series of expressive portraits .
A PENSIONER was left with a fractured jaw after being beaten and robbed outside his home in Birmingham last weekend .
UNDERWATER and above-water seaside shots show the best of British beach-life .
AN anorexic woman whose heart stopped after she starved herself to 3st has revealed that ‘dying’ for a minute helped shock her into recovery .
After Leigh Hancock, 36, joined Fallon Bramall's boxing gym she owned with her husband, the pair took him under their wing .
A NINJA red squirrel cuts a dashing figure as the little fella jumps up to ten-feet between treetops in the Yorkshire Dales .
Raising his arms above his head and lying flat on his back, a polar bear stretches as he sprawls out across the ice .
A young orangutan comes over all shy as she hides her face behind a broken bucket .
SAT ON top of a Brazilian turtle’s head, this little ladybird looks content as he studies his environment from a new height .