MOSCOW - A RUSSIAN sailor has been formally charged with causing death by negligence after the accident in which 20 people were gassed to death on a nuclear submarine, officials said on Monday.

'The charges were pronounced in terms of article 109' of Russia's penal code, said the chief of the prosecutors' investigating commission Alexander Bastrykin. It provides for up to five years in prison for an individual found guilty of causing death by negligence.

LONDON - POLICE forces across Britain are to be equipped with Taser stun guns after a successful pilot scheme with the controversial high-voltage weapons, officials said on Monday.

Critics argue that the guns, which deliver a 50,000-volt charge, are 'potentially lethal,' but the government says they are crucial and is paying for 10,000 of them to be distributed around the country.

MADRID - THE suspected military chief of the Basque separatist group ETA was on Monday charged with terrorist offences in connection with a bomb attack that killed two people at Madrid airport two years ago.