Putin, Erdogan hail mended ties

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday announced the "normalisation" of ties between their nations, damaged by Ankara downing one of Moscow's warplanes in 2015."We can state with confidence that our countries have returned to the path of a true multi-tiered cooperation between partners," Putin told a press conference after the two strongmen met at the Kremlin.Relations between Moscow and Ankara hit rock bottom after Turkey's shooting down of