he inventor of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, has died aged 94, Russian TV reports. The automatic rifle he designed became one of the world's most familiar and widely used weapons. Its comparative simplicity made it cheap to manufacture, as well as reliable and easy to maintain. Although honoured by the state, Kalashnikov made little money from his gun. He once said he would have been better off designing a lawn mower. Mikhail Kalashnikov was admitted to hospital with internal bleeding in November.