Russia’s top prosecutor today took charge of investigating the murder of a journalist who was a prominent critic of the war in Chechnya and planned to publish a story about torture and abductions in the region.

Police in Chechnya killed rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev during a special operation today, authorities said.

President Vladimir Putin today dismissed calls for Russia’s dismissal from the Group of Eight as a product of a Cold War mentality and said leaders of the G-8 nations support Russia’s presidency.

Chechnya’s parliament today asked the Kremlin to rename the war-ravaged provincial capital after the late Moscow-backed Chechen president who died in a rebel bombing.

Chechnya is holding the latest in a series of elections today as part of a continuing effort to bring stability and peace.

Russian and Chechen regional forces battled fighters holed up in an apartment building in the Chechen capital of Grozny today, killing at least five fighters and leaving at least two federal troops dead, officials said.

IT’S over a month since the last democratically elected president of Chechnya, Aslan Maskhadov, was murdered by Russian forces.

The leaders of France, Germany and Spain have formed a united front with Russian President Vladimir Putin, jointly pressing Syria to withdraw from Lebanon, stressing their common position on Iran’s nuclear ambitions and glossing over differences.

Ireland has fallen well down the table of industrialised countries receiving applications from asylum seekers, according to figures published today by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

SHAMIL BASAYEV, the Chechen warlord who claimed responsibility for the deadly school hostage-taking in southern Russia, released a video statement yesterday to dispel rumours about his death and pledge respect for a rebel truce.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin yesterday accused the US of pursuing a dictatorial foreign policy and said mounting violence could derail progress toward bringing peace and democracy to Iraq.

THE twice-yearly summit between Russia and the EU takes place in The Hague today.

TO end a decade-long insurgency, Russia should grant breakaway Chechnya special status, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said, arguing some countries want Moscow to stay bogged down in the "Chechen quagmire".

To end a decade-long insurgency, Russia should grant breakaway Chechnya special status, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said, arguing that some countries want Moscow to stay bogged down in the “Chechen quagmire".

Radical Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev purportedly took responsibility today for a recent series of deadly terrorist attacks in Russia, but put the ultimate blame for the massacre of more than 330 people held hostage in a school on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he will fight terror by consolidating security agencies and further tightening political control over the country.

CHECHEN envoy Akhmed Zakayev said yesterday he fears there will be further massacres in his homeland if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not hold peace talks with the region’s political parties.

CHECHEN and Ingush militants who took part in last week’s deadly school siege in Russia were yesterday identified.

RUSSIAN media yesterday savaged President Vladimir Putin as the respected editor of Russia’s Izvestia daily was forced to quit in what he and media analysts linked to the paper’s critical coverage of the authorities’ handling of the school siege.

Wails of mourning echoed through the streets of Beslan today, and the region’s top police officer reportedly resigned in the wake of the school hostage taking that left more than 350 people dead.

CHILDREN make it different. Like the tragedies of Columbine and Dunblane, the terror that stalks the classrooms of besieged Middle School 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia, is uniquely disturbing.

The European Union, in veiled criticism, regretted the violent and bloody resolution of the school hostage crisis by Russian authorities today, but said they understood authorities had been faced with few options.

CHECHNYA presents a formidable challenge to the media outlets operating there and journalists attempting to cover events on the ground.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin's rise was powered largely by a pledge to defeat Chechen separatists.

Chechnya’s president-elect pledged to bring peace and stability to his war-torn southern Russian region today after the Kremlin-backed candidate was elected in a vote tainted by allegations of fraud and overshadowed by fears of terrorism.

The Kremlin’s favoured candidate for president of war-battered Chechnya overwhelmingly won an election that opponents claimed was riddled with fraud, Russian news agencies reported today.

Russian officials are examining the wreckage of two crashed planes today in an effort to determine whether a terrorist attack caused the near-simultaneous disasters that killed all 89 people aboard.

A ROADSIDE bomb tore through the motorcade of the acting president of warring Chechnya, killing one person, just two months after Chechnya’s previous leader was killed by a bomb.

THOUSANDS of troops poured into a southern Russian city yesterday chasing suspected Chechen rebels who set fire to police and government buildings and killed at least 48 people in overnight attacks.

Heavily-armed militants launched near-simultaneous overnight attacks against police headquarters, border guard stations and other government offices in Ingushetia, a Russian region bordering warring Chechnya, killing 46 people including three high-ranking regional officials.

Attackers armed with grenade- and rocket-launchers seized the Interior Ministry headquarters in Ingushetia, a Russian region bordering warring Chechnya, a ministry official said today.

THE Kremlin has given its support to Chechnya’s top police official who is seeking to replace the region’s assassinated president.

Thousands of mourners flocked to Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov’s native village for his funeral today, a day after the Moscow-backed leader was killed by a bomb blast that cast Russia’s efforts to stabilise and control the war-ravaged region into chaos.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has vowed retribution after an explosion ripped through a stadium in the Chechnya’s capital during a Victory Day parade, killing its president Akhmad Kadyrov.

THE Kremlin-backed president of Russia's warring Chechnya region was killed yesterday when an explosion tore through a stadium in the Chechen capital where he was attending Victory Day observances, officials said.

Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov was among at least 20 people killed in a bomb blast at a Grozny stadium where he was attending Victory Day observances, officials said.

The UN Security Council called for tough measures to stop the recruitment of child soldiers, but only after Britain and Russia got Northern Ireland and Chechnya struck off the list of war zones.

FOUR Russian servicemen have been killed in the latest clashes with rebels in Chechnya, an official with Chechnya’s Moscow-backed civilian administration said yesterday.

Four Russian servicemen have been killed in the latest clashes with rebels in Chechnya, an official with Chechnya’s Moscow-backed civilian administration said today.

FORMER Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, who has been linked to al-Qaida and was accused by Russia of maintaining international terrorist ties, was killed yesterday after his car exploded in the Qatari capital Doha.

A SUICIDE attacker set off an explosion that tore through a commuter train yesterday near the rebellious region of Chechnya, killing 40 people and wounding scores of others.

THE Kremlin’s candidate Akhmad Kadyrov won a landslide victory in Chechnya’s presidential election but few voters believed he would bring a rapid end to the fighting that has devastated their republic.

Chechnya’s Kremlin-appointed leader was assured of victory in the region’s presidential vote, a widely expected outcome after his main challengers withdrew or were removed from an election condemned by critics as a sham.

A man has been arrested after at least five people died when bombs rocked a commuter train in southern Russia today.