Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed support today for First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to run for president.

Ten people were killed early today in a blaze at a Moscow striptease club that officials said may have been caused by an accident during a “fire show”.

Senior Russian defense ministry official Vladimir Shamanov said today that more US troops in Iraq “won’t be able to radically change the situation with ensuring peace and security".

A top Russian envoy said today, from the North Korean capital Pyongyang, that North Korea had expressed the desire for a swift, negotiated resolution of the growing dispute over its nuclear programme, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

In a chilling part of an escalating campaign against Georgia, Moscow police have asked schools to provide lists of schoolchildren with Georgian surnames in a bid to root out illegal migrants, a municipal official said today.

Russia’s defence minister today hailed the killing of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev as a just retribution to “our bin Laden", but said that his death did not mean an end to the fight against rebels.

Russian authorities today launched an operation to recover the flight recorders from an Armenian passenger plane that crashed in the Black Sea.

Russia has launched a satellite for Israel that the Israelis say will be used to spy on Iran’s nuclear programme.

A fire swept through a home for disabled children in the Tajik capital today, killing 13 children.

Residents of the far eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk stocked up on water today before the arrival of a toxic chemical slick that could force authorities to shut off water and central heating despite subzero temperatures.

The toxic spill that poisoned a Chinese river and forced Chinese authorities to cut off drinking water for millions has crossed the Russian border, Russian media reported today.

China is considering building a dam to reduce the impact of a river-borne toxic spill expected to arrive in a Russian city early next week, a government newspaper said today.

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

A truck carrying more than a ton of explosives was found near the Chechen capital, Grozny, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service said today, announcing that a major terrorist attack had been averted in the run-up to next week’s Victory in Europe holiday.

An explosion swept through a coal mine in Siberia today, killing nine workers.

Moscow’s Vnukovo airport was evacuated today after the discovery of a device resembling a bomb in baggage – but it turned out to be an electric razor.

Passengers were evacuated from an airliner at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport today after the discovery of a device resembling a bomb in a passenger’s baggage.

A blade separated from a helicopter and hit a tent at a hunting and fishing camp for the wealthy in northern Russia, killing two people.

Militants appear to have planned their seizure of a Russian school carefully, starting months earlier and sneaking weapons into the building in advance.

Families wracked with grief crowded into a freshly turned field next to the cemetery in Beslan today to bury loved ones killed in the school hostage seizure.

The ITAR-Tass news agency has quoted Russian Deputy Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky as saying 322 bodies, including those of 155 children, had been recovered from the school in Beslan.

The Itar-TASS news agency has reported a "strong explosion" in the Russian school siege building.

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

SUICIDE attackers who seized a packed school in Russia’s troubled Caucuses region yesterday have threatened to kill 50 children for every gunman “destroyed”.

Armed men wrapped in suicide-bomb belts seized a school in the Russian region of North Ossetia today and were holding hundreds of hostages, including some 200 children.

Eight people were killed and 10 injured when a car blew up near a Moscow underground station tonight.

Flight recorders from the wreckage of two planes that crashed almost simultaneously in Russia have not revealed reliable information on the causes of the double disaster, a top Russian official said.

Russia’s richest man, ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has pleaded not guilty to a raft of charges that could jail him for 10 years, while authorities tightened the grip on the beleaguered oil company’s key production assets.

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.

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.

A powerful explosion hit the motorcade of a top regional leader in southern Russia today, slightly injuring Ingushetian President Murat Zyazikov, in what he said was probably a suicide bombing.

An explosion and shoot-out between Uzbek police and alleged terrorists outside the capital Tashkent today left several injured, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing law enforcement sources.

An explosion blamed on a natural gas leak destroyed a section of a nine-storey apartment building in the northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk early today as residents slept, killing at least 15 people and leaving dozens trapped.

At least eight people were injured when an explosion tore through a 14-storey Moscow apartment building 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.

The prime minister of Chechnya Anatoly Popov was flown to a Moscow hospital early today after suffering a serious case of poisoning.

Several people were reported to have been killed when a powerful explosion rocked a Russian government security building in Ingushetia, bordering Chechnya, today.

Prosecutors in Moscow have decided JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books do not incite religious hatred.

THE US took a final draft of its Iraq resolution to the UN Security Council yesterday hoping to win approval from wary allies concerned it could trigger a new war against Saddam Hussein.

A giant military helicopter crash-landed in Chechnya today, injuring at least 25 servicemen, the Russian military headquarters said.

Rescuers today pulled three bodies from a huge hangar in Kazakhstan after the roof collapsed at Russia’s main space launch site.

Two students and two women were injured when a grenade taken by a student to a school in southern Russia exploded, police and news reports said today.

A man armed with two grenades burst into a children’s clinic in restive southern Russia today and seized 18 hostages, police said.

Moscow police have arrested a suspected contract killer who is alleged to have advertised his services on the internet.