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.

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

CHECHEN rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov ordered his bodyguards to kill him to avoid being captured by Russian forces.

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov ordered his bodyguards to kill him to avoid being captured by Russia forces.

Stepping up their hunt for their biggest enemy, Russia’s security services today offered to pay for plastic surgery for anyone who gives information leading to the killing or capture of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev.

Russia’s Federal Security Service said today that it had paid a reward of $10m (€7.5m) for information on the exact location of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov’s killing represents a rare propaganda victory for President Vladimir Putin and his hard-line approach to battling separatists.

CHECHEN rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, blamed by Russia for last year's school hostage slaughter, has been killed during an army raid, Russian President Vladimir Putin was told yesterday.

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has been killed during a “special operation” by Russian forces, a spokesman said today.

Representatives of a prominent Russian non-governmental organisation were on their way to London today for talks with a Chechen rebel envoy on ways to stop the war in Chechnya.

At least nine Russian soldiers camped out in a former poultry farm near the Chechen capital were killed when a concrete wall collapsed on them during a clash with Chechen rebels, military officials said today.

Six alleged rebels were killed in a skirmish with Russian troops in Chechnya, it was reported today.

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.

A Chechen rebel leader has told a Russian newspaper a unilateral ceasefire he had announced should help pave the way for peace talks with the Kremlin.

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.

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has denied being involved in the Russian school hostage-taking and said another rebel chief, Shamil Basayev, should stand trial for staging it.

Russia has taken its case for expanding the global war against terrorism to the United Nations, calling on the UN Security Council to establish a new list of terror suspects who would be subject to extradition.

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.

Russia reserves the right to carry out pre-emptive strikes on militant bases abroad in the wake of the school hostage seizure, Russia’s defence minister said today.

Security officials have identified six of the militants who seized a school in southern Russia as Chechens, drawing a strong connection to the rebels who have been fighting Russian forces for years.

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

Russia’s foreign minister pointed an accusing finger at Britain today for exercising double standards by granting asylum to Chechen separatists.

RUSSIA’s top general said yesterday he was ready to attack ‘terrorist bases’ anywhere in the world, as security services put an €8.5 million bounty on two Chechen rebels blamed for last week’s school siege.

RUSSIAN authorities have blamed the Beslan hostage crisis on “international terrorists” and are offering €8.5 million to “neutralise” the Chechen rebel leaders they claim are responsible for last week’s school siege.

Russia’s secret service has offered a near €8.8m reward for accurate information that could help “neutralise” Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov.

AS the rest of Russia mourned, there was no letup to the agony of the distraught families of Beslan.

Funeral processions filled the rainy streets of Beslan, carrying coffins large and small, as townspeople buried scores of victims of a carefully-planned school siege that prosecutors linked to a Chechen rebel leader.

Russian security officials accused Shamil Basayev of planning the seizure of the school with al-Qaida financing, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported today.

THE Kremlin-anointed police officer elected as Chechnya’s new leader in a vote condemned by many observers vowed yesterday to consign separatist extremists to the “dustbin of history”.

They lived in the same apartment in Chechnya, worked in the same market and possibly died within moments of each other on separate airliners that crashed in Russia last week.

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.

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.

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.

Dozens of masked gunmen have burst into a clinic in Chechnya and kidnapped five people as they waited to see a doctor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has cancelled a planned trip to Uzbekistan and Malaysia because of suicide bomber attacks on a Moscow rock festival that killed 15 people, the Kremlin said today.

TWO suicide bombers drove a truck full of explosives into a government complex in Russia’s rebel Chechnya yesterday.

SUSPECTED Chechen rebel suicide bombers rammed vehicles packed with a ton of explosives into the local government headquarters in Grozny yesterday, gutting the building and killing at least 46 people.

Suicide bombers in a pair of trucks roared up to the headquarters of the Kremlin-backed government in rebel Chechnya and blew them up today, killing at least 65 people and wounding more than 60.

A senior intelligence aide to Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov was jailed for 13 years for murder by a Russian court today.

Russian officials today criticised a British decision to release on bail a senior Chechen envoy Moscow accuses of murder and rebellion.