Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service denied as “baseless” Pentagon claims that Moscow provided information to Saddam Hussein’s regime on US troop movements and plans during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, in the latest spat in an increasingly tense bilateral relationship.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service today denied that Moscow provided information on US troop movements and plans to Baghdad during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Interfax news agency reported.

AN ITALIAN parliamentary commission has concluded “beyond any reasonable doubt” that the Soviet Union was behind the 1981 attempt to kill Pope John Paul II.

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.