DANISH police yesterday confirmed that the arrest of four young Muslims suspected of belonging to a network planning a suicide attack in Europe was linked to an investigation in Bosnia.

Security forces today freed seven hostages held by alleged Islamic extremists in a police station and a store, trying to clear the remaining rebels who simultaneously attacked police and government buildings across the southern Russian town of Nalchik yesterday.

Islamic militants attacked police and government buildings in one of the main cities of Russia’s turbulent Caucasus region today, sparking battles in which dozens of people died, officials said.

Russian prosecutors say they have arrested four people in connection with the school siege in Beslan last year, which left more than 330 people dead.

Russian authorities have killed five people suspected of aiding September’s school hostage-taking in southern Russia and arrested four other suspects, prosecutors said today.

Shaken Georgian leaders have made a plea for calm after Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania was found dead in a friend’s apartment, a blow to President Mikhail Saakashvili’s ambitious pledges to wipe out corruption and resolve two simmering separatist conflicts.

A NUMB Russia observed the first of two days of national of mourning yesterday for the hundreds of victims of the school siege while criticism mounted on the government over its handling of the situation.

A numb Russia observed the first of two days of national of mourning today for the hundreds of victims of the school siege while criticism mounted on the government over its handling of the situation.

Funeral processions snaked through Beslan today as relatives buried the first victims of the Russian school siege, while frantic parents still searched for missing children two days after the crisis erupted into violence that left more than 350 people dead.

Russian rescuers today used their hands to dig though the rubble of a Siberian mine shaft as hopes dwindled of finding any more survivors of a methane blast that killed at least 40 coal miners and left seven others missing.

At least 30 people have now been confirmed killed today in a suicide truck bombing at a government compound in northern Chechnya - and some estimates say 50 people may have been killed.

Chechen rebels shot down a Russian transport helicopter last week causing the country’s biggest military air disaster, investigators claimed today.