OFFICIALS held ceremonies to mark the opening of two new schools in the southern Russian town of Beslan yesterday to replace School No 1, devastated by last year’s horrific hostage seizure in which 331 adults and children died.

Fifteen children have been allowed to leave a school at the centre of a hostage crisis in Russia, according to media reports.

A car bomb attack near the main market of a Russian city on the border of the war-wracked republic of Chechnya has killed two people and injured up to 10.