Meerkat character Aleksandr Orlov has signed a book deal.

WEEPING mourners walked through Chechnya’s capital yesterday to honour activist Natalya Estemirova, whose brazen kidnapping and execution-style killing shocked Russia’s beleaguered human rights community and prompted international outrage.

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.