Chechnya’s Kremlin-appointed leader was assured of victory in the region’s presidential vote, a widely expected outcome after his main challengers withdrew or were removed from an election condemned by critics as a sham.

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

A woman died of injuries she suffered in a suicide bombing that was aimed at the son of Chechnya’s administration chief.