A prominent Russian journalist famous for her critical coverage of the war in Chechnya was killed today in Moscow, police and prosecutors said.

A fire broke out at a hospital in southern Moscow early today, killing at least four patients and forcing the evacuation of dozens of other patients, an emergency official said

Prosecutors in Moscow have decided JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books do not incite religious hatred.

Two more hostages, freed from the Moscow theatre siege by Russian troops, died in hospital overnight from the gas used to incapacitate them and their captors.