A Russian court today sentenced three people to life in prison for their role in a pair of Moscow underground rail bombings in 2004 that killed nearly 50 people, a court spokeswoman said.

Anna Politkovskaya, the journalist whose death Alexander Litvinenko was investigating when he was apparently poisoned, was a tireless investigative reporter.

Other Russian exiles in London may be feeling nervous after the apparent poisoning of former security agent Alexander Litvinenko, an expert on Russian affairs said.

Russia’s top prosecutor today took charge of investigating the murder of a journalist who was a prominent critic of the war in Chechnya and planned to publish a story about torture and abductions in the region.

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

A woman hurt during the 2004 school hostage-taking in the southern Russian town of Beslan has died of her wounds, bringing the total death toll to 333, a Beslan activist said today.

THE situation in the Middle East continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate, while the international community stands idly by, seemingly believing that little can be done.

The head of Russia’s Federal Security Service today said that Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev has been killed, Russian news agencies reported.

A group of survivors and relatives of victims of the 2004 raid on a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan filed a preliminary appeal against last week’s verdict in the trial of the only known suspect left alive, saying the court ignored conflicting evidence about the attack and the government response.

A Russian judge on today proclaimed the sole surviving Beslan school attacker guilty of murder and terrorism, as he began reading the final part of the verdict.

A Russian judge today listed weapons used by militants and federal troops in the deadly Beslan school hostage-taking, fuelling anger from victims’ relatives who accused authorities of covering up excessive use of force during the rescue operation, which they blame for some of the deaths.

Relatives of the victims of the Beslan school hostage massacre today accused Russian authorities of covering up the facts as the judge read the verdict against the sole alleged surviving attacker for a third day, describing horrific conditions inside the school.

The Russian judge presiding over the trial of the sole surviving alleged attacker in the Beslan tragedy today read witness testimony on the horrific conditions inside the school.

Hollywood producer Brian Glazer is bringing the tale of the Beslan school massacre to the big screen.

The final chapter in the trial of the sole surviving alleged attacker in the Beslan school hostage seizure opened today, as a judge began reading the verdict and said the court had established the defendant took part in murder, terrorism and other crimes.

A Russian court today opened the trial of three police officers accused of negligence facilitating the school hostage taking in the southern city of Beslan that left 331 people dead.

A group of victims from the 2004 Beslan school hostage seizure today rejected the death penalty for the man alleged to be the only surviving attacker, despite prosecutors’ and many other victims’ calls for him to be executed.

The man alleged to be the sole surviving attacker of the Beslan school seizure protested his innocence in his final statement today, as the court retired to consider its verdict in a trial that has brought little relief for relatives of victims of the bloodbath.

THE head of a Russian parliamentary commission investigating the Beslan school siege that left 331 dead last year said that local law enforcement officials could have prevented the terrorist attack if they had not ignored instructions to strengthen school security.

The head of the Russian parliamentary commission investigating last year’s Beslan school siege today said the regional police department had ignored instructions to strengthen security around schools and accused law enforcement officials of negligence.

Relatives of Beslan school siege victims declared their outrage as Russian prosecutors refused to blame security forces for the deaths of 331 hostages during a police raid.

Security forces today freed an unspecified number of police officers from a police station where they had been caught in a battle with Islamic extremists, while security forces stormed a store held by the last rebel holdouts in Nalchik, the regional president’s press service said.

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.

Militants launched simultaneous attacks on police and government buildings in one of the main cities in Russia’s turbulent Caucasus region today, sparking battles involving heavy-arms fire and explosions that forced the evacuation of schools and left bodies in the streets.

Militants launched simultaneous attacks on police and government buildings in one of the main cities in Russia’s turbulent Caucasus region today, sparking battles involving heavy-arms fire and explosions that forced the evacuation of schools and left bodies in the streets.

Six Russian prosecutors today headed to the southern town of Beslan after President Vladimir Putin ordered an investigation of all the facts in last year’s bloody school hostage-taking, in which 331 victims died.

President Vladimir Putin acknowledged to a group of mothers from Beslan today that the Russian government could not guarantee complete security for its people in the face of terrorism.

A group of mothers and other relatives of victims of the Beslan school hostage tragedy flew to Moscow today for a long-anticipated meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

THOUSANDS of mourners carrying flowers filed into a gutted school gymnasium and then to a cemetery where rows of graves bore children’s names and pictures yesterday.

Mothers of victims of the Beslan school seizure, their grief mixed with fury a year after Russia’s deadliest hostage-taking raid, said today that the government had failed to learn from the tragedy and had left the country vulnerable to equally devastating terrorist attacks.

AN exhibition of moving photographs taken by children held hostage during Russia’s Beslan school massacre opened yesterday.

Fifteen women, including mothers of children killed in last year’s Beslan school seizure, left a courtroom today where they had staged an overnight protest to demand that high-level officials also be prosecuted in the case.

The head of a volatile region in southern Russia said authorities had prevented a terror attack against a school, the Interfax news agency reported today.

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.

The Chechen rebel leader who organised last year’s deadly hostage-taking attack on a Russian school admitted he was a terrorist and warned that he was planning more attacks, possibly a similar atrocity.

ARE there questions to be answered about the questions they set?

Militants who carried out last September’s bloody school hostage-taking in Beslan had also planned to detonate powerful car bombs in other cities in southern Russia, a suspect in the raid told a court today.

THE world stooped to a new level of brutality last year with increasingly shocking acts of terrorism, Amnesty International said yesterday.

Russian prosecutors are resuming their case today against Nur-Pashi Kulayev, the only man to go on trial for the Beslan school raid that killed more than 330 people.

SURVIVORS of the Beslan school hostage crisis and relatives of the dead crammed into a courtroom yesterday to catch a glimpse of the only man to go on trial for the terror attack.

Russian security services today killed a prominent Chechen rebel wanted for a series of planned chemical attacks, Russian news agencies reported, citing the top spokesman for Russian forces in Chechnya.

The first trial following the bloody school siege in the southern Russian town of Beslan, in which more than 330 hostages, most of them children, were killed, begins today.

AUTHORITIES called off classes yesterday at an elementary school in Beslan, the southern Russian town that suffered a deadly hostage-taking at another school eight months ago, because of a suspicious-looking object found at the school.