Relatives of those who died in the bloody hostage siege four years ago at a Moscow theatre said they plan to sue officials for negligence over the bungled rescue operation.

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

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.

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.

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov’s killing represents a rare propaganda victory for President Vladimir Putin and his hard-line approach to battling separatists.

CHECHEN rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, blamed by Russia for last year's school hostage slaughter, has been killed during an army raid, Russian President Vladimir Putin was told yesterday.

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has been killed during a “special operation” by Russian forces, a spokesman said today.

Militants appear to have planned their seizure of a Russian school carefully, starting months earlier and sneaking weapons into the building in advance.

MILITARY chiefs have been struggling to bring control to the chaotic aftermath of the siege at a school in southern Russia, an expert said.

EVERY parent, especially anyone with a child at school, will identify intensely with the grief of Russian families as the death toll mounts after the violent and bloody ending of the school hostage crisis.

Russian security officials accused Shamil Basayev of planning the seizure of the school with al-Qaida financing, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported today.

Military chiefs have been struggling to bring control to the chaotic aftermath of the siege at a school in southern Russia, an expert said today.

Commandos stormed the Russian siege school today as near-naked children fled the building amid explosions and gunfire.

Heavy gunfire could still be heard from around the school in Russia where children and adults were being held hostage since Wednesday, although the ITAR-Tass news agency reported that troops were in full control of the building.

At least 31 women and child hostages were released from the southern Russian siege school this afternoon, not long after suicide assailants had fired rocket propelled grenades at cars.

Children and female hostages were released from the southern Russian siege school this afternoon, not long after suicide assailants had fired rocket-propelled grenades at cars.

Heavily armed terrorists, many wearing belts packed with explosives, held more than 350 hostages, including children, through the night at a Russian school. Up to 16 people were thought to have died so far in the attack.

CHECHNYA presents a formidable challenge to the media outlets operating there and journalists attempting to cover events on the ground.

DISTRAUGHT Moscow residents laid flowers yesterday outside a subway station where a suicide bomber killed 10 people.

TERRORISM has entered a new and brutal era when school children, parents and teachers are taken hostage.

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

Armed men wrapped in suicide-bomb belts seized a school in the Russian region of North Ossetia today and were holding hundreds of hostages, including some 200 children.

The failure to provide rapid medical care to hostages after security forces ended the Chechen rebel seizure of a Moscow theatre in 2002 caused most of the deaths, a senior Russian MP said today.

FRANCE last night said it has received threats of a possible attack against French interests from an Islamist group apparently named after a Chechen guerrilla killed in a Moscow hostage-taking in 2002.

Fears of a new wave of terrorism in Moscow have been heightened as a woman suicide bomber struck in the heart of the city today, killing five people.

As Moscow reeled from twin suicide bombings that killed 15 people at a weekend rock concert, President Vladimir Putin today vowed that Russia would never give in to terrorism.

At least 15 people were killed today when explosions that police blamed initially on terrorists roared through the area around a rock festival on Moscow’s outskirts, news reports said.

Faced with an uphill legal battle to win damages for victims of last autumn’s terrorist raid on a Moscow theatre, their lawyer has offered a cut price out-of-court deal

A Moscow court today rejected six of the 24 lawsuits filed against the city government for moral and material damages suffered in the terrorist seizure of a Moscow theatre.

Suicide bombers in a pair of trucks roared up to the headquarters of the Kremlin-backed government in rebel Chechnya and blew them up today, killing at least 65 people and wounding more than 60.

A powerful truck bomb is being blamed for the blast which ripped through the Chechen government headquarters in the regional capital Grozny today, killing at least 40 people.

Two suspected Chechen suicide bombers wearing belts laden with explosives were arrested in Moscow today.

Pakistani police are questioning a Sudanese man they suspect delivered a tape-recording of Osama bin Laden to a television reporter in Islamabad.

UEFA president Lennart Johansson has furiously denied making claims which would influence the voting for the European Championships in 2008.

Russian President Vladimir Putin today vetoed a parliamentary move that would have sharply reduced media ability to report on counter-terrorism operations and rebel activities.

Tony Blair says security services are warning on an almost daily basis of terrorist threats to a wide range of targets in the UK.

A doctor who helped treat the Moscow theatre hostages today defended the use of gas as the only possible solution to the crisis.

Another woman taken hostage in the Moscow theatre siege has died, bringing the death toll to 120.

Russian television has aired film it says was recorded by the Chechen gunmen inside the Moscow theatre they seized last month.

RUSSIA’S lower house of parliament yesterday passed a bill that would severely curb news coverage of anti-terrorist operations and prohibit the media from carrying rebel statements.

Russia’s lower house of parliament today passed a bill that would severely curb news coverage of anti-terrorist operations and prohibit the media from carrying rebel statements.

A SUSPECTED member of a Chechen gang was arrested in Moscow while carrying nearly 18lb of mercury, and authorities believe he intended to use the poison in a terror attack, police said yesterday.

Moscow police have arrested a suspected Chechen rebel caught with a large amount of poisonous mercury, local reports said today.

Russia’s top health official today revealed that the gas used in the special forces storming of a Moscow theatre held by dozens of gunmen was based on Fentanyl, a fast-acting opiate that has many medical applications.