Georgia’s breakaway province of South Ossetia said today it will eventually become Russian territory.

THE United Nations refugee agency’s first airlift has arrived in Georgia.

RUSSIAN jets staged raids and its forces moved deeper into Georgian territory yesterday as Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin denounced the US for helping Georgia.

Russia invaded Georgia today sending forces beyond the two breakaway provinces it now controls.

Russia battled Georgian forces on land and sea, reports said today, despite a Georgian ceasefire offer and its claim to be withdrawing from South Ossetia, the separatist province ravaged by days of intense fighting.

Russia expanded its bombing blitz today against Georgia, targeting the country’s capital for the first time.

Russian tanks and troops rumbled into the separatist Georgian province of South Ossetia today and Russian warplanes bombed a Georgian town – a major surge in border fighting that has killed hundreds of civilians in just two days and left some towns in smouldering ruins.

Russia sent hundreds of tanks and troops into the separatist province of South Ossetia and bombed Georgian towns today in a major escalation of the conflict that has left scores of civilians dead and wounded.

The capital of Georgia’s separatist region of South Ossetia came under heavy fire early today, just hours after Georgia’s president declared a unilateral ceasefire.

Republic of Georgia authorities, helped by the CIA, set up a sting operation that led to the arrest of Russian who tried to sell nuclear-bomb grade uranium in a plastic bag in his jacket pocket, a government minister revealed today.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 today, commemorating the anniversary of the hostage tragedy that claimed 331 lives.

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.

Radical Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev today claimed in an internet posting that Russian security services bore responsibility for last year’s bloody Beslan school siege by allegedly providing the attackers a safe corridor through the region in an attempt to trap them.

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.

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.

Russian prosecutors say they have arrested four people in connection with the school siege in Beslan last year, which left more than 330 people dead.

US President George W Bush is urging Russian President Vladimir Putin to reverse Moscow’s recent retreat from democratic reforms, while seeking to refresh his “close relationship” with his Russian counterpart.

Hundreds of Russian police and soldiers stormed an apartment building in a southern Russian city today, ending a two-day stand-off with a group of suspected Islamic extremists.

Distraught parents and grandparents of children killed in the Beslan school massacre last year blocked a busy route in southern Russia for a second day today in a call for the regional president to step down.

RESIDENTS of the grief-stricken Russian school siege town of Beslan marked the end of the 40-day mourning period for the hundreds of victims of the massacre yesterday.

Residents of the grief-stricken Russian school siege town marked the end of the traditional 40-day mourning period for the hundreds of victims of the massacre today.

Residents of the grief-stricken Russian school siege town marked the end of the formal 40 day mourning period for the hundreds of victims of the massacre today.

THE final day of the traditional 40-day mourning period for the victims of the bloody Russian school siege in Beslan is today.

The final day of the traditional 40 day mourning period for the victims of the bloody Russian school siege in Beslan is tomorrow.

The Russian parliament’s upper house wants new anti-terror legislation to include stricter penalties for people who aid terrorists and for officials whose negligence results in terrorist attacks, the Interfax news agency reported today.

Children returned to schools in the grief-stricken southern Russian town of Belsan today, two weeks after armed militants seized more than 1,200 hostages at a school in a raid that shocked the world.

TWO children who survived the Beslan school siege earlier this month have still not been identified.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev directed the hostage-taking raid on a school in southern Russia.

RUSSIAN soldiers fled as shooting broke out in the violence that ended the school siege and unprepared special forces were forced to borrow bullets from armed local people, it was claimed yesterday.

MOSCOW doctors have identified over 140 hostages who are in urgent need of psychiatric care and have warned of the possibility of many suicides.

Russian soldiers fled as shooting broke out in the violence that ended the school siege and unprepared special forces were forced to borrow bullets from armed locals ,it was claimed today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin performed a U-turn today – apparently responding to wide public dismay over the bloody school siege – and agreed to the formation of a parliamentary investigative commission.

Security officials have identified six of the militants who seized a school in southern Russia as Chechens, drawing a strong connection to the rebels who have been fighting Russian forces for years.

A YOUNG boy whose terror during the horrific Beslan school siege was captured on a shocking video filmed by terrorists was flying to Moscow today for treatment.

CHECHEN and Ingush militants who took part in last week’s deadly school siege in Russia were yesterday identified.

The accordion Sima Alikova once played lies mute on a bed in her family’s living room, amid a pile of clothes, pictures, toys and even a toothbrush that she and her nine-year-old daughter, Irina, once used.

The president of North Ossetia, the Russian region where more than 350 people were killed after terrorists seized hostages in a school, has ordered his government to quit.