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.

Georgia pulled its embattled troops out of the disputed province of South Ossetia and agreed to a ceasefire today, submitting to Russia’s far superior firepower.

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

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.

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 continued reading the lengthy verdict in the trial of the sole suspected participant of the Beslan school attack which left 331 people dead, quoting horrific testimony of child hostages.

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 prosecutor today demanded the death penalty for the man alleged to be the only surviving attacker of the 2004 Beslan hostage seizure, in which more than 330 people died.

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.

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.

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.

Nur-Pashi Kulayev, the sole defendant in the trial over the Beslan school raid in southern Russia that killed more than 330 people, pleaded not guilty to all charges when he appeared in court in Vladikavkaz today.

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

SABINA MAMAYEVA’S father remembers helping his wounded daughter after she escaped from the mayhem of the Beslan school siege.

THE organisers of two separate appeals for the people of Beslan have raised an extraordinary €130,000 in just three days.

AS the rest of Russia mourned, there was no letup to the agony of the distraught families of Beslan.

Waving flags and banners, tens of thousands of Russians demonstrated against terrorism today, massing outside the Kremlin in response to government calls for solidarity after a series of deadly attacks that have killed more than 400 people.

Funeral processions filled the rainy streets of Beslan, carrying coffins large and small, as townspeople buried scores of victims of a carefully-planned school siege that prosecutors linked to a Chechen rebel leader.

A NUMB Russia observed the first of two days of national of mourning yesterday for the hundreds of victims of the school siege while criticism mounted on the government over its handling of the situation.

A numb Russia observed the first of two days of national of mourning today for the hundreds of victims of the school siege while criticism mounted on the government over its handling of the situation.

THE killing of more than 320 children, parents and teachers during the bloody end to a 53-hour school siege left barely a family untouched in the small Russian town of Beslan.

THE militants who seized a school in Russia, killing more than 350 people may have had help from local police, an official admitted yesterday.

THE sound of weeping mothers who lost their sons and daughters in Russia’s school siege drifted out of the homes of Beslan on Sunday as the first burials were held for some of the 338 people killed.

THE sound of weeping mothers who lost their sons and daughters in Russia’s school siege drifted out of the homes of Beslan yesterday as the first burials were held for some of the 338 people killed.

THE evening light fades from the charred shell of the gymnasium at School Number 1, and Vitaly throws his hands out wide and spits out a string of profanities.

There are conflicting reports coming out of Russia on the numbers of dead and injured.

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

Heavily-armed militants launched near-simultaneous overnight attacks against police headquarters, border guard stations and other government offices in Ingushetia, a Russian region bordering warring Chechnya, killing 46 people including three high-ranking regional officials.

Attackers armed with grenade- and rocket-launchers seized the Interior Ministry headquarters in Ingushetia, a Russian region bordering warring Chechnya, a ministry official said today.

A RUSSIAN architect has told investigators he may have stabbed to death an air traffic controller he blamed for the deaths of his wife and children in a mid-air plane collision, but could not remember doing so.

Voter turnout in Russia’s presidential election exceeded the 50% threshold needed to make the vote valid, Russian news agencies quoted Central Election Commission chief Alexander Veshnyakov as saying hours before polls closed today.

THE Russian man suspected of killing a Swiss air controller to avenge the death of his family in a mid-air collision was grief-stricken to the point of madness but did not publicly voice any threats, people who knew him said yesterday.

A car bomb attack near the main market of a Russian city on the border of the war-wracked republic of Chechnya has killed two people and injured up to 10.

A car bomb exploded today in the central market of Vladikavkaz, a southern Russian city near the war-wracked republic of Chechnya.

A suicide attacker rammed a truck packed with explosives through the gates of a Russian military hospital near Chechnya, destroying the building and killing at least 27 people, authorities said. One official put the death toll at 35.

A SUICIDE bomber destroyed a Russian military hospital near Chechnya yesterday, killing at least 20 people.

More than 100 people remained missing today following a devastating avalanche in southern Russia.

RESCUERS were yesterday picking through the trail of destruction left

Rescuers were today picking through the trail of destruction left by a huge chunk of glacier that crashed down a mountainside in southern Russia, killing as many as 150 people.

A bomb which tore through a market in Russia killed seven and injured 45, officials have confirmed.

At least five people are dead after an explosion at a market in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz.