Russia offers plastic surgery to informers

Stepping up their hunt for their biggest enemy, Russia’s security services today offered to pay for plastic surgery for anyone who gives information leading to the killing or capture of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev.

Basayev, a radical Islamic warlord who claimed responsibility for the Beslan school seizure and other terror attacks, is now seen as the most powerful rebel figure in Chechnya after a little-known former Islamic court judge replaced Maskhadov as the militants’ leader.