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MOSCOW, May 3 (Itar-Tass) - Lithuanian border guards detained on Monday a group of Chechens crossing into Lithuania from Belarus. Thee men, two women and six young children tried to cross the border, border service department official Gedrus Mishutis told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. He denied the media reports alleging that the detained Chechens asked Lithuanian authorities for temporary asylum. The investigation has been begun into the three men who were placed in a detention ward. A large sum of the foreign currency was found on them during the detention. The women and children were accommodated at centre of refugee registration...

IRAQ - U.S. soldiers have detained in Iraq two Russian citizens among over 1,000 foreigners, Russian Information Agency Novosti reported. The other detainees are from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Yemen. A special committee including officials from the Human Rights, Interior and Justice Ministries, and of the coalition command will consider the cases of the detained foreigners, Amin said. He noted that Iraq was not going to extradite the detainees to their home countries. The U.S.-led forces have been fighting a guerilla war against local and foreign insurgents in Iraq since toppling Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003. Seven Russian...

About 300 Chechen gunmen have penetrated into Iraqi territory to fight against the Western coalition forces, a source in the Italian intelligence services was quoted by news site ANSA.it as saying. The Italian military contingent deployed in the area of Al-Nasiriyah may be one of the main targets of the Chechen gunmen, Itar-Tass, citing the Italian news agency, reported. According to the Italian intelligence source, the Chechens have been in touch with the local extremists fighting near the residential area of Suk al-Shuyuk. The head of the Italian Army’s General Staff, General Giulio Fraticelli, who heads the Italian Army’s...

An expelled military college student who converted to Islam is suspected of organizing several terrorist attacks claimed by Chechen rebels, including the Moscow metro blast in February that killed at least 42 people, Vremya Novostei reported Thursday. Pavel Kosolapov, an ethnic Russian from the Volgograd region, was expelled from a Rostov military college in the late 1990s for breaking rules and later recruited by Chechens living in Volgograd to fight against federal troops in Chechnya, the newspaper said, citing Federal Security Service investigators. In Chechnya he converted to Islam, received training from Arab instructors, and was picked by rebel warlord...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Two gunmen thought to be Albanians hijacked a Greek bus with 26 passengers on Wednesday and demanded a $1 million ransom and a plane to fly them to Russia. Hundreds of police officers, snipers in camouflage attire and special forces took up positions around the vehicle. A hostage on board the bus said the gunmen had explosives. About five hours after the 6:00 a.m. hijack, five hostages -- three women and two men -- were freed by the gunmen. Several hours later, two more hostages, a man and a woman, were released leaving 19 hostages aboard. After...

GROZNY, October 13 (Itar-Tass) - Ten bases of Chechen militants have been discovered in Chechnya’s neighboring republic of Ingushetia over the past ten days, an army general told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. Major General Ilya Shabalkin from the headquarters for control over the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus, said militants had been hiding in woodland areas of the Sunzha and Nazran districts. A big number of weapons, ammunition, foodstuffs and medicines have been found in caches there. Shabalkin believes these were the bases of gunmen from the group of Chechen field commander Doku Umarov, who are trying to find new...

Theater administrators Marina Krylova, left, and Svetlana Kozyrevskaya light candles in front of a Moscow theater, site of the hostage crisis in October. (AP) MOSCOW - One year ago, on October 23, 2002, Chechen terrorists seized a Moscow theater packed with more than 900 people. Let us recall what happened. At about 10 p.m., Chechen terrorists drove up to the theater and seized it. It was during the performance of the popular musical “Nord Ost”. 912 people were held hostage on October 23-26, while talks were held with the authorities. During these several days, the terrorists shot five hostages...

GROZNY - Chechen rebels seem to have adopted a new tactic for intimidating local residents. Schoolchildren are now on their target list. The Federal Security Service has recently prevented a terrorist act against Chechen schoolchildren. Bandits planned to throw an assault grenade at a school in the Chechen capital of Grozny. The attack was scheduled for September 1, the first school day. On Monday, rebels made another attempt. Law enforcement officials found a F-1 assault grenade at School No. 26 of Grozny, and disarmed it. According to the Regional Command Center for the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus, the...

VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia -- Federal forces on Thursday battled a group of Chechen rebels who were heading from Ingushetia toward North Ossetia, the North Ossetian Interior Ministry said. Ministry spokesman Alan Doyev said the military pushed the group of about 10 rebels back into Ingushetia's forested mountains near the village of Galashki. There was no report on casualties. Officials in both North Ossetia and Ingushetia said the fighting ended later Thursday, in an apparent indication that the rebels had fled. Chechen rebels have mounted similar incursions into regions neighboring Chechnya and launched suicide bomb attacks as part of their campaign...

VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) -- One asylum seeker died and at least 14 others were injured in an inter-ethnic brawl that broke out in Austria's largest reception center for refugees Saturday night, police said Sunday. Almost 100 people were involved in the fight between Chechens and Moldovans living in the Traiskirchen camp south of Vienna and home to 1,000 asylum seekers. A 24-year-old Chechen man died from head injuries sustained during the fight. It took more than 100 police officers to restore order and two men were arrested in connection with the death.

Police suspect that a middle-aged woman helped organize the double suicide bombings at a rock concert on July 5 and the botched attack on a downtown restaurant last Wednesday, Kommersant reported Monday. Zarema Muzhikhoyeva, the Chechen woman arrested after the failed bombing on 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Ulitsa, has told investigators that a witness being sought in connection with the rock concert attack prepared her for her attack, the newspaper said. She recognized the woman after being shown a police composite sketch of the witness. In a further sign that authorities believe the attacks are linked, the Prosecutor General's Office on Monday...

[Presenter] Mass arrests of Chechens have started in Tbilisi. Since this morning, ethnic Chechens are being taken to district police departments. At 0730 [0330 gmt] [leader of the Chechen Diaspora in Georgia] Khizri Aldamov's family were apprehended at their home. Aldamov's family were taken to the Isani-Samgori police department, but later Khizri Aldamov himself was rushed to hospital No 9 with a heart attack. After that the members of the family of the president of the Chechen Diaspora were freed. [Passage omitted: family interviewed]Our correspondent Tiko Peikrishvili is speaking live form hospital No 9. Tiko, in what condition is Aldamov...

Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP Vladimir Udalov attending a ceremony Thursday marking the second anniversary of the explosion that killed 13 in the Pushkin Square underpass. Udalov's 18-year-old daughter died in the blast. New Details, No Answers in 2000 BlastBy Nabi Abdullaev Staff Writer Igor Tabakov / MTA passerby glancing at the new memorial Wednesday to those who died in the 2000 explosion in the Pushkin Square underpass. On the eve of the second anniversary of the blast in the Pushkin Square underpass that killed 13, city prosecutors released new details about how the attack was staged but acknowledged that they...