Chechnya Russia

About 50 militants surrendered and handed over their weapons in a ceremony led by Chechnya's prime minister, who said rebel numbers were dwindling in the war-ravaged region, officials said. The ceremony in Chechnya's second-largest city, Gudermes, was the latest step in a campaign by Moscow-backed Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov to cast himself as a leader bringing peace to the republic after a separatist conflict that began in 1994.

\o7 \f7 In a room once used for baptisms, the Russian Orthodox matrons of St. Michael the Archangel Church have erected plywood walls and adorned them with icons. The sanctuary next door suffered bomb damage in Chechnya's war and is slowly being rebuilt. But for whom? Hardly anyone shows up anymore. Slavic Russia absorbed dozens of non-Slavic ethnic groups as it expanded along its vast southern and eastern fringes.

After years of war in the separatist republic of Chechnya, Russia faces an offer that politically is almost as difficult: an end to the fighting. Rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov confirmed Monday that he had ordered a unilateral cease-fire and appointed an emissary to attend peace talks on the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people since 1994.

Nine Russian soldiers were killed and three were injured when a reinforced concrete wall collapsed on them during a clash with rebels in Chechnya, a military spokesman said. Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin said it was unclear what had caused the collapse Monday night in the village of Prigorodnoye, four miles south of Grozny.

Prosecutors charged an ethnic Chechen with murder in last year's slaying of an American journalist, Russian media reported. Muslim Ibragimov, also known as Kazbek Dukuzov, was accused of involvement in the contract slaying of Paul Klebnikov, 41, editor of Forbes magazine's Russian edition, the Interfax and Itar-Tass news agencies reported, citing the prosecutor general's office. Klebnikov was gunned down July 9 outside his office.

It was a little after 6 a.m. when the "bandits," as they are officially known, burst into the house with police hot on their heels. Amid shouts, screams and the occasional burst of small-arms fire, 16 sleepy families in three adjoining houses tumbled into their bathrobes and slippers and out into the snow. The bandits holed up in the cluttered apartments. Police laid siege outside.

Peaceful cities around the world -- from Liverpool to Dakar to Shanghai -- stage biennial or triennial exhibitions of contemporary art. But what about embattled places too preoccupied with day-to-day existence to consider hosting art shows? What about Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, for example? "Emergency Biennale: A Suitcase From Paris to Grozny" has come to the rescue.

Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed in a Russian military attack Tuesday, a slaying likely to end any chance for a negotiated peace in the war-torn southern Russian republic. Maskhadov, 53, who served as Chechnya's president during a period of self-rule in the late 1990s, headed the anti-Russia Chechen resistance.

Rebels in Chechnya vowed Wednesday to carry on an Islamic "holy war" against Russian control of the republic, a day after separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov was slain by the military. However, Russian officials predicted that the death of the former Chechen president in an attack Tuesday would deal a sharp setback to rebels who are seeking independence for the predominantly Muslim republic. Aslambek Aslakhanov, an advisor to Russian President Vladimir V.

A radical Muslim judge emerged as the likely successor to Chechen rebel commander Aslan Maskhadov. Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev was backed by supporters of Maskhadov, who was killed in a Russian raid Tuesday, and by Chechen guerrilla leader Shamil Basayev. Some observers speculated that Sadulayev would be a figurehead while Basayev holds real power.