Mothers of Russian soldiers appeal to Chechen rebels to begin peace talks
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MOSCOW  - A group of Russian mothers, desperate for peace in Chechnya, told rebels in the breakaway region Wednesday they were ready to mediate peace between the government and militants fighting a decade-long battle for independence.
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Description: Tensions between Russia and Chechnya escalated with the rebel seizure of a school in Beslan earlier this month. Chechen separatists claim the violence stems from decades of abuse by Russian authorities seeking to take control of the region.
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Chechen rebels, in a swift reply to a  Russian bounty offer for their leaders, promised on Thursday to  give $20 million to anyone helping them to capture President  Vladimir Putin.
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NAZRAN, Russia  - Rebels in Chechnya have not  attacked Russian forces in the three days since the rebels'  fugitive leader ordered a cease-fire, a source in the  mountainous region's pro-Moscow police said on Sunday.
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BESLAN, Russia  - A prominent doctor negotiated on  Thursday with gunmen holding hundreds of children, parents and  teachers for a second day under threat of death in a school  near Russia's rebel Chechnya region.
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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Saturday to protest against the war in Chechnya, an action that coincided with the second anniversary of the seizure of a crowded Moscow theater by Chechen rebels.
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MOSCOW - The deadly Chechen militant attack on a school in southern Russia has produced a split in the rebel cause, Russian officials claimed on Saturday.    In what was an apparent attempt to exploit the division, Russia announced earlier this week that it would pay $10 million for information leading to the arrest of the top Chechen rebel leaders, Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov...
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Mothers of Russian children killed in the Beslan school siege three years ago rejected Kremlin promises on Saturday of a thorough investigation, saying the government was complicit in the deaths.
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MOSCOW - Russia offered more than $10 million for information that helps "neutralize" two well-known rebel leaders from breakaway Chechnya accused of planning the school hostage standoff that killed at least 326 people last week, news agencies reported Wednesday.    The reports of the reward came a day after Russians got a horrific glimpse of the drama from video footage filmed by the militants who captured the school in southern Russia...
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Tokyo - The parents of a 24-year-old Japanese traveller who was kidnapped and beheaded in Iraq said on Sunday they hoped for peace in the insurgency-torn country and apologised for the trouble caused by the crisis.
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Thousands of Russian soldiers and Chechen police are on round-the-clock vigils. Russian forces claim to have killed dozens of separatist fighters. Chechen police have orders to open fire on anyone wearing a mask.
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BOGOTA, Colombia  - The mother of one of three  American contractors abducted by guerrillas in Colombia 18  months ago on Tuesday called on President Alvaro Uribe to  negotiate his release and that of other kidnapping victims  throughout the country.
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Russian forces detained several relatives of a Chechen rebel leader during the height of last week's school hostage standoff, family members said.
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ST PETERSBURG, Russia  - Russia reburied the   mother of its last tsar on Thursday nearly 90 years after the   Bolshevik revolution forced her into exile, in a homecoming the   country hopes will help reconcile it with its bloody past.
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VEDENO, Russia  - At first the woman standing in the muddy, snow-caked hospital yard of a Chechen mountain town seemed calm.
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As Chechen guerrillas increasingly recruit female suicide bombers, Russian forces are sweeping through Chechnya abducting women from their homes as well as men, according to residents and human rights investigators.
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The mother of Russia's  last tsar, forced into exile by the Bolshevik revolution, was  to be laid to rest next to her family on Thursday, as Russia  tries to make peace with its dark past.