Force ruled out in Russian siege
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Russian authorities say they will not use force to rescue hundreds of hostages held in a school in North Ossetia.
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BESLAN, Russia  - 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.
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President Vladimir Putin rejected calls  to soften his Chechnya policy after last week's school hostage  siege, in which at least 335 people died, and said he would not  talk to Chechen separatists.
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Chechnya's Kremlin-backed government on Thursday dismissed as a bluff a report on a Web site linked to separatist rebels that top leaders of the insurgency have called for a unilateral cease-fire in February.
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Russia said Friday it could not rule out freezing its participation in a treaty limiting non-nuclear heavy weaponry around Europe after its attempt to overhaul the accord was rebuffed in what a diplomat called "fine, polite, elegant lip service."
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The three-day hostage siege at a school in southern Russia ended in chaos and bloodshed Friday, after witnesses said Chechen militants set off bombs and Russian commandos stormed the building. Hostages fled in terror, many of them children who were half-naked and covered in blood. Officials estimated the death toll at more than 200.
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MOSCOW  - Ongoing confusion over exactly how many people were taken hostage during a deadly siege at a southern Russia school is delaying the distribution of more than &#36;20 million in charity aid, officials said Thursday.
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Russia threw up a blockade against  Georgia on Monday after Tbilisi's release of four Russian  soldiers accused of spying failed to defuse the worst crisis in  years between the ex-Soviet neighbors.
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Security forces bungled the handling of  Russia's worst hostage drama because nobody was in charge and  special forces were not ready when the shooting started,  security analysts said on Monday.
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BESLAN, Russia  - Russia began counting the cost  on Saturday at the end of a siege of a school captured by  Chechen gunmen which killed at least 200 people and cast fresh  doubts on Moscow's policy in the turbulent region.
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The operation to end the school hostage crisis in Russia is over but more than 200 people have died after troops stormed the building.
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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.
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Russia has suspended its participation  in a key pact limiting conventional forces in Europe through a  decree signed by President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said in  a statement on Saturday.
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Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili  has dismissed sharp words by Russian President Vladimir Putin,  saying Moscow was unlikely to use force to free four Russian  officers whose arrest for spying has sparked a crisis.
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TBILISI -- The commander of Russian military forces in Georgia said yesterday his troops had been put on high alert and ordered to use lethal force to defend their bases, amid mounting tensions over the arrest of four Russian military officers accused of spying. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, denounced the Georgian authorities' arrests as ``state terrorism" and blamed unidentified ...
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Russia has suspended its participation in a key pact limiting conventional forces in Europe through a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said in a statement on Saturday.
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Armed attackers holding up to 400 people at a school in southern Russia&#39;s North Ossetia republic have refused to conduct talks with a regional Islamic leader, the Itar-Tass news agency said Wednesday.