HICKS, DAVID, Australia, 34. RUHANI, GHOLAM, Afghanistan, 31. WASIQ, ABDUL HAQ, Afghanistan, 35. AL MATRAFI, ABDALLAH AIZA, Saudi Arabia, 41. NOORI, MULLAH NORULLAH, Afghanistan, 39. FAZL, MULLAH MOHAMMAD, Afghanistan, 39. RASOUL, ABDULLAH GULAM, Afghanistan, 33. YASSER, HIMDY, Saudi Arabia / USA, 26. SATTAR, ABDUL, Pakistan, 24. NAFEESI, ABDUL SATAR, Pakistan, 35. USMAN, SHABIDZADA, Pakistan, 24. MOHAMED, FAHED NASSER, Saudi Arabia, 24.

The bodies of two women, both killed by alligators, were found less than a week after a similar death in Florida, a state that had seen just 17 confirmed fatal attacks by the animals in the previous 57 years.

Russia has been accusedof presiding over an orgy of kidnapping, torture and murder in the breakaway republic of Chechnya and of forcing the region's cowed inhabitants to live in a climate of "fear and intimidation".

The most senior Russian army officer to have been convicted of war crimes in Chechnya was put forward for a presidential pardon yesterday, less than 18 months after he was found guilty of strangling an 18-year-old Chechen woman.

A Chechen separatist envoy to Britain warned yesterday that there would be more massacres such as the one in Beslan unless President Vladimir Putin changed his policies.

Who were the hostage-takers?

Nothing sums up Russia's failure in the troubled southern region of Chechnya more pointedly than the coincidence of two developments yesterday. The first was the announcement that President Putin's choice, Alu Alkhanov, had been elected Chechnya's new president by a landslide. The second was confirmation from Russia's security services that simultaneous plane crashes five days before the election were caused by explosives - most likely detonated by Chechen women suicide bombers.

Russian forces in Chechnya were yesterday accused of operating South American-style death squads which routinely target innocent civilians.

Russia's unofficial war in Chechnya spilled over into a neighbouring republic yesterday after 200 heavily armed men went on a bloody spree in the republic of Ingushetia, killing 57 people dead and wounding many more.

President Vladimir Putin tried to reassert Moscow's faltering grip on Chechnya yesterday by paying a surprise visit to the republic two days after his chief ally in the region was blown up.