Chechnya to mobilise as border zone is shelled

Chechnya's President Aslan Maskhadov has declared a state of general mobilisation as Russian jets and artillery continued to pound areas on the frontier between Chechnya and Dagestan. The Chechen authorities claim that 150 people have been killed in indiscriminate attacks while Russian federal forces say that they have accurately targeted training camps from which militants have made incursions into Dagestan.

Mr Maskhadov, who commanded the Chechen forces which defeated Russian troops in the Chechen war called on every able-bodied male in the breakaway republic to arm himself in defence of what is known as the Republic of Ichkeria. He also called on the militant rebels led by warlord Shamil Basayev to retreat from Dagestan before they brought "misfortune on the entire Chechen people." Mr Maskhadov, though supported by the majority of Chechens, has lost control of large sections of the region to warlords, bandits and rebel forces over which he appears to have little or no control. He has called several times for meetings with President Boris Yeltsin in an attempt to negotiate a settlement but each proposed meeting has been called off.

In Moscow preparations were being made for today's day of mourning for more than 150 people who lost their lives in explosions in the capital and the Dagestani town of Buinaksk. The orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexiy II, will head a multi-denominational service in the capital. The number of bodies recovered from the apartment block which was destroyed by an explosion in south-east Moscow rose to 92 at the weekend. Two men connected with a company called Delko-2 which had offices on the first floor of the building are being questioned by police in connection with the explosion, a third man is being sought, and 13 others have been arrested.

Three Russian air force members were killed at the weekend in Dagestan in an incident seen throughout Russia on television when their helicopter was shot down while on a reconnaissance mission near the Dagestani village of Duchi. The men managed to parachute form the damaged helicopter but were shot dead by rebels as they slowly and defencelessly floated to the ground.

Heavy fighting continued elsewhere in the region with Russian aircraft and artillery pounding the remaining villages held by the rebels under the command of Basayev and the Arab militant, Khattab.

In a separate development the Kremlin has warned the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera to stop publishing "fabrications" or face "the full rigour of international law." The newspaper has carried a series of reports alleging extreme corruption on the part of Mr Yeltsin, his family and associates in association with a Swiss construction and engineering company called Mabetex which has won a large number of government contracts in Russia.

The Swiss magazine L'Illustre published an interview at the weekend with the chief executive of Mabetex, Mr Bahxet Pacolli, who admitted, for the first time, that documents connected with Mr Yeltsin and his two daughters had been taken from his office by the Swiss prosecutor general's office. Mr Pacolli said he was not responsible for actions that may have been taken by his employees.

Russian hackers breached US government computers and may have snatched classified naval codes and information on missile-guided systems, Newsweek reported in its latest issue.

The magazine, quoting intelligence sources, said the suspects were elite cyber-spooks from the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The hackers targeted computer systems at the Defence and Energy Departments, military contractors and leading civilian universities.

Pentagon officials, describing the intrusions as "sophisticated, patient and persistent", said they began in January and were almost immediately detected by US security agents who traced them back to computers in Russia and developed counter-measures.