An honored guest at Saddam's birthday party last year, Zhirinovsky once likened U.S. bombing raids against Iraq to Hitler's treatment of the Jews.

Former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov on Tuesday called on the Kremlin to start new negotiations with rebels in Chechnya.

Security Council chief Vladimir Rushailo was flown to Moscow for medical treatment Tuesday after sustaining injuries in a car accident in which five people were killed.

A blanket of smog returned to Moscow on Tuesday morning after a brief respite Monday, but the air cleared up by afternoon and was expected to remain clear Wednesday.

A new policy stating that women cannot wear head scarves in thier passport photos has tested the limits of Russia's tolerance for the rebirth of Islam inside its borders.

MSF in Ingushetia MOSCOW (AP) -- International aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres said it was resuming operations Tuesday in Ingushetia after a four-week suspension following the kidnapping of one of the group's employees. Arjan Erkel, a Dutch citizen who heads the group's mission in Dagestan, was kidnapped Aug. 12. The group halted work in Ingushetia and Dagestan after Erkel's kidnapping. Operations in Chechnya had already been suspended to protest the kidnapping there of a Russian aid worker. MSF said it was resuming work in Ingushetia ""for the sake of the thousands of civilians in the republic who are in need of assistance after nearly a month of a suspension of activities."" Activities in Dagestan and Chechnya remain suspended, MSF said.

A luxury express train jumped the tracks on a bridge over a river in eastern India overnight, killing at least 50 people in what a minister and rail officials said was an act of sabotage.

Iraq on Tuesday called on Arabs to strike U.S. interests in the Middle East if Washington attacked Baghdad, and the foreign minister denied his country was trying to produce nuclear bombs.

On Nov. 29, 1999, Mohamed Atta boarded a flight from Istanbul to Karachi, Pakistan. His final destination was an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan.