51.   Senior officials from Russia and breakaway Chechnya met Thursday for a fresh round of talks aimed at resolving the political status of the rebel Muslim republic.

52.   Security was tightened across Chechnya on Tuesday after a deadly car bomb attack, while officials said elections in the rebel republic would go ahead as planned this month.

53.   SLEPTSOVSK, Russia -- Russian air attacks on villages throughout Chechnya are limiting humanitarian relief efforts almost exclusively to areas outside the rebel republic.

54.   The attacks underline the difficulty that Russian forces have had in trying to bring the rebel republic under control nearly two years after ground forces entered.

55.   The attack followed a night of clashes across the rebel republic.

56.   The commander of Russian troops in Chechnya says Thursday that his forces, though gaining, have a long way to go to control all of the rebel republic.

57.   The Commonwealth of Independent States agreed in January to impose the blockade against the rebel republic.

58.   The Federal Security Service on Thursday denied Chechen allegations that it was behind the murder of six Red Cross workers in the rebel republic last month.

59.   The government of the rebel republic claimed the long-expected Russian storming of Grozny was under way.

60.   The Kremlin also sees the agreement as a means of maintaining some control over the rebel republic.