21.   Fighting flared up Tuesday between Russian forces and separatist fighters after the rebels refused to free all their Russian prisoners, news reports said.

22.   Five separatist fighters were taken prisoner.

23.   Four separatist fighters presumed to be Arab mercenaries were killed in clashes in the southern mountains of Chechnya on Thursday, Chechen police said.

24.   Georgian police and separatist Abkhazian fighters exchanged gunfire Wednesday at a checkpoint inside a security zone separating the two sides, Georgian officials said.

25.   Ghani accused government forces of shielding renegade militants who were killing separatist fighters after breaking ranks with them.

26.   He went to the negotiating table after separatist fighters handed Russian troops yet another humiliating defeats by overrunning Grozny, the Chechen capital.

27.   He went to the negotiating table after separatist fighters handed Russian troops yet another humiliating defeat by overrunning Grozny, the Chechen capital.

28.   Hundreds of troops and police searched northeastern districts of Grozny on Thursday for separatist fighters, Chechen officials said.

29.   In a typical attack, made at a news conference a year ago, Zhirinovsky accused Masyuk of taking money from Chechen separatist fighters in exchange for favorable coverage.

30.   In Chechnya on Tuesday, Russian troops fought a three-hour battle before dawn with separatist fighters, who used small arms and grenade launchers.