MASKHADOV SETS UP ANTI-KIDNAP SQUAD.

Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov yesterday gave the Chechen police 24 hours to come up with information on the whereabouts of two British aid workers and to set up a new police unit with "unlimited" powers to track down kidnappers and drug-smugglers. The British couple — who had been in Chechnya for a month working for an organization giving medical help to children hurt during the war — was kidnapped in Djohar-gala on the evening of July 3. It is believed that they are being held for ransom. (BBC World Service, July 5)

Moscow Says Spies Are Proliferating…