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Kuwaiti MP salutes 'hero'

KUWAIT CITY: An MP has praised as a "hero" a Kuwaiti killed fighting alongside Chechen rebels during an attack on Russian forces in the breakaway republic, newspapers reported on Saturday.

Salem al-Ajmi was "a hero who sacrificed his life in the fields of Jihad," or Islamic holy war, Islamist MP Walid al-Tabtabai said, quoted by the Arab Times.

Criminal charges against Maskhadov

MOSCOW: Moscow is investigating Chechnya's separatist President Aslan Maskhadov for armed insurrection, the general prosecutor's office for the North Caucasus said on Friday. Maskhadov faces a potential charge under article 279 of the Russian criminal code of fomenting "armed revolt," chief prosecutor for the North Caucasus, Yury Biriukov, told Interfax news agency.ÑAFP