Gunmen attack Chechen parliament in Grozny, six killed

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LONDON: Policemen patrol with a boat on River Thames here Monday, four days before the start of the 2012 London Olympic Games. Seven years in the making, costing £9.3 billion ($14.5 billion) and featuring 10,490 athletes, the London Olympics opens on July

At least six people have been killed and several others injured in an attack on the parliament in the restive Russian republic of Chechnya, report agencies.
Two security personnel and a civilian worker died after militants ambushed the building in the capital, Grozny. Reports say two attackers blew themselves up and at least one other also died.
Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov is quoted as saying the operation is over and all militants have been killed.
Militants struck at around 0845 (0445 GMT), attacking policemen guarding the building, Mr Kadyrov told Russian news agency Interfax.
"As a result of co-ordinated actions, a special operation lasting 15-20 minutes was carried out to eliminate the militants and free the MPs and technical staff who were inside," he said.
He added that all the deputies inside the parliament were alive and safe, after being evacuated from parliament. Russian news agencies say at least 10 people were injured in the violence.
The attack began at the start of the working day, as deputies were arriving at parliament, reports the BBC's Tom Esselmont in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
RIA news agency said a suicide bomber had detonated explosives just outside parliament and that two armed insurgents had then engaged in a gun battle with guards around the building. Interfax news agency said the shooting was continuing.
The Kremlin is struggling to contain a growing Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, a strip of impoverished, ethnically mixed provinces along predominantly Orthodox Christian Russia's southern border.
The Kremlin had declared victory in its battle with Chechen separatists, but analysts say a wave of shootings and bombings over recent months shows Moscow has failed to tame the growing insurgency.
Local leaders say it is fuelled by desperate poverty, clan rivalries, rampant corruption, Islamism and heavy-handed tactics by law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile: Security forces killed insurgents who attacked parliament in Russia's Chechnya region on Tuesday, ending the assault, Kremlin-backed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and law enfoprcement agencies said. Russia's federal Investigative Committee said four attackers were killed.