Chechen blast kills four

Reports from Chechnya say a bomb planted yesterday in a market in the capital, Grozny, killed three policemen and a civilian.

Police had evacuated the area after a suspicious parcel was spotted in the market, but a woman approached the package despite police warnings.

The bomb exploded when the three officers went forward to restrain her. Yesterday, the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, Alvaro Gil-Robles, described Chechnya as a wasteland of despair, despite some recent improvement in conditions there.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service