Но ВОТ ЭТО уже то, что действительно пишут!
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...a_theater_raid
Я сейчас попробую привести здесь полный текст...
World - AP Europe
Chechen Rebels Take Hundreds Hostage
29 minutes ago
By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - At least 40 armed Chechen rebels stormed a crowded theater and took hundreds of people hostage in the midst of a musical, threatening early Thursday to shoot their captives and blow up the building if Russian security forces attacked.
An American male was among the hostages, a U.S. Embassy official said, but no further details were available.
A loud explosion was heard at about 9:15 a.m. Thursday — hours after the siege began — but it was not clear whether it came from inside the theater, or what caused it. The building did not appear to have been damaged.
The rebels stormed the crowded theater in the midst of a musical, threatening early Thursday to shoot the captives and blow up the building if Russian security forces attacked.
Several hours after rebels rushed the theater, firing automatic weapons, they began communicating with Russian officials by cell phone. The hostage-takers demanded that Russia end the war in Chechnya (news - web sites), a southern region where the army is fighting Islamic separatists.
The talks eventually halted, and police appealed to the hostage-takers to answer their phones.
Some hostages released by the male and female rebels reported seeing pools of blood. But there was no confirmation of casualties at the theater in a working-class neighborhood of southeastern Moscow, about three miles from the Kremlin and the Red Square.
The rebels had automatic weapons, grenades, belts with explosives attached, mines and canisters of gasoline, lawmaker Yuli Rybakov said outside the theater. There was little water or food inside, he said. The raid occurred in wet, freezing weather.
One hostage told Echo of Moscow radio that the hostage-takers attached explosives to theater chairs, columns and walls, along the aisles, and to their own bodies.
The gunmen told national parliament member Aslanbek Aslakhanov from Chechnya, who was serving as a mediator, that they wanted Russian troops to withdraw from Chechnya and implement a cease-fire, he said. A pro-rebel Web site said Russia had seven days to begin its withdrawal or the theater and hostages would be blown up.
The raid brought home to the very heart of Russia a war seen as far-off by many Russians despite a growing number of military and civilian casualties. The Russian military has been especially tough on rebels, but several hostages, speaking by cell phone to Russian reporters, appealed to security forces not to use force in the Moscow siege.
"There are women, children, foreigners in here," cardiologist Maria Shkolnikova told REN TV. "We don't want the building to be stormed."
She said hostage-takers had lost family members in the war.
Shkolnikova said the hostage-takers asked to talk with the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders (news - web sites) and said foreigners could be released after the talks.
"People are close to a nervous breakdown," said Shkolnikova, adding that the hostages had been fed only some water and chocolate.
Citizens of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria, Australia and Germany also were confirmed to be among the hostages.
Russian security forces do not intend to storm the building unless the hostage-takers start killing their captives, said Gennady Gudkov, deputy chairman of the parliamentary Committee on Security. It could be days before the situation was resolved, he said, adding that 711 tickets were sold for the performance.
As dawn approached, dozens of Interior Ministry troops in full combat gear patrolled the area. Several armored personnel carriers were parked near the theater, while Russian snipers were spotted on rooftops near the theater, their weapons trained on the building.
Schools and kindergartens near the theater were closed and nearby hospitals prepared for any casualties.
Automatic weapons fire rang out on at least four separate occasions. Security forces were on high alert throughout the Russian capital and around power plants after the audacious attack, which appeared to be meticulously planned.
The drama was a blow for President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), who repeatedly has said Russia has the Chechnya situation under control. Putin scrapped planned trips to Germany and Portugal, his spokesman, Alexei Gromov, told the Interfax news agency. It was unclear whether Putin would attend a weekend summit in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, where he was to meet with President Bush (news - web sites).
While Putin's popularity remains high, recent opinion polls show declining public support for the war.
"We condemn what's happening in Chechnya," Shkolnikova told REN TV.
Moscow police spokesman Valery Gribakin said about 40-50 rebels were in the theater and they had released 100 women and children from the theater. The freed hostages were distraught, sobbing and shaking as they emerged from the building where they were watching a popular musical based on a romantic novel.
"The terrorists are demanding one thing — the end to the war in Chechnya," Gribakin said.
Police towed cars parked near the theater and evacuated patients from a nearby hospital.
Members of the Chechen community in Moscow have volunteered to replace the hostages, especially children, Gribakin said.
Those released did not see any dead bodies, but said the hostage-takers had beaten some audience members. Two pregnant women were later released.
Inside the theater, frantic hostages called families, television and radio stations on their cell phones, which started to run out of battery power early Thursday. Outside, worried Muscovites waited in the dark for news of their relatives.
Russian news reports said the rebels offered to release 50 more hostages if Akhmad Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya's Moscow-appointed administration, came to the theater.
ITAR-Tass said the gunmen were laying mines inside the theater. Other Russian media reports said the rebels threatened to shoot hostages if Russian security forces stormed the building. TV6 television news said the attackers had explosives on their bodies and would blow themselves up if attacked.
Gribakin, the police spokesman, said there were about 600 people inside the theater when it was seized.
In Washington, White House spokesman Sean McCormack said Bush was monitoring the situation.
"There are no causes or national aspirations that justify the taking of innocent hostages," McCormack said in a statement. "We condemn terrorism in all its forms. Our thoughts and prayers are with the hostages and their families."
A woman who made her way out of the theater told a television interviewer the men wore camouflage as they took the stage, fired into the air and said: "Don't you understand what's going on? We are Chechens."
News reports said the hostage-takers arrived in jeep-like vehicles just as the second act of the play was about to begin. When police and security forces surrounded the theater, the attackers opened fire and threw a grenade. One of the hostages, a doctor, was treating a wounded hostage-taker.
Russia is involved in a bloody war in Chechnya, trying to put down a decade-old separatist insurrection in the oil-rich region.
News reports cited a Chechen rebel Web site as saying the group was led by Movsar Barayev, the nephew of warlord Arbi Barayev, who reportedly was killed last year.
The Web site said some of the women hostage-takers were widows of Chechen rebels killed in the war with Russia and said the rebels were "smertniki," a Russian word for fighters prepared to die for a cause.
A hotline was established to provide information to worried relatives and a counseling center was set up.
"By the scope it can only be compared to the tragedy in New York. The situation is extreme now," liberal Russian lawmaker Boris Nemtsov said in a television interview. "We must start a dialogue."
The Chechens are among the most independent-minded groups in the country, battling the czars in the 19th century before being finally defeated and their land absorbed into Russia.
Stalin deported them en masse to Kazakhstan in 1944 for allegedly betraying the Soviet Union and supporting Hitler. They were allowed to return to their homes in 1957. The fierce fighters declared independence from the Soviet Union shortly before it collapsed in 1991, and Russian forces subsequently invaded the region to put down the rebellion.
Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev helped force Russia to the negotiating table by leading a bloody raid on the town of Budyonnovsk in a neighboring Russian region in June 1995. His fighters briefly took more than 1,000 hostages and then escaped back into Chechnya. More than 100 civilians died.
Russian forces left Chechnya in 1996 after the disastrous two-year war but returned in 1999 after rebels raided a neighboring region and Russian authorities blamed insurgents for a series of apartment bombings in Russia that killed more than 300 people.
The theater, a former Soviet-era House of Culture, was staging a performance of the musical "Nord-Ost" ("North-East" in German), one of Moscow's most popular productions.
The musical is based on Veniamin Kaverin's novel "Two Captains." The romantic novel recounts the story of two students and their different destinies during the Soviet times. The theater's producer, Alexander Tsekalo, said on Russian television that the theater could hold 1,163 people.
Выделенные места - мои. Понятно теперь, как там все это освещают?