Mozdok is about 35 miles northwest of the Chechen border.

An anonymous Defense Ministry official told a Moscow newspaper that efforts to seal off the Chechen border were "sheer madness," not a good omen.

The mothers traveled by van over the Chechen border, through the Russian checkpoints and into Grozny.

One week ago today Russian forces stopped their convoy of buses at Pervomayskoye, just short of the Chechen border.

Fighting was also reported along the Chechen border with another neighboring republic, Ingushetia.

Chechen leaders, all but defeated in their bitter fight for independence, have frequently vowed to carry the war beyound the Chechen borders.

The Russian news service Interfax said a six-mile-long line of cars was waiting to cross the Chechen border today.

The city is just 35 miles from the Chechen border.

Russian authorities closed most of checkpoints on the Chechen border.

Here along the Chechen border, it was almost impossible to count the casualties in the nine-day hostage crisis, including the number of hostages killed.