Alaudi Sadykov, center, who claims to have had his left ear cut off during his interrogation by pro-Moscow Chechen security forces, attends a rally in memory of recently slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya whose photograph is seen on a newspaper front page in Grozny, Chechnya, Monday, Oct. 16, 2006. Human rights groups, journalists and others on Monday staged a small rally in the center of Chechnya's capital to remember murdered reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who investigated torture in the war-torn region. AP photo.


Adna Karamehic, center, of Bosnia, and others take part in a candlelight vigil to honor slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya outside of the Embassy of the Russian Federation, Monday, Oct. 16, 2006, in Washington. AP photo.

Think it's Iran? Nope, Moscow. Muslim men gather for prayers outside a Moscow mosque. The city has swelled to 10.4 million people, and one-fifth of them are Muslims. The Russian capital has the largest Muslim population of any city in Europe. Slavic Russians have decided to start hating these people. That's Russian logic for you. Perhaps in the future everything west of the Urals will be Iran and everything east will be China. That's the wonderful success story that is the Moscow Kremlin and the Slavic-majority (for now) polity that empowers it. From the LA Times.

Russia, what have you done to Chechnya? Birlant Dokayeva and her son Askhab, 2, in Grozny, Chechnya. Askhab was born healthy but later had a seizure and went into a coma. He is partially paralyzed, and doctors don’t know why. The family says one doctor suggested putting him to sleep. From the LA Times.