MOSCOW, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - Russian security forces said Tuesday they had killed a top rebel leader blamed for a series of deadly attacks against the military in the unstable south of the country near Chechnya.

The interior ministry said that Rappani Khalilov was one of two insurgents killed in a 12-hour battle after they were cornered in the village of Novy Sulag, in the province of Dagestan.

A secret services operative was also killed in the fighting, the news website gazeta.ru reported.

KHARTOUM, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - Sudan's President Omar al-Beshir has assured UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he will allow a key Darfur rebel leader to leave the country to seek medical treatment.

Ban told journalists in Khartoum, before making a brief visit to Juba in the south, that Beshir had ordered the 'immediate release' of Suleiman Jamous, a veteran rebel who has been confined to a hospital near Darfur for over a year.