Moscow police detain 15 Islamists with suicide belts

Russian police on Wednesday detained 15 heavily-armed radical Islamists in Moscow who allegedly belong to a banned offshoot of the Al-Qaeda terror network and were preparing suicide strikes. The interior ministry said members of Takfir wal-Hijra -- a group formed in Egypt in the late 1960s and outlawed in Russia in 2010 -- had been discovered hiding weapons and suicide belts along with extremist literature. The interior ministry said the group had been funding its activities by "conducting general crime" in and around Moscow. Russia remains on heightened security alert ahead of the February 7-23 Winter Olympic Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi that lies near the volatile North Caucasus.