Ten years ago: More than 1,000 people were taken hostage by heavily armed Chechen militants at a school in Beslan in southern Russia; more than 330 people, more than half of them children, were killed in the three-day ordeal. Militants in Iraq freed seven employees of a Kuwaiti trucking firm after their employer paid half a million dollars in ransom. The criminal case against Kobe Bryant collapsed as prosecutors in Colorado dropped a sexual assault charge against the NBA star, saying they had no choice because the accuser no longer wanted to participate.