MOSCOW: Dictator Josef Stalin approved the killing of a US citizen

held in a Soviet prison without charges after the Second World War,

according to documents from the archives of the security police. Moscow

News said the man, named Oggins, was executed in an apparent bid to

prevent a diplomatic scandal. Quoting from the secret file it reported:

''In Moscow, on the order of Stalin. . .we neutralised the American

citizen Oggins, who, while in a labour camp during the war, managed to

contact the US embassy in Moscow.''