Kuwaiti Militant Killed
Authorities said Wednesday that a Kuwaiti militant who was an al-Qaida emissary to Chechnya had been killed by security forces in Dagestan, the second statement in as many days linking foreigners to Chechen rebels.
The suspected militant, who went by the single name Jarah, was killed Tuesday evening along with another suspect, said Major General Ilya Shabalkin, the spokesman for the federal campaign against rebels in Chechnya and surrounding areas. (AP)
School Attack Plot
VLADIKAVKAZ -- Law enforcement forces have detained four Chechens who are suspected of planning to seize a school in Ingushetia in an attack similar to last September's hostage seizure in Beslan, Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel said Wednesday.
Shepel said the four, who were detained in Chechnya last month, were part of a group of 11 Chechens plotting to seize an elementary school in Ingushetia if the Sept. 1 attack on Beslan's School No. 1 had failed. (AP)
Grenade a 'Threat' to Bush
TBILISI, Georgia -- An FBI agent said Wednesday that a grenade thrown in a Tbilisi crowd during last week's speech by U.S. President George W. Bush was capable of exploding.
The statement by agent Bryan Paarmann contradicted initial reports by Georgian officials that the grenade was not in condition to explode and that it had been found on the ground rather than thrown.
"We consider this act to be a threat against the health and welfare of the president of the United States as well as the welfare of the multitudes of Georgian people who turned up for this event," Paarmann said.
No arrests have been made. (AP)
National Bolsheviks Held
Security officials have detained two members of the National Bolshevik Party in Novosibirsk on suspicion of planning a series of terrorist attacks, Kommersant reported Wednesday.
Nikolai Baluyev and Vyacheslav Rusakov were detained after security officers found several caches of weapons in the city and the suburbs of Novosibirsk, the newspaper reported. (AP)
For the Record
A methane blast on Wednesday ripped through a Kemerovo coal mine where 132 miners were working, killing one and injuring 10. (AP) Poland said Wednesday that it would expel a Belarussian diplomat, an apparent tit-for-tat move that came only hours after Poland's foreign minister said Minsk was expelling a Polish diplomat for unspecified reasons. (AP)
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