Free Republic

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) - A passenger bus caught fire and exploded in Russia's troubled North Caucasus Thursday, killing at least five people and wounding 12, emergency and police officials said. Investigators said they considered terrorism the likely cause. The incident took place in the North Ossetia region which is plagued by violence from feuding criminal groups, remnants of Chechen separatist fighters and other militant groups that target government and police. But authorities did not point to any specific group that is suspected. The bus traveling from the southern city of Pyatigorsk was near a police post on the administrative border...

THE full horror of the Russian school atrocity began to emerge yesterday as traumatised children told horrific tales of stabbed babies and brutal rapes. It has also emerged that scores of the 323 who died - including many children - had been shot in the back. While despairing soldiers and rescue workers moved among the growing pile of body bags, it was revealed that an 18-month-old baby had been repeatedly stabbed by a black-clad terrorist who had run out of ammunition. Other survivors told how screaming teenage girls were dragged into rooms adjoining the gymnasium where they were being held...