Free Republic

Russian media say 12 police were wounded during an Islamist attack on a provincial capital in the volatile Caucasus region. The Itar Tass news agency said Friday militants launched grenades on a regional security agency, a hospital and a hotel in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkariya province. No one was wounded in the attack, it said.

MOSCOW - A rebel-linked Web site said Friday that Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev had claimed responsibility for the power outage that plunged Moscow into chaos two days earlier. [end] "Our sabotage units delivered a major blow to one of the most important life-support systems of the Russian empire," the Kavkazcenter site quoted Basayev as saying in an e-mail. [end] Russian officials have blamed worn-out equipment for Wednesday's power failure, which began with an explosion and fire at a 40-year-old substation. The Federal Security Service declined comment on Friday's claim and telephone calls to the Industry and Energy Ministry were not...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) accused the West of indulging terrorists on Friday, just hours after a Chechen warlord claimed responsibility for a wave of deadly attacks in Russia and threatened more. "A patronizing and indulgent attitude to the murderers amounts to complicity in terror," Putin said, widening a rift between Russia and the West over how to deal with Chechen rebel violence. Shortly before, Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev said he had ordered the Beslan school siege in southern Russia in which more than 320 hostages were killed, half of them children, and threatened...

<p>AUGUSTA, Maine -- A Senate majority, over pronounced Republican opposition, confirmed Gov. John Baldacci's five nominees Thursday for the board of directors of Maine's fledgling Dirigo Health program.</p> <p>The nominations were not imperiled, since it would have taken a two-thirds majority to reject any of the governor's choices for appointment.</p>