Free Republic

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) - Authorities killed five people and arrested four others suspected of helping stage the hostage-taking raid on a southern Russian school last September, prosecutors said Friday. Officials believe the arrested were involved in the Sept. 1-3 attack on School No. 1 in the North Ossetia region town of Beslan "at the stage of its preparation," Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel said. The siege ended in gunfire and explosions; about half of the more than 330 people killed were children. Five other suspects were killed while resisting arrest, Shepel said in a statement. It did not say when...