CALLS FOR RESIGNATION OF DAGESTANI GOVERNMENT.

There is growing outrage in Dagestan, in southern Russia, following the assassination of the republic’s finance minister, Hamid Hamidov, in a car bomb explosion on August 20. (See Monitor, August 20) Speakers at a press conference yesterday in the capital, Makhachkala, alleged that Hamidov had been killed to prevent his investigating cases of high-level corruption. They accused the government of protecting criminal gangs and of covering up numerous acts of terrorism. Their objective is to gather signatures for a petition for an emergency session of the republic’s parliament to debate a vote of no confidence in the government. (Interfax, August 28)

Russian Plane Goes Down over Arctic.