* IN THE CAUCASUS:

The spiritual leader of Dagestan, Mufti Said-Muhamed Abubakarov, died in a car-bomb attack. There have been no arrests. … Three remote villages in Dagestan ended their rebellion a month after proclaiming their independence as “a separate Islamic territory.” Aleksandr Lebed, in Chechnya, warned that tension in Dagestan could quickly spread to Chechnya and the rest of the north Caucasus. Russian politicians, he warned, may provoke troubles in the Caucasus to distract Russians from their economic plight.