A senior local government official in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus region was killed in an explosion on Friday, local police said according to Reuters. The blast went off as Zagir Arukhov, information and nationalities minister in Dagestan, a semi-autonomous republic, entered the stairway of his apartment block in the regional capital Makhachkala, police was quoted by Reuters as saying. Dozens of senior figures in Dagestan's government have been assassinated and some Russian media have dubbed Makhachkala "explosion city." Arukhov's predecessor in the post was also killed in an explosion. Dagestan is an impoverished Muslim republic neighbouring Chechnya, where Russian troops have been fighting separatist rebels for a decade. Analysts say business disputes and clan rivalries are, for the most part, to blame for the violence in Dagestan. --SP 2248 Local Time 1948 GMT
