Major power outage hits Russia's Dagestan

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*Perilous Times

Major power outage hits Russia's Dagestan*

MOSCOW, Dec 3 (AFP) Dec 03, 2006

Almost 20 percent of the population in Russia's mountainous Dagestan
province, bordering Chechnya, was without electricity Sunday after ice
brought down power lines, Interfax quoted officials as saying.

"The breakage has left 471,000 people in 759 communities without
electricity," the emergency ministry's branch for southern Russia said.

Engineers were trying to connect reserve power lines following the
breakage in the Buinaksk district, Interfax reported.

Dagestan, with a population of 2.6 million, is one of the poorest and
most unstable parts of the Russian Federation. It borders Chechnya in
the turbulent North Caucasus region.