World IN BRIEF : RUSSIA : Blast Rips Through Lawmaker’s Office

An explosion ripped through the office of an ultranationalist deputy in parliament, and officials pointed to possible separatist Chechen rebel action to disrupt elections less than two weeks away. Nikolai Lysenko, who left his seventh-floor office minutes before the blast, was not hurt. But an aide said the explosion--most likely caused by a homemade bomb--started a fire and blew out the office door and window, sending glass crashing to the pavement below in Moscow’s busy city center. Lysenko, 34-year-old leader of the right-wing National Republican Party, called the blast an assassination attempt by the “Caucasian mafia” or a Turkish lobby in the region. He did not specify whom he meant but appeared to be referring to gangs operating from Chechnya and neighboring regions.