Bomb wounds 50 at concert in Belarus

July 5, 2008

MINSK, Belarus A homemade bomb tore through a crowd that included the country's authoritarian president early yesterday, wounding more than 50 people at an all-night holiday concert, health officials said. The blast was unusual in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic, where President Alexander Lukashenko suppresses dissent and public violence is rare. Officials blamed unspecified "hooligans" for the bombing. Lukashenko was not wounded in the blast.