American Journalist Shows Up OK in Russia

By: (AP) An American journalist reported missing in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus region made contact with her employer Wednesday and said she was fine, one of her editors said Wednesday.

Rebecca Santana, 32, a stringer for Cox Newspapers, was "quite surprised" to learn of the concern over her whereabouts, said Chuck Holmes, foreign editor for the Cox chain.

The U.S. Embassy had filed a missing person's report on a journalist, but did not release the name because of privacy concerns.

Santana was to have flown Sunday from Moscow to the southern city of Mineralnye Vody and traveled by car to the nearby city of Mozdok, where Russia's military headquarters for the Caucasus is located. She planned to report on refugees and other issues in the region surrounding war-plagued Chechnya and then enter the secessionist republic.

Santana's co-workers grew concerned when they received a call from a contact who was to have organized her meetings in the Caucasus, saying she had not shown up.

Holmes said Santana went into Chechnya but did not know the details of how she got there or why she missed her planned contact. She was preparing to return to Moscow on Wednesday, he said.

Russian and foreign journalists have frequently been detained by security services in the North Caucasus, where the Kremlin tries to tightly control media coverage of the war in Chechnya.

Foreigners and Russian citizens have been kidnapped in the region, and the U.S. State Department warns American citizens against travel to Chechnya and surrounding areas.