A suicide bomber kills at least 16 people, and wounds dozens of others in a powerful blast near a busy market in Russia's restive North Caucasus.  
          
The attacker detonated a bomb packed with metal bars, bolts and ball bearings in a car outside the market entrance. 
           
Authorities said a headless body was found in the wrecked car at the market. 
           
The bombing in mostly Orthodox Christian North Ossetia is a fresh blow to the Kremlin, which is struggling to rein in a growing Islamic insurgency in the neighboring, mainly Muslim, North Caucasus provinces. 
           
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin condemned the attack.       
       
At least 50 people were killed in a bomb blast at the same market in 1999; the year the Kremlin launched its second war to drive separatists from power in Chechnya.