1.   The czars, quick to recognize a market, ordered that Uzbekistan and surrounding regions be turned into vast cotton plantations.

2.   A series of violent crimes, including kidnappings and bomb attacks, have kept tensions in Chechnya and surrounding Russian regions on the boil.

3.   Among those on the flight was Col. Gen. Sergei Seleznyov, commander of the Leningrad military district, which includes the city of St. Petersburg and surrounding region.

4.   But water rolling south into the Bay of Bengal aggravated flooding in the capital and surrounding central regions.

5.   Chechnya and surrounding regions have seen an unending string of kidnappings.

6.   Chechnya and surrounding regions have been awash in kidnappings, with ransoms sometimes running to millions of dollars.

7.   Dozens of people have been kidnapped in Chechnya and surrounding regions for ransom.

8.   However, law enforcement officials have tried to cooperate to combat the wave of violence that has swept Chechnya and surrounding regions in southern Russia.

9.   Kidnappings of foreigners have occurred repeatedly in Chechnya and surrounding regions in the past several years.

10.   Many aid groups pulled out of Chechnya and surrounding regions after the last war and an ensuing wave of killings and kidnappings, some of which targeted foreigners.