21.   During the Christmas season, the town will remain dark, without colorful chains of lights and streamers decorating the streets.

22.   Even as neighbor was baited against neighbor, even as residents starved, this bustling town remained multiethnic, and the mosque and Orthodox and Catholic churches stood strong.

23.   On Monday afternoon, the town remained blocked by flaming tire barricades and rusted car chassis.

24.   Relief workers had planned to escort some residents to their homes Saturday to pick up clothes, medicine and other belongings but later decided the town remained too unsafe.

25.   Russian military officers and soldiers prepare for more fighting as southern Chechnya and an eastern town remain under rebel control.

26.   That town remains uninhabitable.

27.   The town remained untouched.

28.   The town remained blockaded Thursday.

29.   Those two towns remained under curfew Friday, as well as the northwestern coastal town of Chilaw, where six people had been killed during the campaign.

30.   There was no fighting reported in Baidoa on Sunday, but the town remained tense.