1.   The region was devastated by the Civil War and Reconstruction in the last century, and the effect of that defeat and humiliation still lingers in the Southern psyche.

2.   US and Central American officials have warned of a new stream of refugees from the ruins of Hurricane Mitch, which devastated the region last October.

3.   Decades of fighting between the government in Sudan and southern rebels has devastated the region about the size of France.

4.   Health and sanitation conditions are particularly poor in Kien Giang province this year in the wake of Typhoon Linda, which devastated the region and killed hundreds of people.

5.   Last October, the region was devastated by Hurricane Mitch, which caused a lake atop the Casitas Volcano to break open.

6.   Southeast Asian finance officials worked Sunday to find common ground on cooperating to prevent economic crises like those that have devastated the region in recent months.

7.   The conflict has devastated the region, endangering age-old ways of life.

8.   The men on the river bank are doing the same thing that leaders across Central America are doing, four months after Hurricane Mitch devastated their region.

9.   The Swiss government Agency for Development and Cooperation said the aid was a reaction to the escalation in the violence which had already devastated the region.

10.   Naidu, who flew over the cyclone devastated region, told a news conference the villages of Bhairavapadu and Bulusutippa in the worst-hit area were completely destroyed.