1.   But letters to family and friends and a surreptitious network of communication inside prisons have allowed the gangs to continue expanding their influence and criminal activity, officials said.

2.   But the Bloods gang has continued to flourish and disperse its message of unity.

3.   Officials said, however, that fed by a deep-rooted demand for drugs, the gangs continue to spring up like dandelions as soon as others are ripped out.

4.   Armed gangs continue to loot stores and state buildings and rob people.

5.   Armed gangs continue to terrorize people in the territory.

6.   Armed gangs continue to rob travelers, extort protection money, and sometimes kill those who refuse to pay.

7.   But both gangs continue to operate competing criminal rackets in working-class Protestant towns like Portadown, where tensions between the two armed camps run particularly high.

8.   Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov appointed Basayev acting prime minister in hopes he could bring order and stability to Chechnya, where armed gangs continue to raise havoc.

9.   Gangs continued to loot and torch homes in and around the town Saturday, though there were no reports of fighting.

10.   If Mafia-type gangs in the Caspian Sea continue their uncontrolled poaching, environmentalists say the delicacy may disappear altogether within the next few years.