41.   Chechnya and surrounding regions have been plagued by kidnappings, mostly by armed groups seeking ransoms.

42.   Chechnya and surrounding regions have been plagued by kidnappings and other crimes that have kept tensions simmering.

43.   Chukchi and surrounding regions have experienced severe fuel shortages this winter, and some entire villages have been evacuated to warmer parts of the country.

44.   Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said Thursday that Britain would withdraw more than half its troops from Afghanistan and the surrounding region by late summer.

45.   Demonstrators in southern Russia blocked a bridge leading into the breakaway republic of Chechnya to protest the lawlessness that has spread to surrounding regions, a report said Monday.

46.   Despite the end of fighting in Chechnya, the breakaway republic and the surrounding regions have been plagued by crime, which local authorities have had trouble controlling.

47.   Despite the end of fighting in Chechnya, the breakaway republic and the surrounding regions have been plagued by crime.

48.   Electricity is already cut off from six to eight hours daily in residential buildings in Vladivostok, the largest city in the Far East, and the surrounding region.

49.   Funar, like other ultrnationalist Romanians, fears that Hungary wants to resume control of the surrounding Transylvania region.

50.   He was then deputy chief of the Brawijaya Regional Military Command, overseeing East Java and the surrounding regions.