71.   Since arriving in Afghanistan two months ago, the marines have had almost no contact with enemy soldiers despite numerous patrols in the mountainous border region with Pakistan.

72.   Since Sunday night, Hezbollah forces have secured control of most of the former Israeli command posts in the central border region.

73.   So far, the Taliban and Qaida forces have proved adept at hiding in the cave-pocked border region.

74.   Some Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters hiding in the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border regions are trolling for Stingers, Abdullah said.

75.   Speaking sanguinely in Jerusalem Monday, he addressed a rising concern that a unilateral troop withdrawal could produce violent chaos in the border region or even provoke a war.

76.   Some of the e-mail can be traced to border regions of Pakistan, where some al-Qaida members may be operating under the protection of local tribal leaders.

77.   Such sentiment is not confined to the border region.

78.   Syrian troops occupy much of Lebanon and Israeli troops control the southern border region in an ongoing war with Muslim guerrillas.

79.   The border region is populated by various Pakistani tribes over which the central Pakistani government has little authority, he said, because this would create serious political problems.

80.   The border region, once a powerful economic engine for Mexico, has begun to sputter.